Justification by Grace (Charles H. Spurgeon, 1857)

Romans 3:24

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:” 

The hill of comfort is the hill of calvary; the house of consolation is 
builded with the wood of the cross; the temple of heavenly cordials is 
founded upon the riven rock, riven by the spear which pierced its side. 
No scene in sacred history ever gladdens the soul like the scene on 
Calvary.

                    "Is it not strange, the darkest hour
                      That ever dawn'd on sinful earth
                  Should touch the heart with softer power
                    For comfort, than an angel's mirth?
              That to the cross the mourner's eye should turn,
              Sooner than where the stars of Bethlehem burn?"
                                      
Nowhere does the soul ever find such consolation as on that very spot 
where misery reigned, where woe triumphed, where agony reached its 
climax. There grace hath dug a fountain, which ever gusheth with 
waters pure as crystal, each drop capable of alleviating the woes and the 
agonies of mankind. Ye have had your seasons of woe, my brethren and 
my sisters in Christ Jesus; and ye will confess it was not at Olivet that 
ye ever found comfort, not on the hill of Sinai, nor on Tabor; but 
Gethsemane, Gabbatha, and Golgotha have been a means of comfort to 
you. The bitter herbs of Gethsemane have often taken away the bitters 
of your life; the scourge of Gabbatha hath often scourged away your 
cares, and the groans of Calvary have put all other groans to flight.

We have, this morning, then, a subject which I trust may be the means 
of comforting God's saints, seeing it takes its rise at the cross, and 
thence runs on in a rich stream of perennial blessing to all believers. 
You note, we have in our text, first of all, the redemption of Christ 
Jesus; secondly, the justification of sinners flowing from it; and then 
thirdly, the manner of the giving of this justification, "freely by his 
grace."

I. First, then, we have THE REDEMPTION THAT IS IN OR BY CHRIST JESUS.

The figure of redemption is very simple, and has been very frequently used 
in Scripture. When a prisoner has been taken captive, and has been made a 
slave by some barbarous power, it has been usual, before he could be set 
free, that a ransom price should be paid down. Now, we being, by the fall of 
Adam, prone to guiltiness, and, indeed, virtually guilty, we were by the 
irreproachable judgment of God given up to the vengeance of the law; we were 
given into the hands of justice; justice claimed us to be his bond slaves 
for ever, unless we could pay a ransom, whereby our souls could be redeemed. 
We were, indeed, poor as owlets, we had not wherewith to bless ourselves. We 
were, as our hymn hath worded it, "bankrupt debtors;" an execution was put 
into our house; all we had was sold; we were left naked, and poor, and 
miserable, and we could by no means find a ransom; it was just then that 
Christ stepped in, stood sponsor for us, and, in the room and stead of all 
believers, did pay the ransom price, that we might in that hour be delivered 
from the curse of the law and the vengeance of God, and go our way, clean, 
free, justified by his blood.

Let me just endeavour to show you some qualities of the redemption 
that is in Christ Jesus. You will remember the multitude he has 
redeemed; not me alone, nor you alone, but "a multitude that no man 
can number," which shall as far exceed the stars of heaven for number, 
as they exceed all mortal reckoning. Christ hath bought for himself, 
some out of every kingdom, and nation, and tongue, under heaven; he 
hath redeemed from among men some of every rank, from the highest 
to the lowest; some of every colour--black and white; some of every 
standing in society, the best and the worst. For some of all sorts hath 
Jesus Christ given himself a ransom that they might be redeemed unto 
himself.

