'Mr. H. H.
Dobney, in his excellent work on “Future Punishment,” discoursing on the nature
of the law of God, says:— “The mediatorial work of the Son of God is set forth
as that which harmonizes justice and mercy. And we can easily perceive that the
authority of law, its motive power, its moral force, is more than preserved by
this compensative arrangement, which so wonderfully exhibits both the wisdom
and the love of God. For those to whom mercy is shown through the Mediator
acquire, by the very means adopted in saving them, a much deeper sense of their
guilt in violating law than they would ever have attained; while their
gratitude, their admiration, their love exceed the power of language to
describe; and sin becomes to them inexpressibly hateful, while
holiness—conformity to God—be- comes the joy and rejoicing of their heart.
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CHAPTER V.
THE SON OF
GOD DIED
Some
affect to think it derogatory to the character of God that his Son should
suffer for us—the innocent for the guilty. But all such must have views of the
divine Government unworthy of the subject; unworthy of the eternal truth and
infinite justice of a holy God. The Lord has said that death was the penalty of
transgression, and that his law should not be set aside, nor its penalty
relaxed; for he would by no means clear the guilty. Ex. 34:7. Was it necessary
for God to keep his word? If so, in order to man’s salvation, it was necessary
to clear man from guilt—to save him from sin; for, as guilty, in sin, he could
by no means be cleared. Reason attests that the salvation of a sinner can only
be effected by providing a willing and honorable substitute. The Bible attests
that God gave his own Son, and the Son gave himself to die for us. What reason,
in the name of justice and mercy, demands, the Bible reveals in the gift of
that holy One in whom infinite justice and mercy unite. We think that all who
have read carefully our remarks upon the requirements of the moral system,
pages 32-54 [Chapter 3, “The Moral System”], must accept the conclusion, that a
substitutionary sacrifice is the only means whereby the broken law may be
vindicated, or the honor of the Government maintained, and a way opened for the
pardon and salvation of the sinner. The Scripture plan of atonement has this
peculiarity, that it presents one offering for many offences, or, in truth, for
many offenders. And this is true whether we consider it in the light of the Old
or the New Testament; of the type or the antitype. Their sacrifices under the
Levitical law were, Indeed, “offered year by year continually” (Heb. 10:1), but
on the day of atonement, the offerings of which were the heart and substance of
the whole system, a goat was offered for all the people. Lev. 16:15. The
declaration of the apostle Paul, in Heb. 10:4, is too reasonable to admit of
any dispute. He says, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of
goats should take away sins.” A bull
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H. Waggoner
and a goat
were offered on the day of atonement, on which day the high priest took the
blood into the most holy place. To these the apostle refers. His statement is
founded on what may be termed the law of equivalents. While the greater may be
accepted for the less, strict justice would forbid that the less should be
accepted for the greater. A goat is not as valuable as a man. Its blood or life
is not as precious, of as great worth, as the blood or life of a man. How much
less could a goat answer as the just equivalent of a whole nation! If your
neighbor owed you an ounce of silver, you would feel insulted if he offered you
in payment an ounce of brass; but, on the contrary, you would consider him both
just and generous if he offered to pay you with an ounce of gold. Even so, a
man might consider himself demeaned, were he under sentence of death, if the
Government should offer to accept the life of a goat in his stead. “Am I,” he
might inquire, “of so little worth that I can be ransomed by a goat?” Again, it
would not only lower the dignity of a man, but it would give us a mean idea of
the justice and importance of the law. If the broken law can be vindicated by the sacrifice
of a goat, a dumb animal, the law itself could not be considered of great value
or importance. But how different would the case appear if the Government should
announce that the law was so just, so sacred, and its violation so odious in
the sight of the lawgiver and of all loyal subjects, that nothing less than the
life of a prince royal could be accepted as a substitute for the transgressor.
The announcement of the fact that no less a sacrifice would be accepted,
without any reason being given, would at once raise the law in the estimation
of every one who heard it, and overwhelm the transgressor with a sense of the
enormity of his crime. Now he might inquire, “Is it possible that my sin is so
great that I can be saved only by such a great sacrifice?” By this it will be
seen, as we shall yet more fully consider, that the value of the Atonement—its
efficacy as a vindication of the justice of the law and the honor of the
Government—consists entirely in the dignity of the offering.
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Atonement - 104
And this
is by no means a reflection on the requirements or the sacrifices of the
Levitical system. If considered as a finality—as having no relation to anything
to follow—they do indeed appear insignificant and entirely worthless. But if
considered as types of a greater offering yet to be made; as illustrations of
man’s desert for his transgression, and of God’s abhorrence of sin, by which
the sinner subjects himself to the penalty of death, they served a useful
purpose. And in the prophecies of the Old Testament we find that a greater and
more honorable sacrifice was set forth to Israel, as in Dan. 9:24-26, where it
was announced that the promised Messiah should be cut off, but not for himself;
and in Isa. 52 and 53 where he who was to be exalted very high, before whom
kings should shut their mouths, was to be “wounded for our transgressions, and
bruised for our iniquities.” How impressive are the words of the prophet:
“Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the
spoil with the strong; because he has poured out his soul unto death; and he
was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made
intercession for the transgressors.” We insist, and we think with the very best
reason, that the Mosaic law reaches its logical conclusion only in the
Christian system, even as the prophecies of an exalted sacrifice find their
fulfillment in Jesus of Nazareth, the son of David. And the objection raised
against the idea of the Son of God dying for man, for the transgression of his
Father’s holy law, is as contrary to reason as it is to the Scriptures. Were
all men thoroughly imbued with a sense of the justice and the just requirements
of the law of God, and would accept just conclusions in regard to those requirements,
they could not fail to admire, with wonder and with awe, “the mystery of
godliness” as presented in the offering of the Son of God as our ransom. The
law of God must be honored and vindicated by the sacrifice offered for its
violation; therefore the death of Christ, the Son of the Most High, shows the
estimate which he places upon his law. We can have correct views of either, the
offering or the law, only as far as we have correct views of the other. Now, as
the glory of God was the first great object of the gospel, Luke 1:14, and, as
we have seen, the honor of the law must be the chief object of an atonement, we
shall
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H. Waggoner
best be
able to estimate the value of the law of God by having just views of the price
paid for man’s redemption from its curse. And it is also true that they only
can properly appreciate the gift of Christ who rightly estimate the holiness
and justice of that law for which he died. They
who accuse us of lightly esteeming the Saviour because we highly esteem the law
of God, only prove that their study of governmental relations, and of the Bible
conditions of pardon, has been exceedingly superficial. What, then, was
the sacrifice offered for us? the price paid to rescue us from death? Did
Christ, the Son of God, die? Or did a human body die, and God’s exalted Son
leave it in the hour of its suffering? If the latter be correct, it will
greatly detract from the value and dignity of the Atonement; for the death of a
mere human being, however sinless, would seem to be a very limited sacrifice
for a sinful race. But, however that might be, we should not question God’s
plan, if that was the plan. But what
say the Scriptures? This must be our inquiry. To these we appeal.
(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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