“His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be
holden with the cords of his sins.” Prov. 5:22. “For though thou wash
thee with niter, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked
before Me, saith the Lord.” Jer. 2:22. My sin is committed by myself, in
myself, and I can not separate it from me. Cast it on the Lord? Ah, yes,
that is right, but how? Can I gather it up in my hands, and cast it from
me, so that it will light upon Him?—I can not. If I could separate it
but a hair’s breadth from me, then I should be safe, no matter what
became of it, since it would not be found in me. In that case I could
dispense with Christ; for if sin were not found on me, it would make no
matter to me where it was found. If I could gather up my sins so as to
lay them upon Christ crucified apart from me, then I would not need to
put them on Him. They would then be away from me, and that would clear
me. But no works of any kind that I can do can save me; therefore, all
my efforts to separate myself from my sins are unavailing.
[Sidenote: Christ Bears the Sin in Us.]
It is evident from what has been said that whoever bears my sins must
come where I am, yea, must come into me. And this is just what Christ
does. Christ is the Word, and to all sinners, who would excuse
themselves by saying that they can not know what God requires of them,
He says, “The Word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy
heart, that thou mayest do it.” Deut. 30:11-14. Therefore, He says, “If
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in
thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved.” Rom. 10:9. What shall we confess about the Lord Jesus?—Why,
confess the truth, that He is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy
heart, and believe that He is there risen from the dead. “Now that He
ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower
parts of the earth?” Eph. 4:9. The risen Saviour is the crucified
Saviour. As Christ risen is in the heart of the sinner, therefore,
Christ crucified is there. If it were not so, there would be no hope for
any. A man may believe that Jesus was crucified eighteen hundred years
ago, and may die in his sins; but he who believes that Christ is
crucified and risen in him, has salvation.
All that any man in the world has to do in order to be saved, is to
believe the truth, that is, to recognize and acknowledge facts, to see
things just as they actually are, and to confess them. Whoever believes
that Christ is crucified in him, which is the fact in the case of every
man, and confesses that the crucified Christ is also risen, and that He
dwells in him by and with the power of the resurrection, is saved from
sin, and will be saved as long as he holds fast his confession. This is
the only true confession of faith.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account