The first element of our gospel is that Christ died for our sins! Notice, it does not say that sin is still an issue. Our verse emphatically states that Christ died for my sin. The penalty for sin was paid. Christ died for it. If you search your Bible you will never find Paul talk about future sin. The reason he does not is that sin has already been dealt with. If Christ died for all sin, to put away sin once and for all time, how can sin still be an issue? The reality is that many in the professing church still try to make sin the issue with God. Many churches go back to the law to fix what they perceive to be a sin problem. By doing this they are denying the very reality of Christ's sacrifice for sin. If Christ died for all sin, do we not already have a forgiveness of sin (Col.2:13)? Because all sin has already been forgiven and dealt with at the Cross of Christ, sin can no longer define our relationship with God. This is why Paul can state in Eph.1:4 that we are "holy and without blame" before Him. This is why 2 Corinthians 5:21 can state that we in the Body of Christ are righteous in Christ! Think about it, if sin is still in the equation and the wages of sin is death, then no one would have eternal life. This is why all men will eventually have life with God; the cross removed the barrier of sin once for all. It seems to us, there are many rude and crude ideas entertained about salvation, and while this state of things continues, men will grope in the darkness of error. Salvation does not mean to be saved from the penalty of an infracted law, because, if there is any truth emphasized in the Bible, it is, that God will by no means clear the guilty. That he that doeth wrong, shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: -- that God will render to every man according to his deeds. Clearly then, salvation cannot mean immunity from deserved punishment. And yet, the common theory, is, that Adam, by transgression, subjected himself and all his posterity, to "all the ills of this life, death itself, and the pains of hell forever." And that God, under the name of the Son, (more merciful than God the Father) willingly suffered the doom hanging over Adam and his posterity, in his own person on the cross. Now to say nothing of the outrage which this monstrous theory wages upon justice, how, we ask, has Christ by his suffering on the cross, averted such a penalty? He surely saves no one from the ills of this life, because good and bad alike, are subject to them. And if endless torment was the doom which Adam brought upon himself and his posterity, and Jesus suffered in place of the guilty, how, we ask, could he suffer endless torment in the three hours he hung upon the cross? We once asked this question of an intelligent Baptist minister, and he candidly said, "I have often thought of that, and I confess to you, I do not know how to answer it." But, why should a man hold to a theory which he cannot harmonize with justice, or common sense, and which carries a palpable absurdity upon its face? Jesus suffered for us, in behalf of us, but not in our stead. No innocent being can be punished. He can be tortured, but not punished, for punishment implies that a wrong has been done, and Christ, we are persuaded did no wrong. Salvation, therefore, is not to be screened from just punishment, but it is deliverance from the reigning power of sin, having all the mainsprings of our nature brought into harmony with duty, truth, righteousness, love! Until one is thus influenced, he is in an unsaved state, whether here, or hereafter. Salvation is not something that is thrust upon us, nor does it come by the glitter and glare of exoteric surroundings, but from a cleansed fountain within. It would be well for us all, if we could more fully realize this vital truth. It would be a call to action, persistent action. Holiness is not a thing that is to be poured into a man like filling a vessel with water, but it is the quickening of the dormant energies of our nature, and educating them in the divine life. No sane man could expect to become an educated man, without any effort on his part, nor should we expect Salvation in any such way.