2131.—Vicarious Atonement.
I recently read in a book circulated by the society of the New Church an article which is in answer to the question, “Is not my guilt imputed to my Saviour and His righteousness imputed to me? If it is not, how am I to get to heaven?” And the answer is: “The doctrines of imputed sin and imputed righteousness are essentially false and unworthy of God. They are doctrines of deception and make-believe. . . . He [God] can not regard any one guilty of sin of which he is not guilty, nor impute to any one a righteousness which he has not done. . . . The idea that God imputed Adam’s sin to all his unborn posterity that He might condemn all, and then His imputation of the whole to the Lord Jesus Christ, and punish Him for us, and pretending that this was doing Him justice was one of the most unjust conceptions imaginable.” Do you consider that he could have any Scriptural authority for his answer? J. A. P. No more than the Unitarian is the New Church, or Swedenborgian, a Christian church. It is really the church of Swedenborg. The Scriptures expressly declare that we “all like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him [Christ] the iniquity of us all.” It does not say that Adam’s sin is imputed to us all, but the stream does not rise higher than its source. We have inherited Adam’s fallen nature, hence we are fallen, sinful creatures. But He also tells us that “where sin abounds, grace does much more abound.” God does not arbitrarily lay sin upon Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ voluntarily accepts these sins. God not only “gave His only begotten Son,” but that Son “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.” He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor. 5:21. There are many texts of the same sentiment. The only hope of the world is in the sacrifice, freewill offering, and power of our Lord Jesus Christ to save. They who ignore that are perverting the word of God. He not only saves us from the sin of Adam, for which we are not responsible, but He will bear the sin of all those who will come to God by Him in faith.