“Thy sins are forgiven thee.”

“Thy sins are forgiven thee.” – Luke 5:20

I do not think that there can be any grief outside of hell that is more terrible to bear than the wounds of conscience. We read that “David’s heart smote him”; and, believe me, the heart can smite as with an iron mace, and smite where the bruise is felt intensely. Give me into the power of a roaring lion, but never let me come under the power of an awakened guilty conscience. Ay, shut me up in a dark dungeon, among all manner of loathsome creatures-snakes and reptiles of all kinds-but, oh, give me not over to my own thoughts when I am consciously guilty before God! This, surely, is the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched. I do not speak now what I have merely heard of; though, if you will read Mr. Bunyan’s “Grace Abounding,” you will find a striking account of it there; but I speak of what I have felt in my own soul. No pains of body can rival, for a moment, the agonized feeling of the heart, when the hot irons of conviction burn their way through the soul. When God sets up the conscience and makes it a target for His arrows, they drink up the life blood of our spirit, till we cry out and wonder how such anguish can come to a creature so insignificant. Our soul seems too small a cup to contain such an ocean of misery-too narrow a field for so cruel a battle. It is not the Lord that is the author of the misery; but He is giving us up for a while, that we may be filled with our own ways and learn the bitterness of our own sin. When the Lord comes to us with a forgiving word these sorrows are gone like the mists of the morning when the sun arises. We grieve still to think that we have sinned; but that gnawing remorse, that vulture eating up the liver, is smitten with death and the man breathes hopefully again. Though the penitence remains, the torment is removed from me, when God has forgiven me. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2207.cfm

His Anger is Turned Away

In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins… – Ephesians 1:7

I believe that the great joy of forgiveness, to the believer, is that God has taken away His anger from him. That sweet hymn, which we often sing, is a paraphrase of a passage in Isaiah-

“I will praise Thee every day,
Now Thine anger’s turned away;
Comfortable thoughts arise
From the bleeding Sacrifice.”

A person has grieved and wronged me. I feel hurt in my mind about it. When I forgive him, I no longer feel grieved or angry with him: I think of him as aforetime, and we are on good terms. If my forgiveness is genuine-and in God’s case it is emphatically so-then there is no resentment left. The offense is as though it had never been committed. I say to the person who did me wrong, “I take a sponge, and I wipe it all off the slate: give me your hand, let us stand as we stood before.” The pardon of sin by God is after such a fashion. He blots out the sin as the Oriental erases with his pencil the record made upon his waxen tablet, so that no trace of it remains. He smiles where else He must have frowned; He gives complacent love where else there must have been indignation and wrath. Do you not think that this is the sweetest way of looking at the forgiveness of sin? In the case of the poor penitent prodigal, it was the kiss of his father’s lip; it was his restoration to his father’s heart; it was the cheering words of his father’s love that constituted to him the sweetest fragrance of the rose of forgiveness. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ has come, that we poor guilty ones may be restored to the favor of God, and walk consciously in the light of His countenance, because sin is removed. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2207.cfm

In Whom We Have Redemption

In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace… – Ephesians 1:7

Read the chapter (Ephesians 1), and carefully note how the apostle goes to the back of everything and commences with those primeval blessings which were ours before time began. He dwells on the divine love of old, and the predestination which came out of it; and all that blessed purpose of making us holy and without blame before Him in love, which was comprehended in the covenant of grace. It does us good to get back to these antiquities-to these eternal things…”In whom we have redemption.” Whether others have it or not, we have “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” We do not hope for it, but we have it. We do not merely think so, but we know that we have it. We are redeemed; we are free from bondage; we are forgiven and are no longer under condemnation. The apostle has mentioned it, if you notice, amongst the great things of God-His electing love, His adoption of us by Jesus Christ, His acceptance of us in the Beloved. Side by side with these colossal mercies He puts this one, that we have “the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” This is a blessing of no mean stature, for it marches with the giants of election and adoption…It would not be possible for God to forgive, and yet to punish. That would be a forgiveness quite unworthy of God. It would, indeed, be no forgiveness at all. We are certain that the everlasting punishment of sin declared in Scripture, will never happen to the man who is forgiven. When transgression is removed the soul stands clear at the bar of God, and there can be no further penalty. “I absolve thee,” says the great Judge; and that carries with it weight, so that a man that is forgiven is cleared of the punishment which he must otherwise have borne. “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2207.cfm

