The Flaming Sword of Justice

“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree!” 1 Peter 2:24

The most significant and appalling demonstration of God’s holiness that the universe ever beheld, infinitely distancing and transcending every other – is the sufferings and death of His only and beloved Son! The cross of Calvary exhibits God’s hatred and punishment of sin in a way and to an extent which the annihilation of millions of worlds, swept from the face of the universe by the broom of His wrath, could never have done!

Behold the most solemn display of God’s hatred of sin! Finding the sins of the Church upon Christ as its Surety, Substitute, and Savior – the wrath of God was poured out upon Him without measure! Finding the sins of His people laid upon His Son – God emptied upon His holy soul, all the vials of His wrath due to their transgressions! Go, my soul, to Calvary, and learn how holy God is, and what a monstrous thing sin is, and how imperiously, solemnly, and holily bound, Jehovah is to punish it, either in the person of the sinner, or in the person of a Surety. Never was the Son of God dearer to the Father than at the very moment that the sword of divine justice, flaming and flashing, pierced to its hilt His holy heart!

But it was the wrath of God, not against His beloved Son – but against the sins which met on Him when presenting Himself on the cross as the substitutionary sacrifice and offering for His Church. He gave Himself for us!

What a new conception must angels have formed of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, when they beheld the flaming sword of justice quenched in the holy, loving bosom of Jesus! And in what a dazzling light does this fact place the marvelous love of God to sinners! Man’s sin – and God’s love; the indescribable enormity of the one – and the immeasurable greatness of the other; are exhibited in the cross of Christ as nowhere else.

Oh, to learn experimentally these two great facts: sin’s infinite hatefulness – and love’s infinite holiness! The love of God in giving His Son to die; the love of Christ in dying; the essential turpitude and unmitigated enormity of sin, which demanded a Sacrifice so Divine, so holy, and so precious!

~ Octavius Winslow, Christ’s Sympathy to Weary Pilgrims

HT Grace Gems

Splendid Sins!

“Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Hebrews 11:6

“Without saving faith, all moral virtues are but splendid sins!

Unbelief nullifies everything!
It is the dead fly in the ointment!
It is the poison in the pot!

All the moral virtues,
all the benevolence of philanthropy,
all the kindness of unselfish sympathy,
all the talents of genius,
all the bravery of patriotism
—give no title to Divine acceptance, for
‘without faith it is impossible to please God.'”

~ Charles Spurgeon

HT Grace Gems

God Is All Mercy and Love!

“There is a school of theology rising up in this day, which appears to me most eminently calculated to promote infidelity, to help the devil, and to ruin souls! It comes to us like Joab to Amasa – with the highest professions of love and liberality. (2 Samuel 20:9-10)

“‘God is all mercy and love!’ according to this theology. His holiness and justice are completely left out of sight! Hell is never spoken of in this theology – its talk is all of Heaven! Damnation is never mentioned – it is treated as an impossible thing. All men and women are to be saved!

“‘Everybody is right! Nobody is wrong! Nobody is to blame for any action he may commit! It is the result of his circumstances! He is not accountable for his views, any more than for the color of his skin! He must be what he is! God is so entirely a God of mercy and love – that He never does, and never will punish sin.’

“Of all this theology I warn men solemnly to beware. In spite of big swelling words about ‘liberality,’ and love,’ and ‘broad views,’ and ‘new light,’ and ‘freedom from bigotry,’ and so forth – I do believe it to be a theology that leads to Hell!

“Imagine a Heaven which would contain all mankind! Imagine a Heaven in which holy and unholy, pure and impure, good and evil – would be all gathered together in one confused mass!

“Surely the mind revolts from the idea of a Heaven in which there would be no distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between Pharaoh and Moses, between Abraham and the Sodomites, between Paul and Nero, between John and Judas Iscariot! Surely an eternity in such a miserably confused crowd, would be worse than annihilation itself! Surely, such a Heaven would be no better than Hell!”

~ J.C. Ryle, Heirs of God

HT Grace Gems

A Cheap, Easy Christianity

“Any of you who does not give up everything he has, cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:33)

What does it cost to be a Christian?

I grant freely that it costs little to be a mere outward Christian. A man has only got to attend a place of worship twice on Sunday, and to be tolerably moral during the week–and he has gone as far as thousands around him ever go in religion. All this is cheap and easy work – it entails no self-denial or self-sacrifice. If this is saving Christianity and will take us to Heaven when we die – we must alter the description of the way of life, and write, “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to Heaven!”

But it does cost something to be a real Christian, according to the standard of the Bible.

There are…
enemies to be overcome,
battles to be fought,
sacrifices to be made,
an Egypt to be forsaken,
a wilderness to be passed through,
a cross to be carried,
a race to be run.

Conversion is not putting a man in a soft armchair, and taking him pleasantly to Heaven. It is the beginning of a mighty conflict, in which it costs much to win the victory. Hence arises the unspeakable importance of “counting the cost.”

True Christianity will cost a man…
his self-righteousness,
his sins,
his love of ease, and
the favor of the world.

A religion which costs nothing – is worth nothing!

A cheap, easy Christianity, without a cross – will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown!”

~ J.C. Ryle, The Cost

HT Grace Gems

He Was Crushed for Our Iniquities!

“But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed!” (Isaiah 53:5)

Let us live as if every allowed sin, was…
one more thorn in Christ’s head,
one more nail in His feet,
one more spear in His side!

~ J.C. Ryle

(HT Grace Gems)