THE EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT
IN ITS
RELATION TO GOD AND THE UNIVERSE.
By the
REV. THOMAS W. JENKYN, D.
D. Including Sections 1 thru 3 ON THE ATONEMENT IN ITS RELATION TO
THE VARIOUS DISPENSATIONS OF REVEALED
RELIGIONS. THE PROGRESSIVENESS OF DIVINE
DISPENSATIONS. IT has pleased God that the revelation of his mind,
concerning the salvation of sinners, should pass through
various and progressive degrees, or stages, of advancement,
which, in theological nomenclature, are called different
dispensations. It is to such a delivery of revelation, in
various and successive parts and parcels, that Paul alludes
in the commencement of his epistle to the Hebrews: "God who
in sundry parts, and in various manners, spake of old to the
fathers by the prophets, hath now in these last days of the
Jewish dispensation and beginning of the gospel age, spoken
to us by his Son," Heb. i. 1, 2. As a gradual progressiveness is visible in works which
are acknowledged to be of God, such successive dispensations
in divine revelation can be no valid objection either to its
reality, or to its certainty. Even if divine revelation had
been given instantaneously, and not in successive portions
and degrees, it would, nevertheless, have been various and
progressive in its character and influence, according to the
respective capacities, and personal circumstances, of each
individual to whom it was proposed. This would be a dull
world, if every man in it were of the same gradation of
intellect, and if successive generations derived no
information or improvement from their predecessors. Rational
beings, however large their capacities, can know nothing of
God any farther than God manifests himself; and he manifests
himself in his WORKS and in his WORD, Which are all
multiplied instances and evolutions of his power, wisdom.
and goodness. The full light of an instantaneous revelation
would, probably, be inconsistent with the frame of the human
faculties, and incompatible with a state of discipline and
probation. If such a revelation would not overwhelm and
oppose the faculties with the splendor of its blaze, it
would probably render them inactive, so that there would be
no more praise-worthiness in accepting a testimony from God,
than there is in receiving light from the sun. And such a
condition of things could not be a state of probation. Rational beings are so constituted and so circumstanced
under the discipline of moral government, as to be capable
of progressively tending and advancing towards moral
greatness and strength of character. The light of prophecy
reveals that the whole mass of human population is capable
of this progression, and that, by the diffusion of religion,
liberty, and the arts, the people of the globe will, as a
body, advance to such moral worth, and manliness of
character, as to be ashamed of oppression and slavery,
falsehood and wrong, envy and war. As for the church of Christ, the entire testimony of the
Scriptures is unequivocal and certain, that it shall thus
progressively advance to the full proportions of manly
growth and masculine vigor; when it shall display and
exercise, not the puny and tender limbs of an infant, but
the nerves, and bones, and muscles, of full grown men; and
when its sanctuary shall be, not so much the nursery of
babes, as the home of a gigantic generation. All the various
dispensations of religion, and all the different talents and
offices in the church are only an apparatus of divine
government, "for perfecting the saints, for the edifying of
the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the
faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect
man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of
Christ." This progressiveness of the church does not
terminate in the church. It affects other intelligences in
the universe; for through the church, the manifold, and the
perpetually unfolding wisdom of God is made known to
principalities and powers in heavenly places, who desire to
look into these things; and as they look, they advance in
the knowledge of the works and ways of God. While the progressive dispensations of revelation were
suited to the circumstances of the faculties of man, and in
harmony with other works and ways of God we must think that
such an arrangement was intended to do honor to the Person
and to the atonement of Jesus Christ. "For this man was
counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who
hath builded the house hath more honor than that house." THE INFLUENCE OF THE ATONEMENT
RETROSPECTIVE AS WELL AS
