02.03. Part 3.

Part 3.

Coming to the truth of atonement, it is necessary to view the great work of our Lord at Calvary as the centre of the eternal plan and purpose of God, in relation to the whole creation. Redemption in Christ is the central thought around which not only all the time ways of God circle but also His eternal plan and purpose. The first of these regards man in his creature responsibility; the latter is sovereign grace by God towards him, when he had lost all as a responsible creature. This is the outcome of the eternal purpose of God. Nothing could be clearer than the way the Incarnate Son is presented in Scripture as coming at the end of a long period of testing; the culminating point in the history of man’s moral history in creature responsibility. Having been tried in a variety of ways, first in Eden, then by promise, law, covenant and prophets with continued failure, last of all God sent forth His Son. "This is the heir, come let us kill him and seize on the inheritance," is what they said. These things are so clearly put in Scripture and so often dwelt upon that we need not go further here. On the other hand, nothing could be clearer than the way our Lord is presented as coming forth from the womb of eternity to accomplish the will of God by redemption, in His sacrificial work at the cross. These two great thoughts of man’s responsibility and God’s sovereignty run all through Scripture, as seen in the two trees of paradise but there can be nothing more profound than to see how they come together in our Lord at the cross. That work which finished the history of man’s responsibility in the darkest crime in the history of eternity, was at the same time a work accomplished by the Son, which brought out the full revelation of the heart of God, and instituted a righteous basis upon which all the counsels of His heart, in majesty and glory, will rest for all eternity. The combination of these two grand conceptions, worked out in the time scene in the great conflict of the ages — the conflict between good and evil — is the story of how the great and glorious Godhead has revealed Itself. That revelation has brought God out in nature, character, and Being, in a way that unveiled Him as a glorious Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit; strewing each One at work in carrying out the eternal counsels, and that in a way which brings out the thoughts, feelings, delights and motives of divine Persons, which will be the delight of redeemed myriads for evermore. This is what comes before us in this part of our meditation and it will serve, we trust, to answer the question of how that glorious life, portrayed in the Gospels, is to be perpetuated in the creation, eternally. In the relative working out of things, it should not be forgotten that sin entered the creation in the higher ranks, long before man was created. God’s dealing with it therefore at Calvary had the whole creation in view. But that stands as it were, at the outskirts of revelation. Man is the creature in which the whole question was to be wrought out; earth the centre and Calvary the place. In that dreadful hour — the centre as it were of two eternities — God is eternally glorified. Let us look then a moment at the cross from each of these viewpoints, that of man — the creature’s guilt, and then at its glorious expression of the eternal thoughts of God.

"Crucify him." In the fist mention of these words, the speakers doubtless thought of once, and forever, sinking in irretrievable defeat and shame, the Saviour’s Name. Chagrined, outwitted, and defeated by the power of good, His opponents take refuge in the diabolical subterfuge of imputing His mighty works to the Devil. This conclusion reached, they fix upon Him His death sentence. "It is needful that one man die for the nation." If we do not see to this, said Caiaphas, the Romans will kill us. (John 11:1-57) This meets with full consent but, who is to do it, and how is it to be done? We will take him to Pilate. Rome, our captors will do this. His claim to be a king constitutes the charge of treason, and he will be crucified. Such a death involved irremediable shame, infamy, execration, beyond recovery. Scripture had pronounced upon it a curse. "Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree." Rome was too proud to crucify her sons. Such a death was reserved for slaves and felons only. But note the estimate of His own people. Lepers must be put outside the camp. The pestilential infection of murderers, blasphemers, and lepers, must be kept back from the dwellings of men. Outside the gate, carrying His cross, Jesus must go a victim. If it be Rome, He must go to the bottom by crucifixion; if it be His own people, He must go outside the gate to Golgotha, carrying His cross. What a state poor, blind humanity was in, to go thus far with the Saviour. It was that very state which He, in grace, was meeting at that very moment. But what must have been the divine estimate of fallen flesh when, for its substitute, nothing less than curse would do. The curse, darkness, and abandonment of Calvary was our due but the sinless sufferer was our substitute. It is thus we get God’s estimate of the creature He had been cultivating for four millenniums.

Guilty, vile, and helpless we: Spotless Lamb of God was He!

