To us the salvation comes free as the sunshine, without money and without price, but it is Christ's right as the second Adam. It is always true that eternal life is the gift of God to us, but it is the wages of Christ's obedience unto death. Guilt is opposed to merit. Adam's sin was a temporal act of infinite guilt; Christ's death was a temporal act of infinite merit, the benefit of which shall endure for ever and ever. As the time of a sin has nothing to do with its merit or demerit, with its quality or guilt, so Christ wrought out his obedience unto death when He was upon earth eighteen centuries ago; but the merit of what He did lasts for ever, and therefore his righteousness may well be called everlasting (Psa. ciii. 17).

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