THE EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT
IN ITS
RELATION TO GOD AND THE UNIVERSE.
By the
REV. THOMAS W. JENKYN, D.
D. ON THE MORAL GRANDEUR OF THE DOCTRINE
OF THE ATONEMENT. No one can rise from reading the New Testament without
the conviction that the death of Jesus of Nazareth is the
most prominent subject of it. The language of one of the
apostles expresses the sentiments of all of them: "God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ." In the New Testament the ministry of the
apostles is designated with marked emphasis in, and bold
peculiarity, "the preaching of the CROSS," that is, the
report and promulgation of the death of Christ by
crucifixion. They openly published the crucifixion of Christ
as the most remarkable FACT in the history of God's
government. The CRUCIFIXION Of Christ was of such offensive
peculiarity, that the enemies of the gospel had singled it
out, as being most notoriously prominent in infamy. It was
the death of a criminal, of an odious traitor, or a
detestable imposter. It was the death of a SLAVE. It was the
death of all others, held by the Jews as alone
cursed--cursed by the execrations of a contemptuous rabble,
and cursed by the frowns and maledictions of heaven. The Jew
and the Gentile, alike, viewed such a death with ineffable
scorn, and with a contempt that thrilled the whole frame
into rage. Nevertheless, the apostles themselves placed this
most offensive subject first and foremost in the topics of
their ministry. They unflinchingly and calmly preached
"Christ and him crucified;" not Christ and him glorified,
but Christ and HIM CRUCIFIED. They did not take their
standing on sunny spots in the history of their master, but
they planted their banner in "the REPROACH Of Christ," and
invited to it the gaze and the scrutiny of the world. The
accents of derision and taunt, which jarred against their
high and noble cause, were echoed back upon the world, in
tones of increased volume and power, till the ends of the
earth caught the joyful sound. Let us accompany the apostle Paul, when about to soar
into the bright effulgence of this glorious subject, and
when about to train the vision of the young offspring of his
ministry to sustain the splendors of the "marvellous light."
What an array of means he presents to them, as necessary to
the process of training them for this high contemplation! He
first bows his knees unto the Father of the Lord Jesus
Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is
named, that he would grant them, according to the RICHES of
his glory, to be strengthened with might, by his Spirit, in
the inner man, that Christ might dwell in them by faith,
that they might be rooted and grounded in love. And what is
all this preparatory training and mustering of energies
for?"--"That they might be able to comprehend with all
saints, what is the breadth and length, and depth and
height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth
knowledge." Oh! for an angel's wing and an angel's vision,
to survey this vast and stupendous theme, whose breadth
takes in every intelligence and every interest; whose length
reaches from everlasting to everlasting; whose depth fathoms
the lowest state of depravity and misery; and whose height
throws floods of glory on the throne and the crown of
Jehovah! Then, there must be something of infinite worth, dignity,
and grandeur, in the love. and the death of Jesus Christ
above that of all others. If the Lord Jesus were only a
saint, a divine messenger, or a holy martyr, what is there
in his love or his death above any other? Imagine, for a
moment, all this apparatus of means and training instituted
to contemplate the death of Moses or Isaiah, or John the
Baptist, and into what sesquipedalia verba, will these
elevated words of truth and soberness dwindle. Why should it
be a stumbling block to the Jews, or an offence to the
Greeks, that Christ died, any more than the fact that John
the Baptist died, or that Socrates died? Did the apostles
preach that Christ died a martyr to his message? And did not
John the Baptist and Socrates die so? The entire structure
of the New Testament is founded on the fact, that the
apostles solemnly announced the death of Christ to be a
stupendous EXPEDIENT of infinite wisdom for saving sinners,
with honor to the divine government: they proclaimed the
crucifixion of Christ to be a lustration, a propitiation,
for. the sins of the world. They went forth "determining to
know nothing among men but Jesus Christ, and him crucified."
Hear their frank and manly confession:--"The Jews require a
sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach CHRIST
CRUCIFIED, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the
Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called both Jews
and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and Christ the wisdom
of God." 1 Cor. i. 22-24. A ministry that rejected the atonement would never have
used the language of the apostles. Never were a band of men
so enraptured with their subject, as these preachers of the
cross were; and never was there a subject so calculated to
enchant the mind, or ravish the affections of the heart, as
the Death of Christ. 1. The atonement gives us the most enlarged views of the
person of the Son of God. The Scriptures avow that "great is
the mystery of Godliness, God manifest in the flesh." The
person of Jesus Christ is unique in the
universe--unparalleled in all the forms and tribes of being.
All forms and grades of existence meet in him. In him the
Godhead lives in union with rational life. His character is
not that of his NATURE. His character is moral and official:
yet his nature as God, and as man, is pure, unmixed, and
individual. His character and person once passed through a
process of accountableness, trial, and discipline, and now
sustain the official employments of Mediator, Intercessor,
and Saviour. Yet he is God over all, blessed forever. He
well deserves the name "Wonderful." His person was
constituted for his work and office; and, but for the
atonement, such a personage would not have been presented to
the notice, the admiration, and homage, of the universe.
