Praise the Lord, that when He moved upon men to write the Holy Scriptures He did not gloss over nor minimize the awful effect of sin upon man when he fell in Adam in the Garden of Eden. No, the Scriptures declare man to be a sinner, having come short of the glory of God, a sinner whose “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9), from which proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemies, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things show that man’s fall in sin makes him a depraved creature before God. Every faculty of his being is in a state of enmity and active rebellion against God, for he hates God, His Christ and His Word, holiness and righteousness, and instead loves every form of evil to the extent that he would rather be damned than to give up his ways, his thoughts, and his “right” to do with himself as he pleases.

So every sinner outside of Christ is subject to the woes spoken of in Romans 1:24, 26, 27, and 28, when mercy and divine patience are not acted upon in heartfelt repentance, and the heart is not moved to embrace Christ as the only Lord and Savior of the never-dying soul. Then the light goes out on the road to hell, and the soul is abandoned by God to uncleanness, vile affections, and a reprobate mind.

Let us look further at these verses to see what they teach us about the sad state of those who are given up and given over to their hearts’ desire to have their fill of sin. First, verse 24 reads, “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves.” Another translation reads: “Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their own hearts to sexual impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves, abandoning them to the degrading power of sin.”

Since men choose to give up God and worship the creature, God does nothing more than give men up to the control of the sinful things they prefer above Him. You see, when men persist in following their totally depraved natures, God allows them free rein to do as they please in sin.

Now the natural result of God’s giving man free rein to his lust leads to immorality of the vilest kind. The expression “God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts” means He gave them over to profligate living, that is, living which is described as being immoral, debauched, vicious, licentious, debased, corrupt, degenerate, wild, depraved, and evil. In other words, God abandons them to their own hearts’ desires and their passionate cravings; and sin does nothing but beget sin, so there is no limit to which they will go to dishonor their own bodies between themselves to satisfy their passions and cravings.

In the last three decades we have seen this Scripture fulfilled before our very eyes. Men and women, young people, boys and girls have been swept up in the so-called “sexual revolution,” and every moral restraint has been broken down. They have given themselves over to the lust of their own hearts in every type of sexual perversion: fornication among singles, adultery among the married, lesbianism among women, homosexuality among men, and sex orgies and parties among all age groups. Every damnable, lustful thing that could be imagined by man, given to him from the devil himself, pours forth from television, radio, movie theaters, the stage, rock music, magazines, books, and newspapers. Everything is calculated to appeal to the base lust of man; therefore, all of this has become the norm. Men no longer hold to anything decent, for chastity, modesty, morality, and marriage vows are laughed at, made fun of, and relegated to the scrap heap of oblivion or to the “Puritan age.” The cry is, “We are free to do our own thing, without the restraints of past generations!” But oh, my dear reader, you are not free, you are only a servant to sin, held captive by Satan and taken captive by him at his will!

“To dishonour their own bodies between themselves” means that men are so given over to the lust of their hearts to “fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind” (Ephesians 2:3) that they have become bestial—their animal passions have made them like beasts! You can’t pick up a newspaper today without reading reports of rape, incest, sex-related murders, cruelty, viciousness, and the brutality of men and women who have been given over to their depraved, lustful minds. They have become sadists. And when you add alcohol or drugs to this, and the stirring up of sexual desires by rock music, you have men turned into beasts, and brutality becomes the standard of the day.

This is awful, when men who are already depraved are given up by God to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts. But this is the day in which we are living, and men love it because they hate God, His holiness, His restraint, and His way of grace, which is the narrow way in Christ.

