The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 77

aid of the ancient symbols of that presence, such as the ark of the covenant of the old dispensation. Yer. 17: and Jerusalem should be so filled with the Lord's presence that they should call the city "the throne of the Lord." And the "nations" should be convert.ed, and their wickedness be forsaken. Ver. 18: and Judah aud Israel should be one, and in unity and affection possess the land. Such were the glorious hopes wit.h which God sought to win back his people's hearts to himself, and they conclu- si rnly show how intensely the heart of God was set upon his people's return. Ilut "agerly desirous as God was for this rest.oration of his lost children to his heart and home again, ho is evidently held back from indulging such affectionate promptin.,,s by considerations that could not be overlooked. What they were, the demand that he makes for confession of sin plainly shows. They are- I. The Law of righteousness. Sin is the violation of that Law, and until du atone- ment and acknowledgment have been made, sin ought not to be forgiven. I may, in accordance with cur Saviour's commands, refrain from inflicting punishment o one who has wronged me, even though be have not repented of his wrong; and that refraining from inflicting punishment, or from demanding what is my right, is forgiveness in the sense our Lord meant; but he did not mean, for it would be a command impossible to obey- urnt I should receive such a one into the same confidence and love which I bear towards a dear friend who has never deserved anything else. Therefore my forgtveness of such an unrepentant offender, thou;:h granted in accordance with our Lord's command, and well-pleasing in his sight, and the best I am capable of, is nevertheless ot complete, not perfect; for perfect forgiveness, that which God would bestow upo sinful men, means far more than the remission of penalty: it means restoration to the love, the fellowship, and the confidence of God. But this cannot be apart from due atonement made on the part of the wrong-doer. The Law of righteousness, the Law written upon our hearts as well as inherent in the nature of things, forbids such forgiveness apart from the essential condition of such forgiveness. II. And the well-being of his household is that other consideration which restrains 1.be prompting of affection to forgive sin unconditionally and from mere pity. Man is uot the whole of God's household. He may be only the one sheep who has gone astray. The rest, the ninety and nine blessed ones who need no repentance. But to pardon sin without atonement would b(l to confound all moral distinctions, to dis- courage the good, and to teach the wrong-doer to regard his wrong as a very slight matter; it would be to carry the discords of earth into the presence of God, and to reproduce there the sins and sorrows of this world. Therefore let the love of Go<l towards sinful man be inconceivably great, and it is so, still it is held back in its exercise by these considerations now named. Ilut where sin is confessed as God <lemands it should be, then, as is promised here and in many other Scriptures beside, God's pardoning love can go forth and the sinner be restored to the favour, which h~ had lost. And the reason of this is not because the sinner's poor and inadequate con- fession of his sin is a sufficient atonement for the wrong he has done, but because, when Le sincerely makes that confession, he is invested with the acceptableness of Ghrist, For Christ has made that atonement perfectly which man can only offer in the most i!I!perfect way; "man's repentance needing too often to be repented of, and his very tears to be washed in the blood of Christ." But Christ looked upon sin as God looks llpon it, hated it as God hates it, consented to God's judgment concerning it by btarino- the penalty of it; "he bore our sins in his own body on the tree," and so made that tr°ue, that perfect confession and atonement which we can never ma_ke.. And he did this in our nature, and as our Heprcsentative. So now, when we come IIl his Name, sincerely repenting of sin, though that repentance be inadequate in it~elf, ye_t because it is " the mind of Christ," and looks upon sin sorrowing over it as he did, our imperfect alonenient is accepted in his perfect one, we have the fellowship of his sufferings, h!s atonement is in our measure reproduced in us, and we are made conformable to his <leath. Pardon thus bestowed neiLhcr violates the Law of righteousness nor is incon- sistent with the well-being of the whole family of God. Hence it is that, as in ver. 13, the demand is made for confession of sin, and then of their iniquity in all its aggravated forrne. Without such confession pardon cannot be bestowed. Not till the. prodiga1 "came to himself," went to his father and said, " I have sinned," was he forgiven, not. witli.~tanding all lhc yearning c,f the father's heart after his lost child. Now, to bring cl-I. nl. 1-25.] THE BOOK OF 'l'HE PROPHI<.:'l' JEREMIAH. 73