We trample the blood of the Son
of God underfoot if we think we are forgiven because we are sorry for our sins.
The only reason for the forgiveness of our sins by God, and the infinite depth
of His promise to forget them, is the death of Jesus Christ. Our repentance is
merely the result of our personal realization of the atonement by the Cross of
Christ, which He has provided for us. “…Christ Jesus…became for us wisdom from
God— and righteousness and sanctification and redemption…” (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Once we realize that Christ has become all this for us, the limitless joy of
God begins in us. And wherever the joy of God is not present, the death
sentence is still in effect.
No matter who or what we are,
God restores us to right standing with Himself only by means of the death of
Jesus Christ. God does this, not because Jesus pleads with Him to do so but
because He died. It cannot be earned, just accepted. All the pleading for
salvation which deliberately ignores the Cross of Christ is useless. It is
knocking at a door other than the one which Jesus has already opened. We
protest by saying, “But I don’t want to come that way. It is too humiliating to
be received as a sinner.” God’s response, through Peter, is, “… there is no
other name…by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). What at first appears to be
heartlessness on God’s part is actually the true expression of His heart. There
is unlimited entrance His way. “In Him we have redemption through His blood…” (Ephesians
1:7). To identify with the death of Jesus Christ means that we must die to
everything that was never a part of Him.
God is just in saving bad people
only as He makes them good.
OUR LORD DOES NOT PRETEND WE ARE
ALL RIGHT WHEN WE ARE ALL WRONG.
The atonement by the Cross of
Christ is the propitiation God uses to make unholy people holy.
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