Not only is sexual filth and bestial behavior meant by the words “God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves,” but also the filth of the tongue that comes from the wicked heart in the form of cursing, blasphemy, swearing, abusive and vile language, irreverence to God’s name and the name of His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The lust or desire of the heart in expressing itself does so in that which is unclean, impure, dirty, foul, polluted, filthy, lewd, and indecent. This describes the generation in which we are living and the individuals who have been given up by God to their hearts’ desires to live their lives as they please with no restraints. This is the road to hell, for Proverbs 14:12 tells us, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

You see, men think that while they go on in their way, in the lust and filth of their sins, giving vent to all the cravings of their passions, all is well with their never-dying souls and they will surely go to heaven when they die. But they are deceived! All the time they are heading straight for the pit of hell! “Many will say to me [Christ] in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? ...And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22,23).

Let me probe your heart. Are you saying, “Lord, Lord,” and all the while “living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another” (Titus 3:3)? Are you saying, “Lord, Lord,” and all the while living in the lusts of your flesh, “fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind” (Ephesians 2:3)? Are you saying, “Lord, Lord,” and all the while living in subjection to those animal impulses and all that is earthly in that which is employed in sin: sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, greed, and covetousness? Then you are deceived, for covetousness and greed are idolatry, deifying self and other created things instead of God (Colossians 3:5).

But the salvation that God gives in Christ is a holy salvation, for it is written that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). Holiness is worked in our hearts and lives by the Holy Spirit; we trust in a holy God who has called us with a holy calling to a life of holiness; and by the grace of God, we are going to a holy place called heaven, and nothing shall enter into that place that defiles or works abomination or makes a lie. Therefore, “as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, be ye holy; for I am holy” (I Peter 1:15,16).

My dear reader, are you walking in a way of holiness, desiring to live a holy life in Christ, or are you walking after the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind? Are you a child of wrath? We should think upon these things and make our calling and election sure.

You may say, “But I don’t live like that; I am moral and upright and live a clean life. I wouldn’t think of living the way you have described today!” All right, then, let me ask another question: Does Romans 1:32 apply to you— “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them”? Do you take pleasure in the sins of others? Do you read the filthy things that are written about the lives of others and take pleasure in what they do? Do you read the things that are written about the debauched lives of rock stars and movie and TV stars, and take pleasure in what they do? Do you sit and watch the movies and TV with delight and pleasure, and are you taken up with the infidelity, fornication, whoremongering, lying, stealing, and everything else they portray? Then you are partakers with them, for you are putting your stamp of approval upon their lives and the lives of those they portray! If you like that kind of entertainment, if you like to eat that kind of garbage and to drink from those kinds of wells, you are really revealing your own heart! You are showing that you approve of sin; therefore, your heart is in the same condition as theirs, and you care nothing for holiness and righteous living before God.

God help us to seek His face and turn by His grace from our wicked ways, confessing our sins and our need of Christ and His cleansing blood!

As we move on in our study, we see that God, in His wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness, has not only given men and women over to uncleanness, but also to vile affections. Look at verse 26: “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections [to disgraceful and dishonorable and shameful passions]; for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature.” Even the women perverted the natural use of their bodies to the unnatural, turning against God’s natural plan and indulging in sexual sin with each other. And in verse 27 we read, “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.” Or, to put it another way, “In like manner also even the males, leaving the natural use of the female, were consumed with passion for one another, men with men working abomination, and incurred in their own persons the inevitable penalty of their own perversion.”

These verses of Scripture describe for us the awful ruin of man in sin and the depths to which men and women fall in sin when God gives them up to their hearts’ desires. He gives them over to the most disgraceful, shameful, and degrading sins, the sins of lesbianism and homosexuality, or sodomy. He abandons them to their own hearts’ desires, and they receive in this life the inevitable penalty of their own perversion, and in the life to come, judgment and wrath. This is what happens when men and women, young people, boys and girls change the truth of God into a lie and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. You and I both know that this describes the day in which we are living, for we see everywhere the results of this perversion.

