seif lay Shall we fear to be consigned to the place in which He, who is the "resurrection and the life," reposed? Shall we doubt that He will bring us forth in triumph from the dominion of the grave; that He will clothe us with a body all beauteous and immortal like His own, &c. The darkness of the

grave is the forerunner of the unparal leled brightness of the resurrection life. "Come, see the place where the Lord lay," and learn to view without fear your own final resting-place, and rejoice in the assurance that His resurrection is the pledge and earnest of your own.-A. Tucker.

liii. 10. Thou shalt make

Both Jews and Gentiles knew pretty well what "an offering for sin" meant. The Gentiles had been in the habit of offering sacrifices. The Jews, however, had by far the clearer idea of it. What was meant by a sin-offering?... This was always the idea of a sin-offering a perfect victim taking the place of the offender.

Christ has been made by God an offering for sin. Oh, that we may be able to do in reality what the Jew did in symbol! May we put our hand upon the head of Christ Jesus; as we see Him offered up upon the cross for guilty men, may we know that our sins are transferred to Him!

I. SIN DESERVES AND DEMANDS PUNISHMENT.

Some say that there is no reason in sin itself why it should be punished, but that God punishes offences for the sake of society at large. This is what is called the governmental theorythat it is necessary for the maintenance of good order that an offender should be punished, but that there is nothing in sin itself which absolutely requires a penalty. Now, we assert, and we believe we have God's warrant for it, that sin intrinsically and in itself demands and deserves the just anger of God, and that that anger should be displayed in the form of a punishment. To establish this, let me appeal to the conscience, not of a man who has, by years of sin, dwindled it down to the very lowest degree, but of an awakened sinner under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Ask this man, who is now really in the possession of his true senses, whether he believes that sin

is soul an offering for sin.

deserves punishment, and his answer will be quick, sharp, and decisive"Deserve it? Ay, indeed; and the wonder is that I have not suffered it. I feel that if God should smite me now, without hope or offer of mercy, to the lowest hell, I should only have what I justly deserve; and I feel that if I be not punished for my sins, or if there be not some plan found by which my sin can be punished in another, I cannot understand how God can be just at all. How shall He be the Judge of all the earth if He suffer offences to go unpunished?" There has been a dispute whether men have any innate ideas, but surely this idea. is in us as early as anything, that virtue deserves reward, and sin deserves punishment. Add to this, that God has absolutely declared His displeasure against sin itself (Jer. xliv. 4 ; Deut. xxv. 16, &c.). There is nothing more clear in Scripture than the *ruth that sin is in itself so detestab God that He must and will put fo th His tremendous strength to crush it, and to make the offender feel that it is an evil and a bitter thing to offend against the Most High (H. E. I., 2281, 2282).

to

The other idea, that sin is only to be punished for the sake of the community, involves injustice. If I am to be damned for the sake of other people, I demur to it. If my sin intrinsically deserves the wrath of God, and I am sent to perdition as the result of this fact, I have nothing to say. Conscience binds my tongue. But if I am told that I am only sent there as a part of a scheme of moral government, and

that I am sent into torment to impress others with a sense of right, I ask that some one else should have the place of preacher to the people, and that I may be one of those whose felicity it shall be to be preached to, for I see no reason in justice why I should be selected as the victim. Really, when men run away from the simplicities of the Gospel in order to make Jehovah more kind, it is strange how unjust and unkind they make Him.

The reverse of this doctrine, that sin demands punishment, may be used to prove it, for it is highly immoral, dangerous, and opens the flood-gates of licentiousness to teach that sin can go unpunished. If sin deserve not to be punished, what is Tophet but injustice on a monstrous scale? Go and preach this in hell, and you will have quenched the fire which is for ever to burn, and the worm of conscience will die. And then come to earth, and go, like Jonah went, though with another message than Jonah carried, through the streets and thoroughfares of the exceeding great city, and proclaim that sin is not to be punished for its own intrinsic desert and baseness. But, if you expect your prophecy to be believed, enlarge the number of your jails, and seek for fresh fields for transportation in the interests of society; for if any doctrine can breed villains, this will.

