...Now if man suffers the penalty of the broken
law it would be his total undoing, since that penalty is endless torment,
and yet the law must be vindicated; how shall it be done and yet save man?
Thus orthodoxy answers, the son of God offers Himself as man's substitute,
to suffer the penalty of the law in his place, instead of him.
...the pardon and salvation of man will only
be partially accomplished, a great many being eternally lost in spite of
the death of Christ and this wonderful scheme of atonement; thus it is
made to appear as though God had outraged justice and reason in the elaboration
of a plan, which after all would in a great measure fail to accomplish
the end in view, viz., the redemption of the fallen race.
Now no intelligent, thoughtful, unprejudiced
person need be told that this whole scheme is absurd and unreasonable in
every particular. In the first place, God was responsible for the introduction
of evil into the world. Furthermore, where is the righteousness or
justice in affixing such a fearful doom as unending torture, as the penalty
of a single transgression? and yet again what sort of justice is it that
can be satisfied with the sufferings of an innocent person in the place
of the guilty party?
Furthermore, such a scheme puts the Father
and the Son in contradiction to each other: Jesus so loved mankind that
He was willing to die in their stead that they might be redeemed and God
was so severe and unrelenting that He would not forgive man without a victim
upon whom to visit his wrath, and so unjust as to accept an innocent victim
in place of the guilty party. According to this scheme the
love of Jesus is magnified, but God exhibits only relentlessness and implacability.
If the hymn is true that "Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe",
then certainly I have no reason to thank God for freeing me from the curse,
for He has received his full payment; and the only one whom I should praise
is Jesus for paying my debt. But now let us endeavor to learn the truth
of this great subject from the Bible.
Truth leads on to more truth. Error involves
us in still deeper error. If we start out in our investigation of the doctrine
of the atonement from a belief in endless torment, we shall be sure
to go wrong. We may also be sure that we can never rightly understand this
doctrine while we are ignorant of "the plan of the ages," the purpose of
evil, the work of "the ages to come," etc. If, on the other
hand, we plainly see these great truths, the doctrine of the atonement
will be clear and plain.
We start out in this investigation then with
the declaration that "God is love;" and that it was God's love that was
the great moving cause in the atonement. It was not Christ but GOD that
wrought out the wondrous plan. It was not God's justice, but his LOVE that
is most manifested in the plan. All was love, because God is love. Justice
so far as it had any part in the atonement was on the sinner's side, not
against him; justice must be satisfied, indeed, but the only way that it
could be satisfied was - not by the sinner's, or some substitute's
damnation - but by the most abundant provision being made for his salvation.
Our God is "a just God and a SAVIOR," (Isa.
45:21) a Savior because He is just. "He that is our God is the God of salvation"
(Psa. 48:20). This is His great distinguishing characteristic from
all that are called gods or worshipped as such; compare Is. 45:20. Nowhere
in the Bible is the idea advanced that the sufferings of Christ were a
satisfaction to the law in lieu of the sufferings of the guilty man. Such
an idea is monstrous, totally repugnant to all right principles of justice
and righteousness.
"TO THIS END Christ both died,
and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of
the living." (Rom. 14:9). God is not the God of the dead, (Matt. 22:32)
but Christ took upon Himself our fallen nature and thus died (for his incarnation
was his death,) in order that He might be one with the race in
death as well as in life; in His humiliation, Jesus stands at
the head of the race, for He was the only human being that was "holy, harmless
and undefiled." (Heb. 7:26). He also stands at the head of the race in
His exaltation, for He is the "the Beginning, that in all things He might
have the preeminence." (Col. 1:18). Thus, is He "Lord [head or chief] both
of the dead and of the living."
But to return to the thought with which we
started,, "God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son,"
etc. The two points for us to notice and keep in mind in our study of this
doctrine are, first, love was the motive power, and second, God was the
prime mover; any view that contradicts or obscures these two facts must
be erroneous; a view that makes God's justice the prominent attribute in
the atonement to the obscuration or compromising of his love cannot be
correct; a view that exalts Christ as man's Redeemer in opposition or
even in contrast with God in the same work is certainly a false view.
