the satisfaction offered to divine justice by the death of
Christ for the sins of mankind, by virtue of which all true penitents
who believe in Christ are personally reconciled to God, are freed from
the penalty of their sins, and entitled to eternal life. The atonement
for sin made by the death of Christ, is represented in the Christian
system as the means by which mankind may be delivered from the awful
catastrophe of eternal death; from judicial inflictions of the
displeasure of a Governor, whose authority has been contemned, and whose
will has been resisted, which shall know no mitigation in their degree,
nor bound to their duration. This end it professes to accomplish by
means which, with respect to the Supreme Governor himself, preserve his
character from mistake, and maintain the authority of his government;
and with respect to man, give him the strongest possible reason for
hope, and render more favourable the condition of his earthly probation.
These are considerations which so manifestly show, from its own internal
constitution, the superlative importance and excellence of Christianity,
that it would be exceedingly criminal to overlook them.
How sin may be forgiven without leading to such misconceptions of the
divine character as would encourage disobedience, and thereby weaken the
influence of the divine government, must be considered as a problem of
very difficult solution. A government which admitted no forgiveness,
would sink the guilty to despair; a government which never punishes
offence, is a contradiction,--it cannot exist. Not to punish the guilty,
is to dissolve authority; to punish without mercy, is to destroy, and
where all are guilty, to make the destruction universal. That we cannot
sin with impunity, is a matter determined. The Ruler of the world is not
careless of the conduct of his creatures; for that penal consequences
are attached to the offence, is not a subject of argument, but is matter
of fact evident by daily observation of the events and circumstances of
the present life. It is a principle therefore already laid down, that
the authority of God must be preserved; but it ought to be remarked,
that in that kind of administration which restrains evil by penalty, and
encourages obedience by favour and hope, we and all moral creatures are
the interested parties, and not the divine Governor himself, whom,
because of his independent and all-sufficient nature, our transgressions
cannot injure. The reasons, therefore, which compel him to maintain his
authority do not terminate in himself. If he treats offenders with
severity, it is for our sake, and for the sake of the moral order of the
universe, to which sin, if encouraged by a negligent administration, or
by entire or frequent impunity, would be the source of endless disorder
and misery; and if the granting of pardon to offence be strongly and
even severely guarded, so that no less a satisfaction could be accepted
than the death of God’s own Son, we are to refer this to the moral
necessity of the case as arising out of the general welfare of
accountable creatures, liable to the deep evil of sin, and not to any
reluctance on the part of our Maker to forgive, much less to any thing
vindictive in his nature,--charges which have been most inconsiderately
and unfairly said to be implied in the doctrine of Christ’s vicarious
sufferings. If it then be true, that the release of offending man from
future punishment, and his restoration to the divine favour, ought, for
the interests of mankind themselves, and for the instruction and caution
of other beings, to be so bestowed, that no license shall be given to
offence;--that God himself, whilst he manifests his compassion, should
not appear less just, less holy, than he really is;--that his authority
should be felt to be as compelling, and that disobedience should as
truly, though not unconditionally, subject us to the deserved penalty,
as though no hope of forgiveness had been exhibited;--we ask, On what
scheme, save that which is developed in the New Testament, are these
necessary conditions provided for? Necessary they are, unless we contend
for a license and an impunity which shall annul all good government in
the universe, a point for which no reasonable man will contend; and if
so, then we must allow that there is strong internal evidence of the
truth of the doctrine of Scripture, when it makes the offer of pardon
consequent only upon the securities we have before mentioned. If it be
said, that sin may be pardoned in the exercise of the divine
prerogative, the reply is, that if this prerogative were exercised
toward a part of mankind only, the passing by of the rest would be with
difficulty reconciled to the divine character; and if the benefit were
extended to all, government would be at an end. This scheme of bringing
men within the exercise of a merciful prerogative, does not therefore
meet the obvious difficulty of the case; nor is it improved by confining
the act of grace only to repentant criminals. For in the immediate view
of danger, what offender, surrounded with the wreck of former
enjoyments, feeling the vanity of guilty pleasures, now past for ever,
and beholding the approach of the delayed penal visitation, but would
repent? Were the principle of granting pardon to repentance to regulate
human governments, every criminal would escape, and judicial forms would
become a subject for ridicule. Nor is it recognised by the divine Being
in his conduct to men in the present state, although in this world
punishments are not final and absolute. Repentance does not restore
health injured by intemperance; property, wasted by profusion; or
character, once stained by dishonourable practices. If repentance alone
could secure pardon, then all must be pardoned, and government
dissolved, as in the case of forgiveness by the exercise of mere
prerogative; but if an arbitrary selection be made, then different and
discordant principles of government are introduced into the divine
administration, which is a derogatory supposition.
