Evening, July 6

Charles Spurgeon · Morning and Evening: Daily Readings

"How many are mine iniquities and sins?"

  Job 13:23

   Have you ever really weighed and considered how great the sin of God's
   people is? Think how heinous is your own transgression, and you will
   find that not only does a sin here and there tower up like an alp, but
   that your iniquities are heaped upon each other, as in the old fable of
   the giants who piled Pelion upon Ossa, mountain upon mountain. What an
   aggregate of sin there is in the life of one of the most sanctified of
   God's children! Attempt to multiply this, the sin of one only, by the
   multitude of the redeemed, "a number which no man can number," and you
   will have some conception of the great mass of the guilt of the people
   for whom Jesus shed his blood. But we arrive at a more adequate idea of
   the magnitude of sin by the greatness of the remedy provided. It is the
   blood of Jesus Christ, God's only and well-beloved Son. God's Son!
   Angels cast their crowns before him! All the choral symphonies of
   heaven surround his glorious throne. "God over all, blessed forever.
   Amen." And yet he takes upon himself the form of a servant, and is
   scourged and pierced, bruised and torn, and at last slain; since
   nothing but the blood of the incarnate Son of God could make atonement
   for our offences. No human mind can adequately estimate the infinite
   value of the divine sacrifice, for great as is the sin of God's people,
   the atonement which takes it away is immeasurably greater. Therefore,
   the believer, even when sin rolls like a black flood, and the
   remembrance of the past is bitter, can yet stand before the blazing
   throne of the great and holy God, and cry, "Who is he that condemneth?
   It is Christ that died; yea rather, that hath risen again." While the
   recollection of his sin fills him with shame and sorrow, he at the same
   time makes it a foil to show the brightness of mercy--guilt is the dark
   night in which the fair star of divine love shines with serene
   splendour.