Pardon For The Greatest Sinners
PSALM 25:11
For thy name's sale, O Lord, pardon my
iniquity; for it is great.
IT is evident by some passages in
this psalm, that when it was penned, it was a time of affliction
and danger with David. This appears particularly by the 15th and
following verses: "Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord; for
he shall pluck my feet out of the net," etc. His distress
makes him think of his sins, and leads him to confess them, and
to cry to God for pardon, as is suitable in a time of affliction.
See ver. 7. "Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my
transgressions;" and verse 18. "Look upon mine
affliction, and my pain, and forgive all my sins."
It is observable in the text, what
arguments the psalmist makes use of in pleading for pardon.
1. He pleads for pardon for God's name's sake. He
has no expectation of pardon for the sake of any righteousness or worthiness
of his for any good deeds he had done, or any compensation he had
made for his sins; though if man's righteousness could be a just
plea, David would have had as much to plead as most. But he begs
that God would do it for his own name's sake, for his own glory,
for the glory of his own free grace, and for the honour of his
own covenant-faithfulness.
2. The psalmist pleads the greatness of his sins as
an argument for mercy. He not only doth not plead his own
righteousness, or the smallness of his sins; he not only cloth
not say, Pardon mine iniquity, for I have done much good to
counterbalance it; or, Pardon mine iniquity, for it is small, and
thou hast no great reason to be angry with me; mine iniquity is
not so great, that thou hast any just cause to remember it
against me; mine offence is not such but that thou mayest well
enough overlook i': but on the contrary he says, Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great; he pleads the greatness of his sin, and not the smallness
of it; the enforces his prayer with this consideration, that his
sins are very heinous.
But how could he make this a plea for
pardon? I answer, Because the greater his iniquity was, the more need he had of pardon. It
is as much as if he had said, Pardon mine iniquity, for it is so
great that I cannot bear the punishment; my sin is so great that
I am in necessity of pardon; my case will be exceedingly
miserable, unless thou be pleased to pardon me. He makes use of
the greatness of his sin, to enforce his plea for pardon, as a
man would make use of the greatness of calamity in begging for
relief. When a beggar begs for bread, he will plead the greatness
of his poverty and necessity. When a man in distress cries for
pity, what more suitable plea can be urged than the extremity of
his case?—And God allows such a plea as this: for he is
moved to mercy towards us by nothing in us but the miserableness
of our case. He doth not pity sinners because they are worthy,
but because they need his pity.
DOCTRINE
If we truly come to God for mercy, the
greatness of our sin will be no impediment to pardon.—If it were an impediment, David would never have used it
as a plea for pardon, as we find he does in the text.—The
following things are needful in order that we truly come to God
for mercy:
I. That we should see our misery, and be sensible of our need of
mercy. They who are not sensible of their misery cannot truly
look to God for mercy; for it is the very notion of divine mercy,
that it is the goodness and grace of God to the miserable.
Without misery in the object, there can be no exercise of mercy.
To suppose mercy without supposing misery, or pity without
calamity, is a contradiction: therefore men cannot look upon
themselves as proper objects of mercy, unless they first know
themselves to be miserable; and so, unless this be the case, it
is impossible that they should come to God for mercy. They must
be sensible that they are the children of wrath; that the law is
against them, and that they are exposed to the curse of it: that
the wrath of God abideth on them; and that he is angry' with them
every day while they are under the guilt of sin.—They must
be sensible that it is a very dreadful thing to be the object of
the wrath of God; that it is a very awful thing to have him for
their enemy; and that they cannot bear his wrath. They must he
sensible that the guilt of sin makes them miserable creatures,
whatever temporal enjoyments they have; that they can be no other
than miserable, undone creatures, so long as God is angry with
them; that they are without strength, and must perish, and that
eternally, unless God help them. They must see that their case is
utterly desperate, for any thing that any one else can do for
them; that they hang over the pit of eternal misery; and that
they must necessarily drop into it, if God have not mercy on
them.
