Our Saviour and Lord by George W. Reaser

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 13, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 31.

Our Saviour and Lord

By George W. Reaser

Christ Our Sacrifice and Saviour

BECAUSE of His foreknowledge, Jehovah can not be surprised by any event, nor can His eternal purpose be thwarted by any calamity that may befall, for He is infinite in resources, limitless in power. Therefore He will eventually bring victory out of every untoward event, and glorious triumph out of every calamity which may seem for the time being to defeat His plans.

When strange, mysterious rebellion entered the universe, and dire calamity befell our human family, the resources of Divinity were more than equal to the emergency. But to meet the crisis, redeem man's failure, neutralize sin, crush the rebellion, and, as it were, readjust the universe to principles of righteousness, required the revelation, the expression, of unfathomable love by supreme sacrifice. The plan of salvation must, of necessity, be laid in infinite sacrifice.

Inherent in divine nature is the great law of sacrifice,—latent when the condition of none of God's creatures necessitates its being brought into action, but ready for instant expression, active, operative, when the needs of any of His creatures demand its exercise.

The law of sacrifice is in reality but an outward expression, in action—an object-lesson—of divine love. When sin had entered, and man had fallen, and as a result stood face to face with eternal ruin, the demand came for the expression of divine love in infinite sacrifice.

None Other than the Creator Could Redeem

The central figure in the expression of divine love by the law of sacrifice, for the salvation of our human family, was "the Lamb of God," "slain from the foundation of the world." Rev. 13: 8. Not that Christ actually shed His blood at the foundation of the world; but when the woman and the man whom He had created in His own image had sinned, in the act of committing the first sin they virtually slew their Creator. Jesus Christ was the Creator of mankind (John 1: 1-3; Eph. 3: 9; Col. 1: 14-17), and it devolved upon Him to pay with His own life the death penalty of the beings whom He had brought into existence, or else leave them to eternal ruin. "The broken law of God demanded the life of the sinner. In all the universe there was but One who could, in behalf of man, satisfy its claims. . . . None but Christ could redeem fallen man from the curse of the law, and bring Him again into harmony with Heaven."—"Patriarchs and Prophets."

Love the Compelling Power

There was one thing that compelled the Son of God, the Creator, to pay the purchase price necessary to redeem the man—the race. This was not a physical power from without, but rather the inherent, overflowing divine love in His very nature. It was the very essence of His nature, as well as His choice, to redeem man.

Doubtless the greatest possible expression and revelation of divine love was the condescension of Jesus to become man, and then—the cross of Calvary. The death penalty demanded by sin could not be visited upon Him until He put human nature on.

"But 'God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' O, the mystery of redemption! the love of God for a world that did not love Him! Who can know the depths of that love which 'passeth knowledge'? Through endless ages, immortal minds, seeking to comprehend the mystery of that incomprehensible love, will wonder and adore."—"Patriarchs and Prophets."

The Sacrificial System a Means of Expressing Faith

"Before the foundations of the earth were laid, the Father and the Son had united in a covenant to redeem man if he should be overcome by Satan. They had clasped Their hands in a solemn pledge that Christ should become the surety for the human race."—"Desire of Ages."

When Christ had thus pledged Himself to become the surety for man's redemption, "then joy, inexpressible joy, filled heaven. The glory and blessedness of a world redeemed, outmeasured the anguish and sacrifice of the Prince of Life. Through the celestial courts echoed the first strains of that song which was to ring out above the hills of Bethlehem,—'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'"

To keep alive in the breast of humanity the flame of hope that "the Seed of the woman" would come in due time and bruise the serpent's head, Infinite Wisdom instituted a daily object-lesson of the great law of divine sacrifice. The keeping of this institution, the observing of the object-lesson system in the offering of innocent victims, typical of "the Lamb of God," was also a means of expressing faith in the one and only all-sufficient Sacrifice, whose blood—the only antidote for the deadly poison of sin—would be shed in the fulness of time.

"As Adam's transgression had brought wretchedness and death, so the sacrifice of Christ would bring life and immortality." "Christ, by His sacrifice paying the penalty for sin, would not only redeem man, but recover the dominion which he had forfeited."

"The sacrificial offerings were ordained by God to be to man a perpetual reminder

and a penitential acknowledgment of his sin, and a confession of his faith in the promised Redeemer. They were intended to impress upon the fallen race the solemn truth that it was sin that caused death. To Adam the offering of the first sacrifice was a most painful ceremony. His hand must be raised to take life, which only God could give. It was the first time he had ever witnessed death, and he knew that had he been obedient to God, there would have been no death of man or beast. As he slew the innocent victim, he trembled at the thought that his sin must shed the blood of the spotless Lamb of God. This scene gave him a deeper and more vivid sense of the greatness of his transgression, which nothing but the death of God's dear Son could expiate. . . ."

"But the plan of redemption had a yet broader and deeper purpose than the salvation of man. It was not for this alone that Christ came to the earth. . . . It was to vindicate the character of God before the universe. To this result of His great sacrifice—its influence upon the intelligences of other worlds as well as upon man—the Saviour looked forward when, just before His crucifixion, He said, 'Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto Me.' . . ."