The question proposed abstractedly, How may mercy be extended to
offending creatures, the subjects of the divine government, without
encouraging vice, by lowering the righteous and holy character of God,
and the authority of his government, in the maintenance of which the
whole universe of beings are interested? is, therefore, at once one of
the most important and one of the most difficult that can employ the
human mind. None of the theories which have been opposed to Christianity
affords a satisfactory solution of the problem. They assume principles
either destructive of moral government, or which cannot, in the
circumstances of man, be acted upon. The only answer is found in the
Holy Scriptures. They alone show, and, indeed, they alone profess to
show, how God may be “just,” and yet the “justifier” of the ungodly.
Other schemes show how he may be merciful; but the difficulty does not
lie there. The Gospel meets it, by declaring “the righteousness of God,”
at the same time that it proclaims his mercy. The voluntary sufferings
of the Divine Son of God “for us,” that is, in our room and stead,
magnify the justice of God; display his hatred to sin; proclaim “the
exceeding sinfulness” of transgression, by the deep and painful manner
in which they were inflicted upon the Substitute; warn the persevering
offender of the terribleness, as well as the certainty, of his
punishment; and open the gates of salvation to every penitent. It is a
part of the same divine plan also to engage the influence of the Holy
Spirit, to awaken penitence in man, and to lead the wanderer back to
himself; to renew our fallen nature in righteousness, at the moment we
are justified through faith, and to place us in circumstances in which
we may henceforth “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” All
the ends of government are here answered--no license is given to
offence,--the moral law is unrepealed,--a day of judgment is still
appointed,--future and eternal punishments still display their awful
sanctions,--a new and singular display of the awful purity of the divine
character is afforded,--yet pardon is offered to all who seek it; and
the whole world may be saved.
With such evidence of suitableness to the case of mankind, under such
lofty views of connection with the principles and ends of moral
government, does the doctrine of the atonement present itself. But other
important considerations are not wanting to mark the united wisdom and
goodness of that method of extending mercy to the guilty, which
Christianity teaches us to have been actually and exclusively adopted.
It is rendered, indeed, “worthy of all acceptation,” by the circumstance
of its meeting the difficulties we have just dwelt upon,--difficulties
which could not otherwise have failed to make a gloomy impression upon
every offender awakened to a sense of his spiritual danger; but it must
be very inattentively considered, if it does not farther commend itself
to us, by not only removing the apprehensions we might feel as to the
severity of the divine Lawgiver, but as exalting him in our esteem as
“the righteous Lord, who loveth righteousness,” who surrendered his
beloved Son to suffering and death, that the influence of moral goodness
might not be weakened in the hearts of his creatures; and as a God of
love, affording in this instance a view of the tenderness and benignity
of his nature infinitely more impressive and affecting than any abstract
description could convey, or than any act of creating and providential
power and grace could exhibit, and, therefore, most suitable to subdue
that enmity which had unnaturally grown up in the hearts of his
creatures, and which, when corrupt, they so easily transfer from a law
which restrains their inclination to the Lawgiver himself. If it be
important to us to know the extent and reality of our danger, by the
death of Christ it is displayed, not in description, but in the most
impressive action; if it be important that we should have an assurance
of the divine placability toward us, it here receives a demonstration
incapable of being heightened; if gratitude be the most powerful motive
of future obedience, and one which renders command on the one part, and
active service on the other, “not grievous but joyous,” the recollection
of such obligations as those which the “love of Christ” has laid us
under, is a perpetual spring to this energetic affection, and will be
the means of raising it to higher and more delightful activity for ever.
