01.09. IX. The Atonement Of Christ

IX THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST

“There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”— 1 Timothy 2:5-6. THE Apostle’s assertion is warranted by His Master’s words in Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45. This was a part of the faith once for all delivered. The age in which we are living is ripe with scepticism. Young people are in danger of believing a sneer at the faith of the fathers a sign of smartness. As Dr. Lorimer once said: “Young men, very young men have been known to talk flightily of the world’s dispensing with religion; of this age having outgrown its authority; and of themselves having attained to such enlightenment of mind and of liberty of thought as to be quite delivered from subjection to its influence and teaching.” Some older men who take their knowledge at second-hand, hearing of the work of higher critics, have concluded that Jehoiakim’s pen-knife has at last prevailed, and the Word of God is cut to pieces, and the pillars of Christianity are removed, and the whole system is ready to collapse. At the time of the Imperial Diet at Augsburg in 1630, when the teachings of the Bible seemed in imminent danger of being overthrown and Chancellor Bruck was filled with alarm, lest that should be accomplished, Martin Luther, the master of logic, wrote to him: “I have lately seen a miracle. As I looked out of the window at the stars and God’s whole heavenly dome, I nowhere saw any pillars on which the Master had placed such a dome, but the heavens fell not, and the dome still stands fast. Now, there are some who seek such pillars, and would like very much to fed and grasp them, but because they cannot do it, they tremble and writhe, as if the heavens would certainly fall for no other reason than that they do not see or grasp the pillars”; but I would sooner expect to see the heavens fall than one jot or tittle of all the Word fail. The Psalmist said: “The counsel of the Lord standeth forever,” and Paul wrote to Timothy touching Hymenaeus and Philetus, who had erred from the truth, and had overthrown the faith of some, “Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure. Having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are his.” The test to which Isaiah subjected the philosophers of his time is the true test for all philosophy and all scepticism. “To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them.” Some time since there was talk of a heresy trial for a noted minister because he was supposed to have departed from the Presbyterian standards. In our judgment, it amounts to very little whether a man stand by the standards of his church or not except those standards be supported by the Scripture. It makes little difference whether one speak the shibboleth of his sires or not, unless those sires rightly studied and understood the Word of God. But so far as the faith of the fathers is in accordance with the law and the prophets, it is the faith to which we must hold fast or else go utterly adrift. Now, in the light of our text, let us consider some of the great subjects involved in the same, and included by our subject.

I. SIN.

“The law and the prophets” spoke to this subject, and the fathers formulated their opinions. The law and the prophets agreed: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” The apostle said: “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us; if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.”

Both Moses and Ezekiel agreed in their definition of sin,—“the transgression of the law.” “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” the law said, “thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,” and in his first epistle, John wrote: “Whosoever committeth sin, transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law.” For hundreds of years now, the Christian fathers have not so much interpreted Moses, Ezekiel and John as they have accepted their statement. This modern fad of a faith which says in so many words, “God or goodness could never make men capable of sin; that it is the opposite of good, that is, evil which seems to make men capable of wrong, and that evil is but an illusion, and error had no real basis except belief,” is as far removed from the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel as it is from the faith of the Christian fathers, and instead of calling it “Christian Science,” it ought to be named “Unchristian Scepticism.”

