The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

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СКАЧАТЬ are no longer his; they are cast into the depths of the sea. They were laid upon the shoulders of Christ, and they are gone. The man stands a guiltless man in the sight of God, accepted in the beloved. “What!” you say, “do you mean that literally?” Yes I do. That is the doctrine of justification by faith. Man ceases to be regarded by divine justice as a guilty being; the moment he believes on Christ his guilt is all taken away. But I am going a step further. The moment the man believes in Christ, he ceases to be guilty in God’s esteem; but what is more, he becomes righteous, he becomes meritorious; for, in the moment when Christ takes his sins he takes Christ’s righteousness; so that, when God looks upon the sinner who only an hour ago was dead in sins, he looks upon him with as much love and affection as he ever looked upon his Son. He himself has said it — “As the Father loved me, so have I loved you.” He loves us as much as his Father loved him. Can you believe such a doctrine as that? Does it not pass all thought? Well, it is a doctrine of the Holy Spirit; the doctrine by which we must hope to be saved. Can I to any unenlightened person illustrate this thought better? I will give him the parable we have given to us in the prophets — the parable of Joshua the high priest. Joshua comes in, clothed in filthy garments; those filthy garments representing his sins. Take away the filthy garments; that is pardon. Put a mitre on his head; clothe him in royal raiment; make him rich and fair; that is justification. But where do these garments come from? and where do those rags go to? Why, the rags that Joshua had on go to Christ, and the garments put on Joshua are the garments that Christ wore. The sinner and Christ do just what Jonathan and David did. Jonathan put his robes on David, David gave Jonathan his garments; so Christ takes our sins, we take Christ’s righteousness; and it is by a glorious substitution and interchange of places that sinners go free and are justified by his grace.

      14. “But,” one says, “no one is justified like that, until he dies.” Believe me, he is.

      The moment a sinner believes,

      And trusts in his crucified God,

      His pardon at once he receives;

      Salvation in full, through his blood.

      If that young man over there has really believed in Christ this morning, realising by a spiritual experience what I have attempted to describe, he is as much justified in God’s sight now as he will be when he stands before the throne. The glorified spirits above are not more acceptable to God than the poor man below, who is once justified by grace. It is a perfect washing, it is perfect pardon perfect imputation; we are fully, freely, and wholly accepted, through Christ our Lord. Just one more word here, and then I will leave this matter of justification. Those who are once justified are justified irreversibly. As soon as a sinner takes Christ’s place, and Christ takes the sinner’s place, there is no fear of a second change. If Christ has once paid the debt, the debt is paid, and it will never be asked for again; if you are pardoned, you are pardoned once for ever. God does not give man a free pardon under his own sign-manual, {b} and then afterwards retract it and punish man: that be far from God to do so. He says, “I have punished Christ; you may go free.” And after that, we may “rejoice in hope of the glory of God,” that “being justified by faith we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And now I hear one cry, “That is an extraordinary doctrine.” Well, so some may think; but let me say to you, it is a doctrine professed by all protestant churches, though they may not preach it. It is the doctrine of the Church of England, it is the doctrine of Luther, it is the doctrine of the Presbyterian church; it is professedly the doctrine of all Christian churches; and if it seems strange in your ears, it is because your ears are estranged, and not because the doctrine is a strange one. It is the doctrine of holy writ, that no one can condemn whom God justifies, and that no one can accuse those for whom Christ has died; for they are totally free from sin. So that, as one of the prophets has it, God sees no sin in Jacob nor iniquity in Israel. In the moment they believe, their sins being imputed to Christ, they cease to be theirs, and Christ’s righteousness is imputed to them and accounted theirs, so that they are accepted.

      15. III. And now I close up with the third point, upon which I shall be brief, and I hope very earnest: THE MANNER OF GIVING THIS JUSTIFICATION. John Bunyan would have it, that there are some whose mouths are set a watering for this great gift of justification. Are there not some here who are saying, “Oh! if I could be justified! But, Sir, can I be justified? I have been a drunkard, I have been a swearer, I have been everything that is vile. Can I be justified? Will Christ take my black sins, and am I to take his white robes?” Yes, poor soul, if you desire it; if God has made you willing, if you do confess your sins, Christ is willing to take your rags, and give you his righteousness, to be yours for ever. “Well, but how is it to be obtained?” one says “must I be a holy man for many years, and then get it?” Listen! “Freely by his grace”; “freely,” because there is no price to be paid for it. “By his grace,” because we do not deserve it. “But, oh Sir, I have been praying, and I do not think God will forgive me, unless I do something to deserve it.” I tell you, Sir, if you bring in any of your merits, you shall never have it. God gives away his justification freely; if you bring anything to pay for it, he will throw it in your face, and will not give his justification to you. He gives it away freely. Old Rowland Hill once went preaching at a fair; he noticed the pedlar selling their wares by auction; so Rowland said, “I am going to hold an auction too, to sell wine and milk, without money and without price. My friends over there,” he said “find a great difficulty to get you up to their price, my difficulty is to bring you down to mine.” So it is with men. If I could preach justification to be bought by you at a sovereign a piece, who would go out of the place without being justified? If I could preach justification to you by walking a hundred miles, would we not be pilgrims tomorrow morning, every one of us? If I were to preach justification which would consist in whippings and torture, there are very few here who would not whip themselves, and that severely too. But when it is freely, freely, freely, men turn away. “What! am I to have it for nothing at all, without doing anything?” Yes, Sir, you are to have it for nothing, or else not at all; it is “freely.” “But may I not go to Christ, lay some claim to his mercy, and say, Lord, justify me because I am not so bad as others?” It will not do, Sir, because it is “by his grace.” “But may I not indulge a hope, because I go to church twice a day?” No, Sir; it is “by his grace.” “But may I not offer this plea, I mean to be better?” No, Sir; it is “by his grace.” You insult God by bringing your counterfeit coin to pay for his treasures. Oh! what poor ideas men have of the value of Christ’s gospel, if they think they can buy it! God will not have your rusty farthings to buy heaven with. A rich man, once when he was dying, had a notion that he could buy a place in heaven by building a row of almshouses. A good man stood by his bedside, and said, “How much more are you going to leave?” “Twenty thousand pounds.” He said, “That would not buy enough for your foot to stand on in heaven, for the streets are made of gold there, and therefore of what value can your gold be, it would be accounted for nothing, when the very streets are paved with it?” No, friends, we cannot buy heaven with gold nor good works, nor prayers, nor anything in the world. But how is it to be had? Why it is to be had for only the asking. As many of us as know ourselves to be sinners may have Christ for asking for him. Do you know that you need Christ? You may have Christ! “Whoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely.” But if you cleave to your own notions, and say, “No, Sir, I mean to do a great many good things, and then I will believe in Christ.” — Sir, you will be damned if you hold such delusions. I earnestly warn you. You cannot be saved like that. “Well, but are we not to do good works?” Certainly you are; but you are not to trust in them. You must trust in Christ wholly, and then do good works afterwards. “But,” one says, “I think if I were to do a few good works, it would be a little commendation when I came.” It would not, Sir; they would be no commendation at all. Let a beggar come to your house in white kid gloves, and say he is very badly off, and wants some charity; would the white kid gloves commend him to your charity? Would a good new hat that he has been buying this morning commend him to your charity? “No,” you would say, “you are a miserable imposter; you do not need anything, and you shall not have anything either! Out with you!”

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