Christ Made a Curse for Us
A sermon
(No. 873)
Delivered on Sunday Morning, MAY 30, 1869, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse
for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree."-
Galatians 3:13.
The Apostle had been showing to the Galatians that salvation is in no
degree by works. He proved this all-important Truth of God, in the
verses which precede the text, by a very conclusive form of double
reasoning. He showed, first, that the Law could not give the blessing
of salvation, for, since all had broken it, all that the Law could do
was to curse. He quotes the substance of the 27th chapter of
Deuteronomy, "Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which
are written in the book of the Law to do them." And as no man can claim
that he has continued in all things that are in the Law, he pointed out
the clear inference that all men under the Law had incurred the curse.
He then reminds the Galatians, in the second place, that if any had
ever been blessed in the olden times, the blessing came not by the Law,
but by their faith–and to prove this, he quotes a passage from
Habakkuk 2:4 in which it is distinctly stated that the just shall live
by faith–so that those who were just and righteous did not live before
God on the footing of their obedience to the Law, but they were
justified and made to live on the ground of their being Believers. See,
then, that if the Law inevitably curses us all, and if the only people
who are said to have been preserved in gracious life were justified not
by works, but by faith–then is it certain beyond a doubt that the
salvation and justification of a sinner cannot be by the works of the
Law, but altogether by the Grace of God through faith which is in
Christ Jesus.
But the Apostle, no doubt feeling that now he was declaring that
doctrine he had better declare the foundation and root of it, unveils
in the text before us a reason why men are not saved by their personal
righteousness, but saved by their faith. He tells us that the reason is
this–that men are not saved by any personal merit but their salvation
lies in Another–lies, in fact, in Christ Jesus, the representative Man
who alone can deliver us from the curse which the Law brought upon us.
And since works do not connect us with Christ, but faith is the uniting
bond, faith becomes the way of salvation.
Since faith is the hand that lays hold upon the finished work of
Christ–which works could not and would not do, for works lead us to
boast and to forget Christ–faith becomes the true and only way of
obtaining justification and everlasting life. In order that such faith
may be nurtured in us, may God the Holy Spirit this morning lead us
into the depths of the great work of Christ! May we understand more
clearly the nature of His substitution and of the suffering which it
entailed upon Him. Let us see, indeed, the truth of the stanzas whose
music has just died away–
"He bore that we might never bear
His Father's righteous ire."
I. Our first contemplation this morning will be upon this question,
WHAT IS THE CURSE OF THE LAW HERE INTENDED? It is the curse of God. God
who made the Law has appended certain penal consequences to the
breaking of it and the man who violates the Law becomes at once the
subject of the wrath of the Lawgiver. It is not the curse of the mere
Law of itself–it is a curse from the great Lawgiver whose arm is
strong to defend His statutes. Therefore, at the very outset of our
reflections, let us be assured that the curse of the Law must be
supremely just and morally unavoidable.
It is not possible that our God, who delights to bless us, should
inflict an atom of curse upon any one of His creatures unless the
highest right shall require it. And if there is any method by which
holiness and purity can be maintained without a curse, rest assured the
God of Love will not imprecate sorrow upon His creatures. The curse
then, if it falls, must be a necessary one–in its very essence
necessary for the preservation of order in the universe and for the
manifestation of the holiness of the universal Sovereign.
Be assured, too, that when God curses, it is a curse of the most
weighty kind. The curse causeless shall not come, but God's curses are
never causeless and they come home to offenders with overwhelming
power. Sin must be punished and when by long continuance and
impenitence in evil, God is provoked to speak the malediction, I know
that he whom He curses is cursed, indeed. There is something so
terrible in the very idea of the Omnipotent God pronouncing a curse
upon a transgressor that my blood curdles at it and I cannot express
myself very clearly or even coherently. A father's curse, how terrible!
But what is that to the malediction of the great Father of Spirits?
To be cursed of men is no mean evil, but to be accursed of God is
terror and dismay! Sorrow and anguish lie in that curse! Death is
involved in it and that second death which John foresaw in Patmos and
described as being cast into a lake of fire (Rev. 20:14). Hear the Word
of the Lord by His servant Nahum and consider what His curse must
be–"God is jealous and the Lord revenges. The Lord revenges and is
furious. The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries and He
reserves wrath for His enemies…The mountains quake at Him and the
hills melt and the earth is burned at His Presence, yes, the world and
all that dwell herein. Who can stand before His indignation? And who
can abide in the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like
fire and the rocks are thrown down by Him."