In Luke 17:28-32 we are warned that as judgment fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah because their sin was very grievous against God and it cried unto Him because of its greatness, so judgment has fallen and will fall upon our nation and the nations of the earth, for this same sin cries unto God because of its greatness against His holiness. We are seeing homosexuality and homosexual sympathizers who have become bolder and bolder. Instead of “hiding in the closet” as in years past, they have gone public, boasting of their unnatural and ungodly perversion. Is this not reminiscent of the days of Lot? They are doing the same thing that Isaiah said of ruined Jerusalem and fallen Judah: “They declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not! Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves” (Isaiah 3:9). Are we not seeing this today? Are not men receiving in their own bodies that recompense of this sin? Of course they are! What about the diseases we are seeing today among homosexuals? AIDS is spreading like wildfire. Is not this the judgment of God upon sin—willful disobedience to the Word of God?

Satan has men blinded to their condition before God and to the judgment that awaits them because of sin! We are in the days of Lot, when they did eat and drink, buy and sell, plant and build, at the same time indulging in the awful sin of homosexuality: “But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all!” Oh, that we would hear God’s warning: “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed” (Luke 17:28, 30)!

The sins of sodomy, homosexuality, and lesbianism God hates, and yet we are asked to accept and sanction that which God in His holy Word has called an abomination in His sight. We are asked to give people “their right” to practice and promote their immoral acts, because they enjoy what they are doing and claim it is only an “alternative life-style,” even though God’s Word says they are marked for judgment.

To the law and to the testimony: What does God’s Word say about sodomy, homosexuality and lesbianism? It’s not what we think, or what some news reporter, or talk show host, or teacher, or preacher, or psychiatrist, or the poor souls caught in this sin say about it; but this is what God’s Word says: “There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel” (Deuteronomy 23:17). The Hebrew will bear out that the word “whore” used here can be translated “sodomitess” or “lesbian,” for the word is the feminine of sodomy. We can read the verse as follows: “There shall be no lesbian of the daughters of Israel, nor a homosexual of the sons of Israel.” This does not leave any doubt as to what God’s Word says about the matter. His attitude toward the practice has not changed, because He does not change. It is still a sin and is hated by the Holy God.

In addition, very strong language is used in verse 18: “Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.” Here again the Hebrew will bear out that the word “whore” can be translated “sodomitess” or “lesbian”; and to show God’s utter contempt for this awful sin, God calls a homosexual or sodomitess a dog! It makes me shudder to think of the awfulness of this sin in the sight of God, and of God’s pronounced judgment against it.

With this thought in mind, let us look back at verses 26 and 27 in Romans 1, where we find that the words “women” and “men” should be translated “female” and “male,” which puts them on the level of beasts, given over to the disgraceful affections of their own depraved hearts, abandoned by God to the awful judgment which awaits those who practice these sins.

Further, in Leviticus 18:22 God’s Word calls this sin an abomination in His sight: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with woman-kind: it is abomination.” Or, it could read, “homosexuality is absolutely forbidden, for it is an enormous sin.” This same commandment is still in effect today, for God has not changed.

Now look at Leviticus 20:13 and hear God’s judgment upon this sin in the days of Moses. As God has not changed, His attitude toward homosexuality is still the same today. It shall be punished in the day of judgment unless it is confessed, repented of, and washed in the blood of Christ. “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” The penalty for homosexual acts is death to both parties. They have brought it upon themselves. Let me repeat: God has not changed, and this sin still bears the death penalty—not before man’s courts, but before the bar of God’s court. This is not my word but God’s Word. Saying that it is not a sin does not alter God’s Word. Saying that it is none of my business what you do does not alter the fact that it is sin in the sight of God and will bring down the wrath of God upon you if it is not confessed, repented of, and washed in the blood of Christ.

This sin of homosexuality is wrecking lives by the millions across the nation, and the casualties continue to increase as it is being presented to our young people as an “alternative life-style.” But they are not told about the loneliness such a life causes. They are not told that half of the people caught in this sin are dependent upon alcohol and drugs to keep them going. They are not told that over half of the suicides in this country are among homosexuals. They are not told that sexual diseases are rampant among those who practice this sin. They are not told of the guilt and shame felt by those caught in this mesh of Satan. They are not told that once caught in this sin, there is usually no escape except by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Then there is AIDS, the awful judgment that has fallen because of this sin. Let men say what they will, this disease is a judgment from God upon those who have defied Him and have said they will not turn from their wicked ways.

