"JUSTICE CANNOT TWICE DEMAND PAYMENT AT MY BLEEDING SURETY'S HAND...AND THEN AGAIN AT MINE" Augustus Toplady

It is an amazing characteristic of grace that the justice of God which once stood against us as sinners alienated from God, now stands for us as those who have been reconciled to God in Christ Jesus. These words of Augustus Toplady ring true to the scriptures. It is the justice of the thrice Holy that stands to guarantee our continued security before the law and throne of God. John tells us that all confessing sinners are cleansed from all sin and that God is "faithful and JUST to forgive us our sins." God's justice demands the forgiveness of all the sins of those for whom Christ died. This because His death for sin actually put away sin by satisfying all that the justice of God required, which was death. "It is Christ that died..." Can justice allow any for whom He died to be condemned? Can justice require payment at the hands of the Substitute and then require it again at the hands of those He represents? NO! This cannot be. Justice that must demand the death of every soul that sins must also demand the full justification of every soul whose sins are made an end of in the dying of Christ. Justice sees all who are in Christ as Christ Himself. Such is the true nature of imputation. All believers are seen by divine justice as being in Christ because they are in Christ! I suppose it could be said that justice is the backbone of grace, giving it strength, applying the full benefits of Christ's work to every object of God's grace. Justice upholds the integrity of God's sovereignty in grace. He will have mercy to whom He will have mercy and be gracious to whom He will be gracious. Someone may rise to say "that's not fair." To which justice immediately replies, "God can do with His own what He will and if He leaves some men to face the consequences of their sin, He is just in doing so. But He must set free every sinner redeemed by Christ's blood because I've been satisfied and honored." Justice found a sweet satisfaction for my sin in the bloody sacrifice of Christ by it also guarantees the liberation, blessing and keeping of my soul because of that blood. God's faithfulness and justice are ever the twin guards that secure forever God's elect. Gary Shepard

Have you any other rock but Christ? I do not ask you whether you have a feeling enjoyment of it. I know you will rejoice in Jesus when the Holy Spirit enables you. But have you any other refuge? Can you go into eternity resting upon any other righteousness but His? Can you lean upon, desire, or want any other than Christ's righteousness? "No," says the soul, none but Christ! None but Christ! Bless your poor heart, then, you shall have it as sure as God has wrought the desire in your conscience, and brought to trust alone in Jesus for refuge, righteousness, and salvation, by stripping you of all false props and dependences. Such a soul as this will trust in the Lord, overcome all opposition, and be more than a conqueror through Him that hath loved him. John Warburton

It is better to have the praise of evil men's hatred than the scandal of their love and approbation. Thomas Manton

"Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world." The believers loves relatives and friends in the world, he loves and pities all people of the world, he loves the blessings of fellowship and the good things that God gives to us and enables us to enjoy in the world; but he does not love the world nor the things of the world ABOVE GOD AND CHRIST. He doesn't take satisfaction nor contentment in them, nor make idols of them, nor prefer them to heavenly and spiritual things! His citizenship and interests are in the kingdom of God. His true family is the family of God, and he knows that the fashion of this world passes away. He prefers nothing and no one in this world to Christ.

If a man's affections and interests are set upon the world, the things of the world, and the companionship of worldly people, it is clearly evident that he does not have the love of God in him. No man can serve two masters. (II Tim. 2:19; Luke 14:25-33) Henry Mahan

The book of life, or decree of election, is the marriage-register of the saints; in which their everlasting espousal to Christ stands indelibly recorded by the pen of God's free and eternal love. AS the gold of which money is made is the king's property ever before it is struck into coin, and before it visibly bears the royal image and superscription; so the unregenerate elect are God's own heritage, though they do not appear to be such, until the Holy Spirit has made them pass through the mint of effectual calling, and actually stamped them into current coin for the kingdom of Heaven. The elect are betrothed to Christ from everlasting in the covenant of grace; they are actually married to Him, and join hands with Him, in conversion; but they are not taken home to the bridegroom's house until death dismisses them from the body. Augustus Toplady

The Spirit of God is a Spirit of conviction. He convinces men of sin, original, actual, or all their sins of thought, word, and deed, of the demerit of sin, and of the inability of men to make atonement for it. He brings God's elect to such a sense of sin as to loath it, and themselves for it, to blush and be ashamed of it, and to have a godly sorrow for it, which works repentance unto salvation. John Gill