Now, concerning this ransom, we have to observe, that it was all paid, 
and all paid at once. When Christ redeemed his people, he did it 
thoroughly; he did not leave a single debt unpaid, nor yet one farthing 
for them to settle afterwards. God demanded of Christ the payment for 
the sins of all his people; Christ stood forward, and to the utmost 
farthing paid whate'er his people owed. The sacrifice of Calvary was 
not a part payment; it was not a partial exoneration, it was a complete 
and perfect payment, and it obtained a complete and perfect remittal of 
all the debts of all believers that have lived, do live, or shall live, to 
the very end of time. On that day when Christ hung on the cross, he did not 
leave a single farthing for us to pay as a satisfaction to God; he did not 
leave, from a thread even to a shoe-latchet, that he had not satisfied. 
The whole of the demands of the law were paid down there and then by 
Jehovah Jesus, the great high priest of all his people. And blessed be his 
name, he paid it all at once too. So priceless was the ransom, so 
princely and munificent was the price demanded for our souls, one 
might have thought it would have been marvellous if Christ had paid it 
by instalments; some of it now, and some of it then. King's ransoms 
have sometimes been paid part at once, and part in dues afterwards, to 
run through years. But not so our Saviour: once for all he gave himself 
a sacrifice; at once he counted down the price, and said, "It is finished," 
leaving nothing for him to do, nor for us to accomplish. He did not 
drivel out a part-payment, and then declare that he would come again to 
die, or that he would again suffer, or that he would again obey; but 
down upon the nail, to the utmost farthing, the ransom of all people was 
paid, and a full receipt given to them, and Christ nailed that receipt to 
his cross, and said, "It is done, it is done; I have taken away the 
handwriting of ordinances, I have nailed it to the cross; who is he that 
shall condemn my people, or lay anything to their charge? for I have 
blotted out like a cloud their transgressions, and like a thick cloud their 
sins!"

And when Christ paid all this ransom, will you just notice, that he did it 
all himself! He was very particular about that. Simon, the Cyrenian, 
might bear the cross; but Simon, the Cyrenian, might not be nailed to it. 
That sacred circle of Calvary was kept for Christ alone. Two thieves 
were with him there; not righteous men, lest any should have said that 
the death of those two righteous men helped the Saviour. Two thieves 
hung there with him, that men might see that there was majesty in his 
misery, and that he could pardon men and show his sovereignty, even 
when he was dying. There were no righteous men to suffer; no disciples 
shared his death; Peter was not dragged there to be beheaded, John was 
not nailed to a cross side by side with him; he was left there alone. He 
says, "I have trodden the wine press alone; and of the people there was 
none with me." The whole of the tremendous debt was put upon his 
shoulders; the whole weight of the sins of all his people was placed 
upon him. Once he seemed to stagger under it: "Father, if it be 
possible." But again he stood upright: "Nevertheless, not my will, but 
thine be done." The whole of the punishment of his people was distilled 
into one cup; no mortal lip might give it so much as a solitary sip. 
When he put it to his own lips, it was so bitter, he well nigh spurned 
it--"Let this cup pass from me." But his love for his people was so strong, 
that he took the cup in both his hands, and

                     "At one tremendous draught of love
                          He drank damnation dry,"

for all his people. He drank it all, he endured all, he suffered all; so 
that now for ever there are no flames of hell for them, no racks of torment; 
they have no eternal woes; Christ hath suffered all they ought to have 
suffered, and they must, they shall go free. The work was completely 
done by himself, without a helper.

And note, again, it was accepted. In truth, it was a goodly ransom. 
What could equal it? A soul "exceeding sorrowful even unto death;" a 
body torn with torture; a death of the most inhuman kind; and an agony 
of such a character, that tongue cannot speak of it, nor can even man's 
mind imagine its horror. It was a goodly price. But say, was it 
accepted? There have been prices paid sometimes, or rather offered, 
which never were accepted by the party to whom they were offered, and 
therefore the slave did not go free. But this was accepted. The evidence 
I will shew you. When Christ declared that he would pay the debt for 
all his people, God sent the officer to arrest him for it; he arrested him 
in the garden of Gethsemane, and seizing upon him, he dragged him to 
the bar of Pilate, to the bar of Herod, and to the judgment seat of 
Caiaphas; the payment was all made, and Christ was put into the grave. 
He was there, locked up in durance vile, until the acceptance should 
have been ratified in heaven. He slept there a portion of three days in 
his tomb. It was declared that the ratification was to be this: the surety 
was to go his way as soon as ever his suretyship engagements had been 
fulfilled. Now let your minds picture the buried Jesus. He is in the 
sepulchre. 'Tis true he has paid all the debt, but the receipt is not yet 
given; he slumbers in that narrow tomb. Fastened in with a seal upon a 
giant stone, he sleeps still in his grave; not yet has the acceptance been 
given from God; the angels have not yet come from heaven to say, "The 
deed is done, God has accepted thy sacrifice." Now is the crisis of this 
world; it hangs trembling in the balance. Will God accept the ransom, 
or will he not? We shall see. An angel comes from heaven with 
exceeding brightness; he rolls away the stone; and forth comes the 
captive, with no manacles upon his hands, with the grave clothes left 
behind him; free, never more to suffer, never more to die. Now,

                      "If Jesus had not paid the debt,
                     He ne'er had been at freedom set."