It is written clearly upon the conscience of every one of us, that sin must be punished. Here are you and I brought into this dilemma-we have sinned, and we must be punished for it it is impossible, absolutely, that sin can be forgiven without a sacrifice: God must be just, if heaven falls. But God, in His infinite wisdom, has devised a way by which justice can be satisfied, and yet mercy be triumphant. Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, took upon Himself the form of man, and offered unto divine justice that which was accepted as an equivalent for the punishment due to all His people.

II. THE PROVISION AND ACCEPTANCE OF A SUBSTITUTE FOR SINNERS IS AN ACT OF GRACE.

It is no act of grace for a person to accept a pecuniary debt on my behalf. of another person. If I owe a man twenty pounds, it is no matter to him who shall pay the twenty pounds, so long as it is paid. But it is not so in penal matters. If a man be condemned to be imprisoned, there is no law, no justice which can compel the lawgiver to accept a substitute for him. If the sovereign should permit another to suffer in his stead, it must be the sovereign's own act and deed; he must use his own discretion as to whether he will accept the substitute or not, and if he do so, it is an act of grace. In God's case, if He had said, in the infinite sovereignty of His absolute will, "I will have no substitute, but each man shall suffer for himself, he who sinneth shall die," none could have murmured. It was grace, and only grace which led God to say, "I will accept a substitute."

But

This grace of God is yet further magnified in the providing of such a substitute as Christ-on Christ's part that He should give up Himself, the prince of life, to die; the king of glory to be despised and rejected of men. Think of the unexampled love which shines in Christ's gift of Himself. the Father gives the Son (John iii. 16). To give your wealth is something, if you make yourself poor, but to give your child is something more. I implore you, do not look upon the sacrifice of Christ as an act of mere vengeance on the Father's part. Never imagine that Jesus died to make the Father complacent towards us. Jesus' death is the effect of overwhelming and infinite love on the Father's part. Never indulge the atrocious thought that there was justice, and justice only here; but magnify the love and pity of God in that He did devise and accomplish the great plan of salvation by an atoning sacrifice (H. E. I. 390, 2319-2321).

III. JESUS IS THE MOST FITTING PERSON TO BE A SUBSTITUTE, AND HIS

WORK IS THE MOST FITTING WORK TO BE A SATISFACTION.

Consider what sort of a mediator

was needed. He must be one who had no debt of his own. If Christ had been at all under the law naturally, if it had been His duty to do what it is our duty to do, it is plain He could only have lived for Himself; and if He had any sin of His own, He could only have died for Himself, seeing His obligations to do and to suffer would have been His just due to the righteousness and the vengeance of God. Jesus Christ was perfectly exempt from service, and therefore could volunteer to undertake it for our sake.

There was needed, also, one of the same nature with us. Such was Jesus Christ. For this purpose He became man. Made in all points like unto us, being a man, and standing exactly in a man's place, becoming a real Adam, standing quite in the first Adam's place, He was a fit person to become a substitute for us.

The dignity of His sacred person made Him the most proper substitute. A mere man could at most be a substitute for one other man. Crush him as you will, and make him feel in his life every pang which flesh is heir to, but he can only suffer what one man would have suffered. He could not even then have suffered an equivalent for that eternal misery which the ungodly deserve; and if he were a mere man, he must suffer precisely the same. difference may be made in the penalty, when there is a difference in the person, but if the person be the same, the penalty must be exactly the same in degree and quality. But the dignity of the Son of God, the dignity of His nature, changes the whole matter; it puts such a singular efficacy into every groan and every pang, that it needs not that His pang should be eternal, or that He should die a second death;

liii. 10.

A

it adds a special force to the substitution, and thus one bleeding Saviour can make atonement for millions of sinful men, and the Captain of our salvation can bring multitudes unto glory.

