F.E. Marsh
1. Why Did Christ Die?

One of the first things that Dr. Dale ever uttered was, "Christ did not come to preach the Gospel, but that there might be a Gospel to preach." But that is only half the truth, for He not only came that there might be a Gospel to preach, but He proclaimed the Gospel He came to make. It is an unwarranted and an unscriptural fallacy to say, as a prominent Free Churchman has done, "There is a significant omission from the teachings of Jesus of any definite doctrine of a substituted and expiatory sacrifice." Such a statement displays culpable ignorance of what Christ taught about His death. Dr. Denney has well said, "The last months of our Lord's life were a deliberate and thrice-repeated attempt to teach His disciples something about His death."

Christ spoke

• of a "baptism" He must experience (Luk 12:50),
• of a "lifting up" He would endure (Jhn 3:14),
• of a goal He must reach (Luk 13:33),
• of a suffering through which He must pass (Luk 24:7),
• of an hour with Him which must strike (Jhn 12:27),
• of a laying down of life which He would give (Jhn 10:11),
• of a fulfilment of Scripture which He would make (Luk 24:44),
• of a cup which He must drink (Jhn 18:11),
• of a blood-shedding He would pour (Luk 22:20),
• of a love He would manifest (Jhn 3:16),
• of a death He would die (Jhn 12:24-25),
• of a vicarious act He would perform (Mat 20:28),
• of a gift He would bestow (Jhn 6:51),
• of a work He would accomplish (Jhn 19:30),
• of a remission He would secure (Mat 26:28),
• of a power He would communicate (Jhn 7:39),
• of a profit that He would ensure (the word "expedient" in Jhn 16:7 should be "profitable"),
• of an outcome of eternal life He would obtain (Jhn 3:15),
• of a consecration He would assume (Jhn 17:19),
• of a victory He would gain (Jhn 12:31-32),
• of an experience through which He would pass (Jhn 12:24-25),
• of a forgiveness He would give (Luk 24:46-47),
• of a God whom He would glorify (Jhn 17:4).

These are but some of the forecasts which Christ taught about His death. We shall ponder the principal ones, as answering the question, "Why did Christ die?"

According to the teaching of Christ, His death was—

1. Divine in its provision.
2. Essential in its necessity.
3. Voluntary in its giving.
4. Substitutionary in its offering.
5. Sufficient in its atonement.
6. Complete in its issue.
7. Practical in its outcome.

I. Christ taught that His death was divine in its provision. There are two great and yet simple definitions of God, namely, "God is Light," and "God is Love." Both of these facts shine out at the Cross. "God is Light," and therefore He cannot pass over sin nor allow it to go unpunished; and there shines out in letters of gold, too, at the Cross that "God is Love," for He provides what He demands in the sacrifice of Christ. Let us look at these two facts in the light of Calvary. "God is Light" and His claims must be met in an expiation for sin. That atonement was provided by Himself; therefore, Christ's death was expiatory in its sacrifice.

By expiatory in its offering we mean that sin called for punishment, that the sinner could not atone for his sin, and that Christ has given to God a satisfaction for sin that we could never give ourselves.

Christ definitely teaches us the truth of expiation by sacrifice in His parable of the Pharisee and publican, when He makes the latter repentantly cry, "God be propitiated to me, the sinner," or "God make an atonement for me, the sinner" (Luk 18:13). The word hilaskomai, rendered "be merciful" in the publican's prayer, is translated "make reconciliation for" in Heb 2:17, in referring to the high priest who "made an atonement" for the sins of the people on the Great Day of Atonement.

In the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus the verb kaphar occurs sixteen times and is rendered "make an atonement" and "made a reconciling." From the verb kaphar comes kopher, which is rendered "satisfaction" in Num 35:32. What the publican recognized in his plea for mercy was the need of atonement or propitiation to be made for sin, for we may read his prayer in the light of the word used and its translation in the other place, "God make reconciliation or expiation for my sin."

At once the difference will be apprehended between the heathen thought of expiation and the Christian. With the heathen it is man's vain attempt to give satisfaction to the gods, but with the Christian it is what God stated long ago, "Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found an atonement" (Job 33:24, margin). God provides what He demands. This is the Gospel.

Canon Girdlestone in his Hebrew synonyms, in referring to the translations of the Hebrew and Greek words for atonement, says, "The prevailing idea set forth is the doing away with a charge against a person by means of expiation, propitiation, so that the accused may be received into the divine favor and be freed from the consequences of wrongdoing."

It will be clearly seen in the light of the Old Testament types, coloring as they do New Testament teaching, that Christ endorsed the same in the prayer of the publican and therefore taught that mercy is extended to the sinner because of His "expiatory sacrifice." In other words, God Himself, in the death of Christ, has provided satisfaction to Himself and obtained salvation for men; as Dr. Dale truly said in speaking of Christ's atonement, "A propitiation for sin, originated and effected by God Himself, through which we are brought into such relations to God, that all moral reasons for withholding from us the remission of sins disappear. The death of Christ was a propitiation for the sins of men because it was a revelation of the righteousness of God, on the ground of which He can remit the penalties of sin."

"God is Love." Christ taught that His death was the crowning act of God's manifested love. When Christ would tell us of God's love. He says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." The same testimony is given in other portions of the New Testament. "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Mark what it says and does not say. It does not say, "Christ commendeth his love toward us," but "God." Again, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

One of the noblest, among the many noble things during the war, was the sacrifice of a captain of one of the British patrol boats, who, after both legs had been shot off, ordered a fight against unequal odds to be continued, and commanded his men "to throw the confidential books overboard and throw me after them." The captain's love of country prompted him to sacrifice life and limbs. That sacrifice came in the fortune and accident of war, but when God and Christ manifested their love for us, the former gave His Son and the latter laid down His life. Christ said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"; but herein is the wonder and the exceptional love of Christ, for He laid down His life for His enemies and sinners.

Everything about Christ on the Cross is a manifestation of love.

• If we look at the Cross, we see The Sacrifice of Love. A truer word was never spoken when the crowd tauntingly said, "He saved others, himself he cannot save." If He had saved Himself, He could not have saved others.
• At the Cross we hear The Prayer of Love. When His enemies treated Him cruelly. He prayed for them graciously, pleading with His Father to forgive them because they knew not what they did.
• We listen to The Answer of Love when, in response to the dying thief's prayer, "Lord, remember me," He replied, "To-day thou shalt be with me in Paradise."
• We behold The Thoughtfulness of Love, as He commits His mother to the care of the beloved John and bids her to behold her son in him.
• We are moved by The Anguish of Love as the soul of Christ is torn by His inward sufferings and as He enters the throes of being forsaken by God.
• We see The Thirst of Love as He cries, "I thirst," and discover more than a request to have His thirst slaked, for He thirsted in soul agony that we might never cry for a drop of water in hell to cool our parched tongue.
• We see The Victory of Love as He reaches the goal of His purpose to die for our sins and to defeat the powers of hell in His exultant cry, "It is finished."
• We mark The Committal of Love as Christ dismisses His Spirit into the keeping of His Father.
• We look at The Crown of Love as we see the crown of thorns lacerating His sacred brow, for we know the thorns are symbolic of the curse He endured.
• We behold The Work of Love in Christ's transfixed hands, for there has never been anything so active in benefit as those passive hands of grace.
• We see The Suffering of Love in the pierced feet of our Lord, for the spikes which caused Him pain of body are emblematic of the iron that entered into His soul.
• We behold The Passiveness of Love as Christ is stripped of His clothes and allows Himself to be crucified: He willed to suffer, for no will of man could have caused Him to suffer, and yet how potent and powerful is that death by which God is glorified and man is benefited.
• We see The Attractiveness of Love in the magnetic force it had over the centurion, for he was impelled to confess, "Truly this man was the Son of God"; and
• we see The Heart of Love in His pierced side, for that opened side expresses the open heart of God's love for us.

II. Christ taught that His death was essential in its necessity. He said, "The Son of man must be lifted up," and lest there should be any mistake we are informed that the lifting up had a significance of its own, "signifying what death he should die" (Jhn 3:14; 12:32-33), and of that death He said it "must be." "Must" must mean "must," as Bengal says, "For this purpose He came down from heaven." Some twelve times He uses the word dei, rendered "must," "ought" and "behoved," and in each instance He refers to a necessity resting upon Him. Dr. Dale, in commenting upon the passage in John 3, says: "His incarnation is not enough. His ministry is not enough … it is this conception of His death that gives form to the words which follow. 'For God so loved the world, that he gave'—did not merely send, but gave—'his only begotten Son'—surrendered Him up to all that was involved in the great work of saving mankind, delivered Him over to the death which has just been illustrated by a lifting up of the brazen serpent."

The late Professor Charteis made a similar statement: "There was only one Christian life that began at Bethlehem and ended at Calvary; every other Christian life begins at Calvary and goes back to Bethlehem."

The denial of the fact of sin is the cause of the denial of the necessity of Christ's atonement for sin. Recognise the fact and there is no questioning about the necessity of His death. No one who has ever felt the plague of his own heart will doubt the necessity of Christ's atoning death; and, again, the sharp pinch of an accusing conscience and a sense of inability to rise to man's own ideals, leaving out God's requirement, will press a man to acknowledge the necessity of Christ's atonement, for as one has said, "The question of man's inability to any spiritual good accompanying salvation is a question as to matter of fact, and is to be answered ultimately by an appeal to experience. When a man has been discovered, who has been able, without Christ, to reconcile himself to God, and to obtain dominion over sin and over the world, then the doctrine of inability, or of the bondage due to sin, may be denied; then, but not till then. If Christ is invariably needed to bring sinful man to the Father, and to give them that peace with God in which all spiritual achievements have their root, then man, so far as experience goes, has been completely disabled by sin; and though he may have the right to boast among his equals, in his dealing with God boasting is excluded."

This inability in man, consequent upon his sin and sins, is scripturally demonstrated if we remember what God says man cannot do.

• "That which is crooked cannot be made straight" (Ecc 1:15).
  • The bend and trend of man's nature tends towards evil, like a wind-swept hedge, which leans the way the wind generally blows.
• "That which is wanting cannot be numbered" (Ecc 1:15).
  • Cyphers stand for nothing by themselves, so the sinner does not count, for he cannot pay his debt of obligation to God.
• "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit" (Mat 7:18).
  • Like produces like. A nettle cannot be made into a rose tree, nor can man produce holiness to the Lord since there dwelleth no good thing in him.
• "Except a man be born again, he cannot see," or "enter the kingdom of God" (Jhn 3:3-5).
  • If a man is minus eyes and legs, how can he see or walk? Man's sin has blinded the eyes of man's understanding and crippled the power of his will, so that he cannot understand the things of God nor walk in His ways.
• "A branch cannot bear fruit of itself" (Jhn 15:4).
  • A rootless branch is a fruitless one. So apart from Christ man cannot bring forth fruit unto God.
• "They that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom 8:8).
  • They may please themselves or others, but they cannot rise to the plane of pleasing God.
• "Sacrifices" of ritual "can never take away sins" (Heb 10:11).
  • Many think that acts of religious observance will avail for the removal of their sins, and gain acceptance with God, but He says that "can never" be.

All this calls for someone apart from us, and beyond us, to act for us. There is only one who can thus act, and that one is Christ, who knowing the facts of the case, has stated the necessity of His own death.

III. Christ taught that His death was voluntary in its Giving. Five times in John 10. Christ says He "giveth His life for the sheep" [Jhn 10:11] (the word "giveth" is rendered "lay down" in the other passages; see Jhn 10:2, 15, 17-18). The word "lay down" or "giveth" means to set, to place, as the foundation for a house, as a candle in a stick, as a body in a tomb, and as a purpose to be carried out. Christ's death was no accident. He said He would lay it down of Himself, and that no man had the power to take it from Him. His star of destiny was His death on Calvary. The legendary chasm, into which Marcus Curtius rode his horse at the Forum of Rome, and caused what was a menace to close, is a type of Christ's act of love as He faced our doom of sin and closed the hell of deserving for those who believe in Him.