All that can most powerfully illustrate the united tenderness and awful
majesty of God, and the odiousness of sin; all that can win back the
heart of man to his Maker and Lord, and render future obedience a matter
of affection and delight as well as duty; all that can extinguish the
angry and malignant passions of man to man; all that can inspire a
mutual benevolence, and dispose to a self-denying charity for the
benefit of others; all that can arouse by hope, or tranquillize by
faith; is to be found in the vicarious death of Christ, and the
principles and purposes for which it was endured.
The first declaration, on this subject, after the appearance of Christ,
is that of John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus coming unto him, “Behold
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world;” where it is
obvious, that when John called our Lord, “the Lamb of God,” he spoke of
him under a sacrificial character, and of the effect of that sacrifice
as an atonement for the sins of mankind. This was said of our Lord, even
before he entered on his public office; but if any doubt should exist
respecting the meaning of the Baptist’s expression, it is removed by
other passages, in which a similar allusion is adopted, and in which it
is specifically applied to the death of Christ, as an atonement for sin.
In the Acts of the Apostles, the following words of Isaiah are, by
Philip the evangelist, distinctly applied to Christ, and to his death:
“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his
shearer, so opened he not his mouth. in his humiliation his judgment was
taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken
from the earth.” This particular part of the prophecy being applied to
our Lord’s death, the whole must relate to the same subject; for it is
undoubtedly one entire prophecy, and the other expressions in it are
still stronger: “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised
for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with
his stripes we are healed: the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us
all.” In the First Epistle of Peter, is also a strong and very apposite
text, in which the application of the term “lamb” to our Lord, and the
sense in which it is applied, can admit of no doubt: “Forasmuch as ye
know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot,” 1 Peter i, 18, 19. It is therefore evident that the Prophet
Isaiah, six hundred years before the birth of Jesus; that John the
Baptist, on the commencement of his ministry; and that St. Peter, his
friend, companion and Apostle, subsequent to the transaction; speak of
Christ’s death as an atonement for sin, under the figure of a lamb
sacrificed.
The passages that follow, plainly and distinctly declare the atoning
efficacy of Christ’s death: “Now once in the end of the world hath he
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” “Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall
he appear the second time without sin unto salvation,” Heb. ix, 26, 28.
“This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, for ever sat down
on the right hand of God; for by one offering he hath perfected for ever
them that are sanctified,” Heb. x, 12. It is observable, that nothing
similar is said of the death of any other person, and that no such
efficacy is imputed to any other martyrdom. “While we were yet sinners
Christ died for us; much more then, being now justified by his blood, we
shall be saved from wrath through him: for if, when we were enemies, we
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being
reconciled, we shall be saved by his life,” Rom. v, 8–10. The words,
“reconciled to God by the death of his Son,” show that his death had an
efficacy in our reconciliation; but reconciliation is only preparatory
to salvation. “He has reconciled us to his Father in his cross, and in
the body of his flesh through death,” Col. i, 20, 22. What is said of
reconciliation in these texts, is in some others spoken of
sanctification, which is also preparatory to salvation. “We are
sanctified,”--how? “by the offering of the body of Christ once for all,”
Heb. x, 10. In the same epistle, the blood of Jesus is called “the blood
of the covenant by which we are sanctified.” In these and many other
passages that occur in different parts of the New Testament, it is
therefore asserted that the death of Christ had an efficacy in the
procuring of human salvation. Such expressions are used concerning no
other person, and the death of no other person; and it is therefore
evident, that Christ’s death included something more than a confirmation
of his preaching; something more than a pattern of a holy and patient
martyrdom; something more than a necessary antecedent to his
resurrection, by which he gave a grand and clear proof of our
resurrection from the dead. Christ’s death was all these, but it was
something more. It was an atonement for the sins of mankind; and in this
way only it became the accomplishment of our eternal redemption. See DAY
OF EXPIATION.