One other condition needs to be fulfilled. The person so free from personal service, and so truly in our nature, and yet so exalted in person, should also be accepted and ordained of God. Our text gives this a full solution, in that it says, "He shall make His soul an offering for sin." Christ did not make Himself a sin-offering without a warrant from the Most High God made Him so. "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

IV. CHRIST'S WORK AND THE EFFECTS OF THAT WORK ARE NOW COMPLETE.

Christ has made an atonement so complete that He never need suffer again. The death-knell of the penalty rings in the dying words of the Saviour, "It is finished." Do you ask for a proof of this? Remember that Christ rose again from the dead. If he had not completed His work of penaltysuffering, He would have been left in the tomb till now. More than that; He has ascended up on high. Think you He would have returned thither with unexpiated sin red upon His garments? Do you suppose He would have ascended to the rest and to the reward of an accomplished work?

Complete also in its effects. There is now complete pardon for every soul which believeth in Christ. You need not do anything to make the atonement of Christ sufficient to pardon you. It wants no ekeing out-pardon, full and free, is now presented in the name of Jesus, proclaimed to every creature under heaven.-C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 561.

The word here used (DVN, asham) signifies either guilty,-or, by a figure, an offering for guilt. We may con

"

sider it in both senses. He was not in Himself guilty, but innocent and perfectly so (2 Cor. v. 21; Heb. vii. 26). But our sins were imputed to Him, or "laid upon Him;" that is, they were laid to His charge, and He was made accountable for them (Isa. liii. 6; 1 Pet. ii. 24); "made a curse (Gal. iii. 13). Hence He was made an offering for guilt. Two things were to be done, that the glory of God might be fully displayed, in the redemption of man. Sin must be pardoned, otherwise the sinner could not be saved. It was necessary also it should be punished; otherwise, its evil could not appear, nor the Divine attributes escape impeachment; the law of God, which had forbidden sin, must be magnified, or the equity of His government asserted. Sin must, therefore, be pardoned in a way that marks and publishes the evil of the offence. The sacrifice of bulls and goats, or of any creature inferior to man, was insufficient for this purpose (Heb. x. 4). Nor could any man atone for his own sins, or suffer a punishment adequate to their demerit, without suffering eternally, and to the utmost extent of his capacity, much less could one man atone for many, or many for all. It was necessary, therefore, one should suffer, who, although possessed of human nature, yet had a nature superior to man, who could bear unlimited sufferings-sufferings adequate to the demerit of all human. offences, in a limited time. This the Messiah did, whose Godhead supported His manhood, and enabled Him to bear, partly in His body, and especially in His soul, an anguish so great as might give not only men, but angels, a proper view of the evil and bitterness of sin, and the purity, justice, and wrath of God, in hating, condemning, and punishing it. No mere bodily sufferings could do this, and, therefore, "His soul" was made "an offering for sin." (See Matt. xxvi. 36-45. Comp. Mark xiv. 34-36; Luke xxii. 41-44).

II. BY WHOM IT WAS TO BE MADE AN OFFERING.

By the Father; "when Thou," &c. (vers. 6, 10). It was done by His "determinate counsel" (Acts ii. 23). This does not excuse those who became the instruments of His death. It was God who required an offering for sin; His purity, His justice, His truth, the authority of His law, the rights of His government required it. His glory demanded it, as a consideration on account of which He might pardon sin, and save the sinner with honour to Himself (Rom. viii. 3; iii. 25, 26). God provided it in mercy and love to mankind (John iii. 16; 1 John iv. 9, 10; Tit. iii. 4). He provided even His own Son to be made flesh, to be poor, despised, afflicted, to die in ignominy and torture, for men who were sinners, enemies, rebels ! (Rom. v. 6-10).

III. THE EFFECTS WHICH SHOULD BE PRODUCED.

1. "He shall see His seed,"-a numerous race of sons and daughters begotten by the Gospel among Jews and Gentiles (ch. liv. 1; liii. 8; Psalm cx. 3).

2. "He shall prolong His days." His resurrection, ascension, and exaltation are here alluded to, whereby He obtained an everlasting life at God's right hand (Psalm xxi. 4). The end of it is threefold: (1.) For a recompense of His own labours and sufferings (Phil. ii. 9). (2.) For the salvation of His seed, whose Prophet, Priest, and King; whose wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; whose Saviour, Protector, Judge, Rewarder, &c., He thus becomes (Matt. XXV. 34). (3.) For the judgment, condemnation, and punishment of those that reject Him, and are not His seed (Matt. xxv. 41; Psalm. cx. 1; Heb. x. 13; 1 Cor. xv. 25).