Here is what the New Testament has to say about the sin of homosexuality. In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 we read, “Have you forgotten that the kingdom of God will never belong to the wicked? Stop being misled; people who are sexually immoral, [those] who are guilty of adultery or of homosexual perversion... will [not] possess the kingdom of God.” Then in 1 Timothy 1:9-10 we read, “Keeping this in mind, that the law of God is against those who live unholy lives and insult holy things, those murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, and manslayers, immoral men and homosexuals, kidnappers, liars, those who bear false witness. And the law of God is against whatever else is opposed to sound Christian teaching.” What a word this is! God’s law is against sin, and listed right along with murderers and kidnappers is the man or woman who is caught in the sin of homosexuality. The law of God is against those who persist in this sin, and the soul that sins must die the second death in hell!

I don’t know who God has given up to this sin of homosexuality, so I will not say who can and cannot be saved, for surely God’s grace is sufficient to save any sinner. But I do know that if anyone caught in this sin is ever to be saved, he must face fairly and squarely the fact that what he is indulging in is sin, and that only by the grace of God and the power of God can he be delivered from it. The homosexual seeking help must begin at that point or he will not begin at all. This sin, like any other sin, must be confessed and laid out before God as sin. The poor soul must repent of it, hate it, turn from it, forsake it, and flee from it by the power of the Holy Spirit and by His grace, and turn to God in Christ, believing on Him as Lord and Savior, if he is ever to be delivered.

We come now to verse 28 in our study, and we find that God has given men and women over to a reprobate mind: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient,” that is, to do those things which are indecent, improper, and loathsome, until they were filled—permeated and saturated—with every kind of sin (see verses 29, 30, and 31).

Here in this verse we have man given over by God to the depravity of his own heart, to work every evil imaginable, until he is so saturated with sin that he is like the devil himself, nothing but sin and wickedness personified! A literal translation of this verse is: “And so, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider Him worth the knowing, God gave them over to a base and condemned mind to do things not proper or decent but loathsome.” Again, let us read it like this: “Moreover, since they considered themselves too high and mighty to acknowledge God, He allowed them to become the slaves of their degenerate minds, to perform unmentionable deeds.” Or, we can read it this way: “And even after putting God to the test for the purpose of approving Him should He meet the specifications, and finding that He did not, they disapproved of holding Him in their full and precise knowledge, God gave them up to a mind that would not meet the test for that which a mind was meant, to practice those things which were not becoming nor fitting.”

What these different translations bring out is this: The human race put God to the test for the purpose of approving Him should He meet the specifications which they laid down for a God who would be to their liking; and finding that He did not meet those specifications, they refused to approve Him as the God to be worshipped, or to have Him in their knowledge. This is also true of man today: He has put God on trial and found that He is not a God to his liking, so he worships and serves himself, and turns to his own way, walking in the paths of darkness and depravity. Then, because man has rejected God after trial, God has given him over to a mind incapable of discharging the functions for which a mind is meant. The things of salvation and of God are foolishness to him. Oh, how deep is the depravity of the human mind, affections, and will! So depraved is that which makes up man’s soul—his understanding, his reasoning capacity, his affections, his loving capacity, and his will or volitional capacity—that the divine distinctions of right and wrong are confused and lost, so God’s condemnation cannot but fall on him at last.

You can fight and argue all you want to about man’s free will in salvation, but this verse of Scripture puts all your arguments to naught; for your will can only choose what your understanding and affections, your reasoning capacity and your loving capacity, tell you to; and since God has given you over to a depraved mind in the fall, you will only choose that which is sinful and evil every time! Apart from the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit upon the soul, no man would be saved, for by nature no man wants the God of the Bible to rule over him, much less to fall down and worship that God. After all, this God does not meet man’s specifications: to let him go to heaven, yet have his fill of sin while still on this earth.