Again, the fathers reckoned sin a voluntary iniquity. Dr. van Dyke, in the face of much argument to the contrary, says: “It can only be regarded as a ‘ deliberate choice.’ ” And again, “nothing that Jesus said or did led His disciples to minimise or disregard sin, to cover it up with flowers, to transform it into a mere defect or mistake, to deny its reality and explain it away, to say, ‘the evil is nought, is null, is silence, implying sound.’ The whole effect of His mission, whatever form it may have taken, whatever His teachings may have been—its undeniable effect was to intensify the consciousness of sin as a fatal thing.” It ought not to be difficult for one who loves the Scripture to decide between that definition of sin which declares “it is nothing, silence, implying sound,” and the teaching of our fathers concerning the same sad experience. Saint John says: “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” Paul declares: “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” and again, “Death passed upon all men for that all have sinned.” James adds: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all,” while John of Patmos writes, “If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar and his truth is not in us.” When one listens to that modern argument, to the effect that Satan does not exist, and that sin is only an illusion, and the only power in this world is God, he is strongly reminded of the discussion that occurred at Northampton between Dr. Emmons, who boldly taught that God was the author of sin, and some Christian men of that place who emphatically denied it. When the discussion had waxed hot, one of Emmons’ opponents said: “Recently, while travelling in West England, I had a vision, and saw a great black cloud out of which gradually developed a figure much like a man, only hideous in his mien. He told me he was the Devil, and when I inquired where he was going he flew into a great rage and said that every mean crime, great or small, committed in England was laid to his charge, and that he was starting to Northampton, America, where such transactions were charged to the Almighty instead.” “Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.” The fathers also believed that sin was deadly and destructive. We have seen that “the law and the prophets” were responsible for this faith of our fathers, the first teaching, “the soul that sinneth, it shall die,” and the second saying, “sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” The great Dr. Guthrie, speaking of this universal derangement of humankind, said: “Look now at sin. Pluck off that painted mask, and turn upon her face the lamp of God’s Word. We start—it reveals a death’s head. I stay not to quote texts descriptive of sin. It is a debt, a burden, a thief, a sickness, a leprosy, a plague, a poison, a serpent, a sting: everything that man hates it is; a load of curses, and calamities beneath whose crushing, most intolerant pressure the whole creation groaneth. Name me the evil that springs not from this root—the crime that I may not lay at its door. Who is the hoary sexton that digs man a grave? Who is that painted temptress that steals his virtue? Who is this sorcerer that first deceives, and then damns his soul? Sin. Who with icy breath, blights the fair blossoms of youth? Who breaks the hearts of parents? Who brings old men’s gray hairs with sorrow to the grave? Sin. Who, by a more hideous metamorphosis than Ovid fancied, changes gentle children into vipers, tender mothers into monsters, and their fathers into murderers of their own innocents? Sin. Who casts the apple of discord on household hearths? Who lights the torch of war, and bears it blazing over trembling lands? Who, by divisions in the church, rends Christ’s seamless robe? Sin. Who hurls reason from her lofty throne, and impels sinners, mad as Gadarene swine, down the precipice, into a lake of fire? Sin.” But it is only saddening to listen to the Scripture teachings concerning sin, unless one searches farther into the Word to find out a second subject in which the Apostles, Prophets, and the fathers were interested, namely,—

II. ATONEMENT.

I hardly need to define this term. Break the word up and it reveals at once its own meaning, “at-one-ment.” It is simply the process of reuniting those who, rightfully belonging together, have wrongfully separated. Years ago a young man came to me for a private conversation. Between sobs he managed to tell me how drunkenness on his part had resulted in his wife’s separating herself from him. And as the great waves of sorrow surged over his sobered spirit, he said: “I shall die unless we can be brought together again.”

I managed, a day or two later, to get them together in my study, and, through counsel and prayer, effect a permanent reconciliation. By my counsels I made atonement for them. But, when in Hall Caine’s “Bondman,” Michael Sunlocks and his beautiful Greeba had been separated, and he was living under the condemnation of civil law, and labouring under false impressions and going blind at the same time, there was but one way in which to effect atonement for them, and that way Jason the Red took when he turned the key that unlocked Michael’s cell, and led him out to be again with Greeba, and to have his misunderstandings corrected, his eyes opened, and to come into a perfect knowledge of her unspeakable and unfaltering affection; and turned the key again to lock himself in until the time of sunrise when Jorgen Jorgenson’s soldiers should come and pour lead into his body, and leave him a lifeless corpse on the sunlit hill. He effected an atonement. And it was this method of atonement our Master employed for the sake of sinful men. He brought them back to God by standing in their stead, and dying, so that they living could enjoy the Infinite’s love. The old faith was that “man’s need made such atonement necessary.” The law declared it, the prophet affirmed it, the fathers believed it.