3. "The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand." By "the pleasure of the Lord" is intended the progress of truth and goodness, of wisdom, holiness, and happiness in the world, the advancement of God's glory, and the salvation of mankind, the felicity of the righteous, and the destruction of the wicked.

4. Hence we need not wonder that "He sees of the travail of His soul, and is satisfied."

INFERENCES.-1. Was it necessary that Christ should be made "an offering for sin?" How great, then, is its evil! How dreadful its effects! It is of so heinous a nature that its guilt could not be expiated, so that it might be pardoned, consistently with the Divine perfections, without the sacrifice of so glorious a person. How great, then, will be the punishment of those in the other world, who, by rejecting or neglecting this sacrifice, are not saved from sin? 2. Are God's holiness and justice so inviolable, and His law so honourable, and the rights of His government so sacred, that such a sacrifice was required for the manifestation of His glory? Then, what a powerful call and motive have we here for reverence and fear, solemnity and awe! 3. Did God judge it proper that such a price as this should be paid for man's redemption? Then, how important, how valuable are the souls of men! 4. Has the Father provided such an atonement? And is it actually made? Then, how great, how astonishing, His mercy and love! What a foundation is laid for confidence in Him, and love to Him in return (Rom. viii. 32; v. 9, 10). 5. Has God been thus kind and bountiful? Then what a loud call upon your gratitude! 6. Shall the pleasure of the Lord prosper in His hands? Then, if it be your anxiety to know, experience, and do the will of the Lord, you may commit your cause to Him. 7. Are you His seed? If so, rejoice; for He has prolonged His days for your benefit. If If not, tremble; for He is your Judge. 8. Does He see of the travail of His soul, and is He satisfied? Then, sympathise with Him in His sufferings and His satisfaction. Being conformed to the motives and ends for which He suffered and died on our behalf, let us become instances of the efficacy of His gracious undertaking and objects of His joy, in consequence of it (Tit. ii. 14). Joseph Benson: Sermons, vol. i. p. 236-243.

I. A DOCTRINE OF THE CHRISTIAN SYSTEM THAT NEEDS TO BE EXPLAINED. 1. Christ died in the room of sinners. Not as the death of an individual may be the occasion of benefit to others, but by a legal substitution. 2. He died to satisfy Divine justice. Not to satisfy any thirst of vengeance in the Father, but to satisfy His justice, which requires Him to punish sin as sin, and not merely for its consequences. 3. He died to expiate human guilt. Man is guilty or liable to punishment for sin. He has a sense of guilt latent or awakened. The death of Christ is intended to deliver him from his guilt, and to remove the sense of guilt from his conscience. 4. He died to propitiate the Divine favour. Wrath against sin is not incompatible with love. It is infinite abhorrence of sin, and an inflexible determination to punish it. It is displayed in the cross of Christ. The death of Christ averts it from all who believe in Him.

II. AN EXPEDIENT OF THE Divine GOVERNMENT THAT NEEDS TO BE VIN DICATED.

1. It is said that God, as a being of infinite love, might forgive sin without atonement. Perhaps He might, if sin were a personal insult or a debt. It is a crime, a violation of law, rebellion against legitimate authority. It must be punished before it can be pardoned. 2. It is said that atonement involves the substitution of the innocent for the guilty, which is cruel and unjust. Admit that Christ was innocent, and His death presents a problem of which the doctrine of the atonement is the only satisfactory solution. It was voluntary. 3. It is said that atonement is inconsistent with grace. All is grace

to the sinner. 4. It is said that atonement is subversive of the interests of morality. It has a man-ward as well as a God-ward aspect. It exercises a moral influence. It supplies the strongest motive-power that was ever brought to bear on the formation of character (H. E. I., 396-398).

III. A REMEDY FOR THE ILLS OF MEN THAT NEEDS TO BE APPLIED.

1. The atonement unappropriated