more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, t h at is to say, not of this building: 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having ob- tained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the asWs of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanfctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit of- fered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? The Sacrifices covered sins until He should come who would forever take them away. But it is by means of the blood that the infinitely effective sacrifice is wrought out. When He poured out His soul unto death, it was in the blood of Calvary. And this was necessary for the clearing of the charge so long lodged against the righteousness of God that a f t er all sin did not involve death. Hear the unfoiding of this truth by the great Apostle. He has advanced through the book of Romans as f ar as the third chapter in the 19th verse of which we find every mouth stopped (and all the world brought under the judgment of God. " B u t now apart from the law a right- eousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ unto all that be- lieve; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God; being freely justified by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; wiom God set forth to be a propitiation (propitiatory, mercy seat, hilasterion, the holy place upon which the blood was sprinkled by tne High Priest in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atone : ment.) through faith, in his blood, to show his (that is God's) righteousness, because of the passing over of the sins done afore- time in the forbearance of God; for the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just, and the justifierof him that hath faith in J e s u s ." Rom. 3:21-26. R. V. Here is emphatically stated that a right- eousness of God has, bee®-made available for. man by faith in Christ, but it is no less emphatically stated that God is de- clared Righteous by the blood of Christ than that man is declared righteous when he reposes faith in that blood. To repeat,. Gojl set forth Christ Jesus to be a mercy Sgat or propitiatory, by His blood, to show
that the inflexible righteousness of God must be met, for the passing over of sins in all the past had cast suspicion upon God's righteousness. " F o r the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just (or righteous) and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus. " Rom. 3:26, R. V. The attack of Satan in every age has been against God Himself. If Satan can thrust God aside from absolute righteous- ness, he has unseated Him from His throne. If, on the other hand, Satan can compel God to withhold mercy he has robbed Him of the title, " God is l o v e ." It is only at the cross that divine holi- ness and divine love meet in perfect union. If the vertical " t r e e " may represent the unbending rigidity of divine righteous- ness, the horizontal cross-arm is level to the need of human frailty. It is at the junction of holiness and love that that Deity is seen, as in the electric are, in the white heat of the purifying procfess. The Savior shares our flesh and blood that through death he may bring to naught Satan who has the power of death. " A l l we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord liath laid (or caused to light or strike) on Him the iniquity of us a l l ." Isa. 53:6. Substitution for the sinner is not a figment of theology to be thrust aside, but a subject for divine revelation and is integral with the essential structure of the sacred Word. But the substitutionary work of Christ is the particular aversion of the newer views. I t has been said by a woman, and t.ie assertion multiplied in myriad vol- umes, that the blood of Christ when shed upon the cross was no more efficacious for the forgiveness of sin than when flowing in His veins. There is no room for atonement by blood in any man-devised religion. And, strangely, in all of the arguments based upon the so-called "unethical';' features of substitution, the supreme fact is over- looked that no man can meet the condi- tions upon which redemption becomes available—repentance, trust, obedience— without coming at once into parallel with God and finding the old enmity at rest and a sense of blessed sonship established. The moral ends of salvation are met in abund- ant measure in the experience of him who believes, in the very act of his believing. V. The Mockery of Fools. In Proverbs 1.4:9, we read the familiar words, " Fo o ls make a mock at s i n ." The
>
>
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online