Christ is indeed man's Redeemer, but under God; GOD redeems man,
just as He judges him, "by that man whom He has ordained," (Acts
17:31). Christ is indeed our Savior, but He is a savior as GOD'S representative,
GOD'S agent; the Father is the original, supreme, "God our Savior," (I
Tim. 2:3).
"All things are of God." The error into which the great body of the church has fallen upon this subject is in adopting a scheme that makes Christ loving, tender, and compassionate, and at the same time represents God as harsh, implacable and unjust. I do not say that God is intentionally thus represented, but practically He is so represented. For example, the following orthodox hymn so represents Him.
"Jesus Christ who stands between Angry Heaven
and guilty man, undertakes to buy our peace; Gives the covenant of grace."
The above hymn represents an "angry" God held
back and "bought" off by a loving, compassionate Savior; thus God's
true character and boundless love is obscured, and indeed falsified. All
the formulated creeds of "orthodox" Christianity set forth the same false
view. The Westminister Confession formulates the dogma thus: "The Lord
Jesus, by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of himself, which he though
the eternal spirit once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice
of his Father, and purchased not only reconciliation, but an everlasting
inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father hath
given unto him." Here we have that unscriptural and offensive idea of Christ's
dying to satisfy the Father's justice, the innocent instead of the guilty,
and thereby purchasing His goodwill; as though God must be appeased and
pacified with the blood of a victim, like a pagan deity, before He will
look favorably upon a suppliant.
The Scriptures invariably put the statement
the other way about, that Christ died to reconcile man to God, not God
to man, and the difference between those two statements is as wide as the
difference between a lie and the truth. "When we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God, by the death of his son;" (Rom. 5:10), "God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself," (II Cor. 5:19), not reconciling HIMSELF
unto the world. See also Col. 1:20-22, and every other passage where reconciliation
is spoken of. Let it be noticed also in this connection that the passage
quoted from II Cor. 5:19, fully confirms the statement already made that
GOD IS THE PRIME MOVER IN THE ATONEMENT..
We usually speak as though Christ made the
atonement; He has reconciled us to God; He is our propitiation; He is our
advocate with the Father; all this is true if we recognize the fact that
in all this Christ is God's agent, and that God is really the principal.
God is our Savior, Redeemer and Judge, as we have seen,"by that
man whom He hath ordained," and God is also our Reconciler, for "God
was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself."
How contrary is this statement to the view
presented by the creeds referred to above! But the truth is most
blessed and comforting that "God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto Himself." This is "glad tidings" indeed! O that the time
might soon come when "all people" would hear it! There is no "angry Heaven",
whose wrath must be appeased, and whose favor must be purchased but a loving
Father, who Himself is "working" (Jn. 5:17) to win back the prodigal to
the arms that are ever stretched out to receive him, and the heart that
has never ceased to love him.
But now someone may ask, "If the foregoing
be true, why do we need any Mediator at all?" I reply we need a mediator
to make known this great love of God to us. It is because we are
ignorant of God's "good will to men," (Lk. 2:14) and in our blindness
and hardness of heart think him harsh and unloving, that we need
one who is the "express image of the invisible God," (Col. 1:15) and yet
at the same time "bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh," to mediate
between us and God, not to plead with God on our behalf; there is no need
of that since "The Father Himself loveth us." (Jn. 16:27), but to reveal
the FATHER to us, as it is written, "No man knoweth the Son but the
Father; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever
the Son shall reveal Him." (Matt. 11:27).
"We love Him because he first loved us;" (I
Jn. 4: 19) but we cannot love Him for this reason until we learn that
He loves us; and this is the very thing that the world does not know;
as Jesus said, "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee."
(Jn. 17:25). Jesus "manifests" the Father's love; through Christ we "perceive"
that love (I Jn. 3:16; 4:9) and thereby we come to know that God loves
us, and we begin to love him, and so are reconciled to him, and thus, as
"God shines in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of his glory
in the face of Jesus Christ," (II Cor. 4:6) "we are changed into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (II Cor.
3:18).
Did you ever think of the strangeness of the
expression, "an Advocate with the Father," (I Jn. 2:1) taking the term
advocate in the legal sense in which it is usually understood? If God is
our Father, why do we need an advocate with him? Does a child have to engage
the services of an attorney to represent him and plead his cause to his
own father? If the child were estranged from his father and was ignorant
of the father's true character and relation, he might suppose that he needed
such a go-between; and this in fact is just what the Christian world do
suppose; but this is not the actual state of the case. The Father is most
kindly disposed toward us already; He is really and truly a Father; hence
no one need plead with him for the children.
But the children are estranged - THEY
must be pleaded with!; they are ignorant of the Father's great love for
them, hence they need a mediator, an advocate, i.e., as the word strictly
means, a helper with the Father. The Father needs no such helper
to reconcile Him to the children for He was never unreconciled, but the
children need it in order to make known the Father's good will to them,
and to awaken their confidence in Him and so to bring about harmony between
them, i.e., to "set them at one again;" (Acts 7:26) and this
is the at-one-ment.
The need of an atonement implies two parties
at variance with one another whom it is desired to bring into harmony,
union, oneness, and the means that effects this unity or reconciliation
is called the atonement. Now in the case of God and man, the estrangement
is all on man's side; he is alienated from God, not God from
him; hence in order to bring about harmony between them, man alone
need be reconciled.
The word rendered "reconcile" means to change
completely; this is the strict meaning of the word. Now who is it that
must be changed in order to bring about harmony between God and man? Not
God surely, but man; he must be changed, or reconciled, and he alone;
hence we can see how correct the Scriptures are in the use of this word,
and how far out of the way are the creeds. to say that the atonement was
to reconcile God to man, is to say that God must be changed, in order to
bring about harmony between him and his creature; a sentiment that we might
well pronounce blasphemous. The Bible way of putting it, however, is right,
viz., that Christ's death was to reconcile man to God, i.e., to change
man from an enemy to a son, and thus "to set him at one" with the Father.
In order to make the foregoing still clearer
and to further confirm it we should take into connection with it the great
truths of God's plan of creation. "We are God's workmanship", "the purpose
of evil", "The restitution of all things," (Acts 3:21) etc. In the light
of these truths we shall see that the fall of man and his consequent
alienation from his Maker, was a part of God's plan, and was to ultimate
in his good; hence the abundant provision for his recovery is simply in
keeping with that plan, and indeed necessary to its final accomplishment.
If God allowed man to fall into sin and to
become estranged from Himself for man's good, then surely He would
not fail to provide a way whereby man might be delivered from his sin,
the enmity" (Rom. 8:7; Eph. 2:15) be destroyed, and a perfect restoration
effected, to his former position of harmony and union with God. Thus we
see that in the light of the great truths above referred to, the atonement,
exactly as we have endeavored to set it forth, is a necessity and
a natural outcome.
Moreover, if evil is one of man's educators,
and always ultimate in good, - if all God's punishments are for man's benefit,
that "he might be PARTAKER OF HIS HOLINESS" (Heb. 12:10), - if man,
like his Lord, is "made perfect through suffering," (Heb. 2:10)
then why does he need a substitute to save him from any of these experiences?
All these are God's benefits, blessings in disguise, and the idea of a
substitute to endure them instead of man, is a scheme whereby man is to
be robbed of a part of his blessings, a portion of his inheritance.
Substitution is as much out of place in the
doctrine of the atonement as it is in the doctrine of sanctification. But
if the above be true, how shall we understand such scriptures as the following?
He "tasted death for every man," (Heb. 2:9) the "just for the unjust,"
(I Pet. 3:18) "he bore our sins," (I Pet. 2:24) etc., etc. All this class
of scripture is made plain when we notice the difference between two prepositions,
for and instead. Christ died for us, BUT He did not die instead
of us.