We listened one day to a talk on Prohibition by Oliver Stewart, in which he made tender and beautiful reference to the death of Nathan Hale.

He told how, when he walked down Broadway, New York City, near the City Hall, he came in view of the bronze statue. The arms are pinioned, the feet are tied with cords, the shirt collar is thrown open, the handsome face is marred with the shadows of the sufferings that preceded death. And, at first thought, you might imagine that the statue was the statue of a criminal, but when you read the inscription on the pedestal, “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country,” and underneath that splendid sentence the name, “Nathan Hale,” it leads your thought back into the history of that Revolutionary time, and back to the day when the American forces found it necessary to send one of their men in disguise into the English camp. And when the commanders said, “The man who undertakes this may be detected, and if detected, will certainly be executed by the enemy,” Nathan Hale stood forth and said: “For my country’s sake, I will go.” He knew that it might mean death. But he also knew that it might effect deliverance and bring victory. Do you remember what Caiaphas the High Priest said, when the chief priests and the Pharisees were arguing concerning Jesus, “If we let him alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and our nation.” Caiaphas said unto them, “Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not; and this spake he not of himself; but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.” The law and the prophets are agreed that in His grace God provided atonement. The fathers have been faithless concerning some doctrines of Scripture and confused regarding others, but never once have Christian men misunderstood John 3:16,—“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.” It does seem that a proper understanding of that single Scripture ought to suffice to bring men to the keenest sense of sin and also to show them the way of salvation out of it.

Dr. Chapman tells us, that just over the line that separates Indiana from Ohio and on the Ohio side there lived an old woman who was the terror of all who had seen or heard of her. She was finally arrested, and sent to the Columbus Penitentiary. She broke every law of the institution, and they exhausted every form of punishment upon her. Times without number they had sent her to the dungeon, and for weeks at a time she lived on bread and water. Finally an old Quaker lady from the same part of the state asked permission to see her. The prisoner was led into her presence with the chains upon her hands and feet. With downcast eyes she sat before the messenger of Christ. The old Quaker lady simply said: “My sister.” The old woman cursed her, and then she said: “I love you.” With another oath, she said: “No one loves me.” But she came still nearer, and taking the sin-stained face in both her hands, she lifted it up and said: “I love you, and Christ loved you.” She kissed her face first upon one cheek and then upon the other, and she broke the woman’s heart. Her tears began to flow like rain. She rose to her feet. They took the chains off, and until the day of her death they were never put on again, but like an angel of mercy she went up and down the corridors of the prison, ministering to the wants of others.

It is the goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance, and the man who is not brought to reconciliation with the Father by the sight of His suffering, dying Son, whose agony on the cross was the only adequate expression of God’s pity and love for the sinner, is a lost man, and his heart is already turned to stone.

Finally, the fathers held that Christ’s atonement was the one and only way of salvation; and the law and the Gospel agreed together in confirming the fathers in this faith. It was Moses who wrote of the seed of woman, and of the serpent, “it shall bruise thy head,” and it was the great apostle who said: “God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him, for if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life; and not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have received the atonement” (Romans 5:8-11).

Dr. F. B. Meyer tells the story taken from Adelaide Procter, of a young girl who had lived centuries ago in a convent in France. She was sweet and pure and admired of all who saw her. Her work was to care for the altar of Mary, and answer the portal. Wars swept over France, and brought the soldiers to the convent, and one that was wounded was given into her care. When he recovered he persuaded her to leave the convent. She went with him to Paris, where she lost her good name and everything that made life worth living.

Years passed, and she came back to die within the sound of the convent bell. She fell fainting upon the steps, and there came to find her, not such a one as she had been, but such a one as she would have been, a pure and noble matron. She picked her up and carried her into the convent, and placed her on her bed. All the years that she had been gone, she had faithfully done her work, and none knew of her disgrace; so she glided back into her old place, and until the day of her death no one ever knew of her sin. All this Christ has done for me. I like to think that I was chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, that He had me in mind when He suffered and died, that He has made up before God for all that I have failed to do, and when I stand before Him, it will be as if I never had sinned in all my life.