WHAT IS THE PENALTY OF THE LAW?
By Editor
BRO. SMITH: I wish to ask a few questions, not for publication, unless you think them valid, but for your consideration. What is the penalty of the law? If you say death, I ask, What death? temporal or eternal? If temporal death, then will not the wicked answer the penalty when they die, and at their resurrection live forever? If you say, Eternal death is the penalty, I ask, Did Christ answer the full penalty of the law? If you say he did, where is the eternal death? for Christ did not suffer it. I know in the beginning, the penalty was simply death, but as there are now two resurrections brought to view, to distinguish between them, I use the terms temporal and eternal. But I wish to ask, Is it speaking diminutively of Christ to reason as follows: that Christ's sacrifice was perfect, the blood of which is able to cleanse from all sin, and he bears our sins until he finishes his work in the heavenly Sanctuary, and then they are transferred from him to the author of sin, the devil, and he suffers eternal death, which answers the full penalty of the law. As the scape-goat in the type was to be for an atonement, only to bear the sins off, and no account of his existence after that, so will the devil bear our sins off and not return again. And as atonement signifies reconciliation, how can God be reconciled until the full penalty of the law be answered, which is eternal death? The wicked will suffer eternal death as the full penalty of their own transgressions. It is said by some that this is charging Satan with more than he is guilty. But is he not more guilty than some think? Let us look at an expression made by the Saviour to that generation. Luke xi, 50. The blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, should be required of this generation. How could they be guilty of all the blood of the prophets? Because they had greater light. Therefore they would be as guilty as though they had shed the blood of all the prophets. Thus I would make the application of the guilt of Satan; that is, he will be just as guilty as though he had committed all our sins. With this reasoning it is clear to me that Satan is the antitypical scape-goat. One important point to be noticed in the service or office of the scape-goat in the type is, that the sins of God's people were borne by him after they were brought out of the sanctuary. So in the antitype; the scape-goat's work is after they are borne out of the heavenly Sanctuary by the great High Priest, when the sins pass from him to the antitypical scape-goat, and he bears them off and suffers eternal death, and then the full penalty of the law is answered, God reconciled, and his government approved. REMARKS.—Christ paid for us the penalty of the law. If he did not, the law will still have claims upon the transgressor, Christ's sufferings and death will prove fruitless, and none can be saved. But this cannot be so; for he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him; and we are permitted to rejoice in the hope of a full and complete salvation. What then is the penalty of the law? It is death. The word death, literally understood, wherever it is applied must always denote the same condition. We indeed speak of temporal and eternal death; but these terms are used only in reference to the time during which the person continues dead: and we speak of the first and second death; but these expressions denote only the order of the events. But death, whether first or second, temporal or eternal, reduces man to the same state. It expresses one condition; and the change thus expressed, is the penalty of the law, the punishment of sin. To illustrate let us go back to the garden where sin entered. As a test of Adam's obedience to his law, God prohibited his eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A violation of this prohibition would be a direct transgression of at least the tenth and eighth commandments. In after years God made use of the fourth commandment in the same way to test the obedience of the children of Israel; [Ex. xvi, 4;] and Paul uses the tenth in a similar manner in reference to his own case. Rom. vii, 7. But Adam transgressed; and the penalty which God had previously threatened, that he should surely die, he now proceeded to pronounce: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Gen. iii, 19. This sentence was accordingly fulfilled; for we read, "And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died." Ib. v, 5. Thus we see how Adam became possessed of a corruptible decaying nature, which finally yielded to the stroke of death. His descendants must of course find themselves in a similar condition; the father could not confer upon the son a nature less corruptible than his own; the stream could not rise higher than the fountain; all must finally die. And had nothing further been done, and the race still been suffered to continue, they would only have lived a miserable life, till life's taper hopelessly expired. Death would then have held them in eternal dominion; and as it was recorded of each of them that all the days that they lived, were so many, and they died, no bright star of hope would have shed its divine light over their gloomy graves. But the human family was not left in this condition. Immediately upon Adam's defection, the plan of redemption was introduced. Our first parents were permitted to look far down the stream of time and behold the second Adam, the life-giver, upon his mission of love. The plan here introduced could not of course at that time raise men from the abyss into which they had fallen. Mortality, ending in death, had been incurred, and must be endured. But they were permitted to lay hold upon a divine arm which would ultimately burst the bonds of death and lift them up. The penalty then, of the law of God for the sin of our first parents introduced