If God had not accepted his sacrifice, he would have been in his tomb at 
this moment; he never would have risen from his grave. But his 
resurrection was a pledge of God's accepting him. He said, "I have had 
a claim upon thee to this hour; that claim is paid now; go thy way." 
And death gave up his royal captive, the stone was rolled into the 
garden, and the conqueror came forth, leading captivity captive.

And, moreover, God gave a second proof of acceptance; for he took his 
only begotten Son to heaven, and set him at his right hand, far above all 
principalities and powers; and therein he meant to say to him, "Sit upon 
the throne, for thou hast done the mighty deed; all thy works and all thy 
miseries are accepted as the ransom of men." O my beloved, think what 
a grand sight it must have been when Christ ascended into glory; what a 
noble certificate it must have been of his Father's acceptance of him! 
Do you not think you see the scene on earth? It is very simple. A few 
disciples are standing upon a hill, and Christ mounts into the air in slow 
and solemn movement, as if an angel sped his way by gentle degrees, 
like mist or exhalation from the lake into the skies. Can you imagine 
what is going on up yonder? Can you for a moment conceive how, 
when the mighty conqueror entered the gates of heaven, the angels met 
him,

                  "They brought his chariot from on high, 
                         To bear him to his throne;
                 Clapp'd their triumphant wings, and cried,
                        'The glorious work is done'"

Can you think how loud were the plaudits when he entered the gates of 
heaven? Can you conceive how they pressed on one another, to behold 
how he came conquering and red from the fight? Do you see Abraham, 
Isaac, Jacob, and all the saints redeemed, come to behold the Saviour 
and the Lord? They had desired to see him, and now their eyes behold 
him in flesh and blood, the conqueror over death and hell! Do you think 
you see him, with hell at his chariot- wheels, with death dragged as a 
captive through the royal streets of heaven? Oh, what a spectacle was 
there that day! No Roman warrior ever had such a triumph; none ever 
saw such a majestic sight. The pomp of a whole universe, the royalty of 
entire creation, cherubim and seraphim and all powers create, did swell 
the show; and God himself, the Everlasting One, crowned all, when he 
pressed his Son to his bosom, and said, "Well done, well done; thou 
hast finished the work which I gave thee to do. Rest here for ever, mine 
accepted one." Ah, but he never would have had that triumph, if he had 
not paid all the debt. Unless his Father had accepted the ransom-price, 
the ransomer had never been so honoured; but because it was accepted, 
therefore did he so triumph. So far, then, concerning the ransom.

II. And now, by the help of God's Spirit, let me address myself to THE 
EFFECT OF THE RANSOM; being justified--"justified freely by his 
grace through the redemption."

Now, what is the meaning of justification? Divines will puzzle you, if 
you ask them. I must try the best I can to make justification plain and 
simple, even to the comprehension of a child. There is not such a thing 
as justification to be had on earth for mortal men, except in one way. 
Justification, you know, is a forensic term; it is employed always in a 
legal sense. A prisoner is brought to the bar of justice to be tried. There 
is only one way whereby that prisoner can be justified; that is, he must 
be found not guilty; and if he is found not guilty, then he is justified--
that is, he is proved to be a just man. If you find that man guilty, you 
cannot justify him. The Queen may pardon him, but she cannot justify 
him. The deed is not a justifiable one, if he were guilty concerning it; 
and he cannot be justified on account of it. He may be pardoned; but 
not royalty itself can ever wash that man's character. He is as much a 
real criminal when he is pardoned as before. There is no means among 
men of justifying a man of an accusation which is laid against him, 
except by his being proved not guilty. Now, the wonder of wonders is, 
that we are proved guilty, and yet we are justified: the verdict has been 
brought in against us, guilty; and yet, notwithstanding, we are justified. 
Can any earthly tribunal do that? No; it remained for the ransom of 
Christ to effect that which is an impossibility to any tribunal upon 
earth. We are all guilty. Read the 23rd verse, immediately preceding the 
text--" For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." There 
the verdict of guilty is brought in, and yet we are immediately 
afterwards said to be justified freely by his grace.

