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 Into the depths of the sea! -boston


[b]Into the depths of the sea![/b]

(Thomas Boston, "Human Nature in its Fourfold State")

The sinner outside of Christ is bound over to the wrath of
God; he is under an obligation in law to go to the prison of
hell, and there to lie until he has paid the utmost farthing.

"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who
are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1

The believer's sins are pardoned, the guilt of them is removed.
The bond obliging him to pay his debt is canceled. God the
Father takes the pen, dips it in the blood of His Son, crosses
off the sinner's accounts, and blots them out of His debt-book.

Being united to Christ, God says, "Deliver him from going down
to the pit; I have found a ransom!" Job 33:24. The sentence of
condemnation is reversed, the believer is absolved, and set
beyond the reach of the condemning law. His sins, which before
were set before the Lord, Psalm 90:8, so that they could not be
hidden--God now takes and casts them all behind His back, Isaiah
38:17. Yes, "You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our
iniquities into the depths of the sea." Micah 7:19.

What falls into a brook may be retrieved--but what is cast into
the sea cannot be recovered. But there are some shallow places
in the sea; true--but their sins are not cast in there--but into the
depths of the sea. The depths of the sea are devouring depths,
from whence their sins shall never come forth again. But what
if they do not sink? He will hurl them in with force, so that they
shall go to the bottom, and sink as lead in the mighty waters
of the Redeemer's blood!

They are not only forgiven--but forgotten, Jer. 31:34, "I will
forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
And though their after-sins do in themselves deserve eternal
wrath, and do actually make them liable to temporal strokes,
and fatherly chastisements, according to the tenor of the
covenant of grace, Psalm 89:30-33--yet they can never be
actually liable to eternal wrath.



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SI Moderator - Greg Gordon

 2007/1/23 23:56Profile
Compton
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Joined: 2005/2/24
Posts: 2732


 Re: Into the depths of the sea! -boston

Thank you much Greg. Sadly it often seems all too easy for me to scan the facts without meditating upon the reality of this unimaginable miracle.

Quote:
The believer's sins are pardoned, the guilt of them is removed.



I think we may never be so confident of our conversions as when we richly taste the richness of God's forgiveness in our most secret lives. There can be no substitue in personal salvation for tasting forgiveness ourselves. The testimony of many great men of God affirms this. Many of them, from Wesley, to Moody, to Watchman Nee, and many others had this testimony in common: They gladly acknowledged forgiveness as a great theological recipe, but through a desperate crisis they were transformed so that they could praise God exponentially more as their theology became testimony.

Is this our testimony? That though we must live and breathe within our formerly sin riddled fleshly exteriors, we have been inwardly regenerated for Heaven!

Some men easily confess that they have failed to reach their own moral ambitions. Yet this sinner's self critique, however humble it may seem, is often no more then a displacement of God's verdict upon them...it is more pride added to their record of offenses. If only men can see that their moral diagnosis is contempt of court..their attempt at self-measurement is a challenge to the rule of God.

Forgiveness from God can only follow guilt from God. We cannot say that a man who is sorely dissapointed with himself is yet ready for salvation. He must know that God is dissapointed with him. In this light we can say salvation does not begin with a sense of forgiveness, but with being made sensible of condemnation...to be sentenced and made to face the gallows we deserve.

For some, it is dread, and not forgiveness, that is the first saving grace of God...an awful but awakening grace. How blessed is the poor in spirit who can say to God let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

For this reason, we pray that this dreadful grace falls upon many churches in this hour, that many more may have a testimony of forgiveness poured into their theology.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you...
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart.

Blessings saints,

MC


_________________
Mike Compton

 2007/1/24 2:06Profile





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