THE
ATONEMENT
CHAPTER XXVII.
God Glorified and Glorifying Himself.
WE have seen the work of atonement as a work needed by
man, applicable and applied to him for his complete justification and
deliverance. And this involves, as we have seen, Gods satisfaction with
the blessed work done on mans behalf, of which the rent vail and the
resurrection are the prompt witnesses on His part. But we have reserved to this
place, as the fittest for it, the full divine side of the cross, so far as we
can utter it. In our review of Scripture, it has necessarily often occupied us;
but in this sketch of the doctrine - now very near conclusion - it needs to be
afresh considered and put in connection with it. It is indeed, and must be, the
crowning glory of the whole.
We begin, naturally and necessarily, with
that which meets our need as sinners, and yet even so that need is never
rightly met until we have seen, not merely our sins put away, but whose hand it
is that does this. Nor must we stop here even with Christ for us. It must be
"God for us." "Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us."
Quite
true, if we have come to Christ we have come to the Father; if we know Christ
we know the Father: and so our Lord replies to Philips words which we
have just quoted. But we need to understand this. It is no long road to travel,
from the Son to the Father. The Father is perfectly and only revealed in the
Son. Yet many stop short of this for long; using Christs work more as a
shelter from God than a way to God: like Israel on that night in Egypt when God
says, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you;" but how different from the
Psalmists deeper utterance - "Thou art my hiding-place." To be hidden
from God, or hidden in God - which is our faiths experience, reader?
It is evident that in these two thoughts God is in contrasted
characters: to pass from one to the other involves a revelation. As
Philips words truly say, nothing but this last suffices the heart. God
has made it for Himself: nothing but Himself will satisfy it.
It is
true "the Son of Man must be lifted up" here is a necessity. Yes, but "God so
loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son" here is God Himself
revealed. It is the cross in each case that is contemplated, but how
differently! And it is this divine side of the cross that is now to occupy us.
God glorifies Himself in revealing Himself. He shines out. Clouds and
darkness no more encompass Him. He is in the light, and in Him is no darkness
at all. We, blessed be His name, are in the light! The darkness is passing, if
not passed. The true light already shines. Through the rent vail of the flesh
of Jesus the divine glory shines. It is of His cross our precious Redeemer
says, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God be
glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will straightway
glorify Him." These words may well serve as the text of all we have to say.
"Now is the Son of Man glorified." No ray of glory shone upon Him: all
was deepest darkness, profoundest humiliation; yet in the cross the Son of Man
was glorified. Well might He say to Peter, "Whither I go, thou canst not follow
Me now." Who but Himself could have gone down into the abyss where was no
standing, to lay again the misplaced foundations of the earth? Who but He could
have borne the awful trial of the fire of divine holiness, searching out all
the inward parts, and in that place have been but a sweet savour to an
absolutely holy God? Who but He could have assumed those sins of ours which He
calls in the prophetic psalms "My sins" and risen up again, not merely in the
might of a divine person, but in the power of a thoroughly human righteousness?
Yes, verily, "the Son of Man was glorified;" but more - "God is
glorified in Him." There are two ways in which we may look at this.
First: God was glorified by the perfect obedience of One who owed no
obedience, as He had done no wrong. He restored what He took not away. He
confessed fully a sin He had Himself to measure in infinite suffering and
alone. He confessed and proclaimed a righteousness and holiness in God to which
He surrendered Himself, vindicating it against Himself when God forsook Him as
the bearer of sin. And He presented to God a perfect humanity, fully tried and
beyond question, in which the fall was retrieved, and Gods thought in
mans creation brought out and cleared from the dishonour the first man
had cast upon it. And goodness triumphed in weakness over evil; the bruised
foot of the womans seed trod down the serpents head.
But
secondly: when we think of the mystery of His person, it is God Himself who has
taken - truly taken - this earthen vessel of a pure and true humanity, that He
might give to Himself the atonement for mans sin. It is God who has
coveted and gained capacity for weakness, suffering, and death itself, that He
might demonstrate eternal holiness, and yet manifest everlasting love to men.