Now, allow me to explain the way whereby God justifies a sinner. I am 
about to suppose an impossible case. A prisoner has been tried, and 
condemned to death. He is a guilty man; he cannot be justified, because 
he is guilty. But now, suppose for a moment that such a thing as this 
could happen--that some second party could be introduced, who could 
take all that man's guilt upon himself, who could change places with 
that man, and by some mysterious process, which of course is 
impossible with men, become that man; or take that man's character 
upon himself; he, the righteous man, putting the rebel in his place, and 
making the rebel a righteous man. We cannot do that in our courts. If I 
were to go before a judge, and he should agree that I should be 
committed for a year's imprisonment, instead of some wretch who was 
condemned yesterday to a year's imprisonment, I could not take his 
guilt. I might take his punishment, but not his guilt. Now, what flesh 
and blood cannot do, that Jesus Christ by his redemption did. Here I 
stand, the sinner. I mention myself as the representative of you all. I am 
condemned to die. God says, "I will condemn that man; I must, I will--I 
will punish him." Christ comes in, puts me aside, and stands himself in 
my stead. When the plea is demanded, Christ says, "Guilty;" takes my 
guilt to be his own guilt. When the punishment is to be executed, forth 
comes Christ. "Punish me," he says; "I have put my righteousness on 
that man, and I have taken that man's sins on me. Father, punish me, 
and consider that man to have been me. Let him reign in heaven; let me 
suffer misery. Let me endure his curse, and let him receive my 
blessing." This marvellous doctrine of the changing of places of Christ 
with poor sinners, is a doctrine of revelation, for it never could have 
been conceived by nature. Let me, lest I should have made a mistake, 
explain myself again. The way whereby God saves a sinner is not, as 
some say, by passing over the penalty. No; the penalty has been all 
paid. It is the putting of another person in the rebel's place. The rebel 
must die; God says he must. Christ says, "I will be substitute for the 
rebel. The rebel shall take my place; I will take his." God consents to it. 

No earthly monarch could have power to consent to such a change. But 
the God of heaven had a right to do as he pleased. In his infinite mercy 
he consented to the arrangement. " Son of my love," said he, "you must 
stand in the sinner's place; you must suffer what he ought to have 
suffered; you must be accounted guilty, just as he was accounted guilty; 
and then I will look upon the sinner in another light. I will look at him 
as if he were Christ; I will accept him as if he were my only- begotten 
Son, full of grace and truth. I will give him a crown in heaven, and I 
will take him to my heart for ever and ever." This is the way we are 
saved, "Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption 
which is in Christ Jesus."

And now, let me further go on to explain some of the characteristics of 
this justification. As soon as a repenting sinner is justified, remember, 
he is justified for all his sins. Here stands a man all guilty. The moment 
he believes in Christ, his pardon at once he receives, and his sins are no 
longer his; they are cast into the depths of the sea. They were laid upon 
the shoulders of Christ, and they are gone. The man stands a guiltless 
man in the sight of God, accepted in the beloved. "What!" say you, "do 
you mean that literally?" Yes, I do, That is the doctrine of justification 
by faith. Man ceases to be regarded by divine justice as a guilty being; 
the moment he believes on Christ his guilt is all taken away. But I am 
going a step further. The moment the man believes in Christ, he ceases 
to be guilty in God's esteem; but what is more, he becomes righteous, 
he becomes meritorious; for, in the moment when Christ takes his sins 
he takes Christ's righteousness; so that, when God looks upon the sinner 
who but an hour ago was dead in sins, he looks upon him with as much 
love and affection as he ever looked upon his Son. He himself has said 
it--"As the Father loved me, so have I loved you." He loves us as much 
as his Father loved him. Can you believe such a doctrine as that? Does 
it not pass all thought? Well, it is a doctrine of the Holy Spirit; the 
doctrine whereby we must hope to be saved. 

