The Three-Fold Mission of Christ.
By J. E. Downey
The true disciple is one with Christ. In that memorable prayer contained in the 17th chapter of John he prays "that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one." In this mysterious union Christ has so completely made the redeemed culprit a part of himself that as a matter of absolute right the culprit may plead this unity, so that in Christ, of whom he has become a part, he pays the penalty of his sin. Let no one think that this is a forced argument. There is no union in the natural world that is so perfect and complete in itself as this oneness with Christ, so that while in one place the apostle Paul calls himself the chief of sinners we find him in his letter to the Galatians exclaiming, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." And again he says, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." If we then have become a part of Christ is not absolute justice fully satisfied when he stands as our substitution?231 Now we must not get a wrong idea of God the Father, because it was necessary that Christ should die in order to maintain the majesty of the law. Christ did not die to appease the wrath of an angry father. I take it that the Father loved us just as much before Christ died as he did afterwards. I have no sympathy with the doctrine that Christ died to reconcile God to us. We are everywhere told that he died to reconcile us to God. God's love was infinite. "He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life." What wonderful love that he should give this priceless gift that we might have life! Christ died not to appease God's wrath; but that God might be just, and yet the justifier of the sinner. There was no other way whereby he could be saved. Hence it is that if one rejects Christ there is no possible way left for him but to pay the penalty of his own sin. The law is, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." If therefore we are unwilling to accept Christ's substitution nothing but eternal death is left for us. There is no way left by which God can save us without bringing contempt upon his law, which is a thing impossible even with God. This is such a vital point in Christian doctrine that I wish if possible to fix it indelibly in the mind of every one. The judge upon the bench who would abate any part of the penalty of the law because his son might be the culprit would deserve impeachment. How then could God have forgiven sin if Christ had not died? Christ's expiation in the garden was in the presence of angels and devils. All were beholding the wonderful redemption so that the universe could ever afterwards adjudge God just when, for Christ's sake, he would pardon sin. Now if God's law is so great that his only begotten Son chose to bear the full penalty rather than that it should be violated with impunity, should we not tremble at the thought of violating such a law, and must not all the intelligences of Heaven, realizing the majesty of such a law, bow with greater reverence before it on account of the sacrifice that was made to fulfill it? The second object was to teach us the law more fully. He was the great Teacher sent from God. Nicodemus was made to fully realize this when he came to our Lord by night. The sermon in the mount with all his other teachings embody an absolutely perfect code of ethics. They are the bed-rock of all spiritual truth. The man that builds his character upon these shall build a temple that shall never fall, because it is founded upon a rock. The storms of adversity and of temptation may beat about him in all their fury, but his house should never fall if he heareth and doeth the sayings of the Master. The third mission of Christ was to be our example. He not only taught us the truth in his wonderful precepts, but by his life of sacrifice and patient endurance of suffering he showed us by example that it was possible to live the doctrines which he taught. There was no self-denial which he shrunk from. Coming to the world in a manger he placed himself beneath the lowest of humanity that he might lift up all. There is no one so poor but that he can feel that Christ knows by experience how to sympathize with him. No one is so friendless but that he may feel that Christ as he bore his cross alone to Calvary was even more friendless. We find therefore embodied in his life this triune mission: 1. The sacrificial atonement, without which there could be no salvation unless God could sacrifice justice, which is impossible. Otherwise he would cease to be a just God. 2. That of the lonely Galilean teacher. 3. That of our great example. And so perfectly has he fulfilled these three missions that he stands out in history as the one over-shadowing character of all the world. The infidel world have come to acknowledge him in his character of teacher and examplar. But in his first and greatest mission they find in him but a rock of offense.—J. E. Downey, in Golden Censer.