"The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" John 1:17). The law says, Do and be saved; grace says, Live and do. The law says, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4); grace says, "Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom" (Job 33:24). The law says, "If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put away evil from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear" (Deut. 21:18-21). Grace says, concerning the wretched prodigal, although stubborn and rebellious," a "glutton and a drunkard," that "when he was yet a great way off his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him" (Luke 15:20). The law says, "Lay hold on him;" grace says, "Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him;" (Luke 15:22). The law says, "Stone him;" grace says "Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet" (Luke 15:22). The law says, "Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them" (Gal. 3:10); grace, speaking of believers, says, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13).

This shows us precisely how we are delivered from the curse of the law, for it is said, "Christ hath redeemed us, being made a curse for us." He was "made of a woman, made under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Gal. 4:4-5). The law therefore has not been set aside, but satisfied. It has not been trampled under foot, but it has triumphed in the infliction of the threatened penalty against sin; only the penalty has, in amazing grace, fallen upon the person of the sinner's Divine Substitute. He endured the penalty in the fullest and truest sense, because penalty is what the law exacts in order to vindicate its insulted majesty and meet its righteous claims; and this is what Christ did when He suffered on the cross.

If a man were put in prison for debt, and a friend should pay the full amount to the creditor, it would be impossible in strict justice to retain the debtor in confinement, because the law would be satisfied--not by anything the prisoner could do, but by what his friend does as his representative and in his place. His further detention in prison after the discharge of the debt would be grossly illegal and tyrannical. If a monarch should condemn one of his subjects to death for treason, and then permit his own son to suffer instead of the insurgent, it would be impossible in strict justice to execute the threatened sentence upon the person of the traitor. His death under such circumstances would shake the very foundations of the government and destroy all confidence in the integrity of the ruler. 

These illustrations come far short of presenting fully the work of Christ in our behalf, because in the cases of the debtor and the traitor there was an escape from punishment, without peace of conscience, without refuge from fears of the future, without restoration to their good standing, while, as we have already seen, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." But they serve at least to clear the point we are now considering, that Christ having been "made a curse for us," it is impossible for God, who is "faithful and just," to inflict the penalty of His satisfied law upon those in whose stead it has once been endured by His only begotten and well-beloved Son. "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:6-8). If the phrase, to die for a righteous man and for a good man, means to die in the place, room, and stead of a righteous or good man so as to keep him from dying, then, beyond question, the distinct statement of the Holy Spirit, declaring that Christ died for the ungodly and for us, means that He died in the place, room, and stead of the ungodly and the "us" who are believers. 

The stupendous difficulty in the way of the sinner's salvation was the claim of God's violated law, demanding by all the perfections of the Divine Being, and by all the necessities of His government, that sin should be punished; but when Jehovah, of whom the prophets sang, "He will magnify the law and make it honourable" (Isaiah 42:21b), descended from the throne of universal sovereignty, and shrouded His divinity in human flesh, and bowed His head in the shameful death of the cross, the law has no further claim upon believers for whom this death was endured, but, sheathing its flaming sword, it joins with mercy in the sweet invitation, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price" (Isaiah 55:1). 

It is most important to keep in mind that the sacrificial death of Christ has already been endured, and His atoning work already accomplished. "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:5-6). "Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification" (Rom. 4:25). "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 15:3). God "hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). "Now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Heb. 9:28). "Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Pet. 3:18).  

You will observe that in these texts not only is the death of Christ directly connected with our sins, and described as vicarious, or endured in our stead, and represented as furnishing the only ground upon which we can be saved, but the past tense is used in every passage, to indicate that the great transaction has already taken place. The Saviour in His adorable love and pity did not wait for man to seek Him, but came unasked to our lost world and undeserving race. He did not come that God might love us, but because God did love us, and love us while we were "ungodly," and "sinners," and "enemies," and so love us that He gave His only begotten Son to take our place under His dishonoured law, and endure its dreadful penalty in our stead. God in the unsullied holiness of the Divine nature, and the inviolable majesty of the Divine law, and the unspeakable interests of the Divine government, met the Son at Calvary bearing upon Him the mighty load of our iniquities; and there, the question of sin and salvation was once and for ever settled. 

