Romans 3:31

REFLECTIONS

Reader! behold the awful state by nature, both of Jew and Gentile! See, what a portrait to humble our souls to the dust, the Lord the Spirit hath twice drawn, in his sacred pages; once by David, and here by Paul, of our utterly lost, and ruined estate, by nature and by practice; as we stand in ourselves before God. And this we are told, was the result of that enquiry, when the Lord looked down from heaven, to see if there were any that would see k after God. All were gone out of the way. All together become unprofitable. None good, no, not one. And how then could it be otherwise, than while beheld in our Adam-nature, and without being considered in Christ, all the world must become guilty before God?

And, can it need any argument of persuasion, to prompt the heart convinced of this, to look to Jesus; yea, to flee to Him, from the wrath to come? Am I, are you, convinced of these most unquestionable truths, and do we pause, or remain stupid, and senseless, in the view of these vast concerns? Hath god set forth his dear son, as propitiation through faith in his blood; and do we hesitate in the acceptation of it? Is it declared from heaven, that by the deeds of the law, no flesh can be justified in god' s sight; and are we looking to that quarter, either in whole, or in part, for favor with the lord? Oh! Sir! if at that awful tribunal, when god cometh to judge the world in righteousness, and minister true judgment unto the people, we are found without the righteousness of Jesus, and his propitiation, to be our security; what paleness, what horror, will mark the countenance of every son and daughter of Adam? Precious lord Jesus! be thou my propitiation, my high Priest, my Altar, the lord my righteousness now: and sure I am thou wilt be my everlasting glory then. When law, and justice, in the multitude of breaches I have committed against both, would give in their verdict against me: Thou shalt answer for me, 0 lord my god! Oh! the preciousness of that voice now heard by the ear of faith, and then confirmed with the unalterable determination from the throne: deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom!