atonement for sin by the blood of Christ, that it sets before us the
reconciliation of sinners to an offended God, by the death of his own
Son. One would be ready to wonder, that any of the guilty race of Adam
should be unwilling to receive so divine a discovery, or should refuse a
blessing so important.
But such unhappy principles have prevailed over the minds of some men,
and particularly the Socinians in the last age, that they have been
content to venture their eternal hopes on the mercy of God, without a
dependance on the satisfaction made for sin, by Jesus the Saviour. They
imagine Christ the Son of God came into our world chiefly to be a
teacher of grace and duty, to be an example of piety and virtue, to
plead with God for sinners, and in short to do little more than any
other divine prophet might have been employed in, if the wisdom of God
had so appointed it. They suppose he yielded to death that he might seal
his doctrine with his blood, and might set us a glorious pattern of
suffering and dying, and then he led the way to our resurrection, by his
own rising from the dead.
It is granted indeed, these are some of the designs of the coming of
Christ, some of the necessary parts of the blessed gospel: But it seems
to me, that this blessed gospel is shamefully curtailed, and deprived of
some of its most important designs and honours, if a proper atonement
for sin by the blood of Christ be left out of it.
Forgive me, my fellow-christians, if I spend a discourse or two on this
great article of our common faith. I think it of so high a moment, that
I would fain pronounce and publish it aloud in an age that verges
towards infidelity; I would glory in the cross of Christ, and endeavour
to support this doctrine with all my power. O may none of those who bear
the christian name, ever grow weary of it, or run back again to the mere
religion of nature, as though we had no gospel!
I shall not spin out my thoughts, or employ yours in a laborious enquiry
into the connection of the words, but take them just as they lie, and
make this plain sentence the foundation of my discourse.
Doctrine.—God hath set forth his Son, Jesus Christ, to be a propitiation
for the sins of men.
When the apostle says, God hath set him forth, Christ is plainly the
person intended: and this greek word προεθετο, set forth, denotes
either, 1. That God hath fore-ordained and appointed his Son to become
our propitiation by his divine purpose in eternity, which purpose he
executed here in time: Or, 2. It intends that God hath set him forth,
that is, proposed and offered him to the world as an atonement for the
sins of those who trust in the merit of his death; for so the following
words intimate, God set him forth for a propitiation, through faith in
his blood. I am not solicitous which of these senses the reader will
chuse; either of them perfectly agrees with the design of the apostle.
I would just take a brief notice also, that some interpreters transpose
the words of the text a little, and read them thus, _whom God hath set
forth to be a propitiation in his blood through faith_, and thus they
suppose the apostle, in this very verse, declares that Christ atoned for
our sins by his own blood: And if this be the true sense of it, it does
but more effectually confirm the design of my doctrine, which is to shew
that Christ, by his bloody death, became a sacrifice to God, in order to
make satisfaction for the crimes of men. My method of discourse shall be
this:
I. To explain more at large the manner in which I conceive Christ to
become an atonement or propitiation for our sins.—II. To give some
reasons to prove, that he is ordained of God, and set forth or offered
to the world under this character.—And, III. I shall shew what glorious
use is made of this doctrine throughout the whole christian life.
_First_, Let me explain the manner wherein Christ becomes an atonement
or propitiation for sin. And to render this point easy to the lowest
understanding, I would draw it out into these propositions:
Proposition I. The great God having made man, appointed to govern him by
a wise and righteous law, wherein glory and honour, life and immortality
are the designed rewards for perfect obedience; but tribulation and
wrath, pain and death, are the appointed recompence to sinners who
violate his law.
This law is in a great measure engraven on the hearts and consciences of
all men by nature; at least the general precepts of it are written in
the conscience: And mankind, by the light of nature, has some notion
also of these penalties, _viz._ the _indignation and wrath of God on
those that do evil_. And such as have enjoyed the benefit of divine
revelation, in patriarchal, Jewish, or christian times, have had much
clearer discoveries thereof. This might be proved at large from the
discourse of St. Paul; Rom. ii. 6-16. compared with Rom. i. 32. _The
heathens who are without the law, have the work of the law written in
their hearts_, and they know, or might know, that those who break it
_are worthy of death_.
