Sin and Judgment to Come 51 “not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2). Re demption is only and altogether by the death of Christ. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). To bring in limitations here is to limit God. THE CROSS OF CHRIST In the wisdom of God the full revelation of “eternal judg ment” and the doom of the lost, awaited the supreme mani festation of divine grace and love in the Gospel of Christ; and when these awful themes are separated from the Gospel, truth is presented in such a false perspective that it seems to savor of error. For not even the divine law and the penalties of disobedience will enable us to realize aright the gravity and heinousness of sin. This we can learn only at the Cross of Christ. Our estimate o f sin will be proportionate to our appre ciation o f the cost of our redemption. Not “silver and gold”— human standards of value are useless here—but “the precious blood of Christ.” Seemingly more unbelievable than the wildest superstitions of human cults is the Gospel of our salvation. That He who was “Son o f God” in all which that title signifies—God manifest in the flesh; for “all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made”— came down to earth, and having lived in rejection and contempt, died a death of shame, and that in virtue of his death He is the pro pitiation for the world. (1 John 2:2, R. V.) H e re , and only here, can we know the tru e cha rac ter and depths o f hum an sin, and here alone can we know, so f a r as th e finite m ind can ever know it, the Wonders o f a divine love th a t passes knowledge. And the benefit is to “whosoever believeth.” It was by unbelief that man first turned away from God; how fitting, then, it is that our return to Him should be by faith. If this
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