Every sin of God's elect people was laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ, our Substiute, and by his blood atonement our sins were all washed away. Peter tells us that Christ "his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes we were healed" (I Pet. 2:24. The Apostle to the Gentiles tells us that Christ, "by his own blood entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redelption for us...Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself...So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation" (Heb. 9:12, 26, 28). What are these Scriptures telling us? They tell us that the atonement of Christ for our sins is an ALL SUFFICIENT AND EFFECTUAL ATONEMENT. There is no sin in God's book against any of his people. He sees no sin in Jacob. He beholds no iniquity in Israel. We are perfectly, completely, eternally justified in the Lord Jesus Christ. When the guilt of sin was taken away, the punishment of sin was removed. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). For the Christian, for that man or woman who is united to Christ by a living faith, there is no wrath from God. If you are in Christ you will never receive an angry stroke from the hand of God. God punished you to the full satisfaction of his Justice in Christ, your Substitute. There is not so much as a single frown of punitive Judgment for us to bear. The believer will be chastised by his Father, but God the Judge has nothing to say to those who are in Christ, except, "I have absolved thee: thou art acquitted the law no longer accuses thee". For the believer there is no penal death in this world, and no second death in the world to come. We are completely freed from all the guilt of sin, all the punishment of sin, and the power of sin. Sin may stand in our way, and agitate us with a perpetual warfare; but sin is a conquered foe to every soul united to Christ by faith. They who wear the white robes in heaven over-came by the blood of the Lamb, and so do we. Your sin may kick and struggle against you, child of God, but it is doomed to die. God has written condemnation across its brow. Christ has crucified it, "nailing it to his cross". Children of God, can you believe this? Can you rejoice in it? Your sins are all gone. Christ has taken them away. The all-seeing eye of God's Justice sees no sin in the Lord's redeemed ones.
Take this blessed challenge by faith to be your own, and walk in it today - "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that Justifieth;"
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