"Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no
wise pass away from the law."--Jesus.
"Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission."--Heb. 9:22.
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to
you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the
blood that maketh atonement."--Lev. 17:11.
"It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take
away sins."--Heb. 10:4.
"Every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of
reward."--Heb. 2:2.
When one faces the question of his sins, and realizes that they
deserve just punishment, one of the first impulses is to pray and beg
of God to be let off, to be forgiven; and, alas! much of the religious
instruction to the sinner is to the same effect. Jesus to Nicodemus
gave no such instruction (John 3:14-16); Philip to the Eunuch gave no
such instruction (Acts 8:29-39); Paul and Silas to the jailer gave no
such instruction (Acts 16:30, 31); Peter to the household of Cornelius
gave no such instruction (Acts 10:42, 43); the gospel of John, the one
book specially given to lead a sinner to be saved (John 20:30, 31),
gives no such instruction.
But the objection is at once brought up that in the Lord's Prayer we
are taught to pray, "Forgive us our sins." That prayer begins "Our
Father," and God is not the Father of sinners ("Ye are all the
children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."--Gal. 3:26); and the
prayer was given by the Saviour to disciples (Luke 11:1, 2), and not
to sinners.
But the objection is further raised that the Bible says, "If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."
That is from the first epistle of John, and was not written to
sinners, but to believers. John says (1 John 5:13), "These things have
I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even
_unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God_." (R. V.) God
can and does forgive the believer on confession, because the believer
is a child of God. With the sinner it is a question of law, of
justice, of right. Hence, the Lord Jesus said, "Till heaven and earth
pass away, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law"
(Matt. 5:18). "Every transgression and disobedience received _a just
recompense of reward_" (Heb. 2:2); but there is no "_just recompense
of reward_" at all, if God lets the sinner off from the just penalty
of his sins because he prays and begs and cries to be let off, or
because priests or preachers pray and beg for him to be let off. "It
is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin"
(Heb. 10:4), because there is no "just recompense of reward" in such
cases. Much less can the sins be taken away when there is no
recompense of reward at all in the case, but simply the praying and
begging of the sinner to be forgiven, to be let off, and the praying
and begging of some priest or preacher that the sinner be forgiven,
let off. God has given a plain warning, "Apart from shedding of blood
there is no remission."--Heb. 9:22. Among what are called evangelical
denominations it would be looked upon as worse than folly for a Jew,
a Unitarian or a Universalist, who had asked God to forgive his sins,
or had confessed the sins, to claim that therefore he was forgiven and
was sure to go to Heaven. But it is just as fatal a delusion among
others as among Jews, Unitarians and Universalists. Every
transgression must have "_a just recompense of reward_," however sorry
the sinner may be, however much he may pray and beg to be forgiven,
let off; however much the priest or preacher or friends may pray for
him to be forgiven, to be let off. A man who has violated the state
law falls on his knees before the judge, confesses his sin and begs
the judge to forgive him, to let him off; and he calls men from the
audience to come and help him beg. The judge replies, "If I should
yield to these petitions I would be a perjurer; I would trample on
law. Every transgression must receive a just recompense of reward."
Would that all could realize that every prayer from sinner, priest, or
preacher, for a sinner to be forgiven, let off, is a prayer to God to
become a perjurer. If sinners could realize that, after all their
kneeling every night and confessing their sins, and praying to be
forgiven, to be let off, every sin ever committed is still there, and
that "Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission," they would
then realize their real need of a Saviour, a Redeemer.
One question for the reader: If God forgives, lets a sinner off,
simply because he is sorry and cries and prays and begs to be let off,
or because the priest or preacher cries, prays and begs for him to be
forgiven, to be let off, _why did Jesus die_?
_FOR FURTHER STUDY_: The word translated forgiveness in the Bible
means simply to send away, without reference to how the sin is sent
away; but God's word states plainly that sins are forgiven, sent away,
by Christ bearing them. "Behold the lamb of God that taketh away the
sin of the world."--John 1:29. "Who his own self bare our sins in his
own body on the tree."--1 Peter 2:24; "Christ died for our sins."--1
Cor. 15:3. Concerning the justice of Christ dying for our sins, see
the next chapter.
The prayer of the publican in the old version, "God be merciful to me
the sinner," Luke 18:13, has misled many. If that was really the
prayer of the publican, how _could_ the Saviour have said, "This man
went down to his house _justified_"? The margin of the Revised Version
gives what the Greek says, "Be thou propitiated." It is the same Greek
word that in Heb. 2:17 is translated, "to make reconciliation for the
sins of the people." President Strong of Rochester Theological
Seminary gives the exact meaning of it when he renders it, "Be thou
propitiated to me the sinner by the sacrifice whose smoke was then
ascending in the presence of the publican while he prayed." And Jesus
shows what the publican said when He added, "This man went down to his
house _justified_."
It is said that a young man ran away from his widowed mother and was
gone for years. One stormy night sitting near the window sewing, while
the rain was beating against the window pane, she thought she heard a
noise. Looking up she saw the shaggy, bearded face of a ragged tramp
pressed against the window pane, but it faded back into the storm as
she looked up. Faint lines in the face aroused memory. As the needle
was plied the mind was busy. Again a slight noise caused her to look
up, and again the shaggy, bearded face of the tramp faded back into
the storm. This time she knew that she was not mistaken. The shaggy
beard could not hide the lines in the face of her long-lost boy.
Throwing up the window she cried, "Come in, William, oh, come in."
Stepping to where the light fell full in his face, while the tears
coursed down his cheeks, he said, "Mother, I can't come in till my sin
has been put out of the way." There was honor left in the tramp yet.
There ought to be honor enough in every human being not to wish to go
to Heaven, not to try to go to Heaven, at the expense of God's
justice. Jesus said, John 10:1, 7, "He that entereth not by the door
into the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same
is a thief and a robber." "Verily, verily I say unto you, I am the
door." Jesus says, then, that those who confess their sins, and pray
for forgiveness and claim it, and yet reject Him as the door, are
thieves and robbers. God does forgive the redeemed, for they are His
children (Gal. 4:4-7), on confession (1 John 1:9); but for those who
are under the law, His word is plain, "Apart from shedding of blood
there is no remission."--Heb. 9:22.
God's word states plainly how our sins are put away; not by, or
because of, the praying and weeping and confession of the sinner, nor
the praying and weeping and interceding of others for the sinner, for
God to forgive him; "but now once in the end of the world hath he
appeared to put away sin by the _sacrifice of himself_."--Heb. 9:26.
Concerning the justice of putting away sin in this way, see next
chapter. On this point Walker well says, "If the holiness of the law
was not maintained, that sense of guilt and danger could not be
produced which is necessary in order that man may have a spiritual
Saviour."--_Walker, in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
Again he says, "When He reveals His perfect law, that law cannot, from
the nature of its author, allow the commission of a single
sin."--_Walker, in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
Further, he says, "God ought not to allow one sin; if He did, the law
would not be holy, nor adapted to make men holy."--_Walker, in "The
Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation."_
Equally to the point are the words of James Denny, "It is an immediate
inference, then, from all that we have seen in the New Testament, that
where there is no atonement there is no gospel. To preach the love of
God out of relation to the death of Christ, or to preach the love of
God in the death of Christ, but without being able to relate it to
sin, or to preach that forgiveness of sins as the free gift of God's
love while the death of Christ has no special significance assigned to
it, is not, if the New Testament is the rule and standard of
Christianity, to preach the gospel at all."--_Denny, in "The Death of
Christ."_