In his death, He was "man's companion!",
"associate!", "elder brother!," but He was not man's Substitute.
He suffered with man, and on man's behalf, being "made
in all things like unto his brethren," and we follow Him, as our Forerunner,
in just the same way that He trod, sharing His sufferings, bearing His
reproach, "being made comformable unto His death" (whatever that
death was), and thereby coming at last to be "like Him" - FOR OTHERS
(I Jn. 3:2). There is not a particle of substitution in all this, but perfect
identity of experience; we are one with Him in His humiliation,
suffering and death, and one with Him in His exaltation, glory and
resurrection life.
Christ does not endure a penalty and certain
sufferings, and a death, in order that we may not endure the same,
as He would do if He were our substitute; but He endures the same sufferings
and the same death that we endure, and He walked in the same "ways of life"
(Acts 2:2) in which we must walk in order to reach "the same image." Even
that supposed stronghold of substitution, the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, is
in perfect harmony with the foregoing view. Read verses 4 and 5;
now turn to Matt. 8: 16,17, and see how this was fulfilled. Christ "bore
our griefs and carried our sorrows," not as a substitute, but as a sympathizing
companion and friend.
He was man's great Burden-bearer (sin included,
see John 1:29, margin) not that man might be exempted altogether
from the burden (for "every man shall bear his own burden" Gal. 6:6), but
that man might be taught how to bear it, the reason for bearing
it, and above all, might be delivered from the death-load (Rom.
7:24-25) in God's "due season." And this brings me to notice another
point.
The common idea is that Christ suffers for
us, as our substitute, to save us from the penalty of sin, which is eternal
death. The truth is that Christ dies, as our Forerunner, to save us, not
from the penalty of sin, but from sin itself, not from death
(there is no such thing as eternal death) but "out of death," see
Heb. 5:7, New Version, margin. God himself is "a just God and a Savior."
But how shall man be saved from sin? How shall
the sinner be made a saint? The question is not, how shall his sins be
pardoned? how shall he escape the penalty? but how shall he change
his nature, from "a child of wrath" (Eph. 2:3) to a "child of God?"
How shall he be delivered "from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7:24). The
answer comes, "through Jesus Christ our Lord," (Rom. 8:1) by a "new
creation;" (II Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10).
This is the purpose of the atonement, - nothing
less than the deliverance of the
"whole creation" "from the bondage of corruption;"
(Rom. 8:21) and this work, Christ (or "God in Christ") does. He is "the
lamb of God that beareth away the SIN of the world;" (Jn. 1:29) not the
sins, as though it meant the particular transgressions of each individual;
but the SIN, as though all the sins of the race, and the hideous "death-body"
of the sinful nature, were laid in one dread heap upon him, and He bears
it away; thus God "made the iniquity of us all to meet on him;" (Isa. 53:6,
margin). The perfect type of this is in the law, in the "scapegoat"
work of the day of the atonement (Lev. 16:20-22) . But again, the purpose
of the atonement is not to save us from death, but to save
us "out of death."
Christ died to give life to a dead world, a
world already dead, (John 6:33,51), as it is written, "I am come that they
might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10).
O how low are our ideas of God's ways! Verily
his thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are his ways our ways! (Isa. 55:8-13).
The highest idea that many Christians have of the atonement is that it
is a scheme whereby they are to be saved from the penalty of sin, an endless
hell; when the truth is, GOD'S PURPOSE IS TO MAKE OUT OF THIS WORLD OF
DEVIL-POSSESSED SINNERS, A RACE OF GODLIKE SAINTS; TO LIFT MANKIND
OUT OF THIS CONDITION OF DEATH INTO "LIFE
AND IMMORTALITY."
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
(Is. 55:9). "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge
of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding
out!" (Rom. 11:33).
In this view also we see how thoroughly and
absolutely the entire work of the atonement was "of God." If man is lost,
he cannot find himself; if man is dead, he cannot give life unto himself,
or help himself in the least; "We are God's workmanship."