Remember, also, the prophecy of Malachi: "For behold, the day comes
that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yes, and all that do
wickedly, shall be stubble. And the day that comes shall burn them up,
says the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor
branch." Let such words, and there are many like they, sink into your
hearts that you may fear and tremble before this just and holy Lord! If
we would look further into the meaning of the curse that arises from
the breach of the Law, we must remember that a curse is, first of all,
a sign of displeasure.
Now, we learn from Scripture that God is angry with the wicked every
day. Though towards the persons of sinners God exhibits great
longsuffering, yet sin exceedingly provokes His holy mind. Sin is a
thing so utterly loathsome and detestable to the purity of the Most
High, that no thought of evil, or an ill word, or an unjust action, is
tolerated by Him. He observes every sin and His holy soul is stirred
thereby. He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. He cannot endure
it. He is a God that will certainly execute vengeance upon every evil
work. A curse implies something more than mere anger. It is suggested
by burning indignation, and truly our God is not only somewhat angry
with sinners, but His wrath is great towards sin.
Wherever sin exists, there the fullness of the power of the Divine
indignation is directed. And though the effect of that wrath may be,
for awhile, restrained through abundant longsuffering, yet God is
greatly indignant with the iniquities of men. We wink at sin, yes, and
even harden our hearts till we laugh at it and take pleasure in it. But
oh, let us not think that God is such as we are! Let us not suppose
that sin can be beheld by Him and yet no indignation be felt. Ah, no,
the most holy God has written warnings in His Word which plainly inform
us how terribly He is provoked by iniquity, as, for instance, when he
says, "Beware, you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there
be none to deliver."
"Therefore, says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty One of Israel,
Ah, I will ease Me of My adversaries and avenge Me of My enemies." "For
we know Him that has said, Vengeance belongs to Me, I will recompense,
says the Lord." And again, the Lord shall judge His people. "It is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Moreover, a
curse imprecates evil and is, as it comes from God, of the nature of a
threat. It is as though God should say, "By-and-by I will visit you for
this offense. You have broken My Law which is just and holy and the
inevitable penalty shall certainly come upon you."
Now, God has, throughout His Word, given many such curses as these–He
has threatened men over and over again. "If he turns not, He will whet
his sword. He has bent His bow and made it ready." Sometimes the threat
is wrapped up in a plaintive lamentation. "Turn you, turn you from your
evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?" But still it is
plain and clear that God will not suffer sin to go unpunished–and when
the fullness of time shall come and the measure shall be filled to the
brim and the weight of iniquity shall be fully reached and the harvest
shall be ripe, and the cry of wickedness shall come up mightily into
the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth–then will He come forth in robes
of vengeance and overwhelm His adversaries.
But God's curse is something more than a threat. He comes at length to
blows. He uses warning words at first, but sooner or later He bares His
sword for execution. The curse of God, as to its actual infliction, may
be guessed at by some occasions where it has been seen on earth. Look
at Cain, a wanderer and a vagabond upon the face of the earth! Read the
curse that Jeremiah pronounced by the command of God upon
Pashur–"Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your
friends. And they shall fall by the sword of their enemies and your
eyes shall behold it." Or, if you would behold the curse upon a larger
scale, remember the day when the huge floodgates of earth's deepest
fountains were unloosed and the waters leaped up from their habitations
like lions eager for their prey!
Remember the day of vengeance when the windows of Heaven were opened
and the great deep above the firmament was confused with the deep that
is beneath the firmament and all flesh were swept away–except only the
few who were hidden in the ark which God's Covenant mercy had prepared.
Consider that dreadful day when sea-monsters whelped and stabled in the
palaces of ancient kings! When millions of sinners sank to rise no
more! When universal ruin flew with raven wings over a shoreless sea
vomited from the mouth of death! Then was the curse of God poured out
upon the earth!