Can I to any unenlightened person illustrate this thought better? I will 
give him the parable we have given to us in the prophets--the parable of 
Joshua the high-priest. Joshua comes in, clothed in filthy garments; those 
filthy garments representing his sins. Take away the filthy garments; that 
is pardon. Put a mitre on his head; clothe him in royal raiment; make him 
rich and fair; that is justification. But where do these garments come 
from? and where do those rags go to? Why, the rags that Joshua had on 
go to Christ, and the garments put on Joshua are the garments that 
Christ wore. The sinner and Christ do just what Jonathan and David 
did. Jonathan put his robes on David, David gave Jonathan his garments; so 
Christ takes our sins, we take Christ's righteousness; and it is by a 
glorious substitution and interchange of places that sinners go free and are 
justified by his grace.

"But," says one, "no one is justified like that, till he dies." Believe me, 
he is.

                       "The moment a sinner believes,
                      And trusts in his crucified God,
                      His pardon at once he receives;
                   Salvation in full, through his blood."

If that young man over there has really believed in Christ this morning, 
realizing by a spiritual experience what I have attempted to describe, he 
is as much justified in God's sight now as he will be when he stands 
before the throne. Not the glorified spirits above are more acceptable to 
God than the poor man below, who is once justified by grace. It is a 
perfect washing, it is perfect pardon, perfect imputation; we are fully, 
freely, and wholly accepted, through Christ our Lord. Just one more 
word here, and then I will leave this matter of justification. Those who 
are once justified are justified irreversibly. As soon as a sinner takes 
Christ's place, and Christ takes the sinner's place, there is no fear of a 
second change. If Christ has once paid the debt, the debt is paid, and it 
will never be asked for again; if you are pardoned, you are pardoned 
once for ever. God does not give man a free pardon under his own sign-
manual, and then afterwards retract it and punish man: that be far from 
God so to do. He says, "I have punished Christ; you may go free." And 
after that, we may "rejoice in hope of the glory of God," that "being 
justified by faith we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." And now I hear one cry, "That is an extraordinary doctrine." 

Well, so some may think; but let me say to you, it is a doctrine 
professed by all protestant churches, though they may not preach it. It is 
the doctrine of the Church of England, it is the doctrine of Luther, it is 
the doctrine of the Presbyterian church; it is professedly the doctrine of 
all Christian churches; and if it seems strange in your ears, it is because 
your ears are estranged, and not because the doctrine is a strange one. It 
is the doctrine of holy writ, that none can condemn whom God justifies, 
and that none can accuse those for whom Christ hath died; for they are 
totally free from sin. So that, as one of the prophets has it, God sees no 
sin in Jacob nor iniquity in Israel. In the moment they believe, their sins 
being imputed to Christ, they cease to be theirs, and Christ's 
righteousness is imputed to them and accounted theirs, so that they are 
accepted.

III. And now I close up with the third point, upon which I shall be brief, 
and I hope very earnest: THE MANNER OF GIVING THIS JUSTIFICATION. John 
Bunyan would have it, that there are some whose mouths are set a watering 
for this great gift of justification. Are there not some here who are 
saying, "Oh! if I could be justified! But, Sir, can I be justified? I have 
been a drunkard, I have been a swearer, I have been everything that is vile. 

Can I be justified? Will Christ take my black sins, and am I to take his 
white robes? Yes, poor soul, if thou desirest it; if God has made thee 
willing, if thou dost confess thy sins, Christ is willing to take thy rags, 
and give thee his righteousness, to be thine for ever. "Well, but how is it 
to be obtained?" says one "must I be a holy man for many years, and then get 
it?" Listen! "Freely by his grace;" "freely," because there is no price to 
be paid for it; "By his grace," because it is not of our deservings. "But, O 
Sir, I have been praying, and I do not think God will forgive me, unless I 
do something to deserve it." I tell you, Sir, if you bring in any of your 
deservings, you shall never have it. God gives away his justification 
freely; if you bring anything to pay for it, he will throw it in your face, 
and will not give hisjustification to you. He gives it away freely. Old 
Rowland Hill once went preaching at a fair; he noticed the chapmen selling 
their wares by auction; so Rowland said, "I am going to hold an auction too, 
to sell wine and milk, without money and without price. My friends over 
there," said he "find a great difficulty to get you up to their price; my 
difficulty is to bring you down to mine." So it is with men. If I could 
preach justification to be bought by you at a sovereign a piece, who 
would go out of the place without being justified? If I could preach 
justification to you by walking a hundred miles, would we not be 
pilgrims tomorrow morning, every one of us? If I were to preach 
justification which would consist in whippings and torture, there are 
very few here who would not whip themselves, and that severely too. 

