And if this were true in reference to one who had only the blood of a goat to rest upon, "how much more" powerfully does it apply to one who has the precious blood of Christ to rest upon? The believer sees in Christ One who has been judged for all his sin--One who, when He hung upon the cross, sustained the entire burden of his sin--One who, having made Himself responsible for that sin, could not be where He now is if the whole question of sin had not been settled according to all the claims of Infinite Justice. So absolutely did Christ take the believer's place on the cross--so entirely was he identified with Him--so completely was all the believer's sin imputed to Him, there and then, that all question of the believer's liability--all thought of his guilt--all idea of his exposure to judgment and wrath, is eternally set aside.[15] It was all settled on the cursed tree, between Divine Justice and the spotless Victim. And now the believer is as absolutely identified with Christ on the throne, as Christ was identified with him on the cross. Justice has no charge to bring against the believer, because it has no charge to bring against Christ. Thus it stands forever. If a charge could be preferred against the believer, it would be calling in question the reality of Christ's identification with him on the cross, and the perfectness of Christ's work on his behalf. If, when the worshiper of old was on his way back, after having offered his sin-offering, any one had charged him with that special sin for which his sacrifice had bled, what would have been his reply? Just this: The sin has been rolled away by the blood of the victim, and Jehovah has pronounced the words, "It shall be forgiven him." The victim had died instead of him, and he lived instead of the victim.
[15] We have a singularly beautiful example of the divine accuracy of Scripture in 2 Cor. v. 21.--"He hath _made_ Him to be sin [αμαρτιαν εποιησεν] for us, that we might _become_ [γινωμεθα] the righteousness of God in Him." The English reader might suppose tha the word which is rendered "made" is the same in each clause of the passage. This is not the case.
Such was the type. And as to the Antitype, when the eye of faith rests on Christ as the Sin-offering, it beholds Him as One who having assumed a perfect human life, gave up that life on the cross, because sin was there and then attached to it by imputation. But it beholds Him also as One who having in Himself the power of divine and eternal life, rose from the tomb therein, and who now imparts this His risen, His divine, His eternal life to all who believe in His name. The sin is gone, because the life to which it was attached is gone. And now, instead of the life to which sin was attached, all true believers possess the life to which righteousness attaches. The question of sin can never once be raised, in reference to the risen and victorious life of Christ; but this is the life which believers possess. There is no other life. All beside is death, because all beside is under the power of sin. "He that hath the Son hath life," and he that hath life hath righteousness also. The two things are inseparable, because Christ is both the one and the other. If the judgment and death of Christ upon the cross were realities, then the life and righteousness of the believer are realities; if imputed sin was a reality to Christ, imputed righteousness is a reality to the believer. The one is as real as the other; for if not, Christ would have died in vain. The true and irrefragable ground of peace is this,--that the claims of God's nature have been perfectly met as to sin. The death of Jesus has satisfied them all--satisfied them forever. What is it that proves this to the satisfaction of the awakened conscience? The great fact of resurrection. A risen Christ declares the full deliverance of the believer--his perfect discharge from every possible demand.--"He was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification." (Rom. iv. 25.) For a Christian not to know that his sin is gone, and gone forever, is to cast a slight upon the blood of his divine Sin-offering; it is to deny that there has been the perfect presentation--the sevenfold sprinkling of the blood before the Lord.