Look, yet again, further down in time. Stand with Abraham at his tent
door and see towards the east the sky all red at early morning with a
glare that came not from the sun–sheets of flames went up to
Heaven–which were met by showers of yet more vivid fire received the
curse of God, and Hell was rained upon them out of Heaven until they
were utterly consumed! If you would see another form of the curse of
God, remember that bright spirit who once stood as servitor in
Heaven–the son of the morning, one of the chief of the angels of God!
Think how he lost his lofty principality when sin entered into him! See
how an archangel became an archfiend and Satan, who is called Apollyon,
fell from his lofty throne, banished forever from peace and
happiness–to wander through dry places, seeking rest and finding
none–to be reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the
Last Great Day. Such was the curse that it withered an angel into a
devil! It burned up the cities of the plain! It swept away the
population of a globe!
Nor have you yet the full idea. There is a place of woe and horror–a
land of darkness as darkness itself and of the shadow of death–without
any order and where the light is darkness. There those miserable
spirits who have refused repentance and have hardened themselves
against the Most High, are forever banished from their God and from all
hope of peace or restoration. If your ear could be applied to the
gratings of their cells. If you could walk the gloomy corridors wherein
damned spirits are confined, you would, then, with chilled blood and
hair erect, learn what the curse of the Law must be–that dread
malediction which comes on the disobedient from the hand of the just
and righteous God!
The curse of God is to lose God's favor, and, consequently, to lose the
blessings which come upon that blessing–to lose peace of mind, to lose
hope, ultimately to lose life itself–for "the soul that sins, it shall
die." And that loss of life and being cast into eternal death is the
most terrible of all, consisting as it does in everlasting separation
from God and everything that makes existence truly life. It is a
destruction lasting forever. According to the Scriptural description of
it, it is the fruit of the curse of the Law.
Oh, heavy tidings have I to deliver this day to some of you! Hard is my
task to have to testify to you the terrible justice of the Law! But you
would not understand or prize the exceeding love of Christ if you heard
not the curse from which He delivers His people–therefore hear me
patiently! O unhappy men, unhappy men, who are under God's curse today!
You may dress yourselves in scarlet and fine linen. You may go to your
feasts and drain your full bowls of wine. You may lift high the
sparkling cup and whirl in the joyous dance, but if God's curse is on
you, what madness possesses you! O Sirs, if you could but see it and
understand it, this curse would darken all the windows of your mirth!
O that you could hear, for once, the voice which speaks against you
from Ebal, with doleful repetition–"Cursed shall you be in the city
and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and
your store. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the fruit of
your land, the increase of your cattle and the flocks of your sheep.
Cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you
go out." How is it that you can rest while such sentences pursue you?
Oh, unhappiest of men are those who pass out of this life still
accursed! One might weep tears of blood to think of them! Let our
thoughts fly to them for a moment, but O, let us not continue in sin,
lest our spirits be condemned to hold perpetual companionship in their
grief! Let us fly to the dear Cross of Christ, where the curse was put
away, that we may never come to know, in the fullness of its horror,
what the curse may mean!
II. A second enquiry of great importance to us this morning is
this–WHO ARE UNDER THIS CURSE? Listen with solemn awe, O sons of men!
First, especially and foremost, the Jewish nation lies under the curse,
for such I gather from the connection. To them the Law of God was very
peculiarly given beyond all others. They heard it from Sinai and it was
to them surrounded with a golden setting of ceremonial symbols and
enforced by solemn national Covenant.
Moreover, there was a word in the commencement of that Law which showed
that in a certain sense it peculiarly belonged to Israel. "I am the
Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the
house of bondage."
Paul tells us that those who have sinned without Law shall be punished
without Law. But the Jewish nation, having received the Law, if they
broke it, would become peculiarly liable to the curse which was
threatened for such breach. Yet further, all nations that dwell upon
the face of the earth are also subject to this curse for this
reason–that if the Law were not given to all from Sinai, it has been
written by the finger of God, more or less legibly, upon the conscience
of all mankind. It needs no Prophet to tell an Indian, a Laplander, a
South Sea Islander, that he must not steal–his own judgment so
instructs him. There is that within every man which ought to convince
him that idolatry is folly, that adultery and unchastity are
villainies, that theft and murder and covetousness are all evil.
