There is the same inexorableness of law; the same helplessness on the part of man to make satisfaction for his sin, hence man's dependence upon a vicarious atonement, if he is to find redemption at all. There is the same need for capacity in the one making the atonement to make full satisfaction to the justice of God by paying the uttermost farthing of man's obligations to the law; the idea of satisfaction necessarily involves that of penal suffering, coupling together those two ideas, satisfaction and expiation; or satisfaction to Justice through expiation. The Deity who redeems man must pay the penalty due to sin by suffering in man's stead. _5. Motive Force of the Atonement:_ And what shall prompt a Deity to make such an atonement? Two attributes of the Deity now a long time kept in the back ground, viz., Love and Mercy. We have seen and considered at some length the helplessness of man in the midst of those earth conditions necessary to his progress; God saw it from the beginning; and-- "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish but have everlasting life. "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." "He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."[A] [Footnote A: St. John iii:16-19.] LESSON XIX. (Scripture Reading Exercise.) THE ADVENT OF MERCY INTO THE EARTH-SCHEME OF THINGS. ANALYSIS. I. Source of Redemption. II. Antiquity of the Plan of Redemption. III. Vicarious Work of the Christ. IV. The Balancing of the Claims of Justice and Mercy. V. Man's Part in the Scheme of Redemption--Repent or Suffer. VI. The Advent of Mercy--Alternatives. VII. The Justice, Wisdom and Mercy of God. REFERENCES. The references of Lesson XVIII. Also Taylor's Mediation and Atonement, Chs. xix, xxiv, xxv; and the text and context of the passages of scriptures quoted and cited in this lesson. _SPECIAL TEXT: "The law entered that sin might abound. But when sin abounded, grace did more abound that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. v:20, 21.)_ DISCUSSION. _1. Manner of the Christ's Atonement Foreshadowed:_ This lesson continues with the truth with which the last one concluded, viz., "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have everlasting life." This declaration is preceded in the testimony of John with the following: