All through the life of Christ, He never addressed God as God. We never find Him do so in the gospels until the cross. It would not have been walking in the power of the relationship which was always unhindered. When on the cross, in the three hours of darkness then, it was expiation. He does not say, "Father" until, all being over, He commends His spirit to Him, but "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" All that was against us was there coming out against Him. The favor of God was hidden from Him. Righteousness was coming forth in the execution of judgment for sin. Never was there a moment of the Father's most perfect delight in Him; but if God was dealing according to His nature and being, it must be against sin, and therefore all was against Him, for He was made sin for us.
As soon as He has gone through it, He uses both terms, "Father" and "God." He comes out as having done the work and when He has wrought the atonement, He can bring us into the blessed fruit of it. Not only are we brought to the Father, but to God, and all that was against us before is for us now. The very same things He is in His nature, that were against the sinner, are for the saint. Christ risen out of death and having entered (sin being put away) into the unclouded joy of God His Father's countenance, when He had perfectly glorified Him, said to Mary, "Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God." John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17).
All that is connected with these names of God and Father flows out to us. We are holy and without blame before Him in love. "I have manifested Thy name," He says to the Father; but now He could reveal God to them. This would have been condemnation except through the cross.
This is the effect of expiation on our position before God, besides bringing us into the place of children through adoption.
Thus then we see that there is such a process in the judgment of God as the hardening of the heart—that this is never executed till man has ripened himself in evil—and that the fruit of this may appear in such human folly and blindness as we should never have apprehended, or perhaps conceived.
Let this prepare us for things which not only may shortly come to pass, but which have already appeared. Men of learning and of taste, men of morals and religion, men of skill in the science of government, and whole nations famed for dignity and greatness, each in their generation may be turned to fables and to follies enough to shake the commonest understandings in ordinary times.
I do not say the "strong delusion" has gone forth; but there are symptoms and admonitions of its not being far off. What a voice this has for us, to keep near to the Lord in that assurance of His love, to love His truth, to walk immediately with Himself, and to promise ourselves that His tarrying is not long