Now, inasmuch as all men in some degree have the Law within, to that
degree they are under the Law. The curse of the Law for transgression
comes upon them. Moreover, there are some in this House this morning
who are peculiarly under the curse. The Apostle says, "As many as are
of the works of the Law are under the curse." Now, there are some of
you who choose to be under the Law–you deliberately choose to be
judged by it. How so? Why, you are trying to reach a place in Heaven by
your own good works! You are clinging to the idea that something you
can do can save you! You have therefore elected to be under the Law and
by so doing you have chosen the curse–for all that the law of works
can do for you is to leave you still accursed–because you have not
fulfilled all its commands. O Sirs, repent of so foolish a choice, and
declare from now on that you are willing to be saved by Divine Grace
and not at all by the works of the Law!
There is a little band here who feel the weight of the Law, to whom I
turn with brightest hope, though they themselves are in despair. They
feel in their consciences today that they deserve from God the severest
punishment. This sense of His wrath weighs them to the dust. I am glad
of this, for it is only when we come consciously and penitently under
the curse that we accept the way of escape from it. You do not know
what it is to be redeemed from the curse till you have first felt the
slavery of it. No man will ever rejoice in the liberty which Christ
gives him till he has first felt the iron of bondage entering into his
soul.
I know there are some here who say, "Let God say what He will against
me, or do what He will to me, I deserve it all. If He drives me forever
from His Presence and I hear the Judge pronounce that awful sentence,
'Depart, accursed one,' I can only admit that such has been my heart
and such my life that I could expect no other doom." O you dear Heart,
if you are thus brought down, you will listen gladly to me while I now
come to a far brighter theme than all this! You are under the curse as
you now are, but I rejoice to tell you that the curse has been removed
through Jesus Christ our Lord! O may the Lord lead you to see the plan
of substitution and to rejoice in it!
III. Our third and main point, this morning, is to answer the question,
HOW WAS CHRIST MADE A CURSE FOR US? The whole pith and marrow of the
religion of Christianity lies in the doctrine of "Substitution," and I
hesitate not to affirm my conviction that a very large proportion of
Christians are not Christians at all, for they do not understand the
fundamental doctrine of the Christian creed. And alas, there are
preachers who do not preach, or even believe this cardinal truth.
They speak of the blood of Jesus in an indistinct kind of way and
descant upon the death of Christ in a hazy style of poetry–but they do
not strike this nail on the head and lay it down that the way of
Salvation is by Christ's becoming a Substitute for guilty man! This
shall make me the more plain and definite. Sin is an accursed thing.
God, from the necessity of His holiness, must curse it. He must punish
men for committing it. But the Lord's Christ, the glorious Son of the
everlasting Father, became a Man and suffered, in His own proper
Person, the curse which was due to the sons of men, that so, by a
vicarious offering, God, having been just in punishing sin, could
extend His bounteous mercy towards those who believe in the Substitute.
Now for this point. But, you enquire, how was Jesus Christ a curse? We
beg you to observe the word "made." "He was made a curse." Christ was
no curse in Himself. In His Person He was spotlessly innocent, and
nothing of sin could belong personally to Him. In Him was no sin. "God
made Him to be sin for us." And the Apostle expressly adds, "who knew
no sin." There must never be supposed to be any degree of
blameworthiness or censure in the Person or Character of Christ as He
stands as an Individual. He is in that respect without spot or wrinkle,
or any such thing–the immaculate Lamb of God's Passover.
Nor was Christ made a curse of necessity. There was no necessity in
Himself that He should ever suffer the curse–no necessity except that
which His own loving suretyship created. His own intrinsic holiness
kept Him from sin and that same holiness kept Him from the curse. He
was made sin for us, not on His own account–not with any view to
Himself–but wholly because He loved us and chose to put Himself in the
place which we ought to have occupied. He was made a curse for us not,
again, I say, out of any personal want, or out of any personal
necessity, but because He had voluntarily undertaken to be the Covenant
Head of His people and to be their Representative and as their
Representative to bear the curse which was due to them.