As the man who brought a burnt offering brought it of "his own voluntary will" (Lev 1:3), so Christ without any compulsion except the impulsion of His own love for us gave Himself for us. Listen to what He says further. "The Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for many" (Mat 20:28), so He summarizes the purpose of His coming into the world. And again, He declares "The bread that I will give is My flesh" (Jhn 6:51). And all through the New Testament we find the emphasis is on the fact that He "gave" Himself for us. Does not all this tell us of His providing and pulsating love, and of His intense desire to bless us?

IV. Christ taught that His death was substitutionary in its offering. The Greek preposition "anti" is the one which expresses substitution, as all authorities are agreed. It signifies one thing set over against another, or in place of another, as the anti-Christ, who is the usurper who takes the place of Christ; or "anti" is used to express an equivalent as the law recognised when it said, "An eye for an eye." "Anti" only occurs twice in connection with Christ's death directly. Once in 1Ti 2:6, and there it is part of another word, namely, "anti-lutron." "Lutron" means a sum paid to loose something out of the market, and "anti" is instead of, therefore "anti-lutron" means a loosing price paid instead of others, for Christ is said to have "given Himself a ransom (anti-lutron) for all." Christ practically used the same expression when He says, "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to give His life a ransom for (anti) many" (Mat 20:28).

A leading Free Churchman said sometime ago, "The remission of penalty, or the consequence of sin, does not depend upon the fact of Christ's death, but is obtained through the incorporation of His own life with the life of the human soul." This statement makes salvation depend, not upon the outside fact of Christ's acting in our place, and bearing our penalty, but partly upon Christ and partly upon man. In order that there may be no mistake as to his meaning, he further declares, "At eventide there will be light. Against that evening sky there is a Cross—see there are three crosses—God and humanity are suffering together. In this sense the forgiveness of sins is dependent upon redemption, because without that redemptive force working in us we could not feel true repentance."

If the author of these words had pondered the sacred words which fell from Christ's lips, instead of listening to the inner voice of his own thoughts, he would have found Christ never taught any such blasphemous doctrine as the sinful sufferings of sinful men being on a par with the sinless suffering of the Divine substitute, nor suggest (if the words "blasphemous doctrine" are too strong), the subjective experience of the believer is a procuring cause of salvation. To state such a thing is to get on what one describes, "The slippery slopes of subjectivity." Christ did not say He would give His life along with the lives of others for the remission of sins, but He did say His life was to be "a ransom for many," and the end He had in view was as He stated later, "for (or unto) the remission of sins" (Mat 26:28). "Remission" means not merely the remitting or cancelling of penalty, but the letting loose from the sins which brought the penalty, and that was one end He had in view in dying for us, in bearing the penalty instead of us. But it is one thing to speak of the result of Christ's death for us as a subjective power in separating us from sin and begetting within us true holiness; and quite another to make that subjective experience to be a parallel basis of salvation. The objective reality of Christ's death as the vicarious offering for sin stands alone, and is alone the basis and procuring cause of salvation. Christ said it was "His blood" and not "His and ours" which was shed for the remission of sins. Christ made this so emphatically clear, that all four accounts of the Lord's Supper emphasise the fact that Christ would shed His blood for the remission of sins. Well does Dr. Dale exclaim, "The presentation of this central idea, notwithstanding the variations of the four narratives, is very impressive."

That "very impressive" fact, that Christ is alone in His atoning work, is further enunciated by the late Dr. Denney. He says, "The spirit in which Christ lived and died ought certainly to be our spirit; we are to be identified with Him in His utter renunciation of evil, and in His complete devotion to God; but no similar renunciation, no similar devotion on our part, even though they ended in literal crucifixion, could make our death identical in nature with that of the sinless One, Who, in dying, bore our sins. It is in this that the atonement lies. Christ finished it. He finished it alone. No one can do it after Him. No one needs to do it."

Let us ponder these latter five sentences.

• "It is in this that the atonement lies," namely, that "in dying," He "bore our sins." This is what the Holy Spirit calls the Gospel, for Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. There were sins to die for, and for our sins He has died.
• "Christ finished it." The Anointed One was sent to "accomplish" the work, and the work He has accomplished.
• "He finished it alone." He alone could do it, and He did it alone.
• "No one can do it after Him." There was no "after" to do, and there was no one who could do it if it were required. "There is no more offering for sin," since, through the once offered and only sacrifice the sins of the believer are remitted.
• "No one needs to do it." If there were the need, no man could meet it, and since there is no need what folly for any one to attempt it.

