"Is there any word from God?": Preaching the Gospel to Yourself (Part 2)

Guest Post by Dan Cruver

You may not agree with Ralph Erskine on every point of interpretation in this series of posts, but he serves us very well by providing wonderful instruction on how to preach the gospel to ourselves whatever our faith-struggles may be:

Go to God and say, O "do as thou hast said." Consider what he hath said, and take him at his word, and put him to it, that he would do to you accordingly. Whatever your care be, surely there is some word relative to it...

But is there any word from God, concerning my case, that find my conscience challenging me for prodigious guilt; that there was never such a guilty person on the face of the earth? Are you groaning under guilt? Hear what he says, Heb. viii.12, 'I will be merciful to your unrighteousness, and your sins and iniquities will I remember no more.' Isa. xliii.25, 'I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgression for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.' O then, take hold of his word, wherein he proclaims indemnity, and put him to it, saying, Lord, 'do as thou has said.' (Ralph Erskine, "Faith's Plea Upon God's Word," The Works of Ralph Erskine, vol. 2).

The Gospel proclaims that Jesus has decisively dealt with our prodigious guilt in his life, death, and resurrection. Praise be to God!