Christ's Death, the Cardinal Doctrine
1 Cor. 15:3.
“For I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.”
The great doctrine of Christianity
IS that Christ died for our sins.
The Apostle, in recounting his system states two doctrines, as “the gospel wMch (says he) I preached unto you.” These two doctrines are 1. Christ’s death, 2. Christ’s resurrection. We have a memorial of each — of the first in the Eucharist; of the second in the Lord’s day. Both are essential and fundamental, and we might (and do) commemorate both this day: but our chief business is with that one which Paul puts first. — ‘For I delivered unto you first of all, how that Christ, died for our sins.’ — We often ask how an Apostle would have preached: here we have the way that Paul preached. We often wonder what should be put first: here we have what Paul put first: — Death and Resurrection. This is what he delivered to them: and he calls it to their minds. He had a reason for so doing. After being a missionary to this splendid and fashionable city, the Paris of Greece, he had pursued his itinerancy, leaving a large body of persons who had subscribed to the new religion. They were converts, but very ignorant half Jewish, or half-Gentile. How could they be otherwise? During his absence, they fell into excitements, party-divisions and scandals. It is a childish error to think the primitive churches were immaculate. Take for example this church, where Paul labored eighteen months (Acts 18: 11); and where Aquila and the eloquent Apollos seconded him. Was it pure? — No. There was defect of discipline, (ch. 5) and they were ‘’pufted up,” instead of removing the criminal from them. The leaven among them was bitter, malicious and spreading. They went to law with one another, in heathen courts They abused their liberty, by eating flesh which had formed part of Gentile sacrifices. And they went to such excess, in their public meetings for worship, as to desecrate the Lord’s Supper, by eating to gluttony and drinking to drunkenness. Amidst these signs of imperfect Christianity there was another: namely, proud division The Apostle was gone — and the glow of pious love was gone — and they were fallen into parties. Persons from the family of a Christian woman, Chloe, brought news of this to Paul. There were Paul’s party, Peter’s, Apollos’, and Christ’s! (2:12) Leaders of parties defamed the absent apostle: and undermined the belief of some. Hence the earnestness of Paul in rehearsing what he had taught, as in the text. “Moreover brethren, I declare unto you,” my doctrine and your creed.
L The Doctrine: II. Its Importance.
The Doctrine. Christ died for our
8IN8.
It would be superfluous to go about to show by citation, that wherever the propagators of Christianity went, this was the doctrine they began with. And a strange beginning it was, on every human sup[)Osition. What other religion ever began with inaking a main point of the death of its founder? — Suppose we take the hypothesis of those who love to call themselves liberal and Rational Christians, and who make Jesus Christ to have been but a man. How inexplicable have they rendered the gospel story! Jesus of Nazareth, a man of Palestine, a Jew, is dead. What a starting-point... for a progress which is to revolutionize the world! True, he has died: but this is common, is universal, is human. To die — is the doom of man. Of all the millions (two only excepted so far as we know) every individual has died. No peculiarities in the manner of dying, will remove this difficulty. Make it as painful, shameful, and cruel as you may — it is still but the death of a mortal creature. You have your answer however in reserve: ‘Jesus of Nazareth was an innocent, and holy man, and he was a teacher and prophet, and martyr.’ True, and this adds immense sympathy and interest to the event; but does not render it unique, or in any way explain why the fact should become the great fact. Innocent and holy men have died; and prophets have died. All the prophets, but two, died. Thousands of blessed teachers have died. The name of martyr, given to myriads, was given to them because they died, as witnesses. Isaiah and Zacharias died, and died by violence. Apostles and their successors have been put to cruel deaths. The case has been made common, by the prevalence of courageous faith. But none of these have acquired such a j)rominence; and if we make the death of Christ nothing more, we subject the language and conduct of his early followers to a charge of fanatical exaggeration and enthusiastic phrensy. Why then