The Atonement by Joseph Harvey Waggoner

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Oct 12, 1876

The Atonement

By Joseph Harvey Waggoner

The Atonement.—No. 19.

BY ELD. J. H. WAGGONER.

Sin is odious in the sight of God; it is that which God hates, and with reason, too, for it is hateful in its nature. We who have always been associated with it, and connected with it during the whole of our lives, cannot realize how sin appears to sinless beings, and more especially to God, who is infinite in perfection.

Sin is terrible in its results, in regard both to the government and to its subjects. It has dishonored God, as by it millions have denied his being, or despised his authority, and reviled his name. God is love; the earth was founded, and man was created and placed upon it, as the work of a benevolent Creator and a loving Father, who, by this work, designed an increase of joy in his universe. But sin has marred its beauty, and that lovely world at whose making the sons of God shouted for joy, has been turned into a pandemonium of curses against its Maker. The revealings of the Judgment day alone will cause men to realize to what extent sin has dishonored the Supreme Governor.

It is terrible beyond expression, and even beyond conception, in its consequences to man. Where God designed that all should be love, and peace, and joy, there millions upon millions have suffered untold sorrows all their lives, and died in agony, as the unavoidable consequences of sin, either their own or others, while many of them are yet reserved to the Judgment to receive the penalty of their sins in the horrors of the second death. Every tear, every pain, every sorrow, every circumstance of discomfort, is a fruit of sin. Fraud, licentiousness, bloodshed, and these in every form, and almost everywhere prevailing, tell us how terrible is sin.

We are all accustomed, more or less, to consider sin in the light of these facts. But we seldom consider it, as we should, as a thing difficult to exterminate. He who has made an effort to reform his life, who has met temptations from without, and battled with passions and propensities within, to some extent has realized that sin is an intruder, hard to be ejected from the human heart.

But this is not all. When we carefully study the divine plan of salvation as revealed in the atonement wrought in the priesthood of God's dear Son, we find that sin is of that nature and character that it is hard to dispose of in the divine government. Things which to us, with our depraved natures and corrupted hearts, appear to be of little consequence, are of tremendous weight as viewed in the light of Heaven's purity and glory. We may forget our sin, or we may confess it, and as our hearts feel relieved, we may think it is now a thing of the past; that it no longer has an existence. But Infinite Justice looks upon it as a blot, a stain in the universe, which is not easily removed.

And first, we are led to this conclusion by the act of God's giving his dear Son as an offering for its removal, and for the vindication of the divine government when sin has brought contempt upon it. Jesus Christ came to “put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Heb. 9:26. When we consider that God gave his only beloved Son, who had always pleased him, and in whom he greatly delighted; and that the Son, who was glorified with the Father before the world was, and who was the brightness of his glory, in an agony of almost overwhelming sorrow prayed that if it were possible the cup might pass from him, and yet meekly drank that cup in unparalleled submission, we must conclude that a necessity somewhere existed in the nature of the work to be accomplished, for such an immense sacrifice on the part of the Father and the Son.

We have remarked that the pardon of sin is relative, as we know of no better form of words in which to express a very important truth. God will never disregard the claims of his law. And though pardon may be considered as absolute, so far as the pardoned sinner is concerned, it is plainly taught that forgiveness is granted to the penitent by transferring his sin to another who suffers for him; that pardon is not absolute, or is not granted in such manner that the penalty may not be suffered at all. Though we no longer rest under its condemnation, its existence is a recognized fact in the government of God.

This truth is taught, not only in the death of God's Son, who bore our sins on the cross, but in the closing work of the high priest on the day of atonement. When the priest blotted out the sins of the people in the most holy place, or, in the words of the ordinance, “cleansed it and hallowed it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel,” by sprinkling the blood of the offering upon the mercy-seat, that did not end his work. The people were forever cleansed, and set free from the sins so washed away by the sprinkling of the blood upon the mercy-seat; and the sanctuary was cleansed, by which the sins of those for whom atonement was made, were removed from the presence of Jehovah; but the sins still existed, and were removed from the presence of God to be placed upon another object.

Two goats were presented before the Lord and lots were cast upon them; one to be a sin-offering to be slain, the blood of which was sprinkled in the sanctuary; the other for a scapegoat, which was not slain, and concerning which the priest took no action till after the sanctuary was cleansed, that is, till after the sins of the people were removed from before the throne of judgment. Let this be carefully noted, as it will help to correct erroneous views regarding the scapegoat.