In handling our subject, we have yet to consider the authority and the sphere of “ The Great Commission;” but, ere proceeding to treat of these, we must dwell a little longer on the basis. The commission is truly a great one, and would need a solid foundation on which to rest it; and such it has, blessed be God, in the atoning death of His Son. Nothing less than this could sustain such a magnificent fabric; but the grace that planned the commission has laid the foundation, and this is enough for us. A full remission of sins can be preached among all nations inasmuch as God has been glorified, in the death of Christ, as to the entire question of sin.
This is a grand point for the reader to seize. It lies at the very foundation of the christian system. It is the keystone of the arch of divine revelation. God has been glorified as to sin. His judgment has been executed upon it. The claims of His throne have been vindicated as to it. The insult offered to His divine majesty has been flung back in the enemy’s face. If the sweet story of remission of sins had never fallen upon a human ear or entered a human heart, the divine glory would, none the less, have been most perfectly maintained. The Lord Jesus Christ did, by His most precious death, wipe off the stain which the enemy sought to cast upon the eternal glory of God. A testimony has been given in the cross, to all created intelligence, as to God’s thoughts about sin. It can there be seen, with all possible clearness, that a single trace of sin can never enter the precincts of the divine presence. God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity. Sin, wherever found, must be met by divine judgment.
Where, we may ask, does all this come most fully and forcibly out? Assuredly in the cross. Hearken to that solemn and most mysterious cry, “ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” What means this wondrous inquiry? Who is the speaker? Is He one of Adam’s fallen posterity? Is He a sinner? Surely not; for were He such, there would be no moral force whatever in the question. There never was a sinner on the face of this earth who, so far as he was personally concerned, did not richly deserve to be forsaken of a holy, sin-hating God. This must never be forgotten. Some people entertain the most foolish notions as to this point. They have, in their own vain imagination, manufactured a god to suit themselves—one who will not punish sin—one who is so tender, so kind, so benevolent, that he will connive at evil and pass it over as though it were nothing.
Now, nothing is more certain than that this god of the human imagination is a false one, just as false as any of the idols of the heathen. The God of the Bible, the God of Christianity, the God whom we see at the cross is not like this. Men may reason as they will; but sin must be condemned—it must be met by the just and inflexible judgment of a sin-hating God.
But, we repeat the question, who uttered those words at the opening of Psalm 22? If He was not a sinner, who was He? Wonderful to declare, He was the only spotless, perfectly holy, pure and sinless man that ever trod this earth. He was more. He was the eternal Son of the Father; the object of God’s ineffable delight who had dwelt in His bosom from all eternity, “ the brightness of His glory and the exact expression of His substance.” (See Greek.)
And yet He was forsaken of God. Yes, that holy and perfect One, who knew no sin, whose human nature was absolutely free from every taint, who never had a single thought, never uttered a single word, never did a single act that was not in the most perfect harmony with the mind of God; whose whole life, from Bethlehem to Calvary, was a perfect sacrifice of sweetest odor presented to the heart of God. Again and again, we see heaven opening upon Him, and the voice of the Father is heard giving expression to His infinite complacency in the Son of His bosom. And yet, He it is whose voice is heard in that bitter cry, “ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Marvelous question! It stands alone in the annals of eternity. No such question had ever been asked before; no such question has ever been asked since; and no such question can ever be asked again. Whether we consider the One who asked the question, or the One of whom it was asked, or the answer, we must admit that it is perfectly unique. That God should forsake such an One is the most profound and marvelous mystery that could possibly engage the attention of men or angels. Human reason cannot fathom its depths. No created intelligence can comprehend its mighty compass.
Yet there it stands, a stupendous fact before the eye of faith. Our blessed Lord Himself assures us that it was absolutely necessary. “ Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer.” But why was it necessary? Why should the only perfect, sinless, spotless man have to suffer? Why should He be forsaken of God? The glory of God, the eternal counsels of redeeming love, man’s guilty, ruined, helpless condition—all these things rendered it indispensable that Christ should suffer. There was no other way in which the divine glory could be maintained; no other way in which the claims of the throne of God could be answered; no other way in which heaven’s majesty could be vindicated; no other way in which the eternal purposes of love could be made good; no other way in which sin could be fully atoned for, and finally taken away out of God’s creation; no other way in which sins could be forgiven; no other way in which Satan and all the powers of darkness could be thoroughly vanquished; no other way in which God could be just, and yet the Justifier of any poor ungodly sinner; no other way in which death could be deprived of its sting, or the grave of its victory; no other way in which any or all of these grand results could be reached save by the sufferings and death of our adorable Lord Jesus Christ.
But, blessed forever be His holy Name, He went through it all. He went down under the heavy billows and waves of God’s righteous wrath against sin. He took the sinner’s place, stood in his stead, sustained the judgment, paid the penalty, died the death, answered every question, met every demand, vanquished every foe; and having done all, He ascended into the heavens and took His seat on the throne of God, where He is now crowned with glory and honor as the divine and all-glorious Accomplisher of the entire work of man’s redemption.
