The Consent and Choice of the Sinner

But this marvelous work wrought in the heart by the supernatural power of Christ is not done without the consent and choice of the sinner. Note the following:COR 108.1

“Faith is the condition upon which God has seen fit to promise pardon to sinners; not that there is any virtue in faith whereby salvation is merited, but because faith can lay hold of the merits of Christ, the remedy provided for sin. Faith can present Christ’s perfect obedience instead of the sinner’s transgression and defection. When the sinner believes that Christ is his personal Saviour, then, according to His unfailing promises, God pardons His sin, and justifies him freely. The repentant soul realizes that his justification comes because Christ, as his substitute and surety, has died for him, is his atonement and righteousness.”-The Review and Herald, November 4, 1890.COR 108.2

The exercise of faith is our part in the great transaction by which sinners are changed to saints. But we must remember there is no virtue in the faith we exercise “whereby salvation is merited.” That is to say, there is no virtue in faith itself, nor in the act of exercising it. The virtue is all in Christ. He is the remedy provided for sin. Faith is the act by which the ruined, helpless, doomed sinner lays hold of the remedy. “Faith can present Christ’s perfect obedience instead of the sinner’s transgression and defection.” This is truly a sublime thought! It is that marvelous science of redemption in which the saints will rejoice through eternity, yet it is so simple in its operation that the weakest and most unworthy can enter into it in all its meaning and fullness.COR 108.3