by Arthur W. Pink
by Arthur W. Pink
Philologos Religious Online Books
Philologos.org
by Arthur W. Pink
August, 1940
THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL.
The Gospel evidences itself to be Divine because it enunciates that which the mind of man could not possibly have originated. The grand truths which it proclaims are without any parallel or rival among all the schemes of human wisdom. Pre-eminently is this the case with the full-orbed Gospel of God. Alas, with scarcely an exception it is at best an attenuated Gospel which is being preached today, preaching that leaves out some of the most striking, unique and blessed features. Let the glorious tidings of redemption be told out in all their simplicity and yet profundity, their Scriptural perspicuity and perspective, and those who truly receive these glad tidings into their hearts unitedly acknowledge that it is neither exaggeration nor extravagance to designate them the Glorious Gospel. Nothing so honours and magnifies God; nothing so rejoices and satisfies believers.
Now here and there throughout the Scriptures the Spirit has graciously furnished us with brief compendiums of evangelical truth, comprising within the scope of a single verse the essential elements of the whole plan and way of salvation. Luther was wont to call these compendiums “miniature Gospels”: such an one we have in “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). This verse sets forth in most decisive language the vicarious sufferings of Christ as the satisfaction offered by Him to Divine justice for the sins of His people; the imputation of His perfect obedience unto believers as their title to eternal life; and the real Deity of Him whose righteousness becomes theirs for justification by virtue of their union with Him. These grand truths could not be expressed more clearly and tersely.
“For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” This is one of the most profound and most comprehensive statements to be found in all the Scriptures concerning the Atonement. Into it is compressed a whole treatise of theology, and therefore each clause, yea every word in it, calls for separate and close consideration. As we examine this most solemn and yet blessed declaration we find there are three things said therein respecting God the Father, three things predicated of God the Son in His mediatorial capacity, and three things concerning His people. So we propose to take up the contents of our passage in this order: may the heart of writer and reader alike be Divinely prepared to ponder the same, for something superior to intellectual acumen is needed when contemplating spiritual things.
The three things here mentioned of God the Father are His high sovereignty, His inflexible justice, and His amazing grace. His sovereignty is affirmed in the words, “He hath made Him to be sin for us,” and therein His supremacy appears at three points. First, in the Person He selected for this extraordinary transaction, namely, the Son. None but the Father possessed the right and authority to assign the Son for this awful undertaking: He alone could appoint Him to that work. As the God-man, Christ was the Servant of the Father, and in ordaining Him to the task of making expiation for sin, He demonstrated His high and absolute sovereignty over all persons and creatures. No man, no angel, no cherub or seraph—only the Son Himself, was singled out.
The sovereignty of God the Father appears, second, in the unique legal arrangement or constitution here alluded to: that He who was without sin should be dealt with as a sinner, and that those who were sinners should be allowed to go free of suffering their just deserts. None but He who is absolute sovereign above all can dispense the Law according to His own imperial good pleasure. Third, the sovereignty of the Father appears in the ones selected to be the beneficiaries of this unparalleled arrangement. Christ was not made sin for all of Adam's race, for all mankind are not made the righteousness of God in Him. It was the sovereignty of God which elected the persons who were to be everlastingly indebted to Christ's atoning work. Thus the whole foundation of this amazing transaction lay in the absolute sovereignty of God the Father over all persons and things, and before that sovereignty we should humbly and thankfully bow.
Next we behold here the inflexible justice of the Father. Scripture nowhere affirms that God was under any compulsion or moral necessity of saving His people as He did: it was solely by His mere sovereign good pleasure that He devised the method and means revealed in the Gospel. But having ordained that His Son should be “made under the law,” then it was imperative that the demands of the law should be fully met. It was to this end that God sent forth His Son to be a propitiation for sin, to “declare His righteousness” (Rom. 3:25). Thus, in a special manner His justice has been magnified by the death of Christ. True, God cannot act contrary to His own perfections, but the exercise of His justice, mercy, or any of His attributes, is regulated solely by His will: We must adhere strictly to the exact terms of Holy Writ: it is not, “that can by no means clear the guilty, but “that will by no means clear” them (Exo. 34:7).
The amazing grace of the Father manifested itself in the aim or design of this transaction, namely, that His people might be freed from sin and constituted righteous before Him. Note carefully it is not said merely that Christ was “made sin for us,” but “He made Him to be sin for us.” Thus the grace of the Victim is no more conspicuous than that of Him who furnished the altar of redemption with the foreordained Lamb. Though Christ was the Father's well-beloved, the One in whom His soul delighted (Isa. 42:1), nevertheless out of unspeakable love for His people He ordained Him to be made a curse for them. O what stupendous grace that God, knowing our wretched condition, pitied us and resolved to reconcile us to Himself, by such a Priest and Sacrifice as became Him and was suited to us. O what gratitude and praise are due Him from us!—A.W.P.
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