death into the world. This penalty was unconditional; there was no proviso to the sentence, "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die!" This language excludes the possibility of pardon, unless the law and its penalty are set aside; but "it is inflexible; it must have the life of its victim." In these sad circumstances, the most that could be done consistently with the honor and justice of God's law, was to introduce the plan of salvation, and place man, as it were, anew upon probation. This brings us to consider what would be required of him under this new arrangement, and the results of disobedience, or181 Personal transgression and its consequences. We have seen that the death threatened Adam has passed upon all his posterity; it is unconditional; the righteous suffer it as well as the wicked; all, irrespective of age, character or condition, bow before it; "In Adam," says the Apostle, "all die." But we find that the penalty for personal transgression is death also; simply death, just as was threatened to Adam. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." But inasmuch as all die for original sin, or on account of the sin of Adam, no one can die for his own personal sins, without first being raised to life again; and thus we find expressly declared, as we should unavoidably conclude from the facts now before us, "that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." The life to which they are thus raised will be a second life; and the death the wicked are then doomed to suffer, will be in reference to the first, a second death. But why will not the wicked when they are raised, live forever; since they have died once, and death is the penalty of the law? Because the death which they die in Adam is unconditional; over it men have no control; we suffer it without any reference to our moral character. But as we have before said, the Bible every where represents man as exposed to death also for his own personal sins. When therefore the wicked are brought up from the state to which Adam's transgression reduced them, the law still has claims upon them for their own sins, and lands them a second time in the realms of death. Beyond this there is no hope of life; for the means of redemption are then finished. They will then remain forever under its claims. This death will be eternal, as the death they died in Adam would have been, had not the plan of redemption immediately succeeded the introduction of sin, and, independent of the result of Adam's transgression, placed before man another life for him to gain or lose by his own personal actions. As the penalty for sin is death simply, some have taken the position that it is answered in the first death, and that therefore the wicked never will have a resurrection. Among the holders of this sentiment we may mention particularly Geo. Storrs, who has recently issued a pamphlet in its defense. But such a view must entirely overlook the claims which the law has upon us as moral agents. It exposes the Bible to the charge of deception, where it holds out to us a life and death which are conditional, which is not the case with the death we die in Adam, and consequently threatens us with a death in case of disobedience, which if we are never to be raised from the first death, we can never die; for a man cannot die again when he is already dead. To die, he must first have life. It contradicts moreover those plain declarations of Scripture, which affirm that all that are in their graves shall come forth, that the dead shall be raised, both the just and unjust, and that all the dead, small and great, shall stand before God, and be judged according to the things written in the books, which are according to their works, [Rev. xxi, 12.] or the deeds done in the body. 2 Cor. v, 10. From what has been thus far adduced, these appear to be the simple facts in the case: Man never would have recovered from the death threatened Adam, had it not been for the plan of salvation. On account of this it is recorded that as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. Being thus made alive, all whom the law then condemns as personal transgressors will be remanded back again to the abodes of death, never more to be released. All then that was demanded of Christ as our substitute, was a literal death, of the whole intelligent responsible being. A word upon the atonement before closing these remarks. It appears that atonement and reconciliation differ. It is not the object of the Mediator to reconcile God to man, but to reconcile man to God. "We pray you," says the Apostle, "in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." 2 Cor. v, 18-20. On this point we need not enlarge. We refer the reader to our published work on the Atonement, especially pp. 6-8. That the sins of the righteous will finally be laid upon the head of the Devil, is very evident, if he be the antitypical scape-goat, which we think can be clearly proved. This cannot be laying upon him more than he is guilty of, since he is the author of all sin, and the instigator of every sinful deed. Sin in the abstract cannot be forgiven; that is, the aggregate of guilt in the world, if we may so speak, cannot in any degree be diminished, but is continually increasing. All the forgiveness and pardon there is, is accomplished by substitution. Christ becomes our substitute; he takes upon him the believer's sins. What does he do with them? Transfers them through his blood to the Sanctuary. What then becomes of them? At the end of the ministration they are laid upon the head of the scape-goat and borne away. The redeemed will then stand forth acquitted and free; and the sum total of all sin will rest with the rebellious party, the Devil and his followers. They must answer for it to the utmost; and the originator of the old adage, "Give the Devil his due," will then see it literally fulfilled.