"It was the marvel of all the universe that Christ should humble Himself to save fallen man. That He who had passed from star to star, from world to world, superintending all, by His providence supplying the needs of every order of being in His vast creation—that He should consent to leave His glory and take upon Himself human nature, was a mystery which the sinless intelligences of other worlds desired to understand."—"Patriarchs and Prophets."

Character and Purpose of Sin-Offerings

Doubtless the reader is familiar with the character of the various typical offerings connected with the sacrificial system. They consisted of sin- and trespass-offerings, burnt and consecration-offerings, peace- and free-will-offerings, meat-, first-fruit, and atonement-offerings. Turtle-doves, young pigeons, lambs, kids, sheep, goats, and cattle were the victims. Each blood-offering, in a vivid manner, pointed to Christ, "the Lamb of God."

Throughout the patriarchal ages, or from Adam to Moses, this ritual system was conducted by the head of each family; but when Israel was organized as a nation under Moses, the priesthood was vested in one of the twelve tribes, and centered in a daily and yearly sanctuary service.

Thus for four millennia there was almost an unceasing flow of the life-blood of innocent victims. But all of this round of service would have been a meaningless mockery, a shameful cruelty, unless it all reached a focal point in an efficacious sacrifice, "for it was not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." But in infinite wisdom, the sacrificial system was the best possible "figure for the time then present," the most touchingly vivid object-lesson system of expressing faith in the true atoning Sacrifice, to be offered upon the cross of Calvary. They confessed sin, and by their slain sacrifices expressed faith in a Saviour to come, even as now we express faith, by bloodless emblems, in the One who was nailed to a Roman cross.

The light-rays, the faith-glances, of the whole sacrificial system, which was operative for forty centuries, were concentrated upon, and reached their focal point in, one event and one Person. That event was Calvary; that Person, the Majesty of Glory, the great antitypical Lamb of God, slain for humanity from the foundation of the world.

The sacrificial system was a thrilling, soul-stirring drama of sin and its terrible cost, of the love of God, and of the plan of salvation; but it lacked the central figure until the cross of Calvary was set "in the midst," with the immolated Son of God affixed thereto.

Each sin-offering was to Christ a daily reminder that He must come and be sin's one and only atoning Sacrifice. But as the centuries stretched into millennia, He did not turn from His purpose to redeem man; and thus, having identified Himself with humanity "through the eternal Spirit," He offered Himself upon the altar of sacrifice until the time came that the sacrifice must be literal, personal, actual, upon the terrible cross. Through the ages, Christ saw Himself nailed to the cross and dying of a broken heart, that we who, by our sins, carried the sentence of eternal death, might go free. "Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end."

The Potency of Calvary

The most potent factor ever introduced into a sinful world for neutralizing sin and its results, for bringing hope to hopeless humanity, peace and joy to the disconsolate, righteousness to the unholy, life to the death-doomed, victory to the conquered, and for inducing undying love in the hearts of all who will avail themselves of its eternal benefits and thus survive the ravages of sin, was the cross of Calvary.

While Calvary was the supreme tragedy of the universe, it was also a revelation of divine love beyond conception, and as such will finally gather together all intelligent beings in the universe and bind them by the law of love to the government of Jehovah.

Both the payment for the full penalty of all pardonable sin, and the sum total of all typical sacrifices for sin, reached their common focal point in one Person and one event. That Person was Christ, the event Calvary, the instrument of execution a Roman cross, upon which Jesus was vicariously hanged as the only true penalty-paying Sacrifice for sin. In His death as the sin-bearer, full provision was made for the blotting out of all pardonable sin; and the sacrificial system as introduced into our world when Adam fell, meeting its antitype, ceased to be operative.

The cross of Calvary brought life and immortality to light, and prepared the way for transplanting sinless, immortalized humanity into a world of unalloyed happiness and ecstatic joy that will know no end.

Its ultimate results will be the reconciliation to God of all intelligences in the universe, as it is written, "And, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven."

One of the most vivid and appalling portrayals of sin and its dire results was the crucifixion of the Lord of Glory. Sin personified, the most complete monster that all eternity has revealed, most cruelly and without reason slew—nailed to the tree—the sinless Son of God, "the One altogether lovely."

"As Christ in His expiring agony upon the cross cried out, 'It is finished!' a shout of triumph rang through every world, and through heaven itself. The great contest that had been so long in progress in this world was now decided, and Christ was conqueror."—"Patriarchs and Prophets."

As a result of pouring "out His soul unto death," He will eventually "see of the

travail of His soul," and "be satisfied" with the price paid for the redemption of the saved of earth.

Realizing that they had been saved by the triumph of Calvary, "the multitude of captives" whom Christ rescued from the tomb and took with Him to glory, united their voices in saying, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." Rev. 5: 12.

"Once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself;" and after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever He sat down on the right hand of God.