Evening, June 21

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"The foundation of God standeth sure."

  2 Timothy 2:19

   The foundation upon which our faith rests is this, that "God was in
   Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
   trespasses unto them." The great fact on which genuine faith relies is,
   that "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," and that "Christ
   also hath suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might
   bring us to God"; "Who himself bare our sins in his own body on the
   tree"; "For the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his
   stripes we are healed." In one word, the great pillar of the
   Christian's hope is substitution. The vicarious sacrifice of Christ for
   the guilty, Christ being made sin for us that we might be made the
   righteousness of God in him, Christ offering up a true and proper
   expiatory and substitutionary sacrifice in the room, place, and stead
   of as many as the Father gave him, who are known to God by name, and
   are recognized in their own hearts by their trusting in Jesus--this is
   the cardinal fact of the gospel. If this foundation were removed, what
   could we do? But it standeth firm as the throne of God. We know it; we
   rest on it; we rejoice in it; and our delight is to hold it, to
   meditate upon it, and to proclaim it, while we desire to be actuated
   and moved by gratitude for it in every part of our life and
   conversation. In these days a direct attack is made upon the doctrine
   of the atonement. Men cannot bear substitution. They gnash their teeth
   at the thought of the Lamb of God bearing the sin of man. But we, who
   know by experience the preciousness of this truth, will proclaim it in
   defiance of them confidently and unceasingly. We will neither dilute it
   nor change it, nor fritter it away in any shape or fashion. It shall
   still be Christ, a positive substitute, bearing human guilt and
   suffering in the stead of men. We cannot, dare not, give it up, for it
   is our life, and despite every controversy we feel that "Nevertheless
   the foundation of God standeth sure."