So if the sinner should render perfect obedience to the law in future, it would not make amends for his past transgressions. He can do nothing to merit forgiveness, and yet he must receive it, or be lost forever. If he receive it, since he cannot do the least thing to merit it, it must be of grace, a free, unmerited favour. But how can a just God show mercy when he has declared that every transgression shall receive a just recompense? You know the way in which God can be just and yet justify the sinner. Christ has died to make atonement for sin, and when the sinner exercises repentance and faith in him, his sufferings are accepted by divine justice in the sinner’s stead, and his righteousness is imputed to the sinner.

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