(Kersten, Heidelberg Catechism, Vol.1. part 6)
    
    

The Anguished Cry of a Convicted Sinner For Deliverance
    
Lord's Day 5
    

Psalter No. 40 st. 1, 2
Read Psalm 49

Psalter No. 135 st. 1,4, 5
Psalter No. 362 st. 1
Psalter No. 337 st. 1, 2


Beloved:
    
    The redemption of the soul is too precious to be brought about
by all the treasures of the world. And yet, natural man placed his
confidence in those treasures, as the poet of Psalm 49 has seen. It
is for him as for Asaph in Ps. 73, an enigma that the wicked
prospered, while the righteous must go their way with many
afflictions. But the Lord solved the enigma when He showed him the
insignificance and brevity of the happiness of worldlings. Strutting
in pride, their inward thought is that their houses should stand
forever and their dwelling places to all generations, exalting
themselves as they seek for honour, they call their lands after
their own names. Nevertheless, man being in honour abideth not; he
is like the beasts that perish. Soon God cuts off his life, and he
must stand before God's judgment seat. The ground of the worldling's
confidence, their earthly possessions, they must leave to others,
and even if they had gained the whole world, they shall lose their
soul and never redeem themselves nor their brother, nor give God His
ransom. Nevertheless, God demands for the redemption of the soul a
perfect satisfaction for His righteousness which was violated by
sin. That demand shall never cease. Whatever man may lay upon the
balances is weighed, and found wanting. All creatures in heaven and
on earth together can not give the required ransom. We hear the cry,
"Lost! lost!"; for the redemption of the soul is too precious. To
attain that redemption we need a righteousness that can only be
granted by Him, Who is not only very and righteous man, but who is
more than all men, namely, very God. Would not then they who know
themselves to be guilty before God because of their original and
actual sin, and see every way of being saved cut off for them cry to
God, asking whether there is still a way of escape? This anguished
cry we hear in the fifth Lord's Day of our Heidelberg Catechism.
    
    Lord's Day 5
    
Q. 12: Since then, by the righteous judgment of God, we deserve
    temporal and eternal punishment, is there no way by which we
    may escape that punishment, and be again received into favour?
    
A. God will have His justice satisfied: and therefore we must make
    this full satisfaction, either by ourselves, or by another.
    
Q. 13: Can we ourselves then make this satisfaction?
    
A. By no means; but on the contrary we daily increase our debt.
    
Q. 14: Can there be found anywhere, one, who is a mere creature,
    able to satisfy for us?
    
A. None; for, first, God will not punish any other creature for the
    sin which man has committed; and further, no mere creature can
    sustain the burden of God's eternal wrath against sin, so as to
    deliver others from it.
    
Q. 15: What sort of a mediator and deliverer then must we seek for?
    
A. For one who is very man, and perfectly righteous; and yet more
    powerful than all creatures; that is, one who is also very God.
    
    Hear in this Lord's Day the anguished cry of the convinced
sinner, and learn
    
      I by whom this cry is uttered,
    
     II by what only means an answer to this cry is possible,
    
    III which sure way is shown in answer to this cry.
    
    I
    
    The first question of this Lord's Day tells us by whom this
anguished cry is uttered: it is the troubled sinner who sees no way
of escape. All his attempts proved unsatisfactory and at wit's end
he cries, "Is there no way by which we may escape that punishment,
and be again received into favour?" It is a cry for deliverance,
while submitting to God's justice, for the questioner acknowledges
that by the righteous judgment of God he deserves temporal and
eternal punishment. The doctrine that God, according to His
unalterable righteousness, can not but punish our original and
actual sin with temporal and eternal punishment, may be too hard for
many, but he who through grace has seen the state of His misery
acknowledges God's justice. Without making any allowances, he admits
that according to the righteous judgment of God he has merited those
punishments. God's holy law wrought within him the knowledge of sin
by the operation of the Holy Spirit, so that he experienced that he
could not keep the law of God, because he is prone by nature to hate
God and his neighbor. In the depth of misery he saw that he was a
transgressor of all God's commandments, unable to keep one of them,
try as he may. He counts the irrational creatures happier than
himself. It seems to him that the stones of the street call to him
that he does not deserve to tread upon the earth, and that all men
can read upon his forehead how miserable he is, and that, as Lord's
Day 3 showed, by his own fault.
    