is so much stress laid on this first fact of Christianity, that is that Christ died? Shall we say it is because he died to attest the truth of his teaching? It does indeed attest the sincerity of his beliefbut others have given the same attestation; and other things give far greater attestation to the truth, than his death, if this be viewed only as the death of the greatest of martyrs. There is no sentence in the Book wliicli holds up Christ’s death in this light. Often as it is mentioned, it is never cited as the foundation of the proof. For any such end, every miracle was more valid, and above all was the other great fact — the Resurrection abundantly more cogent. The true answer is, that Christ died for our sins — -for our sins. At this point again we find the corrupters of Scripture plying all their means, and tasking all their artifice, to show some way in which Christ mav be said to have “died for our sins,” in consistency with a Deistical view of the great event. They tell us, Christ died for our sins, inasmuch as he died by sinful means — or as he died to turn us away from sin — or as he would not have died, unless we had been sinners. But how frigid is this — and how derogatory to the glow and grandeur of the language in which this one event is singled out to be revealed! Others — many others have so died — every teacher of great moral truths has so died — es23ecially every stedfast upholder of truth under deadly persecution has so died. But Christ died for our sins in a new, singular, and sublime sense; not merely for men and for sinners, but for their sins. This is explained by diversity of phrase in other places. He bare our sins- -he was made sin for us — - he was made a curse for us — he is the 23ropitiation for our sins — he died the just for the unjust — he redeemed us by his blood — his blood cleanses from sin — it is
shed for many for the remission of sins — he gave his life a ransom for many — he gave his life for the sheep. — Try the diminishing and reducing process on these expressions: torture them to mean no more than the innocent self-immolation of a witness or a prophet: and you shall find yourself descending to a violent perversion which would be scorned and banished, in any interpretation of any other document of mankind. Come bravely up to the book; and either reject it outright with the frankness of unbelief; or, receidng it as true and authoritative, admjt it in that obvious and inevitable signification, without which it palters in a double sense, and is unworthy of rational credence. If this New Testament is not a stupendous imposture, or a cliildisli dream, then Chris-t died for our sins, in a sense in wliicli no martyr, no prophet, no human being ever died.
Those who were addressed and reascned with by the early preachers on the basis of the Old Testament (and these were a majority of the first Christians) were prepared to expect an instance of peculiar and bloody death. This exj)ectation had come down from the first altar — from Abel — from the blood of animals — from the perpetual oblation — and from the passover-lamb. It had been increased by the voice of Hebrew prophecy, waxing louder and louder, as the national church grew feebler, and as the fulness of time came on. That Anointed One, the Desire of all nations — was read of, in every synagogue, for centuries, as a suffering and dying personage — to be cut off, but not for himself — to be smitten with the sword — stricken, smitten of God and afflicted — as one on whom God should lay the iniquity of us all — brought as a lamb to the slaughter — cut off out of the land of the living — stricken for the transgression of the people — as One bruised and put to grief by God — making his soul an offering for sin — bearing iniquities — numbered among transgressors — and pouring out his soul unto death. These were familiar words to the Hebrew: they had been familiar for seven hundred years: and concurring with the emblematic diction of holy rites, they engendered an expectation of death, and of death for sin, and in the room of the sinner. Every morning and evening lamb prepared the way for the j)roclamation of the Forerunner — Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!
When therefore Paul and his fellows announced that the Messiah had come, and had come to die, they announced no new thing; and when they added he died for our sins, they had not an intelligent hearer in Jerusalem or Corinth, who did not understand them to say (whether he believed or not) that this same Jesus had died as a sacrifice for sin.
