“Just, and the justifier of him which believeth.” 
              — Romans 3:26

Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Conscience accuses no
longer. Judgment now decides for the sinner instead of against him.
Memory looks back upon past sins, with deep sorrow for the sin, but yet
with no dread of any penalty to come; for Christ has paid the debt of
his people to the last jot and tittle, and received the divine receipt;
and unless God can be so unjust as to demand double payment for one
debt, no soul for whom Jesus died as a substitute can ever be cast into
hell. It seems to be one of the very principles of our enlightened
nature to believe that God is just; we feel that it must be so, and
this gives us our terror at first; but is it not marvellous that this
very same belief that God is just, becomes afterwards the pillar of our
confidence and peace! If God be just, I, a sinner, alone and without a
substitute, must be punished; but Jesus stands in my stead and is
punished for me; and now, if God be just, I, a sinner, standing in
Christ, can never be punished. God must change his nature before one
soul, for whom Jesus was a substitute, can ever by any possibility
suffer the lash of the law. Therefore, Jesus having taken the place of
the believer-having rendered a full equivalent to divine wrath for all
that his people ought to have suffered as the result of sin, the
believer can shout with glorious triumph, “Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God’s elect?” Not God, for he hath justified; not Christ,
for he hath died, “yea rather hath risen again.” My hope lives not
because I am not a sinner, but because I am a sinner for whom Christ
died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being unholy, he is my
righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or feel,
or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is
now doing for me. On the lion of justice the fair maid of hope rides
like a queen.

On this day...

• Nahum 1 - 2023
• Micah 7 - 2023
• Give everything you can - 2011
• Faithfulness is our business - 2011
• Mention me in your prayers please - 2011
• Love that transforms - 2011
• William Carey (missionary) - 2009
• Ministry of Reconciliation - 2009
• 613 Mitzvot - 2009
• Propitiation - 2009