II. They must be sensible that they are not worthy that God
should have mercy on them. They who truly come to God for mercy,
come as beggars, and not as creditors: they come for mere mercy.
for sovereign grace, and not for any thing that is due.
Therefore, they must see that the misery under which they lie is
justly brought upon them, and that the wrath to which they are
exposed is justly threatened against them; and that they have deserved that God should be their enemy, and should continue to be their enemy.
They must be sensible that it would be just with God to do as he
hath threatened in his holy law, viz. make them the objects of
his wrath and curse in hell to all eternity.— They who come
to God for mercy in a right manner are not disposed to find fault
with his severity; but they come in a sense of their own utter
unworthiness, as with ropes about their necks, and lying in the
dust at the foot of mercy.
III. They must come to God for mercy in
and through Jesus Christ alone. All their hope of mercy must be from the consideration
of what he is, what he hath done, and what he hath suffered; and
that there is no other name given under heaven, among men,
whereby we can be saved, but that of Christ; that he is the Son
of God, and the Saviour of the world; that his blood cleanses
from all sin, and that he is so worthy, that all sinners who are
in him may well be pardoned and accepted.—It is impossible
that any should come to God for mercy, and at the same time have no hope of mercy. Their coming
to God for it, implies that they have some hope of obtaining,
otherwise they would not think it worth the while to come. But
they that come in a right manner have all their hope through
Christ, or from the consideration of his redemption, and the
sufficiency of it.—If persons thus come to God for mercy,
the greatness of their sins will be no impediment to pardon. Let
their sins be ever so many, and great, and aggravated, it will
not make God in the least degree more backward to pardon them.
This may be made evident by the following considerations:
1. The mercy of
God is as sufficient for the pardon of
the greatest sins, as for the least; and that because his mercy
is infinite. That which is infinite, is as much above what is
great, as it is above what is small. Thus God being infinitely
great, he is as much above kings as he is above beggars; he is as
much above the highest angel, as he is above the meanest worm.
One finite measure doth not come any nearer to the extent of
what is infinite than another.—So the mercy of God being
infinite, it must be as sufficient for the pardon of all sin, as
of one. If one of the least sins be not beyond the mercy of God,
so neither are the greatest, or ten thousand of
them.—However, it must be acknowledged, that this alone
doth not prove the doctrine. For though the mercy of God may be
as sufficient for the pardon of great sins as others; yet there
may be other obstacles, besides the want of mercy. The mercy of
God may be sufficient, and yet the other attributes may oppose
the dispensation of mercy in these cases.— Therefore I
observe,
2. That the satisfaction
of Christ is as sufficient for the
removal of the greatest guilt, as the least: 1 John i. 7. "
The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin." Acts xiii. 39.
" By him all that believe are justified from all things from
which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." All
the sins of those who truly come to God for mercy, let them be
what they will, are satisfied for, if God be true who tells us
so; and if they be satisfied for, surely it is not incredible,
that God should be ready to pardon them. So that Christ having
fully satisfied for all sin, or having wrought out a satisfaction
that is sufficient for all, it is now no way inconsistent with
the glory of the divine attributes to pardon the greatest sins of
those who in a right manner come unto him for it. God may now
pardon the greatest sinners without any prejudice to the honour
of his holiness. The holiness of God will not suffer him to give
the least countenance to sin, but inclines him to give proper
testimonies of his hatred of it. But Christ having satisfied for
sin, God can now love the sinner, and give no countenance at all
to sin, however great a sinner he may have been. It was a
sufficient testimony of God's abhorrence of sin, that he poured
out his wrath on his own dear Son, when he took the guilt of it
upon himself. Nothing can more show God's abhorrence of sin than this.
If all mankind had been eternally damned, it would not have been
so great a testimony of it.
