(The
Atonement Continued…)
Before
leaving the subject of the penalty for transgression we will compare with the
announcement of the penalty to Adam, the explanation of it by the Lawgiver
himself.
When man
was created and placed on probation, the Lord said to him that if he disobeyed
the divine requirement or prohibition he should “surely die.” To this all
future declarations conformed. Indeed, if there is unity of design in the
Scriptures they all must conform to this. Accordingly they say, as already
quoted: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Eze_18:4 “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23 Said
the Lord to Israel: “I have set before you life and death.” Duet. 30:19 The penalty for violation of the divine law
is nothing less than “the death penalty.” God is the author of life, and man is
his creature. “All souls are mine,” said the Creator; “as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine;
the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Eze. 18:4.
The right
both to order and to dispose of life rests with him alone. There is no surer
method of settling the meaning of a penalty than to notice how the proper
authority pronounces or executes the sentence upon a transgressor. Adam sinned;
he was arraigned, and confessed his guilt. He could not hide it from his Maker.
The Judge in this case was the author and giver of the law; it was he who first
announced the penalty of death. The sentence or the punishment must be
conformable to the penalty. Therefore the sentence will be an authoritative
comment on, or explanation of, the penalty. The sentence was pronounced in
these words: “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast
eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it,
cursed is the ground for they sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days
of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou
shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread,
till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou
art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” According to this sentence, when the
Lord told the man he should surely die, he meant that he should be returned to
his original element, the dust of the
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H. Waggoner
ground,
out of which he was taken when he was made a man, a living soul. That is what
we call literal, personal, or physical death. Nothing else could be implied,
for the record speaks of nothing else as pertaining either to the penalty or
the sentence. And who shall amend the word of the Lord, or question his
decision, in a matter of his own law and of the life and death of his
creatures?
On the
subject of punishment we will examine but one text, as our limits do not admit
of any extended argument on the point. This text is Mat. 25:46;
Mat
25:46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the
righteous into life eternal.
and we
notice this because it is supposed to conflict in direct terms with the view of
the penalty given above. And this being one of the strongest, if not the very
strongest, on which an objection is based, an exposition of this will show that
the objection itself has no force. The text reads: “And these shall go away
into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal.” The Revised
Version says eternal punishment and eternal life. This is strictly according to
the original, and no one will object to the rendering. The whole objection is
based upon a misapprehension of the term punishment. Many seem to think they
have fully sustained the objection when once they have proved that the
punishment of the wicked is as eternal as the life of the righteous. Thus Moses
Stuart said: “If the Scriptures have not asserted the endless punishment of the
wicked, neither have they asserted the endless happiness of the righteous, nor
the endless glory and existence of the Godhead.” We admit this, and then our
argument has lost nothing, and the objection has gained nothing.
The
question is not one of the duration of punishment, but of the nature of it. Of
this we say:—
1. The
word punishment is not a specific term. Men may be punished by fine, by
imprisonment, or by death. The term includes all these, and it may refer to
many other things, but it specifies neither of them.
2. This
being so, there is only an implied, not a direct, antithesis between the words
punishment and life. When we say a man will be punished, we do not thereby
declare what shall be done with or to him. But if we say of two men that one
shall be punished and the
The
Atonement - 72
other
shall be suffered to live, the unavoidable conclusion would be that the first
would be punished with death, or not suffered to live.
3. If
death be punishment, then eternal death, from which there will be no
resurrection, is eternal punishment. And this is the destiny of the wicked.
“The wages of sin is death.”
As there
will be a resurrection of the unjust, and their punishment is after that, they
will suffer a second death, after which there is no more resurrection. The
second death is therefore an eternal death.
4. Eternal
life and eternal death are complete contrasts. There would be no strong
contrast between eternal death and a brief life, or between eternal life and a
brief state of death.
And there
would be no contrast at all between eternal life and eternal imprisonment.
The
penalty or punishment being death, there is this complete contrast between
eternal life and the eternal punishment. But it would not exist if the
punishment were anything but death.
5. Paul,
in 2 Thess. 1:9, has given a decisive comment on this text. He uses both the
terms used by the Saviour, with another term which is specific and therefore
explanatory. Of the disobedient he says: “Who shall be punished with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of
his power.” The Revised Version reads thus: “Who shall suffer punishment, even
eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”
Death and
destruction are equivalents. Many times the Scriptures say of the wicked that
they shall be destroyed. That destruction will be fore ever. They shall die,
and never again awake. What a doom! And it may be averted by obedience to God
through faith in his Son. But he who dies that death receives the just due of
his own works. “The wages of sin is death.” It is not the Lord’s pleasure that
any should be destroyed. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.” “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the
death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn ye,
turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” Ezk 33:11
The force of the apostle’s words in 2 Thess. 1:9 is sometimes lost by assuming
that it means banished from the presence of the Lord,
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H. Waggoner
and from
the glory of his power. But that could not be, for in the whole universe no one
can get beyond his presence and power. See Ps. 139:7-12.
Psa
139:7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from
thy presence?
Psa
139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in
hell, behold, thou art there.
Psa
139:9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost
parts of the sea;
Psa
139:10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold
me.
Psa
139:11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall
be light about me.
Psa
139:12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as
the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
The
destruction of the wicked is by fire; and in Rev. 20:9, we learn that when the
hosts of Satan compass the camp of the saints and the beloved city, “fire came
down from God out of Heaven and devoured them.” And thus will the word be
literally fulfilled; from the presence of the Lord, from the glory of his
power, even from Heaven shall the fire of destruction fall upon the ungodly. 2
Thess 1:9 “This is the second death.” It is their dying a second time. Truly an
“everlasting punishment.” Much as we deplore the utter loss of so many of our
race, as lovers of order and Government we acquiesce in the decisions of
infinite justice. And we rejoice that justice has decreed the utter destruction
of the incorrigibly rebellious, rather than that the universe of God should be
the scene of eternal blasphemies and misery.
Let
creation be cleansed from sin, and all be love and peace. We repeat a
declaration before made, that circumstances make the death of the sinner an
eternal death. The term die, or the penalty death, as stated to Adam, does not
necessarily carry with it any idea of time or duration. To die is to lose life;
death is the absence of life. We know of no one thing which more clearly shows
the nature of the penalty of the law than the revealed truth that “Christ died
for our sins.”
(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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