great act by which He has redeemed us. Now, you will observe that with
reference to this great subject there are no illustrations employed in
the text. There is nothing said about a ransom, or an offering, or any
other illustration; but we are brought at once to the great fact of the
substitution of the Redeemer for the redeemed: ‘He hath redeemed us from
the curse, being made a curse for us.’ I know of no way of explaining
that passage, except by the doctrine of substitution. The passage is
exactly like those other words of the Apostle Paul, 2 Cor. v. 21: ‘He
hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.’ In the one passage the
Lord Jesus is said to be made a curse, and in the other to be made sin;
and in both it is said to have been done ‘for us’ (ὑπερ ἡμῶν), _i.e._ on
our behalf, or in our stead. Now do not suppose that I do not recognise
the depth of mystery involved in this most wonderful truth. I can
sympathise with those that scarcely know how to grasp it. I know there
is a depth about it beyond the limits of human thought; but there are two
considerations that have always satisfied my own mind.
(1.) It is not likely that the limited mind of a short-sighted man
should be able to fathom the eternal counsels of God, and reduce the
divine purpose within the compass of his own intellect. If we once admit
that the plan of salvation is divine, we must be prepared to meet with
many things far beyond all human thought. So it is in this instance.
The substitution of the spotless Redeemer for the guilty sinner has in it
a breadth, and length, and depth, and height, that is utterly beyond all
human capacity, and to the very last will pass all knowledge.
(2.) We can see the fact throughout the history. Is there any other way
of explaining either the agony in the garden, or the cry on the cross?
Again and again do we see happy believers stepping down into the valley
of the shadow of death in perfect peace, with a holy joy filling their
hearts, and a holy calm lighting up their countenance; but the Lord
Jesus, when He looked forward to it, was in agony. He sweat, as it were,
great drops of blood, and He cried, ‘If it be possible, let this cup pass
from me.’ I confess I know no way of explaining the difference, except
by the principle of substitution, as laid down in this passage, ‘Being
made a curse for us.’
So, again, I never met with any other explanation of that most marvellous
cry which He uttered on the cross, when He exclaimed, ‘My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?’ How can that cry be explained except by the
doctrine of substitution? Contrast the dying prayer of Stephen with the
dying cry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Stephen said, as I trust you and I
may be able to say, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,’ and so in perfect
peace he fell asleep. But the Lord Jesus was forsaken of God, and so
uttered that bitter cry. How can we explain the difference? How can we
understand the marvellous contrast? I never could see any explanation
but one, and that is, in the doctrine of substitution. The Lord Jesus
was made a curse in the place of Stephen, so Stephen was free. The sin
of Stephen was imputed to the Son of God, and the righteousness of the
Son of God was imputed to Stephen; so the Lord Jesus cried under the
burden of the curse, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ and
Stephen prayed in the peaceful enjoyment of full reconciliation, ‘Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit.’ The burden of the curse was too awful for us
to bear, and too righteous for God to set aside. So the Lord, in
boundless mercy, and with His own full consent, laid it on Him. There
was a transfer of the imputation of guilt, and thus by God’s marvellous
grace, blessed be God, in Christ Jesus we are free.
Now all this is done, and done for ever. Nothing can add to it, and
nothing can take from it. We have nothing to do with any fresh sacrifice
for sin. We want no masses for either the living or the dead, and we
know we cannot make up any fresh sacrifice by penance or self-denial. In
all such matters the one question is, Is the one redemption by the one
substitute sufficient, or is it not? If it is, we want no further
sacrifice, for the work is done. If it is not, we may give up in
despair, for it must be obvious to any man that if the substitution of
the Son of God fall short of the requirements of the law, nothing that we
can add can ever supply the deficiency. But, thanks be to God, there is
no room for discussion. As we are taught in our Communion Service, ‘He
made there (by His one oblation of Himself once offered) a full, perfect,
and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the
whole world.’ He was Himself the Anointed One of God, even the Son of
God. In His death He fulfilled the covenant of God. In His resurrection
He was accepted as having completed the work of God; in His ascension He
entered into the holy place, by one offering having perfected for ever
them that are sanctified.
And now what is the result? What is the consequence of this completed
act of substitution? Surely nothing short of this, that every soul found
in Him is legally free. Of course I am not speaking of those who reject
that substitution or live without Him. They must bear their own burden;
and an awful burden, I fear, they will find it. I am speaking of those
who accept Him as their representative, and are one with Him as their
substitute. Now to any one of them the great act of substitution has
brought a full, complete, legal release. They are as free from the curse
of the law as if they had never sinned. The law has no more power to
condemn them than if it had never been issued, or if they had never
broken it. They are washed white as snow in the blood of the Lamb, and
there is no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus. So there we
may rest in calm, happy, peaceful trust, for the law is satisfied, and
the curse is removed. In His agony we see our peace, in His death our
life, and in His bitter cry on the cross our full, perfect, and
everlasting reconciliation to God.
