God's Plan with MenMartin, T. T. (Thomas Theodore)
Religion
God's Plan with Men
Martin, T. T. (Thomas Theodore)
Salvation
"_As there is only one God, so there can be only one Gospel. If God
has really done something in Christ on which the salvation of the
world depends, and if He has made it known, then it is a Christian
duty to be intolerant of everything which ignores, denies, or explains
it away. The man who perverts it is the worst enemy of God and
men._"--_Denny, in "The Death of Christ."_
"We should remember, also, that it is not always intellectual
sensitiveness, nor care for the moral interests involved, which sets
the mind to criticise statements of the Atonement. There _is_ such a
thing as pride, the last form of which is unwillingness to become
debtors even to Christ for forgiveness of sins."--_Denny, in "The
Death of Christ."_
But the Saviour could not have been a _Redeemer_, if He had not been
God manifest in the flesh, for two reasons:--
First, if He had not been Deity, God manifest in the flesh, His dying
for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3) would not have been _Redemption_, but a
mere makeshift. "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats
should take away sins."--Heb. 10:4. Why not? Because in that case
there would have been no real _redemption_, but only a makeshift.
Second, had the Saviour been anything other than God manifest in the
flesh, He would have _won_ men _from_ God and alienated them from God.
On this point let the reader consider well the following from Walker,
in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation":--"As God was the author
of the law, and as He is the only Proper Object both of supreme love
and obedience; and as man could not be happy in obeying the law
without loving its Author, it follows that the thing now necessary, in
order that man's affections might be fixed upon the proper object of
love and obedience, was, that the Supreme God should, by self-denying
kindness, manifest spiritual mercy to those who felt their spiritual
wants, and thus draw to Himself the love and worship of mankind. _If
any other being should supply the need, that being would receive the
love_; it was therefore necessary that _God Himself_ should do it, in
order that the affections of believers might centre upon the proper
object." "Now, suppose Jesus Christ was not God, nor a true
manifestation of the Godhead in human nature, but a man, or angel,
authorized by God to accomplish the redemption of the human race from
sin and misery. In doing this, it appears, from the nature of the
thing, and from the Scriptures, that He did what was adapted to, and
what does, draw the heart of every true believer, as in the case of
the apostles and the early Christians, to Himself as the supreme or
governing object of affection. Their will is governed by the will of
Christ; and love to Him moves their heart and hands. _Now, if it be
true that Jesus Christ is not God, then He has devised and executed a
plan by which the supreme affections of the human heart are drawn to
Himself, and alienated from God_, the proper object of love and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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