GOD cannot deny Himself. He is, always was, and ever will be the same. The true Christian finds herein the greatest comfort, for while he changes, and is sometimes bright and at others gloomy, he knows his God changes not. Here is a foundation upon which to build a foundation that can never be moved.
We look at God’s ways as they may be traced through the Bible, and see Him unvarying in His righteousness. This truth we would earnestly press upon the consideration of our Christian readers, for in our day the reality of divine righteousness is assailed.
Many teach that God is all-merciful, and that, therefore, He will not punish sin; indeed, some have proceeded so far on this down grade as to affirm that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross did not affect atonement for, say they, atonement in this sense of the covering of sin from God’s righteous judgment is not needed! Thus man’s sin is made of small account, and the absolute and eternal righteousness of God discarded.
This doctrine not only teaches the sinner to care little for the sacrifice of Christ, to make little of the cleansing of His blood, it further teaches that God is not what God has revealed Himself to be―Light. “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:55This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5).) It is a doctrine calculated to ease the way down to perdition, and to create in man’s mind utterly false thoughts of God.
In the sacrifices appointed by God, the truth of His righteousness is plainly visible. There was no way to Him at the beginning save by the offering of a victim in the steak of the offerer. Sin had to be answered for, and in the lamb offered was the answer made. This truth reigned in believing hearts from Adam to Moses. To Moses God gave a fuller revelation of His righteousness, and in a peculiar way, in that of the sacrifice of the great day of atonement. At-one-ment does not enter into the meaning of the word rendered in our Old Testament atonement, though at-one-ment he a result of atonement. On that great day of yearly sacrifices in Israel, the blood of the sacrifice was taken into the Holiest of all, where stood the throne of God. We note first the position of His throne; it was in the Holy of Holies. How little honor and reverence does this revelation receive in our day from those who make light of divine righteousness! Into this most sacred place, and before and on the mercy seat there, the blood of atonement was sprinkled. The heavenly ministers of that throne―the cherubim―had their faces turned towards the blood, their eyes were fixed upon it. God looked, as it were, upon the blood, and not upon the sins of the people for whom it has been poured out. He, in His righteousness, accepted the sacrifice in the stead of the sinner. He pardoned on the ground of the atonement effected.
This figure portrays Christ’s work in His sacrifice of Himself for us, and God in His justice forgiving the sins of such as trust in Christ’s blood. Him “God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins.” (Rom. 3:2525Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (Romans 3:25).) God forgives sins, yet maintains His righteousness: He is just and the justifier.
The believer rests on the solid foundation of the unchangeable righteousness of God. Nowhere has that righteousness been exercised as at the cross of Christ; nowhere was sin judged as it was when He, who knew no sin, was made sin for us. And, since the atonement has been made, since absolute satisfaction has been rendered to God in His justice, there is perfect peace for all who trust in Christ.