The Most Important Question for Each of Us

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”-Ephesians 1:7

Salvation is a present thing, in price, in promise, in principles, and in pledge; but the important question for each of you to answer is, -Have you obtained that salvation? If you have not, you are in a truly terrible condition, for you are “condemned already” because you have “not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” But if you have obtained this salvation, then you are indeed rich to all eternity. Perhaps you live in one poor room, and have to work very hard for a livelihood, yet you are much richer than those emperors and kings, who have much earthly pomp and state, but who are not the subjects of God’s grace, for you are saved; the Lord has given you that salvation which can never be taken away from you. So, rejoice in this salvation; and, if you have little else to cover you, let this salvation be your royal apparel; let this salvation load your table with heavenly dainties; let this salvation smooth your path, however rough it may be, and cheer your heart, however great your trials may be.

You know the story of the poor bricklayer, who fell from a scaffold, and when they took him up, he was so much injured that they fetched a minister to him, who, stooping over him, said, “My dear man, you have a very short time to live. I entreat you to make your peace with God.” To the surprise of the minister, the man opened his eyes, and said, “Make my peace with God, sir? It was made for me nearly nineteen hundred years ago, upon the cross of Calvary, by Him that loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Oh, the joy which this creates in the heart! Yes, it is in Jesus that the peace is made-effectually made, made for me, made for you, made for all believers. In Jesus is perfect redemption. In Jesus pardon is provided, proclaimed, presented, and sealed upon the conscience. Go and live on Jesus; live with Jesus; live in Jesus; never go away from Jesus; and may He be dearer to you every day of your lives! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2770.cfm

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2207.cfm

Devote Yourself to Jesus

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. – Romans 12:1

Did our blessed Lord take your sin, my brethren, and suffer all its terrific consequences for you, so that you are delivered? By His blood and wounds, by His death, and by the love that made Him die, I conjure you treat Him as He should be treated! Love Him as He should be loved! Serve Him as He should be served! You will tell me that you have obeyed His precepts. I am glad to hear it. Are you sure that you have? “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” Have you kept the ordinances as He delivered them? Have you sought to be obedient to Him in all respects? In all your Lord’s appointed ways have you scrupulously pursued your journey? If you can say this, I am not content; it does not seem to me that with such a leader as Christ mere obedience should be all…It is out of and beyond all categories of law, it is far exceeding all that law ventured to ask, and yet not supererogation for all that, for ye are not under the law but under grace; and ye will do more out of love than ye would have done out of the compulsion of demand. What shall I do for my Master? What shall I do for my Lord? How shall I set Him forth? Christ stands for me, oh may I learn to stand for Him, and plead for Him, and live for Him, and suffer for Him, and pray for Him, and preach and labor for Him as He may help me! 

O Christian, by the blood of Jesus devote yourself to Him again! Now, men and brethren, sisters, every one of you who have tasted that the Lord is gracious, devote yourselves this day to live, to die, to spend, and to be spent for King Jesus. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0694.cfm

Matchless Security

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. – Romans 8:33,34

I look at the attributes of God, and though to me, as a sinner, they all seem bristling as with sharp points, thrusting themselves upon me; yet when I know that Jesus died for me, and did literally take my sin, what fear I the attributes of God? There is justice, sharp and bright, like a lance; but justice is my friend. If God be just, He cannot punish me for sin for which Jesus has offered satisfaction. As long as there is justice in the heart of Deity, it cannot be that a soul justly claiming Christ as his substitute can himself be punished. As for mercy, love, truth, honor, everything matchless, Godlike and divine about Deity, I say of all these, “You are my friends; you are all guarantees that Jesus died for me, I cannot die.” How grandly does the apostle put it! It seems to me as if he never was worked up by the Holy Spirit to such a pitch of eloquence as when speaking about the death and resurrection of the Savior. He propounds that splendid question, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” There, where eternal justice sits upon a flaming throne, the apostle gazes with eye undimmed into the ineffable splendor, and though some one seems to say, “The Judge will condemn,” he replies, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.” Can He justify and then condemn us? He justifies those for whom Christ died, for we are justified by His resurrection. How then shall He condemn? And then he lifts up his voice yet again-“Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who sitteth at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” On other grounds a man must feel unsafe, but here he may know himself sure. I know that I have no cause for fear since Jesus died for me. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0694.cfm