    Oh, such a man will not blame God for his misery, but
acknowledges that he himself is the cause of it, because of willful
disobedience and breach of the covenant in Adam. In Adam he himself
broke the Covenant of Works. Adam's sin is his sin, increased by him
daily. God therefore must punish that sin with the judgment of
eternal death. How can it be otherwise? Moreover he has learned to
love the righteousness of God, and he would not use any way of
escape that does not glorify all God's perfections. But that makes
his salvation impossible and cuts off all his hope. We must notice
that in those that are savingly convicted, a submission to the
justice of God is wrought. Such a convicted sinner could never,
though he were assigned to hell, curse God, but would eternally cry
out that God is righteous. He would subtract nothing from the
righteousness of God. He will thus bow under God and cry for a way
of escape, only when all hope of being saved by the works of the law
is cut off. When the Holy Spirit leads His people, Law and Gospel,
Moses and Christ are not intermixed. As it is His work to glorify
the work of Christ in the elect, so it is His ministry to remove
from man all grounds outside of the only Mediator.
    
    We can never rightly value the Lord Jesus without forsaking all
outside of Him, and he who never learned to see his own works as
insufficient for salvation has never truly sought refuge in Christ
by faith. Yea, the people drawn by God, that seek too much to
satisfy God and make their tears and experiences their ground,
rather than Him Who is the stone laid by God as the headstone of the
corner, that people must be deprived of all that in which they seek
life. As entirely lost persons, they must seek a way by which they
can again be received into favour, a way revealed by God. The Lord
taketh away the first that He may establish the second. Then the
dire need of their soul causes them to persist in beseeching and
crying to God, Who draws them with the cords of His loving kindness
and leads them with weeping and supplication. Ahab humbled himself
only outwardly, but knew nothing of true humiliation before God, nor
of true seeking after God. But the sinner, convinced by the Holy
Spirit, who is willing to sign his death sentence with his own
blood, nevertheless cries to God, "Is there no way by which we may
escape that judgment?" "With men," the Lord Jesus once said, "that
is impossible, but it is possible with God." And although the fear
is great, and the way is narrow, still there is in the heart of the
sinner who submits to the righteousness of God, a hope in God that
with Him a way of escape is possible. This causes him to persevere
and cry, "Is there still a way, a way with Thee, O God, a way in
which we can both escape the well-deserved punishment and be again
received in favour?"
    
    To be again received into favour, means to be restored into
God's favour and fellowship. The purpose of the lost sinner is not
only to be relieved from the punishment of hell, but his soul
desires to be again received into favour, that is to be restored
into communion with God. In the state of innocence Adam did not need
grace, as we do for the forgiveness of our sins; for in that state
man had no sin, but lived in the blessed fellowship and favour of
God. By sin that communion was broken, and after that communion the
convicted sinner thirsts. He wants God. How many are stricken in
their conscience for a while, and fear hell; but if the fear of
eternal condemnation is taken away, they are at rest. But he who
learns to know truly his sinful heart, who by a saving discovery of
his state of misery sees the righteous judgment of God, thirsts
after God as a heart after the water brooks, after reconciliation
with God and restoration in His favour. He loves God, however much
he has provoked Him with his sins, and that love seeks not only to
escape the righteous judgment, but also to attain communion with
God. That is what the question means: "Is there no way by which we
may escape that punishment, and be again received into favour?" That
is a mark of the true work of grace. He who is a stranger of this
thirsting after God, has no knowledge of the life that is born of

God.
    
