Believe and Live

He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. – John 3:18

He that believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ and is baptized, shall be saved. – Mark 16:16

He that believeth not,” saith the Scripture “shall be damned.” Do you not like that message? Ought I to have said another word instead of that? If you wish it, I shall not; what God says I will say; far be it from me to alter the messages from the Most High; I will, if He help me, declare His truth without altering. He saith “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned.” What is it to believe? To tell you as simply as possible: to believe is to give up trusting in yourself and to trust in Jesus Christ as your Saviour…Christ says, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”

What! says one, no good works?” Good works will come afterwards, but they do not go with it. You must come to Christ, not with your good works, but with your sins; and coming with your sins, He will take them away, and give you good works afterwards. After you believe, there will be good works as the effect of your faith; but if you think faith will be the effect of good works, you are mistaken. It is “believe and live.” Cowper calls them the soul-quickening words, “believe and live.” This is the sum and substance of the gospel. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0104.cfm

Unasked for Pardon

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. -Romans 5:10

Christ did not consider me as an awakened heir of heaven, but as a dead, corrupt, lost, and ruined heir of hell. If He had died for me as an awakened heir of heaven, then I could have prayed for Him to die, for then I have power to pray, and will to pray; but Christ died for me when I had no power nor will to lift my voice in prayer to Him. It was entirely unasked. Where did ye ever hear that man was first in mercy? Did man ask God to redeem? Nay, rather, it is almost the other way; it is as if God did entreat man to be redeemed. Man never asked that he might be pardoned, but God pardons him, and then turns round and cries, “Return unto Me, backsliding children of men, and I will have mercy upon you.” Sinners! if you should go down on your knees, and were for months to cry for mercy, it would be great mercy if mercy should look upon you; but without asking, when we are hardened and rebellious, when we will not turn to Christ, He still comes to die for us. Tell it in heaven; tell it in the lower world! God’s amazing work surpasses thought; for love itself did die for hatred-holiness did crucify itself to save poor sinful men, and unasked for and unsought, like a fountain in the desert sparkling spontaneously with its native waters, Jesus Christ came to die for man, who would not seek His grace.

…Sinner! I can commend Christ to thee for this reason: I know that thou needest Him. Thou mayest be ignorant of it thyself, but thou dost need Him… for whosoever believeth not on Christ “hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” …Oh! that wrath of God! Sinner, thou needest Christ, even though thou dost not think so. Oh, that the Lord would impress this upon thee! ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0104.cfm

No Merit in Us

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. – Romans 5:10

It is quite certain that God did not consider man’s merit when Christ died; in fact, no merit could have deserved the death of Jesus. Though we had been holy as Adam, we could never have deserved a sacrifice like that of Jesus for us. But inasmuch as it says, “He died for sinners,” we are thereby taught that God considered our sin, and not our righteousness. When Christ died, He died for men as black, as wicked, as abominable, not as good and excellent. Christ did not shed His blood for us as saints, but as sinners. He considered us in our loathsomeness, in our low estate and misery-not in that high estate to which grace afterwards elevates us, but in all the decay into which we had fallen by our sin. There could have been no merit in us; and therefore, God commendeth His love by our ill desert.

Again: it is quite certain, because Christ died for us as sinners, that God had no interest to serve by sending His Son to die. How could sinners serve Him? Oh! if God had pleased, He might have crushed this nest of rebels, and have made another world all holy. If God had chosen, the moment that man sinned He might have said unto the world, “Thou shalt be burned”; and like as a few years ago astronomers told us that they saw the light of a far-off world burning, myriads of miles away, this world might have been consumed with burning heat, and sin scorched out of its clay. But no. Whilst God could have made another race of beings, and could have either annihilated us, or consigned us to eternal torment, He was pleased to veil Himself in flesh, and die for us. Surely then it could not have been from any motive of self-interest. God had nothing to get by man’s salvation. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0104.cfm

Christ’s Love is a Mighty Thing

Who is he that condemneth? 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

When we were sinners, we were sinners against the very person who died for us. “Tis strange, ’tis passing strange, ’tis wonderful,” that the very Christ against whom we have sinned died for us. If a man should be injured in the street, if a punishment should be demanded of the person who attacked him, it would be passing strange if the injured man should for love’s sake bear the penalty that the other might go free; but ’twas so with Christ. He had been injured, yet He suffers for the very injury that others did to Him. He dies for His enemies-dies for the men that hate and scorn Him. There is an old tradition, that the very man who pierced Christ’s side was converted; and I sometimes think that peradventure in heaven we shall meet with those very men who drove the nails into His hands and pierced His side. Love is a mighty thing; it can forgive great transgressors. I know my Master said, “Begin at Jerusalem,” and I think He said that because there lived the men who had crucified Him, and He wanted them to be saved. My hearer, hast thou ever blasphemed Christ? Hast thou ever mocked Him, and scoffed at His people? Hast thou done all thou couldst to emulate the example of those who spat in His holy face? Dost thou repent of it? Dost thou feel thou needst a Saviour? Then I tell thee, in Christ’s name, He is thy Saviour; yes, thy Saviour, though thou hast insulted Him-thy Saviour, though thou hast trampled on Him-thy Saviour though thou hast spoken evil of His people, His day, His Word, and His gospel…