PROSPECTIVE. I. The doctrine of the atonement has been prominent and
foremost among the articles of religion under every
dispensation. There never has been a dispensation of mercy
towards mankind, since the expulsion from Eden, without a
marked reference to sacrifice and atonement. Though every
succeeding dispensation has improved on the preceding, yet
every one of them has had the leading elements and
principles. In every dispensation we find a universality of
aspect, a Sabbath of holy retirement, an atonement for
wrong, an imputation of sin and worthiness, the church
membership of children, seals of outward ordinances,
liableness to failure, and frustration only through
unbelief. The principle of atonement has always been in the
foreground of every dispensation, as might be witnessed in
Abel, in Noah, in Abraham, in Job, in Moses and the
prophets. In the Christian dispensation the atonement is all
in all; and even in the celestial dispensation at the close
of probation, the Lamb of atonement will always be in the
midst of the throne. II. The Holy Scriptures axe the code and the chronicle of
these dispensations, and they are full of the doctrine of
atonement. Some, indeed, boldly assert that they have read
the Scriptures repeatedly, and have never been able to find
the atonement there. Whatever may have been the success of
these Zoilan inquirers, the apostles, and Jesus Christ
himself, assert that they found the doctrine of the
atonement in the Old Testament, and that "Jesus Christ died
for our sins, according to the Scriptures." As to the New
Testament, the Jews and the Greeks found this doctrine in
the addresses of the apostles, and made it a ground of
serious objection against their ministrations. Had the
apostles preached in the style of modern Socinians, and
determined to purge their creeds and discourses of this
doctrine, the Greek would not have been offended, nor would
the Jew have stumbled. The Judaizing teachers had early
introduced, among the Galatians, a doctrine without the
Christian atonement, but the apostle distinctly and broadly
avers, that such a doctrine is entirely ANOTHER GOSPEL, and
brands it as "accursed," though it were delivered by an
angel from heaven. III. The reason why the doctrine of the atonement is
found under every dispensation, is because the influence of
the atonement reached and affected every dispensation. The
atonement was available in every age of the world. The
Scriptures are decided and clear with regard to the
retrospectiveness of the death of Christ. He is represented
as a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Peter
says, that men are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ,
who verily was fore-ORDAINED before the foundation of the
world, but was MANIFEST in these last times. Paul also says,
that there was a covenant confirmed of God in Christ with
Abraham, four hundred and thirty years before the giving of
the law by Moses; and that believers, like Abraham, were
saved by that covenant, and not by the Mosaic Institutions.
The atonement of Christ is represented as buying off the
punishment which was due for the sins committed under
previous dispensations, and as vindicating the justice of
God in forgiving them. The death of Christ was for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the first
covenant. God set him forth as a propitiation to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are past
through the forbearance of God. Rev. iii. 8; 1 Peter i. 19,
20; Heb. ix. 15; Rev. iii. 25. IV. The arrangement that the atonement should have a
retrospective influence is consistent with the whole of
God's moral government. We find that, unlike physical
causes, moral causes operate long before they come into
actual existence themselves. Thus did the deluge affect the
interests of many before it came to pass; the possession of
the land of Canaan operated on the Israelites long before
they inherited it; the advent of the Messiah had the same
retrospective influence; and the moral provision of a day of
judgment sends back an influence that reaches to the dawn of
time. Thus may the atonement of Christ, from "the hour" in
the garden, send back a worthiness that was always available
for sinful man. Hence the hundred and forty-four thousand
from among the tribes of Israel, as well as the countless
millions from among all nations and generations of men, are
represented as praising the Lamb that died. V. The retrospectiveness of the atonement supplies us
with a principle that accounts for many things, otherwise
inexplicable, in the progress of the divine dispensations.
