(READ LEV. 4).
WHY was the mind of a Jew set at rest, for the time being, when, he had offered his sin offering? How did he know that the special sin for which he had brought his sacrifice was forgiven?
Because God had said, “It shall be forgiven him." His peace of heart, in that particular sin, rested upon the testimony of the God of Israel, and the blood of the victim. So; now, the peace of the believer, in reference to "ALL SIN," rests upon the authority of God's word, and “the precious blood of Christ." If a Jew had sinned, and neglected to bring his sin offering, he would have been "cut off from among his people"; but when he took his place as a sinner, when he laid his hand upon the head of a sin offering, then the offering was "cut off" instead of him, and he was so far free. The offering was treated as the offerer deserved; and hence for him not to know that his sin was forgiven him would have been to make God a liar, and to treat the blood of the divinely appointed sin offering as nothing.
And if this were true in reference to one who had only the blood of a goat to rest upon, "how much more” powerfully does it apply to one who has the precious blood of Christ to rest upon?
The believer sees in Christ One Who has been judged for all his sin, One Who, when He hung upon the cross, sustained the entire burden of His sin; One Who, having made Himself responsible for that sin, could not be where He now is if the whole question of sin had not been settled, according to all the claims of infinite justice. So absolutely did Christ take the believer's place on the cross; so entirely was he identified With Him; so completely was all the believer's sin imputed to Him, there and then, that all question of the believer's liability, all thought of his guilt, all idea of his exposure to judgment and wrath, is eternally set aside. It was all settled on the cursed tree, between Divine Justice and the Spotless Victim.
And now the believer is as absolutely identified with Christ on the throne', as Christ was identified with him on the tree. Justice has no charge to bring against the believer, because it has no charge to bring against Christ. Thus it stands forever. If a charge could be preferred against the believer, it would be calling in question the reality of Christ's identification with him on the cross, and the perfectness of Christ's work on his behalf. If any one, when the worshipper of old was on his way back, after having offered his sin offering, had charged him with that special sin for which his sacrifice had bled, what would have been his reply? Just this: "The sin has been rolled away by the blood of the victim, and Jehovah has pronounced the words, It shall be forgiven him.'" The victim had died instead of him; and he lived instead of the victim.
Such was the type. And as to the Antitype, when the eve of faith rests on Christ as the sin offering, it beholds Him as One Who, having assumed a perfect human life, gave up that life on the cross, because sin was, there and then, attached to it by imputation. But it beholds Him also as One Who, having in Himself the power of divine and eternal life, rose from the tomb therein, and Who now imparts this, His risen, His divine, His eternal life, to all who believe in His name. The sin is gone, because the life to which it was attached is gone. And now, instead of the life to which sin was attached, all true believers possess the life to which righteousness attaches. The question of sin can never once he raised, in reference to the risen and victorious life of Christ; but this is the life which believers possess. There is no other life. All beside is death, because all beside is under the power of sin. "He that hath the Son hath life"; and he that has life, has righteousness also. The two things are inseparable, because Christ is both the one and the other.
If the judgment and death of Christ upon the cross were realities, then the life and righteousness of the believer are realities. If imputed sin was a reality to Christ, imputed righteousness is a reality to the believer. The one is as real as the other; for if not Christ would have died in vain. The true and irrefragable ground of peace is this, that the claims of God's nature have been perfectly met as to sin. The death of Jesus has satisfied them all satisfied them, forever. What is it that proves this to be the satisfaction of the awakened conscience? The great fact of resurrection. A risen Christ declares the full deliverance of the believer, his perfect discharge from every possible demand. "He was delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification." (Rom. 4:25). For a Christian not to know that his sin is gone, and gone forever, is to cast a slight upon the blood of his divine sin offering. It is to deny that there has been the perfect presentation, the sevenfold sprinkling of the blood before the Lord.
Let me ask you, dear friend, have you been led to repose on this holy and happy foundation? Do you know that the question of Your sin has been forever disposed of? Have you laid your hand, by faith, on the head of the sin offering? Have you seen the atoning blood of Jesus rolling away all your guilt, and carrying it into the mighty waters of God's forgetfulness? Has Divine Justice anything against you? Are you free from the unutterable horrors of a guilty conscience? Do not, I pray you, rest satisfied until you can give a joyous answer to these inquiries. Be assured of it, it is the happy privilege of the feeblest babe in Christ to rejoice in a full and everlasting remission of sins, on the ground of a finished atonement; and, hence, for any to teach otherwise, is to lower the sacrifice of Christ to the level of "goats and calves." If we cannot know that our sins are forgiven, then, where are the glad tidings of the gospel? Is a Christian in no wise better off, in the matter of sin offering, than a Jew? The latter was privileged to know that his matters were set straight for a year, by the blood of an annual sacrifice. Can the former not have any certainty at all? Unquestionably. Well, then, if there is any certainty it must be eternal, inasmuch as it rests on a sacrifice of eternal efficacy.
This, and this alone, is the basis of worship. The full assurance of sin put away ministers, not to a spirit of self-confidence, but to a spirit of praise, thankfulness, and worship. It produces, not a spirit of self-complacency, but of Christ-complacency, which, blessed be God, is the spirit which shall characterize the redeemed throughout eternity. It does not lead one to think little of Sin, but to think much of the grace which has perfectly pardoned it, and of the blood which has perfectly canceled it.
It is impossible that anyone can gaze on the cross, can see the place which Christ took, can meditate upon the sufferings which He endured, can ponder on those three terrible hours of darkness, and, at the same time, think lightly of sin. When all these things are entered into, in the power of the Holy Ghost, there are two results which must follow, namely, an abhorrence of sin in all its forms, a genuine love to Christ, His people, and His cause. C. H.