Scripture declares with great authority: “They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Ps 14:2,3). On these verses, David Dickson notes in his Commentary: “Whatsoever may be the [difference] among unrenewed men, some more, some less gross in their outbreaking, yet God pronounceth of them all, that they are all of them gone out of the way, [that is] of holiness and happiness; they are altogether become filthy; that is, all their actions, flowing forth from their corrupt hearts, are vile and loathsome in God’s sight, and they are all in one rank in this; there is none of them that doeth good; none of them, being unreconciled to God, do, or can do, anything at all commanded of God, as commanded from right principles, and for right ends”.
These verses and others in this Psalm, together with some more in other parts of the Old Testament, are quoted successively in Romans 3; in particular Psalm 14:3, though it is expressed slightly differently: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (v10). What emphasis is placed on the universal corruption of human beings! It is not only that people have sinned in the past and are sinning today, but that human corruption can be traced back to the Fall in the Garden of Eden; Paul traces it all back to our Fall in Adam when he uses the words, “All have sinned” (Rom 3:23). And he goes on to say further: “All . . . come short of the glory of God”; that is, all go on coming short of the glory of God, throughout their lives. In other words, no one ever keeps the law so completely that they give Him the full glory that is rightly due to Him. No one will ever recover entirely from the effects of their fallen nature that they will ever, in this life, keep God’s law perfectly.
Let us bear in mind another emphatic statement, about heaven: “There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth” (Rev 21:27), which rules out completely any human being entering that place of perfect blessedness, who is still stained by sin. Is there then any hope of a sinner, who has come into the world conceived in sin and “shapen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5), ever entering heaven, when it is a place of such perfect holiness? There is such a hope, but only because the God of heaven is full of mercy. No sinner can earn their passage to heaven. Sinners cannot make themselves holy; they cannot begin to do so, and they cannot deserve salvation.
But God has made a provision, a perfectly suitable provision: He “so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jn 3:16). In infinite mercy, He has provided His Son as the Saviour of undeserving sinners. No other person could meet the need. Any mere human being who would contemplate becoming a saviour for others must first bear away his own sin, and he is not able to do that. Even a perfect, unfallen angel would not have the power to bear the sins of any other creature.
But the Saviour whom God has provided can take away the sins of fallen human beings, and when He begins to forgive the transgressions of anyone, He will take away the guilt of all these sins. Christ has borne the punishment of them all. Accordingly those who believe in Christ can say, “The blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin”. The use of the word blood points to His death. In the Old Testament sacrifices, there was a pouring out of the animal’s blood. The animal died instead of the person who brought the sacrifice; it was a substitute for the sinner. The death of the sacrifice provided a picture of the sacrifice that Christ was to provide when He would offer up Himself. It taught that forgiveness comes about through the death of a substitute, and God’s children under the Old Testament were looking forward by faith to the coming of that great Substitute, “the Seed of the woman” (Gen 3:15), the Messiah.
The animal sacrifices could not actually take away sin, but the death of Christ – even when His coming was far into the future – truly could provide for the forgiveness of all who would believe on Him. The Son of God came to this world to be the Substitute for a great multitude of sinners, so that – whether they lived before or after Christ shed His blood – they might escape eternal death and be brought to everlasting life in heaven. They were guilty, having sinned on countless occasions, again and again coming short of God’s glory. They needed to be washed clean from all that sin, which was why the Saviour died, why He shed His blood.
The question may be asked, and indeed ought to be asked: How can I, as a sinner under condemnation, benefit from the death of Christ? The answer is the one given to the jailer in Philippi, though his question was a more basic one: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” The answer for us today is the same as it was almost 2000 years ago: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). Further, what is saving faith, as distinct from the merely intellectual faith, which goes no further than accepting that God’s revelation in Scripture is true? In answering this vital question, The Westminster Confession of Faith teaches: “The grace of faith, whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls is the work of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts, and is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word” (14:1).
