THE occupant of the condemned cell, upon whom judgment is pronounced, and who only awaits the day of execution, is a true picture of every son of Adam since Calvary’s deliberate murder was perpetrated. Man is no longer on trial; his probationary course is over; he has been weighed in God’s balances, and found wanting; his hands are stained with the blood of Christ, and he is solemnly pronounced to be guilty before God.
Moreover, a proclamation has gone forth from God, the Judge of all, addressed to all the inhabitants of the world, in Psa. 49, where high and low, rich and poor, learned and illiterate—every class and condition of men—are told that in all the range of the earth there is not a man to be found who can “by any means redeem his brother, or give to God a ransom for him that he should still live forever, and not see corruption.”
Solemn reality—guilty before God! Solemn fact—no ransom to be found!
Have you, dear reader, owned this as the true verdict of God in your own case? Job owned his condition when he said, “Behold, I am vile” — “I abhor myself.” Isaiah, when he cried, “Woe is me!” — “I am undone” — “I am a man of unclean lips,” owned his. Paul, when he confessed, “I am chief of sinners,” took his true place before God.
His blameless walk, his religious privileges and connections, his devoted zeal, were all judged as filthy, self-righteous rags, and condemned as dung and dross.
But do you say, “Is prayer of no avail for a ransom?” “None can by any means,” God answers.
“Are ‘good works’ valueless?” “None can by any means.”
“To ‘do no one any harm.’ Is there no merit in that?” “None can by any means.”
“To give my goods to feed the poor. Does that profit nothing?” “None can by any means.”
“To live a religious life, and do the best you can. Is that useless?” “None can by any means,” for nothing ever can, or ever will, alter the solemn fact that “none can by any means redeem his brother or find a ransom.”
“Is there, then, no hope? Is there no deliverance?” None in man; none in yourself. “Must I, then, be lost forever?” Yes, lost forever, if you are looking for a ransom where God has declared there is none.
“Will God send me to hell?” said a gentleman to me. “Will you accept His way of saving you?” I replied. “No, I will not.”
“Then you are deliberately sending yourself there.” And why, think you, dear reader, did he refuse God’s way? Because he preferred his own, and would not bow to God’s verdict. He would not own that he was a complete ruin—utterly “without strength.”
Do you, dear reader, believe God? Will you own that it is true of you that you are lost, ruined, undone, without strength, and powerless to extricate yourself from your condition?
If so, I have good news for you.
God, the Judge of all, looked down upon the children of men, and saw that there was none to save, none to deliver. He saw the jaws of the pit wide open to receive the slaves of sin and Satan, and in the deep yearnings of His love the declaration was made that the ransom so vainly sought among men was provided by God Himself. Blessed news, precious message, joyful tidings. Yes!
The ransom is found. Spread the news of life, deliverance, pardon, and peace. “Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom,” God’s own glad tidings to the weary, working, burdened sinner!
Are you, dear reader, longing to know, who and what the ransom is? It is the precious life-blood of God’s dear Son. Nothing less could satisfy the holy claims of a righteous: God—nothing else could meet the need of lost sinners. The life given up in death of the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, the Lord of life and glory, is the ransom. Jesus gave “His life a ransom for many.”
This is the ransom God found—this is the ground upon which He can say of the ruined sinner, “Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom.” Christ Jesus, the spotless, sinless, holy, harmless Son of God, laid aside His glory, and came in the form of sinful flesh, yet without sin, for the express object and purpose of serving—yes, serving unto death. He Himself in His own body on the tree bore the sins of His people; there He was made a curse, and there He endured the penalty of death, in order that guilty sinners might pass from the condemned cell, justified by His blood and delivered through His death.
If the ruin is widespread and universal, the remedy is as efficacious as the ruin is wide.
It is sufficient to meet the need of man—yea, it is unto all men, “whosoever.” A Saviour God come down to deliver can have no less a range for His grace than the wide earth itself. “Preach the gospel to every creature,” are His words. “If any say I have sinned or perverted that which is right, then God is gracious.”
Tell me now, dear friend, have you accepted this God-provided ransom. You are the lost, condemned criminal, without power in yourself to deliver, or find a ransom. Will you then receive Jesus, who gave His life a ransom for all, and who is willing, waiting, ready, to deliver you. “There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified of in due time.” It is now the due, the full time—the value of the ransom may be yours just now. If you believe, you shall never feel the righteous wrath of a sin-hating God, for there is “no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”
H. N.