(Eph. 2:10). Let it be noticed that it is in connection with this work
of the atonement that Paul makes the statement that "all things are of
God;" read it, - "ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD, who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ, and HATH GIVEN TO US THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION,
to wit, that GOD was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the
word of reconciliation.
"Now then [this great work of reconciliation
being all complete and perfect, a finished work] we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's
stead, be ye reconciled to God [God is reconciled to you; He has never
been unreconciled; now be ye reconciled to Him]. For
He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him." (II Cor. 5:18-21).
Let it be noticed that the finished, completed
work of reconciliation is made the ground of the invitation to the sinner
to be reconciled to GOD. In the popular theology of the day it is
put just the other way about. Preachers invite sinners to repentance and
obedience in order that the work of reconciliation may be accomplished.
Paul teaches us to tell the impenitent sinner that the work of reconciliation
is already done! THEREFORE be ye reconciled to God.
So far as God is concerned, the work is all
done, now then submit yourself unto God that you may know this great truth
practically [ walked out and worked in in experience] and may enjoy
it to your heart's great comfort. (Read II Cor. 1:3-7, from the New
Version). The preacher should not call upon the sinner to turn unto God
in order that he may be redeemed, but he is to declare unto him first,
full redemption, and make that the ground and the reason
why he should turn unto God.
So God speaks to his ancient people by his
prophet, "I have blotted out as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and
as a cloud, thy sins; return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee [not
return unto Me and I will redeem thee, but, because I have
redeemed thee]. Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord has DONE it! shout, ye
lower parts of the earth, break forth into singing ye mountains, O forest,
and every tree therein; for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified
himself in Israel." (Isa. 44:22-23).
O how glorious is the glad tidings of great
joy, "which shall be to all people!" (Lk. 2:10). But, alas, how we mutilate
it, and twist it out of shape, with our wretched man-made theology, and
make it sad tidings of great sorrow to many, who, lost and dead, and "without
strength," (Rom. 5:6), fail to fulfill the conditions, which the church
and not the Word, has made the prerequisites of redemption! Thus now, as
of old, God's nominal people "shut up the kingdom of heaven against men."
(Matt. 23:13).
"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good
evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness; that put bitter
for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own
eyes, and prudent in their own sight!" (Isa. 5: 20, 21). Surely there is
an infinite difference between God's "I have DONE it," and, - I will do
it IF you will do thus and so. In regard to the last verse of the passage
quoted, I will only say now that Christ, "who knew no sin, was made sin,"
(II Cor. 5:21) by fully partaking of man's fallen nature; (See. Heb. 11:14-18)
and we are "made the righteousness of God in him," by just as fully
partaking, through Christ, of God's "divine nature;" (see II Pet. 1:4).
The love of God is represented as a result
flowing out of Christ's work of reconciliation; the language of
the creeds fully imply this; and this in fact is practically the view of
the majority of Christians. But the truth is the opposite of this.
God's love led to the atonement;
it does not flow from it. All Scripture puts it this way, as we have abundantly
quoted in this article. "God so loved the world [and the result was] that
He gave his only begotten Son," (Jn. 3:16) etc. The atonement "manifests"
the Father's preexisting, but unknown love, and "hereby we perceive it,"
(I Jn. 3:16; 4:9), so that discovering that "He first loved us," we begin
to love Him. Perhaps the reader has heard the story of the mother who said
to her little boy, "Now, Johnny, if you are good and obedient, mamma
will love you, but if you are naughty, I can't love you;" to which un-motherly
speech the child plaintively replied, "Anybody will love me when I am good,
can't you love me when I'm bad?" "God commendeth his love toward us in
that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us;" (Rom. 5:8) thus
does the Word make it plain that God's love was the cause, and not
the effect of the atonement. This is the blessed truth, but the church
goes on, reversing God's truth, putting darkness for light, and light for
darkness.
