#CHRIST THE END OF THE LAW
"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes."
- Romans 10:4
YOU remember we spoke last Sunday morning of "the days of the Son of man." Oh that every Sunday might be a day of that kind in the most spiritual sense! I hope that we shall endeavor to make each Lord’s Day, as it comes round, a day of the Lord, by thinking much of Jesus, by rejoicing much in Him, by laboring for Him and by our growingly importunate prayer that to Him may the gathering of the people be. We may not have very many Sabbaths together—death may soon part us—but while we are able to meet as a Christian assembly, let us never forget that Christ’s presence is our main necessity. And let us pray for it and entreat the Lord to grant that presence always in displays of light, life and love! I become increasingly earnest that every preaching time should be a soul-saving time. I can deeply sympathize with Paul when he said, "My heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved." We have had so much preaching, but, comparatively speaking, so little believing in Jesus. And if there is no believing in Him, neither the law nor the gospel has answered its end and our labor has been utterly in vain. Some of you have heard, and heard, and heard again, but you have not believed in Jesus! If the gospel had not come to your hearing, you could not have been guilty of refusing it. "Have they not heard?" says the apostle. "Yes, verily," but still, "they have not all obeyed the gospel." Up to this very moment there has been no hearing with the inner ear and no work of faith in the heart in the case of many whom we love. Dear friends, is it always to be so? How long is it to be so? Shall there not, soon, come an end of this reception of the outward means and rejection of the inward grace? Will not your soul, soon, close in with Christ for present salvation? Break! Break, O heavenly day, upon the benighted ones, for our hearts are breaking over them!
The reason why many do not come to Christ is not because they are not earnest, after a fashion, and thoughtful and desirous to be saved, but because they cannot stand God’s way of salvation!
"They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge." We get them by our exhortation so far on the way that they become desirous to obtain eternal life, but, "they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." Mark, "submitted themselves," for it needs submission! Proud man wants to save himself! He believes he can do it and he will not give over the task till he finds out his own helplessness by unhappy failures. Salvation by grace, to be sued for in _forma pauperis—_to be asked for as an undeserved blessing from free, unmerited grace—this it is which the carnal mind will not come to as long as it can help it! I beseech the Lord so to work that some of you may not be able to help it. And oh, I have been praying that, while this morning I am trying to set forth Christ as the end of the law, God may bless it to some hearts that they may see what Christ did, and may perceive it to be a great deal better than anything they can do! May they see what Christ finished and become weary of what they, themselves, have labored at so long and have not well commenced at this day. Perhaps it may please the Lord to enchant them with the perfection of the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. As Bunyan would say, "It may, perhaps, set their mouths a watering after it," and when a sacred appetite begins, it will not be long before the feast is enjoyed! It may be that when they see the raiment of worked gold which Jesus so freely bestows on naked souls, they will throw away their filthy rags which now they hug so closely.
I am going to speak about two things, this morning, as the Spirit of God shall help me. The first is, _Christ in connection with the law—_He is "the end of the law for righteousness." And secondly, ourselves _in connection with Christ—_to everyone that believes Christ is the end of the law for righteousness."
I. First, then, CHRIST IN CONNECTION WITH THE LAW. The law is that which, as sinners, we have, above all things, cause to dread, for the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law. Towards us the law darts forth devouring flames, for it condemns us and in solemn terms appoints us a place among the accursed, as it is written, "Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them." Yet, strange infatuation! Like the fascination which attracts the gnat to the candle which burns its wings, men, by nature, fly to the law for salvation and cannot be driven from it! The law can do nothing else but reveal sin and pronounce condemnation upon the sinner. And yet we cannot get men away from it, even though we show them how sweetly Jesus stands between them and it. They are so enamored of legal hope that they cling to it when there is nothing to cling to— they prefer Sinai to Calvary, though Sinai has nothing for them but thunder and trumpet warnings of coming judgment! O that for awhile you would listen anxiously while I set forth Jesus, my Lord, that you may see the law in Him!
