An Urgent Call to Salvation (Part two of three)
By Jay Wegter
The Personality of Sin (cont.) God’s commitment to the holiness of His Name is absolute; therefore He takes our sin against Him personally. But because men excuse their sinning, they do not see the ‘Everest size mountain’ of iniquity they have committed. As a consequence, mankind has a great quarrel with his Maker over what sin deserves. And, because God is a just and righteous Judge, His holy nature demands that sin be punished. Unbelievers are at odds with the rigor of God’s justice. Sinners take great offense at hearing that they deserve to be eternally miserable apart from Christ the Mediator.
God is an omniscient Judge, and as we have stated, He has books and His records reveal that every son and daughter of Adam is racking up a bad record in heaven. Scripture describes man’s sinful impenitence as ‘storing up wrath for the day of wrath’ (Rom 2:5). Therefore since we pronounce ourselves “well” when God says we are sin sick, we have a huge quarrel with our Creator. And that quarrel cannot end until we say the same thing about our sin that God says about it. The quarrel does not end until we fall at the feet of Christ in faith and repentance and receive pardon and a new heart from Him (1 Pet 3:21).
The man who repents finds that the quarrel with God has ended, for that man has faced what his sin deserves in God’s sight. Preachers need to remember this about their hearers, it is nigh impossible for them to exalt God’s justice unless they have received God’s mercy through Christ.
God created this universe to be the stage for His moral majesty, therefore there must be a day of reckoning in which everyone who is unrighteous will be judged, condemned, and punished. We are told in Romans 2:16 that God will reveal the secrets of the heart publicly. This is a terrifying thought for those outside of Christ. For on that Day of Judgment, God’s record, God’s law, the sinner’s conscience, and God’s verdict will all agree in the eternal condemnation of the unbeliever. At that moment, when God begins to pour out His wrath, the conscience which the sinner has worked so hard to put to sleep will rise up to its full stature and begin to take its eternal revenge against its ungrateful host.
God does not have to invent punishments for sin. In a moral universe sin is its own punishment. This is why Jesus says, “Their worm shall not die” (Mark 9:38). Hell’s ‘best kept secret’ is that the impenitent sinner already carries his own chief tormenter in his bosom, it is his conscience. The conscience as the moral image of God does not withdraw after death, not even in eternal hell. No one has ever been able to remove it. It is impossible to escape from God’s presence (Ps 139; Heb 4:12-13).
In modern Christendom, we’ve replaced the God of Scripture with a benign god in our own image, thus we cannot imagine that He, the God of the Bible will consume as a furnace all that is not like him in holiness (Heb 10:30-31; 12:29). But, there is no salvation unless one comes to terms with who God is. And that means coming to terms with His hatred of sin expressed in His holy justice and wrath. God is going to vindicate the holiness of His name in eternal wrath. Sinners may argue, “Eternal damnation would be too cruel; I would not wish it on my worst enemy.” But, to come to terms with who God is involves understanding that God hates sin because it is so contrary to His holy and righteous nature.
Let me give you an example. Suppose someone took a digital image and then photo-shopped it so that you were covered with acne, filth, two hundred pounds overweight with your tongue out, and cross-eyed. You would immediately say, “That’s not me!” “That’s hideous and ugly, that doesn’t represent me.” You would waste little time in doing what you could to remove that image from view. No one really knows God until they know really how seriously he takes His own holiness. Since we are so influenced by this evil generation, by the world of the flesh and of the devil, we do not tend to associate love to God and neighbor as the conditions of true personal freedom. The Ten Commandments were given as a safeguard of love to God and neighbor (Rom 13:8). After their exodus from Egypt, God gave the Ten Commandments as part of the Mosaic covenant. Attentiveness to God’s Law was necessary if they were to live as God’s people and stay free from the potential enslavement of idolatry (Deut 5:6).
The Decalogue is God’s character in a moral code. The moral law reveals the precise obedience that we His creatures owe our Creator. And the law also reveals the condemnation sinners reap by their law-breaking. All transgression of God’s commands amount to lawlessness (1 Jn 3:4).
The great tool to x-ray the heart and show its condition is God’s Holy Law. God’s law shines a probing light onto man’s sin. But sinners shun exposure and prefer the company of other sinners to salve their consciences and keep their apathy in place. Their diligence in steering clear of the godly resembles a man planning to drive on a very dangerous mountain road who demands to have every warning sign and guard rail removed the day before his suicidal drive.