It is God who has "devised means that His banished should not be expelled from
Him." And it is God who has cleared up all the darkness of this world by this
great joy found at the bottom of a cup of awful agony; who has brought out of
the eater meat, out of the strong sweetness, out of death and the grave eternal
life!
It is this revelation of God in the cross that is its moral
power. In all that He does, the Son of God is doing the Fathers
will, keeping the Fathers commandments, making known the Fathers
name. The gospel is the "gospel of God" - His good news - in which "glory to
God in the highest" coalesces with "peace on earth, delight in men". And so it
is "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." Every way
it becomes true, "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the
death of His Son." This is that moral power of the cross which some would make
the whole matter, but which can only be when found in a true atonement for our
sins. Mere exhibition would be theatrical, not real, and could not do the work
designed in it. A real need really met, a just debt paid at personal cost,
guilt measured only and removed by such a sacrifice, - this alone can lay hold
upon the heart so as to be of abiding control over it. And this does control:
"O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant and the son of Thine
handmaid; Thou hast loosed my bonds."
But the moral effect of the
cross, the power of the display of divine glory in it, is not to be measured
merely by what it accomplishes among men. Scripture has shown to us, clearly if
not in its full extent, a sphere which is far more extensive than that of
redemption. Into the "sufferings of Christ and the glories which should
follow," says the apostle Peter, "the angels desire to look." And while by it
the Redeemer, "gone up on high," has "led captivity captive," and "having
spoiled principalities and powers, made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it" - on the other hand, "God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love
wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us
together with Christ, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come He might show the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." And
more precisely the same apostle speaks of Gods "intent that now unto the
principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known through the Church
the manifold wisdom of God." (Eph. ii. 4-7; iii. 10.)
Not to us only,
nor only for our sakes, is the glory of God revealed! Would He hide from others
the glorious face which has shone upon us? On the contrary, if "the Lamb" be
"the light of" the heavenly city of the redeemed, the light of the city itself
is "like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as
crystal;" for He that sits upon the throne is "like a jasper and a sardine
stone," and the city has the glory of God (Rev. iv. 3; -xxi. 11). "Unto Him,"
says the apostle, "be glory in the Church, in Christ Jesus, through all
generations of the age of ages" (Eph. iii. 21).
God, then, being
glorified in Christ, glorifies Him in Himself, giving Him a name above every
name. "By His own blood He enters in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption" (Heb. ix. 12). Not simply as the divine Person that He
always was does He enter there, but now as the One who has by Himself purged
sins He sits down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (chap. i. 3). He is
Head over all things, Head of all principality and power, Head to the Church
which is His body (Col. i. 18; ii. 10; Eph. i. 22). His request is fulfilled:
"Father, glorify Thy Son," and the end in which His heart rests He names, "that
Thy Son also may glorify Thee "(Jno. xvii. 2).
The end and object of
all is the glory of God. It is perfectly, divinely true, that "God hath
ordained for His own glory whatsoever comes to pass." In order to guard this
from all possibility of mistake, we have only to remember who is this God, and
what the glory that He seeks. It is He who is the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, - of Him in whom divine love came seeking not her own, among us
as "One that serveth." It is He who, sufficient to Himself, can receive no real
accession of glory from His creatures, but from whom - "Love," as He is
"Light," - cometh down every good and every perfect gift, in whom is no
variableness nor shadow of turning. Of His own alone can His creatures give to
Him.
The glory of such an one is found in the display of His own
goodness, righteousness, holiness, truth; in manifesting Himself as in Christ
He has manifested Himself and will forever. The glory of this God is what of
necessity all things must serve, - adversaries and evil as well as all else. He
has ordained it; His power will insure it; and when all apparent clouds and
obstructions are removed, then shall He rest - "rest in His love" forever,
although eternity only will suffice for the apprehension of the revelation.
"God shall be all in all" gives in six words the ineffable result.
Christ, then, is the One in whom God has revealed and glorified Himself -
glorified by revealing Himself. Upon Him all the ages wait: "all things were
created by Him and for Him." He is the "Father of eternity:" Head of the Church
His body; last Adam of a new creation.