We must be very clear here because very strong expressions have been
used by those who hold the great Truth of God which I am endeavoring to
preach, which strong expressions have conveyed the Truth they meant to
convey, but also a great deal more. Martin Luther's wonderful book on
Galatians, which he prized so much that he called it his Catherine Born
(that was the name of his beloved wife and he gave this book the name
of the dearest one he knew)–in that book he says plainly, but be
assured did not mean what he said to be literally understood, that
Jesus Christ was the greatest sinner that ever lived–that all the sins
of men were so laid upon Christ that He became all the thieves and
murderers and adulterers that ever were, in one.
Now, he meant that God treated Christ as if He had been a great
sinner–as if He had been all the sinners in the world in one–and such
language teaches that Truth very plainly. But Luther, in his
boisterousness, overshoots his mark and leaves room for the censure
that he has almost spoken blasphemy against the blessed Person of our
Lord. Christ never was and never could be a sinner–and in His Person
and in His Character, in Himself considered, He never could be anything
but well-beloved of God, and blessed forever and well-pleasing in
Jehovah's sight! So that when we say, today, that He was a curse, we
must lay stress on those words, "He was made a curse." He was
constituted a curse, set as a curse.
And then, again, we must emphasize those other words, "for us"–not on
His own account at all–but entirely out of love to us that we might be
redeemed. He stood in the sinner's place and was reckoned to be a
sinner and treated as a sinner, and made a curse for us. Let us go
farther into this Truth of God. How was Christ made a curse? In the
first place, He was made a curse because all the sins of His people
were actually laid on Him. Remember the words of the Apostle–it is no
doctrine of mine, mark you, it is an Inspired sentence, it is God's
doctrine–"He made Him to be sin for us."
And let me note another passage from the Prophet Isaiah, "The Lord has
laid on Him the iniquity of us all." And yet another from the same
Prophet, "He shall bear their iniquities." The sins of God's people
were lifted from off them and imputed to Christ–and their sins were
looked upon as if Christ had committed them. He was regarded as if He
had been the sinner! He actually and in very deed stood in the sinner's
place. Next to the imputation of sin came the curse of sin. The Law,
looking for sin to punish, with its quick eye detected sin laid upon
Christ and, as it must curse sin wherever it was found, it cursed the
sin as it was laid on Christ. So Christ was made a curse.
Wonderful and awful words, but as they are Scriptural words, we must
receive them. Sin being on Christ, the curse came on Christ and in
consequence our Lord felt an unutterable horror of soul. Surely it was
that horror which made Him sweat great drops of blood when He saw and
felt that God was beginning to treat Him as if He had been a sinner.
The holy soul of Christ shrunk with deepest agony from the slightest
contact with sin. So pure and perfect was our Lord, that never an evil
thought had crossed His mind, nor had His soul been stained by the
glances of evil. And yet He stood in God's sight a sinner and therefore
a solemn horror fell upon His soul.
The heart refused its healthful action and a bloody sweat bedewed his
face. Then He began to be made a curse for us, nor did He cease till He
had suffered all the penalty which was due on our account. We have been
accustomed in divinity to divide the penalty into two parts, the
penalty of loss and the penalty of actual suffering. Christ endured
both of these. It was due to sinners that they should lose God's favor
and Presence and therefore Jesus cried, "My God, My God, why have You
forsaken Me?" It was due to sinners that they should lose all personal
comfort–Christ was deprived of every consolation and even the last rag
of clothing was torn from Him and He was left like Adam, naked and
forlorn. It was necessary that the soul should lose everything that
could sustain it, and so did Christ lose every comfortable thing. He
looked and there was no man to pity or help. He was made to cry, "But I
am a worm and no man; a reproach ofmen and despised of the people."
As for the second part of the punishment, namely, an actual infliction
of suffering, our Lord endured this, also, to the uttermost, as the
Evangelists clearly show. You have read full often the story of His
bodily sufferings. Take care that you never depreciate them. There was
an amount of physical pain endured by our Savior which His body never
could have borne unless it had been sustained and strengthened by union
with His Godhead. Yet the sufferings of His soul were the soul of His
sufferings.
That soul of His endured a torment equivalent to Hell itself. The
punishment that was due to the wicked was that of Hell and though
Christ suffered not Hell, He suffered an equivalent of it.
