y one offering He has
perfected forever those who are being sanctified. —Hebrews 10:14
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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