(_a_) _Indolence_, and loss of time, and for the use of our time we
must give account.
(_b_) _Cowardice_, which makes us shrink from doing what is right
because we fear it will give us trouble or inconvenience.
(_c_) _Inconstancy_, which is the changing about from one course to
another, to avoid present discomfort, instead of acting directly in
accordance with the principle.
(_d_) _Deadness of heart_ to God's calls.
[Illustration]
Tuesday in Holy Week.
_THE SACRIFICE FOR SIN._
1. We have considered Conscience as the faculty by which we discern
between Good and Evil, and then have considered Sin itself.
Now we will briefly turn our attention to the Sacrifice offered by
Christ in expiation for the Sins of the World.
If Christ had not come to release us of the _guilt_ of sin, and to
strengthen us to overcome the _weakness_ produced by sin, we could have
no hope of salvation.
2. It is not a matter on which we will tarry, to ask, Why it is
so, but we will accept the fact that by God's Will, _transgression
of His Commandment carries with it guilt, and can only be expiated
by suffering_. That it should carry with it guilt is indeed not a
matter to perplex us, for guilt is the sense of transgression and
the privation or stain that attends it, together with the sense of
alienation from God. But that sin can only be expiated by suffering, is
a law of God concerning which we will not now argue, but accept it. We
see that a sense of sin has ever impressed on mankind consciousness of
guilt before God, and a conviction that only through suffering could
that guilt be done away.
The SACRIFICES inexplicable in themselves and even absurd, find their
signification in the consciousness of guilt: men felt that they were
alienated from God, sinful before God, and they sought by Sacrifice,
_i.e._, by suffering, to atone for their guilt.
The _idea of Sacrifice_ contained in it these elements:
(_a_) It must be one of _blood_. Suffering and the shedding of blood
was considered expiatory. "Without shedding of blood was no remission."
(Heb. ix. 22.)
(_b_) It must be either a _human_ sacrifice, or it must be the
sacrifice of that which was most useful, essential to man: not of a
wild beast, for instance, but of a tame beast of domestic utility.
(_c_) It must be _innocent_ and pure, without defect or spot. It was
sometimes the first-born lamb or calf.
(_d_) It must be, if possible, _voluntary_. A Sacrifice was thought
to lose half its efficacy unless it were a free-will offering. Among
Greeks and Romans, water was poured into the ears of oxen brought to
sacrifice, to make them nod their heads, and so give an appearance of
consent to their death.
(_e_) It must be in part consumed by the fire, in part by the offerer.
The fire was the symbol of God accepting; the participation in the
sacrifice showed the man who offered that he received the benefits of
the Sacrifice.
3. Sacrifice was not only expiatory, but it was also _vicarious_; that
is to say, from the beginning man saw that the innocent might die for
the guilty. Now this could only be so seen because indistinctly the
human Conscience looked to the One Sinless Victim Who would by His
Sacrifice of Himself, put away the sins of the world. But for this it
would have been unreasonable.
It was, however, an universal belief that the just might suffer for the
unjust, the blameless for the guilty, and that was why the sacrificer
sought out the spotless victim as the victim.
This belief also was the occasion of numerous sublime heroic acts
of self-devotion in the heathen world, when one man offered himself
for the fault of all the people: as when Codrus died for his people,
Curtius plunged into the gulf in the Forum, Decius offered his breast
to the weapons of his enemies.
It was this belief which caused sacrifices to be multiplied, and yet it
was certain that these numerous sacrifices never really took away the
sense of guilt that weighed on mankind. "The law, having the shadow of
good things to come, and not the very image (_i.e._, reality) of the
things, can never with these sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not
have ceased to be offered, because that the worshippers once purged
should have no more conscience of sin. But in those sacrifices there is
a remembrance (or recapitulation) again made of sins every year. For it
is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away
sins." (Heb. x. 1-4.)
[Illustration]
Wednesday in Holy Week.
_THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST._
1. As the sin of the world was infinite, it was not possible that any
sacrifice that man could offer could put away the guilt of sin.
Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ came down from Heaven to make a full,
perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice for sin. He died the Just for the
unjust, the Sinless for the guilty, to reconcile us to God by the
taking away of the guilt of our transgression.
