BUT in the cross perfect righteousness against sin is displayed and exercised, and infinite love to the sinner. God is glorified in His nature, and salvation to the vilest and access to God, according to the holiness of that nature, provided for and made good, and this in the knowledge, as the conscious object of it, of the love that had brought it there; a perfect and cleansing work in which that love was known. Thus, while the sins were put away, and could only be by the cross, God was revealed in love; God holy and righteous against sin, while the sins of the sinner were put away, his conscience purged, and, by grace, his heart renewed in the knowledge of a, love beyond all his thoughts; himself reconciled to God, and God glorified in all that He is, as He could not else be perfect access to God in the holiest, where that blood the testimony to all this, has been presented to God, and the sins gone forever, according to God's righteousness; while the sinner has the consciousness of being accepted according to the value of that sacrifice, in which God has been perfectly glorified, so that the glory of God and the sinner's presence there were identified. Angels would learn, and principalities, and powers, what they could learn nowhere else.
And this marks the two parts of propitiation-man's responsibility, and access to God, given according to His glory and nature; in the sin borne, and put away, the scapegoat, God judging evil according to what man ought to be; and access to God according to what He is. The last specifically characterizes the Christian; but the former was necessary, and accomplished for every one that believes; both by the same work of the cross, but each distinct. Judicial dealing, according to man's responsibility; access to God, according to His nature and holiness. The law itself was the 'measure of the former— the child of Adam's duty; the nature of God the latter; so that we have the infinite blessedness of being with God, according to His nature and perfection, partaking of the divine nature, so as to be able to enjoy it, holy, and without blame before Him in love. Of this, Christ as man, and, we must add, as Son withal, is the measure and perfection; and let it not be said that, if we partake of this nature, we need not this propitiation and substitution. This can only be said, or supposed, by those who have not got it, because, if we partake of the divine nature, we judge of sin, in principle, as God does, we have His mind as to it, and, as upright, of ourselves as in it, and so come, as I have said, first in lowliness, in our need, to the cross; and thus, purged in conscience, comprehend the glory of God in it. These two points, in their general aspect, are clearly presented in Heb. 9:26-2826For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:26‑28) " Christ appeared once, in the end of the world, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." It is carried out in application in chapter 10., where we have no more conscience of sins, and boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus
But this leads us to a still wider bearing of the work of the cross. The whole question of good and evil was brought to an issue there. Man, in absolute wickedness, and hatred against God manifested in goodness and love; Satan's whole power as prince of this world, and having the power of death; man in perfect goodness in Christ, obedience and love to His Father, and this in the place of sin as made it, for it was there the need was for God's glory and eternal redemption; God in perfect righteousness and majesty, and in perfect love. So that all was perfectly settled, morally and forever. The fruits will be only complete in the new heavens and new earth, though the value of that work be now known to faith; but what is eternal is settled forever by it, for its value is such, and cannot change.
Propitiation, then, meets our sins through grace, according to God's holy nature, to which it is presented, and which has been fully glorified in it. It meets the requirements of that nature, yet is it perfect love to us -love indeed, only thus known as wrought between Christ and God alone, the only part we had in it being our sins, and the hatred to God which killed Christ.
But it does more, being according to God's nature, and all that nature is in every respect, it not only judicially meets what is required by reason of our sins-man's failure in duty, and his guilt, but it opens access into the presence of God Himself, known in that nature which has been glorified in it. Love, God in love working unsought, has, through grace, made us love, and we are reconciled to God Himself, according to all that He is, our conscience having been purged, according to His glory, so that love may be in unhindered confidence.
Man sits at the right hand of God in virtue of it, and our souls can delight in all that God is, our conscience being made perfect by that which has been wrought. No enfeebling or lowering the holiness of God in His judicial estimate of, and dealing with, sin: on the contrary, all that He is thus glorified; no pleading goodness to make sin light, but God, in the will and love of salvation, met in that judgment and holiness, and the soul brought to walk in the light, as He is in the light, and in the love which is His being and nature, without blame before Him; a perfect conscience, so as to be free before Him, but a purged one, which has judged of sin as He does, but learned what sin is in the putting of it away. Without the atonement or propitiation of Christ this is impossible. God is not brought in, it is but human goodness, -which drops holiness, and overlooks sin, or estimates it according to mere natural conscience. Christ has died, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.
It is not innocence, for the knowledge of good and evil is there, but the slighting of God, and an unpurged conscience, not even the return to the former state of Adam (not knowing good and evil-innocent), but God fully revealed, and known in majesty, and light, and love, and we brought to Him, according to that revelation, in perfect peace and joy, by a work done for us, which has met and glorified His majesty, and light, and love, in the place of sin, as made it, by Him who knew no sin.
The full result will only be in the new heavens and new earth, the eternal state of blessedness, a condition of happiness not dependent on fulfilling the responsibility in which he who enjoyed it was placed, and in which he failed, but based on a finished work, accomplished to the glory of God, in the very place of ruin, the value of which can never in the nature of things change; it is according to the nature and character of God it is done, and is always what it is, and all is eternally stable. Righteousness, not innocence, dwells in the new heavens and the new earth, not feeble man responsible, but God glorified for evermore.
The result is not all there yet; but we know that the work is done, through the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and wait as believers for our position in the rest when all shall be accomplished, accepted in the Beloved.
Judgment is according to man's responsibility, shut out, then, judicially into that exclusion from God into which man has cast himself. Blessing is according to the thoughts, and purpose, and nature of God, in the exceeding riches of His grace, displayed in our salvation through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, come to bring us into His presence as sons.
Sin and sins are before God in the cross, and propitiation wrought. There sin and sins met God but in the work of love, according to holiness and righteousness, which brings to God, according to His nature, those who come to Him by it, cleared from them all forever.-J. N. D.
(Concluded from page 97.)