But when it is freely, freely, freely, men turn away. "What! am I to have 
it for nothing at all, without doing anything?" Yes, Sir, you are to have 
it for nothing, or else not at all; it is "freely." "But may I not go to 
Christ, lay some claim to his mercy, and say, Lord, justify me because I 
am not so bad as others?" It will not do, Sir, because it is "by his grace." 
"But may I not indulge a hope, because I go to church twice a day?" 
No, Sir; it is "by his grace." "But may I not offer this plea, I mean to be 
better?" No, sir; it is "by his grace." You insult God by bringing your 
counterfeit coin to pay for his treasures. Oh! what poor ideas men have 
of the value of Christ's gospel, if they think they can buy it! God will 
not have your rusty farthings to buy heaven with. A rich man once, 
when he was dying, had a notion that he could buy a place in heaven by 
building a row of almshouses. A good man stood by his bed-side, and 
said, "How much more are you going to leave?" "Twenty thousand 
pounds." Said he "That would not buy enough for your foot to stand on 
in heaven; for the streets are made of gold there, and therefore of what 
value can your gold be, it would be accounted nothing of, when the 
very streets are paved with it?" Nay, friends, we cannot buy heaven 
with gold nor good works, nor prayers, nor anything in the world. But 
how is it to be got? Why it is to be got for asking only. As many of us 
as know ourselves to be sinners may have Christ for asking for him. Do 
you know that you want Christ? You may have Christ! "Whosoever 
will, let him come and take of the water of life freely." But if you cleave 
to your own notions, and say, "No, Sir, I mean to do a great many good 
things, and then I will believe in Christ."--Sir, you will be damned if 
you hold by such delusions. I earnestly warn you. You cannot be saved 
so. "Well, but are we not to do good works?" Certainly you are; but you 
are not to trust in them. You must trust in Christ wholly, and then do 
good works afterwards. "But," says one, "I think if I were to do a few 
good works, it would be a little recommendation when I came." It 
would not, sir; they would be no recommendation at all. Let a beggar 
come to your house in white kid gloves, and say he is very badly off, 
and wants some charity; would the white kid gloves recommend him to 
your charity? Would a good new hat that he has been buying this 
morning recommend him to your charity? "No," you would say, "you 
are a miserable impostor; you do not want anything, and you shall not 
have anything either! Out with you!"

The best livery for a beggar is rags, and the best livery for a sinner to go 
to Christ in, is for him to go just as he is, with nothing but sin about 
him. "But no;" say you, "I must be a little better, and then I think Christ 
will save me!" You cannot get any better, try as long as you please. And 
besides --to use a paradox--if you were to get better, you would be all 
the worse; for the worse you are, the better to come to Christ. If you are 
all unholy come to Christ; if you feel your sin, and renounce it, come to 
Christ; though you have been the most debased and abandoned soul, come to 
Christ; if you feel yourself to have nothing about you that can recommend 
you, come to Christ.

                      "Venture on him, venture wholly;
                        Let no other trust intrude."

I do not say this to urge any man to continue in sin. God forbid! If you 
continue in sin, you must not come to Christ; you cannot; your sins will 
hamper you. You cannot be chained to your galley- oar--the oar of your 
sins--yet come to Christ, and be a free man. No, sir, it is repentance; it 
is the immediate leaving off the sin. But mark thee, neither by 
repentance, nor by leaving off thy sin, can save thee. It is Christ, Christ, 
Christ--Christ only.

But I know you will go away, many of you, and try to build up your 
own Babel-tower, to get to heaven. Some of you will go one way to 
work, and some another. You will go the ceremony way: you will lay 
the foundation of the structure with infant baptism, build confirmation 
on it, and the Lord's supper. "I shall go to heaven," you say; "Do not I 
keep Good Friday and Christmas-day? I am a better man than those 
dissenters. I am a most extraordinary man. Do I not say more prayers 
than any one?" You will be a long while going up that treadmill, before 
you get an inch higher. That is not the way to get to the stars. One says, 
"I will go and study the Bible, and believe right doctrine; and I have no 
doubt that by believing right doctrine I shall be saved." Indeed you will 
not! You can be no more saved by believing right doctrine than you can 
by doing right actions. "There," says another, "I like that; I shall go and 
believe in Christ, and live as I like." Indeed you will not! For if you 
believe in Christ he will not let you live as your flesh liketh; by his 
Spirit he will constrain you to mortify its affections and lusts. If he 
gives you the grace to make you believe, he will give you the grace to 
live a holy life afterwards. If he gives you faith, he gives you good 
works after- wards. You cannot believe in Christ, unless you renounce 
every fault, and resolve to serve him with full purpose of heart. 

