January 1932
21'
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
is the justice of it all? How can one man pay the penalty for another man’s sin?” “ He could not, if he were only a man,” David replied slowly and thoughtfully. “ But Christ is more than that. He is God as well as man.” “ That doesn’t help matters any; it only makes it worse,” Nelson exclaimed irritably. “ I f a single man can be for given because o f what Jesus did, then why hold any one punishable? I can see how a man might stop sinning and begin doing good and might in time do enough good to pay for his sins. That sounds reasonable. But to have the slate all washed clean because one believes in something that some one else did, I can’t see how God can be just and do a think like that.” “ I can’t either,” David said earnestly. “ I don’t see how He can. but He does; that is enough for me. ‘That he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.’ That is what He has told us in His Word, and I be lieve it.” “ But how do you explain it?” “ Listen, Nelson,” David leaned forward, his elbow on his knee and his chin in his hand. “ Can there be a law— any law that is good and necessary—without exacting a penalty for its breaking?” “ No-oo, I suppose not.” “ Then starting with the premise—and you grant that it may be true— that there is a law of God against sin, let us illustrate it this way. I am a subject of an earthly king, and I am in prison for debt. The king has a son who loves me. He goes to his father and asks him to pardon me be cause I am his friend. The father cannot. He explains that to do so would be to wrong all the rest of the people. The son says, ‘Father, will you let me pay the debt?’ and the father consents. The son goes to the proper office, pays my debt, and comes and shows me the official receipt. What would you suggest that I do?” “ Do ? Why take the receipt and walk out.” “ Suppose I did not like to be under obligation to any one, and I refused to accept it ?” “ You’d be a foo l!” “ But suppose I didn’t believe it? I simply cannot un derstand how any one could do a thing like that.” Nelson smiled. “ I think I know what you are driving at,” he said, “ but still I don’t see .it.” “ Perhaps not,” David said, a little disappointedly. And then he leaned closer, his voice tense with earnestness. “ Nelson, whether you believe it or not, the King’s Son has paid the debt, your debt and mine. He has taken what be longs to us, and He offers us His gift, ‘For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Won’t you believe Him, Nelson, and walk out free? You will never get out any other way.” Nelson jumped to his feet. “ I wasn’t asking you to preach me a sermon,” he said crossly, and went out slam ming the door. David sat still, a troubled look in his eyes. “ There, I’ve done it again,” he muttered. “ Wonder when I ’ll ever get sense to know how to handle him.” They had talked on these things, he and Nelson, once or twice before, and, strangely enough, it was usually Nel son who had started it, but always it had ended about as it had tonight. Nelson loved to argue, but David, with the straightforward simplicity of his nature, made use o f the occasions to press upon his friend his own soul’s need, which always irritated Nelson.
Minutes went by, and still David waited. And then he quietly dropped to his knees. He was in bed and asleep when Nelson returned. Nelson purposely lingered away as long as he dared that night. He did not care to face David when he went back; he would not for, the world have David know how that little story of his had almost “ got him.” It was a day or two later that he came in and found David reading a book. As David laid it down for an in stant, he picked it up. “ ‘Evolution: An Investigation and a Criticism,’ ” he read. “ Ha, ha, old man, I see you are getting interested in evolution. Thought you did not care for books on that subject.” “ I don’t, but I read some of them just the same.” “ What kind do you read, only books against it ?” “ I read books on both sides, and that is more than you can say. How many have you read that show the whole thing is only an unproved theory not based upon facts that can be verified ?” “ I have not read any. But why should I ? I want to know the facts, and you can’t get facts out of a book that opposes it.” “ Can’t you ? Listen to this. And David began to read a paragraph here and there, stopping himself occasionally to ask, “ Is that true or is it not ?” “ Yes, so far as you read is all right. But go on, what comes after that ?” David read some more, this time letting slip in a state ment now and then which showed the weakness or fallacy of the view stated. “ Hold on,” Nelson interrupted. “ I’ll not pass that by.” “ Why not?” David asked. And with that, they launch ed into a debate which Nelson at least kept up for days to follow. But David was not satisfied. One evening when they were alone, he said, “ Nelson, we have had our little say on this subject pretty often lately, but we will never get anywhere after all until we see that it is a religious ques tion, and the Bible and the whole body of Christian truth is involved in it.” “ How so?” “ According to evolution, there has been no fall o f man. Isn’t that true?” Nelson nodded. “ And if there was no fall, then there is no necessity of redemption nor of a Redeemer. If we neither can be nor need be redeemed, then the whole message of the Bible is practically worthless. We are our own saviours, and we may as well count God out. The Bible cannot be true, for it records miracles done by a personal God. Evolution denies both the God and the mir acles; there is nothing but the laws and processes of na ture. If the Bible is not true on the great central themes o f the fall of man, the promise and coming of the Re deemer, and the character and power of God, then we have no inspired revelation from God; we have no absolute grounds for our faith and no ultimate authority for any thing. Is that the position you are willing to hold?” Nelson had listened very soberly. “ It practically amounts to that,” he said. • “ Then you see why I cannot and will not accept such a theory.” “ Not even when science proves it?” “ Science does not prove it, but it is the scientists who are trying to. I know you won’t like this, Nelson, but it is just another outcropping of the hatred o f the natural man against God.” Nelson frowned impatiently. “ Haven’t you ever had any doubts yourself ?”
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