SIN AND
ITS PENALTY (Excerpt)
Our
present relation to the law is easily ascertained. Though we rest under a
perpetual and everlasting obligation to obey the law of the Most High, we have
not fulfilled our obligation. On this point the Scriptures are very explicit.
Rom. 3:9-23 contains sufficient evidence. Jews and Gentiles are on a level—all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God; there is none that doeth good,
no, not one.
The law
stops every mouth, and proves all guilty, and subject to the judgment of God.
What is
the penalty for sin? We have before said that Government is a system of laws
maintained. This is a simple definition that all can understand; and that it is
truthful is evident from this, that a Government cannot exist without law, and
if the law is not maintained the result is anarchy and the subversion of
Government. It is for this reason that a law without a penalty is a nullity.
All the force and sanction of law is its penalty, and, whenever the law is
violated, justice requires the infliction of the penalty.
Therefore,
if we understand the penalty of the law—the nature of the infliction to be
visited upon the sinner or violator of God’s law—we shall of course understand
what justice demands for our redemption. It has been fully considered that
justice can only be satisfied by the infliction of the penalty, either upon the
offender or upon a voluntary substitute. The idea so often advanced, that
Christ did not suffer the same penalty to which the sinner was subject, cannot
be reconciled either with justice or with the Scriptures.
If the law
itself be strictly just, the penalty of the law, neither more nor less, will
answer the demands of justice. Many systems of theology have had this error
incorporated into them to avoid other apparent difficulties; sometimes because
the distinction between the penalty and mere consequence is overlooked, and
sometimes because errors in the systems have made it necessary to resort to
this, or some other expedient, as a means of relief. That a conclusion is
demanded and insisted upon which is so
The
Atonement - 64
greatly at
variance with reason, with justice, and with the Scriptures, is strong evidence
of defects in the systems which require it. Dr. Barnes was an able writer,
whose memory we respect. Were it not that his theology made the conclusion
necessary, we should be much surprised to read the following paragraph from
him:— “It will be impossible for a substitute to endure the same sufferings
which the sinner himself will endure in the future world for his sin. There are
sufferings caused by sin which belong only to the consciousness of guilt, and
these sufferings cannot be transferred to another. The sin itself cannot be
transferred; and, as it is impossible to detach the suffering from the
consciousness of guilt, it follows that a substitute cannot endure the same
kind of sufferings which the sinner would himself endure. Remorse of
conscience, for example—one of the keenest sources of suffering to the guilty,
and which will be a most fearful part of the penalty of the law in the future
world—cannot be transferred.”—Atonement, p. 228. And again he said:— “Remorse
of conscience is manifestly a part of the penalty of the law; that is, it is a
portion of what the law inflicts as expressing the sense which the lawgiver
entertains of the value of the law and of the evil of its violation.”—Id., p.
235. We are fully convinced of the correctness of the positions taken in
remarks on the reasonableness of the Atonement, though the above paragraphs
from Dr. Barnes squarely conflicts with them. We unhesitatingly aver that
remorse of conscience is no part of the penalty of the law. That view, which is
indeed the corner-stone of Universalism, is as contrary to reason as to
Scripture, and grows out of the error before noticed, of making no distinction
between the penalty of the law and mere consequences. The penalty is a judicial
infliction, prescribed by the statute, administered by authority, and its
infliction must be subsequent to the Judgment. Consequences are various
according to circumstances, and not according to desert, and may flow
immediately out of the action without any relation to the penalty or to the
Judgment. The wicked all suffer more or less remorse in this present state, but
the Bible informs us that they are reserved “unto the day of Judgment to be
punished.” 2 Pet. 2:9.
(To be
continued)
(Excerpt
from-) THE ATONEMENT PART SECOND:
THE
ATONEMENT AS REVEALED IN THE BIBLE
(1884)
BY ELDER J. H. WAGGONER
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