This is the reason man hates the narrow way of salvation; this is the reason man hates the terms of God’ s salvation, which are a complete surrender of the whole man to the whole Christ, bowing to Him as Lord. This is the reason man hates the terms of discipleship, the forsaking of all things and taking up the cross daily and following Christ. I say, this verse teaches that all men, in all ages, under all conditions, hate God, and will not seek God, trust in Christ, bow to His Lordship, and serve and worship Him daily, apart from the operation of the mighty grace of God in their souls by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit to enlighten, to draw the soul to Christ, and to give saving faith and repentance. In other words, every sinner is completely dependent upon God in the salvation of his soul.

Now let us look at the effects of God’s giving man over to a reprobate mind. When you understand what this word “reprobate” means, you can then fully understand the effects, for the word means that man has a mind that is depraved, corrupt, debauched, immoral, sinful, unprincipled, degenerate, evil, wicked, and shameless. All of these things are seen in the rich and the poor, the learned and the unlearned, men and women, young and old, those in high positions of society, and those in the low strata of society, people of all races, nations, and tongues. There is no difference—all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. These things are also found in those who profess religion without Christ and in those who profess no religion at all.

Let us take the case of abortion. I ask, Who has legalized the mass murder of our unborn babies? Who are they that would put their stamp of approval upon such evil, wicked, unprincipled, immoral, debauched, and shameless acts? They are the men and women who are in high office, those who have great education, those who for the most part are rich and who pride themselves upon being men of knowledge and understanding of our times. They are men who sit on the highest court in the land, and yet they are men of reprobate and depraved minds, who have been given up by God to do those things which are not convenient.

Who carries out these acts of legalized abortion which the reprobate minds of the learned have ordered—the butchering of our unborn babies? It is our doctors and nurses who perform these shameless acts, who, because of their wicked, debauched, unprincipled and covetous hearts and minds, do those things which are not convenient [that is, not decent] and have sold themselves to the devil to work these abominable deeds. Verse 28 reads that God has given them all over to a reprobate mind.

Another effect upon man today is in the craze for drugs of all types—especially cocaine. Why will doctors and lawyers and bankers—men of high education—sink so low as to be part of such a group that distributes mind-blinding, mind-ruining drugs which have blighted the lives of millions of our young people? It is because of the covetousness of their depraved hearts that they can commit such shameless acts and have no concern for the welfare of the millions which they kill and deform! God has given them over to a reprobate mind “to do those things which are not convenient.”

Yet another effect upon man is found in the debauched, degenerate, wicked, unprincipled and shameless writings and pictures called pornography, which has swept our land today, appealing to the base animal lusts and desires of men and women, young people, boys and girls. You see, the mind that stoops to such debauchery can be nothing less than a reprobate mind, given over by God to do those things which are not convenient. The people who write, photograph, print and sell such material are only motivated by greed and covetousness; they care nothing for the souls of those whom they destroy!

All of this has led to the worship of the human body. All man can think of is that which is filthy and vile, evil and wicked. Especially the female body has been exposed, glorified, and made a national deity by our newspapers, magazines, books, radios, TVs, stage and movie theaters. Our society bows down before her shrine in daily ritual as the heathen nations did before and after the time of our Lord.

Everywhere you turn today—drugstores, supermarkets, eating places, hotels and motels, and on the street—we see and read of the sex goddess, the sex god, until it is sickening. Men and women, to their own shame, have glorified and worshipped the naked body as a thing of beauty, which God says is an abomination in His sight. Our nakedness is our shame; it shows that we are sinners! God made clothes of animal skins for our first parents in the Garden of Eden; for after they had sinned, they found that they were naked. So to unclothe our bodies and to parade them before man to be lusted after and worshipped is a slap in the face of God and openly says to Him, “I am not a sinner, and I defy You to punish me! I am going to walk as I please and do as I please, and You and Your Word will not tell me what to do!” So here again we see God giving men and women, young people, boys and girls over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient, which are not decent, but are corrupt, debauched and wicked.

