Christ's death a condition of our salvation.
Isai. liii. 10. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the plea- sure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
THERE are in the Holy Scriptures many apparent contradictions, which, when properly understood, are perfectly consistent with each other. The redemption of our souls is continually represented as the freest gift of God : yet the very term redemption implies that a price is paid. But here is no real inconsistency; because that, which to us is as free as the light we behold, or the air we breathe, was dearly purchased by our blessed Lord ; and the Apostle himself com- bines these ideas, saying, " We are justified freely by
God's grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." The truth is, that eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ : but, before it could be thus freely given consistently with the divine perfec- tions, it was necessary that an atonement should be made for sin : and, in order to the liberating of the debtor, the debt must be discharged by his Surety. Hence, when our Lord undertook to save us, a con- dition was imposed upon him, and the promise of success in his undertaking was suspended on his per- formance of that condition. The words before us lead us to consider,
[. The condition imposed —
To understand the true nature of this condition, it is necessary that we should advert to the offerings that were made under the law. If any person had sinned, even through ignorance, he was bound to bring an offering in order to make atonement for his sin. This offering was to be a bullock, or a male or female kid, or a lamb, according to the quality of the offender. He was to lay his hands upon the head of the offering, in token that he confessed himself to be deserving of death, and that he transferred his guilt to the creature that was to suffer in his stead. The creature was then killed ; its blood was poured out at the foot of the altar, some of it having been pre- viously put upon the horns of the altar ; and then its fat was burnt upon the altar : and God smelling a sweet savour from it, accepted it on behalf of the offerer.
Now this will shew what Christ was to do. He had undertaken to save man : he must therefore come and put himself in the place of man ; and present himself before God to suffer all that was due to our trans- gressions. But whereas the animals could suffer only in body, he was to suffer both in body and soul, and to present his whole person a sacrifice for sin. In consideration of this sacrifice every sinner in the universe was to have liberty to transfer his guilt to him, and, on so doing, to find acceptance with God through him. Thus he was to become the sinner's
973.1 Christ's death a condition of salvation. 399
substitute, or, as the Apostle expresses it, " to be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteous- ness of God in him."
But what necessity was there for any such condi- tion ? Why must God's only dear Son become a man, and offer up himself a sacrifice for sin ? To answer this important inquiry, we observe, first, that man, having once transgressed the law of God, could never afterwards be justified by obedience to it. The law denounced a curse against transgressors, but made no provision for their restoration to the Divine favour. It made no mention of repentance or amend- ment ; it spake nothing of pardoning mercy ; it simply required obedience, and inflicted the penalty of death on the disobedient. From that time " there could not be any law given whereby we might have life ; for if there could, God tells us, that verily righteousness should have been by the law." If therefore man ever was to be saved at all, there was a necessity that some other plan should be devised, whereby the law should take its course and yet the trangressor be rescued from condemnation. This could not be done unless a proper substitute for man could be found, who should at once satisfy all the demands of law and justice, and bring in a righteousness that should be transferable to man for his justification before God. Hence, in the next place, arose a further necessity for the death of Christ, namely, that there was none other found in the whole creation, who was capable of undertaking so great a work. As for " the blood of bulls and of goats, it was not possible that that could take away sin :" " nor could any man redeem his brother," or even himself. If an angel, or all the angels of heaven, had attempted it, they must have failed : for in the very first instance they must have suffered eternal death. This was the penalty due to sin ; and if it had been inflicted on them, they must have been in the state of the fallen angels to all eter- nity, seeing that there never would come a time, when it could be said, that the law was fully satisfied. Besides, their obedience to the law, even supposing