    This asking about being received into favour, keeps the soul
from taking any rest until it has found peace with God in Christ.
The efficacious, clear discovery of the Holy Spirit is profitable to
the soul itself, because it drives us from all rest outside of
Christ and causes us to remain active to rest by faith in God. There
is nothing more harmful to the people of God than to rest in the
grace received. This is the fruit of the redemption in Christ, but
not the ground upon which we may rest. Oh, how necessary it is that
we see our state of deep misery in order that we may again be
received into favour, and reconciled with God in Christ, may have
communion with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. To have that
communion is the main purpose, for that was broken by our fall.
God's elect are, however, in Christ, in whom the Father is well
pleased, returned to the Father's heart of love, not only in the
closing of the covenant in eternity, when Christ was by the Father,
as one brought up with Him, and was daily His delight, rejoicing
always before Him, rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth, and
His delights were with the sons of men; but those given by the
Father to Christ, were also restored into reconciled relationship
and communion with God, when their Surety and Savior had paid all
their debt by death, and having risen again, ascended to heaven and
sits at the right hand of God. Then all the elect were placed in
heaven with Him. And both in the Covenant of Grace in eternity, and
in the execution of it in Christ, God's people are restored in a
state of reconciliation and communion with God. Upon that foundation
alone their guilt and punishment is removed and they, who are
children of wrath as all others, are again received into favour.
Then the Spirit of God shall bear witness with their spirit that
they are children of God. It is for this restoration in God's favour
that the totally lost sinner seeks. Is there no way to attain this
since all means from man's side are cut off? Deeply embarrassed, out
of the soul's great need, the child of Adam seeks it. The Catechism
instructs him,
    
    II
    
by what only means an answer to this cry is possible. The way is
shown
    
    A. by holding up the demand of God's justice;
    
    B. by showing how impossible it is for man to give satisfaction.
    
    In the answer to the 12th question the instructor again places
the perplexed sinner, in whom all hope of being saved is taken away,
before the justice of God, saying, "God will have His justice
satisfied, and therefore we must make full satisfaction, either by
ourselves or by another." Many would call this a very harsh answer.
If such a person in such a state would come to you or to me, asking,
"Is there still a way for me to be saved?" would we not be inclined
to encourage him with all kinds of comforting texts? Do not
thousands call, "Just believe in Jesus?" Yea, everyone is urged to
do so, even if the arrows of God's law have not wounded his soul.
Compare such an answer to one that says that God will have His
justice satisfied, and He demands payment in full. We must pay, even
to the last penny.
    
    Oh, let us cease building upon frames and feelings. If they
truly see that they are guilty of transgressing God's law and are
subject to the righteous judgment of God, they shall disdain your
hollow comforts, and if they rely upon them, they shall draw the
soul away from Christ. The damage done by disregarding the
inexorable demand of God's righteousness can never be described. And
now, I am not only thinking of the Orpah's who are fond of God's
people and do want to live with them until they fall away, but I am
thinking especially of those who have been quickened by the Lord out
of their state of death, who complain as a living man about their
sins. The damage done is unspeakably great if they are not placed
before God's judgment seat. Christ shall never be desirable for them
if they do not learn what it means, that God's justice must receive
full satisfaction; and they cannot give that satisfaction with their
convictions, tears, prayers, and promises. God cannot be content
with their good intentions. The Pelagian, the Armenian and the
Modernist would leave no room for God's righteousness, and the
Socinians would mock this doctrine, but God demands perfect
satisfaction, perfect obedience to the law on pain of death to all
eternity. Therefore the Roman Catholic Church sinks away with all
its good works, as the house of the foolish builder, "which built
his house upon the sand."
    
