s was the result of our sin. We were committed to sin
and without help, without deliverance, ay, we were captive in such
blindness and darkness that we did not recognize our misery; much
less could we devise and effect our escape. Now, in place of this
misery, we have, without any merit on our part, any preparation, any
deed or design, ay, without even a thought, assuredly received,
through God's unfathomable grace and mercy, redemption, or the
forgiveness of sins.

GOD'S GRACE INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

42. The measure of such graciousness and blessing no tongue can
express; indeed, in this life no man can understand it. In hell the
wicked shall become sensible of it by the realization of their
condemnation and the never-ending wrath of the eternal, divine
Majesty and of all creatures. No created thing shall they be able to
behold with joy, because in these ever shall be reflected the
condemned one's own unceasing, lamentable sorrow, terror and despair.
Nor, on the other hand, can the creature behold the condemned with
pleasure, but must abhor them; it must be an object of further terror
and condemnation to the damned. However, in this life God in his
unspeakable goodness has subjected the creature to vanity, as Paul
says in Romans 8, 20, and to the service of the wicked. Yet it serves
against its will, travailing as a woman in pain, with the supreme
desire to be liberated from this service of the wicked, condemned
world. It must, however, have patience in its hope of redemption, for
the sake of those children of God yet to come to Christ and finally
to be brought to glory; otherwise it is as hostile to sin as God
himself.

43. But because an eternal, unchangeable sentence of condemnation has
passed upon sin--for God cannot and will not regard sin with favor,
but his wrath abides upon it eternally and irrevocably--redemption
was not possible without a ransom of such precious worth as to atone
for sin, to assume the guilt, pay the price of wrath and thus abolish
sin.

44. This no creature was able to do. There was no remedy except for
God's only Son to step into our distress and himself become man, to
take upon himself the load of awful and eternal wrath and make his
own body and blood a sacrifice for the sin. And so he did, out of his
immeasurably great mercy and love towards us, giving himself up and
bearing the sentence of unending wrath and death.

45. So infinitely precious to God is this sacrifice and atonement o