Now the end or object of the atonement is to remove that curse entirely and at once, so that, God being reconciled to the sinner, the sinner may be reconciled to God, and the anxious soul restored to peace. A regret has been expressed that our Second Article was not worded differently, and that it was not written, “to reconcile us to the Father,” instead of, “to reconcile the Father to us.” It is the wish of such objectors to convey the idea that the object of the crucifixion was to remove one only of the causes of separation, and to produce such a moral impression on the mind of the spectator as should soften his heart, and do away with his enmity towards God; they would exclude the thought of God being reconciled to us by the satisfaction of his righteous law. But this is the great and primary effect of atonement, as taught in sacred Scripture. The change in man’s heart is a consequence which follows from it, but the change in God’s regard to the sinner is the one effect immediately produced by it. Its one object was to enable him to spare the sinner without departing from his law, to give full vent to his love without detracting from his holiness, to take the curse away that the sinner, who deserved it, might be loved as an adopted child. “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.” {7} Imagine yourself, then, freely forgiven, with the whole curse gone; loved as if you had never known the smallest taint of sin, beloved by God himself as if you had been holy even as the Son of man, enjoying access to the throne without a fear, and welcomed by Him without a hinderance. Imagine yourself, though lost, fallen, and guilty, thus pardoned, thus beloved, while the holiness of God’s law remains untouched and undiminished, and you see the end or purpose of the atonement on the cross. II. What, then, was the _plan_ by which this mighty change was effected,—by which God was thus reconciled to man? It could not be done by the mere remission of sin, for then the law of God would have been dishonoured, the sentence passed would not have been executed, and the pardon of the sinner would have been a departure from the truth of God.