Cap 9 - STUDIES

THE ATONEMENT

SECTION II

THE ATONEMENT PROPOSED

Having considered the basic premises involved in the definition of the atonement, it now becomes us to back up to eternity past and to consider the original purposing of this, and to see how the Divine wisdom is revealed in the atonement from beginning to end. Samuel Baird has well said that—

It would be extreme folly, or madness, were an individual to expend toil and money, in the construction of a vast and complicated piece of mechanism, without, having fixed on any specific object to be accomplished by it. The same charge would apply, if, having a purpose in view, he should proceed, without careful consideration so as to adapt his means to the proposed end; or should he devise a suitable plan and place it in the hands of the superintendent, whilst individual workmen are permitted to act independently of that plan, and to use such materials and work to such a model as may happen to suit their convenience or strike their fancy...These principles are as applicable to the works of God, as to those of man. —The Elohim Revealed, p. 82. Lindsay and Blakiston, Philadelphia, 1860.However, this view of the Divine program for the redemption of sinful man is so far removed from the plans devised in the rebellious mind of self-reliant man, that it has come to be completely ignored by most people in these evil days in which we now live, so that it is very rarely that one hears preached the subject of the Divine purpose and preparation of the atonement. Conversely, across the world, the pulpits are filled each Lord’s Day with men who speak of man’s responsibilities, and of his abilities to fulfill them, with seldom a thought given to the great question "Who is sufficient for these things?" (2 Cor. 2:16). For if but a moment’s thought were seriously given to the Scripture representation of man’s fallen and totally depraved condition, then one would be compelled to say with Paul, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God" (2 Cor. 3:5).

This great subject of the purposing of the atonement necessarily takes us back to the great Divine council hall in eternity, and to the covenant between the Persons of the Godhead in which the covenant of redemption was thought out and determined upon. This is an interesting and vastly important aspect of the atonement, yet who has ever heard this subject preached upon or taught in these days of compromise and apostasy from the truth? The covenant of redemption is the very basis of man’s hope for salvation from the wrath to come, and for fellowship with God throughout all the endless ages of eternity, for by this covenant, the sovereign God has bound and obligated Himself to bring to pass certain marvelous benefits for His unworthy creatures, as it is written, "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which from all ages hath been hid in God who created all things; to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him" (Eph. 3:8-12), R. V.

From this text, the following things may be noted: (1) This redemptive work of Christ is not understood by a process of natural reasoning, but is a mystery which has been hidden until God pleased to make it known. God has been progressively revealing this throughout man’s history. (2) It is now God’s will that this be made known to the angelic powers in the heavenlies by the preaching and practices of the churches. (3) This redemptive program is a manifestation of the wisdom of God which reaches to every need of man. (4) These things are based on the eternal purpose of God which was purposed in Christ before the world began. (5) It is only in Christ so revealed that we have boldness and access in confidence through faith in him. One may admire the atoning work of Christ from a distance, but no one can really benefit by it except by faith in Him.

The purposes of the atonement are often referred to as God’s covenant, but the Greek word diath?k?, of which the word "covenant" is the most common rendering, is erroneously translated "testament" thirteen of its thirty-three appearances in the New Testament, and so the meaning is somewhat obscured. The following texts thus show the relationship between the covenant and the redemptive work of Christ: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; the oath which he sware to our father Abraham" (Luke 1:68-73). "Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away everyone of you from his iniquities" (Acts 3:25-26). "And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins" (Rom. 11:26-27).

There are numerous other references to the covenant, and some of these will be touched upon later in this study, but these are sufficient for the time being to show that the redemptive program of Christ is a result of God’s covenant which dates from eternity past. The word "covenant" is used in several different ways, and with different shades of meaning, so it will first be our duty to ascertain these different usages of the word. John Gill gives the following summary:

