We are immortal beings, and are hastening to an eternal state!
(Charles Simeon) LISTEN to audio! Download audio
“Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him!” Psalm 32:1, 2
A man who has no prospects beyond this present world, will seek happiness in the things of time and sense. But “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things that he possesses.” We are immortal beings, and are hastening to an eternal state! Then our past earthly existence will appear only as the twinkling of an eye!
In that state, either blessedness or misery awaits us, according as we enter upon it under the guilt of our former sins, or with our sins forgiven. We may justly say, therefore, that true blessedness consists, as our text informs us, in having our sins forgiven!
Who that is in the smallest degree conscious of the number and heinousness of his transgressions, and of the awful punishment due to him on account of them–must not regard it as an unspeakable mercy to have them all blotted out and cast into the depths of the sea! “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions, for My own sake, and remembers your sins no more!” “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist!”
What in the whole universe can in his estimation be compared with this? If he could possess the world, yes, if he could possess ten thousand worlds–what comfort would the acquisition give him, if he had the melancholy prospect of being speedily plunged into the bottomless abyss of Hell?
If there were a large company of condemned criminals, some rich and noble, others poor and evil; and one of the vilest of them had received the king’s pardon, while all the rest were left for execution; then who among them would be accounted the happiest?
How much more then, when the death to which unpardoned sinners are consigned to, is an everlasting damnation in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone!
No one who reads the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, and sees the termination of their respective states, can for a moment hesitate to pronounce Lazarus, with all his miseries and privations, far happier in a sense of reconciliation with God; than the rich worldling in the enjoyment of all his pomp and luxury!
“God made Him who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God!” 2 Corinthians 5:21. Forgiveness exempts from punishment; but an imputation of the Redeemer’s righteousness to us, insures to us an eternal blessedness in glory!
Sin is pardoned, and righteousness is imputed, purely through the free grace of God to the chief of sinners, without any good works performed by them.
O how blessed must that man be, who is clothed in the unspotted robe of Christ’s righteousness; and can, on the footing of that righteousness, be assured of all the glory and felicity of Heaven! He may look forward to death and judgment, not only without fear, but with holy confidence and joy, assured that in God’s sight he stands, “without spot or blemish!”
The vilest sinner upon earth shall find Christ’s blood able to cleanse from all sin, and His righteousness sufficient to clothe our souls!
Who, we would ask, can be blessed, like the man who has been begotten to a living hope, that in and through Christ, there is reserved for him an incorruptible, and undefiled, and glorious inheritance in Heaven?