    The satisfaction which God demands is bearing the punishment
threatened upon sin, and rendering perfect obedience to the law. If
God could subtract even the very least part of this demand, why
could He not just as well, as the wicked Socinian teaches, give up
entirely the demand of His righteousness and forgive sins without
demanding satisfaction? In the previous Lord's Day already we
observed that this heretic teaches that God forgives sins without
asking satisfaction. According to Socinus, forgiving excludes
satisfaction. If we are able to pay our neighbor what we owe him, we
neither ask nor accept forgiveness. How then can we speak of God
forgiving sin only when His justice is fully satisfied? Because the
forgiveness by which God blots the sins of His people out of His
book, does not rest upon a satisfaction brought by the elect, but by
God Himself. God's only and natural Son, He Who with the Father and
the Holy Spirit is the true and eternal God, has paid the penalty
for His people by His suffering and death in our human nature. The
elect are reconciled to God by God. They themselves did not pay even
the smallest part of the huge debt which is entirely forgiven them.
The demand of satisfaction to the violated righteousness of God
rested upon Christ as the Surety of His people. God Himself paid in
full by His active and passive obedience, but the sins of God's
elect are forgiven freely out of God's grace which is in Christ
Jesus. Therefore forgiving does not preclude the demand of full
satisfaction.
    
    Socinus also contested the doctrine of reconciliation by the
passion and death of Christ as impossible. Among men a surety can
only function in the case of financial debt, but for one person to
die in the place of another is impossible and contrary to justice.
The crime that is punishable by death, is of a different character;
the lawgiver can avenge this guilt only upon the transgressor
himself. Yes, indeed, among men this rule of justice holds, but it
has no force in regard to the suretyship of Christ. As Adam
represented all his posterity in the Covenant of Works, and through
him death came upon all those whom he represented, thus Christ could
represent His elect in the Covenant of Grace, and engage His heart
to approach unto God for them, giving Himself unto death, so that as
by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of One, many shall be made righteous, that as sin has
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
    
    Moreover, no man's life is in his own power, and therefore he
may not give his life in the place of one condemned to die. Indeed,
this rule of justice applies to men. But the Lord Jesus testified,
"I have power to lay down my life, and to take it again." He could
lay down His life, He could give Himself into death for His people,
for He had power to take His life again. In His death He destroyed
him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. He did not
enter death to remain there, but to conquer death. The righteousness
of His Father demanded His resurrection from the dead, and by His
own power He rose again from the dead. Thus His death is not only a
satisfaction of God's justice, but it is also a triumph of Him as
the Surety of the Covenant. Jesus entered into death, not as a
martyr who has no power to save himself, but as the Lion of the
tribe of Judah, sure of His victory, and rejoicing in the
satisfaction He rendered to the righteousness of God, so that the
sins of His people could be forgiven without violating God's
justice, and thus the good pleasure of God would be accomplished.
Thus the lying objections of the Socinians fall away completely.
Sins can be forgiven only when God's justice is satisfied. Otherwise
why should it have been necessary for God to send His only-begotten
Son into the world, and cause Him to bear the burden of His eternal
wrath?
    
    Moreover, God's righteousness demanded a perfect satisfaction,
both by perfect obedience to all the commandments, and by suffering
and bearing the penalty threatened upon transgression. As impossible
as it is that God should cease to be God, so impossible it is that
God should be content with a partial payment, overlooking the rest,
even though that were but a very small amount. The law curses
everyone that continues not in all things which are written in the
book of the law to do them, and that curse that rests upon Adam and
all his posterity can only be taken away by rendering perfect
satisfaction to the justice of God. Either we or someone else in our
place must render this perfect satisfaction. God binds this demand
upon the soul of His people while they have not a penny to pay for
their great debt, and this demand is maintained by the instructor.
The enemies of this doctrine may mock and say it is a hard,
merciless doctrine; the upright in Zion fully agree with it. They do
not desire anything else. It is for God's honour; His righteousness
may not be violated. They desire to be redeemed with righteousness.
It is that which causes so much strife within, for how shall that
righteousness be satisfied?
    
