“Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
THE first thing that troubles a divinely-quickened soul—a soul with whom the Holy Ghost is dealing—is its sins, and that trouble is met by the first six words of the Scripture at the beginning of this paper.
Have you ever thought about your sins? Have you ever been troubled about them? You are guilty of sins: what about them? and how are you to get out of them? You cannot deliver yourself from them! But a Deliverer has come, and has given Himself for them. Do you know this Divine Deliverer, and the deliverance that He has wrought by the work He did on the cross?
“Who gave Himself for our sins.”
Here we have the Savior, the sinner, and the sins, and these sins, like a mountain pile, standing between the Savior and the sinner. What is to be done with them? How are they to be put away? The Savior cannot righteously get through them to me, and I could not possibly get through them to Him. What, then, is to be done with them? How can they be removed from being between us, and from being before God? Christ answers the question by going under the terrible load of our sins, and by bearing them in His own body on the tree, and by suffering all that a holy God could possibly express against them. (1 Peter 2:24; 3:1824Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)
18For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18).)
God laid them on Him; He bore them on the tree; He has suffered for them; He has put them away forever for every one who believes in Him; He is risen without them, and He is in heaven without them. The Deliverer is up in glory without our sins, and we who know Him there are in the fruits of His deliverance, and are entitled to know that we are as free from our sins in this world as Christ is in heaven. “As He is so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:1717Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17).) Believest thou this?
“I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20).) This brings before us a second deliverance. We not only need deliverance from the crab-apples (sins), but from the crab-tree (self).
The second thing that really troubles a soul after it has got the knowledge of the everlasting forgiveness of all its sins is, that the old sinful nature, derived from Adam fallen, is unchanged.
What is to be done with that? What has God done with it? He has crucified it with Christ, and it has come to its end judicially in the cross of Christ. What a deliverance for the soul that believes it!
Nothing but death would do for the nature. In Romans 6, sin and death are mentioned seventeen times each; they ring changes all the way through the chapter. There is nothing in the chapter about salvation from sins or from hell; it is occupied with the subject of sin, and it clearly shows that nothing but death could possibly meet it. You must not confound between sin and sins—the former is the root, the latter is the fruit which sin (the root) produces. Sin is never said to be forgiven, but judged. (Rom. 8:33For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Romans 8:3)). How could God forgive a nature? Sin is judged, sins are forgiven; we are delivered from the power of the former and from the guilt of the latter by the work of Christ on the cross, where He bore the judgment due to sin, and put away sins.
“Our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Here the broad fact is stated, and further on in the chapter we are exhorted to apply it to ourselves, “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6). The wild briar has been brought into the garden of the Lord, and a beautiful standard rose grafted into it; and we are responsible not to contribute to the briar, not to allow it to bring forth wild roses, to keep back all its buddings and shoots, that nothing but the standard rose should bear roses for its new owner. “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (Col. 3:33For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3).) We are entirely delivered from our old state in Adam; Christ, living in us, gives us our new state, and the Holy Ghost in us is our power to preserve us from bearing wild roses, so that the “rose of Sharon,” that “plant of renown,” should alone bloom for God.
This verse brings before us the third deliverance, which is from the world.
What is the world? It is a great system got up by Satan to keep people as happy as possible without a thought of God!
Many accept the work of Christ on the cross to deliver them from their sins and from the power of the old Adam nature in them, who refuse to accept it as separating them from the world. By separation from the world, I do not mean going into a convent, lest you should be tempted to look upon vanity; but Christ in glory so satisfying the heart that the things of this poor, fading world have no attraction for you.
Have you accepted the cross for separation from your sins and from your sinful self? Then why not accept it for separation from the world? You will not want a bit of the world in heaven, and if you know that you are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ now, and are in the enjoyment of your heavenly blessings, you will not want a bit of the world now. Surely Christ is enough to satisfy the heart, and to make it independent of this hollow, untrue world for any pleasure. Scores of times we get this word “world” mentioned in the New Testament, which shows what a dangerous thing it is and Christ says of His own, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” (John 17:1616They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:16).) “Now is the judgment of this world.” (John 12:3131Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. (John 12:31).)
If the world has met its judgment at the cross of Christ, and we have met our judgment there too, what have two judged things to say to each other? We are untrue to the cross if we allow the world in any shape or form—whether it be in the way the chapter. There is nothing in the chapter about salvation from sins or from hell; it is occupied with the subject of sin, and it clearly shows that nothing but death could possibly meet it. You must not confound between sin and sins—the former is the root, the latter is the fruit which sin (the root) produces. Sin is never said to be forgiven, but judged. (Rom. 8:33For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Romans 8:3).) How could God forgive a nature? Sin is judged, sins are forgiven; we are delivered from the power of the former and from the guilt of the latter by the work of Christ on the cross, where He bore the judgment due to sin, and put away sins.
“Our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Here the broad fact is stated, and further on in the chapter we are exhorted to apply it to ourselves, “Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6). The wild briar has been brought into the garden of the Lord, and a beautiful standard rose grafted into it; and we are responsible not to contribute to the briar, not to allow it to bring forth wild roses, to keep back all its buddings and shoots, that nothing but the standard rose should bear roses for its new owner. “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (Col. 3:33For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3).) We are entirely delivered from our old state in Adam; Christ, living in us, gives us our new state, and the Holy Ghost in us is our power to preserve us from bearing wild roses, so that the “rose of Sharon,” that “plant of renown,” should alone bloom for God.
“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (Gal. 6:1414But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. (Galatians 6:14).) This verse brings before us the third deliverance, which is from the world.
What is the world? It is a great system got up by Satan to keep people as happy as possible without a thought of God.
Many accept the work of Christ on the cross to deliver them from their sins and from the power of the old Adam nature in them, who refuse to accept it as separating them from the world. By separation from the world, I do not mean going into a convent, lest you should be tempted to look upon vanity; but Christ in glory so satisfying the heart that the things of this poor, fading world have no attraction for you.
Have you accepted the cross for separation from your sins and from your sinful self? Then why not accept it for separation from the world? You will not want a bit of the world in heaven, and if you know that you are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ now, and are in the enjoyment of your heavenly blessings, you will not want a bit of the world now. Surely Christ is enough to satisfy the heart, and to make it independent of this hollow, untrue world for any pleasure. Scores of times we get this word “world” mentioned in the New Testament, which shows what a dangerous thing it is; and Christ says of His own, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” (John 17:1616They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. (John 17:16).) “Now is the judgment of this world.” (John 12:3131Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. (John 12:31).) If the world has met its judgment at the cross of Christ, and we have met our judgment there too, what have two judged things to say to each other? We are untrue to the cross if we allow the world in any shape or form—whether it be in the way we dress our bodies, furnish our houses, or conduct our business. There is nothing like the cross for judging everything by, and we must not revive or allow the thing for which He bore the judgment them.
Do you know Him as the One who
“Came from off the throne eternal,
Down to Calvary’s depths of woe,”
to clear away everything that stood between God and us? He has cleared away sins, self, Satan, the world, death, judgment, and the cherubims, with their flaming swords, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life; yea, He has cleared away every barrier, so that there is nothing between us and God save and except the blood; and there is nobody between God and us save and except Him who shed it. Do you know this blessed DELIVERER from sins, self, and the world? and are you at this moment in the enjoyment of this THREEFOLD DELIVERANCE?