The apostle challenges the whole world, and heaven and hell too, in the question, “Who is he who condemns?” and in order to excuse his boldness, he gives us four reasons why he can never be condemned. “Christ has died, yes, rather, is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” We shall first look over these four pillars of the believer’s faith, and then, afterwards, we shall ourselves take up the apostle’s challenge, and cry, “Who is he who condemns?”
4. I. The first reason why the Christian never can be condemned is because CHRIST HAS DIED. We believe that in the death of Christ there was a full penalty paid to divine justice for all the sins which the believer can possibly commit. We teach every Sunday, that the whole deluge of divine wrath was poured upon Christ’s head, that the black cloud of vengeance emptied out itself upon the cross, and that there is not left in the book of God a single sin against a believer, nor can there possibly be even a particle of punishment ever exacted at the hand of the man who believes in Jesus, for this reason — that Jesus has been punished to the full. The full punishment for every sin has been exacted in his death. He has suffered, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. And now, if you and I are enabled this morning to go beneath the bloody tree of Calvary, and shelter ourselves there, how safe we are! Ah! we may look around and defy all our sins to destroy us. This shall be an all sufficient argument to shut their clamorous mouths, “Christ has died.” Here comes one and he cries, “You have been a blasphemer.” Yes, but Christ died a blasphemer’s death, and he died for blasphemers. “But you have stained yourself with lust.” Yes, but Christ died for the lascivious. The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, cleanses us from all sin; so away foul fiend, that also has received its due. “But you have long resisted grace, and long withstood against the warnings of God.” Yes, but “Jesus died”; and say what you will, oh conscience, remind me of what you will; lo this shall be my sure reply — “Jesus died.” Standing at the foot of the cross, and beholding the Redeemer in his expiring agony, the Christian may indeed gather courage. When I think of my sin, it seems impossible that any atonement could ever be adequate; but when I think of Christ’s death it seems impossible, that any sin could ever be great enough to need such an atonement as that. There is in the death of Christ enough and more than enough. There is not only a sea in which to drown our sins, but the very tops of the mountains of our guilt are covered. Forty cubits upwards has this red sea prevailed. There is not only enough to put our sins to death, but enough to bury them and hide them out of sight. I say it boldly and without exaggerating, — the eternal arm of God now nerved with strength, now released from the bondage in which justice held it, is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by Christ.
5. This was my subject last Sunday, therefore I take it I shall be fully justified in leaving the first point — that Christ has died, while I pass on to the other three. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 255, “Justice Satisfied” 248} You will bear in mind that I discussed the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ’s atonement by his death, in the sermon of last Sunday morning. I come, therefore, to notice the second argument. Our first reason for knowing that we cannot be condemned is, because Christ has died for us.
6. II. The second reason a believer has, is that CHRIST HAS RISEN AGAIN.
7. You will observe that the apostle has here prefixed the words, “yes rather!” Do you see the force of this expression? As much as to say, it is a powerful argument for our salvation, that Christ died; but it is a still more cogent proof that every believer shall be saved, that Christ rose again from the dead. This does not often strike us. We generally receive more comfort at the cross than we do at the empty sepulchre. And yet this is just through our ignorance and through the blindness of our eyes; for truly to the enlightened believer there is more consolation in Jesus arising from the tomb, than there is in Jesus nailed to the cross. “Yes rather,” said the apostle; as if he would have it, that this is a still more powerful argument. Now what had the resurrection of Christ from the dead to do with the justification of a believer? I take it thus: Christ by his death paid to his Father the full price of what we owed to him. God did as it were hold a bond against us which we could not pay. The alternative of this bond, if not paid, was, that we should be sold for ever under sin, and should endure the penalty of our transgressions in unquenchable fire. Now Jesus by his death paid all the debt; to the utmost farthing that was due from us to God, Christ paid by his death. Still the bond was not cancelled until the day when Christ arose from the dead; then his Father, as it were, tore up the bond in pieces, and blotted it out, so that after that it ceases to have any effect. It is true that death was the payment of the debt, but resurrection was the public acknowledgment that the debt was paid. “Now,” Paul says, “yes rather, he is risen from the dead.” Oh Christian, you cannot be condemned, for Christ has paid the debt. Look at his gore, as it distils from his body in Gethsemane and on the accursed tree. But rather, lest there should be a shadow of a doubt, that you cannot be condemned, your debts are cancelled. Here is the full receipt; the resurrection has torn the bond in two. And now at God’s right hand there is not left any record of your sin; for when our Lord Jesus Christ left the tomb, he left your sin buried in it — once and for all cast away — never to be recovered. To use another example — Christ’s death was as it were the digging out of the gold of grace out of the deep mines of Jesus’ sufferings. Christ coined, so to speak, the gold which should be the redemption of his children, but the resurrection was the minting of that gold; it stamped it with the Father’s image, as the current coin of the realm of heaven. The gold itself was fused in the atoning sacrifice, but the minting of it, making it into what should be the current coin of the merchant, was the resurrection of Christ. Then his Father stamped the atonement with his own image and his own superscription. On the cross I see Jesus dying for my sins as an expiating sacrifice; but in the resurrection I see God acknowledging the death of Christ, and accepting what he has done for my indisputable justification. I see him putting his own imprint upon it, stamping it with his own signet, dignifying it with his own seal, and again I cry, “Yes rather, who is risen from the dead,” — who then can condemn the believer? To put Christ’s resurrection yet in another way, his death was the digging of the well of salvation. Stern was the labour, toilsome was the work; he dug on, and on, and on, through rocks of suffering, into the deepest caverns of misery; but the resurrection was the springing up of the water. Christ dug the well to its very bottom, but not a drop sprang up; the world was still dry and thirsty, until on the morning of the resurrection a voice was heard, “Spring up oh well,” and out came Christ himself from the grave, and with him came the resurrection and the life; pardon and peace for all souls sprang up from the deep well of his misery. Oh! when I can find enough for my faith to be satisfied with even in the digging of the well, what shall be my satisfaction when I see it overflowing its brim, and springing up with everlasting life? Surely the apostle was right when he said, “Yes rather, who has risen from the dead.” And yet another picture, Christ was in his death the hostage of the people of God. He was the representative of all the elect. When Christ was bound to the tree, I see my own sin bound there; when he died every believer virtually died in him; when he was buried we were buried in him, and when he was in the tomb, he was, as it were, God’s hostage for all his church, for all that ever would believe on him. Now, as long as he was in prison, although there might be ground for hope, it was only as light sown for the righteous; but when the hostage came out, behold the first fruit of the harvest! When God said, “Let my Anointed go free, I am satisfied and content in him,” then every elect vessel went free in him; then every child of God was released from vile imprisonment no more to die, not to know bondage or fetter for ever. I do see ground for hope when Christ is bound, for he is bound for me; I do see reason for rejoicing when he dies, for he dies for me, and in my place and stead; I do see a theme for solid satisfaction in his burial, for he is buried for me; but when he comes out of the grave, having swallowed up death in victory, my hope bursts into joyous song. He lives, and because he lives I shall live also. He is delivered and I am delivered too. Death has no more dominion over him and no more dominion over me; his deliverance is mine, his freedom is mine for ever. Again, I repeat it, the believer should take strong draughts of consolation here. Christ is risen from the dead, how can we be condemned? There are even stronger arguments for the vindication of the believer in the resurrection of Christ than in his precious death and burial. I think I have