    But did not the Lord Jesus come into the world for this purpose?
Has He not cried out, "It is finished?" Certainly, but they do not
know Him even though He has been preached to them from their youth.
They must be prepared to know Him as the way, the truth and the
life. And that preparation takes place when the demand of God's
righteousness which cannot be escaped penetrates their soul. No, the
answer of the instructor is not too hard and merciless, for it leads
to Christ, to redemption, in Him Who shall manifest Himself unto
them as He does not do unto the world.
    
    The debt must be paid, paid in full, either by ourselves or by
another.
    
    "Can we ourselves then make this satisfaction?"
    
    "By no means." In whatever way you take it, from whatever angle
you view it, payment by ourselves is impossible. The law, having
become weak through the flesh, could not justify anyone before God.
    
    "Wherefore," asks the Lord, "do you spend money for that which
is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not?" We
ourselves cannot pay, not even one penny.
    
    And what is worse, we increase our debt daily. Every person adds
sin upon sin every day until God can no longer endure them, and the
convinced sinner is aware of this. They have experienced it. They
have exerted every effort since the law wrought in their heart the
knowledge of sin, but they seemed to become worse from day to day.
Often they dared not close their eyes at night for fear they would
open them in hell. They spend their nights sighing. They must give
up the hope of ever rendering satisfaction to God's righteousness by
themselves.
    
    And by another? Let us remember that he who would pay for
another must be one with the debtor before the law, must stand in
his place, make his debt his own, obliging himself to pay the debt
for him in full. The law's demand of suffering the penalty and
rendering perfect obedience is then made upon the one who gave
himself as surety. The law pursues the surety, the righteousness of
God demands of him the same that was demanded of the original
debtor. And if the surety gives satisfaction, this satisfaction is
accepted in the place of the satisfaction God demanded of the one
for whom he was surety. But where can we find such a one? Among the
creatures it is impossible. Who could that other one be? The blood
of bulls and of goats can not satisfy God's justice. The holy angels
cannot be our mediators. God's righteousness would not permit it.
Man has sinned and man must pay; God will not lay the penalty upon
another creature. Moreover, man is subject to God's punishment in
both body and soul, and the angels have neither body nor soul. How
then can they bear our punishment? The devils shall be subject to
God's wrath in the everlasting fire only in their nature as angels.
Moreover, eternal punishment must follow sin, under which a creature
would have to suffer eternally, and therefore no mere creature can
take away the eternal wrath of God against sin.
    
    This is also true of mere man, as we shall see in the following
Lord's Day. But what about the saints? Saints are only they who by
faith have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore,
and for that reason only are they before the throne. They also were
fallen in Adam, subject to death and condemnation, and they were
saved only by grace through the death of Christ. They themselves
have never been able to satisfy God's justice. It is of them the
instructor speaks when he says, "No mere creature can sustain the
burden of God's eternal wrath against sin, so as to deliver others
from it." When Rome seeks the favour and intercession of the saints
and good works, it shows plainly that it has not the least
understanding of the righteousness of God that demands perfect
satisfaction.
    
    God's people are bowed down under that demand, and they lose all
expectation of themselves and of all creatures. Although the love of
God to His people is very great because they have been renewed after
His image, they fall away when placed before His righteousness.
There before God's judgment seat each person shall stand alone some
day to give an account of himself; and before that by God's people
are placed in this life, laden with origins] and actual sin. No
creature in heaven or on earth can pay the penalty. They expect
nothing but the execution of the curse pronounced upon sin.
    
    But still ... there is hope, which shines through the sharp
answer of the instructor, hope even though God will not punish
another creature for the guilt man has made, this does not exclude
the possibility of a person being a surety for fallen sinners. We
must pay ourselves or by another. Angels cannot pay and saints have
not a penny for others, and still in the third place,
    
    III
    
a sure way is shown in answer to this cry. Let us briefly give that
our attention. The 6th Lord's Day will give us more instruction on
this point, but here already the way is shown when the instructor
tells us that we must seek a mediator and deliverer who is very man,
and perfectly righteous, yet more powerful than all creatures, that
is: one that is also very God. Only such a mediator and deliverer
shall satisfy the demand of God's righteousness and can deliver from
the curse of the law.
    