Now, what has our Lord to do with the law? He has everything to do with it, for He is its end for the noblest object, namely, for righteousness! He is the "end of the law." What does this mean? I think it signifies three things.
First, that Christ is the purpose and object of the law. Secondly, that He is the fulfillment of it, and, thirdly, He is the termination of it. First, then, our Lord Jesus Christ is the purpose and object of the law. It was given to lead us to Him. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, or rather our attendant to conduct us to the school of Jesus. The law is the great net in which the fish are enclosed that they may be drawn out of the element of sin. The law is the stormy wind which drives souls into the harbor of refuge. The law is the sheriff’s officer to shut men up in prison for their sin, concluding them all under condemnation in order that they may look to the free grace of God, alone, for deliverance! This is the object of the law—it empties, that grace may fill—and wounds that Mercy may heal. It has never been God’s intention towards us, as fallen men, that the law should be regarded as a way to salvation for us, for a way of salvation it can never be. Had man never fallen; had His nature remained as God made it, the law would have been most helpful to Him to show Him the way in which He should walk. And by keeping it He would have lived, for, "He that does these things shall live in them." But ever since man has fallen, the Lord has not proposed to him a way of salvation by works, for He knows it to be impossible to a sinful creature. The law is already broken and whatever man can do, he cannot repair the damage he has already done. Therefore he is out of court as to the hope of merit. The law demands perfection, but man has already fallen short of it and, therefore, let him do his best; he cannot accomplish what is absolutely essential. The law is meant to lead the sinner to faith in Christ by showing the impossibility of any other way! It is the black dog to fetch the sheep to the shepherd. It is the burning heat which drives the traveler to the shadow of the great rock in a weary land.
Look how the law is adapted to this, for, first of all, it shows man his sin. Read the ten commandments and tremble as you read them! Who can lay his own character down, side by side, with the two tablets of divine precepts without at once being convinced that he has fallen far short of the standard? When the law comes home to the soul, it is like light in a dark room revealing the dust and the dirt which otherwise had been unperceived. It is the test which detects the presence of the poison of sin in the soul. "I was alive without the law, once," said the apostle, "but when the commandments came, sin revived and I died." Our comeliness utterly fades away when the law blows upon it. Look at the commandments, I say, and remember how sweeping they are, how spiritual, how far-reaching! They do not merely touch the outward acts, but dive into the inner motives and deal with the heart, the mind, the soul! There is a deeper meaning in the commandments than appears upon their surface. Gaze into their depths, and see how terrible the holiness which they require is! As you understand what the law demands, you will perceive how far you are from fulfilling it and how sin abounds where you thought there was little or none of it. You thought yourself rich and increased in goods and in no need of anything, but when the broken law visits you, your spiritual bankruptcy and utter penury stare you in the face. A true balance discovers short weight and such is the first effect of the law upon the conscience of man.
The law also shows the result and mischief of sin. Look at the types of the old Mosaic dispensation and see how they were intended to lead men to Christ by making them see their unclean condition and their need of such cleansing as only He can give. Every type pointed to our Lord Jesus Christ! If men were set apart because of disease or uncleanness, they were made to see how sin separated them from God and from His people. And when they were brought back and purified with mystic rites in which were scarlet wool and hyssop and the like, they were made to see how they could only be restored by Jesus Christ, the great High Priest. When the bird was killed that the leper might be clean, the need of purification by the sacrifice of a life was set forth. Every morning and evening a lamb died to tell of daily need of pardon, if God is to dwell with us. We sometimes have been accused of speaking too much about the blood, yet under the Old Testament, the blood seemed to be everything and was not only spoken of, but actually presented to the eyes. What does the apostle tell us in Hebrews? "Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, this is the blood of the testament which God has enjoined unto you. Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission." The blood was on the veil and on the altar, on the hangings and on the floor of the tabernacle! No one could avoid seeing it. I resolve to make my ministry of the same character and more and more sprinkle it with the blood of atonement. Now the abundance of the blood of old was meant to show clearly that sin has so polluted us, that without an atonement, God is not to be approached. We must come by the way of sacrifice or not at all. We are so unacceptable in ourselves, that unless the Lord sees us with the blood of Jesus upon us He must put us away. The old law, with its emblems and figures, set forth many truths as to men’s selves and the coming Savior, intending, by all of them, to preach Christ. If any stopped short of Him, they missed the intent and design of the law. Moses leads up to Joshua and the law ends at Jesus.