God may, through Christ, pardon the greatest sinner without any
prejudice to the honour of his majesty. The honour of the divine
majesty indeed requires satisfaction; but the sufferings of
Christ fully repair the injury. Let the contempt be ever so great,
yet if so honourable a person as Christ undertakes to be a
Mediator for the offender, and suffers so much for him, it fully repairs the injury done to the
Majesty of heaven and earth. The sufferings of Christ fully
satisfy justice. The justice of God, as the supreme Govemor and
Judge of the world, requires the punishment of sin. The supreme
Judge must judge the world according to a rule of justice. God
doth not show mercy as a judge, but as a sovereign; therefore
his exercise of mercy as a sovereign, and his justice as a judge,
must be made consistent one with another; and this is done by the sufferings
of Christ, in which sin is punished fully, and justice answered.
Rom. iii. 25, 26. " Whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through
the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time, his
righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him
which believeth in Jesus."—The law is no impediment in
the way of the pardon of the greatest sin, if men do but truly
come to God for mercy: for Christ hath fulfilled the law, he hath
borne the curse of it, in his sufferings; Gal. iii. 13. "
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a
curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth
on a tree."
3. Christ will
no! refuse to save the greatest
sinners, who in a right manner come to God for mercy; for this is
his work. It is his business to be a Saviour of sinners; it is
the work upon which he came into the world; and therefore he will
not object to it. He did not come to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance, Matt. ix. 13. Sin is the very evil which
he came into the world to remedy: therefore he will not object to
any man that he is very sinful. The more sinful he is, the more
need of Christ.—The sinfulness of man was the reason of
Christ's coming into the world; this is the very misery from
which he came to deliver men. The more they have of it, the more
need they have of being delivered; " They that are whole
need not a physician, but they that are sick," Matt. ix. 12. The physician
will not make it an objection against healing a man who applies to
him, that he stands in great need of his help. If a physician of
compassion comes among the sick and wounded, surely he will not
refuse to heal those that stand in most need of healing, if he be
able to heal them.
4. Herein cloth the glory
of grace by the redemption of Christ
much consist, viz. in its sufficiency for the pardon of the greatest
sinners. The whole contrivance of the way of salvation is for
this end, to glorify the free grace of God. God had it on his
heart from all eternity to glorify this attribute; and therefore
it is, that the device of saving sinners by Christ was conceived.
The greatness of divine grace appears very much in this, that God
by Christ saves the greatest offenders. The greater the guilt of
any sinner is, the more glorious and wonderful is the grace
manifested in his pardon: Rom. v. 20. " Where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound." The apostle, when
telling how great a sinner he had been, takes notice of the
abounding of grace in his pardon, of which his great guilt was
the occasion: 1 Tim. i. 13. " Who was before a blasphemer,
and a persecutor, and injurious. But I obtained mercy; and the
grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant, with faith and love
which is in Christ Jesus." The Redeemer is glorified, in
that he proves sufficient to redeem those who are exceeding
sinful, in that his blood proves sufficient to wash away the
greatest guilt, in that he is able to save men to the uttermost,
and in that he redeems even from the greatest misery. It is the
honour of Christ to save the greatest sinners, when they come to
him, as it is the honour of a physician that he cures the most
desperate diseases or wounds. Therefore, no doubt, Christ will be
willing to save the greatest sinners, if they come to him; for he
will not be backward to glorify himself, and to commend the value
and virtue of his own blood. Seeing he hath so laid out himself
to redeem sinners, he will not be unwilling to show, that he is
able to redeem to the uttermost.
5. Pardon is as much offered and promised to the
greatest sinners as any, if they will come aright to God for
mercy. The invitations of the gospel are always in universal
terms: as, Ho, every one that thirsteth; Come unto me, all ye
that labour and are heavy laden; and, Whosoever will, let him
come. And the voice of Wisdom is to men in general: Prov. viii.
4. " Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of
men." Not to moral men, or religious men, but to you, O men. So Christ promises,
John vi. 37. " Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast
out." This is the direction of Christ to his apostles, after
his resurrection, Mark xvi. 15, 16. " Go ye into all the
world, and preach the gospel to every creature: he that believeth,
and is baptized, shall be saved." Which is agreeable to what
the apostle saith, that "the gospel was preached to every
creature which is under heaven," Col. i. 23.
APPLICATION
The proper use of this subject is, to encourage sinners whose
consciences are burdened with a sense of guilt, immediately to go
to God through Christ for mercy. If you go in the manner we have
described, the arms of mercy are open to embrace you. You need
not be at all the more fearful of coming because of your sins,
let them be ever so black. If you had as much guilt lying on each
of your souls as all the wicked men in the world, and all the
damned souls in hell; yet if you come to God for mercy, sensible
of your own vileness, and seeking pardon only through the free
mercy of God in Christ, you would not need to be afraid; the
greatness of your sins would be no impediment to your pardon.
Therefore, if your souls be burdened, and you are distressed for
fear of hell, you need not bear that burden and distress any
longer. If you are but willing, you may freely come and unload yourselves, and cast all your
burdens on Christ, and rest in him.
But here I shall speak to some OBJECTIONS which some awakened
sinners may be ready to make against what I now exhort them to.
I. Some may be ready to object, I have
spent my youth and all the best of my life in sin, and I am
afraid God will not accept of me, when I offer him only mine old
age.—To this I would answer, 1. Hath God said any where,
that he will not accept of old sinners who come to him?
God hath often made offers and promises in universal terms; and
is there any such exception put in? Doth Christ say, All that
thirst, let them come to me and drink, except old sinners? Come to me, all ye that labour and are
heavy laden, except old sinners, and I will give you rest? Him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out, if he be not an
old sinner? Did you ever read any such exception any where in the
Bible? and why should you give way to exceptions which you make
out of your own heads, or rather which the devil puts into your
heads, and which have no foundation in the word of
God?—Indeed it is more rare that old sinners are willing to
come, than others; but if they do come, they are as readily
accepted as any whatever.
2. When God accepts of young persons, it
is not for the sake of the service which they are like to do him
afterwards, or because youth is better worth accepting than old
age. You seem entirely to mistake the matter, in thinking that
God will not accept of you because you are old; as though he
readily accepted of persons in their youth, because their youth
is better worth his acceptance; whereas it is only for the sake
of Jesus Christ, that God is willing to accept of any.
You say, your life is almost spent, and
you are afraid that the best time for serving God is past; and
that therefore God will not now accept of you; as if it were for
the sake of the service which persons are like to do him, after
they are converted, that he accepts of them. But a self-righteous
spirit is at the bottom of such objections. Men cannot get off
from the notion, that it is for some goodness or service of their
own, either done or expected to be done, that God accepts of
persons, and receives them into favour.—Indeed they who deny
God their youth, the best part of their lives, and spend it in
the service of Satan, dreadfully sin and provoke God; and he very
often leaves them to hardness of heart when they are grown old.
But if they are willing to accept of Christ when old, he is as
ready to receive them as any others; for in that matter God hath respect
only to Christ and his worthiness.
II. But, says one, I fear I have
committed sins that are peculiar to reprobates. I have sinned
against light, and strong convictions of conscience; I have
sinned presumptuously; and have so resisted the strivings of the
Spirit of God, that I am afraid I have committed such sins as
none of God's elect ever commit. I cannot think that God will
ever leave one whom he intends to save, to go on and commit sins
against so much light and conviction, and with such horrid
presumption.—Others may say, I have had risings of heart
against God; blasphemous thoughts, a spiteful and malicious
spirit; and have abused mercy and the strivings of the Spirit,
trampled upon the Saviour, and my sins are such as are peculiar
to those who are reprobated to eternal damnation. To all this I
would answer,
1. There is no sin peculiar to reprobates
but the sin against the Holy Ghost. Do you read of any other in
the word of God? And if you do not read of any there, what ground
have you to think any such thing? What other rule have we, by
which to judge of such matters, but the divine word? If we
venture to go beyond that, we shall be miserably in the dark.