And now, can your minds conceive what that must have been? It was an
anguish never to be measured, an agony never to be comprehended. It is
to God and God, alone, that His griefs were fully known. Well does the
Greek liturgy put it, "Your unknown sufferings," for they must forever
remain beyond guess of human imagination. See, Brothers and Sisters,
Christ has gone thus far–He has taken the sin, taken the curse and
suffered all the penalty. The last penalty of sin was death, and
therefore the Redeemer died. Behold, the mighty Conqueror yields up His
life upon the tree! His side is pierced! The blood and water flows
forth and His disciples lay His body in the tomb.
As He was first numbered with the transgressors, He was afterwards
numbered with the dead. See, Beloved, here is Christ bearing the curse
instead of His people. Here He is, coming under the load of their sin,
and God does not spare Him but smites Him as He must have struck us. He
lays His full vengeance on Him. He launches all His thunderbolts
against Him. He bids the curse wreak itself upon Him and Christ suffers
all, sustains all.
IV. And now let us conclude by considering WHAT ARE THE BLESSED
CONSEQUENCES OF CHRIST'S HAVING THUS BEEN MADE A CURSE FOR US. The
consequences are that He has redeemed us from the curse of the Law. As
many as Christ died for, are forever free from the curse of the Law,
for when the Law comes to curse a man who believes in Christ, he says,
"What have I to do with you, O Law? You say, 'I will curse you,' but I
reply, "You have cursed Christ instead of me. Can you curse twice for
one offense?"
Behold how the Law is silenced! God's Law, having received all it can
demand, is not so unrighteous as to demand anything more. All that God
can demand of a believing sinner, Christ has already paid, and there is
no voice in earth or Heaven that can accuse a soul that believes in
Jesus. You were in debt, but a Friend paid your debt! No writ can be
served on you. It matters nothing that you did not pay it, it is paid
and you have the receipt. That is sufficient in any court of equity. So
with all the penalty that was due to us, Christ has borne it. It is
true I have not borne it–I have not been to Hell and suffered the full
wrath of God–but Christ has suffered that wrath for me and I am as
clear as if I had myself paid the debt to God and had myself suffered
His wrath.
Here is a glorious foundation to rest upon! Here is a rock upon which
to lay the foundation of eternal comfort! Let a man once get to
this–my Lord outside the city's gate bleeding and dying for me as my
Surety on the Cross–He discharged my debt. Why, then, great God, Your
thunders I no longer fear! How can You strike me now? You have
exhausted the quiver of Your wrath–every arrow has been already shot
forth against the Person of my Lord and I am in Him clear and clean and
absolved and delivered–even as if I had never sinned! "He has redeemed
us," says the text.
How often I have heard certain gentry of the modern school of theology
sneer at the Atonement, because they charge us with the notion of its
being a sort of business transaction, or what they choose to call, "the
mercantile view of it." I hesitate not to say that the mercantile
metaphor expresses rightly God's view of redemption, for we find it so
in Scripture. The Atonement is a ransom–that is to say, a price paid.
And in the present case the original word is more than usually
expressive–it is a payment for, a price instead of.
Jesus did, in His sufferings, perform what may be forcibly and fitly
described as the payment of a ransom, the giving to justice, a quid pro
quo for what was due on our behalf for our sins. Christ, in His Person,
suffered what we ought to have suffered in our persons. The sins that
were ours were made His–He stood as a sinner in God's sight, though
not a sinner in Himself. He was punished as a sinner and died as a
sinner upon the tree of the curse. Then having exhausted His imputed
sinnership by bearing the full penalty, He made an end of sin and He
rose again from the dead to bring in that everlasting righteousness
which at this moment covers the persons of all His elect, so that they
can exultingly cry, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ
that died, yes, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right
hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."
Another blessing flows from this satisfactory Substitution. It is this,
that now the blessing of God, which had been up to then arrested by the
curse is made most freely to flow. Read the verse that follows the
text–"That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith." The blessing of Abraham was that in his seed all nations of the
earth should be blessed. Since our Lord Jesus Christ has taken away the
curse due to sin, a great rock has been lifted out from the riverbed of
God's mercy and the living stream comes rippling, roiling, swelling on
in crystal tides–sweeping before it all human sin and sorrow and
making glad the thirsty who stoop down to drink there.
my Brothers and Sisters, the blessings of God's Grace are full and free
this morning! They are as full as your necessities. Great Sinners,
there is great mercy for you! They are as free as your poverty could
desire them to be, free as the air you breathe, or as the cooling
stream that flows along the waterbrook. You have but to trust Christ
and you shall live! Be you who you may, or what you may, or where you
may–though at Hell's dark door you lie down to despair and die–yet
the message comes to you, "God has made Christ to be a propitiation for
sin. He made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him." Christ has delivered us from the
curse of the Law, being made a curse for us.