I’m reminded of the story of Joseph Lister, one of the founders of modern antiseptic medicine. In the second half of the 19ᵗʰ century, Joseph Lister was a surgeon. He and his peers were experiencing almost an 80% failure rate in their surgeries. Post-surgical infection was the killer. Often patients would get a distended belly and die in extreme pain. Lister told his peers, “We must begin to disinfect and sterilize all of our surgical tools!” His peers accused him of being a fussy old maid. They merely wiped their scalpels on their aprons, moving on to the next patient. They were oblivious to the fact that they were inoculating each new patient with the previous patient’s bacteria! No wonder there was an 80% infection rate.
Lister was almost driven mad by what he saw. And his findings were not vindicated until a microscope was invented powerful enough to observe bacteria. Once that teeming world of the micro-bios was revealed, surgeons instantly responded with diligent sterilization of their equipment. Like a high-powered microscope which reveals pathogens, God’s law reveals our sin in its seriousness. It shows us that our love of self, our lusts, our hate, all operate against the love of God and neighbor.
Consider for a moment the conditions which characterized the untamed pioneer west. If an outlaw could choose the county he wanted to live in, would he want a judge who is just, or would he want to live in a county where a judge was easily bribed with a case of whisky? We know the answer, criminals prefer judges that are easily corrupted with bribes. According to Scripture, every unbeliever is a ‘fugitive’ under heaven who is at war with the justice of God. Therefore no unbeliever has the ability to exalt the justice of God—the unbeliever regards the strictness of God’s justice to be a conflict of interest.
But, if God left sin unpunished, he would not be just. Unbelieving sinners are at enmity with who God is. They have little idea how comprehensive His judgment will be. Jesus tells us that it will extend to every idle word, every lustful look, every covetous thought, and every abusive statement uttered in anger (Mt 5:20-22). Oh how glorious the gospel is against this backdrop of unbending divine justice. God’s forgiveness for believers is as comprehensive as His judgment will be toward the reprobate. What an incredible gift it is to be in Christ—that God is ready to forgive every single infraction wherein His child has fallen short of His holiness (Col 2:13-14; Heb 10:14-18).
Scripture speaks of God ‘bearing witness’ and the ‘testimony of God’ (Jn 3:19-21). God has born witness to the consequences of sin (Rom 6:23). Sin produces guilt, death, and separation from God (Rom 5:12). Sin results in separation of our souls from God forever. This is tragic beyond words because God is the only source of light, life, goodness, and love.
Only a new heart granted by the new birth can alter the sinner’s predicament. Christ has proclaimed that this birth from above is what it necessary to be cleansed and made right with God (Jn 3:3). There will be no righteous standing before God on judgment day in one’s own person. Salvation involves the perfect representation provided by the Mediator, the High Priest of every believing sinner (Rom 8:33-34).
Oh the utter wickedness of unbelief—it is tantamount to making God a liar (1 Jn 5:10). It is casting aside the only hope there is for transgressors. We must not forget that all is on loan, borrowed—we must give an account as to how we have utilized our time, talent, and affections.
Complacency about sin causes mankind to reject God’s wonderful character. God’s laws and blessings are intended to show us and warn us of God’s loving ownership of us (Rom 2:4). But Scripture says that men will not live for the glory of God (Rom 3:23)—it is because of sin that people are uninterested and are unable to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. God’s testimony of man’s condition reveals that all are in rebellion against God’s rightful rule over us (Rom 8:5-7). This means that none of us have treasured God the way we should. We have sought satisfaction in other things and treated them as more valuable than God (Eph 2:1-3).
God is just and righteous in shutting us out from the enjoyment of His glory forever (Gal 3:10). Hell is real; it is not a myth. Jesus addressed the subject of hell more than any other speaker in the Bible (Matt 10:28). Man is in bondage to sin and cannot free himself. That is a shocking and scandalous fact to the sinner who is insensitive to his enslavement to sin. Therefore, it is an infinite mercy of Christ to show us our chains, for that is the initial act of God’s grace by which we are led to the Savior.
God’s Word tells us that the human race is dead to the things of God (Col 2:13). Man’s will and choosing are enslaved to sin (Gal 3:22). Man’s thinking is darkened (Eph 4:18). Man is spiritually blind to the glory and knowledge of God (2 Cor 4:4). Sinners do not have the power to reverse their habitual breaking of God’s laws (Jn 8:34). Unbelievers are insulted when they hear this—for they regard self-determination to be an undisputed fact.
