Hindered By Loving Sin.

(Continued…)

'The following words of Maclaurin are at once so suggestive and impressive that we are pleased to present them to the reader:— “Men may paint Christ’s outward sufferings, but not that inward excellence from whence their virtue flowed, namely, his glory in himself, and his goodness to us. Men may paint one crucified; but how can that distinguish the Saviour from the criminals? On each side of him we may paint his hands and his feet fixed to the cross; but who can paint how these hands used always to be stretched forth for relieving the afflicted and curing the diseased; or how these feet went always about doing good; and how they cure more diseases and do more good now than ever? We may paint the outward appearance of his sufferings, but not the inward bitterness or invisible causes of them. Men can paint the cursed tree, but not the curse of the law that made it so. Men can paint Christ bearing the cross to Calvary, but not Christ bearing the sins of many. We may describe the nails piercing his sacred flesh; but who can describe eternal justice piercing both flesh and spirit? We may describe the soldier’s spear, but not the arrow of the Almighty; the cup of vinegar which he but tasted, but not the cup of wrath which he drank out to the lowest dregs; the derision of the Jews, but not the desertion of the Almighty forsaking his Son, that he might never forsake us who were his enemies.”

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But let us further examine the facts of the gospel and see if they will justify the statement of Dr. Barnes that there was only mercy in the offering of Jesus Christ for man, as a sacrifice for sin. We do not see how any one can carefully consider the sacrifice, and the reason of its being made, and yet say there was no manifestation of divine justice in the transaction.

Man is a sinner, condemned to death. Justice demands his life.

But God loves the world, and gives his Son to die for man. The Son volunteers to die; the plan is fixed and determined.

After years of toil, privation, suffering, and scorn, he sees the hour of his death approaching. Alone with his Father he pleads, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” Not once only does he cry. His soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Great drops of sweat, as it were blood, burst through the pores of his skin, so intense is his agony, as he prays again and again, “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.”

Soon is he betrayed, mocked, buffeted, spit upon, scourged, a crown of thorns placed upon his head, falsely accused and unjustly condemned, made to bear his own cross till he faints under the burden, and finally, nailed to the cross, a most cruel means of death, in agony he expires.

Now, in all candor, let us ask, was there nothing but mercy in this transaction? Was there any mercy to the Saviour? It is readily acknowledged that “mercy pervades it throughout,” as far as the sinner is concerned; but was it so toward the Saviour? The sinner was not the only one concerned in that transaction. No one can make or endorse this statement of Dr. Barnes unless he looks to the benefit accruing to the sinner, without considering the sufferings and death of the Saviour. And that is surely a very limited consideration of the nature and object of the death of Christ which leaves his death altogether out of view! It may be objected here that Dr. Barnes claims an absolute excess of mercy, because the  sufferings of Christ were but a small part of the sufferings that were justly due to the guilty world. But that makes not the least difference; for the question of the justice or the injustice of that part endured by him must be settled by the same principles that would govern the case had he endured the whole. The objection, however, is wholly inadmissible, involving a material error in itself;

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for death is the penalty of the law, and the just due of the sinner. This Christ suffered, and to deny this were to deny the whole gospel. Why was this immense sacrifice made? Was man of so great value that the glorious Son of the Most High must come to rescue him from ruin? That is by no means the sole reason. Satan made a bold attempt to frustrate the plan of the Almighty. Man, with the power of reason and of will conferred upon him by his Maker, must be free to act and to form his own character in the sight of the Lawgiver. He yielded to the tempter’s wiles and broke the law of his Creator and Benefactor. Not only the life of man, but the honor of God is at stake. Shall Satan be permitted to triumph, and man be utterly ruined and blotted from the earth? Or shall the divine Lawgiver relax the strictness of his law, and so let man escape the penalty which he had incurred? Either would dim the glory of the Most High. Either would cause “the sons of God,” who “shouted for joy” when the foundations of the earth were laid, to veil their faces in astonishment and in sorrow. God, whose love and justice are alike infinite, determined to open a way whereby man might be recovered from his fall, and the integrity of the law be maintained, and its claims fully honored. A way, through the sacrifice of his Son, whereby “he might be just, and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus.” And shall we yet say that the sacrifice of Jesus was not an offering to justice? That it had no reference to the dignity of  the divine law, which had been dishonored? We cannot see how people can read the sacred Scriptures, and look upon the agonies of the cross of Calvary, and yet say that the Atonement does not answer the demand of justice. But the views which we have quoted from Barnes and others on this point, are not those which are commonly accepted by evangelical Christians. And we rejoice that they are not. On the other hand we present a few quotations, the sentiments of which, we feel confident, will meet a response in many an earnest Christian heart. The first is from Bishop Baring, in a sermon on “Christ’s Death a Propitiatory Sacrifice”:— “It is the constant failing of man’s limited intelligence to attempt to exalt one attribute of Jehovah by the surrender of another, and to

