I. The Feelings, however Warm, can never justify, and the Want of Feeling does not prevent Justification.
I have known persons who have long since given up all idea of being justified by works, who still have a secret clinging to some idea of being justified by feelings. If they could but feel more—more love, more repentance, more warmth—then they think they could trust Christ for their acceptance. They have learned, they think, to trust Him if they have the feelings, but they would not venture to do so without them.
Now, before they can be happy in Christ they will have to go a step deeper, and learn to trust Him when they have not the feelings as well as when they have. They must remember that our justification is entirely dependent on His atonement and His righteousness, and so it is His free gift, freely given to those that are dead in sin. Now a dead man has no feelings. If, therefore, we wait for our justification until we have the feelings we must wait till we are alive. But the language of Scripture is, “God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.” [26] Your only hope, therefore, is to trust Him as you are, without waiting till you are one atom warmer than you are at this present moment. With your heart as cold as you now feel it to be, you must throw yourself at once before His feet, and cry, “Lord, save me, I perish.”
Closely connected with this suggestion is another, namely this—