It is clear from the Word of God that there is no hope of a sinner being accepted of God apart from being accepted in God’s beloved Son. Sin has separated us from God and we lie under the curse of the broken law. The claims of the divine law are upon us and these demands will never be lowered, that is, perfect and perpetual obedience to all the precepts of the divine law in heart and in life. Man, as fallen, can never meet these claims. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags and we have nothing to commend us to God.
While this is so, how little we regard these claims of the divine law and of inflexible justice until God in His mercy, by His Spirit will awaken us to a realisation of them. How solemn is the sinner’s plight then, as the sinner finds himself or herself a transgressor of the holy law of God and meriting the just punishment which their sins deserve. Unless the soul can be delivered from out of its lost state it must lie down in hell fire for ever to endure the wrath of God eternally. The sinner discovers that his sins which are against God deserve the wrath and curse of God. What hope could such a sinner entertain were it not for the hope of the Gospel which is in Jesus Christ.
In Ephesus there were those to whom the Apostle was writing and of them it was true that they were accepted in the Beloved. It was not on the basis of any merit in themselves that they had been accepted but on the basis of the infinite merit that is to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in this glorious, divine Person that sinners are accepted and that on the basis of His finished work on Calvary. It was there that sinners were reconciled to God. Christ paid their ransom price in His great work of redemption. In that work He satisfied not only the law of God, which His people had failed to fulfil, but satisfied divine justice as well to meet the infinite demerit of His people’s transgressions.
What a glorious Saviour His people have who took the law place of the guilty, stood where they should have stood, and bore the penalty due
to their sins. And when they think of this, that their Saviour is none other than God’s Beloved Son, then how can they be filled with anything else but wonder and astonishment. What brought such a Saviour to die for those who were worthy to die eternally? Love was the compelling motive behind it all — love to the will of the Father and love to His people. What can that soul say — of whom it is true that he is accepted in Christ Jesus — but ‘Oh, the wonder of the rich grace and mercy and love of God in Christ Jesus!’
Where do we stand in the light of this? Can we say with godly Samuel Rutherford —
I stand upon His merits
I know no other stand
Not even where glory dwelleth
In Immanuel’s Land?
On what a firm footing is that soul who is accepted in the Beloved It can never be moved. The enjoyment of eternal blessedness will be the portion of this people. They will be eternally magnifying the grace of God which took them from the dust and from the dunghill and placed them amongst His princes.
If we do not know in our spiritual experience what it is to be accepted in the Beloved through faith in His Name, let us seek it for ourselves, let us seek it earnestly, let us seek it with our whole heart, for the Lord is to be found of those that seek Him. And when we find Him, He will clothe us with the unspotted garment of His imputed righteousness.