X. ATONEMENT.
‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a
curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on
a tree.’—GAL. iii. 13.
WHEN we considered this passage in the last lecture, we did not complete
the subject. We found who the Redeemer was, viz. the Christ. We found
what it was that He redeemed us from, viz. the curse, or just judgment of
God’s righteous law. We found also what was the redemption price, or
great redeeming act, viz. the substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God for the sinner. But there is a fourth point of the utmost
possible importance which we had not time to investigate, viz. the
question for whom, or in whose behalf, this great work was accomplished
by the Saviour. But there is no part of the subject more vitally
affecting our own practical life; for unless the Lord Jesus was a
substitute for ourselves, we as individuals may admire His mercy, but can
never have a share in the blessing of His saving work. So far as we
ourselves are personally concerned, our whole hope depends on our being
included in that little word ‘us,’ when it is said, ‘Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.’ If we cannot
each one make use of that sentence in the singular number, and say,
‘Christ hath redeemed _me_, being made a curse for _me_,’ the passage may
call forth our admiration, but to our own souls it will bring no abiding
peace. It is, therefore, a matter of the deepest personal interest to us
all that we should clearly understand who is included, and who is not
included, in that word ‘us;’ or, in other words, who are they that the
Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed by His blood.
It would have been strange indeed if a matter of such overwhelming
interest had been quietly passed by without calling forth a very careful
investigation, and accordingly it gave rise at one time to one of the
most prominent controversies of the day. Indeed there has always been a
division amongst the students of the Word of God on the subject. Some
have believed in what is termed ‘particular redemption,’ a redemption
limited exclusively to the elect; while others have most earnestly
advocated the doctrine of a universal atonement, an atonement, _i.e._
made for the whole world in virtue of which a free offer of complete
reconciliation is made without money and without price to every living
soul.
It is my own belief that a great deal of the confusion respecting the
subject arises from the indistinct use of words; and I am thoroughly
persuaded that before we can ascertain whom He has redeemed, we must
clearly understand what is meant by redemption. If we do not understand
redemption itself, we shall never understand its limits. Now I cannot
help thinking that I have proved that, throughout the word of God,
redemption means deliverance; and in the case of the great salvation,
deliverance through atonement. In some passages the delivering power is
more prominent than in others, as, for example, in Luke, xxi. 28, and
Rom. viii. 23; but in all it is there, and I do not know of a single
passage in which redemption stands for atonement alone as disconnected
with the consequent deliverance. Whenever it occurs it implies atonement
applied, or atonement enjoyed, atonement made effectual for the actual
salvation of the soul. But, though it is thus clear in the word of God,
there is great confusion in many religious books. Many writers appear to
speak of atonement and redemption as if they were the same, and so apply
to redemption passages which speak only of atonement, and apply to
atonement those texts which refer, not to atonement only, but also to the
actual deliverance for which atonement has prepared the way. It is most
important, therefore, that we should keep the distinction clearly in
view, and never forget that the redemption of the Gospel includes two
parts, deliverance and atonement. The two are bound together as
intimately as it is possible. The deliverance is the consequence of
atonement, and the atonement is the cause of deliverance, but both one
and the other are included in the full idea of redemption, as we may see,
for example, in the song sung before the throne, ‘Thou wast slain, and
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue,
and people, and nation.’ Rev. v. 9. That passage clearly goes far
beyond the act of substitution in redeeming mercy, for it manifestly
includes an actual separation and salvation by delivering power.
Now, if we consider redemption in its full and complete sense of actual
deliverance through the precious blood of the Lamb, it is perfectly clear
that none but the elect of God are included in the blessing. As a matter
of fact the rest are not delivered. According to St. John, the whole
world lieth in wickedness, and if it is still lying in wickedness in no
sense whatever can it be said to be delivered. None but the chosen
people of God can ever say, ‘Who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.’ Col.
i. 13. As for the rest they do not profess to be delivered. Some do not
even wish for the great deliverance; some, though they may feel a certain
languid wish for it, never in earnest seek for it; and others, if they do
seek, seek in a wrong way, and so never find. The result is, that
practically they are not delivered. Thus we all acknowledge a
particular, or limited, deliverance. We none believe that all are saved;
and we must believe that the Lord Jesus actually delivers those only who
are His own, those whom He describes in the words, ‘The men which thou
gavest me out of the world.’
