September 25

“Just, nnd the justijier cf him which believeih.” — Romans iii. 26.

U’][NGr justified by faith, we have peace with God. Conscience accuses no longer. Judgment now decides for the sinner instead of a’ainst liiin. Memory looks back upon past sins, with deep sorrow for the sin, biil 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 whon Jesus died as a substitute can ever be sent 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, become, 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, cn 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 sufi“ered as the result of sin, the believer can shout with glorious triumph, “Who shall lay anything to the charge oC God’s elect?” Not God, for He hath justified; not Christ, for He hath died, “yea, rather, hath risen again.” My hop? 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 fait rests not upon what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, bu» in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He ii now doing for me. On the lion of justice the fair maid of hope rides like a queea.