Turning our thoughts back to the moral, rather than the ceremonial, law, it was intended to teach men _their utter helplessnes_s. It shows them how they fall short of what they ought to be and it also shows them, when they look at it carefully, how utterly impossible it is for them to come up to the standard. Such holiness as the law demands no man can reach of himself. "Your commandments are exceedingly broad." If a man says that he can keep the law, it is because he does not know what the law is. If he fancies that he can ever climb to heaven up the quivering sides of Sinai, surely He can never have seen that burning mountain at all. Keep the law? Ah, my brethren, while we are yet talking about it, we are breaking it! While we are pretending that we can fulfill its letter, we are violating its spirit, for pride as much breaks the law as lust or murder. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." "How can he be clean that is born of a woman?" No, soul, you cannot help yourself in this thing, for since only by perfection you can live by the law, and since that perfection is impossible, you cannot find help in the covenant of works. In grace there is hope, but as a matter of debt there is none, for we do not merit anything but wrath! The law tells us this and the sooner we know it to be so, the better, for the sooner, then, we shall fly to Christ.
The law also shows us _our great need—_our need of cleansing, cleansing with the water and with the blood. It shows us our filthiness and this, naturally, leads us to feel that we must be washed from it if we are ever to draw near to God. So the law drives us to accept Christ as the only person who can cleanse us and make us fit to stand within the veil in the presence of the Most High. The law is the surgeon’s knife which cuts out the proud flesh so that the wound may heal. The law, by itself, only sweeps and raises the dust—but the gospel sprinkles clean water upon the dust—and all is well in the chamber of the soul. The law kills, the gospel makes alive! The law strips and then Jesus Christ comes in and robes the soul in beauty and glory. All the commandments and all the types direct us to Christ, if we will but heed their evident intent. They wean us from self. They put us off from the false basis of self-righteousness and bring us to know that only in Christ can our help be found. So, first of all, Christ is the end of the law, in that He is its great purpose.
And now, secondly, He is the law’s fulfillment. It is impossible for any of us to be saved without righteousness; the God of heaven and earth, by immutable necessity, demands righteousness of all His creatures. Now, Christ has come to give to us the righteousness which the law demands, but which it never bestows. In the chapter before us we read of "the righteousness which is of faith," which is also called, "God’s righteousness." And we read of those who "shall not be ashamed" because they are righteous by believing, "for with the heart man believes unto righteousness." What the law could not do Jesus has done! He provides the righteousness which the law asks for, but cannot produce! What an amazing righteousness it must be which is as broad and deep and long and high as the law itself! The commandments are exceedingly broad, but the righteousness of Christ is as broad as the commandments and goes to the end of them. Christ did not come to make the law milder, or to render it possible for our cracked and battered obedience to be accepted as a sort of compromise. The law is not compelled to lower its terms, as though it had originally asked too much. It is holy, just, and good; and ought not to be altered in one jot or tittle—nor can it be. Our Lord gives the law all it requires, not a part—for that would be an admission that it might justly have been content with less at first. The law claims complete obedience without one spot or speck, failure, or flaw. And Christ has brought in such righteousness as that, and gives it to His people. The law demands that the righteousness should be without omission of duty and without commission of sin—and the righteousness which Christ has brought in is just such an one that for its sake the great God accepts His people and counts them to be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. The law will not be content without spiritual obedience—mere outward compliances will not satisfy. But our Lord’s obedience was as deep as it was broad, for His zeal to do the will of Him that sent Him consumed Him. He says Himself, "I delight to do Your will, O My God, yes, Your law is within My heart." Such righteousness He puts upon all believers. "By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Righteous to the fullest—perfect in Christ! We rejoice to wear the costly robe of fair white linen which Jesus has prepared and we feel that we may stand arrayed in it before the majesty of heaven without a trembling thought! This is something to dwell upon, dear friends. Only as righteous ones can we be saved, but Jesus Christ makes us righteous, and therefore we are saved! He is righteous who believes on Him, even as Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus," because they are made righteous in Christ. Yes, the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of Paul challenges all men, angels, and devils, to lay anything to the charge of God’s elect, since Christ has died. O law, when you demand of me a perfect righteousness, I, being a believer, present it to you, or through Christ Jesus, faith is accounted unto me for righteousness. The righteousness of Christ is mine, for I am one with Him by faith and this is the name with which He shall be called—"The Lord our righteousness."
