You [who are unsaved] may perhaps think, “If I do better, God will pardon me,” but that is a vain thought. He will by no means clear the guilty. No amount of reformation for the present can atone for the sins of the past. The God of inflexible justice has you in custody as a criminal, by law condemned to die, and all your fancied good works are now but prison-house services, and can avail you nothing for justification before God. The sentence is passed, and were you, for the present, to give a perfect obedience to all God’s commandments, that would be but duty, and “duty discharges no debt.”
If you cling to doing better, as the ground of your pardon and acceptance with God, your condemnation is sure. For Scripture says, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” – Isaiah 64:6, and, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy He saved us.” – Titus 3:5.
