With or Without Christ?

“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). 

 If we have Christ, we have His blood for pardon, His righteousness for justification, His fullness to supply all our needs, His promises to cheer us, His strength to support us, His wisdom to guide us in all our ways. We have Him in all the offices He sustains, as Prophet to teach and instruct us, as Priest to atone and plead for us, and as King to rule over us and in us. We have Him in all the blessed characters He bears, as our Shepherd, our Captain, our Bread of Life, Water of Life and the Wine of God to cheer us. We have Him in the endearing relationship He sustains as our Elder Brother. 


And, which is more endearing than all, we have Him as our Husband; and He does not take His bride as we are in the habit of taking ours, for better or for worse. O no! He knew she would have no “better” about her; it would be all “worse;” therefore He took her with all her sin and guilt and stood answerable for all her debts.
 

Cannot some of you recollect a time when you were without Christ? Up to the time that I was nearly eighteen years of age, I was without Christ; but just before I was eighteen, Christ, in distinguishing love, revealed Himself to me. I am now within a few weeks of seventy and I feel up to this moment as much necessity of Christ as ever. I have not gained a bit of ground here. Since that time I have preached many thousands of sermons about Christ, I have travelled many thousands of miles to preach about Him and in this respect I think I may say I have labored more abundantly than many. 

 

But, if you would take away Christ, I would as soon trust the devil as all my doings; and the devil would have as good a hope as I should have; for all my hope comes from, and is centered in, a precious Christ. If we are without Christ, we have nothing but sin and wretchedness; nothing but what will lead us to ruin. 

 

-preacher Wm. Gadsby, excerpt from "Without Christ," 

November 17th, 1842 A.D.

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