Let us now turn to follow the unfolding of the plan of redemption as it is revealed in time. We begin with the sacrificial system of the Jews. It is difficult for us to reconstruct the religious customs and ideas of those days. It is almost impossible for us to put ourselves in the place of the ancient Jew as he offered his sacrifices, and to tell just what was in his mind, or what he considered accomplished by the offering of his sacrifice, nor yet how it was accomplished. The following points, however, seem to be fairly clear:
1. He knew that certain things were sin.
2. He knew that sin had caused a separation between him and his God.
3. He knew that atonement could be made, and reconciliation could be effected by an appropriate sacrifice. He must bring an animal as an offering, and lay his hands upon its head, after which the animal was slain as an expiation for sin.
4. He knew that he was now reconciled to God,—regarded by God as though the sin had not been committed.
But there was one more thing which the ancient Jew relied upon, and that was the service of expiation for the sins of the nation. Once each year there was a sort of annual clearing day, when the whole nation engaged in a service that expiated the sins of the whole people. Lev. 16:34. On this day the sanctuary was cleansed. Two goats were brought to the sanctuary; one goat was plain, and his blood sprinkled before the ark of the testimony, while the other goat, after the priest had confessed the sins of the people over his head, was sent away to die in the wilderness. The nation was now considered as cleansed of the sins which had been accumulating through the year.
I doubt if we are justified in saying that the average Jew saw much more in the getting rid of sin than just these rules and regulations. All through Old Testament times there was a strong tendency to lapse into a mere mechanical system. The Jew may have felt that it did not make so much difference how much sin he committed, just so he offered the required sacrifices. Instead of seeing what God wanted,—a heart broken for sin and cleansed from sin,—he came to feel that all God wanted was sacrifices. It was against this perversion of truth that the psalmist lifted up his voice, when he said: "Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire...burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required" (Ps. 40:6) ; "Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it; Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, 0 God, Thou wilt not despise." Ps. 51:16, 17. In other words, what God wanted was genuine repentance. The prophets were strong exponents of this same truth. It is a fact never to be forgotten that anything of the nature of ritual or regulation is of value only so far as it produces a changed and godly character. God's whole effort for men is concerned with the development in them of a character like His own.
We turn now to the New Testament, and here we find complete harmony with that revealed in the Old Testament. But the New Testament goes far beyond what is given in the Old Testament, and points out that the whole plan to cleanse men from sin centers around Jesus. The following points are made clear in the New Testament:
1. It is in Jesus that the sins of the world are to be taken away. The sacrificial system of the old dispensation did not, in reality, take away sin. A more efficacious sacrifice was required. Jesus was the Lamb of God who bears away the sins of the world; it is He who makes the expiation.
It seems to me that the life that Jesus lived was a very significant part of this. There was a living sacrifice before there was a sacrificial death. The moral vision that He held before men was a part of His work of cleansing them from sin. The old sacrificial system, as a means of ridding men from sin, was imperfect. When Christ came into the world, "He saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me.
Lo, I come to do Thy will, 0 God." (See Heb. 10:4-9.) There the old system gave way to the new.
2. Jesus' life must be offered up as a sin offering. He died for the sins of the world. Expiation is made for every one who will accept of the plan of redemption.
3. The sacrifice by which we are saved includes the life that Jesus lived and the death that He died. But let us not overlook the doctrine of the trinity here. God the Father was so fully identified with Jesus in the life that He lived among men, and in the death that He died, that it would be an impossibility to say which of the two paid the bigger price for our redemption; and yet, for the purpose of our redemption, the Father permits Himself to represent the principle of justice in the Godhead, while Jesus the Son represents the principle of love and mercy. We must think of Jesus, then, not as an innocent victim standing between guilty man. and an angry God, but let us rather think of Jesus and God standing unitedly, and together paying the price of our redemption. 2 Cor. 5:19.
While God, as representing the principle of justice, demands propitiation, and Jesus is set forth as the propitiation (1 John 2:1, 2; Rom. 3:25), it might cause us less difficulty if we think of God as propitiating Himself. And let me add that the sacrifice by which we are saved is not the sacrifice which involved but a few hours on Calvary, but it is a sacrifice which has been in existence ever since sin entered the universe, and it will endure as long as sin exists. God suffers over the sins we commit today, right while we are committing them. On Calvary, the vail was drawn aside, permitting us to gaze on the bleeding heart of God, broken because of the sins of those whom He loves.
4. Jesus, having made the sacrifice for our sins, ascends to heaven as our High Priest. He does not take His literal blood to heaven, but He presents the merit of His sacrifice. In 1844 He entered the most holy place to finish the work of atonement as it relates to the heavenly sanctuary. But let us not forget that while the earthly sanctuary was being cleansed, there was a moral and spiritual work going on in the hearts of Israel outside the sanctuary. So today, while our High Priest is in the inner apartment of the heavenly sanctuary, there is a corresponding work of cleansing going on in the hearts of God's people on the earth. Our fathers in the 1844 movement were not so far wrong as we have sometimes thought. There was a cleansing to take place in the earth, —not a cleansing by fire, but by the Spirit of God operating upon the hearts of men, whereby God's church was to be prepared for the end of all things.
As the object of the plan of redemption is to rid the universe of sin, it seems that we might add one more point. As in ancient Israel, all who would not afflict their souls were to be cut off, so at the close of this day of atonement in the heavenly sanctuary, all the children of modern Israel who are not cleansed from sin, must suffer for their own sins. While Satan must suffer as the instigator of every sin, the unrepentant sinner must suffer as the executor of sin,—the sinner in fact. As far as the sins committed by the righteous are concerned, there is no further suffering for them. And yet, let me say that I believe that God in His love will suffer with every sinner that suffers the second death. And one of the elements in the punishment of the wicked will be the remorse that comes from knowing that the soul is lost in spite of all the efforts of divine love; that even in death divine love suffers and would save if that were possible. There is no wrath like the wrath of the Lamb.
The essential points in this presentation on the atonement may be summed up as follows:
First, we must recognize that God is infinite in love, wisdom, power, and holiness.
Second, we must recognize that man is a free moral agent, and therefore fully responsible for his own sin.
Third, sin has caused separation between God and man, and only God can bridge the gulf.
Fourth, God has suffered on account of sin, and will continue to suffer as long as sin shall last. Calvary is the supreme representation of that suffering.
Filth, the sacrifice by which we are saved, so far as its earthly manifestation is concerned, includes the earthly life and death of Jesus; but so far as its heavenly aspect and experience is concerned, it is a sin-long sacrifice.
Sixth, God propitiates Himself. God the Father was so fully identified with the Son in His earthly life and death as to make it impossible to say which paid the biggest price for our redemption. For the purpose of our redemption, however, God typifies the principle of justice, while Jesus typifies the principle of love.
Seventh, Jesus is now our High Priest, presenting the merits of His earthly sacrifice in heaven in our behalf before the Father.
Eighth, God must so deal with men as to cause them to renounce sin and turn to God that He might save them from their sins.
Ninth, those who will not be cleansed in their lives, must be cleansed in their deaths, for God must have a clean universe.
Denver, Colo.