Divest this personage of his atoning office, and he is
"WONDERFUL" no longer. 2. The atonement has fixed an eternal stigma on SIN. The
destruction of fallen angels, the expulsion of our first
parents from Eden, the devastations of the flood, etc., were
but hints of God's aversion to sin. The notice which God
took of sin, in the death of his Son, is the most marked and
the most signal. For the offended to call in the mediation
of a third party--that third party to be a person of high
worth and dignity--and that exalted person to transact the
affair of the reconciliation publicly before a whole
community--is a demonstration that the offence is regarded
as of high criminality and demerit. This is, indeed, the
secret of men's opposition to the atonement--it makes too
much of what they call human frailties and foibles, but what
God calls crime and treason. Everything in the atonement is
against sin;--there is nothing in it to extenuate sin. They
who see most evil in sin, see most worth and grandeur in the
atonement: and they who most love and admire the atonement,
most hate and abhor sin. 3. The atonement is the most splendid and magnificent
vindication of the honor of divine government. All the
judgments with which God has visited this world are
vindications of his government; they have shown on what side
God is, they have proved that sin cannot be traced to
him--they have signified that God will at all hazards defend
his law; but the atonement of his Son is the most amazing of
all his measures. The annals of his empire present nothing
like it. It is so magnificent that angels look to it with
admiration. When the Mediator finished this vindication, the
physical universe did it homage: it mantled itself in
sackcloth, and bowed, amid signs and wonders, to the greater
miracle of moral government, an atonement for sin." 4. The atonement brings a greater revenue of glory to God
than any other measure. This dispensation eclipses the
renown of all the others. In other measures we see but
portions of the ways of God. Here we behold all the
perfections of God, in transcendent lustre, and beautiful
harmony. There is a greater display of public justice in the
death of the cross, than in all judicial inflictions. There
is more goodness in the salvation of one fallen sinner, than
in the confirmation of thousands of holy angels. The equity
of the divine government shines with brighter honors in the
scheme of sovereign grace than in the dispensation of
Paradise. Besides, here, and here alone, is a standing for
mercy; here alone she unfurls her ensigns of peace, and
sways her sceptre, at once to vindicate the throne, and save
the sinner. The attributes, whose honor seemed to require
the destruction of sinners, are glorified in his salvation
yea, more glorified in his salvation, than they would have
been in his perdition. 5. The atonement brings an immense accession of good to
the universe. What a universe of death would this have been,
if all the evils due to sinners actually took place! But God
has thoughts of peace, and not of evil towards us. For "if
God spared not his own Son, but delivered Him up for us all,
how shall He not with Him freely give US ALL things." He
gave his Son as the magazine and repository of all fullness
of blessings. Here are all kinds of good that man is capable
of, or can possibly need,--good to the highest degree,--"far
above all that we are able to ask or think,"--good
distributed with the freest bounty and copiousness for wants
in all conditions--good for eternity for an immortal spirit.
All this good comes through the atonement of Jesus Christ.
The cross received the thunder from the threatening cloud,
and gave sunshine to the universe. 6. The atonement excites interest in the remotest parts
of the universe. Angels desire to look into it. Philosophers
have studied and admired gravitation, and have almost adored
the principle that keeps in harmony innumerable myriads of
worlds, in the remotest regions of space to which
imagination can push. But what is this, compared with the
principle and arrangement that makes known unto
principalities and powers in heavenly places the manifold,
wisdom of God, and preserves the order and happiness of
countless intelligences? This as infinitely transcends the
other, as influence over MIND surpasses, in dignity and
grandeur, influence over matter. 7. The atonement takes for the accomplishment of its
designs a vast circuit of dispensations. Its goings-forth
have been from eternity. The world was created a theatre for
its scenes. The machinery of Providence was constructed to
introduce its operations. The Mosaic law was the
schoolmaster of its first principles, and the Jewish temple,
with all its furniture, was but a scaffold for its building
of mercy. Four thousand years were employed to summon
attention to its designs. After time has perished, the
results of the atonement, like the circles produced in a
peaceful lake, will be widening, and perpetually widening,
through the length. and breadth of a shoreless eternity. 8. The atonement supplies a stupendous system of motives
to bear on the interests of the universe. The epistles of
the New Testament bring these motives to bear upon our
duties towards God, towards Christ, towards the world, and
towards each other in our relative capacities. There are no
motives like these, in power and sweetness, to tell on the
heart, and to produce repentance towards God. The atonement
"speaks better things" than any other measure for the
interests of holiness and truth. A ministry, without the
motives of the atonement, is a ministry in which the "blood
of sprinkling" is hushed and mute. A world in which were
hushed the music of the groves, the cadences of murmuring
streams, and the dulcet sounds of love and friendship, were
but a faint emblem of the sepulchral dulness of such a
ministry. It is when the atonement speaketh better things
that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. 9. The atonement is the medium of the most glorious
change in the character and the prospects of sinners.
"Behold what manner of love is this that WE should be called
the sons of God." In this medium the sinner can meet "the
consuming fire" without being destroyed. It is a refuge
accessible, designed, and sufficient, for every sinner. To
what honor will God exalt believers, when even this glorious
Mediator will come to be GLORIFIED in his saints! Think what
they were when he came to seek and to find them--and think
what he has made of them by his blood and Spirit--and you
will approve of their having no song in heaven but "WORTHY
IS THE LAMB THAT WAS SLAIN FOR US." THE END.