II. All mankind have broken the law of God. _There is none righteous;
no, not one_; Rom. iii. 10. By sinning against God, we have lost all
pretence to the reward of life, and immortality, and glory; Rom. iii.
23. _All have sinned and come short of the glory of God._ And we have
also subjected ourselves to guilt and punishment; verse 19. _Every mouth
is stopped, and all the world becomes guilty before God._ A sentence of
wrath and death is _passed upon all men, for that all have sinned_; Rom.
v. 12. and the best of saints were by nature _dead in trespasses and
sins, and the children of wrath even as others_; Eph. ii. 1-3.
III. God in His infinite wisdom did not think fit to pardon sinful man,
without some compensation for his broken law, some recompence for the
dishonour done to his government. He did not see it proper to forgive
all our guilt without some satisfaction for breaking his holy commands.
I will not enter into that curious enquiry, whether God, considered
absolutely as a sovereign, could have done it. It is enough for us that
he hath, in effect, declared he would not do it, and that probably for
such reasons as these:
1. If the Great Ruler of the world had pardoned the sins of men without
any satisfaction, then his laws might have seemed not worth the
vindicating. It might have been questioned, whether his statutes were so
wisely contrived and framed, as to deserve a vindication, if he had
freely forgiven all rebels that had broken them, without any
consideration, without any satisfaction at all. It becomes a wise
lawgiver to see that his wisdom in framing his laws, be not exposed to
dishonour; and therefore his laws must be vindicated, when they are
broken.
2. Men would have been tempted to persist in their rebellions, and to
repeat their old offences continually, if there had been no vindication
of the honour of the law, nor any of the threatenings of it had been
executed. Therefore God requires a satisfaction for his broken commands,
that his subjects might be kept in due obedience, by an awful fear of
his governing justice. And it is on this account, _viz._ to deter and
fright men from sinning, and breaking his laws, he hath given them an
account in what a severe and terrible manner he dealt with _angels that
sinned, he spared them not_; 2 Pet. ii. 4. _but delivered them to chains
of darkness until the judgment of the great day_; Jude 6.
3. His forms of government among his creatures, might have appeared as a
matter of small importance: His threatenings might have been counted a
trifling and useless formality, and mere vain terrors, if he had given
laws, and took no care whether they were obeyed or no: and if he let
those creatures that broke them come off, without any tokens of his
displeasure, without any reparation of the honour due to his law and
government: Let not sinners deceive themselves with vain hopes, and
dress up the great God in their own imaginations, as a being of mere
mercy, as an Almighty Creator, that keeps no discipline or authority
among his creatures; Gal. vi. 7. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked; He
that soweth to the flesh shall reap destruction.”
4. God had a mind to make a very illustrious display, both of his
justice and of his grace among mankind, which should be the solemn
spectacle and the wonder of other worlds besides this, even the world of
angels, principalities and powers; and therefore he hath designed his
grace and his justice should mutually set forth each other, in his
transactions with sinful man: On this account he would not pardon sin,
without a satisfaction; but he thought fit to require and demand that
sin be punished, and that the honour of the law be repaired to the full,
that his justice might shine in full glory: And at the same time, in
order to display his rich mercy, he would find out a way to save
multitudes of these rebellious creatures.
These, and other reasons, infinitely superior to all our thoughts, might
be in the divine mind, why God would not pardon sinners without a
satisfaction.
IV. Man, poor sinful man, is not able to make any satisfaction to God
for his own sins, by his utmost labours of future obedience: For all
that he can do for time to come, is but mere necessary duty, if he had
not sinned at all; and therefore this can never make any recompence to
the governing justice of God, for his past transgressions.
It is a most strange vain doctrine of the papists, that some persons are
such great saints, that they do works of heroic virtue beyond what they
are required to do; and these they call works of supererogation, whereby
they can merit some favours at the hands of God, not only for
themselves, but for their neighbours too. Strange doctrine indeed, made
up of folly, pride, and absurdity! Our best services are so much due to
God, that if any man could practise complete righteousness, and fulfil
the law of God constantly through all his life, it would not make amends
for one past offence, nor merit any favour of God for a criminal
creature.