The root problem is not merely with our evil deeds but with our whole being—what we are by nature. We are sinners by birth, practice, and by preference (Rom 3:10-18). God’s Word tells us that man’s soul is eternal (Heb 9:27). Physical death does not destroy the “real you.” Christ solemnly warned that those who refuse God’s provision for the salvation of their souls will experience eternal destruction (Mt 25:30; Mk 8:12). God has given us His Word to show our sin and need of salvation (1 Jn 3:4-6).
Unbelief in God’s authority is evident in the fact that humans do not take responsibility for their sin. They run their lives as if God does not matter. They attempt to live lives that are self-made, self-sufficient, and self-fulfilled. Only a correct diagnosis of man’s condition, found in the Scriptures, can point man to Christ, the divine cure (Rom 10:1-4; Gal 3:23-24).
The Person of Christ
The Gospel is about Jesus Christ the Merciful Redeemer (Rom 1:1-7). Christ took on human nature in order to deliver us from sin and restore us to God (Heb 2:8-9, 14-18). Jesus Christ is the “God-man.” He is the only Mediator between God and man (1 Tim 2:5). He alone can bring a soul to God for acceptance, favor, forgiveness, and adoption (Eph 1:4). Christ’s obedience to the Father was obedience to the point of death on a cross (Phil 2:6-8). Christ’s love for sinners is demonstrated by His willingness to die for us while we were yet enemies of God (Rom 5:8-11).
Christ is the Sin-bearer and Substitute for sinners (1 Pet 3:18). The good news of the Gospel is that Christ died for sinners like us. He offered Himself as the innocent substitutionary sacrifice for sin on behalf of all those who acknowledge their sin. He took the guilt of sinners upon Himself. On the cross, He bore our guilt and endured God’s judgment against it (Is 53:6).
Christ’s payment means that God can acquit sin and still be just (Rom 3:24-26). Christ’s offer of Himself in our place at Calvary has fully satisfied the justice of God. Christ’s death obtained eternal redemption (Heb 9:14-15; 10:14; Jn 17:2). Because of the redemption Christ accomplished, God freely justifies believing sinners. When God justifies He declares a person righteous in His sight (2 Cor 5:21; Rom 4:5-8; 24-25). Christ has risen from the dead; the empty tomb is proof that Christ’s sacrifice for sinners was accepted by God on their behalf (Acts 17:31; 1 Cor 15:20). Christ rose bodily from the dead. His resurrection validates the saving power of His death and opens the gates of eternal life and joy. Christ’s resurrection guarantees the resurrection of the believer (Jn 14:2-3). By the Redeemer’s death and resurrection, the sinner may come home to God, where all deep and lasting satisfaction are found (Acts 3:19, 20 ff.; Titus 3:4-7).
Christ has ascended on high, He is Lord of all (Heb 10:12; 12:2). Someday every knee will bow to Christ (Phil 2:9-11). All authority has been given to Christ; He is King of kings and Lord of lords (Mt 28:18; Rev 17:14; 19:16). He will personally consummate all history (Eph 1:9-10). Christ is the only One who can give saving mercy to the sinner—He is willing to do so. He bids sinners come to Him (Mt 11:28, 29; Jn 6:37; 7:37). God appointed Him Mediator, giving Him the three offices of Prophet, Priest and King (1 Tim 2:5). As Prophet, Christ loves by first shedding brilliant light upon the sinner’s dilemma. He shows a man his state of bondage and slavery to sin (Jn 8:31-36). Christ by His Word exposes the plans of the evil one to mangle the image of God through idolatry.
The Lord proclaims the urgency of salvation. Then that man convicted by Christ’s Word flees to Christ as Priest and receives pardon, justification, reconciliation, and adoption. Then that redeemed man in overflowing gratitude gives Christ the honor He is due as King and lives the rest of his life as Christ’s loyal subject.
Christ was in the bosom of the father; He came to make God known (John 1:18). Christ is the perfect image of God the exact representation of His divine nature and character (Col 1:15; Heb 1:1-3). In His crucifixion our Lord satisfied the justice of God against our sins (1 Pet 2:24; 3:18). Divine justice had to be fully addressed before a drop of mercy could be poured out upon guilty sinners.
There is no peace with God, no favor and no adoption without the work of the Mediator. He is perfectly capable of saving even the worst sinner.
