What you are now, and what you would have been

Charles Spurgeon, "Accepted by the Great Father"

(You will find it helpful to LISTEN to the Audio, as you READ the text below.)

1 Corinthians 6:9-11, "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were! But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

Christian! Think of the contrast between what you are now, and what you would have been--had not God graciously saved you. At this moment we might have been plunging into the vilest of sins, reveling and rioting in wickedness, as so many others do! Yes, by this time we might have been dead and in Hell, as the result of our own sins. Be startled, O my soul, at this thought: that nothing but God's infinite grace has kept you out of the bottomless pit, "where the worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched."

But brethren, by God's saving grace, we are not in Hell. And what is more, we never shall be, for those iron gates can never close upon a soul that is "accepted in the Beloved!" We have fled for refuge to the hope set before us, and now we no more need to be in terror of the judgment and the righteous Judge, and the stern sentence: "Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!"

Clinging to the cross, and beholding ourselves covered with the righteousness of Jesus, we know that we are saved; and what is far more, we are fully accepted by God. This blessed fact is now true of those who once would have been among the damned. Our shrieks might have been going up today amidst the wailings of the wretched who are eternally cast away from hope--but for God's saving grace.

We were once criminals before God; we are now His children.
We were once God's enemies; we are now His friends.
We were once condemned by God; we are now justified.

There was nothing good in ourselves, why God chose to save us. The reason lay in the loving heart of the Eternal Father Himself: "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." But for His glorious grace, we ourselves would have been damned forever!

"All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!" Ephesians 2:3-5

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You may want to read the whole of this marvelous Spurgeon sermon: "Accepted by the Great Father"