But, alas! man is so far from being able to fulfil perfect righteousness
for time to come, that in this fallen state, he can do nothing that is
truly good: he broke the law of God in days past, and he goes on to
break it daily and hourly. His understanding is grown so dark, his will
so perverse, and his affections and appetites so corrupt and vicious, by
his departure from God, that he cannot answer the present demands of
duty; much less can he bring an offering of righteousness to atone for
past iniquities. “We are by nature dead in trespasses and sins.”
V. Neither can this guilty, wretched creature man, make any satisfaction
to the broken law of God by his sufferings, any more than by his doings.
For the penalty of the law is tribulation and anguish of soul and body,
the wrath of God and death: and how far this dreadful sentence reaches,
what miseries are implied in it, and how long the execution of it must
continue, who can tell? This we know, that God himself, who sees the
full evil, and complete desert or demerit of sin, hath, in some places
of scripture, threatened eternal punishment of sinners.
And if we may venture to judge concerning the greatness of the guilt,
and demerit of our offences against God, by the same rules, by which
reason teaches us to judge of the guilt and demerit of an offence
against our fellow-creatures, we must say the guilt of sin is infinite;
and therefore the punishment due to a sinning creature is everlasting,
because he cannot any other way sustain punishment equal to his infinite
demerit of sin. Among men the crime is always aggravated in proportion
to the person, against whom it is committed: Therefore any offence
against a father, or a king, has much more guilt in it, and is more
severely punished, than the same offence committed against an inferior,
or an equal. An attempt upon the life of a neighbour, is punished With
imprisonment or a fine: But an attempt made on the life of a king
deserves death.
Now the great God our Creator, being a king of infinite glory and
majesty, infinitely superior to his creature man, every offence against
this God, has a sort of infinity in it[34]: And God may demand
satisfaction equal to the offence, that is infinite, which poor sinful
man can never pay, so as to out-live the payment. On this account, he is
exposed to the execution of the sentence of God for ever: His punishment
has no end. Perhaps this will be counted an old-fashioned argument, and
not so generally received in our day, as it was in the days of our
fathers: Therefore I have examined it afresh with all the skill I have,
and having surveyed the objections which are raised against it, I think
they are not hard to be answered: And, after all, so far as I can judge
in a may of reasoning upon what scripture has revealed, this argument
seems to have weight and strength in it still.
Were it not for the supposition of the infinite guilt and demerit of
sin, I do not so plainly see the justice or equity of God in preparing
everlasting chains of darkness, and eternal fire, for the devil and his
angels, as a proper punishment due to their first act of rebellion
against him, and because they _kept not their own first estate_[35];
Jude 6. Nor indeed do I see such evident reason, why sinners among men
should be threatened with eternal punishments, and punished with
everlasting destruction, as a legal penalty due to past sins; Mat. xxv.
46. and 2 Thess. i. 9. which sins were done perhaps in a few days or
hours, unless upon a supposition that all offences committed against the
infinite majesty of God, have a sort of infinite demerit in them.
I beg leave to add this one thought more, and that is, if sin has not a
sort of infinite demerit in it, I cannot see why man himself, by some
years of penal sufferings, might not make full atonement for his own
sins: But the language and current of scripture seems to represent
sinful man as for ever lost to all hope in himself, and then the
necessity of a Mediator appears with evidence and glory.
VI. Though man be incapable to satisfy for his own violation of the law,
either by his obedience or his punishment, and so to restore himself to
the favour of God, yet God would not suffer all mankind to perish.
Therefore out of his abundant mercy, he appointed his own Son to
undertake this work. His own, his only begotten Son, who is the
brightness of his Father’s glory, and who lay in the bosom of the Father
before all worlds, his Son who was one with the Father, by a communion
of the godhead, and who is himself, on this account, called God over
all, blessed for ever; this well-beloved Son of God is ordained and
appointed to be the great Reconciler between God and man.
