...men know and prize divine mercy most when they most feel the weight of their sins. Until a man is consciously condemned and pleads guilty, he will not ask for mercy, and if mercy were to come to him, he would treat it with disdain. He would look upon the offer of forgiveness as an insult, for what better would it be than an insult to pardon an innocent man? As well send medicine to a man who was never sick, or alms to a millionaire. We must be proven guilty, and confess it, before we can be forgiven. We must know that we are sick, and we must distinctly recognize that our sickness is a mortal disease, or else we shall never value the divine medicine which Jesus came to bring.
A sense of sin, although it be exceedingly painful, is a most-blessed thing, and I pray God, if you have never felt how guilty you are, that you may be made to feel it at once. If you have never been broken down before the awful majesty of divine justice, may the Holy Spirit break you down now; for Jesus will never clothe those who are not stripped, he will never wash those who are not foul, nor will he attempt to heal those who are not wounded. Others may spend their strength in flattering human goodness, the Lord Jesus has come on another errand, and deals only with our sin and misery. If you are not poverty-stricken, you will have no dealings with the blessed soul-enriching Savior.
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Free Pardon." Image by itslegitx on Flickr under Creative Commons License.
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