1. It is sometimes used for an ordinance, precept, and command; (Num. 18: 19; Jer. 34:13-14; Deut. 4:13). 2. A covenant, when ascribed to God, is often nothing more than a mere promise; (Isa. 59:21; Eph. 2:12). 3. We often read of covenants of God only on one side; (Jer. 33:20; Gen. 9:9-17). 4. A covenant made between man and man, is by stipulation and restipulation, in which they make mutual promises, or conditions, to be performed by them; (Gen. 26:28; 1 Sam. 20:15-16, 42; 23:18); 5. Such a covenant, properly speaking, cannot be made between God and man; for what can man restipulate with God, which is in his power to do or give to him, and which God has not a prior right unto? 6. The covenant of grace made between God and Christ, and with the elect in him, as their Head and Representative, is a proper covenant, consisting of stipulation and restipulation; God the Father in it stipulates with his Son, that he shall do such and such work and service, on condition of which he promises to confer such and such honors and benefits on him, and on the elect in him; and Christ the Son of God, restipulates and agrees to do all that is proposed and prescribed, and, upon performance, expects and claims the fulfillment of the promises; in this compact there are mutual engagements each party enters into, stipulate and restipulate about, which make a proper formal covenant; (Isa. 49:1-6; 53:10-12; Ps. 40:6-8; John 17: 4-5). —Condensed from Body of Divinity, Book II, Chapter VII, pp. 215-216. Turner Lassetter, Atlanta, 1950.Men are want to find several covenants in the Scriptures, but in reality, God reckons but two of them—the covenant of works and the covenant of grace, and these two were typified by Sarah and Hagar and their children. "For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all" (Gal. 4:22-26).

These two covenants correspond to the only two plans of salvation that have ever been proposed; one by grace, and the other by works; any other plan that may be proposed will be an admixture of these two, with one or the other of these preponderating in the proportions. Thus these two plans correspond to the two Adams, the representative heads of the two kinds of people.

The covenant between God the Father, and the second person of the Trinity, is a new and second covenant. The first covenant was between God, and the first Adam, as representing all mankind, as their public head. That between God, and the last Adam, the Redeemer of men, the second public head, is a second covenant and a new one. And this lays the foundation of the covenant between God and man, of which we are now speaking, and really implies it, as has been observed.

But this covenant, between God the Redeemer, and those who believe in him, is expressly called a new covenant, as it is a covenant of grace, and herein distinguished from the covenant of works, under which all mankind were, antecedent to redemption by Christ: and which was brought into view, and kept most in sight under the Mosaic dispensation. —Samuel Hopkins, The System of Doctrines, Vol. II, p. 100. Isaiah Thomas and Ebenezer T. Andrews, Boston, 1793.

It shall be our present concern to consider this covenant of grace that has existed since before time began, and notice what the properties of it are, and with what and with whom it has to do.

I. THE ATONEMENT PURPOSED.

"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God!" (1 Pet. 1:18-21). "...the lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13:8). "...although the works were finished from the foundation of the world" (Heb. 4:3). "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Rom. 8:29-30). "But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2 Thess. 2:13). "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 1:2).

These texts, and others of like import, point up the fact that the redemptive work of Christ has been completed in the mind of God since the foundation of the world, and so it is evident that God has had a purpose to redeem fallen man since before man came into existence. E. G, Robinson says of this:

The death of Christ in atonement for sin, was made necessary by having been included in the original plan of the creation, The fall of man and the consequent sinfulness of the race, were as distinct to the Divine mind before man’s creation, as they have ever been since. Man, therefore, must either have been knowingly created of God to a destiny of sin and hopeless ruin, or the mediatorial and atoning death of Christ must have stood from eternity in the Divine mind, as a central thought and an essential provision in the eternal purpose of the creation itself. Hence the apostolic declarations of an election of the redeemed "before the world was" (Eph. 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:20; Rev. 13:8). —Christian Theology, pp. 289-290. Press of E. R. Andrews, Rochester, 1894.The very appearance of the words "foreordained," "foreknow," "predestinate," "chosen from the beginning," and "elect," all point up the purposing and preparing of a redemptive plan for man antecedent to the creation of man, and so, consequently, unrelated to man’s character or works. It has been the failure to take into consideration this pre-time purposing and planning of the atonement that has led to so many errors concerning it, for too many theologians have assumed that the atonement was some emergency plan concocted after the fact of man’s fall to meet the exigencies of sin. But all Creation, Providence and Redemption were parts of the original plan of God to display His grace and goodness and to glorify Himself. Creation was the preparing of a place to display His glory, and the preparation of a people to glorify Him; providence was the working out of all the details so that all things would work together to this end; and the plan of redemption was the actual display on the stage of the world, of the grace and goodness of God which entitled Him to the praise and honor and glory of all created beings.

