ledge of
sin." Rom. 3:19, 20.

The guilt exists. No deeds that man can do can undo it or cover it from
a righteous law. Not only that, but as soon as the law declares what
righteousness is, the sinner finds that its demands are altogether
beyond the power of his flesh to meet. It calls for a kind of work that
fallen human nature cannot so much as approach. Paul cried out, when
struggling under conviction, "We know that the law is spiritual: but I
am carnal, sold under sin." Rom. 7:14.

The carnal cannot bring forth the spiritual. But the law demands a
spiritual work of righteousness. It is impossible for the carnal mind to
undertake it. The Scripture says:

"The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot
please God." Rom. 8:7, 8.

But the awakened sinner is yet in the flesh. He finds the law thundering
his guilt and condemning him to death. He cannot wash away the past, nor
hide it; he cannot obey God's law with a carnal mind, and that is all
the mind he has. He is lost, and helpless of himself, but longs for a
way of escape. Paul's cry in the same position is the cry of the
despairing heart that has not found the Saviour, "O wretched man that I
am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Rom. 7:24. Thank
God, there is an answer to that cry, for every sinner.

"Plunged in a gulf of dark despair,
We wretched sinners lay,
Without one cheering beam of hope,
Or spark of glimmering day.

"With pitying eyes the Prince of grace
Beheld our helpless grief:
He saw, and, O amazing love!
He came to our relief."

The Free Gift of Christ

Following that despairing cry of human helplessness, "Who shall deliver
me?" there came the believer's shout of praise, "I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord." He is the deliverer; for He "gave Himself for
our sins, that He might deliver us." Rom. 7:25; Gal. 1:4.

The way of escape and salvation is the gift of God's love. "God so loved
the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.

No sinner has need to plead that God may be willing to forgive him; the
Lord's infinite love that gave His Son to die, is pleading with the
sinner to believe and accept salvation.

In order to be the sinner's Saviour, the divine Son of God must take
man's place b