{"id":1358,"date":"2011-10-15T10:45:21","date_gmt":"2011-10-15T10:45:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=1358"},"modified":"2011-10-15T10:45:21","modified_gmt":"2011-10-15T10:45:21","slug":"can-this-be-for-a-vile-wretch-like-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=1358","title":{"rendered":"Can this be-for a vile wretch like me?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Can this be-for a vile wretch like me? <\/strong>(James Smith\u2019s autobiography,\u00a0<em>\u201cMarvelous Mercy!\u201d<\/em>1862)<strong> <\/strong><br \/>\n<em>\u201cBy the grace of God I am what I am!\u201d <\/em>1 Corinthians 15:10<\/p>\n<p>Lord, You have said, \u201cI will cast all your sins into the depths of the sea!\u201d They shall be carried into a<em> land of everlasting forgetfulness<\/em>. And to confirm all, You have added, \u201cI will never leave you nor forsake you!\u201d Is this,\u00a0<strong>can this be \u2014 for such a vile wretch like me?<\/strong> O wondrous mercy! O boundless sovereign, everlasting, unchangeable, love! Yes, it suits me, because it is all of grace,<em> free grace<\/em>, from first to last \u2014 without works, and without boasting.<\/p>\n<p>O how shall I sufficiently admire, bless, praise, and adore the\u00a0<em>grace <\/em>\u201cthat buries all my sins\u201d and rejoice in that glorious\u00a0<em>righteousness <\/em>in which I stand perfect before a holy God! I feel ready to cry out, \u201cI will greatly rejoice in the Lord, for He has clothed<em> vile, polluted, Hell-deserving me<\/em> \u2014 with the garments of salvation! He has covered me with the robe of righteousness!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Why is this? O Lord, why is this \u2014 that\u00a0<em>I<\/em> am made to hear your pardoning voice \u2014 while thousands are left to perish in their sins, who are much\u00a0<em>better <\/em>than I am? It is even so, Father \u2014 for so it seems good in Your sight.<\/p>\n<p>O wondrous\u00a0<em>depth <\/em>of sovereign grace, without either a shore or a bottom! Lord, lead me into it, and there let me<em> bathe to all eternity!<\/em> May I know the wondrous love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge! I now feel as if I was\u00a0<em>lost in an endless subject<\/em> \u2014 the astonishing love of Christ \u2014 the sovereign, boundless, bottomless, free, and eternal love of Christ! O how wonderful that\u00a0<em>such a poor, vile, wretched, nothing creature, as I am<\/em> \u2014 should be interested in it! Surely none but Jesus\u00a0<em>could<\/em>, and none but Jesus\u00a0<em>would<\/em> \u2014 so love one so vile as me; but He has done it!<\/p>\n<p>What shall I render unto the Lord, my covenant God \u2014 for His boundless mercy to such a guilty, Hell-deserving, sinner as I am?\u00a0<em>O Lord, may I gaze, admire, and adore!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can this be-for a vile wretch like me? (James Smith\u2019s autobiography,\u00a0\u201cMarvelous Mercy!\u201d1862) \u201cBy the grace of God I am what I am!\u201d 1 Corinthians 15:10 Lord, You have said, \u201cI will cast all your sins into the depths of the sea!\u201d They shall be carried into a land of everlasting forgetfulness. And to confirm all, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election","category-gods-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1358"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1359,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions\/1359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}