WesleyGospel Ministries

16:00 – Dr. Gerstner says that evil does not come from God himself, because God is good in nature. And because God is good all the time, so also are his plans and purposes. Evil, therefore, originates from something other than God; evil, is something that has come up and risen against God and his good purposes for mankind and the universe. However, even though God allows evil to exist, his attitude toward evil is to work around it, and turn evil’s plans around into something that can be used for good. The crucifixion, for example. To make lemonade out of lemons, so to speak. Rather than omnipotently destroying evil’s existence in a single moment, the general attitude of the God of the Bible, is to take evil as a unit, and work around it, and offer a way out of it. The free choice of angels, demons, men, women, and God are all allowed to exist, and to act, and to place faith in either the Gospel or the various evils that Satan has wreacked upon mankind through temptation, delusion, and sin in the world.

18:30 – Dr. Gerstner says that evil must have originated from beings which were created good, just like God is, like the angels in heaven, and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Good creatures made with a good nature, and created by a good God. One of these good creatures, which was good in nature, and came down from the good mind of God, must have fallen through choice. The Bible tells us that the first good creature to choose evil was a cherubic angel named Lucifer, Satan, and the devil (Ezekiel 28:13-15; Isaiah 14:12-15; Luke 10:18). The second stage of evil was when he led a third of God’s angels in rebellion to become demons (Revelation 12:3, 4, 9). The third stage was when Eve was deceived by Satan in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 3:1-7. –J.B.

²⁵ They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. ²⁶ Because of this, God gave them over to SHAMEFUL LUSTS. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for UNNATURAL ones. ²⁷ In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. ²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a DEPRAVED MIND, so that they do what ought not to be done.
–Romans 1:25-28 (NIV)–

THY WORD HAVE I HID IN MINE HEART,
that I might not sin against thee.
–Psalm 119:11 (KJV)–

I PUNISH MY BODY AND ENSLAVE IT,
so that after proclaiming to others
I myself should not be disqualified.
–1 Corinthians 9:27 (NRSV)–

Homosexuals always try to give the impression they are more numerous than they actually are. Their numbers are growing, but they still represent a small percentage of our total population. Those who are given over completely to homosexuality preach that all of us have latent tendencies and could become more homo than hetero. There is no truth to that at all. Many young people who had a homosexual experience in high school or college have overcome even the memory of it and are happily married and normal. They are fortunate. Many others never got out and are now hooked. Homosexuality is not incurable. Homosexuals can and do change. Homosexual urges, no matter how strong, need not be permanent. The cure is more likely for those under 25 years who have not developed a strong attachment to one person. Those who are confirmed homosexuals stand very little chance of being cured unless they become totally desperate to change. In one survey, of 300 homosexuals interviewed, only 3% expressed a desire to change. The homosexual who proudly flaunts his way of life and scoffs at every attempt to help him is incurable. A cure is possible only in the case of one who desperately despises his homosexuality, who wants out, and who still believes it is possible to be cured. There is much controversy today about a cure for homosexuals, but I can prove, by the testimony of many I have counseled, there is a cure. It is not a hopeless addiction for anyone who wants to live a different life. God has power to change the very nature of man. I have never met a truly happy homosexual. The majority are sad, lonely, full of fear, shame, guilt, anxiety and torment. Homosexuals are being cured all over the world. God can cure you and will if you really want Him to. Desperation is the key word. Cry out in faith. –David Wilkerson

I believe that toxic family members should be avoided, but the definition should be Biblical in its source, not humanistic or secular (see Laban in Genesis 24-31 and Saul in 1 Samuel 18-20 as examples; and Jesus’ teaching on division within families in Matthew 10:34-37, 12:48-50, and Luke 14:26-27). But I’m under the impression that a lot of Gen Zers are going overboard on the cutting off “toxic” family members theme: and that this overboardness is anti-Christian, “exvangelical,” agnostic, and secular humanist in perspective: and is not based on Biblical principles like avoiding the ungodly (Ps. 1:1; 2 Cor. 6:14-18; James 4:4). This secular therapy toxic avoidance concept seems to be more based on supporting agnostic lifestyles and sexual immorality. A mentality that says, “If you can’t affirm my gay marriage or my trans identity, then you’re a toxic family member I should cut off,” or “If you can’t affirm and agree and support me living in polygamy like in the TV show Sister Wives, then you’re a toxic family member I should cut off.” See my e-book Nurture and Admonition. –J.B.

Where do you stand in this battle cry tribal soldier?
Represent I and I, Jah Jah warriors!
Where do you stand in this battle cry tribal soldier?
Represent I and I, Jah Jah warriors!
Where do you stand in this battle cry tribal soldier?
Represent I and I, Jah Jah warriors!
Where do you stand in this battle cry tribal soldier?
Represent I and I, Jah Jah warriors!

