The Spurgeon Series 1859 & 1860. Charles H. Spurgeon
The second text says that not only can God be just, but it says something more: it says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Now, if I understand this text, it means this: that IT IS AN ACT OF JUSTICE ON GOD PART TO FORGIVE THE SINNER WHO A CONFESSION OF HIS SIN TO GOD. Note! not that the sinner deserves forgiveness: that can never be. Sin can never merit anything except punishment, and repentance is no atonement for sin. Not that God is bound from any necessity of his nature to forgive everyone that repents, because repentance has not in itself sufficient efficacy and power to merit forgiveness at the hand of God. Yet, nevertheless, it is a truth that, because God is just, he must forgive every sinner who confesses his sin. And if he did not — and note, it is a bold thing to say, but it is warranted by the text — if a sinner should be led truly and solemnly to make confession of his sins and cast himself on Christ, if God did not forgive him, then he would not be the God that he is represented to be in the Word of God: he would be an unjust God, and that may God forbid, such a thing must not, cannot be. But how, then, is it that Justice itself actually demands that every soul that repents should be pardoned? It is so. The same Justice that just now stood with a fiery sword in his hand, like the cherubim of old keeping the way of the tree of life, now goes hand in hand with the sinner. “Sinner,” he says, “I will go with you. When you go to plead for pardon I will go and plead for you. Once I spoke against you: but now I am so satisfied with what Christ has done, that I will go with you and plead for you. I will change my language. I will not say a word to oppose your pardon, but I will go with you and demand it. It is only an act of justice that God should now forgive.” And the sinner goes up with Justice, and what has Justice got to say? Why, it says this: “God must forgive the repenting sinner, if he is just, according to his promise.” A God who could break his promise would be unjust. We do not believe in men who tell us lies. I have known some of so gentle a disposition, that they could never say “No”; if they were asked to do a thing they have said, “Yes.” But they have never demonstrated any character when they have said “Yes,” and afterwards did not do it. It is not so with God. He is no tender hearted being who promises more than he can perform, and no forgetful one who promises what afterwards shall slip from his memory. Every word which God utters shall be fulfilled, whether it is a decree, a threatening, or a promise. Sinner! go to God with a promise in your hand. — “Lord you have said, ‘He who confesses his sin, and forsakes it, shall find mercy.’ I confess my sin, and I forsake it: Lord, give me mercy!” Do not doubt that God will give it you. You have his own pledge in your hand; you have his own bond in your keeping. Take that pledge and that bond before his throne of mercy, and that bond never shall be cancelled until it has been honoured. You shall see that promise fulfilled to the uttermost letter, though your sin is ever so black. Suppose the promise you take should be this. “He who comes to me I will in no wise cast out.” “But,” says the Law, “you are one of the greatest sinners who ever lived.” “Indeed, but the promise says, ‘He who comes,’ and I come, and I claim the fulfilment of it.” “No, but you have been a blasphemer.” “I know it, but the promise says, ‘He who comes,’ and I come, and blasphemer though I am, I claim the promise.” “But you have been a thief, you have deceived your neighbour, and you have robbed men.” “I have, but the promise says, ‘He who comes to me I will in no wise case out’; I come, and I claim the promise. It does not say anything at all about character in the promise: it says, ‘He who comes,’ and I come, and if I am black as the devil, nevertheless God is true, and I claim the promise. I confess all that can be said against me. Will God be untrue, and send a seeking soul away with a promise unfulfilled? Never!” “But,” one says, “you have lived many years in this way; your conscience has often checked you, and you have resisted conscience often: it is too late now.” “But I have the promise, ‘He who comes,’ — there is no time stipulated in it — ‘He who comes’; I come, and oh God, you cannot break the promise!” Challenge God by faith, and you will see that he will be as good as his word to you. Though you are worse than words can tell, God, I repeat it, as long as he is just, must honour his own promise. Go and confess your sin, trust in Christ, and you shall find pardon.
15. But, again, not only did God make the promise, but according to the text man has been induced to act upon it; and, therefore, this becomes a double bond upon the justice of God. Suppose you made a promise to any man, that if such a thing was done, you would do something else, and suppose that man were to do something quite contrary to his own nature, quite abhorrent to himself; but he did it nevertheless, because he expected to get great blessings by it, do you mean to say you would tempt a man to do that, and put him to vast expense, and care and trouble and then turn around and say? “There I shall have nothing to do with that promise: I only promised to make you do so-and-so, now, I will not fulfil my promise.” Why the man would turn around and call you base to make a promise to lead him to do something and then not fulfil your promise. Now, God has said, “If we confess our sins and trust in Christ, we shall have mercy.” You have done it; you have made the most abject and sincere confession, and you do declare that you have no trust except the blood and righteousness of Christ. Now, on the faith of the promise you have been led into this state. Do you imagine when God has brought you through much pain and agony of mind to repent of sin, to give up self-righteousness, and rely on Christ, he will afterwards turn around and tell you he did not mean what he said? It cannot be — it cannot be. Suppose, now, you were about to hire a man to be your employee, and you say to him, “Renounce your former position, give that up; come and take a house in the neighbourhood where I live, and I will take you to be my employee.” Suppose he does it, and you then say, “I am glad for your own sake that you have left your employer, still I will not hire you.” What would he say to you? He would say, “I gave up my job on the faith of your promise, and now you break it.” Ah! but it never can be said of Almighty God, that, if a sinner acted on the faith of his promise, then that promise was not kept. God ceases to be God when he ceases to have mercy upon the soul who seeks pardon through the blood of Christ. No, he is a just God, “Faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
16. One more aspect of this case. God’s justice demands that the sinner should be forgiven if he seeks mercy, for this reason: Christ died on purpose to secure pardon for every seeking soul. Now, I hold it to be an axiom, a self-evident truth, that whatever Christ died for he will have. I cannot believe that when he paid to his Father the price of blood, and groans and tears, he bought something which the Father will not give him. Now, Christ died to purchase the pardon of sin for all those who believe on him, and do you suppose that the Father will rob him of what he has bought so dearly? No, God would be untrue to his own Son, he would break his oath to his well beloved and only begotten Son, if he were not to give a pardon, peace, and purity to every soul that comes to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, I wish that I could preach it as with a tongue of thunder everywhere, God is just, and yet the justifier of him who believes. God is just to forgive us our sins, if we confess them; just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
17. III. Now, to close. I must just enter into some little EXPLANATION OF THE TWO GREAT DUTIES THAT ARE TAUGHT IN THE TWO TEXTS. The first duty is faith — “believes in Christ,” the second text is confession — “if we confess our sins.”
18. I will begin with confession first. Do not expect that God will forgive you until you confess; not in the general confession of a prayer book, but in the particular confession of your own innermost heart. You are not to confess to a priest or a man, unless you have offended him. In that respect, if you have been an offender against any man, be at peace with him and ask his pardon for anything you have done against him. It is a proof of a noble mind when you can ask pardon from another for having done amiss. Whenever grace comes into the heart it will lead you to make amends for any injury which you have done either by word or deed to any of your fellow men; and you cannot expect that you shall be forgiven by God until you have forgiven men, and have been ready to make peace with those who are now your enemies. That is a beautiful trait in the character of a true Christian. I have heard of Mr. John Wesley, that he was attended in most of his journeyings by one who loved him very much, and was willing, I believe, to have died for him. Still he was a man of a very stubborn and obstinate disposition, and Mr. Wesley was not perhaps the very kindest man at all times. Upon