They addressed themselves to sinners, and called them, as such, to repent; and it was to this character that they declared Christ, as dying, to be suited and welcome. Converts gathered to them — not as eager learners, simply seeking a new scheme of truth, rendered more tender and movino; by reason of the teacher’s martyrdom; but as polluted creatures in peril of guilt, agonized about the way of escape from a sentence which conscience told them was certain, imminent, and deserved. It is time for us to look at the plain truth: He who with this bible in his hand, would tear fiom it the yiacular death of a divine Kedeemer, as a substitute, and a sacrifice for sin — trifles with its serious lancruas:e — turns its transports into fustian — and its praises into inane hyperbole — unravels the very warp of the texture — and di’ains away the vital fluid from vein, artery, and heart. Be it true or be it false, it contains in letters of crimson, on every page, this significant and inseparable characteristic, that Christ died for our sins. Of all its objects, that which stands in high relief is the Cross. Of all its syllables, the most sacred is blood. Of all that is rehearsed concerning Messiah, the memorable part is, that he laid down his life. Of all its ordinances, the most striking is that which commemorates a bodv lprokeii and Ijlood cheist’s death, the cakdinal doctrine. 215
poured out. It is the grand distinction of the book: it is the essence of the gospel. The grand truth of a dying Messiah is the burden of Jewish prophecy; modern Jews, Mohammedans and Infidels reject it. The two Last do this with less embarrassment, because they are not troubled wdth the book of inspiration: the Israelites are more perplexed, because every ])art of their own Scriptures testifies against them. But most to be pitied of all are those nominal Christians, who have not gone far enough in the liberal school to account the New Testament a mythology, but who nevertheless wink hard to avoid seeing- a divine Atonement. It is like iQ:norino’ the sun in the heavens. That Christ died, and in no insignificant sense, yea in such a sense as to bring it home to every reader’s heart, is the assertion which more than all others recurs in the Christian Scriptures. And it is just as interesting now, to us, and to thousands, as it was eighteen centuries ago, to the disciples. Christ died for our sins. Being God and man, in two natures, Init one person, as mediator, he freely offered himself, by his innocent blooclsliedding, and cruel ignominious death, to be a sacrifice of expiation, in the place of sinful men; and by this act and this suffering, in our stead, and as our constituted surety, sponsor, trustee, representative, and Head, he did place himself under the law, as we were under the law; and bore its curse and pain and we should have borne its curse and pain. By this death, which was the penalty of the law; lie fully and infinitely satisfied God’s justice; by reason of the infinite dignity and value (conferred on pangs which were limited as to time) derived from his godhead. By this vicarious death, Christ exhausted the punishment — drank up the cup of vengeance — expunged the debt — washed away the guilt — and opened heaven to all believers. By this death, for our sins, there is a pardon offered, on terms of absolute gratuity. On the part of the recijDient as to merit or legal condition the requirement is nothing. We mean this by a free gospel, and we mean nothing less than this. It is a free pardon and absolute remission of the debt; and the belief of this free grace, in its true divine fulness, is faith.
This is sang faith. Christ died for our sins, as a fruit of infinite love on the part of the Father. It is heathenish, it is blasphemous, to represent the adorable Father as a reluctant Despot, appeased by his kinder Son God the Father is the fountain of Deity, and the fountain of grace. Before there were any worlds this Lamb was slain in decree. He ilanned the scheme of mercy and gave his Son to be the Saviour of the world. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, One Jehovah, is the God into whose name we are baptized; and to this indivisible Unity of the Godhead, we owe our whole salvation. When Jesus Christ died upon the cross at Golgotha, it was not God who died; as a matter of dissolution and sufferins: — but the humanity which died was exalted by the united deity, and hence the acts and functions of one nature are in common language ascribed to the other. More pro- 23erly however all atoning acts are ascri1)ed to the whole mediatorial person — the Messiah — “Cheist died for our sins.” That event, to which all the old world looks forward, and to which all the new and
218 cheist’s death, the caedinal doctrine.
greater world looks back, is the very cause of our redemption; and the fact which we celebrate this day.
The Importance of the Doctrine that Christ died for our sins: the place which it occupies in the Christian system: in other words, why did the Apostle Paul make it the very beginning of his preaching? “I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins.” Why this prominence, and why did he so earnestly place this singular doctrine in the forefront I ‘Now really the answers to this question must be as numerous, as the topic is vast; but a few, most briefly ‘given, must suffice. Paul beoan with this:
1. Because it was most struck at by enemies. Though not a blind zealot who courted opposition, and though he knew (no man better) how to become all things to all men; he was no trimmer; and when any known doctrine of his master was impugned, that was the doctrine to which he devoted himself in affectionate defence.
The crucified Nazarene was maligned by Jews, and a lauo:liino:-stock to Greeks and Romans: a stumbling-stone, over which Israelites (looking for a temporal prince) blundered and fell into disbelief. It was an unphilosoj)liic crudity, to the learned Athenian, into wbicli he would not deign to look. This was that “offence of the Cro&s,” of which he speaks. This caused the Pharisee and Sadducee alike to abhor a religion which instead of gratifying their insane national pride by exalting the dynasty of David, showed them a seeming malefactor dying on worse than scaffold or gallows by a gentile punishment under this inscrij)tion in Hebrew Greek and Latin — Jesus of Nazareth the Kino: of the Jews. This made Eyicureans, Academics and Stoics to wrap about them the philosophic mantle with renewed contempt. It was the relating of this event, (“the preaching of the Cross”) which was to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness — and therefore it was this which Paul the converted Pharisee, Paul the Roman citizen, Paul the (irecian scholar, bound to him as a decoration and a glory. ‘I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also: for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.’