He that believes, has no curse upon him. He may have been an adulterer,
a swearer, a drunkard, a murderer, but the moment he believes, God sees
none of those sins in him! He sees him as an innocent man and regards
his sins as having been laid on the Redeemer and punished in Jesus as
He died on the tree. I tell you, if you believe in Christ this morning,
my Hearer, though you are the most damnable of wretches that ever
polluted the earth, yet you shall not have a sin remaining on you after
believing! God will look at you as pure! Even Omniscience shall not
detect a sin in you, for your sin shall be put on the Scapegoat, even
Christ, and carried away into forgetfulness so that if your
transgression is searched for, it shall not be found.
If you believe–there is the question–you are clean! If you will trust
the Incarnate God, you are delivered! He that believes is justified
from all things. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
saved," for, "he that believes and is baptized, shall be saved. And he
that believes not shall be damned."
1 have preached to you the Gospel–God knows with what a weight upon my
soul and yet with what holy joy! This is no subject for gaudy eloquence
and for high-flying attempts at oratory. This is a matter to be put to
you plainly and simply. Sinners–you must either be cursed of God, or
else you must accept Christ as bearing the curse instead of you. I do
beseech you, as you love your souls, if you have any sanity left,
accept this blessed and Divinely-appointed way of salvation! This is
the Truth of God which the Apostles preached and suffered and died to
maintain. It is this for which the Reformers struggled. It is this for
which the martyrs burned at Smithfield. It is the grand basic doctrine
of the Reformation and the very Truth of God.
Down with your crosses and rituals! Down with your pretensions to good
works and your crouching at the feet of priests to ask absolution from
them! Away with your accursed and idolatrous dependence upon yourself!
Christ has finished salvation-work, altogether finished it! Hold not up
your rags in competition with His fair white linen–Christ has borne
the curse–bring not your pitiful penances and your tears all full of
filth to mingle with the precious fountain flowing with His blood! Lay
down what is your own and come and take what is Christ's! Put away,
now, everything that you have thought of being or doing by way of
winning acceptance with God! Humble yourselves and take Jesus Christ to
be the Alpha and Omega, the first and last, the beginning and end of
your salvation.
If you do this, not only shall you be saved, but you are saved! Rest,
you weary one, for your sins are forgiven. Rise, you lame man, lame
through lack of faith, for your transgression is covered. Rise from the
dead, you corrupt one, rise, like Lazarus from the tomb, for Jesus
calls you! Believe and live. The words in themselves, by the Holy
Spirit, are soul-quickening. Have done with your tears of repentance
and your vows of good living until you have come to Christ! Then take
them up as you will.
Your first lesson should be none but Jesus, none but Jesus, none but
Jesus! O come to Him! See, He hangs upon the Cross. His arms are open
wide and He cannot close them, for the nails hold them fast. He tarries
for you. His feet are fastened to the wood, as though He meant to
tarry, still. O come to Him! His heart has room for you. It streams
with blood and water–it was pierced for you. That mingled stream is–
"Of sin the double cure, To cleanse you from its guilt and power." An
act of faith will bring you to Jesus. Say, "Lord, I believe, help my
unbelief." And if you do so, he cannot cast you out, for His Word is,
"Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out."
I have delivered to you the weightiest Truth of God that ever ears
heard, or that lips spoke–put it not from you! As we shall meet each
other at the last tremendous day, when Heaven and earth are on a blaze
and the trumpet shall ring and raise the dead–as we shall meet each
other then–I challenge you not to put this from you. If you do, it is
at your own peril and your blood is on your own heads. I plead with you
to accept the Gospel I have delivered to you. It is Jehovah's Gospel.
Heaven itself speaks in the words you hear today! Accept Jesus Christ
as your substitute. O do it now, this moment, and God shall have Glory,
but you shall have SALVATION. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Psalm 22.