There are many more effects of the expression “God gave them over to a reprobate mind,” but I will only mention one more now, which to me is the saddest of them all. It is found in 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12: “Then shall that Wicked be revealed... whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

This is the most awful effect of them all, when God gives a people over to reprobate minds by allowing false preachers to fill our pulpits and false teachers to fill our seats of learning, so both the men who preach and teach and their converts are sent a strong delusion that they should believe a lie and be damned. This is the effect in religion of God’s giving men over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. And what are these things? Men deny in word and deed the holiness of God; they deny the awfulness of the sin that separates man and the holy God, and the awful condition of man in his state of depravity and sin. These men deny the sovereignty of God, and they put the will of man upon a level with God. Man becomes his own savior and lives by his own laws and rules which allow him to live in sin and rebellion against God.

Preaching and teaching that glorifies man’s will above the sovereignty of God in salvation has denied the one thing that man needs to know above all others to be saved: that he is a totally depraved sinner, helpless and hopeless, and must have the working of the Spirit of God in his soul to be saved, by the grace of God, and the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who alone is our salvation. To miss this is to be deceived and to believe a lie and be damned!

God’s Remedy - The Precious Blood of Jesus

Romans 3:26 tells us that the gospel of the grace of God, the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ, the salvation that God has provided through the substitutionary work of Christ, the power that saves us from our sins, glorifies and magnifies the grace of God in allowing God to be just when He justifies a poor sinner who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. This to me is the heart, the meat, the marrow of the gospel of the grace of God, that God is just when He justifies poor sinners because of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth is that Christ poured out His precious blood as an atonement for our souls, for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. The gospel consists in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible shows us, the Word of God declares unto us, that it is by the poured out precious blood of Christ that an atonement for poor souls can be made and that sins can be remitted, washed away.

From the beginning, the Bible puts great emphasis on the blood of God’s appointed sacrifice as the means of His passing over or forgiving us our sins. Look at Hebrews 9:22 again: “Without shedding of blood is no remission [of sins].” We cannot bypass the blood shedding of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the heart of the gospel of the grace of God. All the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were just types of the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ and the forgiveness of sinners’ sin by faith in His precious blood. Hebrews 9:12-14 says, “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

The gospel of the grace of God declares unto us how much more the power of the blood of Christ will purge our conscience from dead works that we might serve the true and living God and that He might declare us justified by that blood and that we might be saved from His wrath through the Lord Jesus Christ.

We understand, then, that the good news of the gospel is that the blood shedding of our Lord has given us a righteousness whereby God has justified us freely from all things, and we stand in Christ where no condemnation can touch us and this we have received by faith in His precious blood. Also, this perfect righteousness imputed to us in heaven has brought about a change in our lives down here on earth if we indeed have laid hold of Christ and the eternal life He gives to every believing soul.

The first change we read about is found in Colossians 1:20: “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.” At the cross the Lord Jesus overcame that which takes away peace, that is, sin. By the shedding of His blood, He also overcame Satan, who robs us of our peace. The Lord Jesus satisfied the justice of God whereby God gives us peace by faith in His blood, and Christ by His blood becomes our peace. That is one of the benefits of the gospel of the grace of God, as He tells us in Romans 5:1: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

This great truth of the blood shedding of Jesus Christ, His great work of redemption, His death in our place, paying for our sins, has done something else. It has opened the way back to the throne of God. It is the theme of the New Testament. God has made a way that we could come by the shed blood into the very presence of God and have entrance to that throne of grace by that new and living way that Hebrews 10:19 describes: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.”