Such then, reader, is the basis of “ The Great Commission” whereof we speak. Need we wonder at the terms, when we contemplate the basis? Can there be anything too good, anything too great, anything too glorious for the God of all grace to bestow upon us poor sinners of the Gentiles, seeing He has been so fully glorified in the death of Christ? That most precious death furnishes a divinely righteous ground on which our God can indulge the deep and everlasting love of His heart in the perfect remission of our sins. It has removed out of the way every barrier to the full flood tide of redeeming love which can now flow through a perfectly righteous channel, to the very vilest sinner that repents and believes in Jesus. A Savior God can now publish a full and immediate remission of sins to every creature under heaven. There is positively no hindrance. God has been glorified as to the question of sin; and the time is coming when every trace of sin shall be forever obliterated from His fair creation, and those words of John the Baptist shall have their full accomplishment, “ Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” Meanwhile, the heralds of salvation are commanded to go forth to the ends of the earth and publish, without let or limitation, perfect remission of sins to every soul that believes. It is the joy of God’s heart to pardon sins; and it is due to the One who bore the judgment of sin on the cross, that in His name, forgiveness of sins should be thus freely published, fully received and abidingly enjoyed.
But what of those who reject this glorious message—who shut their ears against it and turn away their hearts from it? This is the solemn question. Who can answer it? Who can attempt to set forth the eternal destiny of those who die in their sins, as all must who refuse God’s only basis of remission? Men may reason and argue as they will; but all the reasoning and argument in the world cannot set aside the word of God which assures us, in manifold places, and in terms so plain as to leave no possible ground for questioning, that all who die in their sins—all who die out of Christ, must inevitably perish eternally—must bear the consequences of their sins, in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.
To quote the passages in proof of the solemn truth of eternal punishment would require a small volume. We cannot attempt it here; nor is it necessary, inasmuch as we have gone into the subject again and again, in former volumes of “ Things New and Old.”
But we would here put a question which arises naturally out of our present thesis. It is this: Was Christ judged, bruised and forsaken on the cross—did God visit His only-begotten and well-beloved Son with the full weight of His righteous wrath against sin, and shall impenitent sinners escape? We solemnly press this question on all whom it may concern. Men talk of its being inconsistent with the idea of divine goodness, tenderness and compassion, that God should send any of His creatures to hell. We reply, who is to be the judge? Is man competent to decide as to what is morally fitting for God to do? And further we ask, what is to be the standard of judgment? Anything that human reason can grasp? Assuredly not. What then? The cross in which the Son of God died the just for the unjust. This, and this only is the great standard by which to judge the question as to sin’s desert. Who can hearken to that bitter cry emanating from the broken heart of the Son of God, “ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” and question the eternal punishment of all who die in their sins? Talk of tenderness, goodness and compassion! Where do these shine out most brightly and blessedly? Surely in “ The Great Commission” which publishes full and free forgiveness of sins to every creature under heaven. But would it be tender or good, or compassionate to suffer the rejecter of Christ to escape? If we would see the goodness, kindness, mercy, and deep compassion of God, we must look at the cross. “ He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.” “ It pleased Jehovah to bruise him. He hath put him to grief.” “ He hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”
But if men reject all this and go on in their sins, in their rebellion, in their infidel reasonings, and impious speculations—what then? If men maintain that suffering for sin is not necessary, and that there is another and a better way of disposing of the matter—what then? Our Lord declared in the ears of His apostles that “it was necessary that Christ should suffer” that there was no other way possible by which the great question could be settled. Whom are we to believe? Was the death of Christ gratuitous? Was His heart broken for nothing? Was the cross a work of supererogation? Did Jehovah bruise His Son and put Him to grief for an end which might be gained some other way?
How monstrous are the reasonings or rather the ravings of infidelity! Infidel doctors begin by throwing overboard the word of God, that peerless and perfect revelation; and then, when they have deprived us of our divine guide, with singular audacity, they present themselves before us, and undertake to point out for us a more excellent way; and when we inquire what that way is, we are met by a thousand and one fine-spun theories, no two of which agree in anything save in shutting out God and His word.
True, they talk plausibly about a God; but it is a God of their own imagination—one who will connive at sin—who will allow them to indulge in their lusts, and passions, and pleasures, and then take them to a heaven of which they really know nothing. They talk of mercy, and kindness, and goodness; but they reject the only channel through which these can flow, namely, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. They speak not of righteousness, holiness, truth and judgment to come. They would fain have us to believe that God put Himself to needless cost in delivering up His Son. They would ignore that marvelous transaction which stands alone in the entire history of the ways of God—the atoning death of His Son. In one word, the grand object of the devil, in all the skeptical, rationalistic, and infidel theories that have ever been propounded in this world? is to shut out completely, the word of God, the Christ of God, and God Himself.
We solemnly call upon all our readers, specially our young friends, to ponder this. It is our deep and thorough conviction that the harboring of a single infidel suggestion is the first step on that inclined plane which leads straight down to the dark and terrible abyss of atheism—down to the blackness of darkness forever.
We shall have occasion to recur to the foregoing line of thought when we come to consider the “ authority” on which “ The Great Commission” comes to us. We have been drawn into it by the sad fact that, in every direction, and on every subject, we are assailed by the contemptible reasonings of infidelity; and we feel imperatively called upon to warn all with whom we come in contact against infidel books, infidel lectures, infidel theories in every shape and form. May the inspired word of God be more and more precious to our hearts! May we walk in its light, feel its sacred power, bow to its divine authority, hide it in our hearts, feed upon its treasures, own its absolute supremacy, confess its all-sufficiency, and utterly reject all teaching which dares to touch the integrity of the holy scriptures.
(To be continued in our next, if the Lord will)