‘He died for all.’  The area over which the purpose and the power of Christ’s death extend is precisely conterminous with the area over which the power of sin extends.  It cannot be—­blessed be God!—­that the raven Sin shall fly further than the dove with the olive branch in its mouth.  It cannot be that the disease shall go wider than the cure.  And so, dear friends, I have to come to you now with this message.  No matter what a man is, how far he has gone, how sinful he has been, how long he has stayed away from the sweetness and grace of that great sacrifice on the Cross, that death was for him.  The power of Christ’s sacrifice makes possible the forgiveness of all the sins of all the world, past, present, and to come.  The worth of that sacrifice, which was made by the willing surrender of the Incarnate Son of God to the death of the Cross, is sufficient for the ransom price of all the sins of all men.

Nor is it only the power of the Cross which is all embracing, but its purpose also.  In the very hour of Christ’s death, there stood, clear and distinct, before His divine omniscience, each man, woman, and child of the race.  And for them all, grasping them all in the tenderness of His sympathy and in the clearness of His knowledge, in the design of His sufferings for them all, He died, so that every human being may lay his hand on the head of the sacrifice, and know ‘his guilt was there,’ and may say, with as triumphant and appropriating faith as Paul did, ‘He loved me,’ and in that hour of agony and love ‘gave Himself for me.’

To go back to a metaphor already employed, the prisoners are gathered together in the prison, not that they may be slain, but ’God hath included them all,’ shut them all up, ’that He might have mercy upon all.’  And so, as it was in the days of Christ’s life upon earth, so is it now, and so will it be for ever.  All the crowd may come to Him, and whosoever comes ‘is made whole of whatsoever disease he had.’  There are no incurables nor outcasts.  ‘There is no difference.’

IV.  Lastly, there is no difference in the way which we must take for salvation.  The only thing that unites men to Jesus Christ is faith.  You must trust Him, you must trust the power of His sacrifice, you must trust the might of His living love.  You must trust Him with a trust which is self-distrust.  You must trust Him out and out.  The people with whom Paul is fighting, in this chapter, were quite willing to admit that faith was the thing that made Christians, but they wanted to tack on something besides.  They wanted to tack on the rites of Judaism and obedience to the moral law.  And ever since men have been going on in that erroneous rut.  Sometimes it has been that people have sought to add a little of their own morality; sometimes to add ceremonies and sacraments.  Sometimes it has been one thing and sometimes it has been another; but there are not two ways to the Cross of Christ, and to the salvation which He gives.