Wednesday, November 07, 2012

GOD SEALS CHRIST'S ATONEMENT FOR SIN


“When Satan lines up the believer's sins against him and confronts him with their severity, faith runs under the shelter of this Rock.
Christ is the One "whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood" (Romans 3:25). He is the One the Father has sealed and singled out from all others and set forth as the Person chosen to make atonement for sinners, as the lamb was taken out of the flock and set apart for the Passover.
Therefore when Satan lines up the believer's sins against him and confronts him with their severity, faith runs under the shelter of this Rock. "Surely," says faith, "my Savior is infinitely greater than my greatest sins. I would be rejecting the wisdom of God's choice to doubt." God knew what a heavy burden He had to lay upon Christ's shoulders but He was fully persuaded of His Son's strength to carry it. A weak faith may save but a weak Savior cannot. Faith has Christ to plead for it but Christ had none to plead for Him. Faith leans on Christ's arm, but Christ stood alone. If the burden of our sins had prevailed against Him, no one in heaven or on earth could have helped Him stand.
God's mercy declares his righteousness. Everyone believes God is merciful to forgive; but it is harder to believe how He can be righteous in forgiving sinners. "To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Romans 3:26). God was saying, "I know why it seems so incredible that I should pardon all your iniquities. You think because I am a righteous God that I would rather damn a thousand worlds of sinners than bring My name under the least suspicion of unrighteousness. I would indeed damn them over and over again, rather than stain the honor of My justice--which is Myself. But I command you and the greatest sinners on earth to believe it: I can be just and yet the justifier of those sinners who believe in Jesus."
Quoted material from, ”The Christian in Complete Armour Daily Readings in Spiritual Warfare” by Gurnall and James S Bell. http://www.moodypublishers.com/pub_productDetail.aspx?id=41823&pid=53617

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