stitution of our nature. The connection between sin and misery is so intimate that many have gone to the extreme of teaching that there is no other punishment of sin but its natural effects. This is contrary to fact as well as to Scripture. Nevertheless it is true tliat to be " carnally minded is death," that is, damnation. There is no help for it. It is vain to say that God will not punish sin when He has made sin and its punishment inseparable. The absence of light is darkness ; the absence of life is death ; (J.) It is, however, not only in the constitution of our nature, but also in all his works of providence, that God has revealed his purpose to punish sin. The deluge ; the destruction of the cities of the plain ; the overthrow of Jerusalem and the dispersion and long-continued degradation of the Jewish people; the ruins of Nineveh, of Baby- lon, of Tyre and Sidon, and of Egypt ; and the present condition of many of the nations of the earth, as well as the general administra- tion of the divine government, are proof enough that God is an avenger, that He will in no wise spare the guilty.
4. The Scriptures so constantly and so variously teach tliat God is just, that it is impossible to present adequately their testimony on the subject, (a.) We have the direct assertions of Scripture. Almost the first words which God spoke to Adam were, " In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The angels who sinned are reserved in chains unto the judgment of the great day. Death is declared to be the wages, i. e., the proper recom- pense of sin, wliich justice demands that it should receive. God is declared to be a consuming fire. Men can no more secure them- selves from the punishment of their sins, by their own devices, than they can save themselves from a ra^infj conflao^ration bv a covering of chaff. The penalty of the law is as much a revelation of the nature of God as its precept is. As He cannot, consistently with his ])erfections, exonerate men from the obligation of obedience, so He cannot allow them to sin with impunity. It is, therefore, declared that He will reward every man according to his works. (5.) All the divinely ordained institutions of religion, whether Patriarchal, Mosaic, or Christian, were founded on the assumption of the justice of God, and were designed to impress that great truth on the minds of men. They take for granted that men are sinners; and that, being sinners, they need expiation for their guilt as well as moral purification, in order to salvation. Sacrifices, therefore, were instituted from the beginning to teach the necessity of expia- tion and to serve as prophetic types of the only effectual expiation which, in the fulness of time, was to be oflPei-ed for the sins of men
4D2 PART III. Ch. VIl. — satisfaction OF CHRIST.
Without the shedding of blood (z. e., without vicarious punishment) there is no remission. This is recorded, not merely as a fact under the Mosaic dispensation, but as embodying a principle valid under all dispensations. It is not, therefore, this or that declaration of Scripture, or this or that institution which must be explained away if the justice of God be denied, but the whole form and structure of tl^e religion of the Bible. That religion as the religion for sin- ners rests on the assumption of the necessity of expiation. This is its corner-stone, and the whole fabric falls into ruin if that stone be removed. That God cannot pardon sin without a satisfaction to justice, and that He cannot have fellowship with the unholy, are the two great truths which are revealed in the constitution of our nature as well as in the Scriptures, and which are recognized in all forms of religion, human or divine. It is because the demands of justice are met by the work of Christ, that his gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and that it is so unspeakably precious to those whom the Spirit of God has convinced of sin. (<?.) We accordingly find that the plan of salvation as unfolded in the New Testament is founded on the assumption that God is just. The argument of the sacred writers is this : The wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men. That is, God is determined to punish sin. All men, whether Gentiles or Jews, are sinners. Therefore the whole world is guilty before God. Hence no man can be justified by works. It is a contradic- tion to say that those who are under condemnation for their char- acter and conduct can be justified on the ground of anything they are or can do. There is no force in this argument unless there is a necessity for the punishment of sin. Human sovereigns pardon criminals ; earthly parents forgive their children. If the penalty of the law could be as easily remitted in the divine government then it would not follow from the fact that all men are sinners that they cannot be forgiven on the ground of their repentance and reformation. The Scriptures, however, assume that if a man sins he must die. On this assumption all their representations and arguments are founded. Hence the plan of salvation which the Bible reveals supposes that the justice of God which rendei's the punishment of sin necessary has been satisfied. Men can be par- doned and restored to the favour of God, because Christ was set forth as an expiation for their sins, through faith in his blood ; because He was made a curse for us ; because He died, the just for the unjust ; because He bore our sins in his own body on the tree; and because the penalty due to us was laid on Him. It is clear,
§5.] SATISFACTION RExXDEKED TO THE DIVINE LAW. 493
therefore, that tlie Scriptures recognize the truth that God is just, in the sense that He is determined by his moral excellence to punish all sin, and therefore that the satisfaction of Christ which secures the pardon of sinners is rendered to the justice of God. Its primary and principal des'ign is neither to make a moral impression upon the offenders themselves, nor to operate didactically on other intellioent creatures, but to satisfy the demands of justice ; so that God can be just in justifying the ungodly.
§ 5. The Work of Christ Satisfies the Demands of the Loav.
A third point involved in the Church doctrine on the work of Christ, is that it is a satisfaction to the divine lav/. This indeed may seem to be included under the foregoing head. If a satisfac- tion to justice, it must be a satisfaction to law. But in the ordi- nary use of the terms, the word law is more comprehensive than justice. To satisfy justice is to satisfy the demand which justice makes for the punishment of sin. But the law demands far more than the punishment of sin, and therefore satisfaction to the law includes more than the satisfaction of vindicatory justice. In its relation to the law of God the Scriptural doctrine concerning the work of Christ includes the following points : —
1. The law of God is immutable. It can neither be abrogated nor dispensed with. This is true both as respects its precepts and penalty. Such is the natui*e of God as holy, that He cannot cease to require his rational creatures to be holy. It can never cease to be obligatory on them to love and obey God. And such is the nature of God as just, that He cannot cease to condemn sin, and therefore all those who are guilty of sin.
2. Our relation to the law is two-fold, federal and moral. It is of the nature of a covenant prescribing the conditions of life. It says, " Ye shall keep my statutes and my judgments ; which if a man do, he shall live in them." And, " Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are w^ritten in the book of the law to do them."
3. From this federal relation to the law we are, under the gos- pel, delivered. We are no longer bound to be free from all sin, and to render perfect obedience to the law, as the condition of sal- vation. If this were not the case, no flesh living could be saved. We are not under law but under grace.
4. This deliverance from the law is not effected by its abroga- tion, or by lowering its demands, but by the work of Christ. He was made under the law that He miorht redeem those who were under the law.
494 PART m. Cu. Vn. — SATISFACTION OF CHRIST.
5. The work of Christ was therefore of the nature of a satisfac- tion to the demands of the law. By his obedience and sufferings, by Ills whole righteousness, active and passive, He, as our repre- sentative and substitute, did and endured all that the law demands.
6. Those, who by faith receive this righteousness, and trust upon it for justification, are saved ; and receive the renewing of their whole nature into the image of God. Those who refuse to submit to this righteousness of God, and go about to establish their own righteousness, are left under the demands of the law ; they are re- quii'ed to be free from all sin, or having sinned, to bear the penalty.
IP roof of the Immutahility of the Law.