Christianity Oasis Forum

[Netchaplain]

It is a blessed fact that, wherever the Blood is relied on, God cannot see a single sin! He would have to deny the efficacy of the Blood if He did not pass over it (Exo 12:13). What protected Israel was not their seeing the Blood but God seeing it. Many souls are saying, “I do not know whether I have accepted it aright.” But what gives peace is knowing that God has accepted it. They think they must look into their own hearts to see if they have accepted it aright: but a simple soul would not think of such a thing, but would only be too happy to rest in God’s value of the Lord Jesus’ Blood. Not only have my sins been pardoned, but God has been glorified at the Cross of His Son. That gives full value to the Blood.

If God only judged sin, then He is righteous, but there is no love. If He had said of men, “They are poor wretched things and cannot help it, so I will pardon all,” there would be love shown, but there would be no righteousness. It would not be holy love. But when we come to the Cross, we have perfect righteousness and perfect love. God’s truth and majesty are fully brought out there because He, the “Captain of our salvation” was there, made “perfect through suffering” (Heb 2:10). He has suffered, and now the Son of man is glorified in Him. He has run the race and is now “set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb 12:2).

God is my deliverer, and not my judge (never again guilty, for all is being used to “conform”—NC) in virtue of the full blessed work of His Son. I am “not in the flesh” (Rom 8:9). It is not merely that my sins are forgiven, but I am a new creation in the Second Man before the Father. The first practical effect is, I am brought into the wilderness. A person has a great deal to learn after he is redeemed. I am out of the flesh and have my position in and with the risen Lord Jesus; but the learning of the flesh (human nature of the soul—NC) is a humbling process. “Thou shalt remember all the way Jehovah thy God led thee these forty years to humble thee, to prove thee.” “Thy raiment waxed not old, neither did thy foot swell these forty years” (Deu 8).

God was thinking about their clothes and their feet, but He gave them all the discipline and correction required to show them themselves. When, through their unbelief, they refuse to enter the land of Canaan, being unwilling to go up and fight the Amorites, He in His grace turns around in unfailing love and patience and dwells with them all the forty years of their wilderness journeys.

At the beginning I thought of my sins and of the Savior; this is the door by which we must enter. We must be humbled, and enter by Him. But afterwards, knowing that our Father loves us as He loves His Son, and that His favor rests upon us, and knowing all the bearing of redemption accomplished by the Savior, I begin to estimate His love as the Father estimates it, to have the same thoughts as He in this respect. Then I begin to estimate His love as the Father estimates it, to have the same thoughts as He in this respect. Then I begin to see the Lord Jesus in quite another way than before; I am nourished with Him in this way entirely anew. It is no longer a question of being sheltered only, but I am united to the Lord Jesus Himself.

I begin to contemplate all the perfection of the One who is there; and when I think of the abasement He submitted to on the Cross, how He humbled Himself to make good the character of God, in order that He might be just without giving up love, and that He might act according to love without giving up righteousness, then I begin to love and worship Him.

- John Darby (18 November 1800 – 29 April 1882)