九月二十五日
好在今时显明他的义，使人知道他自己爲义，也称信耶稣的人爲义。（罗3：26）
我们既因信称义，就与神和好了。良心不再责备我们了。审判现在已经定了，但是已不再有碍于罪人了。记忆回顾过去的罪，幷爲罪悲伤，但是已不怕罪的刑罚了；因爲基督已经完全偿付了他的民所欠的债，幷且得了神的收据；除非神是不公义的，否则他是不会叫人一债两偿的，耶稣所替死，所救赎的人是不会再被投到地狱里的。
我们被光照的性情应当相信神是公义的；他必定是公义的，起初我们感到有一点恐惧；但是奇妙得很，当我们信神是公义的时候，我们马上也感到他是我们的信心和平安的砥柱！若神是公义的，我这个罪人，如果没有人替我死，当然要受刑罚；但耶稣已经代替了我幷爲我受刑；现在，若神是公义的，我这个罪人，在基督里面，必永远不能受罚了。
神对于耶稣所已经替死的人已不再根据他的律法刑罚他了。因此，耶稣站在信徒的地位上——爲一切犯了罪，当受刑的人承当了神的忿怒，信徒便可胜利地高呼：“谁能控告神所拣选的人呢？”神不能，因爲他已经称他们爲义了；基督不能，因他已爲他们死了，“而且从死里复活了”了。我得以存活的指望幷非因爲我不是一个罪人，而是因爲基督已经爲我这个罪人死了；我所倚靠的幷非我的圣洁，而是他已爲我这个不洁的人成爲我的义了。我的信幷不在于我现在或将来的情形、我所感觉或知道的事，而是在于基督现在和过去所爲我成就的事。盼望的美女骑在公义的狮背上真像一位王后一样。
September
25
“Just,
and the justifier of him which believeth.” — Romans 3:26
Being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Conscience accuses no
longer. Judgment now decides for the sinner instead of against him. Memory
looks back upon past sins, with deep sorrow for the sin, but yet with no dread
of any penalty to come; for Christ has paid the debt of His people to the last
jot and tittle, and received the divine receipt; and unless God can be so
unjust as to demand double payment for one debt, no soul for whom Jesus died as
a substitute can ever be cast into hell. It seems to be one of the very
principles of our enlightened nature to believe that God is just; we feel that
it must be so, and this gives us our terror at first; but is it not marvellous
that this very same belief that God is just, becomes afterwards the pillar of
our confidence and peace! If God be just, I, a sinner, alone and without a
substitute, must be punished; but Jesus stands in my stead and is punished for
me; and now, if God be just, I, a sinner, standing in Christ, can never be
punished. God must change His nature before one soul, for whom Jesus was a
substitute, can ever by any possibility suffer the lash of the law. Therefore,
Jesus having taken the place of the believer– having rendered a full
equivalent to divine wrath for all that His people ought to have suffered as
the result of sin, the believer can shout with glorious triumph, “Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” Not God, for He hath
justified; not Christ, for He hath died, “yea rather hath risen
again.” My hope lives not because I am not a sinner, but because I am a
sinner for whom Christ died; my trust is not that I am holy, but that being
unholy, He is my righteousness. My faith rests not upon what I am, or shall be,
or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what He has done, and in what He is
now doing for me. On the lion of justice the fair maid of hope rides like a
queen.