’Full atonement,’ can it be? Hallelujah! what a Saviour! But the transcendent glory of Calvary links with the eternal plan and purpose of God. This plan had man in view for richest heavenly favour. His creation was but yesterday comparatively, but with it the Incarnation of the Son was indissolubly linked. Such purposes presupposed a state of breakdown that only the coming of the Son into Manhood could meet. In the creation, man came last but his fall created the position for redemption, hence, on the very day he sinned the promise of the redeemer was given. Redemption, it should be remembered supposes a third party. That third party was Satan in the form of a serpent in Eden. This of course proves that sin was there before, but man, listening to the tempter, brought it into his race and raised at once the question of the rights of God. Redemption is that which frees from an encumbrance something which already belongs to the redeemer. To free the property or inheritance from the encumbrance, a ransom must be paid. This is the story, the entrancing story of the Redeemer’s blood. "The precious blood of Christ." The seduction of man by the enemy not only corrupted him and alienated him from God. It robbed God of the creature; of His highest predilection. Of the original entrance of sin we may know but little but that its entrance into the human race raised at once the whole question of God’s righteousness in the highest and most important part of His creation — is the burden of a great part of holy Scripture. As a creature, Satan may well have known that the Creator had His own inviolable rights, in the creation. This is what he challenged but he could have no possible knowledge of the infinite resources of wisdom, love, and power, which lay behind these rights. The story is well known. Satan’s success brought death as the judgment of God on His creature man. Not merely the article of death but its moral power, as that which Satan pressed on the spirit of our Lord in Gethsemane — death as the judgment of God. But if in His character, God in righteousness and holiness stood publicly out against man, what of His nature which is Love? Here we touch the resources of God which no creature could know. It was then that the time ways of God began in the fallen race and He put forth His rights in a variety of ways as, for example, in the law. But we are dealing here with the purpose of God and that raises the question of how He has put forth these rights in grace. We can conceive of God putting forth His rights in judgment, and Satan, not knowing the resource of the Creator, doubtless expected this. If God had put forth His rights in that way and carried out His sentence, He could, out of His resources have created another race to take the place of man. This would have displayed His power but what of His purpose of Love? Such a course must have spelled for Him defeat in the best part of His creation. But our God — whose resources none can fully know — is neither arbitrary nor capricious; hence the story of redemption in Christ Jesus in all its sublime dignity of glory, will be the theme which will fill an endless eternity with His praise. In speaking thus of the rights of God, we refer to His just and holy claims on His creature which is His own property. This should be distinguished from the attribute of righteousness which is inherent in the blessed God and is an eternally abiding principle. God put forth His rightful claims in the way of grace m His Son and in view of this, righteousness and grace have been termed synonymous in Romans 3:1-31. This should be carefully guarded however, for in Romans 3:26, both thoughts are expressed. The declaration of His righteousness, is the public declaration of His perfect consistency with Himself in constituting the believing sinner righteous. Moreover, the cross is much more than the putting forth of the Creator’s rights on man. When we view that cross as establishing the authority of God, the moral Governor of the universe, we can see righteousness as a divine attribute and, in its operations, it becomes the standard for the whole creation and indeed, in result, everything must come to that measure. The bearing of the cross upon man as distinct from the higher ranks of creation, calls for a few more remarks. God’s predilection of the human race is proved by the Incarnation of the Son. The fact that the Word became flesh, passing by the hierarchies of the heavens, shows man at the centre of divine purpose. The stoop of the Son into Manhood proves this both as to purpose, promise, and fulfilment. Then note, creation began in the heavens and ended on earth with man. With redemption and NEW CREATION, it is the other way about. "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth." In creation the progress is downward. "By him to reconcile alt things unto himself; by him, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." In reconciliation the progress is upward and begins with man. Colossians 1:16; Colossians 1:20. Revelation is given to man who, in divine sovereignty, is himself at the centre of God’s eternal plan. The circumference takes in the whole wide creation which, as we said, forms the outskirts of that revelation. The death of our Lord is the great central basis upon which all rests for the universe, man included. But the bearing of that death upon man is different from what it is on any other part of the moral creation. It is clear that the unfallen hosts above do not need the blood, as sinners do upon earth and it is just as clear that the fallen hosts of the heavenlies do not get its saving efficacy as sinners do on earth. In connection with this, note the purpose of God was to put Christ, the Son of Man, at the head of all things. This is strewn in Psalm viii, with its quotations in the New Test. See how this works out in the transfer from Godhead to Manhood in our Lord’s Person, as taught in Hebrews 1:1-14, Hebrews 2:1-18. From eternity, the Son is the appointed heir of all things. Between the creation of all things and His taking them up, they became defiled by sin so, He became Man to make purgation. Consequently He takes His place at the head. That place indeed He fills by double right, that is as Creator and Redeemer but the main point is, all things are put under a MAN. Then, as the man is not complete without the woman, the Church is taken from Christ to be presented to Him as Eve was to Adam, so that in the day when God displays Himself in all the wonders of all His plan and purpose, man, who at the cross expressed the creature’s worst, will be seen at the highest point of glory with Christ and in the enjoyment of God’s very best. Hallelujah. Surely it is fitting that the Apostolic doxology should come in here. "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21.

