CLARENCE SANTEE by Clarence Santee

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 24, 1912

CLARENCE SANTEE

By Clarence Santee

Substitution

CLARENCE SANTEE

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isa. 53:6.

CAN one person die for another? Is there right or justice in the acceptance of the life of an innocent man to pay the penalty for one who is guilty? Is substitution right?

The danger of accepting an error does not lie so much in considering the question as in viewing it from a wrong basis. The usual viewpoint is as between man and man. This will lead to a wrong conclusion. One man can not pay the penalty of sin for another. In Ps. 49:7, I read, “None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.” This should forever settle the question as between man and man. But when we consider it as between God and man, the conditions are vastly different. “Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. “All have sinned.” Rom. 3:23. Can an innocent man pay the penalty for a sinner?

From God and Christ emanates the law. As God, they are not amenable to the law. They are above it. The builder is greater than the thing that is built. “He that built all things is God.” Heb. 3:3, 4. Then he is above and greater than “all things.” The law is a river of life (Rom. 7:10; Prov. 12:28) which flows, not from beyond the throne, but from the throne. Its source is there.

“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Rev. 22:1. While this is a real river, yet the Lord uses it to draw a lesson from the law that proceeds from his throne, bearing life and blessing to the one who keeps it. He says: “And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” Verse 17, last part. “With thee is the fountain of life.” Ps. 36:9.

Christ could die for any transgression under a law that he had made. His law depends upon himself and his Father. He can forgive sins, but only by suffering the penalty, and in this way upholding the integrity of his law. Either an offering equal to the demands of the law must be made, or the strength of the law must decline. If an offering of less value can be accepted, it is only because the requirement of the law can be relaxed. If it admits of this, it at once becomes uncertain and weakened.

An offering equal in value to the law itself, therefore meeting every requirement of the law, accomplishing for the sinner an entire freedom from its condemnation as if the law had ceased to exist, yet in full accord with that law, is the only substitute that can suffice and be effective. This was given in Christ.

Again “in him,” and in him alone, we all “live, and move, and have our being.” Acts 17:28. Then he alone can die the sinner’s death. No substitutional idea as applied to others can be a parallel. An angel or a man could not become a substitute. They have no renewing, creative power, no new life to give. It must be from the fountain. The source of that river can be mingled with an element that cleanses all whom it may wash in its onward flow. The troubling of the water brought the healing to the man who stepped in. John 5:2-4.

I can see the one who was “waiting for the moving of the water.” Compassionate friends carried him morning by morning to the pool, and there he waited and watched. When months were drawn out into years, and some said, “No use!” and turned away, there was some one, perchance a faithful wife, who sought out others to carry him, and in this way thirty-eight years had gone wearily by. A day must not be missed, as that might be the day of the troubling of the water, the propitious day for him. Even so may friends to-day bear upon their hearts loved ones stricken by sin. They may at times say, “It is of no use;” but not knowing the day when that wayward heart may be “troubled,” and there be a desire awakened by the Spirit of God to “step in,” can you afford to become discouraged?

Thirty-eight years some one hoped and prayed. It was long, but prayer was finally rewarded. The glad day came. It came, and the weary waiting was forgotten. The joy of the present freedom was intensified because of the hope so long deferred. But the substitution of another to answer for the sin that brought this man to his wretched condition, was not through friends, nor a patient, loving wife, but through Him alone who, bending over him, could say “Arise,” and in that word could change him into “another man.” A sick man lay on his rude mat; a well man, buoyant with health and animation, picked his way among the waiting multitude, and looked joyously toward his home. The change was effected; yet the admonition to “sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (verse 14) had lost none of its meaning by this exchange.

The law remained the same. “All his commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever.” Ps. 111:7, 8; Rev. 22:14. But with the unchangeable nature of the law was combined the element

of mercy. Mercy is tenderness toward the offender. There was no call for mercy until there was an offense. Then, through the sacrifice of Christ, mercy was mingled with the justice of the law. This is beautifully expressed in Ps. 85:10: “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” “Mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” James 2:13. “Mercy and truth are met together;” “thy law is the truth.” Ps. 119:142. With the law is mingled mercy, and that mercy is everlasting. Psalm 136.

A change came also in the Giver of the law. Christ, “the Word,” was “made flesh.” John 1:14. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.” Heb. 2:14. While still God, he is also man—“God with us.” Matt. 1:23. What Christ was in substance before being “made flesh,” born “of a woman,” mortal can not comprehend. We can comprehend what it is to be “made flesh,” to be composed of the “dust of the ground.” But to be composed of an element that his own power created, is a great mystery. Many stumble over it to their ruin, because they can not fully understand it. But the mysteries of life all around us are alike unexplainable, even to the blade of grass, yet they are accepted facts because of the evidence of our senses, and our constant contact with them. Men would be foolish indeed to refuse bread because they could not explain how sun, water, and earth cause a seed of wheat to open and send up a little stem which continues to grow upward until fruit is formed. Even so it is not wise, nor an evidence of superior judgment, when men refuse the “bread of life” because they can not unravel the mystery of the growth of the “seed of the woman.” Christ took the part that we deserved, that we might have the part that he deserved. A wonderful exchange, yet not so strange when we consider his “everlasting love.” If earthly parents, with a small vestige of that love, will freely give all for the loved child, how could our God do less? No wonder that the psalmist declares, “And they that know thy name put their trust in thee.” Ps. 9:10.

Loma Linda, Cal.