He Came to Meet a Grim Necessity

For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. – Romans 10:5

If you wish to be saved by the law you must do its commands and you shall live. The law is written in the ten commandments; you know them; and if you desire to live by them you must keep them. It will not suffice for you to learn those commands by heart, or to write them up in your churches, or to read them over and say, “Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law”: all that may be well enough, but it is not to the point. If you are to be saved by the commandments you must do them: that is clear. Moses does not allow any person to dream that under the law he can be saved in any other way than by perfect obedience thereto. “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” Whatever it is that God has commanded, you must do; whatever He forbids, you must avoid; for by such obedience alone can you live.

Christ’s fullness is meant for our emptiness; Christ’s righteousness is meant for our sin; salvation is for the lost. When you and I are no longer sinners, Christ is no longer our Savior; when you and I no more need Him, then we shall not have Him. Our need is our warrant, and if that be gone, all is gone. Jesus did not bleed and die to be a superfluity to us: He came to meet a grim necessity. As long as we are nothing Christ is our all in all; we may be sure of that, and that is just the gospel in a nutshell…Jesus came into the world to save real sinners, not sham sinners; for He is a real, and not a pretended Savior. He saves those who are always confessors of sin, always needy in themselves, and therefore always glad of Him. Even in their best estate the saved ones need their Lord: even if we walk in the light as God is in the light, and have fellowship with Him, we still sin, and still the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1700.cfm

A Miracle of Mercy

Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain… – Acts 2:23

It is Christ that died… – Romans 8:34

Who can tell us what Christ’s suffering really was? It goes into the region of things unknown; it goes beyond the knowable; for flesh and blood will never be able to comprehend what Jesus suffered when the great flood of human sin came rushing down upon Him and filled His spirit to the brim. “It is Christ that died.” My unknown sins are buried in the unknown deeps of His almighty sacrifice.

Ah! but another thought comes up, “You know that He died; but then you have slain your Lord. You had a share in His death. You know that every sinner is guilty of the murder of Christ.” I know it; I know it to my shame and confusion; yet do I live by Him I slew, I am saved by Him I murdered; and I glory in the grace that makes such a miracle of mercy possible.”

“With pleasing grief and mournful joy
My spirit now is filled,
That I should such a life destroy,
Yet live by Him I killed.”

Whether it was by mine or by any other wicked hands, yet it was by “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,” that Jesus died in the stead of all who believe in Him: I believe in Him, therefore He has died for me. He died for His murderers, for those that mocked and insulted Him; for He commanded His disciples to begin preaching the gospel at Jerusalem, where they crucified Him, to preach it even to those who had hounded Him to His doom. O dear friends, what comfort lies in this word, “It is Christ that died.”! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2240.cfm

The Debt is Paid

It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. – Romans 8:34

God has punished sin; and when men say, “God must punish sin,” we answer, “Sin has been punished, for Christ has died.” Not only is our sin punished, but the sin is gone. If my friend over yonder has paid my debt, it is gone. I owe no man anything after the debt has been paid, whether by myself, or by somebody else; and if Christ took our sin upon Himself, and suffered for it, the sins for which He suffered are gone, plunged as in a shoreless sea, drowned in the Redeemer’s blood. They are gone and gone forever!

And that my sins are gone is further clear, for He rose again from the dead. “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again.” If He had not paid the debt, He would have remained in the prison of the grave; but He rose again. He has discharged the debt; and we have still another assurance that it is all gone, for the apostle goes on to speak of Christ “who is even at the right hand of God.” He would not be there if He were a debtor. If Christ owed anything to the justice of God by reason of His suretyship engagements, He would not be at God’s right hand: but He owes nothing whatever. Both the sinner and the Surety are now free. The debt is paid, and Christ is at the right hand of God. And as to our weaknesses and infirmities, He is there to plead for His people: “Who also maketh intercession for us.” He ever liveth to secure effectually the eternal salvation of every soul for whom He died, even for every one who puts his trust in Him. Are you among the number? Oh, if you, my dear hearers, knew the joy and peace that would come to you if you but trusted in the doctrine of substitution, you would not rest until you were able to say, “Christ was in my place, that I might stand in His place: my sins were laid on Him, that His righteousness might be girded on me.”…This, then is God’s great remedy for sin: “It is Christ that died.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2240.cfm

Our Strong Confidence

…for He shall save His people from their sins. – Matthew 1:21

It is Christ that died… – Romans 8:34

Now, there is but one Judge-the man Christ Jesus. It is He that died for us. He cannot bring us in debt to divine justice; for in His own hands and feet are the nail-prints, which are the receipts of justice in full settlement of all claims against us. He has paid all we owed and He will vindicate His own death, and claim for the travail of His soul its due reward, which is the forgiveness and the salvation of all guilty men who have come and put their trust in Him. Wherefore, since it is only our Judge who can condemn us, and since He is the very Person who has paid our debt for us, and put our sin away, we dare to repeat again, with additional emphasis, our ringing challenge to all the universe, “Who is he that condemneth?” We stand boldly in front of all our foes, because we know that we are free from the evil which once condemned us: it is all gone. Our confidence is therefore strong, and it is so because Christ’s dying has removed all sin from all believers.