It accounts for the extraordinary appearance of Christ, in
the early ages of the world, as the angel Jehovah. It
explains the names and the titles which Christ has assumed
as the head of all economies, such as First-born, Heir of
all things, Alpha and Omega, etc. It is the only thing that
gives a substantial meaning to the Jewish types and
ceremonial institutions. It accounts for the subserviency of
each and all previous economies, to the dispensation of the
fullness of times. It gives oneness to the Church through
every changing dispensation. It makes the Old Testament
promises valid under the new dispensation, for if these had
not been confirmed and ratified by the death of Christ, they
would not have been yea and amen, either before or since the
advent of Christ. It is this principle that gives unity to
the song of heaven, for had the saints of the Old Testament
been received to heaven irrespectively of the atonement of
Christ, the elements of their happiness, and the themes of
their song, would have been different from those of the New
Testament saints. So, then, it is the glory that excelleth,
that throws the refulgence of its light to make any
dispensation truly glorious. VI. The retrospective influence of the death of Christ on
all former dispensations, furnishes an answer to what has
been often regarded as an unanswerable argument for the
limitation and restriction of the atonement. It has been
vaunted with a high tone of triumph, that it is blasphemous
to say that Christ died for those persons who were in hell,
some hundreds of years previous to his death; and this has
been regarded as an irrefragable proof that Christ did not
die for all. This argument has force only on the hypothesis that
Christ suffered the identical penalty due to sinners. The
argument is, that it would be monstrous for Christ to suffer
the punishment of persons, Who were actually suffering it
themselves at the hour of Christ's crucifixion. If the
ARMINIANS allow the data of this hypothesis, their theory of
a universal atonement is at once crushed; for it is
impossible to show how JUSTICE can inflict a punishment on
the substitute, while it is at the same time, and has been
for ages, literally being executed upon the criminals
themselves. This difficulty is obviated by the doctrine that the
sufferings of Christ were substituted, instead of the
literal penalty due to sin, as a ground or reason, for not
inflicting on the sinner the sufferings due him. It did not
necessarily and unavoidably do this, as a quid pro quo, but
it was available for this by being pleaded as such by the
sinner for his remission. As a moral cause the death of
Christ had an influence long before it actually took place,
just as the promise of payment produces an influence long
before the payment be actually made. Take the case of antediluvian sinners for an instance.
Was their salvation ever a POSSIBLE case? Was it their OWN
FAULT that they perished? Were they in as HOPELESS a state
as that of the fallen angels? For what purpose did the
Spirit of God STRIVE with them? It was, no doubt, for their
salvation. But has God any salvation for any sinner
irrespective of the atonement of Christ? Was THEIR salvation
possible, if the atonement, in promise, did not reach THEIR
case? These very men were called to believe promises,--which
were to be established by the influence of a future
atonement. If these promises were not established as true
and sure, in their offers, by the atonement, the event
proved that it was no crime to doubt and neglect them. God,
therefore, had a public atonement to vindicate the measures
of his government towards these lost sinners, on the same
principle that he will have a public day of judgment to
vindicate his administrations towards all others who have
perished. If we plead that an atonement can be of no use for
them that perish, we might as well argue that a day of
judgment can be of no use for those who are already in
punishment; for in both cases we forget the character of the
divine government. Under every dispensation, the atonement
was a sweet savor unto God, both in them that are saved, and
in them that perish; to the one a savor of life unto life,
to the other a savor of death unto death. Every unprejudiced
mind will see that it was as necessary for Christ to die, in
order to justify the condemnation of unbelievers, as it was
to justify the admission of saints to heaven under every
dispensation. THE UNIVERSAL EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT
NOT INCONSISTENT WITH THE LIMITED PROMULGATION OF THE
GOSPEL. The advocates of a limited atonement have argued that if
God had given his Son an atonement for all, he would have
given and sent a revelation of that fact universally to
all. This objection is founded on wrong principles. It
supposes that God cannot justly perform any one good, unless
he also do every other conceivable good in connection with
it. It supposes that the atonement cannot be of any benefit
to any persons unless they are informed of it; whereas we
know that thousands are benefited by providence who did now
know that it is the providence of God; and we have seen, in
the progress of this inquiry, that mankind owe even their
existence to the mediation of Christ, though they do not
know it. It supposes that the atonement was offered on the
principle of commercial justice, so that God is bound in
equity to dispense all the good, for which he had value
received in the death of his Son. It supposes that all the
good which the atonement was capable of securing shall be
infallibly attained, though it is a contemplated FACT that
very many will NEGLECT this salvation, receive its grace IN
VAIN, and come SHORT of the heavenly rest. It supposes that
notwithstanding man's abuse and neglect, and loss of moral
means, God is bound to continue to him these means; whereas
it is an inseparable characteristic of moral government,
that the use of means is left to the free choice of
accountable beings. It supposes, also, that God must inform
every individual of all the good that he is doing in the
universe. The question has been frequently asked, "Did Christ die
for those who have never heard of his atonement?" For a
solution I would suggest the following hints : 1. We have already seen that God may and can do good, e.
