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~ Around the Wicket Gate ~
Almost Saved, But Altogether Lost
Here in Chapter 7, Spurgeon focuses on the sufferings of Christ, urging readers to look to his wounds as the sole cure for sin. He describes Jesus’ agony—from Gethsemane to the cross—as the full payment for our guilt. Spurgeon reminds seekers that salvation rests entirely on Christ’s finished work, not on anything we do. Faith and repentance naturally follow, but it is Christ’s atonement alone that heals and saves.
The following are select quotes from this chapter.
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Holy men of old have lovingly elaborated on the bodily sufferings of our Lord, and I have no hesitation in doing the same, trusting that trembling sinners may see salvation in these painful “wounds” of the Redeemer.
No language can ever fully convey his agony in anticipation of his passion; how much less can we comprehend the passion itself? When nailed to the cross, he endured what no martyr ever suffered. When they have died, martyrs have been so sustained by God that they have rejoiced amid their pain. But our Redeemer was forsaken by his Father, until he cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). That was the bitterest cry of all, the utmost depth of his unfathomable grief.Yet it was necessary for him to be deserted, because God must turn his back on sin, and consequently, he must turn his back on him who was made sin for us. The soul of the great Substitute suffered a horror of misery in place of the horror of hell into which sinners would have been plunged had he not taken their sin upon himself and been made a curse for them.“Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Galatians 3:13); but who can truly understand what that curse means?
The remedy for your sins and mine is found in the substitutionary sufferings of the Lord Jesus, and in these only. These “wounds” of the Lord Jesus Christ were on our behalf. Do you ask, “Is there anything for us to do to remove the guilt of sin?” I answer: There is nothing whatsoever for you to do. By the wounds of Jesus, we are healed. He has endured all those wounds and left not one of them for us to bear.”
“But must we not believe in him?” Yes, certainly. If I say a certain ointment heals, I do not deny that you need a bandage to apply it to the wound. Faith is the linen that binds the plaster of Christ’s reconciliation to the sore of our sin. The linen does not heal; that is the work of the ointment. Similarly, faith does not heal; that is the work of the atonement of Christ.
“But we must repent,” cries another. Assuredly we must, and we will, for repentance is the first sign of healing. But it is the wounds of Jesus that heal us, not our repentance. These wounds, when applied to the heart, work repentance in us. We hate sin because it made Jesus suffer.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