The reconstruction commences
The soldiers equip for the lessons
My life, a sacrifice is made new through these confessions
Manifested, this joy is my desire
Light this fire to flames
Praise the name Jehovah Jireh
Is my provider the truth that lives inside of this fighter?
Take me higher, master, sire makes me a good rider
I’m gonna ride on down ’til I break through the front lines
And ain’t going home until I gets mine’s
Tribal warriors

I grab ahold of my second chance
This time gonna make it last
Left the world, came back an outcast
To lie among the remains
Through the trials and the pains
Run for cover, make shelter, uncharted terrains
Bloodstains light the path to the ways of livin’ breath
And my soul’s put to the test next
Blessed with a mic in my hand
Jah make straight my steps
So then I hooked up with Payable On Death
We flow in unity
Stand in one while the foolish be
Lost in this hour
With power we have authority
To overcome while these cowards just pick up and run
Well we ain’t done ’til this battle’s been fought and won
This victory, how sweet it be, is already ours
Holding the stars, is the man that carries my scars
Always the same, wear his name with no shame
Here in this battle cry, we will never die

We will never die, tribal warriors
We will never die!
We will never die! Tribal warriors!
We will never die! Tribal warriors!
We will never die!

I want to know…

–P.O.D., “Tribal”–

—

We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
–Romans 3:28 (ESV)–

Come near to God and he will come near to you. 
Wash your hands, you sinners,
and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
–James 4:8 (NIV)–

We are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort.
–IX. OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN–

Although good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, can not put away our sins, and endure the severity of God’s judgments; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and spring out of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree is discerned by its fruit.
–X. OF GOOD WORKS–

—

Dr. John R. Rice, The Unequal Yoke (Sword of the Lord, 1946).

—. Why Preach Against Sin? (Sword of the Lord, 1985).

WesleyGospel, “Teaching As Doctrines the Commandments of Men.”

Liberal theology would have Bible believers to be ashamed about hellfire preaching. Any sort of “nice vs. mean” dichotomy over this subject comes from people who reject the existence of Hell as a real place in the realm of the spirit. Step 1: A person stops believing in the existence of Hell. Step 2: A person stops preaching about Hell and eternal punishment and thinks that it’s a joke or something trivial. Step 3: A person reframes their faith in terms of “relationships” and how to best cultivate them by talking about Biblical revelation in the “nicest” way possible–that is, by avoiding the absolute meanness, divine hatred, anger, wrath, horror, and terror of eternal punishment. Something a nice unbeliever in the supernatural has no problem doing away with.

Preaching the doctrine of Hell as eternal punishment in fire is supposed to be done by those who actually believe in it; not as something they force themselves to accept, but because they actually believe in it. Emotional regulation is not the driving force when the Spirit of God gets hold of a man to preach his guts out on this revealed doctrine: it will be characterized by urgency and agony, whether it’s regarding the holy hatred of God at his enemies, or Spirit-filled preaching on the wrath and judgment of God’s omnipotent power; being then directed to repentance and the substitutionary atonement of the cross for the sinner. It is wrong to succumb to the romantic sentimentality of liberals and their unbelief about Hell’s existence; all so that the Kindness and Niceness of American cosmopolitanism and workplace tolerance, are made to sit in judgment on the doctrine of Hell, and scoff at it’s evangelists with triviality. To do such is to trifle with the Word of God, unseriously, and having no fear of the Lord in our faith! Like Obstinate and Pliable who tried to dissuade Christian from embarking on Pilgrim’s Progress. To do such is to put out of our minds the reality of death, judgment, Heaven and Hell, the afterlife, eternity, and the immortality of the soul. These revelations are the foundation for the Atonement: which is the heart of the Gospel message.

Where’d all those people go in our history books? All those people in the cemetery down the block? The same could be said about the Biblical doctrine regarding the devil. Where’d all the schizophrenics go? Locked away out of sight in some mental hospital, tormented by the demons that the local pastors are unwilling to cast out, because they just came out of a children’s ministry room filled with little kids and bright colored toys. But what will he do to scare the fornicators, adulterers, and secret child molesters in his church? Or the embezzlers, the Judas looking after the money bag? Preaching to provoke a fight or flight response! Without this there can be no conversion and no sanctification in the church of Christ! Proverbs 16:6: “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” The God of the Bible is not so loving, and so rated G, that he’s unwilling to COMBUST AND CUT APART THE BODIES of “the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars” (Rev. 21:8; cf. Matt. 24:51). God did not choose to reveal himself to Scripture writers in a time of scientific materialism and sissified romanticism, but in an age of occultism, and barbaric ancient warfare akin to a Braveheart battle scene, or an ’80s body horror movie. In his providence, God wisely chose to reveal himself in Scripture in those ancient and “barbaric” time periods, instead of this highly sanitized culture loaded up with pills! Look at the beast, the false prophet, and the devil violently thrown into the lake that burns with fire and sulfur! Along with all those people who’s names are not found written in the book of life! (Rev. 20:10, 15). What will you say to the people of the earth now, pastor! What will you say, and care about to preach, once you become fully conscious of the raging tunnel of fire, that rotates and twists out of the attribute of God’s wrath for all eternity, and then lands on the heads of “the wicked,” for “he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest!” (Psalm 11:6). The unbelieving pastor will die and sink into A WORLD OF BARBARIC VIOLENCE AND HORRORS that he has never known! He had kept those things out of his mind while he was alive. He always avoided the horror section at Blockbuster because he “wasn’t into that” as he used to say. But this has become his eternal existence from which there is no escape. What a great fool he was to not believe what the Word of God said about it! What an eternally miserable character in a “movie” with billions of extras, in a wasteland where God forgets the offscouring of mankind, which touches the mental and physical senses; one which is not called Dante’s Inferno, but is simply a place called Hell. Extreme pain in fire, flesh eating botfly larvae, sorrow, anger, fear, incessant phobias, loud shrieks and cries, caverns, darkness, and monsters are all he will know forever! –J.B.