VII. Because God intended to make a full display of the terrors of his
justice, and his divine resentment for the violation of his law;
therefore he appointed his own Son to satisfy for the breach of it, by
becoming a proper sacrifice of expiation or atonement: Now, both among
Jews and heathens, the original notion and design of an expiatory
sacrifice, is, when some other creature or person is put in the room or
place of the transgressor, and the punishment or pain due to the
transgressor is transferred to that other person or creature. Therefore
beasts were slain for the offences of men, who were supposed to deserve
death. And when any person became a surety for a city or nation that was
defiled with sin, among the heathens, that person was substituted in
their room, and so devoted to death. So the Son of God became a surety
for sinful men: It pleased the Father to make him their sacrifice, and
substituted him in their stead: God ordained that he should put himself
into their circumstances, as far as was possible, with a due
condescendency to his superior character, and that he should sustain, as
near as possible, the very same pains and penalties which sinful man had
incurred. Since tribulation and anguish of soul and body, a sense of the
wrath of God, and death, were the appointed penalties of the sin of man;
therefore he determined that his own Son should pass through all these:
And since the law curses all that continue not in all the commands of
it, therefore Christ _was made a curse for us, that he might redeem us
from the curse of the law_; Gal. iii. 10-13. Hereby he gave a most awful
and sensible demonstration to this visible world of mankind, and
perhaps, much more to the invisible world of angels and devils, how
dreadful a thing it is to break the law of a God, what infinite evil is
contained in sin, and at what a terrible rate it must be expiated and
atoned for.
VIII. The Son of God being immortal, could not sustain all these
penalties of the law which man had broken, without taking the mortal
nature of man upon him, without assuming flesh and blood: Thus his
incarnation was necessary, that he might be a more proper surety,
substitute, and representative of man who had sinned; and that he might
be capable of suffering pain, and anguish, and death itself, in the room
and stead of sinful men. It was because the _children who were_ given to
Christ; Heb. ii. 13, 14. because these _children were partakers of flesh
and blood, therefore he himself also took part of the same, that through
death he might redeem them_, that by his own dying he might make
atonement for their sins; Heb. x. 5. _Sacrifice and offering_ of beasts,
thou wouldst not accept as equivalent for the sins of men: _But a body
hast thou prepared me_, saith our Lord, _that men might be redeemed by
the offering the body of Christ, once for all_; ver. 10.
It was in the prospect of the Son of God becoming man, by taking flesh
and blood upon him, that God spake thus to David; Ps. lxxxix. 19. “I
have exalted one chosen out of the people; that is, out of mankind: I
have laid help upon one that is mighty: And when he was found in fashion
as a man;” Phil. ii. 10. God laid on him the iniquities of us all by
imputation; Is. liii. 5, 6. even as the sins, and iniquities, and
trespasses of the children of Israel were laid on the head of the goat
of old, by the confession and hand of Aaron; Lev. xvi. 21.
When the guilt was thus transferred to him, as far as it was possible
for the Son of God to sustain it, he then became liable to punishment;
and indeed that seems to me to be the truest and justest idea of
transferred or imputed guilt, _viz._ when a surety is accepted to suffer
in the room of the offender, then the pain or penalty is due to him by
consent: And as this is the true original and foundation of expiatory
sacrifices, as I have shewn before, so this seems to be the foundation
of that particular manner, wherein scripture teaches us this doctrine:
“He that knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him;” 2 Cor. v. 21. “His own self bare our sins
in his own body on the tree;” 1 Pet. ii. 24. “The chastisement or
punishment of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed;”
Is. liii. 5. And in many other places of scripture we read the same sort
of language. This doctrine is supported with great strength, by the most
learned and pious Dr. Owen, in his short treatise of the satisfaction of
Christ.
