OUR HEAVENLY ABODE: PART OF GOD'S GOODNESS

                                                By A. W. Tozer

         For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were
          dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with
          hands, eternal in the heavens.                  -   -   2 Corinthians 5:1

               The true Christian may safely look forward to a future state
          that is as happy as perfect love wills it to be!

              No one who has felt the weight of his own sin or heard from
          Calvary the Saviour's mournful cry, "My God, my God, why hast
          thou forsaken me?" can ever allow his soul to rest on the feeble
          hope popular religion affords.

               He will -- indeed, he must -- insist upon forgiveness and
          cleansing and the protection the vicarious death of Christ
          provides.

               "God has made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we
          might be made the righteousness of God in him."  So wrote Paul,
          and Luther's great outburst of faith shows what this can mean in
          a human soul: "0 Lord," cried Luther, "Thou art my righteousness,
          I am Thy sin!"

               Any valid hope of a state of righteousness beyond the incident
          of death must lie in the goodness of God and the work of atonement
          accomplished for us by Jesus Christ on the cross.  The deep, deep
          love of God is the fountain out of which flows our future beatitude, and
          the grace of God in Christ is the channel by which it reaches us!

               Even justice is on our side, for it is written, "If we confess our sins, He
          is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
          unrighteousness."
           ____________________________________________________________

          Yours in Christ,
          Paul N. F.