Jesus has thus fulfilled the original demands of the law, but you know, brothers and sisters, that since we have broken the law there are other demands. For the remission of past sins something more is asked, now, than present and future obedience. Upon us, on account of our sins, the curse has been pronounced and a penalty has been incurred. It is written that He, "will by no means clear the guilty," but every transgression and iniquity shall have its just punishment and reward. Here, then, let us admire that the Lord Jesus Christ is the end of the law as to penalty! That curse and penalty are awful things to think about, but Christ has ended all their evil and thus discharged us from all the consequences of sin! As far as every believer is concerned, the law demands no penalty and utters no curse. The believer can point to the Great Surety on the tree of Calvary, and say, "See there, oh law, there is the vindication of divine justice which I offer to you! Jesus pouring out His heart’s blood from His wounds and dying on my behalf is my answer to your claims! And I know that I shall be delivered from wrath through Him." The claims of the law, both as broken and unbroken, Christ has met—both the positive and the penal demands are satisfied in Him. This was a labor worthy of a God and lo, the incarnate God has achieved it! He has finished the transgression, made an end of sins, made reconciliation for iniquity and brought in everlasting righteousness! All glory be to His name!
Moreover, not only has the penalty been paid, but Christ has put great and special honor upon the law in so doing. I venture to say that if the whole human race had kept the law of God and not one of them had violated it, the law would not stand in so splendid a position of honor as it does today when the man, Christ Jesus, who is also the Son of God, has paid obeisance to it. God, Himself, Incarnate, has in His life and yet more in His death, revealed the supremacy of the law—He has shown that not even love nor sovereignty can set aside justice. Who shall say a word against the law to which the lawgiver, Himself, submits? Who shall now say that it is too severe when He who made it submits Himself to its penalties? Because He was found in fashion as a man and was our representative, the Lord demanded from His own Son perfect obedience to the law, and the Son voluntarily bowed Himself to it without a single word, taking no exception to His task. "Yes, Your law is My delight," He said, and He proved it to be so by paying homage to it even to the fullest! Oh wondrous law under which even Emmanuel serves! Oh matchless law whose yoke even the Son of God does not disdain to bear, but being resolved to save His chosen, was made under the law, lived under it and died under it, "obedient to death, even the death of the cross!"
