a nest of poisonous snakes

The saint whom Christ has redeemed at an early age needs to recognize the potential wickedness of his own heart. He can get a clear picture by looking into the mirror of the devil's nature. Really to understand the significance of the Cross in your life, you must realize you are as great a debtor to the mercy of God as the worst of sinners. Until you accepted Christ's pardon, the same sentence of death lay upon your soul as upon Judas'. If you have not sinned as grievously as someone else, it does not mean you are a better person; it means that God has been gracious. Our old nature (whose residue is not cast off until heaven) has the devil's stamp of 'traitor' on it from the day we were born. Our sovereign God had every right to crush us for it then and there - just as we destroy a nest of poisonous snakes, not for any harm they have yet inflicted, but because we know their potential danger.

Can you honestly say that when God first came to you your thoughts were pure and your intentions holy? Were you not already armed with the weapons of rebellion - a covetous spirit, a deceitful heart, a lying tongue? Oh, yes, you had a nature fully charged with enmity against God. It lay like unfired gunpowder, waiting for a flame! Fall on your knees in humble gratitude to the One who sent His Spirit and grace to stop you, even while your nature meditated on nothing but war against God and His laws.

William Gurnall The Christian in Complete Armour, vol. 1, abridged by Ruthanne Garlock, et al. (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2009) 194.

His own Son

"When our wickedness had reached its height, and it had been clearly shown that its reward--punishment and death--was impending over us....God himself took upon Him the burden of our iniquities. He gave His own Son as a ransom for us, the holy One for transgressors, the blameless One for the wicked, the righteous One for the unrighteous, the incorruptible One for the corruptible, the immortal One for them that are mortal. For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than His righteousness? By what other one was it possible that we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified, than by the only Son of God? O sweet exchange! O unsearchable operation! O benefits surpassing all expectation! that the wickedness of many should be hid in a single righteous One, and that the righteousness of One should justify many transgressors!"

Author unknown, "Ep. ad Diognetum," quoted by Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 2 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2006) 586.

Orthodoxy

Augustin says that it is “altogether impossible, or at any rate most difficult” to define heresy, and wisely adds that the spirit in which error is held, rather than error itself, constitutes heresy. There are innocent as well as guilty errors. Moreover, a great many people are better than their creed or no-creed, and a great many are worse than their creed, however orthodox it may be. The severest words of our Lord were directed against the hypocritical orthodoxy of the Pharisees.

Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 2 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2006) 513.