The Gospel in Type and Antitype
By Loretta V. Robinson
The Fall and the Gospel — Early Types of Sacrifice
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Gen. 1:1. AFTER the earth, teeming with animal and vegetable life, had been created, man, the crowning work of God, the one for whom all things were made, was brought forth. “And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness; and let them have dominion . . . over all the earth.” Gen. 1:26. The psalmist said, “Thou madest Him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under His feet.” Ps. 8:6. The love of God for the beings He had made was not yet satisfied; therefore He planted a garden eastward in Eden, and out of the ground made every tree to grow that was pleasant to the sight and good for food, and there He placed the man and the woman He had created. In the midst of the garden stood one tree, the Tree of Life, far surpassing in beauty all other trees. In its fruit was the power to perpetuate life. But that man might be happy in obedience, and that God might derive pleasure therefrom, he must be more than a mere machine, or an automaton. Power of choice must be given him. One writer has said: “God is the absolute sovereign. He has made man an absolute sovereign in one realm,—that of his will, his power of choice. There is one place where man reigns alone, an absolute autocrat, where not even God can come save as the autocrat desires it; that is in his will.” And that man might have the opportunity of choice, God placed in the garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, with the command that they should not taste it on penalty of death. Man could never have reached the high ideal for which God had created him, without the power of choice; and only the use of power gives actual possession. The Climax and the Crisis
The climax is the highest point or the top rung of the ladder. A crisis is the meeting-place of possible victory and possible disaster. When the temptation came to disobey God, to partake of the forbidden tree, it was climax of opportunity, and a crisis of action. God gave man the opportunity of using his power of choice that he might reach the topmost levels, and with the opportunity came the temptation. And thus God has ever dealt with man. The suggestion that God was prohibiting something that was needful, was followed by another,—that He was keeping back from them the very thing He was pretending to give them, that was likeness to Himself. “Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil,” had the desired effect. And the woman, seeing, as it were, through the eyes of the tempter, “saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” Gen. 3:6. The choice was made. The act was done. The possibility of reaching the precipice height was passed, and man was plunged into the yawning gulf below, without hope and without God in the world, the death sentence hanging over his head. Who can fathom all that lay in that one act of disobedience? All the sin, the misery, the wretchedness, the appalling crime, the sickness and death, with which our earth has since been cursed, lay in embryo in that apparently small act of disobedience. Who can know, in the moment of temptation, the terrible consequences that will result from one wrong step! Shortly after the transgression, God appeared in the garden, and made known to the guilty pair the results of their disobedience. No longer could they be permitted to remain in their Eden home. God said, “Behold, the man has become as one of Us.” He had exercised his power of choice, he had chosen wrong. “And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life.” “Lest!” Wrong choice always limits our future action. Sin narrows. The sinner must not be permitted to partake of the Tree of Life, and live in sin and rebellion forever. Love drove the man from the Paradise garden until the lesson of obedience should be learned. When he had changed sides in the fight with evil, and got the victory, the gates would again open, and such have a right to the Tree of Life. But altho this tree was shut away from man for a time, yet life itself was offered him in the person of God’s dear Son. He is that tree whose branches bend so low that even the humblest soul may pluck, and eat, and live forever, with no fear that sin will be perpetuated; for only “he that hath the Son hath life.” 1 John 5:12. The love that drove man from the garden, could not long leave him hopeless and helpless; it must unfold to him God’s wonderful plan of life and salvation, laid deep and sure back in the days of eternity. Christ was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” “according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, . . . having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ.” Eph. 1:4, 5. The plan of salvation was not, therefore, an afterthought. The first intimation of this plan, as recorded, was communicated in the sentence pronounced upon Satan in the garden. The Lord declared, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Gen. 3:15. This sentence uttered in the presence of our first parents was to them a promise. While it foretold a great conflict between man and Satan, it declared that Satan should finally be destroyed and man be victorious. But who is this “seed” that should become so one with man as to cause him to triumph?—The same as was promised to Abraham. “And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” Gen. 22:17, 18. “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” Gal. 3:16. “For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham.” Heb. 2:16.5 The Gospel in Type and Antitype
Wonder, O heavens, and be astonished, O earth, that God, the Creator of all things, the Lord of life and glory, should so humble Himself as to become one of sinful humanity, that He might redeem man, and bring him back again in purity and holiness to his Eden home! To assist in unfolding the Gospel, and that man might have a medium through which to express his penitence for sin and his faith in the promised Redeemer, the sacrificial offerings were instituted. They were also designed to impress upon man the fact that the wages of sin is death, and that “without shedding of blood is no remission.” Heb. 9:22. That is to say, the sinner has forfeited his life, and the broken law can not be satisfied, or vindicated, without the shedding of blood, or taking of life; for life is its due. So when the sin was transferred in figure to the offering, that was accepted for the sinner, and its blood or life taken for his. So the sin was forgiven the sinner, and laid upon another, who suffered its penalty. Thus the offerings were an object-lesson of how “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. Abel accepted with gratitude God’s plan of salvation, and brought a sacrifice from the flock; and fire flashed from heaven and consumed it as a token of acceptance. But Cain, disregarding the Lord’s express command, presented only fruit. There was no token from heaven to show that it was accepted, hence he was very angry with God and with his brother. Many to-day are making the same mistake, depending upon their own merits instead of the atoning blood of Christ, and see no reason for preaching a crucified and risen Saviour. During the patriarchal age the father was the ruler and priest of his own family. We find Abraham building an altar and offering sacrifices wherever he pitched his tent. We find that Job “rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings” for all his children; for he said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.” Job 1:5. This form of the priesthood was continued until the time when Israel was led out of Egypt into the wilderness of Sinai, where God gave Moses what is called the Levitical priesthood as connected with the sanctuary, which subject will be considered in a future study.