—

Dr. William G. T. Shedd, The Doctrine of Endless Punishment (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1886; The Banner of Truth Trust, 1986).

Drs. Christopher Morgan and Robert Peterson, Hell Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents Eternal Punishment (Zondervan, 2004), ch. 8: “Universalism: Will Everyone Ultimately Be Saved?” (J. I. Packer).

Dr. John R. Rice, Hell: What the Bible Says About It (Sword of the Lord, 1945).

Dr. Robert Peterson, Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment (P&R Publishing, 1995), ch. 8: “False Witnesses (1): Universalism.”

Rev. Harry Buis, The Doctrine of Eternal Punishment (P&R Publishing, 1957), ch. 7: “Denials and Their Answers.”

Dr. John Walvoord, “The Literal View,” in Four Views on Hell (Zondervan, 1996).

Dr. John Gerstner, Repent or Perish: With a Special Reference to the Conservative Attack on Hell (Soli Deo Gloria, 1997).

Drs. Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology: Church and the Last Things, Volume 4 (Crossway, 2024), ch. 39: “Eternal Punishment in Hell, Part 2: Objections and Applications.”

Originally from here.
Taken from Charles Hodge’s Systematic Theology, vol. 2, p. 507.

The Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah.

It is not however only in the typical services of the old economy that this great doctrine was set forth in the Hebrew Scriptures. In the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah this doctrine is presented with a clearness and copiousness which have extorted assent from the most unwilling minds. The prophet in that chapter not only foretells that the Messiah was to be a man of sorrows; not only that He was to suffer the greatest indignities and be put to a violent death; not only that these sufferings were endured for the benefit of others; but that they were truly vicarious, i.e., that He suffered, in our stead, the penalty which we had incurred, in order to our deliverance. This is done not only in those forms of expression which most naturally admit of this interpretation, but in others which can, consistently with usage and the analogy of Scripture, be understood in no other way. To the former class belong such expressions as the following, “He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.” Our griefs and our sorrows are the griefs and sorrows which we deserved. These Christ bore in the sense of enduring, for He carried them as a burden. “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.” “With his stripes we are healed.” “For the transgression of my people was he stricken.” These phrases might be used of the sufferings of a patriot for his country, of a philanthropist for his fellow-men, or of a friend for those dear to him. That they however are most naturally understood of vicarious suffering, can hardly be denied, And that they were intended by the Spirit of God to be so understood, is plain by their being intermingled with expressions which admit of no other interpretation. To this class belong the following clauses: First, “the chastisement (or punishment) of our peace was upon him.” That is, the punishment by which our peace was secured. Of this clause Delitzsch, one of the very first of living Hebraists, says,⁴³¹ “Der Begriff der pœna vicaria kann hebräisch gar nicht schärfer ausgedrückt werden als in jenen Worten.” “The idea of vicarious punishment cannot be more precisely expressed in Hebrew than by those words.” Secondly, it is said, “The Lord hath laid on him (caused to fall, or, cast on him) the iniquity of us all.” We have already seen that this is the language used in the Old Testament to express the transfer of the guilt of the offender to the victim slain in his stead. They have a definite Scriptural meaning, which cannot be denied in this case without doing open violence to admitted rules of interpretation. “If,” says Dr. J. Addison Alexander,⁴³² “vicarious suffering can be described in words, it is so described in these two verses;” i.e., the verses in which this clause occurs. Thirdly, it is said of the Messiah that He made, or was to make “his soul an offering for sin.” The Hebrew word is אָשָּׁם, guilt, debt; and then an offering which bears guilt and expiates it. It is the common word in the Levitical law for “trespass offering.” Michaelis in his marginal annotations, remarks on this word (Isaiah liii. 10), “Delictum significat, ut notet etiam sacrificium, cui delictum imputatum est. Vide passim, inprimis Lev. iv. 3; v. 6, 7, 16; vii. 1, etc., etc. . . . . Recte etiam Raschi ad h. 1. ‘Ascham,’ inquit, ‘significat satisfactionem, seu lytron, quod quis alteri exsolvit, in quem deliquit, Gallice, Amande, i.e. mulcta.’” The literal meaning of the words, therefore, is, His soul was made a satisfaction for sin. Fourthly, it is said, “My righteous servant shall justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” “He was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many.” It has already been shown that to “bear sin” never means to sanctify, to effect a moral change by removing the power and pollution of sin, but uniformly, in the sacrificial language of the Bible, to bear the guilt or penalty for sin.

Passages of the Hew Testament in which the Work of Christ is set forth as Sacrifice.