We are not given a great lot of information about what went on in the Divine counsels in eternity past when the purpose of the atonement was being determined, but reference to "the blood of the everlasting covenant" (Heb. 13:20), makes it evident that the covenant of redemption antedates all time. However, if this be so, then it is necessarily removed from man, and makes it clear that man was not one of the original covenanting parties, and therefore he had no part in determining the terms of the covenant. In other words, this covenant was horizontal—between the Trinity of God—and not vertical—between God and man. John Gill defines a covenant of God as follows:

A covenant, when ascribed to God, is often nothing more than a mere promise (Isa. 59:21). Hence we read of covenants of promise, or promissory covenants (Eph. 2:12), and, indeed, the covenant of grace, with respect to the elect, is nothing else but a free promise of eternal life and salvation by Jesus Christ, which includes all other promises of blessings of grace with it; This is the promise that he hath promised us, the grand comprehensive promise even eternal life (1 John 2:25), and which is absolute and unconditional, with respect to them; whatever condition is in that covenant, lay only on Christ to perform; he and his work are the only condition of it. —Body of Divinity, Book III Chap. VII, p. 215. Turner Lassetter, Atlanta, 1950We know of the council of the Trinity in eternity past mainly from a few incidental allusions to it and from the results of it, the everlasting covenant of grace and the redemptive work that grows out of it. If it is true that "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18), then it seems equally sure that there must have been a definite plan purposed from the beginnings to which all things were to be brought into harmony. That this is true in all the realms of Creation, Providence and Redemption is certain from the context in which Psalm 33:9-11 appears and to which it refers when it says: "For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations."

But more to the point of the atonement are the following references: "I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles" (Isa. 42:6). "Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages" (Isa. 49:8). Christ is here called a covenant of the people because He is the "messenger of the covenant" (Ma1. 3:1), and is the one upon whom rests the conditions for the fulfillment of the covenant of redemption. It must be admitted that Christ did not accomplish more than what was purposed that He should accomplish in the redemptive program so that what is recorded of His acts in the way of atonement, must be held to be what was purposed, as John Gill says:

As the sum of the gospel, which is no other than a transcript of the covenant of grace, is the salvation of lost sinners by Christ; so the covenant, of which that is a copy, chiefly respects that, and that is the result of it: hence Christ, the Covenantee, has the name of Jesus, because he undertook to save, and came to save, and has saved his people from their sins, in consequence of his covenant engagements. —Body of Divinity, Book III Chap. VIII, p. 219. Turner Lassetter, Atlanta, 1950.A. W. Pink also remarks of the purpose of God in the everlasting covenant: A covenant is a mutual agreement between two parties wherein a certain work is proposed and a suitable reward promised in return. In the everlasting covenant the two parties were the Father and the Son. The task assigned the Son was that He should become incarnate, render to the law a perfect obedience in thought, word, and deed, and then endure its penalty on behalf of His guilty people, thereby offering to the offended God (considered as Governor and Judge) an adequate atonement, satisfying His justice, magnifying His holiness, and bringing in an everlasting righteousness. The reward promised was that God would raise from the dead the Surety and Shepherd of His people, exalting Him to His own right hand high above all creatures, conforming them to the image of His Son, and having them with Himself in glory forever and ever. —Gleanings From Paul, pp. 43-44. Moody Press, Chicago, 1967.The covenant of grace being therefore the purpose of God to bring to pass a redemption from sin for fallen man, it behooves us to note next—

II. THE ATONEMENT PROMISED.

Adam was the first sinner, but he sinned in a representative capacity as well, and therefore it was but natural that the first promise of the atonement should be given to him, and therefore it is written that the Lord said to the serpent in the presence of Adam and Eve: "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman: and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Gen. 3:15). But not only was this promise given, which embodied the atonement, but also the atonement was pictorially represented before the eyes of Adam and Eve when "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them" (Gen. 3:21). Here is beautifully pictured the atonement in that: (1) Nakedness represents the sinner’s spiritual state before God—devoid of any covering of righteousness, and unable to provide such a covering for his sins. (2) God took care of this whole matter; man did nothing to remedy his situation. (3) These coats of skins required the death of the animals and the shedding of their blood in order to cover this guilty pair, which pictures the crucifixion of the sinless Christ that our sins might be cleansed, and His righteousness imputed to guilty man, so that he can stand before God, fully accepted. That Adam and Eve understood the spiritual aspect of this seems certain when we realize that Abel had a consciousness of the need of a slain lamb for an atoning sacrifice, and he could only have had this consciousness as a result of the teaching of his parents or of a direct revelation from God, which is less likely. He could not have had the faith, which Hebrews 11:4 commends in him, without an understanding of the meaning of this sacrifice.

When we come to Abraham, we find the promise is repeated, but this time it is declared to be the gospel, which is the good news of the atonement. "And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed" (Gal. 3:8). It is true that here again we do not find the atonement as we now understand it, defined; but it is clear that Abraham understood that more was involved in this than the mere birth of Isaac, else Abraham could not be held up as a prototype and example of believers, as he is in Galatians 3:6-9. Abraham must have understood this prophecy as referring to the coming of the Messiah, for, from his time, there appears more and more an expectancy of the coming of the Messiah.

