REDEMPTION VERSUS CREATION.
By M. C. W.
WE do not by the above title design to convey the idea that either one of these great works is opposed to the other. They are both the works of the great all-wise I AM; therefore there can be no collision or disagreement between them. And yet they are set one against the other by many advocates of first-day sacredness. These men admit that the seventh-day Sabbath was given as a memorial of the creative works of God, and that it was the only Sabbath of divine appointment which existed during the first four thousand years of the world's history. But when Christ came, he finished the work of redemption by his resurrection on the first day of the week; and because of this the first day should be kept in honor of redemption, or in honor of that event which finished redemption. They reason that as redemption is greater than creation, and as redemption was finished by the resurrection of Christ on the first day, therefore the first day ought to be kept in preference to the seventh day. The above, though brief, contains a fair summary of one of the main arguments for the Sunday-sabbath. The high claim that it makes, and the number of its advocates, demand that it should be examined; and this we will do by the standard of the divine word. We will find as we investigate that the claim is founded upon the most unwarranted assumptions. 1. It is assumed that redemption is greater than creation. We say "assumed," for it is not revealed in the word of God. It is not only assumption, it is presumption, for short-sighted, mortal man to pass on the relative greatness of the Creator's works, works which call forth the essential attributes of263Deity. Only God can create, or bring into existence; only God could redeem the fallen world. Both works are infinite. Creation is the manifestation of God's infinite power and wisdom—"his eternal power and Godhead." Rom. 1:19, 20. Redemption is the manifestation of God's infinite love. For puny, weak, witless man to assume to declare the relative merits of Jehovah's mighty works, when he has not revealed them, is Heaven-daring presumption. No one knows which is the greater; God has not revealed it. Without such revelation, no mortal can know it; and with such revelation no mortal can comprehend it; for the finite can never comprehend the infinite. Man can better weigh the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. 2. Redemption was not finished at the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection, it is true, was a great step in the wondrous scheme; so also was the incarnation, and the crucifixion, and the ascension; so also will be the second advent. They are all steps in that great progressive work which will close only when the mediatorial work of Christ shall cease, and he shall come to gather his children home. That redemption does not close till the Lord comes is evident from our Saviour's words in Luke 21:28, where, in referring to the signs which should precede his appearing, he says: "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Again, the Lord declares through his apostle that it is for this coming of Christ, when the sons of God will be manifested (1 John 3:1, 2), when the corruptible body will be made like Christ's glorious body (Phil. 3:21), when the body will be redeemed, that all creation groans and travails. Rom. 8:19-23. Redemption, then, is not completed till the second coming of our Lord; and to set apart a day as a memorial of redemption's finished work before that work is finished, is not only unwarranted, but it is another evidence of the folly of human wisdom when separated from divine revelation. 3. Redemption means a buying back, but this world was not purchased by the resurrection of Christ, but by his crucifixion. The following scriptures conclusively prove this: "Forasmuch as ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." 1 Peter 1:18, 19. "In whom [Christ] we have redemption through his blood." Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14. And this is also the song of the redeemed: "And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." Rev. 5:9. But Christ's blood was poured out, as is generally supposed, on Friday. Therefore if any day of the week was to be set apart, certainly that day in which our Saviour paid the purchase price has the pre-eminence. On that day he cried, "It is finished;" that is, the great Sacrifice was made. But the work of redemption goes on till Christ ceases to plead his blood. It is the marvel of the universe that God should give his Son to die, that Christ should give himself; but it was not so wonderful that he should raise him from the dead. But for neither event has God set apart a day. In neither event does the record make the day on which it took place prominent. 4. But God has given us memorials of the crucifixion and the resurrection. For the crucifixion, the Lord's Supper is given. "As often," says the apostle, "as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show forth the Lord's death till he come." 1 Cor. 11:26. And this ordinance was to be observed in "remembrance" of Christ. Verse 24. For the resurrection, we have the ordinance of baptism and the new life of the Christian. Says the apostle: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." Rom. 6:3-5. Thus the administration of baptism, or immersion (for baptism is nothing else), shows to others the faith possessed by the one baptized in the great facts of the gospel,—the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Cor. 15:1-4; Col. 2:14. The very mode and symbolism of immersion indicates the faith of the believer. Sprinkling or pouring shows faith in nothing. When the true significance of baptism was lost, the form, or mode, was changed. And the Greek word for immerse (baptize) is now applied to the perversions of the gospel ordinance. In these perversions of the ordinance of baptism, the resurrection has been entirely lost sight of, on the part of many who think it ought to be remembered. They find in their creed that the resurrection is unmarked by any ordinance, and they find an institution, Sunday, for which no scriptural reason can be given; so they, without warrant of revelation, make the Sunday a memorial of the resurrection and of redemption. But God has not left the resurrection without a memorial; he has given the ordinance of baptism. God has not left the crucifixion, in which the great purchase price was paid for our redemption, without a memorial; he has given the Lord's Supper to be celebrated till he come. The resurrection of Christ is also an ever present fact, pregnant with power, in the life of the regenerate. He arises from baptism to walk in newness of life, to overcome sin, not by his own power, but the power of a risen Redeemer. "That I may know Him," says Paul, "and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." Phil. 3:12. Every day of Christian life is a manifestation of the power of the resurrection of Christ. Further argument might be made and further evidence given to show the baseless character of this Sunday support, but the above is sufficient. If this evidence has taken from our readers the Sunday as a memorial of the resurrection or of redemption, it has taken only the false. It has given that which is better, the true gospel ordinances of the Lord Jesus Christ, baptism and the Lord's Supper. Further than that, it shows the necessity of restoring the Sabbath of the Lord, God's memorial to all generations. Sunday is only a usurper. It cannot be made to memorialize or honor any great event without detracting from the sacredness of divinely appointed institutions. God has made his wonderful works, his wonderful love, his wonderful power to be remembered. He has in his own wisdom appointed just such memorials as are demanded, and he has clearly revealed just what those are. And Sunday is not one of those institutions. It has no scriptural foundation, and even the very law with which its friends endeavor to guard its pseudo-sacredness is borrowed from the true institution of God,—the seventh-day Sabbath,—which has been dethroned to make place for the "wild solar holiday of all pagan times." Why are not men willing that God should appoint his own institutions? Worse than all else, the worst wounds, as of old, are made in the house of his friends. Yet the word of God endureth forever, and that declares that "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God."