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could come down to man. And th a t is precisely what He did when God th e Son came down here to th e earth , took human n atu re into His Godhead, and thereby reun ited in moral and sp iritual bonds His divinity and our humanity. It was a real and v ital union of the two n atu res in the one person. Thus our blessed Lord Jesus was con stitu ted th e new Federal Head of the race, called sometimes th e New Adam. The original Adam was our first federal head; bu t he failed, fell into sin, and w ill.lead us down into ru in if we follow him. But our new Federal Head, Jesus Christ, won the victory over sin and Satan and became th e Captain of our salvation. Now if by Repentance we are detatched from th e old, sinful federal head, and by regeneration and faith are attach ed to the new F ed eral Head, we shall be led on to eternal victory hnd glory. T h at is in substance the wonderful plan of re demption revealed in th e inspired Word and effected through Jesus Christ. The initiative was on the divine side, because God is gracious and merciful. Can the hum an m ind conceive of any b etter way out of our sin and distress th an th e way displayed in God’s re demptive plan set fo rth in th e Bible? And let us bless God for the fact th a t th e gracious effect of th is method is a m atter, not of human speculation, but of h ea rtfe lt experience on th e p art of all believing Christians. Let us go back now, and note some of th e beauty and power of th e Bib lical solution of th e vital problem of origins. If God created th e universe, as the Bible teaches, He must be its complete Sovereign, so th a t it can never balk His final purpose nor hu rl itself into fateful catastrophe. W hat a com fort th a t affords for religion! Then we may know for a su rety th a t "all things work together for good to them th a t love God, to them th a t are th e called according to His purpose."
power of altern ate choice. T hat surely Is a satisfactory solution of th e great problem. Another problem th a t has been the onus of much troubled though t in the world’s history has been th a t of the origin of salvation. Sin being here, how may we be saved from its power and cleansed from its defilement? W hat a vital problem is th at! Who has ever solved it? None of th e phil osophers; none of the founders and adherents of the ethnic religions. Ex am ine all of them , and observe th a t they are lame and blind—blind lead ers of th e blind. But tu rn to your Bible, and note w ith what ease and simplicity and depth th e solution of th e problem is forthcom ing. Man, by his sin, p u t a deep gulf between himself and his holy Maker; it was a moral and sp iritual gulf. Having rendered himself unable by his sin, man could not bridge th a t chasm; he had no m a terial w ith which to construct a pas sage way. But God, being good, all wise and all-powerful, could come over from the divine side to the human side. He, and He alone, could build a bridge across the gulf. And th a t He did by coming in the person of His eternally begotten Son into th is world— this realm of tim e and space— assum ing our human natu re, keeping the violated law for us, and making expiation on the cross for our sins. “He who knew no sin became sin for us, th a t we m ight be made the righteousness of God in H im” (2 Cor. 5 :21 ). Or, to change the figure to agree w ith th e term s of th e Holy Scriptures, when man sinned in th e garden of Eden, he fell from God, and it was a deep and hard fall. Having rendered himself morally unable, he could not lift him self up to God again by his own ef forts, any more th an you could lift yourself bodily in th e air by tak ing hold of the tops of your jshoes. But if man could not lift him self up to God, God
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