On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
the same sense , of course , every powerful advocate of the cause of truth and righteousness , nay the Bible itself , or any other book which is efficacious in awakening sinners to repentance , may be said to effect our redemption , and be a propitiation for our sins .
In this view the death of Christ iias onl y an indirect *© r remote connexion with the forgiveness of sins , not an immediate one . It is thus : The death of Christ promotes repentance , repentance will procure forgiveness ,
and thus the death of Christ procures forgiveness . Moreover , according to this view , no man owes his pardon to the death of Christ , in any other light than as the occasion of that repentance and amendment which have
immediately procured that pardon . If I mistake not , this is a fair representation of the prevailing opinion of Unitarians on this subject . In proceeding to consider the justness of this opinion , I may first observe ,
that it must be allowed that it is quite true as far as it goes : I mean , that the death of Christ does in part procure forgiveness through the means of producing repentance , to which it is so powerful an incentive . But is not this too limited a view of its
efficacy , and has it not a more direct and immediate connexion with the forgiveness of sins I Is it only in consideration of the repentance which in any case it has actually wrought in us , that we can be said to have forgiveness through the deatli of Christ ? Now , if we consider what the
Serin-~ JL tures say on this subject , we may observe generally , that the connexion which they mention is immediate and direct , and neither do the sacred writers explain their meaning in the way we are considering , nor does their language bear to be so explained without a degree of violence . The best way to be sensible of this , is to consider
how peculiar the language is which is used concerning 'Christ , and how different from any that is applied to any other prophet or preacher . " Christ died for our ains ,- ^ -for the remission of our sins . " It is to me a violent
straining" of language to say , this means only that he died to convince us of the truth , or to move us to repentance . But especially , the frequent illustration of the death of the Lord , by allusion to the sacrifice * , is inconsistent
Untitled Article
with this inter |> Tctation , inasmuch as the pardons which" the sacrifices pro , cured , followed immediately on the performance of them , and was obviously independent of any change of
mind , previously wraugUt , by the rite upon the worshiper . So far , then , as the efficacy of &ar Lord's death has any analogy with thftt of sacrifices , it must be immediate , and not dependan t on the repentance which it may have been the means of producing .
In what way then does the death of Christ lead to the remission of sins ? This is not a necessary inquiry , neither can we find any formal answer to it in the Scripture . We there find the immediate connexion between these two
things strongly , repeatedly and vari - ously asserted , and brought forward as a great and prominent truth of the Gospel . We see that it was that way of reconciliation which it pleased the Father to appoint , and we have general views given us of the intention of
that appointment in such words as these : " That God might be just and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus . " It is also said , " He gave himself for us , that he might purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works .- " Here no doubt we
see the general objects , in its tendency to promote which , the efficacy of the death of Christ , as a propitiation for sins , consisted . Its tendency to promote a just sense of the Divine
authority , and a deep and lasting" repentance in those whose sins are forgiven , we may thus presume to be the principal grounds of its propitiatory virtue : hut yet this virtue is something very different from that of a testimony to the
truth , or a pattern of rig hteousness . They may be said to procure remission of sins indirectly , through the means of such repentance as they may have occasioned : but this immediatel y ,
as a consideration influencing the mind of God , and that in regard to the repentance and holiness , which , in « move extensive view , it is ' calculated to promote and ensure . It is rather
as a security for the future , than as the cause of what is past , that it has this efficacy . I have thus endeavoured to she * v , that the death of Christ was something beyond a testimony to the truth , <> r an example of righteousness ; that 1 whs truly a propitiation for sins ; tlia
Untitled Article
212 On the Remission of Sin .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1822, page 212, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2511/page/20/
-