The law’s stability has also been secured by Christ. That, alone, can remain which is proved to be just, and Jesus has proved the law to be so, magnifying it and making it honorable. He says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all is fulfilled." I shall have to show you how He has made an end of the law in another sense, but as to the settlement of the eternal principles of right and wrong, Christ’s life and death have achieved this forever. "Yes, we establish the law," said Paul, "we do not make void the law through faith." The law is proved to be holy and just by the very gospel of faith, for the gospel which faith believes in does not alter or lower the law, but teaches us how it was to be fulfilled the uttermost! Now the law shall stand fast forever and ever, since even to save elect man, God will not alter it. He had a people, chosen, beloved and ordained to life—yet He would not save them at the expense of one principle of right! They were sinful and how could they be justified unless the law was suspended or changed? Was, then, the law changed? It seemed as if it must be so if man was to be saved, but Jesus Christ came and showed us how the law could stand firm as a rock and yet the redeemed could be justly saved by infinite mercy! In Christ we see both mercy and justice shining full orbed, and yet neither of them in any degree eclipsing the other. The law has all it ever asked, as it ought to have—and yet the Father of all mercies sees all His chosen saved as He determined they should be through the death of His Son! Thus I have tried to show you how Christ is the fulfillment of the law to its utmost end. May the Holy Spirit bless the teaching.
And now, thirdly, He is the end of the law in the sense that He is the termination of it. He has terminated it in two senses. First of all, His people are not under it as a covenant of life. "We are not under the law, but under grace." The old covenant, as it stood with father Adam was, "This do and you shall live." Its command he did not keep and, consequently, he did not live, nor do we live in him, since in Adam all died. The old covenant was broken and we became condemned, but now, having suffered death in Christ, we are no more under it, but are dead to it. Brothers and sisters, at this present moment, although we rejoice to do good works, we are not seeking life through them! We are not hoping to obtain divine favor by our own goodness, nor even to keep ourselves in the love of God by any merit of our own. Chosen, not for our works, but according "to the eternal will and good pleasure of God," we are called, not of works, but by the Spirit of God. We desire to continue in this grace and return no more to the bondage of the old covenant. Since we have put our trust in an atonement provided and applied by grace through Christ Jesus, we are no longer slaves but children, not working to be saved, but saved already, and working because we are saved! Neither that which we do, nor even that which the Spirit of God works in us, is, to us, the ground and basis of the love of God toward us since He loved us from the first because He would love us, unworthy though we were. And He loves us, still, in Christ and looks upon us not as we are in ourselves, but as we are in Him, washed in His blood and covered in His righteousness. You are not under the law, Christ has taken you from the servile bondage of a condemning covenant and made you to receive the adoption of children, so that now you cry, Abba, Father!
Again, Christ is the terminator of the law, for we are no longer under its curse. The law cannot curse a believer, it does not know how to do it. It blesses him, yes, and he shall be blessed, for as the law demands righteousness and looks at the believer in Christ—and sees that Jesus has given him all the righteousness it demands—the law is bound to pronounce him blessed. "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." Oh, the joy of being redeemed from the curse of the law by Christ, who was "made a curse for us," as it is written, "Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree." Do you, my brothers and sisters, understand the sweet mystery of salvation? Have you ever seen Jesus standing in your place that you may stand in His place? Christ accused and Christ condemned! Christ led out to die and Christ smitten of the Father, even to the death! And then you cleared, justified, delivered from the curse because the curse has spent itself on your Redeemer! You are admitted to enjoy the blessing because the righteousness which was His is now transferred to you that you may be blessed of the Lord, world without end! Let us triumph and rejoice in this forevermore! Why shouldn’t we? And yet some of God’s people get under the law as to their feelings and begin to fear that because they are conscious of sin they are not saved, whereas it is written, "He justifies the ungodly." For myself, I love to live near a sinner’s Savior. If my standing before the Lord depended upon what I am in myself and what good works and righteousness I could bring, surely I would have to condemn myself a thousand times a day! But to get away from that and to say, "I have believed in Jesus Christ and therefore righteousness is mine," this is peace, rest, joy and the beginning of heaven! When one attains to this experience, His love to Jesus Christ begins to flame up and he feeds that if the Redeemer has delivered him from the curse of the law, he will not continue in sin, but he will endeavor to live in newness of life! We are not our own, we are bought with a price and we would, therefore, glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits, which are the Lord’s. Thus much upon Christ in connection with the law.