The grace of God does not set aside the effable law of sowing and reaping. It’s impossible to take a moral holiday despite the slogans that come from Las Vegas. God is not mocked (Gal 6:7-8). The sinner’s case is beyond human agency—so much so that God has taken salvation into His own hands. Wonder of wonders, in the glorious gospel, Christ our Substitute ‘reaps’ the consequent wrath due us. One cannot be right with a righteous and holy God unless one has a righteousness not of his own making, the righteousness of the Christ, the Mediator (Phil 3:9). The doctrine of the justification of sinners by the righteousness of Christ is a great mystery. It is utterly foreign to natural reasoning that the righteousness of a man in heaven (Christ) is the righteousness whereby the sinner is accepted by God eternally.
Now, taking our inspiration from the letters of R. M. M’Cheyne, let’s examine some of the appeals by which this 19ᵗʰ C. Scotsman called sinners to Christ:
The more God opens your eyes, the more you’ll see you are lost in yourself. . .Christ died to bear the curse; He died in your place; He obeyed the Law in your place. In order to come to Him as a needy sinner, you must be awakened to know your own heart. You are looking for peace in the wrong places: your duties, in reforming your mind, in striving. The answer is look straight to Christ. . . You are never truly broken until you are really in Christ (Ez 36:25-31; Rom 5:19). . .When God opens your eyes you will see your total depravity and the corruptions of your heart. Only then can you see the glory and truth of the gospel. Jesus stands at your door willing to be your shield, but the truth and glory of the gospel is hidden to our natural understanding (2 Cor 4:3-4ff.) (Andrew Bonar, Memoir and Remains of R. M. M’Cheyne, pp. 278-281).
There is no salvation until you are of the same mind as God is about your soul. You must hide in Jesus. Tears and remorse will not blot it out—fresh resolutions will not cover your sin—you must be hidden in Jesus’ spotless righteousness (Ibid, p. 298).
Christ’s offices of Prophet, Priest, and King match our ‘sinner-ship’. Without Him, at the revelation of the Lord you will shrink back and beg the mountains to cover you (Rev 6:15-17). Christ’s glory is that He justifies sinners who have no righteousness and sanctifies souls who have no inborn holiness. The black soul must be swallowed up in Christ as its covering (Ibid, pp. 300-303).
A broken heart alone can receive a crucified Christ. Have you believed God’s record concerning the Son? To believe is to be saved, to remain in unbelief is to be damned said our Lord (Mk 16:16). When God makes a saving covenant with you, He brings you to lay hold of Jesus as your perfect representative who answers for your sins in His own Person. Thus, Christ is the soul’s only possible hope (Ibid, pp. 307, 309).
To die without Christ is final and fixed; you cannot come back and die as a believer. Pray that Christ finds you before death finds you—there must be a note of desperation in this matter. We are hopeless in ourselves. Jesus said, “I lay down my life—this is the commandment I received from My Father” (Jn 10:18). His short sufferings are more than equal to my eternal sufferings in hell. Eternal agonies are born by Him because of the dignity of His Person—the Creator of the universe has become the Redeemer, the ‘friend of sinners’. There is no admittance to glory without a wedding garment. The ‘covering’ of your works must be completely unraveled before you can receive the robe of His righteousness woven for sinners. Christ is able to save the vilest. Take of the water of life freely (Is 55; Rev 22) (Ibid, pp. 317, 321).
The gospel invitation is extended to the guilty and defiled. The blade of God’s unbending justice was bathed in the side of the Redeemer, now the guiltiest sinner may enter Paradise over His bleeding body and eat of the Tree of Life and live forever. “I am the Way” said our Savior (Jn 14:6). The torn veil is our access. How will you come to the Father? The sword turns every which way blocking the sinner’s access to Paradise. The unconverted man does not know the truth; for Christ is the truth (1 Jn 5:20). Christ is the Logos—the living Word of God, the keystone that holds all knowledge together. Outside of Him is only darkness and carnal reasoning. Do not trust your own understanding. The great danger is to find self in eternity BEFORE we ever ask, “What must I do to be saved?” Countless souls are eternally lost without this consideration (Ibid, 339-343).
You must consider and take to heart the perfect suitability of Christ to save—He comes to earth to undertake the cause of poor sinners who are lost. The dignity of the preeminence of His Person is our comfort, hope, and refuge. The cost of not looking unto Jesus is this: the soul will be in perpetual doubt of its own state. Consider that God gave the Son freely; the Father is not reluctant to bestow His saving grace. The Son and the Father both are interested in saving lost souls. “The Father sent Me!” (Ibid, pp. 245-347).
