Pardon for the Greatest Sinners – Sermon by Jonathan Edwards, Part 2 of 2

“God may now pardon the greatest sinners without any prejudice to the honor of His holiness. Christ having satisfied for sin, God can now love the sinner, and give no countenance at all to sin, however great a sinner he may have been. God may, through Christ, pardon the greatest sinner without any prejudice to the honor of His majesty. The honor of the Divine majesty indeed requires satisfaction; but the sufferings of Christ fully repair the injury. Let the contempt be ever so great, yet if so honorable a person as Christ undertakes to be a Mediator for the offender, and suffers so much for him, it fully repairs the injury done to the Majesty of Heaven and Earth. The sufferings of Christ fully satisfy justice. The justice of God, as the Supreme Governor and Judge of the world, requires the punishment of sin. The Supreme Judge must judge the world according to a rule of justice. God does not show mercy as a judge, but as a sovereign; therefore, His exercise of mercy as a sovereign, and His justice as a judge, must be made consistent one with another; and this is done by the sufferings of Christ, in which sin is punished fully, and justice answered.” “3. Christ will not refuse to save the greatest sinners, who in a right manner come to God for mercy; for this is His work. It is His business to be a Savior of sinners; it is the work upon which He came into the world; and therefore, He will not object to it. He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, Matthew Chapter 9, Verse 13.” “4. Herein does the glory of grace by the redemption of Christ much consist, in its sufficiency for the pardon of the greatest sinners. The whole contrivance of the way of salvation is for this end, to glorify the free grace of God. God had it on His heart from all eternity to glorify this attribute; and therefore, it is, that the device of saving sinners by Christ was conceived. The greatness of Divine grace appears very much in this, that God by Christ saves the greatest offenders. The greater the guilt of any sinner is, the more glorious and wonderful is the grace manifested in his pardon: Romans Chapter 5, Verse 20, ‘Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.’” “5. Pardon is as much offered and promised to the greatest sinners as any, if they will come aright to God for mercy. The invitations of the gospel are always in universal terms.”