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throw light upon his love by veiling his justice. But the salvation of the gospel, while it immeasurably heightens the glory of each attribute, exhibits them all in perfect harmony; so that each sheds a luster on the rest, and ‘mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.’ Ps. 85:10.

Oh, where can we find set forth in more awful reality the immutability of God’s threats, the severity of his justice, his infinite abhorrence of sin, than in the simple narrative of the agony and bloody sweat, the cross and passion of God’s coequal Son.”

Dr. Chalmers, in a sermon on the “Power of the Gospel,” said:— “That law which, resting on the solemn authority of its firm and unalterable requirements, demanded a fulfillment up to the last jot and tittle of it, has been magnified and has been made honorable by one illustrious Sufferer, who put forth the greatness of his strength in that dark hour of the travail of his soul when he bore the burden of all its penalties.”

Robert Hall, in a sermon, “The Innocent for the Guilty,” in which he outlines the gospel as “the substitution of Jesus Christ in the stead of sinners, his suffering the penalty of the law in their room, and opening a way for their deliverance from the sentence of condemnation,” reasoned as follows:— “It is highly expedient, or rather necessary, that the person who is admitted as a substitute in the stead of another, should vindicate the law by which he suffered. Otherwise, the more illustrious his character, and the more extraordinary his interposition, the more the sentiments of mankind would be divided between approbation of his character, and disapprobation of the law by which he suffered. It would be dangerous to throw the luster of such a character, the splendor and weight of his sufferings, into the scale opposite to that which contains the law. While he suffered the penalty, had he complained of the law which exacted it, as being too rigid and severe, as having demanded more than was really equitable, all the glory which the law might have derived from such a sacrifice would have been entirely lost. The honor of the law would have been impaired in the estimation of men, in proportion to the impression which his character and example had made on their minds. But so far is this from

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the case before us, that, on the contrary, we find both his language and his sufferings combine to produce one result. “Never had justice such an advocate as it had in the doctrine of Christ; at the same time never had it such a victim as in his sacrifice. He illustrated the law in his doctrine, maintained and defended its purity, and rescued it from the pollutions with which the scribes and Pharisees had debased it. He magnified the law, and made it honorable. There was no contrariety between his sufferings and his doctrine; on the contrary, the one afforded the clearest commentary on the equity of the other. Every part of his conduct, and every period of his life, was a practical illustration of the excellence of the precepts which compose that law, the penalty of which he endured on behalf of the offender.”

Every one must acknowledge that whatever detracts from the honor of the law, detracts from the glory of the Lawgiver. The law cannot be reproached and its Author be honored. Jesus did not seek his own glory, but the glory of him that sent him; and it was in furtherance of this object that he magnified the law and made it honorable. The following most impressive language is found in a sermon by John Maclaurin, on “Glorying in the Cross”— “Here shines spotless justice, incomprehensible wisdom, and infinite love, all at once. None of them darkens or eclipses the other; every one of them gives a luster to the rest. They mingle their beams, and shine with united eternal splendor; the just Judge, the merciful Father, and the wise Governor. No other object gives such a display of all these perfections; yea, all the objects we know give not such a display of any one of them. Nowhere does justice appear so awful, mercy so amiable, or wisdom so profound. “By the infinite dignity of Christ’s person, his cross gives more honor and glory to the law and justice of God, than all the other sufferings that ever were or will be endured in the world. When the apostle is speaking to the Romans of the gospel, he does not tell them only of God’s mercy, but also of his justice revealed by it. God’s wrath against the unrighteousness of men is chiefly revealed by the righteousness and sufferings of Christ. ‘The Lord was pleased for his

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righteousness’ sake’ Rom. 1:17: Isa. 42:21. Both by requiring and appointing that righteousness, he magnified the law and made it honorable… Considering, therefore, that God is the Judge and Lawgiver of the world, it is plain that his glory shines with unspeakable brightness in the cross of Christ as the punishment of sin. But this is the very thing that hinders the lovers of sin from acknowledging the glory of the cross, because it shows so much of God’s hatred of what they love.”

