The purpose of this book is to make the way of salvation as plain as day to men, women, and children, with the expectation that many of those who read the book will see the way, will take it, will be saved at once, and will obtain eternal life. The book goes out into the world for the same purpose that Jesus Christ came into it: to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10 AKJV).

Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Do you want Jesus to take an interest in you and save you? Then you must take your place before Him as a sinner – a commonplace, unadorned, unvarnished, inexcusable, self-confessed sinner. Not a respectable sinner; no, not a sophisticated sinner or a cultivated sinner; no, not an attractive sinner or an amiable sinner; no, just a plain, unadorned sinner – a poor, miserable, vile, guilty, worthless, hell-deserving sinner.

Did you know that more people are shut out of Jesus Christ’s saving grace, pardon, heaven, and eternal life because they won’t come to Jesus Christ as sinners – plain, ugly, wretched sinners? Far more people are shut out of heaven by the pride that keeps them from crying, God be merciful to me a sinner, than are shut out by the enormity of their sins or by the stubbornness of their infidelity. It is as true today as it was when Jesus Christ first said it to the moralists of His own day: The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you (Matthew 21:31).

Christ Jesus came not merely to save the sinner from the guilt of his sins and from the penalty of his sins, but to save him also from the power of sin. Jesus Christ does save from sin’s guilt and from sin’s punishment; He does save from a guilty conscience and from hell, but thank God, that is not all; He saves from sin’s power. Our Lord’s own words bring this out with great clearness and force. He says in John 8:34 (ASV), Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant [slave] of sin. We all know this is true. How many of us know from bitterest experience the slavery of sin, the slavery of drunkenness, the slavery of lust, the slavery of the greed for gold, the slavery of a bad temper, the slavery of an unruly tongue, the slavery of a mean disposition, or the slavery of unclean thoughts.

Yes, we have all known something about the bondage of sin, but listen to what Jesus Christ: If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed (John 8:36 ASV). Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior who died on Calvary’s cross to make pardon possible, rose from the dead and is a living Savior today. He has all power . . . in heaven and in earth (Matthew 28:18 AKJV), and is therefore able to save to the uttermost, not merely from the uttermost but also to the uttermost, all those who come to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25); He saves us from all the slavery of sin. He saves us from sin’s power as well as from sin’s guilt. That is what He came to do; that is what He does do.

– Reuben A. Torrey

R. A. Torrey