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Christ Our Peace and Righteousness, April 13
Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a
Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
Acts 5:31
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He who has the spotless robe of righteousness, woven in the loom of
heaven, in which is not a thread that sinful humanity can claim, is at the
right hand of God, to clothe His believing children in the perfect garment
of His righteousness. Those who are saved in the kingdom of God will
have nothing of which to boast in themselves; the praise and the glory will
all flow back to God....
It is not now the work of the sinner to make peace with God, but to
accept Christ as his peace and righteousness. Thus man becomes one with
Christ and one with God. There is no way by which the heart may be
made holy, save through faith in Christ. Yet many think that repentance is
a kind of preparation which men must originate themselves before they can
come to Christ. They must take steps themselves in order to find Christ a
mediator in their behalf. It is true that there must be repentance before there
is pardon, but the sinner must come to Christ before he can find repentance.
It is the virtue of Christ that strengthens and enlightens the soul, so that
repentance may be godly and acceptable.... Repentance is as certainly a gift
of Jesus Christ as is forgiveness of sins. Repentance cannot be experienced
without Christ, for it is the repentance of which He is the author that is the
ground upon which we may apply for pardon. It is through the work of the
Holy Spirit that men are led to repentance. It is from Christ that the grace
of contrition comes, as well as the gift of pardon, and repentance as well
as forgiveness of sins is procured only through the atoning blood of Christ.
Those whom God pardons He first makes penitent
When the sinner accepts Christ and lives in Him, Jesus takes his sins
and weaknesses and then grafts the repentant soul into Himself, so that he
sustains the relation to Christ that the branch does to the vine. We have
nothing, we are nothing, unless we receive virtue from Jesus Christ
[110]
19
The Youth’s Instructor, December 6, 1894
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20
The Youth’s Instructor, June 21, 1894
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110