April-June
For 4,000 years, God restrained Himself from carrying out justice against sin. Because of Christ’s pledged blood, God was able to overlook the sins of the human race and exercise mercy towards us. But this meant that God would now stand accused of not being just—for overlooking the sins of the human race. But through the death of His own Son, God actually stands vindicated as completely righteous because He is both just and merciful.
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 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 the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:23–26).
Let’s not think of God as being indifferent to our needs and tragic circumstances. Let us remember the words, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. . . ." And Jesus emphasized the love of the Father when He said, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again” (John 10:17).
Remember that all Christ did on earth was to reveal the Father. He is the image of the invisible God. The work of our Advocate then is not to try and convince God to have mercy—because He already did have mercy. It is not to try and convince God to have sympathy—because He already proved His sympathy.
“God commendeth [proved] his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Christ’s advocacy is not to try and get God to be more patient with us, because God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. “The Lord is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
To get a correct understanding of the work of Jesus Christ our Advocate, then we must turn to the Scriptures.
To answer this question, there is a word in the Bible that we need to understand. That word is the last word found in Romans 5:11. That word is “atonement.”
“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (Romans 5:10, 11).
So what does the word “atonement” mean? It is easier to understand it if we break it up into “at-one-ment.” The word describes the result of the ministry of Christ. It is a literal representation of the reality of our restored relationship with God; at-one-ment. We are “at-one” with Him again. The atonement is the work of bringing together or reconciling sinful humanity with a holy God. Why? Because we are estranged. Why were we estranged?
“Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2).
There’s something we should understand about sin. Sin drives us from the presence of God. It is totally opposed to the character of God and therefore cannot dwell in His presence. What do we see Adam and Eve doing as soon as they sinned?
“Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden” (Genesis 3:8).
Sin alienates people and destroys relationships. We should therefore expect to see God as far away as possible from Adam and Eve as soon as they sinned, but do we? We don’t! Why do we see “God walking in the midst of the garden” searching for Adam and Eve? This is an Advocate searching. The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world was bearing the guilt of Adam and Eve already.
So this is why we needed the at-one-ment. Sin alienates us from God. Notice how Paul describes this alienation and the atonement.
“That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:12, 13).
Now when Adam sinned, his nature became evil and the scriptures teach that as a result of Adam’s transgression, “many were made sinners” (Romans 5:19). Because of Adam’s sin, every child that is born, is born into this world into a state of alienation or estrangement from God. This is what we just read before in Ephesians. Let’s read it from the book of Psalms also:
“The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies” (Psalm 58:3).
Sin broke our relationship with God—and as soon as our relationship with God ceased, there commenced our relationship with the enemy of God. But sinners are not only in a state of estrangement, but are in a state of hostility against God. The Bible says that we are by “nature the children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). For this reason, we needed the atonement. God did not want to lose any one of us, for He is "not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9).
In the case of the human race, the work of at-one-ment commenced as soon as there was sin. As soon as there was alienation, there was reconciliation. As soon as there was sin, there was an atonement for sin. As soon as there was a separation through sin, there was a Mediator, an Intercessor, a High Priest, an Advocate working to restore the relationship between humanity and God. Notice this verse (this verse takes us back before creation):
“Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered [was stunned] that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him” (Isaiah 59:15, 16).
The Godhead was stunned and deeply stirred with pity by the plight of humanity. There was a definite plan made to redeem the lost race, and this plan was made before the world began.
“Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Peter 1:20), “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23).
—To be continued in the next issue.