Therefore we must come to this conclusion and no other, "It was His death, for He had come to die; but it was not His, for He knew no sin; it was for us, and not for Himself, that He made that death His own."

V. Christ taught that His death was sufficient in its atonement. Christ's own statement about His death is, My flesh is meat indeed" (r.v.m., "True meat"), "and My blood is drink indeed" (r.v.m., "True drink") (Jhn 6:55). Meat and drink are the material things which satisfy the hunger of the body. In like manner Christ's death and Christ Himself meets the hunger of the sin-conscious soul to its salvation and satisfaction, and also meets the claims of God to His satisfaction and delight. Many have wondered, as those did who heard Christ's words at the first, what He meant by eating and drinking His flesh and blood, but an explanation is found in the occasion under which Christ spoke the words, we are told, "The Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh." Doubtless the mind of Christ, while He refers to the manna, was filled with the Paschal Lamb, whose blood was shed and sprinkled on the doorstep and doorposts of the houses, and the flesh of the lamb, after roasting, was eaten by the Israelites. Christ is the Lamb of God's providing, and the Food of God's sufficiency; and what Christ is insisting on is, as it was not sufficient for the blood to be shed and the flesh roasted, but the blood had to be applied and the flesh eaten, so Christ must be received and made one's own by faith. Ignatius expresses this in what he found Christ to be to him, when he says, "I have no delight in corruptible food, nor in the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, the heavenly bread, the Bread of Life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; and I desire the drink of God, namely, His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life."

This provision is sufficient in a double sense. It is sufficient for God to His satisfaction, joy and glory, as seen in the burnt-offering which ascended to the Lord as a sweet smelling savour; and it is sufficient for man's need to his salvation and the procuring of every blessing he requires for time and eternity; hence, we find every blessing is the product of His blood.

• Peace is made by His blood,
• forgiveness is obtained by His blood,
• nearness is granted through His blood,
• sanctification operates by His blood,
• victory is possible by His blood,
• cleansing comes through His blood,
• hell is defeated by His blood, and
• heaven is certain by the passport of His blood.

VI. Christ taught that His death would be complete in its issue.

• He spoke of being "perfected" when referring to His death and resurrection (Luk 13:32),
• of His death fulfilling what had been written "concerning" Him (Luk 24:27, 44),
• of having "finished" a work which had been given Him to do (Jhn 17:4),
• of being straitened "till He had accomplished" a "baptism" which He had to pass through (Luk 12:50),
• of that which had been "written by the prophets" having to be "accomplished" (Luk 18:31; 22:37), and
• it was when He was dying on the Cross that knowing the Scripture must "be fulfilled," and "all things" … "accomplished," that He cried, "It is finished" (Jhn 19:24, 28, 30).

"It is accomplished" was Christ's victorious cry on the cross. There is no suggestion here of a "working force in us," as some would tell us when they deny His substitutionary death, but there is undoubtedly something accomplished for us. Do not the phenomena of the cross suggest some of the things accomplished?

• His prayer for forgiveness for His enemies
  • announces forgiveness offered to all.
• His assuring word to the penitent thief
  • proclaims Paradise is regained.
• The three hours' darkness rolled away
  • speaks of the passing away of the outer darkness for the redeemed,
  • and the light of a new heaven.
• The rent veil
  • tells us of the opened way into the Father's heart.
• The quaking earth by contrast
  • heralds forth the things that cannot be shaken.
• The rent rocks
  • announce the power of the Cross,
  • the power to rend the hearts of adamantine [unbreakable] sinners from sin.
• The opened graves
  • preach the glorious news that the death of Christ has vanquished death and all its powers.
• The risen saints and their appearance to their friends,
  • tell out the reunion of the sleeping and living saints;
• and the confession of the centurion that Jesus was the Son of God,
  • proclaims the attractive power of Calvary to win men to the Saviour.

Many more things were accomplished.