Upon this account, though God the Father was never truly angry with his
beloved Son, yet it pleased the Father to bruise him, when he stood in
the room of guilty creatures. The Father himself put him to grief, and
made his soul an offering for sin; Is. liii. 10. Then the Son of God
began to be sore amazed, and very heavy at the approaching deluge of
this sorrow; Mark xiv. 33. The Father forsook him for a season, withdrew
his comfortable influences, and gave him some such exquisite sight and
sense of that indignation and wrath that was due to sin, as filled his
holy soul with anguish, “his soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto
death;” Mat. xxvi. 38. While his body sweat drops of blood in the
garden: And at last he poured out his soul to death, and “gave his life
a ransom for many: he reconciled us to God by the blood of his cross;”
Col. i. 20.
Though we allow the human nature of Christ to be the highest, the
noblest, and best of creatures, and in that sense might be worth ten
thousand of us: yet if sin has an infinite evil in it, then no mere
creature, by all his sufferings, could make complete and equal
satisfaction for sin: But when the Son of God, who is one with the
Father, takes flesh and blood upon him, and becomes God manifest in the
flesh, here God and man are united in one complex person, and hereby we
enjoy an all-sufficient Saviour, a Reconciler beyond all exception, a
Sacrifice of atonement, equal to the guilt of our transgressions. And so
far as I can judge, it is on this account one apostle says; Acts xx. 28.
“God redeemed the church with his own blood; and another asserts, Hereby
perceive we the love of God, that he laid down his life for us;” 1 John
iii. 16.
And I do not yet see sufficient reason why that expression of St. Paul;
Heb. ix. 14. may not be referred to the same sense. “How much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience, &c.” If the eternal Spirit
signify the divine nature or godhead, which dwelt bodily in the man
Jesus, then the dignity of his complete person is made the foundation of
the value of his blood. This dignity of the godhead which was personally
united to the man who suffered, spreads an infinite value over his
sufferings and merit: And this renders them equal to that infinite guilt
and demerit of sin, which would have extended the punishment of man to
everlasting ages. The infinite dignity of the person suffering, answers
to the infinite dignity of the person offended, and so takes away the
necessity of the everlasting duration of it.
Thus our blessed Mediator, the man Jesus Christ, in whom dwells all the
fulness of the godhead bodily, fulfilled the righteous demands of the
law, and suffered the penalties due to our sins. He magnified his
Father’s law in this manner, and made it honourable, beyond what all the
sons of Adam could do by their utmost sufferings. Thus the justice of
God shines most gloriously in the sufferings of his Son Jesus Christ:
Thus the great God vindicated his own character, as a wise and righteous
law-giver, before the face of men and angels, in the anguish and death
of his own Son: He gave a most awful and formidable assurance, that he
was not a God to be trifled with, and that the sin of his creatures
should not go unpunished. He that spared not his own Son, when he stood
in the room of sinners, will never spare guilty rebels that persist in
their rebellions. Thus far we see how Christ became a sacrifice of
atonement.
IX. God, the great Ruler of the world, having received such ample
satisfaction for sin, by the sufferings of his own Son, can honourably
forgive his creature man, who was the transgressor. There is so glorious
a reparation made to the honour of his righteous and broken law, that he
can pardon sinners without dishonour to himself, and his government. He
can glorify his justice and his mercy, at once, in a most exuberant and
illustrious manner, since his own Son has become a priest of atonement,
and offered up himself as a sacrifice, to make _propitiation for sin_:
_He can declare his righteousness, though he passes by a thousand
offences that are past, and can shew himself, just to his own law and
government, at the same time that he forgives millions of sins; and is a
justifier of him who believeth in Jesus_; Rom. iii. 25, 26.
X. I might add in the last place, since my text intimates it, that as
the great God in his eternal counsels, appointed his Son Jesus Christ to
undertake this difficult and glorious work, for the salvation of sinful
men, so in the days of the gospel he has, in the most plain and explicit
manner, offered this reconciliation to sinners who return to God by the
mediation of Jesus Christ: He has proposed peace to those who are
sincerely desirous to be reconciled to God, and to have all enmity done
away on both sides; to those who trust in the virtue of the blood of
Christ, as the foundation of this divine peace between God and them, or
in the language of my text, to those who have faith in his blood.