Christ for the sins of mankind, by virtue of which all true penitents
who believe in Christ are personally reconciled to God, are freed from
the penalty of their sins, and entitled to eternal life. The atonement
for sin made by the death of Christ, is represented in the Christian
system as the means by which mankind may be delivered from the awful
catastrophe of eternal death; from judicial inflictions of the
displeasure of a Governor, whose authority has been contemned, and whose
will has been resisted, which shall know no mitigation in their degree,
nor bound to their duration. This end it professes to accomplish by
means which, with respect to the Supreme Governor himself, preserve his
character from mistake, and maintain the authority of his government;
and with respect to man, give him the strongest possible reason for
hope, and render more favourable the condition of his earthly probation.
These are considerations which so manifestly show, from its own internal
constitution, the superlative importance and excellence of Christianity,
that it would be exceedingly criminal to overlook them.
How sin may be forgiven without leading to such misconceptions of the
divine character as would encourage disobedience, and thereby weaken the
influence of the divine government, must be considered as a problem of
very difficult solution. A government which admitted no forgiveness,
would sink the guilty to despair; a government which never punishes
offence, is a contradiction,--it cannot exist. Not to punish the guilty,
is to dissolve authority; to punish without mercy, is to destroy, and
where all are guilty, to make the destruction universal. That we cannot
sin with impunity, is a matter determined. The Ruler of the world is not
careless of the conduct of his creatures; for that penal consequences
are attached to the offence, is not a subject of argument, but is matter
of fact evident by daily observation of the events and circumstances of
the present life. It is a principle therefore already laid down, that
the authority of God must be preserved; but it ought to be remarked,
that in that kind of administration which restrains evil by penalty, and
encourages obedience by favour and hope, we and all moral creatures are
the interested parties, and not the divine Governor himself, whom,
because of his independent and all-sufficient nature, our transgressions
cannot injure. The reasons, therefore, which compel him to maintain his
authority do not terminate in himself. If he treats offenders with
severity, it is for our sake, and for the sake of the moral order of the
universe, to which sin, if encouraged by a negligent administration, or
by entire or frequent impunity, would be the source of endless disorder
and misery; and if the granting of pardon to offence be strongly and
even severely guarded, so that no less a satisfaction could be accepted
than the death of God’s own Son, we are to refer this to the moral
necessity of the case as arising out of the general welfare of
accountable creatures, liable to the deep evil of sin, and not to any
reluctance on the part of our Maker to forgive, much less to any thing
vindictive in his nature,--charges which have been most inconsiderately
and unfairly said to be implied in the doctrine of Christ’s vicarious
sufferings. If it then be true, that the release of offending man from
future punishment, and his restoration to the divine favour, ought, for
the interests of mankind themselves, and for the instruction and caution
of other beings, to be so bestowed, that no license shall be given to
offence;--that God himself, whilst he manifests his compassion, should
not appear less just, less holy, than he really is;--that his authority
should be felt to be as compelling, and that disobedience should as
truly, though not unconditionally, subject us to the deserved penalty,
as though no hope of forgiveness had been exhibited;--we ask, On what
scheme, save that which is developed in the New Testament, are these
necessary conditions provided for? Necessary they are, unless we contend
for a license and an impunity which shall annul all good government in
the universe, a point for which no reasonable man will contend; and if
so, then we must allow that there is strong internal evidence of the
truth of the doctrine of Scripture, when it makes the offer of pardon
consequent only upon the securities we have before mentioned. If it be
said, that sin may be pardoned in the exercise of the divine
prerogative, the reply is, that if this prerogative were exercised
toward a part of mankind only, the passing by of the rest would be with
difficulty reconciled to the divine character; and if the benefit were
extended to all, government would be at an end. This scheme of bringing
men within the exercise of a merciful prerogative, does not therefore
meet the obvious difficulty of the case; nor is it improved by confining
the act of grace only to repentant criminals. For in the immediate view
of danger, what offender, surrounded with the wreck of former
enjoyments, feeling the vanity of guilty pleasures, now past for ever,
and beholding the approach of the delayed penal visitation, but would
repent? Were the principle of granting pardon to repentance to regulate
human governments, every criminal would escape, and judicial forms would
become a subject for ridicule. Nor is it recognised by the divine Being
in his conduct to men in the present state, although in this world
punishments are not final and absolute. Repentance does not restore
health injured by intemperance; property, wasted by profusion; or
character, once stained by dishonourable practices. If repentance alone
could secure pardon, then all must be pardoned, and government
dissolved, as in the case of forgiveness by the exercise of mere
prerogative; but if an arbitrary selection be made, then different and
discordant principles of government are introduced into the divine
administration, which is a derogatory supposition.