Sinners are forever attempting to qualify themselves rather than looking to Christ. “Unto you I call” (Prov 8:4). The Bible encourages sinners to come freely to Christ. We have so little idea of free grace—we cannot believe that God can offer a Savior to us while we are in a wicked, hell-deserving, lost state, while polluted, guilty, vile, condemned, defiled, etc.—God bids us come while we are in this state. Christ is not offered to you because you repent, but because you are a lost sinner. Christ in the bosom of the Father will not save you. Christ manifested in the flesh will save you. The Son of God dying as a man in the place and room of sinners—we declare Him. Look to a ‘declared Christ’ (1 Jn 1:1-4). The ‘lightning and thunder’ of God’s wrath tore through Christ during the bloody propitiation. The last drops of the vial of wrath were poured out on Him. Now, if you cleave to Him, you have fellowship in His justification, for now He is justified from all the sins that were laid on Him (Rom 4:25) (Ibid, pp. 368, 370, 377).
What are souls to flee from? The answer is the wrath to come. You must see the preciousness of Christ against the backdrop of this coming wrath. We exhort you to cleave to Christ now! Today is the day of salvation (Ibid, pp. 403, 405-406).
The state of the awakened soul (the soul under conviction of sin) is: “fear has torment”—in other words there is the compelling thought that ‘my sins justly deserve punishment’ (1 Jn 4:18). But, the natural man does not fear God—he does not pray as one who knows God. BUT, when the Spirit convicts, he feels the wrath of God abiding on him—the past sins he excused now make him feel horrible. He sees the enormities he has committed. He sees his sin as against a holy God. The stoutest sinner (the most stubborn and self-righteous) then feels the hell within him. By the conviction of the Spirit, the man becomes convinced of his inability to help himself. His devastation moves to shades of desperation: he tries to change his life; to repent; to pray; but God sees his righteousness as filthy rags (Is 64:6). The soul sinks in gloom. But it is out of this posture alone which comes the cry to the Lord for mercy (Ibid, pp. 409-411).
Christ is the refuge for those oppressed by the weight of their sins (Mt 11:28-29). But, as long as you remain unbelieving, you are under His perfect wrath. Then the books will be opened on that day. The Christ-less won’t stand. The sinner will be revealed as having a stubborn neck like an iron sinew (a cable), and a brow of brass. He will blush as his knees knock in fear. He will enter everlasting shame and contempt. He will give an account of every idle word—he will face endless comprehensive judgment. Dear friends, the good news has urgency with it and overflowing mercy: you cannot be in too desperate a condition for Christ. But as long as you remain unbelieving, you are under perfect wrath—wrath without mixture of leniency. The wrath of God will be as amazing as His love. His wrath will be terrifying—for God will be glorious in judgment (Is 5:6). But for those who have fled to Christ, His love will give the elect boldness in the Day of Judgment (1 Jn 2:28) (Ibid, pp. 412-413).
You are judged by God in accordance with what your surety is (your ultimate object of trust and reliance). The believing sinner has ‘consented’ for Christ’s sake to be loved by God for no good reason in himself. What about your associations and companions? The saved man will make bosom friends of Christ’s own—other true believers—this is a key mark of genuine salvation. If you stay away from close friendships with believers, it is because you hate the copy of the original, Christ Himself (Ibid, pp. 414-416).
It is possible to be religious, yet come short of saving faith—you will be tempted to find peace in the world; in self-repentance; in self-reformation; in religious duties, even in your sorrow as you look in the mirror with a sad face—all of this cannot save you. Apathy about God, the soul, and eternity is the human natural condition, but God says, “A sword is sharpened” (Ez 21:9-10; Jn 3:36). God’s instruments of vengeance and destruction are quite ready. There is a place in hell for every unconverted soul—for every Christ-less person. God makes no promises to unconverted persons (Ibid, pp. 354, 358, 361).
To the unconverted, I say, “You are always making yourselves better and better until you can lay God under obligation to pardon you. You are always looking within for righteousness. But, sorrow for past sins, prayers, tears, and convictions, and your religious exercises will not commend you to God. You must despair of pardon in that way. Give it up—your heart is desperately wicked, vile, polluted so that you cannot appear in God’s sight and presence. Count it all dung—as filthy rags that you may win Christ. Delight in His mercy and in His readiness to forgive (Ibid, p. 419).