“Look,” says one, “there is sin. It is true that you are a believer, but you have sinned often, for years, in all sorts of ways.” Yes, as we look, we must confess that it is true, there is the sin. But yonder is the Saviour, and He is called Jesus, “For He shall save His people from their sins.” He has come on purpose to put away our sin, and when He died, He made an end of it. The answer, therefore, to the statement, “There is sin,” is this, “Christ has died.”

There is great sin; that we know only too well: but we also rejoice in the knowledge that there is a great atonement to cover all our sin, “For it is Christ that died.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2240.cfm

The Law of God Condemns Us Yet We Are Not Condemned

Who 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 ye were healed. – 1 Peter 2:24

The law of God says, “Thou shalt,” and we have not done what it commands. The law of God says, “Thou shalt not,” and we have done exactly what we were forbidden to do. Only too true is that confession, “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us.” The law condemned us in former days and would again overthrow us if we ventured to meet it unarmed. It must condemn sin, for “the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good.” But when it has attacked us, and done its worst, there comes in the majesty of divine sovereignty. God is King over all, and able to govern the world according to His own mind, which mind is always infinitely just. He decrees that Christ Jesus, the Well-Beloved, even His own other self, who is one with Him, should come into the world and bear the sin of man, make amends to the injured honour of God, and magnify the law before the eyes of the whole universe. If the guilty sinner dies, the law is honoured; but if God shall assume human flesh, and die for that sinner, the law is even more honoured. When Christ Jesus took away our guilt, and “His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree,” justice was more terribly displayed than when guilty sinners sink to hell. We are only creatures after all, and when we are condemned, we sink down into destruction, and suffer for our sin; but He is the eternal God, and when He takes our nature, and cries, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” and bleeds His life away in agony, then is the law of God abundantly honoured. Therefore, do we say to that law, “Law, thou hast nothing to do with me; I am ‘not under law, but under grace.’ My Substitute has kept the law on my behalf. He has borne the penalty which I ought to have borne, and I am clear. I am now dead to the law. I have died in Christ, and my life now is that of a child of God, for I have been lifted to that high estate by my redeeming Lord.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2240.cfm

He Willingly Died, the Just for the Unjust

Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died… – Romans 8:34

It is an ugly knock that a man’s heart gives when it smites him. There is no getting away from yourself, and when you yourself condemn yourself, then you are condemned indeed. You go to your bed, but your conscience is there, and it will not sleep. You go out to your pleasures, but your conscience goes with you, and spoils your mirth. You would forget your guilt in your daily business, but your conscience calls out at such a rate that there is no hearing anything else.

What is to be done when a man condemns himself? Can he still be valiant, and maintain his ground, calling out, “Who is he that condemneth?” Yes, blessed be God, even this foe can be overcome by the weapon the believer wields in the power of God, for he can tell conscience, “It is Christ that died.” It is a wonderful story-this old, old story, of Jesus and His love to guilty sinners; let me tell it once again. God so loved me that He willed to forgive me; but for the sake of the world which He governs righteously He could not forgive me without an atonement for my sin. It would not have been consistent with His justice for Him to pass by my sin. What was to be done? His own dear Son came, and stood in my place, and took my sin upon Him. Knowing that my sin deserved death, He willingly died, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring me to God. God is well pleased with the death of Christ as the vindication of His justice, and for Christ’s sake He says to me, “I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee.” Tell conscience that Christ has died for your sins, according to the Scriptures, and it will be perfectly satisfied: it will not go to sleep, but it will use its voice for other purposes, and it will no longer seek to condemn you. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2240.cfm

Who is He that Condemneth?

but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. – 1 Corinthians 6:11

It is Christ that died… – Romans 8:34

When you have overcome Satan, the world will come forth to attack you, and to dispute your claim to be numbered amongst the people of God. As long as you go with evil companions, they will applaud you. You will be “a jolly good fellow” while you join them in their folly; but when you give up their ways, their habits, and their society, then they will say that you are melancholy, and no longer fit company for such, “hail fellows, well met”, and they will turn away from you. If you follow after Christ, and find eternal life, when they hear of it, they will sneer at you, and bring up all your past life against you. They will say, “What! you converted? You are as bad as any one of us. What! you a saint? Well, certainly, you made no pretension to it six months ago; you were about as black as a man could be.” The world will begin to throw in the believer’s teeth all his former iniquities, when he sets forth with the cry, “Who is he that condemneth?” Tell the world, once for all, that it may condemn you, if it pleases, for it condemned the Lord Jesus long ago, and say that, therefore, you think but little of the condemnation of your fellow-men. Tell the men of the world that it is right that they condemn you for all your past life, for doubtless you have been what they say you are, you will not dispute that fact; but tell them also that what Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth is true of you, “Ye are washed, ye are sanctified, ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2240.cfm