Since that event occurred, and even since it was announced in the first promise made to our fallen parents concerning the Seed of the woman, and in the first type of the coats of skins with which God's own hand clothed them, no other atonement has been demanded, no other sacrifice has been possible, no other righteousness has been accepted; but the gracious Redeemer says in His blessed word, "I bring near My righteousness; it shall not be far off, and My salvation shall not tarry" (Isaiah 46:13). When the dying Jesus said, "It is finished" (John 19:30), and bowed His head and gave up the ghost, He joyfully announced that all His sacrificial sufferings were past; that all the types of the law were answered; that all its rites were abolished; that all its claims were met; that all its demands were satisfied; that all its purposes were secured; and that nothing more remained to be done but for the whole world, if it will, to rest upon this finished work with the calmness of an unfaltering confidence and in the sure anticipation of eternal glory. There is nothing, then, and there can be nothing in the nature of the case, between the sinner and the Saviour--no, not so much as the thickness of the thinnest tissue-paper or the most delicate gold-leaf. 

I know how common, alas! it is for the anxious soul to be put upon a course of presumptuous and profitless doing in order to be saved; as when urged to enter into covenant with God to serve Him; or to draw up a form of solemn self-surrender and self-dedication; or to be baptized; or to join the membership of a Church; or to seek religion; or to give the heart unto the Lord as the means of inclining Him to be gracious; or to keep on praying until He will be merciful and answer fervent and frequent supplications. My reader, be persuaded that such advice is not the gospel, but the law, and you will never, never obtain an intelligent and assured hope in this way. Under this law-preaching, as I do not hesitate to call it, it has come to pass that many a one who is awakened to consider the interests of eternity thinks of the blessed God as an unfeeling Governor whose compliance with a request is to be won by the force of importunity, or as a stern Judge whose favor is to be gained by eloquent appeals and tearful entreaties. 

Oh, if the inquirer who reads these lines only knew how nigh salvation is to him this very moment, surely he would eagerly lay hold of it without the slightest delay! Nay, he has not even to lay hold of it; he has just to receive it in all its completeness. It is nigher to you, my friend than the door, than any article of furniture within your reach, for it is as nigh as your mouth and your heart. 

There is no need to plead with God to be merciful, for He is already merciful, and has given the most convincing exhibition of His mercy in the wonderful provisions He has made for your recovery from the dominion and ruinous consequences of sin. There is no need to beseech Him to love you, for He already loves you, and has furnished the most touching manifestation of that love of which the mind of man or of an angel can conceive. "Some years ago two gentlemen were riding together, and as they were about to separate, one addressed the other thus: 'Do you ever read your Bible?' 'Yes; but I get no benefit from it, because, to tell you the truth, I feel I do not love God.' 'No more did I,' replied the other; 'but God loved me.' This answer produced such an effect upon hi friend that, to use his own words, it was as if one had lifted him off the saddle into the skies. It opened up to his soul at once the great truth that it is not how much I love God, but how much God loves me." 

This is indeed the great truth, "for God so loved the world (the guilty, sinful, ruined world), that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4: 9-10). "We love Him, because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19); and if you attempt to reverse this Divine order so as to love Him first that He may love you in return, you will soon be involved in hopeless confusion and darkness. 

The devil would like to persuade you that God cannot love you as you are, and hence he is constantly suggesting to parents to tell their little children that God will not love them if they are naughty; but "he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44). And when he whispers to your soul that you must do something, or get to be something, different from what you now are before God can love you, he is whispering a lie; for God loves you at this very instant, and sees you afar off, and yearns over you with unutterable tenderness, and longs to take you to His heart of love and make you happy forever. 

Who, then, puts the slightest barrier between the sinner and Saviour? Not the Saviour Himself; for His language is : "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me" (Matt. 11:28-29). But you will observe that He does not bid us take His yoke until we first come, labouring and heavy laden with our sins or sorrows, nor does He expect us to learn until He first gives us rest. 

What then should be done with the preaching that puts the smallest obstacles, though it be nothing more than a straw, between the sinner and the Saviour? Why, toss it overboard as an accursed thing, and make haste to believe, because God has said it, that "the blood of Jesus Christ His cleanseth us from all sin"

James H. Brookes (1837-1897) served the Lord as a Presbyterian pastor in St. Louis, Missouri, as a prolific writer of biblically-sound best sellers, and as a nationally recognized proponent of dispensational premillenialism as a bible conference speaker. He was one of the first prominent ministers in the U.S. to teach the pre-tribulational rapture, with his most visible disciple being C. I. Scofield.