Some of the points made by A A Hodge by way of explaining this section are given here: (1.) “Unbelief is always denounced as a sin, and not as the consequence of intellectual weakness. The Scriptures unconditionally command instant faith alike of the ignorant and of the intelligent.” (2.) “By nature, men are spiritually blind, and incapable of discerning spiritual things. That form of spiritual apprehension which is an essential element in saving faith must be wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit.” (3.) “Men believe because they are taught of God, as they are enlightened to discern the things of the Spirit. Faith is the gift of God.”
Further, the Westminster Confession teaches: “By this faith, a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word, for the authority of God Himself speaking therein; and acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof containeth; yielding obedience to the commands, trembling at the threatenings, and embracing the promises of God for this life and that which is to come. But the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace” (14:2).
Some of Hodge’s points of explanation of this second section are: (1.) “Saving faith rests upon the truth of the testimony of God speaking in His Word. . . . The Holy Ghost bears direct witness [by the Word] to the soul of the believer.” (3.) “Trust is an integral and inseparable element of every act of saving faith in which trust is appropriate to the nature of the object believed. . . . Especially in that specific act of saving faith called justifying faith, which unites to Christ and is the root and organ of spiritual life, trust is certainly an element of the very essence of that state of mind called in Scripture faith.”
(4.) “That specific act of saving faith which unites to Christ, and is the sole condition and instrument of justification, involves two essential elements: [1.] Assent to whatever the Scriptures reveal to us as to the Person, offices, and work of Christ. The Scriptures expressly say that we are justified by that faith of which Christ is the object. . . . Assent includes an intellectual recognition and a cordial embrace of the object at the same time. . . . This especial act of faith in Christ, which secures salvation, is constantly paraphrased by such phrases as coming to Christ, looking to Him, receiving Him, fleeing to Him for refuge – all of which manifestly involve an active assent to, and cordial embrace . . . of the truth.
[2.] “Trust, or implicit reliance upon Christ, and upon Christ alone, for all that is involved in a complete salvation. (a.) The single condition of salvation demanded in the Scriptures is that we should ‘believe in’ or ‘on’ Christ Jesus. And salvation is promised absolutely and certainly if this command is obeyed. To believe in or on a person implies trust as well as credence. (b.) We are constantly said to be saved ‘by faith in’ or ‘on Christ’. . . (c.) The same is proved by what are said to be the effects or fruits of faith. By faith the Christian is said to be persuaded of the promises, to obtain them, to embrace them, to subdue kingdoms, to work righteousness, to stop the mouths of lions. All this plainly presupposes that faith is not a bare intellectual conviction of the truth of truths revealed in the Scriptures, but that it includes a hearty embrace of, and a confident reliance upon, Christ, His meritorious work and His gracious promises.”
Sinners are to look by faith to Christ as the One who died in the place of the guilty – “the just for the unjust”, or, in the place of the unjust. When they believe, they are cleansed from that guilt, not only in part, but from all of it. But even the holiest of God’s people go on sinning. Yet, as time goes on, the power of sin is washed away, on the ground of the saving work of Christ. Indeed the blood of Jesus Christ goes on cleansing His people from, not only their guilt, but also their pollution. They are to go again and again to the throne of grace, the place of power where King Jesus sits, ready to present the petitions of His people to His Father for their forgiveness. And the Saviour is ready to present them on the basis of His redeeming work in this world, when He shed His blood on behalf of unworthy sinners.
When it is said in 1 John 1:7 that “the blood of Jesus Christ . . . cleanseth”, the implication is that the blood goes on cleansing. So believers, having sought forgiveness and having received it, must return again and again to the throne of grace for renewed forgiveness, because they go on sinning. And God, who is ready to forgive, does wash away their continuing sins. So David speaks also of the blessedness of “the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity” (Ps 32:2) – the man to whose account God does not lay the guilt of his continuing sin.
When forgiveness is set before us so clearly, how earnest and urgent we should be to seek it! And if we have obtained forgiveness, how thankful we ought to be! “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift” (2 Cor 9:15).
In this quotation, citations from Scripture were printed in italics; a similar practice is adopted in the quotations from A A Hodge.
A A Hodge, The Confession of Faith, Banner of Truth 1961 reprint, pp 202-7. Scripture references are not included here. The Westminster Confession and associated documents are available from Free Presbyterian Publications in both hardback and paperback.