When we pretend to go further in our determinations than the word
of God, Satan takes us up, and leads us. It seems to you that
such sins are peculiar to the reprobate, and such as God never
forgives. But what reason can you give for it, if you have no
word of God to reveal it? Is it because you cannot see how the
mercy of God is sufficient to pardon, or the blood of Christ to cleanse
from such presumptuous sins? If so, it is because you never yet
saw how great the mercy of God is; you never saw the sufficiency
of the blood of Christ, and you know not how far the virtue of it
extends. Some elect persons have been guilty of all manner of
sins, except the sin against the Holy Ghost; and unless you have
been guilty of this, you have not been guilty of any that are
peculiar to reprobates.
2. Men may be less likely to believe, for
sins which they have committed, and not the less readily pardoned
when they do believe. It must be acknowledged that some sinners
are in more danger of hell than others. Though all are in great
danger, some are less likely to be saved. Some are less likely
ever to be converted and to come to Christ: but all who do come
to him are alike readily accepted; and there is as much
encouragement for one man to come to Christ as another.—Such
sins as you mention are indeed exceeding heinous and provoking to
God, and do in an especial manner bring the soul into danger of damnation,
and into danger of being given to final hardness of heart; and
God more commonly gives men up to the judgment of final hardness
for such sins, than for others. Yet they are not peculiar to
reprobates; there is but one sin that is so, viz. that against
the Holy Ghost. And notwithstanding the sins which you have
committed, if you can find it in your hearts to come to Christ,
and close with him, you will be accepted not at all the less
readily because you have committed such sins.—Though God
cloth more rarely cause some sorts of sinners to come to Christ
than others, it is not because his mercy or the redemption of
Christ is not as sufficient for them as others, but because in
wisdom he sees fit so to dispense his grace, for a restraint upon
the wickedness of men; and because it is his will to give
converting grace in the use of means, among which this is one,
viz. to lead a moral and religious life, and agreeable to our
light, and the convictions of our consciences. But when once any
sinner is willing to come to Christ, mercy is as ready for him as
for any. There is no consideration at all had of his sins; let
him have been ever so sinful, his sins are not remembered; God
doth not upbraid him with them.
III. But had I not better stay till I
shall have made myself better, before I presume to come to
Christ. I have been, and see myself to be very wicked now; but am
in hopes of mending myself, and rendering myself at least not so
wicked: then I shall have more courage to come to God for
mercy.—In answer to this,
1. Consider how unreasonably you act. You
are striving to set up yourselves for your own saviours; you are
striving to get something of your own, on the account of which
you may the more readily be accepted. So that by this it appears
that you do not seek to be accepted only on Christ's account. And
is not this to rob Christ of the glory of being your only
Saviour? Yet this is the way in which you are hoping to make
Christ willing to save you.
2. You can never come to Christ at all,
unless you first see that he will not accept of you the more
readily for any thing that you can do. You must first see, that
it is utterly in vain for you to try to make yourselves better on
any such account. You must see that you can never make yourselves
any more worthy, or less unworthy, by any thing which you can
perform.
3. If ever you truly come to Christ, you
must see that there is enough in him for your pardon, though you
be no better than you are. If you see not the sufficiency of
Christ to pardon you, without any righteousness of your own to
recommend you, you never will come so as to be accepted of him.
The way to be accepted is to come—not on any such
encouragement, that now you have made yourselves better, and more
worthy, or not so unworthy, but—on the mere encouragement of
Christ's worthiness, and God's mercy.
4. If ever you truly come to Christ, you
must come to him to make you better. You must come as a patient
comes to his physician, with his diseases or wounds to be cured.
Spread all your wickedness before him, and do not plead your goodness;
but plead your badness, and your necessity on that account: and
say, as the psalmist in the text, not Pardon mine iniquity, for
it is not so great as
it was, but, " Pardon mine iniquity, for it is Great."