Finally, I will notice one more point of error
in the popular view. The Atonement will not be partial, but a complete
and absolute success! The creeds that inculcate the errors
that I have noticed may well culminate with the statement that after all
that God and Christ have done, myriads, through ignorance and perversity,
will fail to reap any benefit from the atonement but will perish forever;
thus Christ will only partially accomplish the purpose for which He died,
- to reconcile the world unto God - and will only partially "destroy the
works of the devil." (I Jn. 3:8). Is it so? Will the joint work of the
Father and the Son thus weakly fail of full completion, and fall short
of a perfect triumph?
Nay, verily! So far from its being true that
the atonement will only be partially sufficient to accomplish the work
intended, the truth is it will be "much more" than enough. Read the 5th
chapter of Romans and see this glorious truth set forth therein. Notice
Paul's "much mores," and let all doubts as to the "exceeding abundance"
of God's provision for man's universal redemption forever depart from your
mind. Was God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and yet will
there be myriads of souls unreconciled to him through all eternity?
Did the Father send the Son to be the Savior
of the world (I Jn. 4:14), and yet will there be a large portion of the
world lost forever? Will God's plans and purposes miscarry like this, or
shall "his word (Christ is "the Word of God") accomplish that which He
pleases, and prosper in the thing whereto He sends it?" (Isa. 45:8-13).
Most assuredly the latter. Let those who wish to "limit the Holy One of
Israel" (Psa. 78:41), do so, as for me, I believe that God will do all
He has promised to the full, yea more, for "he is able to do exceeding
abundantly, above all that we can ask, or even think." (Eph. 3:20).
Thus, friend reader, I have endeavored to set
forth this glorious doctrine of the atonement; whether I have spoken according
to "the oracles of God," judge ye; and in your judgment be sure of one
thing, that nothing that I have said is better than the truth; that is
not possible. It is impossible that anything should be too good to be true,
though sometimes we so speak. To do that would be equivalent
to thinking of something better than God.
If I have erred at all in the foregoing (and
it would be very remarkable if I had not) I have erred in not seeing all
the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, of the love of God, and
so have made his works and ways less grand, and less glorious, and less
loving than they really are. It is only "with all saints" that we are able
to comprehend the marvelous fullness of the love of God. I have by no means
exhausted the subject, but I must drop it for the present; but before I
do so I will give a brief
1. The atonement was not to satisfy God's Justice,
but to reveal His Love.
2. The justice of God is not against the sinner,
demanding his condemnation, but for him, insuring his salvation.
3. God is not in contrast with, much less in
opposition to Christ in the atonement, but in perfect harmony and accord.
4. The atonement is not the exclusive work
of Christ in order to reconcile God unto the world, but it is the work
of "God in Christ" to reconcile the world unto Himself.
5. Christ does not have to plead with God in
order to make him willing to pardon the sinner, but God, by his ministers
[IN CHRIST], "beseeches" (II Cor. 5:20) the sinner to make them willing
to be pardoned.
6. Hence the atonement is not to propitiate
God, but man; not to make God favorably disposed toward man, but to make
His already existing favor known to man.
7. Christ did not die as our substitute, but
as our companion and associate; not instead of man, but WITH
him and FOR him.
8. Christ did not die to save us from the penalty
of sin, but from sin itself.
9. Christ did not die that we might not die,
but to deliver us out of a death in which we were already involved.
10. The sinner is not redeemed because he repents,
but he is called upon to repent because he has been redeemed.
11. The atonement is not the cause of
God's love to man, giving rise to that love, but the effect, flowing
out of that love.
12. The final outcome of the atoning scheme
is not a partial success, but a perfect, absolute, and universal
triumph!
And I would repeat what must be apparent to every thoughtful mind, that these errors are not small and unimportant, slightly differing from the truth, - but they are just the opposite of the truth; those who hold and teach them, "call evil good and good evil: they put darkness for light, and light for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter;" and the present effect is Babylon (i.e. confusion), and the final outcome will be ruin. (Isa. 24:10.).