2 Chronicles 36:16

2 Chronicles 36:16

These words contain three facts, and each one is of the greatest importance. (1) That there was at least, at one time a remedy. (2) That the remedy went on, and might have been used, for a very long period. (3) That there came a time when the remedy ceased.

I. All life is remedy. The conditions of things require it. Life is one great restorative process. (1) First comes that marvellous provision which God has made for our recovery in Jesus Christ. (2) Subordinate to this great remedy of the Cross of Christ, and working with it, all providences have a curative character. (3) Every one carries within himself an antidote to himself. Conscience, till it is silenced, is a sure antidote for evil.

II. Notice the word "till." It shows how slow God is to take away the remedy. His mercy still holds back the arm of justice. But we may sin ourselves into a state, not in which there is no forgiveness, but in which there will be no thought or desire to seek for forgiveness. There is the bourn worse than any grave from which no man has returned. "There is no remedy," not on God's account, but on your own; not in God's want of will to save you, but in your own incapacity to will your own salvation.

J. Vaughan, Sermons,15th series, p. 213.