Ephesians 1:7

Could there be a sweeter word in any language than that word “forgiveness,” when it sounds in a guilty sinner’s ear like the silver notes of jubilee to the captive Israelite? Blessed, forever blessed, be that dear star of pardon which shines into the condemned cell and gives the perishing a gleam of hope amid the midnight of despair!

Can it be possible that sin, such sin as mine, can be forgiven, forgiven altogether and forever? Hell is my portion as a sinner—there is no possibility of my escaping from it while sin remains on me—can the load of guilt be uplifted, the crimson stain removed? Can the adamantine stones of my prison-house ever be loosed from their mortises, or the doors be lifted from their hinges?

Jesus tells me that I may yet be cleared. Forever blessed be the revelation of atoning love, which not only tells me that pardon is possible but that it is secured to all who rest in Jesus. I have believed in the appointed propitiation, even Jesus crucified, and therefore my sins are, at this moment and forever, forgiven by virtue of his substitutionary pains and death.

What joy this is! What bliss to be a perfectly pardoned soul! My soul dedicates all her powers to him who, of his own unpurchased love, became my surety and accomplished for me redemption through his blood. What riches of grace does free forgiveness exhibit! To forgive at all, to forgive fully, to forgive freely, to forgive forever!

Here is a constellation of wonders. When I think of how great my sins were, how dear were the precious drops that cleansed me from them, and how gracious was the method by which pardon was brought home to me, I am in a maze of wondering, worshipping affection. I bow before the throne that absolves me, I clasp the cross that delivers me, I will serve from now on all my days the Incarnate God, through whom I am this night a pardoned soul.