In Romans iii. 25, it is said, He was set forth as “a propitiation through faith in his blood.” The word here used is ἱλαστήριον, the neuter form of the adjective ἱλαστήριος (“propitiatory, expiatory”) used substantively. It therefore means, as Robinson and other lexicographers define it, and as the great body of interpreters explain it, “an expiatory sacrifice.” The meaning of the word is determined by the context and confirmed by parallel passages. The design of setting forth Christ as a ἱλαστήριον was precisely that which an expiatory sacrifice was intended to accomplish, namely, to satisfy justice, that God might be just in the forgiveness of sin. And the δικαιοσυνη of God manifested in the sacrifice of Christ, was not his benevolence, but that form of justice which demands the punishment of sin. “It is a fundamental idea of Scripture,” says Delitzsch, “that sin is expiated (יְכֻפַּר) by punishment, as murder by the death of the murderer.”⁴³³ Again, “Where there is shedding of blood and of life, there is violent death, and where a violent death is (judicially) inflicted, there there is manifestation of vindicatory justice, der strafenden Gerechtigkeit.”⁴³⁴ In like manner, in Romans viii. 3, the Apostle says, God sent his Son as a sin offering (περὶ ἁμαρτίας, which in Hellenistic Greek means an offering for sin, Hebrews x. 6), and thereby condemned sin in the flesh, that is, in the flesh or person of Christ. And thus it is that we are justified, or the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us. The same Apostle, in Galatians i. 4, says that Christ “gave himself for our sins.” That is, He gave Himself unto death as a sacrifice for our sins that He might effect our redemption. Such is the plain meaning of this passage, if understood according to the established usage of the Scripture. “The idea of satisfaction,” says Meyer, on this passage, “lies not in the force of the preposition [ὑπέρ] but in the nature of the transaction, in dem ganzen Sachverhältniss.” In Ephesians v. 2, it is said Christ gave “himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.” His offering was a sacrifice (θυσίαν). His blood was shed as an expiation. The question, says Meyer, whether Christ is here represented as a sin offering, “is decided not so much by ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν as by the constant New Testament, and specially the Pauline, conception of the death of Christ as a ἱλαστήριον.” Hebrews ix. 14, is especially important and decisive. The Apostle, in the context, contrasts the sacrifices of the law with that of Christ. If the former, consisting of the blood of irrational animals, nothing but the principle of animal life, could avail to effect external or ceremonial purification, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who was possessed of an eternal spirit, or divine nature, and offered Himself without spot unto God, avail to the purification of the conscience, i.e., effect the real expiation of sin. The purification spoken of in both members of this comparison, is purification from guilt, and not spiritual renovation. The Old Testament sacrifices were expiatory and not reformatory, and so was the sacrifice of Christ. The certain result and ultimate design in both cases was reconciliation to the favour and fellowship of God; but the necessary preliminary condition of such reconciliation was the expiation of guilt. Again, toward the end of the same chapter, the Apostle says that Christ was not called upon to “offer himself often, . . . for 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.” The offering which He made was Himself. Its design and effect were to put away sin; i.e., to put away sin as was done by expiatory sacrifices. This is confirmed by what follows. Christ came the first time “to bear the sins of many;” He is to come the second time “without sin,” without that burden which, on his first advent, He had voluntarily assumed. He was then burdened with our sins in the sense in which the ancient sacrifices bore the sins of the people. He bore their guilt; that is, he assumed the responsibility of making satisfaction for them to the justice of God. When He comes the second time, it will not be as a sin offering, but to consummate the salvation of his people. The parallel passage to this is found in 2 Corinthians v. 21: “He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin,” The design of the Apostle is to explain how it is that God is reconciled unto the world, not imputing unto men their trespasses. He is free thus to pardon and treat as righteous those who in themselves are unrighteous, because for us and in our stead He who was without sin was treated as a sinner. The sense in which Christ was treated as a sinner is, says Meyer, in loco “in dem er nämlich die Todesstrafe erlitt, in that he suffered the punishment of death.” Here again the idea of the pœna vicaria is clearly expressed.

In Hebrews x. 10, we are said to be “sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” The word ἁγιάζειν, here rendered sanctify, means to cleanse. Sin is, in Scripture, always regarded as a defilement in both its aspects of guilt and moral turpitude. As guilt, it is cleansed by blood, by sacrificial expiation, as defilement, by the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Which kind of purification is intended is determined in each case by the context. If the purification is effected by sacrifice, by the blood or death of Christ, then the removal of guilt is intended. Hence, all the passages in which we are said to be saved, or reconciled unto God, or purified, or sanctified by the blood or death of Christ, must be regarded as so many assertions that He was an expiatory sacrifice for sin. In this passage the meaning of the Apostle cannot be mistaken. He is again contrasting the sacrifices of the Old Testament with that of Christ. They were ineffectual, the latter was of sovereign efficacy. “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. Lo, I come to do thy will.” By which will, i.e., by the execution of this purpose of sending his incarnate Son, we are cleansed by the one offering up of his body. The ancient sacrifices, he says (verse 11), had to be constantly repeated. “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God.” “For by one offering he hath perfected forever (τετελείωκεν, brought to the end contemplated by a sacrifice) them that are sanctified,” i.e., cleansed from guilt. That sacrificial cleansing is here intended is plain, for the effect of it is pardon. “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.” And in verse 26, we are taught that for those who reject the sacrifice of Christ there remains “no more sacrifice for sins; but a certain fearful looking for of judgment.” It was pardon, therefore, founded upon the expiation of sin, that was secured by the sacrifice of Christ. And this is declared to be the only possible means by which our guilt can be removed, or the justice of God satisfied. It is to be always borne in mind, however, that the end of expiation is reconciliation with God, and that reconciliation with God involves or secures conformity to his image and intimate fellowship with Him. The ultimate design of the work of Christ is, therefore, declared to be to “bring us to God;” to “purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.” The removal of guilt by expiation is, however, constantly set forth as the absolutely essential preliminary to this inward subjective reconciliation with God. This is a necessity, as the Scriptures teach, arising out of the nature of God as a holy and just Being.

