Horatius Bonar emphasizes the significance of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, reminding us that His coming was not merely to teach or deliver but to serve as our Substitute through His sacrificial death. He argues that true salvation comes not from Christ's life alone but from His bloodshed, which redeems us from sin. Bonar warns against the modern tendency to downplay the necessity of Christ's sacrifice, likening it to Cain's rejection of God's prescribed way of atonement. The essence of the gospel is found in recognizing Christ as the Sin-bearer who gave His life for ours, leading to true deliverance and redemption. This message calls us to appreciate the depth of Christ's love and the cost of our salvation.

As the Christmas season approaches, and our focus turns to the coming of the Saviour, we would do well to remember the reason why He came. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is not the end of the story as Bonar aptly points out: It is not by incarnation but by blood shedding that we are saved. The Christ of God is no mere expounder of wisdom; no mere deliverer or gracious benefactor; and they who think they have told the whole gospel, when they have spoken of Jesus revealing the love of God, do greatly err. If Christ be not the Substitute, he is nothing to the sinner. If he did not die as the Sin-bearer, he has died in vain. Let us not be deceived on this point, nor misled by those who, when they announce Christ as the Deliverer, think they have preached the gospel. If I throw a rope to a drowning man, I am a deliverer. But is Christ no more than that? If I cast myself into the sea, and risk my life to save another, I am a deliverer. But is Christ no more? Did he but risk his life? The very essence of Christ’s deliverance is the substitution of Himself for us, his life for ours. He did not come to risk his life; he came to die! He did not redeem us by a little loss, a little sacrifice, a little labour, a little suffering, “He redeemed us to God by his blood;” “the precious blood of Christ.” He gave all he had, even his life, for us. This is the kind of deliverance that awakens the happy song, “To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” The tendency of the world’s religion just now is, to reject the blood; and to glory in a gospel which needs no sacrifice, no “Lamb slain.” Thus, they go “in the way of Cain.” Cain refused the blood, and came to God without it. He would not own himself a sinner, condemned to die, and needing the death of another to save him. This was man’s open rejection of God’s own way of life. -From God’s Way of Peace, 1862.