by Rev. D. A. Maclean, M.A.
Sin is loathsome and abominable in the sight of God. It is also harmful and destructive to men. But God in His kindness hath not left sinners without hope. Immediately man sinned God appeared and made known the way of salvation. Animals were slain and our first parents covered and clothed with the skins of the slain animals. More important was the promise of the coming Saviour. “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Gen. 3 v. 15). Here we have “good news” for the lost and made known to man in the very beginning of his history and immediately after his downfall.
God would have been just in leaving all men to perish in their sins and guilt. But this He did not do. In the Truth, the Covenant of Grace is brought before us and the design of that Covenant was to deliver elect sinners from the original state brought upon them by the Fall. They were to be brought into a state of complete redemption. But — how could this be done by a just and holy God? Our answer must be found in the Truth. In the Person of the Son we have the Great Deliverer. “I have laid help upon One that is mighty; I have exalted One chosen out of the people.” (Ps. 89 v. 19). He is God’s only begotten and well beloved Son and with Him God entered into a Covenant of Grace for the elect. This covenant was framed and founded upon nothing but the mere good pleasure of God.
God was dishonoured and offended by the sin of man. God and man were at variance and man was alienated from God and subject to God’s displeasure. Now, God provides in His own Son the Mediator. The work of the Mediator was to procure a reconciliation. What amazing love and sovereign Grace on the part of our God! Let us follow with heart interest the work of the Mediator.
Sin must be punished, and punished in the nature that sinned, so it was necessary for the Son of God to take our nature to Himself. This He did. The Holy Ghost miraculously framed His body in the womb of the virgin and He was born of her without sin. He did not come into the world by ordinary generation but in an extraordinary way. So He was not a Son of the fallen Adam. He was made manifest in the flesh and at the same time He was “even the Son of Man which is in Heaven.” (John 3, v. 13). See, reader, He took bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh — how near allied to us He became when He assumed our nature. He was sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure for it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell in Him.
From the first pages of Genesis to the last pages in Revelation we have Christ as the centre theme of all Truth. This is the subject matter of all the Scriptures and the importance of this glorious subject is obvious to all serious students of the Bible. It is a sad reflection upon the careless and indifferent who do not pay due attention to it. Of the prophets Peter wrote, “Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the Grace that should come unto you. Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.” (1 Peter v’s. 10 and 11). The sufferings of Christ shine throughout the pages of the Bible as clear as the sun in the sky. The perfection of His nature and the obedience of His life could not bring about reconciliation and forgiveness. He must die.
The word ‘atonement’ is an English word and means nothing more than being ‘at one’ or ‘to harmonise’. In Scripture we use the word with an implied reference to a previous alienation. In the Old Testament the word is used often — “making atonement” for a person or object. That is, giving that whereby a source of estrangement is removed and reconciliation brought about. In the New Testament the word is used only once by our translators, namely, “by whom we have received the atonement.” (Rom. 5, v. 11). Other passages can be quoted but the translators have rendered the word ‘reconcile’ and ‘reconciliation’. The word ‘propitiation’ is also used in our English Bibles and this again is in reference to the Person and work of the High Priest of the church.
When we turn to the history of God’s ancient people — the Jews — we find the doctrine of the atonement brought clearly before us. This must have been precious to the faithful in Israel. In the types and shadows of the Ceremonial Law they would get a glimpse by faith of the day of reformation. The day when the promised Messiah would come and give Himself as a ransom for many.
On the Great Day of Atonement the High Priest came with offerings of blood “to make an atonement for the holy sanctuary, and for the holy tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar and he shall make atonement for the priests and for the people of the congregation.” (Leviticus 16, v. 33). The sanctuary and all the furniture thereof, having been defiled by the sins of the priest and the people, were rendered unfit for the in-dwelling of the Holy God. For this reason it was still the people’s guilt that was catered for. The sacrificed animal suffers death, that is, the guiltless blood shed in order to cover or atone for the sins of the person who brought the sacrifice. Reader, whether under the Old Testament or under the New Testament, every pardon is at the price of blood. We must never lose sight of the fact that the wages of sin is death. As the sacrifice of the Old Testament dispensation were only “a shadow of good things to come” the eye of every faithful and truly devout Israelite went forth in faith to view the Son of God’s willingness to give Himself as a sacrifice on the Cross. It is in Christ’s death alone that the only real atonement can be found.