• Law was magnified,
• justice was satisfied,
• hell was stultified,
• God was glorified.
• Scripture was fulfilled,
• sin's barrier was removed,
• heaven was opened, and
• all blessing was secured.

The influence of that glorious work will vibrate through the universe of God's creation, till all things shall be harmonised in the will of God. Sin which caused "a harsh din" to go clanging through the whole of the fair creation, shall be hushed in Him Who taketh away the sin of the world.

VII. Christ taught that His death would be practical in its outcome. The objective fact of Christ's vicarious sacrifice is a subjective force which is vitalising in its working. Listen to Christ's own words again. He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it, but he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve Me, let him follow Me" (Jhn 12:24-26). The one dominating thought in these wondrous words is, that as Christ lost His life in blessing us, so we ought to follow Him in being willing to lay down our lives for others; and as He has found Himself in the ennobled lives He has blest, so we find ourselves in others whom we have served out of love to Him.

Deep in the heart of the Swiss Alps, in the valley of Lauterbrunnen, there is a marvellous cascade known as the Falls of the Staubbach. It is made by little rivulets that come down from a mountain opposite the Jungfrau, from a height of about 5,000 feet. As seen from the Wengern Alp it looks, as it dashes downward, like a string of pearls beading the garments of a monarch. Rounding a thousand curves and angles, it rushes on, when at length, by a sheer leap of nearly a thousand feet, it reaches the valley below. The silver stream becomes less and less defined as it falls, until, about two-thirds of the distance down, it fades into a mere vapour. The torrent seems to fade away, and is lost in mist, and to be lost for ever, hence the name of Staubbach—the "Dust Fall." But these waters, although they vanish, are not lost. They gather themselves together again, for a few rods from the foot of the cliff, where the water seemed to disappear, it reappears again and glides on with a gentler flow. What a parable we have in those seeming lost and found waters. They are like the life that knows experimentally, fellowship with Christ in His death. To be crucified with Christ, and to be made conformable to His death means to be dead to self, to have the flame of the crucified burning in the heart, to have the spell of the love of Christ moving us in service for others, to have the nails go through the hands of unrighteousness, to have the spikes piercing the feet of worldly ways, and to have the hands of the pierced One holding ours in hallowed fellowship, causing us as we feel the dented palms to praise Him with grateful love.

The Gospel according to modern thought teaches, as we have already seen, "The remission of penalty does not depend upon Christ, but is obtained through the incorporation of His own life with the life of the human soul."

Contrast that statement with the words of Divine inspiration, where we read,

• "Christ died for our sins,"
• "Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree,"
• "He was manifested to take away our sins,"
• "Once in the end of the world He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself," and
• "Christ died for the ungodly."

Here is hope for the sinner, salvation for the lost, and an incentive to holiness.

One question which we must all face is, "Shall Christ die in vain?" It is possible, if we do not avail ourselves of the benefit and blessing of His death. One of the most pathetic letters of the great war was written by a soldier to his sister. This is part of the letter:—

"You know why I'm unhappy. It's not the dying, dear old girl, that worries me, and I know that you are as sure of that, as I am that my number's up. I wouldn't put it so crudely, old lady, if we didn't both feel the truth, and if we couldn't both so honestly, and so humbly, and without hypocrisy say, 'God's will be done.' It was almost a comfort to me when I confessed to you that I know I must face the 'Valley of the Shadow' in France, and you told me that you had the same premonition. What is it, I wonder, sister mine, this queer, psychic bond of the twin? Well, anyway, as I said, it's not the dying. I shall be just as jolly, right up to the end, as you will be brave afterwards. Don't tell the mater anything till then. What does worry me as I squat here in my dug-out is whether I shall have died in vain."

Something similar was in the mind of the Apostle when he spoke of Christ dying in vain. He will have died in vain if we do not avail ourselves of His death. He offers Himself in the cleansing of His blood, in the blessing of forgiveness of sins, in the gift of eternal life, in the joy of peace with God, in the separating power of His death, in the victory of His Cross, in the glow of His love, and in the might of His grace. May I put a personal question to any unsaved reader of these lines? Will you not receive Him now by an act of your will, and thus be saved by Him, and made holy in Him?