The Judgment of This World – By Desmond Ford

Feb 12, 2015 2445

jesus-on-crossThe cross was the judgment of the world. In Him all men have legally died and paid the price for their sins and now whosoever will may come. It sounds too good to be true, my friends, but it’s more true than anything else we know. “That all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men”, that God now, because of the cross, can be faithful and just to forgive us – you and me – our sins because the claims of the righteous eternal law have been met and we have died in our Substitute and Representative, Christ.

God won’t ask us to pay the price a second time it we abide in Him. He tells us “Ye are complete in Him;” “accepted in the Beloved;” and “there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Christ was made what He was not that you and I might be made what we are not.

Therefore despite a million sermons to the contrary, the Gospel is not good advice – we’ve had enough of that. It’s good news. Good news unlimited.

Advice is about something I should do but news concerns something already done and done by Someone else. The gospel is the good news that in God’s sight sin – my sin, your sin – has been made an end of, and everlasting righteousness has been brought in for you, for me.

All that God requires of me for time and eternity has already been achieved by Himself in the person of His Son. That achievement is credited to anyone, howeyer vile, who believes the news and accepts it.

Despite my sin and selfishness, there’s no need for me to try and reconcile God. He’s already reconciled and He urges us “Be ye reconciled.” God is offering something, not demanding something.

You and I need not be anxious about what God thinks of us, but only of what God thinks of Christ, our Substitute. I must not blaspheme His grace by thinking that I must be free from sin before trusting His power to save. I must come to Him just as I am, sinful, helpless, dependent.

The Divine plan involves our complete rescue from sin and guilt, sorrow and death. Our acceptance of Calvary brings freedom from sin’s guilt. Our dependence upon the living, interceding Christ, brings freedom from sin’s power and His return will bring freedom from sin’s very presence. The work is His, though received by our simple trust. Objectively, Christ is all. Subjectively, faith is all.

– Des Ford. Rom 8:27–32 (From “Why the Cross?”)

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