September 27

and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God presented Him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand. — Rom 3:24-25 BSB

Before we can have faith in Christ’s atoning blood, we must first see the glory of His person. As John said, “We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Let me ask you, you who claim to know these things—have your eyes ever been opened to see the glory of Jesus? Has faith ever fixed its gaze on Him? Has hope ever anchored in Him? Has love ever flowed toward Him, the glorious Immanuel? Was He ever precious to your soul? Have you ever seen Him as “altogether lovely,” so that you could say, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is none on earth I desire besides you”?

If you have seen His person by the eye of faith, then your faith has already reached out to His atoning blood. That blood has all its value, power, and effectiveness because it is the blood of this glorious person. When we recognize this, we see infinite worth stamped upon His atoning blood. It is the blood of the God-man, Jesus, and we see the dignity, majesty, and glory of His Godhead stamped upon His sufferings and the blood He shed from His pure humanity.

When faith sees this, how rich a stream that blood becomes! It is a fountain opened to cleanse from sin. What a powerful remedy it becomes to cleanse a guilty conscience!

When this is known and felt, the soul is justified. Justification, in a sense, moves from God’s mind to the sinner’s heart. In God’s view, the sinner was never unjustified, but in their own conscience, under the law, and in the eyes of a holy God, they were guilty. But the moment faith enables them to touch and grasp the atoning blood of the Lamb of God, justification is applied to their soul. They are now justified, pardoned, and accepted, cleansed by the blood of Jesus, and they stand before God purer and brighter than snow, because “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin.”