1208 神公正无偏的权能
因为他一次献祭，便叫那得以成圣的人永远完全。《希伯来书10:14》
如果我们以为得赦免是因我们为自己的罪懊悔，那么我们就是在践踏神儿子的宝血。我们的罪蒙神赦免的唯一原因，以及祂不记念那些罪此应许之无比深广，那是因耶稣基督的死。我们的悔改只是我们个人认识到神为我们预备基督十字架替我们赎罪的结果。「…神又使祂成为我们的智慧，公义，圣洁，救赎。」（哥林多前书 1:30）。一旦我们意识到基督为我们成为这一切时，神无限的喜乐就在我们里面开始了。哪里没有神的喜乐，死亡判决就仍然有效。
无论我们是谁或是什么，神都只能凭借耶稣基督之死来恢复我们与祂自己的正确关系。神这样做，不是因为耶稣恳求祂这样做，而是因为耶稣的死。救恩不能通过努力赚取，只能被接受。所有故意忽视基督十字架救恩的恳求都是无用的，那是在敲耶稣已经开启的门之外的另一扇门。我们抗议说：「但我不想走那条路。被当作罪人来接受，太羞辱了。」神的反应透过彼得说：「…除祂以外，别无拯救；因为在天下人间，没有赐下别的名，我们可以靠著得救。」（使徒行传 4:12）。神起初看似无情，但实际上却是祂内心的真实表达；祂的道路没有限制入口。「我们藉这爱子的血得蒙救赎…」（以弗所书 1:7），认同耶稣基督的死意味着我们必须向一切与祂无关的事物死去。
神在拯救那些本是坏人时是公正的，是因为祂使他们变好。当我们都错的时候，我们的主不会假装我们都对。基督十字架上的赎罪是神用来使不圣洁者成为圣洁、平息神对罪震怒的手段。
来自章伯斯的智慧
我们都有这样说话的技巧：但愿我不是在如今这个环境中！但愿我没有与这些人一起生活！如果我们的信仰或宗教在我们所处的光景中不能帮助我们，我们要么还需要经历进一步的挣扎，要么我们最好放弃那种信仰和宗教。《痛苦的阴影》
1208 The Impartial Power of God
By one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. —Hebrews 10:14
We trample the blood of the Son of God underfoot if we think we are forgiven because we are sorry for our sins. The only reason for the forgiveness of our sins by God, and the infinite depth of His promise to forget them, is the death of Jesus Christ. Our repentance is merely the result of our personal realization of the atonement by the Cross of Christ, which He has provided for us. “…Christ Jesus…became for us wisdom from God— and righteousness and sanctification and redemption…” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Once we realize that Christ has become all this for us, the limitless joy of God begins in us. And wherever the joy of God is not present, the death sentence is still in effect.
No matter who or what we are, God restores us to right standing with Himself only by means of the death of Jesus Christ. God does this, not because Jesus pleads with Him to do so but because He died. It cannot be earned, just accepted. All the pleading for salvation which deliberately ignores the Cross of Christ is useless. It is knocking at a door other than the one which Jesus has already opened. We protest by saying, “But I don’t want to come that way. It is too humiliating to be received as a sinner.” God’s response, through Peter, is, “… there is no other name…by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). What at first appears to be heartlessness on God’s part is actually the true expression of His heart. There is unlimited entrance His way. “In Him we have redemption through His blood…” (Ephesians 1:7). To identify with the death of Jesus Christ means that we must die to everything that was never a part of Him.
God is just in saving bad people only as He makes them good. Our Lord does not pretend we are all right when we are all wrong. The atonement by the Cross of Christ is the propitiation God uses to make unholy people holy.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
We all have the trick of saying—If only I were not where I am!—If only I had not got the kind of people I have to live with! If our faith or our religion does not help us in the conditions we are in, we have either a further struggle to go through, or we had better abandon that faith and religion. The Shadow of an Agony, 1178 L