“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered ” (Psalm 32.1.)
Introduction. We tend to pronounce our neighbor’s lot happier than our own. But if we could penetrate the hearts of men, we would find few of them bearing the name of ‘blessed’; indeed, none are blessed except those who are forgiven and have their sins covered. These are blessed of heaven for time and eternity. All others are not blessed, but cursed. Jehovah has said it and will manifest it.
(1) The Blessing cannot be Bought. No one can purchase the pardon of sin. If we tried, we could only offer to God what he already owns. A sinner might seek to reform his life to atone for the follies of the past. But God is so inflexibly just that he will never forgive the sinner without having exacted the punishment for his sin. The sinner might cry and lament to get his past sins forgiven. But there is no atonement in tears or repentance. If you could deserve forgiveness by your penitence, you would have a claim upon God, and there would be no mercy in giving you what you claim. What, then, can be done? Justice says, ‘A stroke for every sin.’ The convicted sinner knows and feels that God in justice must punish him. There must be an atonement in order to obtain pardon. The Scripture says that man must die. So no angel can bear man’s punishment. And no man is able to. Where shall we find the substitute? Looking up, I see on the throne of God a man who once was slain! But he is a God. ‘I had to die—the just for the unjust,’ he says. Do I see his blood mark on the writ of my pardon? It would be well for you, Christian, if you often reviewed this mercy, if you would stand at Calvary and see him dying. Then you would count yourself blessed indeed. This blessing of justification is instantaneous. The moment God gives me faith, I am justified. Suppose a physician could make you well in an instant. Even so with Christ. A sinner may be freed from guilt and damning power instantly. And the sweetness of this blessing is that it is irreversible. Once pardoned, we can never be condemned. If Christ paid the penalty for our sin, God can never again exact the debt.
(2) The Blessing Brings Everything Else with it. When I know I am pardoned, I can say all things are mine. The covenant from eternity is mine! What Christ did on the cross is mine! Present Providence is mine! Afflictions are mine to sanctify me. All the promises are mine. Judgment day is mine! I fear it not. I dread it not. The river of death is mine, that I may leave the dust of earth! The resurrection is mine! All things in heaven are mine! For I am pardoned! What mercy!
(3) The Blessed Effects. Some of you have never had any real, satisfactory peace. Did you have peace when you thought the angel of death had come? You had no peace, and you have no peace now. Some of you are at war with the Omnipotent. Peace with God is like the tranquility at the bottom of the sea, where the seashells rest undisturbed. There may be billows on the surface of a Christian’s soul, but inside his heart there is a ‘peace that passeth understanding.’ He is willing and prepared to die. Are you? Justification also gives joy. Peace is the flowing of the brook; joy is the dash of the rapids when the brook bursts its banks. Who cares about trials and troubles then? The hour we feel ourselves delivered is like a fragment from eternity cut off and given us. We seem to drink of the very wine that saints in glory quaff! What can we desire more?
Selection from Conclusion. “How many such blessed men and women are there here to-night?…What ground have you for your hope? You know we cannot hope unless we have some grounds. We may wish, but we cannot hope. What are your grounds? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?”