g., in providence, to a creature, without letting that
creature know the medium of doing it. 2. God has provided ample means to make the provision of
this medium known to all who are concerned. 3. As it is the duty of every nation to come out of its
barbarism, ignorance, and political bondage, so are all the
nations of the earth under obligations to come forth from
the moral darkness in which they have involved
themselves. 4. All people, who possess the knowledge of the death of
Christ, are under the most awful responsibility to
communicate it to those who need it. 5. The revelation which God has given of his salvation is
unrestricted, and of a universal aspect; and the limited
promulgation of the gospel is not owing to the scantiness of
the provision, but to the negligence of the people who
possess it, and hold it back in unrighteousness. 6. All will be dealt with according to the light that
they have. And wherever there is a heathen Cornelius, he
will be accepted before God for the sake of a Saviour of
whom he has not heard. 7. FAITH is necessary to salvation only to those who have
the gospel. Faith cometh by hearing-and hearing can only be
where the gospel is. INFANTS are saved for Christ's sake,
though they do not know the medium of their salvation; and
so might a virtuous heathen be, wherever such can be
found. 8. Missionary institutions take for granted that Christ
has died for heathens who have never heard of his death. if
Christ has not died for them, what message can these
institutions send to them? When a missionary arrives among a
heathen nation he tells them, "Jesus Christ died for you."
Suppose he go to China, instead of to India, would that
circumstance imply that Christ had died for the Chinese, but
not for the people of India? Does the fact that he delivers
the message to the heathen of the nineteenth century imply
that Christ had not died for the heathen of the eighteenth,
or the fifteenth, etc.? Christ has died for them, whether he
goes there or not for a fact in the nineteenth century
cannot alter what transpired in the first. There is one topic more to which I would advert. It is
that the extent of the atonement is not to be measured by
the actual success of any dispensation, but by the design
and aspect of all dispensations. Each and all of these
dispensations had a universal aspect of good-will towards
the interests of all mankind. Their limitation was not owing
to any sovereign restriction from God. But, say the
objectors, If Christ was intended for the salvation of all
men, how comes it to pass that so few are saved? 1. This implies that God must save all whom be CAN save.
But POWER is not the rule of his administration. He CAN create more worlds--for no one would say that he
has created all the worlds that he could. And it would be
the highest blasphemy to think that no more good is done in
the universe, because God CAN do no more. If power were his
rule, his government would not be moral. 2. The salvation of sinners is not the last end of the
atonement, but the GLORY OF GOD. His last end in endowing
minerals and vegetables with healing virtues is not the cure
of disorders, but his own glory. And in a free and moral
government the provisions redound to his glory, whether men
use them or reject them. 3. All that is in the gospel is adapted, designed, and
intended to be the means of saving all men, and all men ate
invited and pressed sincerely to use them. 4. The gospel system invariably ascribes its inefficacy
to save all men to their own unbelief, and their voluntary
rejection of its provisions. 5. Nevertheless, through the exercise of sovereign grace,
the number of the saved will not be few, but will far exceed
the number of the lost. 6. To limit the efficacy of the atonement to save, to the
actual instances of its success, is incongruous. You do not
measure the power to create by the actual number of worlds
created. You do not measure the virtue of a medicine by the
number of persons which it cures. You do not limit the power
of Christ to work miracles to the mere number actually
wrought. You know that he was prevented from working some
miracles by the unbelief of the people. By parity of
reasoning, the efficacy of the atonement is not to be
measured by the number of the saved.