THE GOSPEL is the good news of pardon to the guilty. It enters into no calculations in regard to the different degrees of guilt in those whom it addresses. It reveals an atonement sufficient for all. Every sinner of the human race is commanded to receive it as a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save the chief of sinners. The Gospel does not teach us how to lay a foundation for ourselves, but informs us of the sure foundation which God has laid in Zion. Those who profess to believe generally misunderstand the Gospel. They view it as a scheme for making up their deficiencies through the merits of Christ; but this is “another gospel” which is not the Gospel at all, (see II Corinthians 11 & Galatians 1). The Gospel of Christ is addressed to those who are far from righteousness; who are poor, and blind, and naked; who have no money to purchase salvation, no merit to recommend them to the favor of God. Christ came, not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. If we are not sinners we have nothing to do with the Gospel, but if we are sinners let us acknowledge so lest we reject the counsel of God against ourselves by vainly supposing that anything about us gives us a peculiar claim to His favor. When Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, it was a remedy equally adapted for all that had been bitten; whether the bite had just been received, or whether the poison had infected the blood. By looking to the serpent, the patient was healed. In reference to this emblem Christ indiscriminately addressing all mankind says, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else…a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me.” While the Gospel is a proclamation of pardon addressed to sinners without exception, an unlimited appeal to the guilty to take shelter in the blood of atonement, it is the power of God unto salvation only to those who believe. But it is vain to talk of being justified by Christ’s righteousness unless our hearts are purified by faith. A man may profess faith in Christ while he is yet the slave of sin; he may deceive himself, and affirm that he is trusting in His righteousness while he is living after the flesh; but every branch in the vine that beareth not fruit shall be cast into the fire. If we believe Christ’s Gospel it will effectually work in our hearts and teach us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. If what we believe does not produce effect, it is not the grace of God in which we stand. Every doctrine, ever how strongly believed, which does not produce this effect, is a delusion. They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.
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