We would now close this part of our meditation by endeavouring to bring together the two great aspects of the cross we have looked at separately namely, the creature’s guilt and God’s eternal purpose. So many thoughts flood the mind that care is needed on this, the most profound of all themes. It has been said that the cross will be our lesson book throughout eternity. As we gaze upon it we see the unimpeachable justice of our God combined with the unquenchable desire of His heart to have the creature — whose dreadful guilt came out there — at home with Himself in perfect moral suitability for ever. Heaven called for it; earth needed it; hell demanded it; each from motives peculiar to itself. Heaven, the source of all good; hell the place of all evil, while earth was locked in the dreadful conflict between good and evil. Both heaven and earth have got all they required with an immeasurable excess, which puts the whole creation on an eternally stable foundation — redemption — and floods the throne of God with a new glory which eternity itself will never exhaust. It has glorified God, met our every need and has laid low the combined forces of apostate creation forever. But perhaps the most wonderful thing of all is that the cross has unveiled, in the creation, the great and glorious God. Nothing else could conceivably reveal to the creature the great Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in the relationships and affections inherent in Deity, nor the counsels of eternity, with the part each glorious Person in the Holy Trinity takes in relation to each other, in the working out of these counsels.

Creation, providence and government, though bringing out His power, wisdom, authority, and goodness, could not make Him known. God has been revealed in love, light, and glory, so that He might be known in the Son as Father and all that has been revealed, has been made good in the heart of the creature, in a triumph of glory surpassing thought. The cross explains the riddle of the universe — the riddle of suffering, strewing the necessity of creation itself. It explains the permission of sin and the why of the four millenniums of the first man’s culture. It has brought his moral history to a close by bringing to light the Second Man and His race that is to abide for eternity. It shows us too how all things serve God’s great end, for sin, Satan, death, demons, and hell, must serve Him. There is nothing — there could be nothing — like the cross. It is the complete solution of every moral question; the means by which all wrongs shall be righted and above all — if we may with all reverence say it — the cross explains God. It explains the exigency of His heart to have man before Himself in the holy relationship of sonship, so that the Father’s house might be marked by family feelings and the Son firstborn of many brethren — all pervaded by the unction of God the Holy Spirit.

There is yet one tender touch in connection with the peculiar place and calling given to men, as connected with the cross and the purpose of God. We who are subjects of His mercy are called to serve and praise Him as revealed by the Son Who became man to make Him known, while the unfallen angels serve their Creator with the obedience of delight in the relationship and status wherein they were created. In this connection, how wonderful to think that they come under a MAN and will worship God in that MAN. However great and good all this is, it can never equal the reciprocal joys of those who were saved from earth and sin. Their service and praise is the fruit of the divine nature and as a result of the transfer from Adam fallen to Christ their glorious Head. Here we touch that which passes beyond all creature conception for grandeur of glory. We shall praise Him as being in His own life and nature, but as those who have been down in the pit of sin and death, which nothing but Calvary’s depth of suffering and woe could rescue us from. Glory be to God we are not to be in heaven merely as forgiven sinners, great and wonderful as that would be; we are to be there in the nature and life which belongs to the place. No unfallen status or Adamic innocence can match this. The praise of those who have known the depth of sin and proved the mercy of God in their rescue, is a most marvellous supposition. Yet, when we think it is beyond that, in the divine nature and in a new relationship: when we think, I say, that it is from such a height that we look down to the depth, we can have some little idea of the difference of the service and praises proper to redeemed sinners who went so far as to outrage the name and character of God, and crucify His blessed Son.

"And at the moment the burnt offering began, the song of Jehovah began, and the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel. And all the congregation worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded, all the time till the burnt offering was finished. And . . . the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves and worshipped." 2 Chronicles 29:27-29. This pictures our Lord in sacrificial excellence of glory in whom we are accepted, not as the sin offerings which had all to be consumed outside the camp, but as the One who has gone through death and risen again to establish an order which will throb with His life, vibrate with His praise, as being the eternal perpetuation of what came out in the Gospels. It will be the eternal reflection of the Being and nature of God. The marvel of it; the mystery of it; yea, its stupendous height and depth of glory will be the answer, yes, God’s glorious answer, to the solemn hour of Calvary. Jesus our Lord, what can we say? for all language fails and thought is lost in holy amazement as we thus contemplate THEE. Hallelujahs and Hosannas; feelings of joy; delight and ecstasy; all fail to rise to what is Thy due. We will thank Thee for all Thou hast given and praise Thee for all Thou hast done, but in the profound sense of Thy infinite and eternal greatness which gives all its lustre to Calvary, we adore Thee for WHO THOU ART.

It might perhaps be thought that a little might have been said on the bearing of the cross in relation to the lake of fire and those who go into everlasting punishment. Perhaps the bitterest pang of all for those who go there will be the thought that they themselves spurned a way of escape. It is a character of things not much dwelt upon and perhaps this is best. Scripture itself indeed says little of it. Turning to our theme, we may now see why that holy life was taken from the earth and how, in the divine resources of wisdom it will be perpetuated for evermore.