2. Christ sacrificed for this purpose everything that He had,
withholding nothing, so that the oblation might be complete. In the
Garden of Olives He yielded up His Soul to sorrow even unto death,
feeling the natural shrinking from death; endured the revulsion and
loathing that accompanied the sense of the vileness and hatefulness of
the sins He took upon Him; and by the sense of pain that the presence
of sin brings on the soul.
He suffered the bereavement of friends, their cowardice and desertion;
the betrayal by Judas, the denial by Peter.
He suffered the privation of His liberty, for He was made fast, and was
dragged away by the soldiers and servants.
Before His judges He suffered in His honour. He was buffetted and
mocked, and smitten in the face, and spit upon, and exposed to the
multitude as a criminal.
He suffered in His reputation. The robber, Barabbas, was chosen in His
place.
He was publicly condemned as a criminal. He was made to bear His Cross,
and was crucified between two thieves.
He suffered in His Body. He was scourged. He was crowned with thorns,
and then smitten over the head. He was tormented by the driving of the
nails through His hands and feet. He was tortured by suspension on the
Cross; by thirst and fever.
He was despoiled of His garments, and exposed in nakedness to the
derision of His enemies.
He was deprived of the succour of His mother, and of His faithful
friends in the agony of death.
Finally, He gave up His life, when He had suffered in every way He
could suffer, and with a loud cry died.
3. Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross by His suffering _expiated_ our
guilt.
Our Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross died as a _vicarious_ sacrifice for
us.
[Illustration]
Thursday in Holy Week.
_THE EFFECTS OF CHRIST'S SACRIFICE._
We will consider Christ's Sacrifice in its relation to God and in its
relation to man.
1. In relation to God, it was a full and sufficient sacrifice
satisfying the Divine Justice.
A satisfaction is, in general, the voluntary reparation made to one who
has been injured or wronged. It may be equivalent to the wrong, when
the reparation is equal in degree to the offence. It may be suitable
when it is proportioned to the powers of him who offers the atonement.
The satisfaction due to God from man could never have been equivalent
to the injury or wrong done; therefore Christ made atonement, and His
Sacrifice is equivalent, for it is in proportion to the offence; as the
offence is infinitely great, so is His satisfaction infinite in its
greatness.
An offence is more or less grave according to the exaltation of the
person offended. And an expiation is more or less full and perfect
according to the dignity of the person who offers expiation. Now God
was offended by man's sin; and it is the God-Man Who makes atonement
for that sin.
The distance between God and man was so great that no man could
possibly, even measurably, have approached God and made satisfaction
for his grave offence. Moreover, the sum of offences was so great that
nothing in the world could atone for it.
2. Our Lord Jesus Christ by His Sacrifice for sins became our
_Expiation_. "When He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and
offering Thou wouldest not, but a Body hast Thou prepared Me. In burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast no pleasure: Then said I,
Lo, I come to do Thy Will (to make a free-will offering), O God. Above
when He said, Sacrifice and offering ... Thou wouldest not ... which
was offered by the Law; then said I, Lo, I come to do Thy Will (to make
a free-will offering), O God. He taketh away the first (the symbolic
Sacrifice) that He may establish the second (the full, perfect,
free-will Sacrifice of Christ)." (Heb. x. 5-9.)
He became our _Substitute_. "Christ hath once suffered for sins, the
just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." (1 Pet. iii. 18.)
"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us--He
took it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross." (Col. i. 14.)
He became our _Redemption_. "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible
things, as silver and gold--but with the precious blood of Christ, as
of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (1 Pet. i. 18, 19.)
3. Thus we see that Christ, by His full and voluntary Sacrifice of
Himself, by His incomparable sufferings and death, made atonement to
God for the transgressions we had committed against Him, thus removing
the barrier that stood between the just and righteous God and man.
That He suffered in our place; a vicarious victim enduring the wrath of
God, and the pains due to us for our transgression of God's law. And
that He paid the price whereby we were bought back out of servitude to
evil, and set at liberty to serve God in freedom.
[Illustration]
Good Friday.
_THE EFFECTS OF THE PASSION._
(CONTINUED.)