The Agency Involved by J. O. CORLISS

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 6, 1916

The Agency Involved

By J. O. CORLISS

The Atonement — No. 3

The Agency Involved

J. O. CORLISS

Adam was created a son of God (Luke 3: 38), the highest position to which any being can attain. His completed creation, which included the gift of God’s life (Gen. 2: 7), was the union of the Creator with his created image. The forfeiture of life on Adam’s part (Gen. 2: 17; 3: 22-24) was the severance of the family tie, leaving the human race without hope, and “without God in the world.” But for a member of the divine family to be left in such a plight, without hope, would have been a victory for the original archdisturber of heaven’s peaceful household. Moreover, it would be a challenge to the claim of the Self-existent, whose purpose in creation was of an eternal nature. Eph. 3: 9-11.

So a reconciliation between God and man was necessary. In carrying out this work, the dignity and honor of Jehovah or of his law could not be compromised in any degree. Only one way, therefore, was open to effect the restoration of harmony, and that was again to elevate man to the likeness of his Creator.

To dislodge the enmity from one so “far off” from God’s righteousness as sin had driven man, there was needed a new head of the race, one who would from the beginning master the situation which caused the fall of the first father of the divine-human family. Such a purpose was pursued in a second Adam (1 Cor. 15: 45), in whom all the fulness of God should dwell. Col. 2: 9. To him was committed the mysterious plan of reconciliation, by which things in both heaven and earth could be harmonized as they were before Satan first began his controversy in the celestial courts. To do this there must be such a radical change in man’s present nature as would lift him above his earthly mold, and also give him, before heaven’s throne, an unblamable and unreprovable character. Col. 1: 19-22.

The accomplishment of such a difficult process would not only subject the second Adam to the Adamic nature and the same rigid test as the first Adam met, but he must also take on himself the accumulated sins entailed by the first Adam’s failure, and meet the penalty thereof. Isa. 53: 6. So, inasmuch as death was the result of the original sting of sin (1 Cor. 15: 56), the second Adam must not only succeed in the thing where the first one failed, but in addition he must taste death for every descendant of the first Adam (Heb. 2: 9).

All this was and is required by the law of redemption. But this law also recognized that some one of near kin was the proper person to redeem him who had fallen under adversity. Lev. 25: 25; Ruth 3: 12, 13; Jer. 32: 7. To fulfil this rule of redemptive process, it was quite necessary, therefore, for the appointed messenger of redemption to assume the nature and kinship of those whose redemption would be sought. In other words, he must become the Son of man, while yet holding the title Son of God. This union was necessary from the fact that, the design of the atonement being to relink humanity with Deity, the one who assumes to carry out the atonement plan must in himself be “God manifest in the flesh.” 1 Tim. 3: 16.

Looking forward to such preparation for redemption, the prophet’s eye was directed through the avenue of time until his prophetic gaze viewed the anticipated object, and he wrote: “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: . . . and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isa. 9: 6. This scripture reveals three important peculiarities necessary to the adaptation of the situation. As the promoter of peace between heaven and earth, he must stand at the head, and be followed without hesitation, as people follow their royal leader. He must be an everlasting Father through whom repentant sinners may enter the new life, being born of his endless life. In other words, he must be able to breathe into men his own life, as was the case in Adam’s creation. Gen. 2: 7. His work in man’s behalf must then indeed be the action of a new creation (2 Cor. 5: 17; Eph. 2: 10), which is the true exhibition of God’s mighty power.

The prophecy concerning his descent to earth in man’s behalf calls his name Immanuel, that is, “God with us.” Isa. 7: 14. So when he was born of the virgin, he was named Jesus, that is, Saviour, in recognition of the fulfilment of the prophecy made regarding his birth. Matt. 1: 21-23.

Since man could not save himself from his awful situation, his salvation must be achieved through a higher power than the merely human. It must also be accomplished by one who had never sinned. This thought needs little comment beyond a statement of the well-understood truism that “the tendency to sin augments itself by its own action, and each transgression adds weakness to the moral nature.” For this reason no moral nature weakened by a single sin could be competent to elevate the sinner above his natural tendencies. The Redeemer of men must therefore be without sin in the least degree. 1 John 3: 5.

Since man lost the divine likeness through his fall, it becomes necessary for the moral attributes of Jehovah himself, the very image and nature of himself, to be revealed through a divine Being. As a true knowledge of God is necessary to salvation (John 17: 3), and as “no man hath seen God at any time” (John 1: 18), none but the incarnated Son of God could reveal to men the divine character. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” 2 Cor. 5: 19.

Not only does the atonement plan demand that fallen men have a perfect view of divine morals, but it is just as necessary that God’s attitude toward humanity should also be known. To this end the infinite must be seen to dwell in and act through the finite. The two natures, exercised through one person, would thus manifest both God and man. Thus the divine would be seen controlling the human.

In this, Christ was to the world both the true God and the true man. In him God was manifested as he is, and man was revealed as he should be. The race had lost the knowledge of the true man, as certainly as it had lost the knowledge of God. So by faith in Christ as the world’s Redeemer, one believes in the true God and the true man at one and the same time. 2 John 9.

So the human and the divine were both revealed in the life of Christ on earth. With his disciples he ate and drank as a man, yet as God he created food for the multitude. Mark 6: 41. At the tomb of his beloved friend Lazarus he groaned in spirit and wept as a man, then as God his word brought Lazarus to life. John 11: 34-44. At his home in Nazareth he lived and loved as a man (Luke 2: 51), but on Calvary’s cross he loved and died as God. John 19: 26. Thus from his baptism to the cross, the power of love, both human and divine, was manifested through that mysterious and yet comprehensible Being, divinely designated as “God with us.”

Glendale, Cal.