    A mediator is someone who stands between two parties to
reconcile them to each other. The Mediator spoken of here stands
between God Who is angry on account of sin and a condemned sinner,
to reconcile God with His people and remove the curse from His
people forever. That Mediator is at the same time a Deliverer. He
delivers from the curse and dominion and penalty of sin; He delivers
from the power of Satan. He frees those for whom He mediates. This
He does freely in His eternal love, putting Himself in their place.
The spotless Lamb of God became the guilty debtor in the place o$
His elect, and they became the righteousness of God in Him.
    
    Isaiah speaks very clearly of the substitutionary work of the
Mediator, saying, "But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was
bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon
Him and by His stripes we are healed." However He only could do this
who is not only very man and perfectly righteous, but also very God.
The next Lord's Day we are told who that Mediator is. As it were out
of travail of the soul, convinced of His sin and misery, He comes
forth in the knowledge of faith. The drawing power of His love may
be felt in their heart for some time, and His fruit may refresh them
while His person may still be concealed from them. That causes much
agony, for their debt burdens them, and the law pursues them.
Therefore their soul calls for a Mediator and Deliverer who can
satisfy God's justice. That cry of need causes them to use the words
of the psalmist which we shall sing
    
        "Out of the depths I cry, O Lord, to Thee,
        Lord, hear my call" etc. Psalter No. 362 st. 1
    
    Application
    
    Beloved, do you fully agree with the doctrine that maintains the
righteousness of God and demands full satisfaction from you and me
even unto the last penny? The church wavers upon its foundation if
even the least is detracted from this doctrine. Yet everywhere this
doctrine is pushed to the background. Not only do the Pelagians and
Socinians deny it, but even among those churches which want to be
considered Reformed, the just demand of the perfect obedience to
God's law is relegated to the background, while the so-called
command of the Gospel to believe and be converted is in the
foreground. But what is the Gospel without man's state of misery?
God's justice must be perfectly satisfied and the Gospel tells us by
Whom and in what manner that satisfaction was given for God's elect.
Oh that we would take instruction from the Word of God so clearly
presented in the Catechism. God wills, not arbitrarily, but because
of the perfection of His Divine Being, that His justice shall be
perfectly satisfied. Do not, my hearers, give up even the least bit
of that demand. May God keep His church from falling away to the
Socinians who make a mockery of God's just demand, or to the
Pelagians who rob God of His honour, or to the Roman Catholics who
glory in their works.
    
    We must pay, pay in full, and we cannot, not even for one of all
our sins. Therefore we need a Surety, Who will pay for us; a
Mediator, Who is very God and also very man and perfectly righteous.
Search continually our old famous theologians; consider, and
assimilate what they, who were so enlightened by God's Spirit and
have battled with so many erring spirits, have left us. Many have
attended from their youth the reading of those sermons in the House
of God. May God keep us with those truths. Has what you read in
Smijtegeldt, Justus Vermeer, Vander Kemp, Comrie, and many others,
been different from what the Heidelberg Catechism teaches? Do not
allow these new presentations given in these days draw you away from
the old tried truths. In the works of those strict Reformed fathers,
you have never found the doctrine of general atonement, kept alive
by Pelagius, as though Christ died for all men; nor the gladly
accepted Barthian theory, propagated by Prof. Niftrik, published in
our country, and taught in many schools; nor the doctrine of three
covenants that makes the covenant of grace merely an offer of grace
which must be accepted. The old writers place the state of death in
the foreground and by maintaining God's righteous demand that His
justice be satisfied, they have cut off all hope of being saved,
even, as we observed the appeal to God's mercy. Justice must run its
course, and that justice was satisfied, for God's elect, by the
sacrifice of Christ. Away with your works, your prayers, your tears;
we all need a Mediator Who is very God and very, and righteous man.
    
