Homeward Bound: Sin No Longer Attractive, April 21

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

It is the righteousness of Christ that makes penitent sinners acceptable to God and works their justification. However sinful have been their lives, if they believe in Jesus as their personal Saviour, they stand before God in the spotless robes of Christ’s imputed righteousness.

The sinners so recently dead in trespasses and sins are quickened by faith in Christ. They see by faith that Jesus is their Saviour, and alive forevermore, able to save unto “the uttermost [all] that come unto God by Him.” In the atonement made for them the believers see such breadth and length and height and depth of efficiency—see such completeness of salvation, purchased at such infinite cost, that their souls are filled with praise and thanksgiving. They see as in a glass the glory of the Lord and are changed into the same image as by the Spirit of the Lord. They see the robe of Christ’s righteousness, woven in the loom of heaven, wrought by His obedience, and imputed to the repenting soul through faith in His name.

When sinners have a view of the matchless charms of Jesus, sin no longer looks attractive to them; for they behold the Chiefest among ten thousand, the One altogether lovely. They realize by a personal experience the power of the gospel, whose vastness of design is equaled only by its preciousness of purpose.

We have a living Saviour. He is not in Joseph’s new tomb; He is risen from the dead and has ascended on high as a Substitute and Surety for every believing soul. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1.) We are justified through the merits of Jesus, and this is God’s acknowledgment of the perfection of the ransom paid us. That Christ was obedient even unto the death of the cross is a pledge of the repenting sinner’s acceptance with the Father. Then shall we permit ourselves to have a vacillating experience of doubting and believing, believing and doubting? Jesus is the pledge of our acceptance with God. We stand in favor before God, not because of any merit in ourselves, but because of our faith in “the Lord our righteousness.” . . .

We are complete in Him, accepted in the Beloved, only as we abide in Him by faith.—Signs of the Times, July 4, 1892 (Faith and Works, 106, 107)