The question proposed abstractedly, How may mercy be extended to
offending creatures, the subjects of the divine government, without
encouraging vice, by lowering the righteous and holy character of God,
and the authority of his government, in the maintenance of which the
whole universe of beings are interested? is, therefore, at once one of
the most important and one of the most difficult that can employ the
human mind. None of the theories which have been opposed to Christianity
affords a satisfactory solution of the problem. They assume principles
either destructive of moral government, or which cannot, in the
circumstances of man, be acted upon. The only answer is found in the
Holy Scriptures. They alone show, and, indeed, they alone profess to
show, how God may be “just,” and yet the “justifier” of the ungodly.
Other schemes show how he may be merciful; but the difficulty does not
lie there. The Gospel meets it, by declaring “the righteousness of God,”
at the same time that it proclaims his mercy. The voluntary sufferings
of the Divine Son of God “for us,” that is, in our room and stead,
magnify the justice of God; display his hatred to sin; proclaim “the
exceeding sinfulness” of transgression, by the deep and painful manner
in which they were inflicted upon the Substitute; warn the persevering
offender of the terribleness, as well as the certainty, of his
punishment; and open the gates of salvation to every penitent. It is a
part of the same divine plan also to engage the influence of the Holy
Spirit, to awaken penitence in man, and to lead the wanderer back to
himself; to renew our fallen nature in righteousness, at the moment we
are justified through faith, and to place us in circumstances in which
we may henceforth “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” All
the ends of government are here answered--no license is given to
offence,--the moral law is unrepealed,--a day of judgment is still
appointed,--future and eternal punishments still display their awful
sanctions,--a new and singular display of the awful purity of the divine
character is afforded,--yet pardon is offered to all who seek it; and
the whole world may be saved.
With such evidence of suitableness to the case of mankind, under such
lofty views of connection with the principles and ends of moral
government, does the doctrine of the atonement present itself. But other
important considerations are not wanting to mark the united wisdom and
goodness of that method of extending mercy to the guilty, which
Christianity teaches us to have been actually and exclusively adopted.
It is rendered, indeed, “worthy of all acceptation,” by the circumstance
of its meeting the difficulties we have just dwelt upon,--difficulties
which could not otherwise have failed to make a gloomy impression upon
every offender awakened to a sense of his spiritual danger; but it must
be very inattentively considered, if it does not farther commend itself
to us, by not only removing the apprehensions we might feel as to the
severity of the divine Lawgiver, but as exalting him in our esteem as
“the righteous Lord, who loveth righteousness,” who surrendered his
beloved Son to suffering and death, that the influence of moral goodness
might not be weakened in the hearts of his creatures; and as a God of
love, affording in this instance a view of the tenderness and benignity
of his nature infinitely more impressive and affecting than any abstract
description could convey, or than any act of creating and providential
power and grace could exhibit, and, therefore, most suitable to subdue
that enmity which had unnaturally grown up in the hearts of his
creatures, and which, when corrupt, they so easily transfer from a law
which restrains their inclination to the Lawgiver himself. If it be
important to us to know the extent and reality of our danger, by the
death of Christ it is displayed, not in description, but in the most
impressive action; if it be important that we should have an assurance
of the divine placability toward us, it here receives a demonstration
incapable of being heightened; if gratitude be the most powerful motive
of future obedience, and one which renders command on the one part, and
active service on the other, “not grievous but joyous,” the recollection
of such obligations as those which the “love of Christ” has laid us
under, is a perpetual spring to this energetic affection, and will be
the means of raising it to higher and more delightful activity for ever.
