The Great Commission. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. IVMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
The Great Commission. Miscellaneous Writings of C. H. Mackintosh, vol. IV
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Theology
This is a grand point for the reader to seize. It lies at the very
foundation of the Christian system. It is the keystone of the arch of
divine revelation. God has been glorified as to sin. His judgment has
been executed upon it. The claims of His throne have been vindicated
as to it. The insult offered to His divine majesty has been flung back
in the enemy's face. If the sweet story of remission of sins had never
fallen upon a human ear or entered a human heart, the divine glory
would none the less have been most perfectly maintained. The Lord
Jesus Christ did, by His most precious death, wipe off the stain which
the enemy sought to cast upon the eternal glory of God. A testimony
has been given in the Cross, to all created intelligence, as to God's
thoughts about sin. It can there be seen, with all possible clearness,
that a single trace of sin can never enter the precincts of the divine
presence. God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on
iniquity. Sin, wherever found, must be met by divine judgment.
Where, we may ask, does all this come most fully and forcibly out?
Assuredly in the Cross. Harken to that solemn and most mysterious cry,
"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" What means this wondrous
inquiry? Who is the speaker? Is he one of Adam's fallen posterity? Is
he a sinner? Surely not; for were he such, there would be no moral
force whatever in the question. There never was a sinner on the face
of this earth who, so far as he was personally concerned, did not
richly deserve to be forsaken of a holy, sin-hating God. This must
never be forgotten. Some people entertain most foolish notions as to
this point. They have, in their own vain imagination, invented a god
to suit themselves--one who will not punish sin--one who is so tender,
so kind, so benevolent, that he will connive at evil and pass it over
as though it were nothing.
Now, nothing is more certain than that this god of the human
imagination is a false one, just as false as any of the idols of the
heathen. The God of the Bible, the God of Christianity, the God whom
we see at the cross, is not like this. Men may reason as they will;
but sin must be condemned--it must be met by the just and inflexible
judgment of a sin-hating God.
But we repeat the question, Who uttered those words at the opening of
Psa. xxii.? If he was not a sinner, who was he? Wonderful to declare,
He was the only spotless, perfectly holy, pure and sinless Man that
ever trod this earth. He was more. He was the eternal Son of the
Father, the object of God's ineffable delight, who had dwelt in His
bosom from all eternity, "the brightness of His glory and the exact
expression of His substance."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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