2. Because it is the distinguishing doctiine of Christianity. This separates it from all other systems. In Christianity there are many things common to it with Judaism, Mohammedism, and even pure Theism; but here is a characteristic: a discriminative mark: a criterion: the penal death of its divine founder. The doctrine was indeed in Judaism, but it was a “fountain sealed:” in Christianity it is a “fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness.” It has flowed from the Cross over all Christendom; and even the worst corruptions of the Romish, Greek, and Oriental churches have not entirely removed the sacrifice of Christ from its prominence. And this is the more remarkable, when we consider that no truth in the system is more repugnant to human taste and self-reliance.
3. Because it brings men down to the earth, in a sense of sin, weakness, shame, and danger. The gospel is a remedy. It seeks, not to improve what is sound, but
Christ’s death, tue cardinal doctrine. 221
to cure what is dying. It is a remedy wliicli none accept but such as despair of other helj). Christ comes to the incurable. All who ever received the doctrine, in ancient or modern days, received it on their knees, or prostrate on the ground. John the Baptist prepared the furrows by his rugged plow of denunciation; and the early seed-corn was steeped in tears of sorrow. Every true believer comes to take life, freely offered, without his meritorious intervention, from the hands of One who dies the “just for the unjust.” He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. He that becomes an infant, enters this kingdom. And so true a test is this doctrine, that thousands believe not, and are damned.
4. Because it is of all doctrines, that which lies nearest the heart of Christian affection. It was uppermost in the heart of Paul; it throbbed in its inmost pulses. It reminds him of what he was: it makes him what he is, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the woi-ld.” “AYho loved me, and gave himself for me.’” Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners even the chief!” He has believed, and therefore has he spoken. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth of Paul preached Christ’s death. It was burnt into his very person, branding him as the servant of Christ, and no longer subject to others: “Henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” If he preached it at all, he must preach it first of all; and if he added any thing to the declaration that his beloved Lord had died — it must, be that he ‘^ clieth no more,” that he rose aoain — that he ascended — that he will reign forever.
5. Because it is the precise object of saving faith. To be saved is the one thing needful, the one thing for which we need a gospel. But to be saved, one thing is necessary — faith. Faith is belief; and the anxious query is — belief of what? — Answer: belief of this doctrine. He believes God projDitiated. There are various expressions for the object of faith; but all come to this: to believe that Jesus Christ is Messiah — that he is come in the flesh — that
Christ’s deatif, the cardinal doctrine. 223
he is the Sou of God — all are summed up in this. The man who believes this with a sjDi ritual apprehension of what he believes, is a saved man. He is, in that very act, a justified person. In view of law, his sins are obliterated. In that instant, he is reconciled to God. Justice lifts up the sinner, and finds him marked with the name of the Son of God. The edge of the flaming sword finds no spot not covered by a blood which it dares not penetrate a second time. At this juncture, and in all coming time, the one, distinct,. attractive, guiding north-star of the voyaging tempest-beaten soul is Christ DYiNa for HIS sins. His one description is, that he is looking unto Jesus. In his conversion, he is converted to this. In his life, he lives by this. In trials, in sacraments, and m the agony of his own dying, he remembers this one thiuf;:, that Christ has died.
6. Because it is the key to all other doctrines. Every system has its leading thread and clew. Christ’s sacrificial death is such to Christianity, hence the symbol of Christianity is not the all-seeing eye — the creative hand — the sejnilchre — the sce[>- tre — Tnit the Ceoss. With this, you can explain all; but (as history shofs) denying this, you go on till to be consistent you must deny all. Reject a divine Atonement, and what confusion and redoubled darkness have you brought over all other members of the scheme? How can you any longer V’ indicate ages of bloody sacrifice? how can you account for the incarnation? how can you respect the groans of GetlL-emane, so unlike the endurance of martys? how can you claim regard for the vehement language of apostles and evangelists? How can you press the importance of faith? how can you sever Christianity from other philosophies? How can you cling to Inspiration? How can you celebrate this ordinance? All these, in fact, one by one, are detached and exploded, till the extremes of liberal or rational Christianity concur with the frontiers of Deism; and Socinians glory that the offence of the Cross has ceased, and Infidel Moslem ‘md Jew have their chief objections removed. So they have; and if we will go one step, and reject the being of God, our catholic embrace may take the Atheist within the pale of a church without mysteries, without revelation, and without Christ. But the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; and this single truth is the focal point in which all lines converge, and from which there is a distinct vision of a symmetrical plan. The key of theology is the proposition that Christ died for our sins.
T. Because it is the great instrument of conversion. If one had taken his stand at the foot of the tree, when they were taking down the stark cold body of the Redeemer from between the mangled corpses of the malefactors, and had looked forward, he would have exclaimed, All hope of propagating his religion is over! if there were nothing else — this scene of matchless discomfiture and shame seals the ruin of the system.’ Yet this, this is the very event the recital of which (before the end of the generation then born) filled the Roman empire with proselytes. And this not incidentally, not in spite of this encumbrance, but through this doctrine, and by its very means. Wherever Christianity has advanced, and its progress this moment is gigantic, it has penetrated the heart of warrior, savage and voluptuary, of pliiloso23lier, misanthrope, and scholar, of the Roman, the Frank the Goth, the Hindoo, the Polynesian, the slave — in and by the ]*epresentation of Christ’s dying for our sins. This it is, which has pierced through the tenfold mail of Academic doubt and Rabbinical conceit and prejudice. And to this, we who sit here, own ourselves, in humble, melting subjection to have yielded. For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And in persuasion of this, Paul preached it, and preached it first of all.
—If then the relative 23lace of the doctrine is fixed by its being assailed — by its being characteristic of Christianity — by its power to humble — by its power to melt the affection — by its power to save, as the very object of faith — and by its power to reform the world; then we may hasten to a conclusion, in the way of inference: since we have shown, (1) what the doctrine is, and (2) what is the importance of the doctrine. — These things enable us to come to a judgment with regard to churches and religious communities; and the criterion suggested is the relative place which they give to the doctrine of Christ’s death. In apostolical communions it was obvious, prominent, and far above all mistake or doubt. There it stood, bold and undeniable, not only the main thing, but pervading every part. A company of disciples, among whom hisrh thou2:hts of the cross and the Redeemer were not common, was without example in that day. Among their faults, that of throwing the principal figure into the back-ground was not one. Beware my brethren of connexion even occasional with societies which sacrifice the great fact of our religion to a pretended Charity. A heart touched with genuine love, will never feel at home in services where the divinity of Christ and his vicarious death are only whispered in elegant generalities, or perhaj)s sunk in deceitful silence. Be afraid of those circles however tasteful and liberal, where this truth is treated as a mystery too dangerous to handle, or where you are inldted to find relief to your souls without a propitiation.
In like manner, we may judge of books, preaching, and systems of theology. Try them by this question: hat think ye of Christ? And if they speak double phrases, if they hesitate, if they falter, if they resolve atonement into symbol and metaphor, if they leave you in doubt as to what they mean, if they suffer you to forget the blood of the cross, while they are large on law, obligation, good works, the beauty of virtue, the excellency of man, the perfectibility of the species, and the mercy of God to the finally impenitent — bid them not God speed, and receive them not into your houses. If you would know the camp of an enemy from that of a friend, see well to it, that the standard of the text floats conspicuously. For there are many Antichrists, and Satan changes himself into an angel of light. “Take heed what ye hear,” and expose not yourselves and your children to the guardianship of wolves in sheep’s clothing. It is Christ our dying Surety, that is the sum and substance of the gospel.
Finally, we may here judge of our own personal religion. Let it be tried by
Christ’s death, the cardinal doctkine. 229
the New Testament. Take this volume, and carefully observe what [)lace is occupied in it by the name of Christ; and what degree of prominency is given to his death. Then apply the rule to the heart, and examine whether the same place and the same prominency are yielded to the suffer in o” Lord in your own experience. Is Jesus Christ a dim, distant light, glimmering through clouds in the horizon of your thoughts; or does he rise upon your heaven like the sun in his strength, and fill the field of vision with his soft effulgence? So far as you are conscious of defect earnestly seek amendment, by contemplation of an atoning Saviour. Aid your faith by the word, and the sacrament. Consider that this one fact is perpetuated by a holy ordinance; and look on the body broken and the blood shed, as the gospel in a sensible form. Behold him — behold him al- ways — ‘Him first, him last, him midst, and without end!’ Then when your time comes, you shall say as dying men have said, ‘None but Christ — none but Christ!’