The earliest express mention of the Messiah is found in the prayer of Hannah in which she says: "The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed" (1 Sam. 2:10). The emphasized word here is the meaning of both terms "Messiah" and "Christ," and while we do not insist that Hannah nor any of the other Old Testament saints had as clear a view of the atoning work of Christ as we do today, yet it is clear that they associated the coming of the "Anointed" with salvation (1 Sam. 2:1).

Too many people have assumed that the Old Testament prophets prophesied only of local, political and social problems, yet we are told that their ministry dealt with the coming of Christ and His redemptive work: "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins" (Acts 10:43). "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:19-21). "Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days" (Acts 3:24).

All of these texts leave us little room to question that God had made known to Israel that He had purposed an atoning sacrifice for the sins of men, but, at the same time, we are also shown that this promise was not generally understood and believed, for only a rare few were really expecting and looking for the Saviour when He was born. One of these was Simeon: "And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ" (Luke 2:25-26). So it was of Anna the prophetess, of whom it is written: "And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem" (Luke 2:38).

The inspired declaration of Peter is that the prophets of old "have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow" (1 Pet. 1:10-11). Samuel Baird well says:

Whatever shadows, however, rested on their minds, and whatever mysteries remained hidden from their understandings, the whole subject now stands revealed to us, in the clearer light of fulfillment, and of the inspired interpretations which the New Testament furnishes to the revelations of the Old. We are thus permitted to contemplate a scene, in beholding which, we are called to put off our shoes, in adoring reverence and awe. The place where we stand is holy. It is the presence-chamber of God, the council room of the blessed Three. —The Elohim Revealed, p. 553. Lindsay and Blakiston, Philadelphia, 1860.It is hard for us to understand how people of old failed to understand such gloriously plain declarations as those found in Isaiah 53:4-6: "Surely he hath borne our grief, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." However, we stand on the fulfilled side of this, and this always makes anything easier to understand. No doubt there were some in Old Testament times who did have an insight into the meanings of these prophecies, and probably they were more numerous than those who have the right understanding of some of the unfulfilled prophecies in Ezekiel chapters 40-48; we do well therefore not to criticize these until we learn how spiritual our insight has been when we stand before the Lord.

The facts stand out clearly that God purposed in eternity past to accomplish an atonement for his fallen and sinful creatures, and that He gave a constantly expanding revelation of this fact to His creatures, so that at the time of the birth of Christ, the fact that a great One was to be born into the world was known even in Persia, so that wise men came from the east to seek Him. These facts lead us to consider yet another important facet of this, namely—

III. THE ATONEMENT AND PROVIDENCE.

All doctrines of the Scriptures are interrelated, but there is an especially close relationship between these two doctrines, for it is not enough for God to purpose the atonement; He must also make all things work together so that it will be brought to pass. Had God only purposed and promised the atonement: yet not worked effectually to bring it to pass, the malice of Satan and the depravity of fallen mankind would have wrought its defeat in the very earliest history of the human race. What God purposes to do in His "determinate counsels," He brings to pass; this is what providence is.

The plan which was formed in the councils of eternity, is accomplished, in time, by the administration of the providential government. This government is conducted in a twofold agency; partly through the instrumentality of natural laws and second causes, and partly by the immediate hand of God. —Samuel Baird, The Elohim Revealed, p. 100. Lindsay and Blakiston, Philadelphia, 1860.Through the centuries there have been many attempts to thwart God’s redemptive purposes and to overthrow the atonement, for from the moment that God promised that the seed of the woman would one day bruise the head of the seed of the serpent, the devil began to look askance at every man that was ever born into the world. Perhaps Eve thought this promise was fulfilled when Cain was born, for Genesis 4:1 is rendered by some: "I have gotten a man, even Jehovah." However, as Cain grew and developed, it became increasingly clear that he was not the Lord’s redeemer of men; but Abel, as he grew up, began to manifest more and more a godliness and love for God, and so Satan moved Cain to murder him. But this did not thwart God’s redemptive program, but only revealed Satan’s malignity more.

