On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
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
duti es of life ; and the confident assurance tha £ all things shall work together ^ fbj their good . ^^ , ; V i 4 M All these inestimable blessings ( with especial reference to the
forgiveness of sins ) constitute together the Redemption that is in Christ Je-ms ,- — the means of deliverance from the power and punishment of sin , and the fear of death . And all these we have " through his blood , " through his death , We can , possess them ( as we now do ) on ? divine promise , only by faith in him ; and if this faith becomes a vital principle of the heart , . regulating the life , it is a faith unto salvation .
5 . Since we should not have possessed the blessed and sanctifying promises and guidance of the Gospel , but by his death , —since his death , though on his own part perfectly voluntary , was ( by the appointment of infinite wisdom ) necessary to convey , assure , and diffuse them to mankind , —we owe the possession of Gospel privileges to his death ; and whatever
influence they have upon us , in delivering us from the bondage of sin and death , and making us fit objects of God's pardoning mercy and final acceptance , may be justly ascribed to his death . His blood ratified the new covenant , and was shed for the remission of sins ; and he gave up his life as a ransom , or means of spiritual deliverance .
6 . These facts , —taken in connexion with the peculiar features of the Jewish dispensation , ( its ritual and sacrifices , and its exclusive privileges , ) with the language of the Old Testament respecting the temporal deliverance by the hand of Moses , and with the circumstances of the Gentiles at the time of Christ , —furnish an adequate explanation of all the language of the New Testament respecting the death of Christ . The substance of the whole is , that " in him we have redemption through his blood , even the forgiveness of sins . "
7 . The death of Christ has its efficacy in producing the believer ' s pardon and acceptance , only by the influence of his work and gospel . God does not pardon the sins of the believer for the sake of Christ ; but , for his own mercy ' s sake , and in consequence of the repentance and righteousness which are wrought by faith in Christ , that is , in the divine authority of his work and message . Ephes . iv . 32 , is the only place in the Common Translation where God is represented as pardoning sins for the sake of Christ ;
and this should have been rendered , " as God , in ( or by ) Christ , hath forgiven you . "— " The Man Christ Jesus , " is " the Mediator between God and men , " because he was the Minister and Messenger of God ' s grace to mankind : he is our Propitiation , because he conveyed us the offers of pardoning mercy , and died to assure them to us : and b y him we have the Atonement ( At-one-ment )\ since by the influence of his work and gospel
the believer is brought into a state of acceptance with God . The word Atonement occurs once only in reference to Christ , viz . Rom , v . 11 , and there should have been rendered Reconciliation , as in 2 Cor . v . 19 . The Gospel of Christ is the Atonement or Reconciliation , because it turns men , from darkness to light and from the power of sin unto God , so that they may receive forgiveness here and an eternal inheritance hereafter .
8 . Whatever is inconsistent with No . 1 , must be false . We are , there fore , certain that the death of Christ did not make God merciful ^ did r ^ ot appease his wraify did not dispose him to forgive . 9 ; The th&orifo of philosophers and divines on this subject are wwtft nothing . No effect < £ an fcju&ly ascribed to the d ^ th of Christ , w % h Is ' riot ( kclaMdntitheSeript&es .: ' \ it is no where declared thatirie d ^ aih qPphrut satteftfed > t * & tatf # the ' Jiistice of Gbtf ; ttiat God could ' not ' $ rgiv < ? fro
Untitled Article
Papers on the Atonement . 673
Untitled Article
V 0 L .-H ; 3 B
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1828, page 673, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2565/page/17/
-