1 John 1:7 declares another truth, that through the blood of Christ, we who have believed in Christ have been cleansed from all our sin. Ephesians 1:7 declares unto us the same thing, that in Christ we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. Also in Romans 5:9 we are told that we who have trusted our never-dying souls to Christ have been justified by His blood before God and are thereby saved from God’s wrath through Christ. We read in Hebrews 9:14 that our conscience, our innermost man, is purged through the blood of the Lamb, who gave Himself unto God for us, a Lamb without spot or blemish. This is grace; this is mercy; this is precious—the conscience purged from dead works that we might serve the living God!

Revelation 12:11 tells us that by the power of the blood of our crucified and risen Lord we are able to overcome the wicked one: “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.” In fact, Acts 20:28 tells us that the whole living church of God has been purchased through and by the blood of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This precious blood of Christ as the Lamb of God is and shall be the song of heaven, as we are told in Revelation 5:9-10: “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” Praise God for such a salvation, such a gospel that is the power of God unto salvation, all by and through the blood shedding of our blessed Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, that lets us into the very presence of God and breaks the power of sin!

The effect of the blood of Christ upon our lives, as we have come to rest upon that blood of Christ for our cleansing and our standing before God, will make a marked difference between us and the world of unbelievers. Why? Because it brings us, as redeemed sinners, into a holy relationship with a holy God by the Holy Spirit, based upon the holy sacrifice of our blessed and holy Saviour. When we believe and trust Him and are made to stand by faith in this blood, cleansed and justified before God, there is then a marked difference between us and the world of unbelievers.

By the cross of Christ, by His death and shed blood, we have been crucified unto the world and the world has been crucified unto us. The shedding of the precious blood of Christ means death to self, sin and the flesh. The difference between the believer and the world of unbelievers is this: the believer has been washed in the blood of Christ by faith and has died to the world. He is no longer an unbelieving worldling; he has become a believing one in Christ and belongs to another world. He has been crucified in Christ to the world; he has been buried with Christ in death. His old man, his former life and ways, have been crucified with Christ; he has died to the power of indwelling sin, for they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts.

This is the reason the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, for by the power of the gospel we are made free from the power of indwelling sin, according to Romans 6:22, and are made free in Christ to follow and serve Him as His children. We are delivered from the power of the world and the power of the devil and are made by God’s grace to walk in newness of life. Second Corinthians 5:17 tells us old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. We have been given new hearts and new natures, so we desire to please God, to follow after holiness and hate every evil and false way.

But that is not all. Scripture teaches that the blood of Christ has secured the death of my old man, my fleshly man. It will lie down and die at last and never rise again. For this I praise the Lord! Also, the blood of Christ has secured the death of Satan, the accuser of the brethren. He will be cast into the lake of fire, for our blessed Lord defeated him at the cross.

The blood of Christ has secured the death of sin, for the plague of my heart will one day be left in the grave. One day I will be able to say, because of the blood of Christ shed on my behalf, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory in our Lord Jesus Christ!

The blood of Christ has secured for me a new body wherein dwelleth righteousness, and I shall stand before God perfectly redeemed in spirit, soul, and body, being made like my blessed Lord in holiness. Oh, I praise the Lord for this! This is real to my soul, and this to me is what the verses in our text teach: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

The gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation because of substitution. Christ died in my place. His blood was shed for the remission of my sin, and on believing in Him as a poor, lost, hell-deserving sinner, I have been brought before God completely justified by His blood from all sins. They have been blotted out forever and never shall be remembered against me any more. This is the power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is what it does in the hearts and lives of those whom He saves by His grace.

This work of Christ was not only for me, but for all those whom the Father had given to Him in electing love and in whom the Holy Spirit has worked effectually by His grace, showing them that they are sinners and deserve nothing but the wrath of God. Unto them, the Scriptures say, He will have mercy. Who are they? No man knows, so the invitation goes forth, “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.”

Will you come and believe and trust Him and look to Him? He alone can save by the power of His gospel.

The answer to the sins that have been before us in this magazine is heart felt repentance toward God; a true confession and forsaking of these sins in the faith of the Gospel of the Grace of God in Christ and the power of His blood.

It is the blood of Christ that makes an atonement for the soul. —L.R.S., Jr.