II. Now, secondly, OURSELVES IN CONNECTION WITH CHRIST—for, "Christ is the end of the law to everyone that believes." Now see the point—"to everyone that believes"—there the stress lies. Come, man, woman, do you believe? No weightier question can be asked under heaven! "Do you believe on the Son of God?" And what is it to believe? It is not merely to accept a set of doctrines and to say that such-and-such a creed is yours and then and there to put it on the shelf and forget it. To believe is to trust, to confide, to depend upon, to rest upon, to rest in. Do you believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead? Do you believe that He stood in the sinner’s place and suffered, the Just for the unjust? Do you believe that He is able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by Him? And do you, therefore, lay the whole weight and stress of your soul’s salvation upon Him, yes, upon Him alone? Ah then, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to you and you are righteous! In the righteousness of God you are clothed if you believe! It is of no use to bring forward anything else if you are not believing, for nothing will do. If faith is absent, the essential thing is lacking—sacraments, prayers, Bible reading, hearing of the gospel—you may heap them together as high as the stars, into a mountain as high Olympus, but they are all mere chaff if faith is not there! It is your believing or not believing which must settle the matter! Do you look away from yourself to Jesus for righteousness? If you do, He is the end of the law to you.
Now observe that there is no question raised about your previous character, for it is written, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes." But, Lord, this man, before He believed, was a persecutor and injurious! He raged and raved against the saints and hauled them to prison and sought their blood! Yes, beloved friend, and that is the very man who wrote these words by the Holy Spirit, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes." So if I address one here, this morning, whose life has been defiled with every sin and stained with every transgression we can conceive of, yet I say unto such, remember, "all manner of sin and of blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, your iniquities are blotted out, for the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s dear Son, cleanses us from all sin! This is the glory of the gospel, that it is a sinner’s gospel—good news of blessing, not for those without sin, but for those who confess and forsake it! Jesus came into the world, not to reward the sinless, but to seek and to save that which was lost. And he, being lost and being far from God, who comes near to God by Christ and believes in Him, will find that He is able to bestow righteousness upon the guilty. He is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes and, therefore, to the poor harlot that believes, to the drunk of many years standing that believes, to the thief, the liar and the scoffer who believes! Jesus is the end of the law to those who have, before, rioted in sin but now turn from it to trust in Him. But I do not know that I need mention such cases as these. To me the most wonderful fact is that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to me, for I believe in Him. I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him until that day.
Another thought arises from the text, and that is that there is nothing said by way of qualification as to the strength of the faith. Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes, whether He is Little Faith or Greatheart. Jesus protects the rear rank as well as the vanguard. There is no difference between one believer and another as to justification. So long as there is a connection between you and Christ, the righteousness of God is yours! The link may be like a film, a spider’s line of trembling faith, but, if it runs all the way from the heart to Christ, divine grace can and will flow along the most slender thread! It is marvelous how fine the wire may be that will carry the electric flash. We may need a cable to carry a message across the sea, but that is for the protection of the wire. The wire which actually carries the message is a slender thing. If your faith is of the mustard-seed kind; if it is only such as tremblingly touches the hem of the Savior’s garment; if you can only say, "Lord, I believe, help You my unbelief"; if it is but the faith of sinking Peter, or weeping Mary, yet if it is faith in Christ, He will be the end of the law for righteousness to you as well as to the chief of the apostles!
If this is so, then, beloved friends, all of us who believe are righteous. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have obtained the righteousness which those who follow the works of the law know nothing of. We are not completely sanctified—would God we were! We are not rid of sin in our members, though we hate it, but still, for all that, in the sight of God, we are truly righteous! And being qualified by faith, we have peace with God. Come, look up, you believers that are burdened with a sense of sin! While you chasten yourselves and mourn your sin, do not doubt your Savior, nor question His righteousness! You are black, but do not stop there, go on to say as the spouse did, "I am black, but comely."—
"Though in ourselves deformed we are,
And black as Kedar’s tents appear,
Yet, when we put Your beauties on,
Fair as the courts of Solomon."
