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who had concluded them , both Jews and Gentiles * all under sin . To this state of condemnation and death , does the death of Christ for the sin of the world refer , and the design of it was to reverse that state in which all mankind were , to annul
the sentence of death which they were under by taking away the sin of the world , the cause of that condemnation , by reconciling them to God , who were in a state of irreconciliation and enemies to him by wicked works , and by establishing a new dispensation , ( not of terror , condemnation and death , like that under which they then
were , but , ) a dispensation of grace , mercy and free forgiveness , to open to them a door of hope , and a new and living way of access unto God . t € He died for sins , " says Peter , " the just for the unjust , that he might bring us unto God . " That mankind , universally , both Jews and Gentiles , were in a state of condemnation , and death , without hope and without strength , sinners and at enmity with God , at the time
when Christ died for them , the apostle infers from the fact of his dying for them . " If one died for all" he says , " then were all dead / 9 and he died for all , that they who live might live unto him that died for them and rose again . And again , " When we were without strength , when ice were yet sinners * in due time Christ died for the ungodly . " And again , ' * fVhen we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son . "
From the above premises we are naturally led to an inquiry respecting the extent of the efficacy of the death of Christ . We are told that he appeared , by the sacrifice of himself , to put away sin . Did his sacrifice effect this both prospectively and retrospectively ? Did he die for the future sins of mankind , as well as for their
past transgressions ? If for the former , i . e . for all the sins that should be committed throughout all the future ages and generations of men , will it not follow , that he died for a nonentity , to put away that which , in reality , had no existence ? For sin
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has no existence until it is committed ; it is the act only that gives it a being . Should it be said that the future sins of mankind were all present to the omniscient mind of the Divine Being ,
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( who seeth the end from the beginning , and to whom all futurity is pre - sent , ) and were contemplated in the sacrifice of Christ and put away by it , will it not follow , that since that period , no sin , even in the Divine
Mind , has had any existence in the world , either to be charged to the account of the sinner , to be repented of by him , or to be pardoned by the mercy of the Divine Being ? These considerations are sufficient , I think , to shew that the death of Christ was
not intended to put away the future transgressions of men , although , ( as we shall have occasion to observe , ) it laid the foundation of their remission under the new dispensation , but that
it had respect to , and an immediate effect on those which had taken place prior to that event . This is clearly implied in various passages of the New Testament , and expressly asserted in others .
The Apostle Paul writing to the Romans , tells them that God hath set forth Jesus Christ as a mercy-seat in his own blood , * to declare his righteousness for ( with respect to )
the remission ( the passing overj of sins that are past , through the forbearance of God . ( Ch . iii . 25 . ) These words have an especial reference to the Gentiles with respect to whom the forbearance of God had been
exercised in a peculiar manner , m passing over 9 \ not noticing or imputing to them their former trespasses . No divinely-authorized legislator was ever sent to them to instruct them in the knowledge of the true God , in the manner in which he was to be
worshiped , in the knowledge of his will , or of their obligation to him , concerning all which they were in the most deplorable ignorance- From the time that the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah , until th $ coining of the Messiah , no in * -
* ** He is the mercy-seat , on which the cloud of glory rests ; sprinkled and consecrated by his own blood , as that of old was by the blood of the appointed victim . On this basis divine mercy takes
its stand , and proclaims the commencement of a new and glorious sera . " Belsham in loco . \ t So the Greek word rendered remission signifies . It does not occur in any other passage of the New Testament .
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638 Mr . Marsom on the Efficacy of the Death of Christ .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1823, page 638, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1790/page/22/
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