    Dare anyone say that with this doctrine man's responsibility for
all his deeds, and especially for the callings of the Gospel that
come to him is not maintained? How much labor has God bestowed on
us! In the external call He invites all those who hear the Word,
none excepted. No one is excluded; no one has sinned too long or too
grievously. Even publicans and harlots were not turned away by
Jesus. Can anyone of us say, "That call of Christ is not for me?"
Yet we will not come to Him. He testifies of us, as He did of
Jerusalem, "How often would I have gathered thy children together,
as a hen does gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not."
    
    Shall He then not one day say, "But those that would not that I
should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me?" Oh,
I pray you, bind the Word of God about your neck; read, search the
Scriptures, do not neglect the means of grace given by God; always
occupy your seat in catechism and in church. Parents, take your
children with you when you go to hear the preaching of the Word.
Keep your eye upon them, so that they shall listen. Speak often with
each other about the true doctrine and withdraw from the pleasures
of the world. Young and old, bow before God and pray Him to use the
preaching for your salvation. Doing all this does not bring you one
step nearer to your salvation, oh, no! but it may please the Lord
out of pure mercy to bless the means, so that you may discover your
state of misery and learn to pray and knock as a poor lost sinner at
His throne of grace. We must first learn to know our state of misery
before we shall pray to God for grace. The discovering of our misery
is the work of the Holy Spirit. May He convince you of it, and stir
you up out of your deadly carelessness before the time of grace for
you shall be passed. Today, if ye hear His voice, harden not your
heart.
    
    Let the people of God testify, however varied their way may have
been, whether the Lord perhaps had called to them from their
childhood days, they would never have truly prayed to God, if the
Lord had not prevailed upon them. He opened their eyes for their
state of deep misery; He convinced them of their sins; He summoned
them before His judgment seat. And then? Then they became the most
miserable of all men. Did not God's law demand of them what they
could not perform? Did not all their sins testify against them, yea,
even their best works? And still they must justify the demand and
the judgment of God and acknowledge that they are worthy of death.
With childlike simplicity they agree with the instructor before Him
Who knows the heart, "By the righteous judgment of God we have
deserved God's temporal and eternal punishment." Moreover, there is
no way of escape. Blessed are they who arrive at wit's end. They
cannot live without that only Mediator. Although He is still
concealed for them, although they cannot save themselves with their
historical faith, their soul is prompted to seek salvation in Him.
    
    Continue in prayer and supplication before God's throne of mercy
until He manifests Himself to you as He does not to the world. Has
He not promised His guilty and lost people that He will not tarry,
and that He shall not forsake the work of His own hands? May He
enlighten your eyes so that you may see the King in His beauty. It
would become so different in you if that only way that leads to life
were but revealed to you. Out of His fullness His people receive
grace for grace. He caused them to awake out of their state of
death, but He also wants them to understand thoroughly that
salvation without Him is impossible, and for that purpose He takes
away all grounds upon which they might rest. We must seek a Mediator
who is both God and man. Seek Him constantly; seek Him, that your
guilt may be pardoned, that your iniquity may be removed, and that
you may be restored in the fellowship with God. Oh, people of God,
give your soul no rest except in this only Mediator. He is also the
Fountain of life for His own. Oh that we would more and more seek
our life in Him. Outside of that Mediator who is very man and
perfectly righteous, and yet more powerful than all creatures, that
is, one who is also very God, we have no access to the Father. The
redemption of lost sinners was so great a work that it could only be
brought about by Him, Who is both God and man. One day that great
work of redemption shall be obtained in perfect glory. This is
acknowledged even in this life by faith. Therefore God's children
fall down in adoration and amazement at Jesus' feet crying out, "He
is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand," and to all
eternity they shall praise Him Who redeemed them to God by His
blood. Amen.
    


(continued in part 7...)



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