THE justification of a sinner is a surprising display of the wisdom and grace of God. He is acknowledged to be guilty, and yet proclaimed just. How can this be ? He is guilty before God as a creature, because he has broken the law; he is just before God as a Christian, because he is united to Christ who obeyed the law for him. One moment he is ungodly, and has nothing to urge why judgment should not be executed upon him; the next• moment, by the exercise of faith in Christ, he is justified, and has a righteousness which meets all the requirements of the law, to plead before God's bar. But, if a sinner is justified, if the ungodly is made righteous, it must be by grace; it is impossible that it should be by works. And it is of grace from first to last. It was grace devised the plan, in the eternal councils; it was grace that brought the Son of God into our world, to work out the righteousness which justifies; it is grace which sends the gospel to reveal this righteousness unto vm, and the Holy Spirit to work faith in our hearts to embrace it.
Not for our works or righteousness,
Did God our souls from sin release,
Its guilt and power remove:
lie saved us by his grace alone.
The cause, the only cause we own,
His free spontaneous love.
Daily Christian Devotions and Readings.
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