OM 3:10{THE gospel sets before a sinner what God is, having shown out what man is. The cross, which has displayed God in His own nature, has also established the guilt of man. It declares that man has no righteousness for God, nor ever can have in himself; but that God has provided for man, though outside of him altogether, a righteousness worthy of Himself. Man is so bad that it is impossible to make him any better, and God has declared man to be such, having tried and proved him, from the garden of Eden up to the cross. God has made trial of man from the very first. God knew what was in him, but God would have it shown out, openly manifested; and it is very solemn what came out at the close of the probation of man, as it is called. It is a dreadful picture, but true. He broke the law, slew the prophets, murdered Christ, and resisted the Holy Ghost! and all this, because it was in his heart-in his nature, as we say. Man has been proved guilty, and hence the words, "there is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good; no, not one." What follows is a description of the kind of fruit which this bad tree has produced; but here I desire to point out how that the bad fruit is only natural to the bad tree, for many are willing to confess that they have been guilty of bad, wicked actions, who will not confess that they themselves are bad, lost. Have you, my reader, bowed to this fact-that you are by nature lost, that you deserve to be sent to hell forever? Can you say, God would be righteous in condemning me; I have nothing to say; He has closed my mouth? Were I to open it, it would be to justify Him, and condemn myself. So far we have looked at the guilt and ruin of man in his own nature, as established, proved by God, and his mouth closed. Let us look a little at how God acted from Himself for His own glory and the benefit and blessing of the one so lost. First He gave His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the delight of His heart, that His love might shine forth, and that in Him all might be made good, according to Himself. He, the just, died for the unjust. He glorified God in His life and in His death. By Him “all that believe are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." To Him give all the prophets witness, that whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins, and Him hath God set forth to be a propitiation or mercy-seat, through faith in His blood, to declare at this time God's righteousness, that He might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.
You will observe that the prophets spoke of all this as about to come; the gospel declares it is come. There is no room left for boasting, for man has had no part in it; all is of God, in and by Jesus Christ, and that is the reason why it is said, “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." On our side the mouth is closed, but on God's side it is opened; but to make mention of Him, the blessed One who gave Himself for us, what a contrast! In Rom. 3 the heart is the seat of all wickedness, and the mouth utters it, “full of cursing and bitterness," while here in Rom. 10 it is the heart's acknowledgment of God and of Christ, and the mouth's confession of it. He, the blessed Son of God, died for sin, was raised again from the dead by the glory of the Father, and is in glory; and now whosoever receives Him receives life and righteousness and glory. Reader, have you believed Him, received Him, confessed Him? W. T. T.