We see this in the clearer light of the New Testament. Here we are told why He came into the world. He died in our nature. “He suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3.18). “He is the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 2.2). These passages and many more show that the death of the Lord of Glory in our nature was vicarious and sacrificial. The rank modernist would desire to take away Christ’s priestly office. — May I ask, what is left if His priestly office is taken away? The spirit taught believer cannot live without daily calling in prayer to God to be washed from sin and it is the blood of Christ that cleanseth from all sin. The remedy proceeds from His priestly Office.
The striking proof of the love of Father and Son is found in the Scriptures. The Father sanctified the Son and the Son sanctified Himself. This happened in the transaction between all parties in the Covenant of Grace. Christ Jesus was set apart for the office of Mediator and this He voluntarily took. He was not only the Mediator but also the surety. A surety engages to pay the debts incurred by another. All men by nature have proved unfaithful and insolvent. The term ‘surety’ is expressly applied to Christ in Hebrews 7, v. 22, “By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.” And in His sufferings the sins of His people were imputed to Him. But, He continued to be holy in a perfect way, although He appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh. How glorious the work of the Saviour is from the beginning to the end! It gives food for thought and if we are rightly exercised we cannot but benefit. Without Christ there is no salvation for us, for we — all men — have sinned against God and He is justly angry with us.
The sacrifices offered under the Legal Dispensation were typical of the death of Christ. The guilt of the sinner was transferred to the sin offering. We see this when the hands of the sinner were laid upon the head of the victim. Christ had no sin of His own but of Him we read, “who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” 1 Peter 2, v.24. He was made under the law, not because He was a debtor to the law but as the surety substitute of His people. In His life he fulfilled every precept of the law and in His death He suffered the penalty of the law. Death was the penalty of the law and the just wages of sin. “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” (1 Cor. 15, v. 3). The death He died was the death on the Cross — the most painful, lingering and ignominious. For a season, in His soul, he lost the sensible presence of His Father’s love and the Father’s judicial displeasure was His portion. The cup He was given to drink was a bitter one. His cry on the Cross was, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me.” (Ps. 22, v. 1). In His death He satisfied the justice of the Father as the Great Judge. “He finished transgression, made an end of sins and made reconciliation for iniquity.” (Daniel 9, v. 24). Did He not say on the Cross, “It is finished” (John 19, v. 30), and it was finished for there in His death He gave satisfaction to law and to justice. God’s displeasure was turned away and reconciliation was purchased for His people. As a direct result of His finished work His blood bought heritage can say, “But we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement.” (Rom. 5, v. 11). Those regenerated rely entirely on the blood and righteousness of Christ for peace and reconciliation. Reader, this is what you should seek — to have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Many, yea, multitudes have a kind of peace but their peace is not the peace of the Gospel. It is not the knowledge of their safety that gives them this peace but the ignorance of their danger. And the danger to which the unconverted sinner is exposed to is truly beyond any words that can be spoken or written. If the stroke of death takes him away his lot throughout Eternity will be in the place of the lost.
The “second Adam” rendered obedience in order to secure for His people remission of sins and the promised reward of life everlasting in heaven. In view of what the Lord and Saviour did, we can say that there is balm in Gilead and there is a physician there. We need salvation and this salvation is brought before us in the Truth. This word we read and the Word is declared to us. Those called to preach the Gospel to their fellow-men are to bring nothing before men but Christ and Him crucified as the only remedy for sin and sinners. And this Gospel is faithfully declared to us from Sabbath to Sabbath. What, then, is our duty — it is to close in with Christ in the strength of Grace, embrace Him and look to Him alone for righteousness and salvation.
“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him.” (Heb. 2, v. 3).