What Paul teaches so abundantly of the sacrificial death of Christ is taught by the Apostle John (First Epistle, ii. 2). Jesus Christ “is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” The word here used is ἱλασμός, propitiation, expiation; from “ἱλάσκομαι, to reconcile one’s self to any one by expiation, to appease, to propitiate.” And in chapter iv. 10, it is said, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The inconsistency between love, and expiation or satisfaction for sin, which modern writers so much insist upon, was not perceived by men who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. In chapter i. 7, this same Apostle says, “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” To cleanse, καθαρίζειν, καθαίρειν, καθαρισμόν ποιεῖν, ἁγιάζειν, λούειν (Revelation i. 5) are established sacrificial terms to express the removal of the guilt of sin by expiation.

The above are only a part of the passages in which our blessed Lord is, in the New Testament, set forth as a sin offering, in the Scriptural sense of that term. What is thus taught is taught by other forms of expression which imply the expiatory character of his death, or his priestly function of making satisfaction for sin. Thus in Hebrews ix. 28, it is said, “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” This is a quotation from Isaiah liii. 12, where the same word is used in the Septuagint that the Apostle here employs. The meaning of the Scriptural phrase “to bear sin” has already been sufficiently discussed. Robinson, who will not be suspected of theological bias, defines, in his “Greek Lexicon,” the word in question (ἀναφέρω) in the formula ἀνενεγκεῖν τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν, “to bear up our sins, to take upon oneself and bear our sins, i.e., to bear the penalty of sin, to make expiation for sin.” This is the sense in which the sacrifices of old were said to bear the sins of the people, and in which it was said that one man, in God’s dealings with his theocratic people, should not bear the sins of another. Delitzsch, on Hebrews ix. 28, says,⁴³⁵ “This assumption of the sufferings which the sins of men had caused, into fellowship with whom He had entered, this bearing as a substitute the punishment of sins not his own, this expiatory suffering for the sins of others, is precisely what ἀνενεγκεῖν ἀμαρτίας πολλῶν in this passage means, and is the sense intended in the Italic and Vulgate versions; ‘ad multorum exhaurienda peccata.’” He quotes with approbation the comment of Seb. Schmidt: “Quia mors in hominibus pœna est, Christus oblatus est moriendo, ut morte sua portaret omnium hominum peccata h. e. omnes peccatorum pœnas exæquaret satisfaciendo.”⁴³⁶

Nearly the same language is used by the Apostle Peter (First Epistle, ii. 24). “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” Whether ἀναφέρω here means sufferre, to bear or endure, or sursum ferre, to carry up, the sense is the same. Only the figure is altered. Christ bore the guilt of our sins. This is the burden which He sustained; or which He carried up with Him when He ascended the cross. In the parallel passage in Isaiah liii. 11, evidently in the Apostle’s mind, the words are in the Septuagint, τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν αὐτὸς ἀνοίσει, where in Hebrew יִסְבֹּל is used, which appears decisive in favour of the rendering in our version, He “bare our sins,” as סָבַל always means to bear as a burden. As to the doctrinal meaning of this passage commentators of almost all classes agree. Wahl, in his “Lexicon,” on the word ἀναφέρω referring to this place, makes it mean “peccatorum pœnam et reatum ultro in se suscipit.” Bretschneider (Rationalist) thus defines the word, “attollo et mihi impono, i.e., impositum mihi porto, tropice de pœnis: pœnam susceptam luo; Heb. ix. 28. . . . . Vide etiam Num. xiv. 33, ἀνοίσουσι τήν πορνείαν ὑμῶν, pœna vestræ perfidiæ illis persolvenda est.” Wegscheider, the chief of the systematic theologians among the Rationalists,⁴³⁷ referring to this passage, 1 Peter ii. 24, says that almost all the New Testament writers regard the death of Christ “tanquam [mortem] expiatoriam, eandemque vicariam, velut pœnam peccatorum hominum omnium ab ipso susceptam, etc.” Calvin does not go beyond these Rationalists; his comment is, “Sicuti sub lege peccator, ut reatu solveretur, victimam substituebat suo loco: ita Christus maledictionem peccatis nostris debitam in se suscepit, ut ea coram Deo expiaret. Hoc beneficium sophistæ in suis scholis, quantum possunt, obscurant.”

