The Blessings of the NC: Pardon for Sin – Hebrews 8:12

Free and sovereign, undeserved grace in the pardon of sin, is the original spring and foundation of all covenant mercies and blessings.—Hereby, and hereby alone, is the glory of God and the safety of the church provided for. And those who like not God’s covenant on these terms (as none do by nature) will eternally fall short of the grace of it. Hereby all glorying and all boasting in ourselves is excluded; which was that which God aimed at in the contrivance and establishment of this covenant, Rom. 3:27; 1 Cor. 1:29–31. For this could not be, if the fundamental grace of it did depend on any condition or qualification in ourselves. If we let go the free pardon of sin, without respect unto anything in those that receive it, we renounce the gospel. Pardon of sin is not merited by antecedent duties but is the strongest obligation unto future duties. He that will not receive pardon unless he can one way or other deserve it or make himself meet for it; or pretends to have received it and finds not himself obliged unto universal obedience by it, neither is nor shall be partaker of it. – John Owen