In Abraham’s time, when the promise of the gospel was renewed, Satan again endeavored to thwart the atonement by substituting one of his own for the promised seed, and so Abraham and Sarah, in their unwillingness to await the Lord’s fulfillment of the promise, took matters into their own hands and the result was that Ishmael was born. How often this same mistake is repeated by well-meaning persons in their attempt to get a loved one saved before the Lord has begun to work effectually in the individual. Paul says that Sarah and Hagar and their respective sons are an allegory that teach how easy it is to bring forth human seed instead of seed of the promised sort. In an excellent study on this, J. B. Moody says:

Now notice, Sarah was not allowed to conceive until it was clear that the ordinary means were utterly insufficient. The lesson is this; the weakness of human instrumentality must be supplemented by the power of the Divine agency, So the Covenant of Grace cannot bring forth except in the same way. No amount of manipulations and machinery and methods and men can produce Isaacs, but Ishmaels galore. Notice again that Sarah was the older and the only real wife, and that Hagar was a humanly devised makeshift. It was an effort to help the Almighty out of His seeming trouble. So it has always been. The human propagators of the "promised seed" get tired waiting on the slow Covenant of Grace, and resort to the fecund Hagar Covenant of works, which so easily bears fruit of its kind. —The Exceeding Riches of the Manifold Grace of God, pp. 135-136. Hall-Moody Institute, Martin, Tennessee, no date.But God’s providential dealings kept the plan of redemption safe, and in time Isaac was born, and through him Jacob, the twelve sons and ultimately the nation of Israel. But Satan was not through, and he again tried to corrupt the vehicle of the atonement by destroying the nation of Israel while in the Egyptian bondage, by putting it in the mind of Pharaoh to have all of the male children of the Israelites killed as soon as they were born. Perhaps he thought that the promised Redeemer was about to be born then. Through God’s providential dealings, this too was averted, as was the attempt to utterly corrupt Israel through false worship during the time of the kings of Israel and Judah. The same thing is true of the Babylonian captivity of the Jews. All of these were Satan’s attempts to so pervert, corrupt or destroy the channel through which the Bruiser of the head of the serpent’s seed should come, and thereby to thwart the plan of God for the redemption of man, for the atonement of men’s sins is intimately tied up with the destruction of Satan’s power, as Hebrews 2:14 reveals.

As the time of the fulfillment of God’s promise drew nigh, we find God’s providence working in two ways; first, it was of the Lord’s providence that the whim of a Roman ruler sent Joseph and Mary to the place where the Messiah was to be born (Luke 2:1-7). And second, it was of the Lord’s protective providence that when Herod, out of jealousy for his throne, ordered all of the infants in the region of Bethlehem to be slain, he was unable to do so because the infant Jesus had already been safely removed into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-23).

Satan endeavored to turn Jesus aside from the cross in one last attempt to frustrate the redemptive work of Christ by tempting Him to seek for good and right things in wrong ways and with wrong motives, (Matthew 4:10-11). Naturally, these temptations failed, and Jesus went on to fulfill the redemptive plan just as it has been ordained from the beginning. All of which is held up before our eyes for our admiration and praise, inasmuch as we are the partakers of the blessed fruits of all this. It is well stated by Samuel Baird that:

Proposing such ends as we have thus shown, God in the beginning formed a perfect plan for the accomplishment of his purpose; a plan, perfect in that it is precisely adapted to the end proposed; and perfect in the completeness of all the details, and adaptation of every minutest element of it to its distinctive office, and in the entire symmetry and harmony of the whole. —The Elohim Revealed, p. 86. Lindsay and Blakiston, Philadelphia, 1860.Samuel Hopkins also speaks of the completeness of the plan of redemption and of the marvelous fittedness of it when he says: The Covenant of Grace, when understood in the most extensive sense, comprehends all the designs and transactions respecting the redemption of man by Jesus Christ, in opposition to the covenant of works, or law of works, under which, man was first made; and is the same with the gospel, considered in its original, and the form in which it is administered, and the effects of it. —In this view, it comprehends the eternal purpose of God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, to redeem man, fixing the manner of it, and every thing that relates to it, and entering into a mutual agreement or covenant; in which the part which each Person should perform, as distinguished from the other, was fixed, and voluntarily undertaken. —System of Doctrines, Vol. II, p. 95. Isaiah Thomas and Ebenezer T. Andrews, Boston, 1793."Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places" (Ps. 135:6). How thankful we ought to be that He pleased and purposed to accomplish a redemption from sin for wicked, worthless man, and that we have been by grace made partakers of this redemptive plan. "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God" (2 Cor. 5:20).

 

By Davis W. Huckabee, Pastor,
Heritage Baptist Church,
Salem, Ohio, 44460
Source: www.obreiroaprovado.com

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