3. The suitableness of each to the end proposed —
[What was there in the blood of bulls and goats that could wash away the stain of sin ! How could that satisfy the Divine justice, or avert his wrath from sinful man ? there was not the least affinity between the means and the end. But Christ was " bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh ;" and he assumed our nature on purpose that he might stand in our place and stead. Here was a perfect suitableness between the means and the end. Must the penalty due to sin be endured ? He became a curse for us, and submitted to endure its just deserts. Must the law be fulfilled and honoured? He magnified it by his perfect obedience. And being God as well as man, he was at liberty to do this for us ; and his substitution in our place is justly available for our salvation. How plain then is the Apostle's inference when viewed in this light ! Surely, when these considerations are all combined, there will be a strength in his argument, and a force in his appeal, which must bear down every objection, and fix the deepest conviction on our minds.]
This subject may further lead us to observe,
1. How manifest is the doctrine of the divinity of Christ !
^ Acts XX. 28.
[We need not look to any passages that confirm this doctrine by direct assertions ; since in the text it is contained with yet stronger evidence in a way of implication. Let it be supposed for one moment that Christ was a mere creature : how will the Apostle's argument then appear? If the blood of one creature avails for the obtaining of a mere shadowy and temporal benefit, how much more shall the blood of another creature avail for the obtaining of all that God himself can bestow ? This were as absurd as to say, if a child can lift a feather, how much more can a grown person lift a mountain ? Such an appeal would be unworthy of any man that pretends to common sense ; and much more of an inspired Apostle. But let the divinity of Christ be acknowledged, and the appeal is clear, convincing, incontrovertible. Indeed the doctrines of the atonement and of the divinity of Christ are so interwoven with each other, that neither of them can be denied without effectually subverting both. Let us seek then to be well esta- blished in these important truths.]
2. How necessary is it to trust entirely in Christ's atonement !
[It is not possible to state a case more strongly than this is stated in a chapter before referred to\ We cannot conceive less guilt to be contracted by any act than by unwittingly touching a thing, which, unknown to us, had been before touched by an unclean person : yet nothing but the sprinkling of the ashes of a red heifer could ever remove the uncleanness contracted by it: if the person that had contracted it were the holiest man on earth, and were to shed rivers of tears on account of what he had done, and increase his circumspection in future an hundredfold, it would be all to no purpose ; he must die as a defiler of God's sanctuary, if he did not use the purification which the law appointed. How much more then must that soul perish which is not purified by the blood of Christ ! How impossible is it that even the smallest sin should ever be expiated in any other way! Let this then teach us to look unto Christ continually, and to have our con- sciences ever sprinkled with his precious blood.]
3. How inseparable is the connexion between faith and works !
[They greatly err, who think that the docti'ines of faith are subversive of morality. The very faith that purges the conscience from guilt, purifies the life also from dead works, and animates us to serve the living God. Let this connexion then be seen in our lives ; so shall we most effectually remove the calumny; and " by well-doing put to silence the ignorance of foolish men."]