And in this eternal purpose of
God we have our place, therefore, and how blessed an one -"chosen in Him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love"! (Eph. i. 4) "That in the ages to come He might show forth the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" -
"God, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ; and hath raised us up together, and
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
The cross of
Christ was an absolute necessity for the salvation of men; but it is more - it
is an absolute necessity for the fulfillment of Gods eternal purpose to
show forth the exceeding riches of His grace. In it already has been
accomplished that which is the wonder and joy of heaven, the fullest song on
the lips of her adoring worshippers. But the grace in this must have full
expression - the fullest. He who has become a man for our salvation cannot give
up again the manhood He has assumed. Service is the fruit of love. He has taken
the place of service, and will keep it: the love is not temporary, but eternal,
in His heart; the expression of it should be as eternal as the love.
And if He come down to this place, and as man lead the praises of His
people, men must be in the nearest place to Him; that it may be, not merely
compassion seen in Him, but love; and love, free, unearned, divine, the
exceeding riches of the grace of God.
Thus, too, the cross is
honoured, exalted, lifted up before the eyes of all the universe. That He died;
for what He died; how gloriously the work has been achieved. While the arms
that thus are thrown around men encircle all: for it is God in Christ who has
done this, and who is this - God, the God and Father of all.
There are
various circles and ranks among the redeemed in glory. There are earthly and
heavenly, and differences too among these. This of course implies no difference
in justification, in the atonement made alike for all. A common salvation has
been taken generally to mean a common place for every one of the saved; and the
special place and privileges of the body of Christ have been assumed to belong
to all of these. But Scripture is as plain as need be that this is not so.
There will be, of those whose names are written in heaven, a church of
first-born ones, as there will be a company of "spirits of just men made
perfect" - a suited designation of Old-Testament saints (Heb. xii. 23). There
will be a new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness, as there is an
"inheritance reserved in heaven" for believers now (i Pet. i. 4; 2 Pet. iii.
13). I cannot dwell upon this here, and yet if it is not seen, there must be
real and great confusion. But all in these different places are blood-washed
ones alike: the same sacrifice has been made for all; His name under whom Judah
shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely will be, for them as for us, "The
Lord our Righteousness" (Jer. xxiii. 6). Yet Israels promises are
earthly, and not heavenly. We see, then, that to have "Christ made unto us
righteousness" involves no necessary place in heaven.
And yet the
cross is the sufficient justification of whatever place can be given to a
creature; and it has pleased God to take out of the Gentiles a people for His
name, to make known the value of the cross and show forth the exceeding riches
of His grace. In Christ we are already seated in the heavenly places, and where
He is is to be our place forever. This we know; and it is part of the blessed
plan in which God in Christ shall be fully made known, to the deepest joy and
adoration of His creatures.
We are reminded here of the unequal
offerings of the day of atonement, - the bullock for the priesthood, and the
two goats for the nation of Israel. They are types of the same sacrifice, but
in different aspects; and the priesthood clearly represent the heavenly family,
as the holy place to which they belong represents the heavenly places
themselves. We have considered this already, however, in its place.
And now we may close this brief and imperfect sketch of an all-important
subject by reminding our readers of the way in which the Lamb - the atoning
victim - fills the eye all through the book of Revelation. Not only by the
blood of the Lamb the saints robes are washed and the victors overcome;
not only is it the Lamb that the redeemed celebrate, while the wicked dread His
wrath; but He is the opener of the seven-sealed book, the interpreter of the
divine counsels; His is the book of life, and the first-fruits from the earth,
and the bride the Lambs wife; the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the
temple of the city; the glory of God lightens it, and the Lamb is the light;
while the river of the water of life flows eternally from the throne of God and
of the Lamb.
"Soon shall our eyes behold Thee,
With rapture, face
to face;
One half hath not been told me
Of all Thy power and grace.
Thy beauty, Lord, and glory,
The wonders of Thy love
Shall be the
endless story
Of all Thy saints above."
F. W. G.
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