I see in the word, and I recognize in myself, the total ruin of man. I see that the cross is the end of all the means that God had employed to gain the heart of man, and, consequently, that it proves the thing to be impossible. God has exhausted all His resources; man has shown that he was wicked, past recovery; the cross of Christ condemns man-sin in the flesh. But this condemnation having been expressed in that another has undergone it, it is the absolute salvation of those who believe, for condemnation, the judgment of sin is behind us; life came out of it in resurrection. We are dead to sin, and alive to God in Jesus Christ our Lord. 384