Let us next view the mediation of Christ — II. As executed by himself —
" He gave himself a ransom" for sinful man —
[A ransom is a redemption-price. Man was in bondage to sin and Satan, death and hell ; and to liberate him from this was the end of Christ's mediation. But how was this deliverance to be effected? The law, which had been broken, must be honoured; and divine justice, which demanded the punishment of the offender, must be satisfied. But fallen man could neither honour the one, nor satisfy the other. Nothing was left for him, but to endure to all eternity the penalty which justice demanded and the law denounced. To render the salvation of man compatible with the rights of law and justice, Jesus assumed our nature, and " was made man," that in the nature which had sinned he might suffer, and by his own sufferings make an atonement for our transgressions. Having undertaken this great work, he executed it : and there being no other sacrifice sufficient for the occasion, " he gave himself a ransom for us." " The blood of bulls and of goats could never take away sin." They were acceptable to God as shadowing forth his sacrifice : but it was his sacrifice alone that could atone for sin, and effect the desired reconciliation between God and man : this therefore he offered, and, when the cup of bitterness was put into his hands, he drank it to the very dregs.]
And this he did " for all " without exception —
[To say that he died for the elect only, is neither scrip- tural nor true. He died for all : according as it is elsewhere said; " We thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again e." If all be not ultimately saved by his death, it is not owing to any want of sufficiency in his sacrifice to procure acceptance for them, but to their own impenitence and unbelief. And if all do not come to him for an interest in his sacrifice, it is not owing to any decree of God that of necessity excludes them from a participation in the benefit, or to any want of inclination in the Lord Jesus Christ to save them, but to their own obstinacy in sin. Our Lord said to the whole Jewish nation, " How often would J have gathered you, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings ; but ye ivould not." This is applicable to the whole human race; and at the last day it will be said to all the
e 2 Cor. v. 14, 15,