Another form of expression used by the sacred writers clearly teaches the expiatory character of Christ’s work. Under the old economy, the great function of the high priest was to make expiation for sin, and thereby restore the people to the favour of God, and secure for them the blessings of the covenant under which they lived. All this was typical of Christ and of his work. He came to save his people from their sins, to restore them to the favour of God, and to secure for them the enjoyment of the blessings of the new and better covenant of which He is the mediator. He, therefore, assumed our nature in order that He might die, and by death effect our reconciliation with God. For as He did not undertake the redemption of angels, but the redemption of man, it was the nature of man that He assumed. He was made in all things like unto his brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, εἰς τὸ ἱλάσκεσθαι τάς ἁμαρτίας τοῦ λαοῦ, to make expiation for the sins of the people. The word ἱλάσκομαι (or ἐξιλάσκομαι) is the technical word in Hellenistic Greek to express the idea of expiation. In common Greek, the word means propitium reddere, and in the passive form it is used in this sense in the Septuagint as in Psalm lxxix. 9. But in the middle and deponent form followed by the word sins in the accusative, it always expresses the act by which that in sin is removed which hinders God from being propitious. This is the precise idea of expiation. Hence the word is so constantly rendered in the Vulgate by expiare, and is in Greek the rendering of כַּפֵּר. Hence Christ as He who renders God propitious to us is called the ἱλασμὸς περὶ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν in 1 John ii. 2, and ἱλαστήριον in Romans iii. 25.

Still another form in which the doctrine of expiation is taught is found in those passages which refer our reconciliation to God to the death of Christ. The Greek word used to express this idea in Romans v. 10; 2 Corinthians v. 18, 19, 20, is καταλλάσσειν, to exchange, or to change the relation of one person to another, from enmity to friendship. In Ephesians ii. 16; Colossians i. 20, 21, the word used is ἀποκαταλλάττειν, only an intensive form, to reconcile fully. When two parties are at enmity a reconciliation may be effected by a change in either or in both. When, therefore, it is said that we are reconciled to God, it only means that peace is restored between Him and us. Whether this is effected by our enmity towards Him being removed, or by his justice in regard to us being satisfied, or whether both ideas are in any case included, depends on the context where the word occurs, and on the analogy of Scripture. In the chief passage, Romans v. 10, the obvious meaning is that the reconciliation is effected by God’s justice being satisfied, so that He can be favourable to us in consistency with his own nature. This is plain, —

1. Because the means by which the reconciliation is effected is “the death of his Son.” The design of sacrificial death is expiation. It would be to do violence to all Scriptural usage to make the proximate design and effect of a sacrifice the removal of the sinner’s enmity to God.

2. “Being reconciled by the death of his Son,” in verse 10, is parallel to the clause “being justified by his blood” in verse 9. The one is exchanged for the other, as different forms of expressing the same idea. But justification is not sanctification. It does not express a subjective change in the sinner. And, therefore, the reconciliation here spoken of cannot express any such change.

3. Those reconciled are declared to be ἐχθροί, in the passive sense of the word, “those who are the objects of God’s just displeasure.” They are guilty. Justice demands their punishment. The death of Christ, as satisfying justice, reconciles God to us; effects peace, so that we can be received into favour.

4. What is here taught is explained by all those passages which teach the method by which the reconciliation of God and man is effected, namely, by the expiation of sin. Meyer, on this passage, says, “κατηλλάγημεν and καταλλαγέντες must of necessity be understood passively: ausgesöhnt mit Gott, atoned for in the sight of God, so that he no longer is hostile to us; he has said aside his anger, and we are made partakers of his grace and favour.” The same doctrine is taught in Ephesians ii. 16. “That he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross.” Here again the reconciliation of God with man is effected by the cross or death of Christ, which, removing the necessity for the punishment of sinners, renders it possible for God to manifest towards them his love. The change is not in man, but, humanly speaking, in God; a change from the purpose to punish to a purpose to pardon and save. There is, so to speak, a reconciliation of God’s justice and of his love effected by Christ’s bearing the penalty in our stead. In 2 Corinthians v. 18, it is said, God “hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” This does not mean that God changed our heart, and made us love Him, and appointed the Apostle to announce that fact. It can only mean that through Christ, through what He did and suffered for us, peace is restored between God and man, who is able and willing to be gracious. This is the gospel which Paul was commissioned to announce, namely, as follows in the next verse, God is bringing about peace; He was in Christ effecting this peace, and now is ready to forgive sin, i.e., not to impute unto men their trespasses; and therefore the Apostle urges his readers to embrace this offer of mercy, to be reconciled unto God; i.e., to accept his overture of reconciliation. For it has a sure foundation. It rests on the substitution and vicarious death of Christ. He was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. It is impossible, therefore, that the reconciliation of which the Apostles speak as effected by the cross or death of Christ, should, in its primary and main aspect, be a subjective change in us from enmity to the love of God. It is such a reconciliation as makes God our friend; a reconciliation which enables Him to pardon and save sinners, and which they are called upon most gratefully to embrace.