(((My note-  Jesus was sinless- meaning Jesus did not transgress the moral law in any way. We are sinful because we do transgress the moral law in many ways.

The keeping or not keeping of the law is the difference here.

Sin is transgressing the law- 1Jn_3:4  Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

Jesus took on flesh putting off His Spirit God form.  He set aside all the power of the God He was in the Spirit, and solely chose to rely upon the power of God the Father while He lived in flesh upon the earth.

Php 2:5  For think this within you, which mind was also in Christ Jesus, 

Php 2:6  who subsisting in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, 

Php 2:7  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, having become in the likeness of men 

Php 2:8  and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, having become obedient until death, even the death of a cross. 

Joh 5:19  Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 

Joh 14:10  Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The Words which I speak to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me, He does the works. 

Why? Why did He take on flesh and set aside His own God power? He did it to prove that a human being could rely completely, and utterly upon God, the possibility exists. Adam and Eve failed, but Christ succeeded by relying upon the Father God. What measure was given to determine that Christ could rely upon the Father completely? The MORAL LAW test. Could Christ live in perfect harmony with the moral law while surrounded by a sin-filled (a moral law breaking) world beset by Satan and his evil angels on every side eager and waiting for any and all opportunity to tempt and deceive Him into breaking the moral law?  The answer, Praise God, is-  YES! 

Not only did Christ prove that the moral law could be kept perfectly through reliance upon God the Father, He revealed the heart of the law unfettered by man, inspired by Satan to pervert that law in many subtle ways. Not one single dot of an i or cross of a t will be taken from the given moral law of God that Jesus kept perfectly.

Mat_5:18  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Heaven and earth have to pass--  have they passed?  No.

The moral law still stands and by grace we are saved through faith in Jesus. (Eph. 2:8) We are saved, how? We are saved because our Savior remained sinless and having not broken a single moral law He was sacrificed, put to a horrible death as if He had sinned

Rom_6:23  For the wages of sin is death…

In fact, He took on Himself ALL our sins as He hung on that cross dying for us. He who perfectly kept the moral law, took on every single broken moral law committed by man. He did this because of our weakness, and loving us in our broken, weakened state He chose to save us from our justly deserved fate as moral law breakers.

Jesus could say to a person He healed as He ministered through God the Father's power here upon earth for three years- Go and sin no more. John 5:14; 8:11. And He meant- go and no longer break the moral law you've been breaking. He wanted people to realize without any confusion that the moral law was in effect and they should not transgress that law.  Jesus did NOT come to tell us we no longer will be able to transgress the law. Jesus came to tell us we will still be able to transgress the law, that we will still be able to sin- but THROUGH our faith in Him and His sacrifice that we must rely upon, we will be given the Holy Spirit to teach us not to transgress that law but rather to rely upon Christ for it's only His power that can keep us from transgression, breaking the moral law.  The Holy Spirit will convict us of our transgressions of the moral law and we will sorrow over our weak sinfulness. In a heart set upon Jesus, we will war in the spiritual realm in our constant battle against breaking the moral law in large and small ways. We will never make excuses for our sinning after being told to sin no more. We will cry out our wretchedness and strive to sin no more, resisting unto blood.

Heb_12:4  Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

With our hearts set upon our Savior, we rely upon Him, not upon our own inabilities. Satan loves to throw it in our face constantly that we are unable to keep from breaking the moral law. Our reply to that should be,  "It is true, I cannot keep from breaking the moral law, but Christ IN me can do so, and will do so in HIS time. He is perfecting me for His kingdom, He is allowing the fiery furnace to scorch me time and time again to remake me into the person I was always intended to be, one fit through HIM, to live in the kingdom of heaven with Him when He returns to call me to Him. Get behind me, Satan. Jesus has said I am crucified with Him, nevertheless I live, not I, but Christ in me!"

Christ lives in me! He will perfect me! He will do all that is necessary in me so that I may be His!  Praise God!

1Pe 1:7  That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you

Isa 48:10  Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. 

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 

END MY NOTE))))

(To be continued)

(Excerpt from-) THE ATONEMENT PART SECOND:

THE ATONEMENT AS REVEALED IN THE BIBLE

  (1884)

BY   ELDER J. H. WAGGONER