Go away and rejoice; for if thou be the chief of sinners thou shalt be saved, if thou believest. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0104.cfm

It Was Marvelous Grace

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous. – Romans 5:19

Let us for a moment consider what sort of sinners many of us have been, and then we shall see it was marvelous grace that Christ should die for men-not as penitents but as sinners. Consider how many of us have been continual sinners. We have not sinned once, nor twice, but ten thousand times. Our life, however upright and moral it has been, is stained by a succession of sins. If we have not revolted against God in the outward acts which proclaim the profligate to be a great sinner, yet the thoughts of our heart and the words of our lips are swift witnesses against us that we have continually transgressed. And oh! my brethren, who is there among us who will not likewise confess to sins of act? Who among us has not broken the Sabbath-day? Who among us has not taken God’s name in vain? Who of us shall dare to say that we have loved the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength? Have we never by any act whatsoever showed that we have coveted our neighbour’s goods? Verily, I know we have; we have broken His commands, and it is well for us to join in that general confession-“We have done those things which we ought not to have done; we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and there is no health in us.” Now, the sweet thought is, that Christ died for us, whilst He knew that we should be continual transgressors. Men, brethren, and fathers, He did not die for you as those who have committed but one fault, but as those who were emphatically “sinners;” sinners of years’ standing; some of you sinners with grey heads; sinners who have persevered in a constant course of iniquity. As sinners we are redeemed, and by it we become saints. Does not this commend Christ’s love to us, that He should die for sinners, who have dyed themselves with sin as with crimson and with scarlet; great and continual sinners?

My hearer, if thou hast so sinned, do not therefore despair, it may be He will yet make thee rejoice in His redemption.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0104.cfm

When Love and Sorrow Met

For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son… – Romans 5:10

Consider the circumstances which attended (Christ’s) death. It was no common death He died; it was a death of ignominy, for He was put to death by a legal slaughter; it was a death of unutterable pain, for He was crucified; and what more painful fate than to die nailed to a cross? It was a long protracted death, for He hung for hours, with only His hands and His feet pierced-parts which are far away from the seat of life, but in which are situated the most tender nerves, full of sensibility. He suffered a death which for its circumstances still remain unparalleled. It was no speedy blow which crushed the life out of the body, and ended it; but it was a lingering, long, and doleful death, attended with no comforts and no sympathy, but surrounded with scorn and contempt. Picture Him! They have hurled Him on His back; they have driven nails through His hands and His feet; they have lifted Him up. See! They have dashed the cross into its place. It is fixed. And now behold Him! Mark His eyes, all full of tears; behold His head, hanging on His breast. Ah! mark Him, He seems all silently to say, “I am poured out like water; all My bones are out of joint; I am brought into the dust of death.” Hear Him, when He groans, “I thirst.” Above all, listen to Him, whilst He cries, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” My words cannot picture Him; my thoughts fail to express it…Yet I beseech you regard the Royal Sufferer. See Him, with the eye of your faith, hanging on the bloody tree. Hear Him cry, before He dies, “It is finished!”

“See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0104.cfm

It Was Love Amazing

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. – Romans 5:6

It was much love when Christ became man for us, when He stripped Himself of the glories of His Godhead for awhile, to become an infant of a span long, slumbering in the manger of Bethlehem. It was no little condescension when He divested Himself of all His glories, hung His mantle on the sky, gave up His diadem and the pleasures of His throne, and stooped to become flesh. It was moreover, no small love when He lived a holy and a suffering life for us; it was love amazing, when God with feet of flesh did tread the earth, and teach His own creatures how to live, all the while bearing their scoffs and jests with cool unangered endurance. It was no little favour of Him that He should condescend to give us a perfect example by His spotless life; but the commendation of love lieth here-not that Christ lived for us, but that Christ died for us.

Do any of us know what is contained in that great word “die?” Can we measure it? Can we tell its depths of suffering or its heights of agony? “Died for us!”…All that death could mean Christ endured; He yielded up the ghost, He resigned His breath; He became a lifeless corpse, and His body was interred, even like the bodies of the rest that died… “Ah! it is a solemn and an awful thing to die.” But, my hearers, “Christ died for us.” ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0104.cfm