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In Titus 2:13,14 we find a very comprehensive statement concerning the Saviour, His Person and His
work:
"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who
gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people,
zealous of good works".
Look, O saint, and look, O sinner, at the glorious person Who stooped so low for us! He is the great God. He
created all things (Col. 1:16). He made the world (John 1:1-10). He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet
humbled Himself to the death of the cross (Phil. 2:6-8). He became man, "He gave Himself for us", or as the apostle
rejoiced to say, "The Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). Dear reader, what hinders
you from saying this of yourself? He gave Himself for a specific reason, "that He might redeem us from all
iniquity". We were lost, sold under sin, in the bondage of sin and death, without hope in ourselves, without power
to do anything for our own salvation. He redeemed us from all iniquity. His salvation, however, does not stay there.
He Who redeemed us from sin, also died that He might purify us unto Himself. Consequently they who have
believed in Him as their Saviour from sin, are looking for the Saviour to receive them to glory, and are assured that
He Who died for them in the past, and Who is coming for them in the future, is the Saviour for the present too:
"For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being
reconciled, we shall be SAVED by His life" (Rom. 5:10).
"Wherefore He is able also to SAVE them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to
make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25).
A NEEDLet us now look at our need of a Saviour. He came to save His people from their sins. He came that
He might redeem us from all iniquity. What then is sin? Who are sinners? What are its consequences? "All
unrighteousness is sin" (1 John 5:17). In other words, anything that is not right is sin. "Sin is the transgression of
the law" (1 John 3:4), or as the word means, "lawlessness is sin".
Sin comes short of God's standard, "for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). Sin is
essentially utter failure, as can be seen by reading Judges 20:16 :
"Every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not MISS",
where the word "miss" is the translation of the word for "sin". From the fact that man has so completely failed
springs all the resultant wickedness, rebellion and misery of sin. Sin has started the whole race upon a pathway of
weary purposeless toil, ending at last in death. Man, created in the image of God, is now a deformed, crooked,
twisted creature. Our English word "wrong" bears its evidence to this fact, for it comes from the word "to wring" or
"to twist". Such then is the nature of sin.
Who then are sinners? Does this awful character extend to all men, or is it true only of the base, the vile, and the
abandoned? Alas, it is only too true that sin has dominion over all:
"There is no difference: for ALL have sinned" (Rom. 3:22,23).
"There is NONE righteous, NO, NOT ONE" (Rom. 3:10).
"If we say that we have NO SIN, we deceive ourselves ... If we say that we have NOT SINNED, we make Him a liar"
(1 John 1:8-10).
The testimony of Scripture, and the universal testimony of conscience, leave no room for doubt upon this awful
question. We belong to a sinful, dying race. Our greatest concern should be to discover whether there is a remedy:
if so, how is it to be obtained? what must we do, promise or pay in order to receive its benefits? to whom do we
apply? and has anyone ever been saved from sin, so that we may be encouraged to seek and find the way?
A PROVISIONThe answer is found in the following:
"The wages of sin is death; but the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23).