It is clearly, therefore, the doctrine of the New Testament, that Jesus Christ our Lord saves his people by acting for them the part of a priest. For this office He had all the requisite qualifications; He was thereto duly appointed, and He performed all its functions. He was an expiatory sacrifice for the sins of men. He is not only repeatedly declared to be a sin offering in the Old Testament sense of that term; but He is said to have borne our sins; to have made expiation for the sins of the people; and to have reconciled us, who were the just objects of the divine wrath, to God by his death, by his cross, by the sacrifice of Himself. These representations are so frequent; they are so formally stated, so illustrated, and so applied, as to render them characteristic. They constitute the essential element of the Scriptural doctrine concerning the method of salvation.

Christ our Redeemer.

There is a third class of passages equally numerous and equally important. Christ is not only set forth as a Priest and as a sacrifice, but also as a Redeemer, and his work as a Redemption. Redemption is deliverance from evil by the payment of a ransom. This idea is expressed by the words ἀπολύτρωσις, from λύτρον, and the verbs λυτρός, ἀγοράζω (to purchase), and ἐξαγοράζω (to buy from, or deliver out of the possession or power of any one by purchase). The price or ransom paid for our redemption is always said to be Christ himself, his blood, his death. As the evils consequent on our apostasy from God are manifold, Christ’s work as a Redeemer is presented in manifold relations in the word of God.

Redemption from the Penalty of the Law.

1. The first and most obvious consequence of sin, is subjection to the penalty of the law. The wages of sin is death. Every sin of necessity subjects the sinner to the wrath and curse of God. The first step, therefore, in the salvation of sinners, is their redemption from that curse. Until this is done they are of necessity separated from God. But alienation from Him of necessity involves both misery and subjection to the power of sin. So long as men are under the curse, they are cut off from the only source of holiness and life. Such is the doctrine taught throughout the Bible, and elaborately in Romans, chapters vi. and vii. In effecting the salvation of his people, Christ “redeemed them from the curse of the law,” not by a mere act of sovereignty, or power; not by moral influence restoring them to virtue, but by being “made a curse for them.” No language can be plainer than this. The curse is the penalty of the law. We were subject to that penalty. Christ has redeemed us from that subjection by being made a curse for us. (Galatians iii. 13.) That the infinitely exalted and holy Son of God should be “accursed” (ἐπικατάρατος), is so awful an idea, that the Apostle justifies the use of such language by quoting the declaration of Scripture, “Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” Suffering, and especially the suffering of death, judicially inflicted on account of sin, is penal. Those who thus suffer bear the curse or penalty of the law. The sufferings of Christ, and especially his death upon the cross, were neither calamities, nor chastisements designed for his own good, nor symbolical or didactic exhibitions, designed to illustrate and enforce truth, and exert a moral influence on others; these are all subordinate and collateral ends. Nor were they the mere natural consequences of his becoming a man and subjecting Himself to the common lot of humanity. They were divine inflictions. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He was smitten of God and afflicted. These sufferings were declared to be on account of sin, not his own, but ours. He bore our sins. The chastisement of our peace was on Him. And they were designed as an expiation, or for the satisfaction of justice. They had, therefore, all the elements of punishment, and consequently it was in a strict and proper sense that He was made a curse for us. All this is included in what the Apostle teaches in this passage (Gal. iii. 13), and its immediate context.

Redemption from the Law.

2. Nearly allied to this mode of representation are those passages in which Christ is said to have delivered us from the law. Redemption from bondage to the law includes not only deliverance from its penalty, but also from the obligation to satisfy its demands. This is the fundamental idea of Paul’s doctrine of justification. The law demands, and from the nature of God, must demand perfect obedience. It says, Do this and live; and, “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” No man since the fall is able to fulfil these demands, yet He must fulfil them or perish. The only possible method, according to the Scriptures, by which men can be saved, is that they should be delivered from this obligation of perfect obedience. This, the Apostle teaches, has been effected by Christ. He was “made under the law to redeem them that were under the law.” (Gal. iv. 4, 5.) Therefore, in Romans vi. 14, he says to believers, “Ye are not under the law, but under grace.” And this redemption from the law in Romans vii. 4, is said to be “by the body of Christ.” Hence we are justified not by our own obedience, but “by the obedience” of Christ. (Rom. v. 18, 19.) Redemption in this case is not mere deliverance, but a true redemption, i. e., a deliverance effected by satisfying all the just claims which are against us. The Apostle says, in Galatians iv. 5, that we are thus redeemed from the law, in order “that we might receive the adoption of sons”; that is, be introduced into the state and relation of sons to God. Subjection to the law, in our case, was a state of bondage. Those under the law are, therefore, called slaves, δουλοί. From this state of bondage they are redeemed, and introduced into the liberty of the sons of God. This redemption includes freedom from a slavish spirit, which is supplanted by a spirit of adoption, filling the heart with reverence, love, and confidence in God as our reconciled Father.

Redemption from the Power of Sin.