All that can most powerfully illustrate the united tenderness and awful
majesty of God, and the odiousness of sin; all that can win back the
heart of man to his Maker and Lord, and render future obedience a matter
of affection and delight as well as duty; all that can extinguish the
angry and malignant passions of man to man; all that can inspire a
mutual benevolence, and dispose to a self-denying charity for the
benefit of others; all that can arouse by hope, or tranquillize by
faith; is to be found in the vicarious death of Christ, and the
principles and purposes for which it was endured.
The first declaration, on this subject, after the appearance of Christ,
is that of John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus coming unto him, “Behold
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world;” where it is
obvious, that when John called our Lord, “the Lamb of God,” he spoke of
him under a sacrificial character, and of the effect of that sacrifice
as an atonement for the sins of mankind. This was said of our Lord, even
before he entered on his public office; but if any doubt should exist
respecting the meaning of the Baptist’s expression, it is removed by
other passages, in which a similar allusion is adopted, and in which it
is specifically applied to the death of Christ, as an atonement for sin.
In the Acts of the Apostles, the following words of Isaiah are, by
Philip the evangelist, distinctly applied to Christ, and to his death:
“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his
shearer, so opened he not his mouth. in his humiliation his judgment was
taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken
from the earth.” This particular part of the prophecy being applied to
our Lord’s death, the whole must relate to the same subject; for it is
undoubtedly one entire prophecy, and the other expressions in it are
still stronger: “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised
for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with
his stripes we are healed: the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us
all.” In the First Epistle of Peter, is also a strong and very apposite
text, in which the application of the term “lamb” to our Lord, and the
sense in which it is applied, can admit of no doubt: “Forasmuch as ye
know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot,” 1 Peter i, 18, 19. It is therefore evident that the Prophet
Isaiah, six hundred years before the birth of Jesus; that John the
Baptist, on the commencement of his ministry; and that St. Peter, his
friend, companion and Apostle, subsequent to the transaction; speak of
Christ’s death as an atonement for sin, under the figure of a lamb
sacrificed.
The passages that follow, plainly and distinctly declare the atoning
efficacy of Christ’s death: “Now once in the end of the world hath he
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” “Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall
he appear the second time without sin unto salvation,” Heb. ix, 26, 28.
“This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, for ever sat down
on the right hand of God; for by one offering he hath perfected for ever
them that are sanctified,” Heb. x, 12. It is observable, that nothing
similar is said of the death of any other person, and that no such
efficacy is imputed to any other martyrdom. “While we were yet sinners
Christ died for us; much more then, being now justified by his blood, we
shall be saved from wrath through him: for if, when we were enemies, we
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being
reconciled, we shall be saved by his life,” Rom. v, 8–10. The words,
“reconciled to God by the death of his Son,” show that his death had an
efficacy in our reconciliation; but reconciliation is only preparatory
to salvation. “He has reconciled us to his Father in his cross, and in
the body of his flesh through death,” Col. i, 20, 22. What is said of
reconciliation in these texts, is in some others spoken of
sanctification, which is also preparatory to salvation. “We are
sanctified,”--how? “by the offering of the body of Christ once for all,”
Heb. x, 10. In the same epistle, the blood of Jesus is called “the blood
of the covenant by which we are sanctified.” In these and many other
passages that occur in different parts of the New Testament, it is
therefore asserted that the death of Christ had an efficacy in the
procuring of human salvation. Such expressions are used concerning no
other person, and the death of no other person; and it is therefore
evident, that Christ’s death included something more than a confirmation
of his preaching; something more than a pattern of a holy and patient
martyrdom; something more than a necessary antecedent to his
resurrection, by which he gave a grand and clear proof of our
resurrection from the dead. Christ’s death was all these, but it was
something more. It was an atonement for the sins of mankind; and in this
way only it became the accomplishment of our eternal redemption. See DAY
OF EXPIATION.