But suppose we take redemption in the sense in which it is perpetually
employed in religious books, viz., as meaning the same as atonement,
there arises another question of incalculable importance which demands
our most attentive consideration. Is the atonement limited as well as
the deliverance? It is perfectly clear that none are delivered but God’s
chosen people. They, and they only, are plucked as brands from the
burning, and eternally saved. According to the 17th Article, God ‘hath
constantly decreed by His counsel secret to us, to deliver from curse and
damnation those whom He hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to
bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to
honour.’ But is nothing done for the remainder? In other words, did the
substitution of the Lord Jesus Christ extend to the whole world, or did
it not? Was atonement made for all mankind in that marvellous act of
mercy, or were the great majority left out altogether most miserably to
perish, without any hope of deliverance, and without the possibility of
being saved in the Lord Jesus? It is impossible to imagine a question of
more urgent importance to all those who are anxious about their souls.
Now I am perfectly aware of the argument frequently urged, that the Lord
Jesus Christ is certain to save all those for whom He shed His blood, and
I am quite prepared to acknowledge that, humanly speaking, there is great
apparent reason in it. But I do not believe that it is according to
Scripture; and after all we must rely in all such matters on the
statements of God’s word, and not on our own conclusions. I would refer
you, then, to two passages which certainly seem to be conclusive on that
point. The one is 1 Cor. viii. 11, ‘Through thy knowledge shall the weak
brother perish, for whom Christ died?’ The other is 2 Pet. ii. 1, where,
predicting the dangers of the latter days, the Apostle says, ‘There shall
be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction.’ The first of these texts seems certainly
to teach very clearly that those for whom Christ died may perish, and the
other that people for whom the Lord had given the redemption price of His
own most precious blood may still deny Him, and bring upon themselves
swift destruction. We must not therefore be guided in such a matter by
our own conclusions. The whole plan from first to last is divine. The
eternal purpose is divine; the Saviour is divine; the salvation is
divine; the atonement is divine, and the revelation of the great purpose
must likewise be divine. We must not attempt, therefore, to cut our
system square by the rule of our own opinion, but must take God’s
Scripture just as it stands, and receive God’s salvation just as He has
revealed it in His Word.
What, then, has He revealed? That is the question. Has He taught us
that the Lord Jesus Christ shed His most precious blood for the elect
alone or for all? Blessed be God! the testimony of Scripture appears as
plain as the sun in heaven that the atonement was made for all, and that
in consequence of that atonement the door is thrown open to every sinner
upon earth. I have no time now to attempt to bring before you the
multitude of passages which abound in Scripture in proof of this
position. I must be content to draw your attention to only three, the
first relating to the fact itself, the second to the love that led to it,
and the third to the offer made in consequence of it.
The first is from 1 John, ii. 2. But before you examine it, turn for one
moment to the words of the same apostle in the fifth chapter of the same
epistle, and 19th verse, ‘We are of God, and the whole world lieth in
wickedness.’ That verse shows with indisputable clearness who is meant
by ‘we,’ and who by ‘the world.’ By ‘we’ is meant the people of God,
believers, the elect. By the world the rest of mankind, those who live
and die unconverted and unsaved. And now turn to the passage in the
second chapter, ‘And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for
ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.’ Surely the ‘our’
in that verse must refer to the same persons as the ‘we’ in the fifth
chapter, and ‘the whole world’ in the second chapter must be the same as
‘the whole world’ in the fifth. But if so it is perfectly clear that He
died not for the elect alone but for all mankind; for the whole world
that lieth in wickedness.
From the second passage we learn exactly the same respecting the love
that led to it. I refer to John, iii. 16. But before we refer to it let
us turn to another text in explanation, viz., that most wonderful prayer
of our blessed Saviour in John, xvii. 6, ‘I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world; thine they were, and thou
gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.’ You will observe in these
words the clear distinction between the world and the elect. The mass of
men are described as the world, while the elect are said to be given to
Him out of it, set apart as a separate people, and given Him in the
covenant of God. And now turn to the passage in John, iii., ‘God so
loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ Surely
we must take ‘the world’ here in the same sense as in the other passage.
It is impossible to believe that by ‘the world’ he meant the elect of God
given Him from out of the world, the peculiar people whom He Himself most
carefully distinguishes from the world. Surely, then, we must conclude
that the love which moved Him to make the atonement was a love for us
all, a free love, an unmerited love, a compassionate love, a most
merciful love, to every individual involved in the ruin of the fall.
We are brought to exactly the same conclusion if we look at the offer
that results from it. Turn to that magnificent invitation which we find
just at the conclusion of the book of life, Rev. xxii. 17, ‘And the
Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And
let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the water
of life freely.’ Now if you study that verse you find the Bride employed
in proclaiming God’s invitation. Who then is meant by the Bride? Surely
nothing else than the church of God’s elect; those who were chosen in Him
before the world was. But how is the Bride to be employed? What is to
be her work as described in this passage? Is it not to go forth in the
Lord’s name, and proclaim to the perishing the free offer of His saving
grace? ‘The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth
say, Come. And let him that is athirst, come: and whosoever will let him
take the water of life freely.’ Would it be possible to construct a
sentence which would proclaim more clearly a universal invitation? an
invitation to be given by the elect to all the world?