Methinks at last I hear a sinner say, "Is that the only door? And may I 
venture through it? Then I will. But I do not quite understand you; I am 
something like poor Tiff, in that remarkable book 'Dred.' They talk a 
great deal about a door, but I cannot see the door; they talk a great deal 
about the way, but I cannot see the way. For if poor Tiff could see the 
way, he would take these children away by it. They talk about fighting, 
but I do not see any one to fight, or else I would fight." Let me explain 
it then. I find in the Bible, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all 
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." 

What have you to do, but to believe this and trust in him? You will 
never be disappointed with such a faith as that. Let me give you over 
again an illustration I have given hundreds of times, but I cannot find 
another so good, so I must give it again. Faith is something like this. 
There is a story told of a captain of a man-of-war, whose son--a young 
lad--was very fond of running up the rigging of the ship; and one time, 
running after a monkey, he ran up the mast, till at last he got on to the 
maintruck. Now, the maintruck, you are aware, is like a large round 
table put on to the mast, so that when the boy was on the maintruck 
there was plenty of room for him; but the difficulty was--to use the best 
explanation I can--that he could not reach the mast that was under the 
table; he was not tall enough to get down from this maintruck, reach the 
mast, and so descend. There he was on the maintruck; he managed to 
get up there, somehow or other, but down he never could get. His father 
saw that, and he looked up in horror; what was he to do? In a few 
moments his son would fall down, and be dashed to pieces! He was 
clinging to the main-truck with all his might, but in a little time he 
would fall down on the deck, and there he would be a mangled corpse. 

The captain called for a speaking trumpet; he put it to his mouth, and 
shouted, "Boy, the next time the ship lurches, throw yourself into the 
sea." It was, in truth, his only way of escape; he might be picked up out 
of the sea, but he could not be rescued if he fell on the deck. The poor 
boy looked down on the sea; it was a long way; he could not bear the 
idea of throwing himself into the roaring current beneath him; he 
thought it looked angry and dangerous. How could he cast himself 
down into it? So he clung to the main-truck with all his might, though 
there was no doubt that he must soon let go and perish. The father 
called for a gun, and pointing it up at him, said, "Boy, the next time the 
ship lurches, throw yourself into the sea, or I'll shoot you!" He knew his 
father would keep his word; the ship lurched on one side, over went the 
boy splash into the sea, and out went brawny arms after him; the sailors 
rescued him, and brought him on deck. Now, we, like the boy, are in a 
position of extra-ordinary danger, by nature, which neither you nor I 
can possibly escape of ourselves. Unfortunately, we have got some 
good works of our own, like that maintruck, and we cling to them so 
fondly, that we never will give them up. Christ knows that unless we do 
give them up, we shall be dashed to pieces at the last, for that rotten 
trust must ruin us. He, therefore, says, "Sinner, let go thine own trust, 
and drop into the sea of my love." We look down, and say, "Can I be 
saved by trusting in God? He looks as if he were angry with me, and I 
could not trust him." Ah, will not mercy's tender cry persuade you?--
"He that believeth shall be saved." Must the weapon of destruction be 
pointed directly at you? Must you hear the dreadful threat--"He that 
believeth not shall be damned?" It is with you now as with that boy--
your position is one of imminent peril in itself, and your slighting the 
Father's counsel is a matter of more terrible alarm, it makes peril more 
perilous. You must do it, or else you perish! Let go your hold! That is 
faith when the poor sinner lets go his hold, drops down, and so is saved; 
and the very thing which looks as if it would destroy him, is the means 
of his being saved. Oh! believe on Christ, poor sinners; believe on 
Christ. Ye who know your guilt and misery come, cast yourselves upon 
him; come, and trust my Master, and as he lives, before whom I stand, 
you shall never trust him in vain; but you shall find yourselves 
forgiven, and go your way rejoicing in Christ Jesus.

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