Now, mark that the connection of our text assures us that being righteous we are saved, for what does it say here? "If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved." He who is justified is saved, or what were the benefit of justification? Over you, believer, God has pronounced the verdict, "saved," and none shall reverse it! You are saved from sin and death and Hell—you are saved even now, with a present salvation—"He has saved us and called us with a holy calling." Feel the beauty of it at this hour. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God!"
And now I have done when I have said just this. If anyone here thinks He can save himself and that his own righteousness will suffice before God, I would affectionately beg him not to insult his Savior. If your righteousness suffices, why did Christ come here to work one out? Will you, for a moment, compare your righteousness with the righteousness of Jesus Christ? What likeness is there between you and Him? As much as between an ant and an archangel! No, not so much as that—as much as between night and day, hell and heaven! Oh, if I had a righteousness of my own that no one could find fault with, I would voluntarily fling it away to have the righteousness of Christ! But as I have none of my own, I rejoice the more to have my Lord’s. When Mr. Whitefield first preached at Kingswood, near Bristol, to the coal miners, he could see when their hearts began to be touched by the gutters of white made by the tears as they ran down their black cheeks. He saw they were receiving the gospel and he wrote in his diary, "as these poor men had no righteousness of their own, they, therefore, gloried in Him who came to save publicans and sinners." Well, Mr. Whitefield, that is true of the coal miners, but it is equally true of many of us, here, who may not have had black faces, but we had black hearts! We can truly say that we, also, rejoice to cast away our own righteousness, and count it dross and dung that we may win Christ and be found in Him! In Him is our sole hope and only trust!
Last of all, for any of you to reject the righteousness of Christ must be to perish everlastingly, because it cannot be that God will accept you or your pretended righteousness when you have refused the real and divine righteousness which He sets before you in His Son! If you could go up to the gates of heaven, and an angel were to say to you, "What title have you to entrance here?" And if you were to reply, "I have a righteousness of my own," then for you to be admitted would be to decide that your righteousness was on a par with that of Immanuel, Himself! Can that ever be? Do you think that God will ever allow such a lie to be sanctioned? Will He let a poor wretched sinner’s counterfeit righteousness pass current, side by side with the fine gold of Christ’s perfection? Why was the fountain filled with blood if you need no washing? Is Christ a superfluity? Oh, it cannot be! You must have Christ’s righteousness or be unrighteous—and being unrighteous you will be unsaved—and being unsaved you must remain lost forever and ever!
What? Has it all come to this, then, that I am to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for righteousness and to be made just through faith? Yes, that is it! That is the whole of it. "What? Trust Christ, alone, and then live as I like?" You cannot live in sin after you have trusted Jesus, for the act of faith brings with it a change of nature, and a renewal of your soul. The Spirit of God, who leads you to believe, will also change your heart. You spoke of, "living as you like." You will like to live very differently from what you do now. The things you loved before your conversion, you will hate when you believe—and the things you hated you will love. Now you are trying to be good and you have great failures because your heart is alienated from God. But when once you have received salvation through the blood of Christ, your heart will love God—and then you will keep His commandments and they will be no longer grievous to you. A change of heart is what you need but you will never get it except through the covenant of grace. There is not a word about conversion in the old covenant—we must look to the new covenant for that! And here it is—"Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness and from all your idols, I will cleanse you. A new heart, also, will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and do them." This is one of the greatest covenant promises—and the Holy Spirit performs it in the chosen! Oh, that the Lord would sweetly persuade you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ—and that promise and the other entire covenant engagements shall be fulfilled to your soul! The Lord bless you! Spirit of God, send Your blessing on these poor words of mine for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON—ROMANS 10.
HYMNS FROM "OWN HYMN BOOK"—231, 535, 647.