Surely, then, we may every one of us accept that offer, and regard the
atonement as an atonement made for ourselves. You may see no evidence of
your election. You may look into your own heart, and find there nothing
whatever to lead you to believe that you are one of God’s chosen people.
But you are not called to wait till you have discovered such evidence;
and if you do wait, you may wait for ever, for it is perfectly impossible
that you should ever have evidence of your election till after you have
trusted in His atoning blood. But without any such evidence you may fall
back on the finished substitution of the Son of God for the sinner. You
may take the words of this text, ‘Being made a curse for us,’ and,
whatever you are, may put it in the singular number, and say, ‘Being made
a curse for me,’ yes! ‘for me, even for me.’ If, therefore, you are
really anxious about the salvation of your soul, do not stop to search
into your own sinful heart for evidences of your election; but fall
boldly on the fact that, whether you are elected or not, Christ Jesus was
your substitute. Cleave to the fact that the propitiation was for the
world, that the love that moved God to it was a love to the world; and
that the offer made in consequence of it is an offer to the world. Trust
that. Accept that. Rest in that, and leave it to God to settle the
matter of your election; for of this you may be perfectly sure that you
will never enjoy any evidence of your election unto life until you have
learned to trust the Lord Jesus Christ, and His perfect work without it.
You must learn a lesson from that poor woman of Canaan. She was
apparently quite shut out by the doctrine of election, for she was not
one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and the Lord Himself said
to her that it was not right to take the children’s bread and cast it to
dogs. But she was not discouraged by the difficulty. She pleaded, ‘Yet
the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table;’ and the
result was that she did not merely pick up the crumbs, but she was made
partaker of the feast itself, and went to her home rejoicing in our
Lord’s approval, and her daughter’s cure.
Let us all then accept the fact that in His boundless mercy He was made a
curse for us. But we must bear in mind at the same time, that He does
not force upon us the blessings of that substitution. If we choose to
live without the substitute we may. If people are so occupied by the
world that they do not care for it; or so satisfied with themselves that
they do not feel the need of it; or so unmindful of the holiness of God
that they cannot see the necessity of it; they are at full liberty to
reject it, and have full power to live without it. But then, it is
obvious they must bear their own burden, and all the weight of it. The
Lord Jesus has satisfied the law as their substitute; but if they decline
to accept that satisfaction, it is perfectly clear that there is nothing
left for them but to satisfy it for themselves. They must blot out their
own curse in their own way, and how they are going to do it I cannot
tell. I know of nothing but Christ the substitute that can remove the
just judgment of a broken law; and if men live and die without Him, I see
no prospect for them but that they live in their sin, and die in their
sin, and go down into eternity with the whole of the awful weight of
unforgiven sin resting on their poor unforgiven souls. And who can say
that such a sentence would be hard, or severe, or unjust? If there were
no substitute provided we might possibly think the law severe. But, now
that in boundless mercy God has Himself provided the substitute, who can
say that it is a hard measure if the sinner is crushed under the burden
which he resolves to bear?
XI. FORGIVENESS.
‘In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace.—EPH. i. 7.
‘And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is
indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from
evil.’—LUKE, xi. 4.
IN our study of the divine redemption we considered from the words of St.
Paul to the Galatians the great foundation act of the whole, viz., the
satisfaction made for sin by the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God. We
had no time then to go on to the consequent deliverance. But we do not
want to have either a building without a foundation, or a foundation
without a building. In other words, we do not wish either to have a
superficial life of Christian experience without a solid foundation in
the great work of atonement, or to be so exclusively occupied by the
atonement as to forget the great practical deliverance which is in fact
the completion of redeeming grace. Having laid the foundation, then, in
the study of the ransom, redemption price, or satisfaction for sin, we
must pass on to the great deliverance with which God follows up His work
of mercy. This we will now do, if God permit, and may He Himself put
forth the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, and this very day in His own
grace deliver souls!
Now what is the first great gift of God in delivering souls?—the first
result of the blood of atonement when applied to the salvation of the
sinner? I hope that if we were all to speak we should give the same
answer to the question, and that there are none amongst us who would
hesitate to reply, ‘Forgiveness.’ So long as sin remains unforgiven
there can be no freedom, nor any deliverance of any kind whatever.
Unforgiven sin blocks the way against all hope of escape, and therefore
when God invites a sinner to return He first assures him of the blotting
out of sin: ‘I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions,
and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.’
(Isa. xliv. 22.)