3. As deliverance from the curse of the law secures restoration to the favour of God, and as the love of God is the life of the soul, and restores us to his image, therefore in redeeming us from the curse of the law, Christ redeems us also from the power of sin. “Whosoever committeth sin,” saith our Lord, “is the servant (the slave) of sin.” This is a bondage from which no man can deliver himself. To effect this deliverance was the great object of the mission of Christ. He gave Himself that He might purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. He died, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us unto God. He loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that He might present it unto Himself a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. This deliverance from sin is a true redemption. A deliverance effected by a ransom, or satisfaction to justice, was the necessary condition of restoration to the favour of God; and restoration to his favour was the necessary condition of holiness. Therefore, it is said, Galatians i. 8, Christ “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us (ἐξέληται) from this present evil world.” Titus ii. 14, “Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity.” 1 Peter i. 18, 19, “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.” Deliverance by sacrifice was deliverance by ransom. Therefore, here as elsewhere, the two modes of statement are combined. Thus our Lord in Matthew xx. 28, Mark x. 45, says, “The Son of Man came . . . . to give his life a ransom for many (ἀντὶ, not merely ὑπὲρ, πολλῶν).” The idea of substitution cannot be more definitely expressed. In these passages our deliverance is said to be effected by a ransom. In Matthew xxvi. 28, our Lord says that his blood was “shed for many for the remission of sins.” Here his death is presented in the light of a sacrifice. The two modes of deliverance are therefore identical. A ransom was a satisfaction to justice, and a sacrifice is a satisfaction to justice.

Redemption from the Power of Satan.

4. The Scriptures teach that Christ redeems us from the power of Satan. Satan is said to be the prince and god of this world. His kingdom is the kingdom of darkness, in which all men, since Adam, are born, and in which they remain, until translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. They are his subjects “taken captive by him at his will.” (2 Tim. ii. 26.) The first promise was that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil; to cast him down from his place of usurped power, to deliver those who are subject to his dominion. (2 Cor. iv. 4; Col. ii. 16.) The fact of this redemption of his people from the power of Satan, and the mode of its accomplishment, are clearly stated in Hebrews ii. 15. The eternal Son of God, who in the first chapter of that epistle, is proved to be God, the object of the worship of angels, the creator of heaven and earth, eternal and immutable, in verse 14 of the second chapter, is said to have become man, in order “that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” It is here taught, (1.) That men are in a state of bondage through fear of the wrath of God on account of sin. (2.) That in this state they are in subjection to Satan who has the power of death over them; i.e., the ability and opportunity of inflicting on them the sufferings due to them as sinners. (3.) That from this state of bondage and of subjection to the power of Satan, they are delivered by the death of Christ. His death, by satisfying the justice of God, frees them from the penalty of the law; and freedom from the curse of the law involves freedom from the power of Satan to inflict its penalty. “The strength of sin is the law.” (1 Cor. xv. 56.) What satisfies the law deprives sin of the power to subject us to the wrath of God. And thus redemption from the law, is redemption from the curse, and consequently redemption from the power of Satan. This Scriptural representation took such hold of the imagination of many of the early fathers, that they dwelt upon it, almost to the exclusion of other and more important aspects of the work of Christ. They dallied with it and wrought it out into many fanciful theories. These theories have passed away; the Scriptural truth which underlay them, remains. Christ is our Redeemer from the power of Satan, as well as from the curse of the law, and from the dominion of sin. And if a Redeemer, the deliverance which He effected was by means of a ransom. Hence He is often said to have purchased his people. They are his because He bought them. “Know ye not that . . . . ye are not your own?” says the Apostle, “For ye are bought with a price.” (1 Cor. vi. 20.) God, in Acts xx. 28, is said to have purchased the Church “with his own blood.” “Ye were redeemed (delivered by purchase) . . . . with the precious blood of Christ.” (1 Pet. i. 18, 19.) “Thou art worthy . . . . for thou has purchased us (ἡγόρασας) for God by thy blood.” (Rev. v. 9.)

Final Redemption from all Evil.

5. Christ redeems us not only from the curse of the law, from the law itself as a covenant of works, from the power of sin, and from the dominion of Satan, but also from all evil. This evil is the consequence of the curse of the law, and being redeemed from that we are delivered from all evil. Hence the word redemption is often used for the sum of all the benefits of Christ’s work, or for the consummation of the great scheme of salvation. Thus our Lord says, Luke xxi. 28, that when the Son of Man shall appear in his glory, then his disciples may be sure that their “redemption draweth nigh.” They are sealed unto the day of redemption. (Eph. i. 14.) Christ has “obtained eternal redemption.” (Heb. ix. 12.) Believers are represented as waiting for their redemption. (Rom. viii. 23.)

It is therefore the plain doctrine of Scripture that, as before said, Christ saves us neither by the mere exercise of power, nor by his doctrine, nor by his example, nor by the moral influence which He exerted, nor by any subjective influence on his people, whether natural or mystical, but as a satisfaction to divine justice, as an expiation for sin and as a ransom from the curse and authority of the law, thus reconciling us to God, by making it consistent with his perfections to exercise mercy toward sinners, and then renewing them after his own image, and finally exalting them to all the dignity, excellence, and blessedness of the sons of God.