ECONOMY SHOWN IN RESPECT TO REDEMPTION
This Divine quality of economy is manifested even in the great Plan for human salvation. When first my mind grasped this thought, I exclaimed, "Wonderful! Nobody but our Heavenly Father Himself would have thought about this principle!" Having been reared by Presbyterian parents, I had been indoctrinated in the Shorter Catechism during childhood; and as my parents had never strayed away from the Bible into Evolution and Higher Criticism, I had all the advantages which accrue from the Westminster teachings about the fall of man and original sin. Although we had wrong conceptions as to what constitutes the penalty of sin, nevertheless we had the facts--that our first parents were created perfect and placed in a perfect environment in Eden, that they had sinned and had come under God's curse, and that somehow the result was that all our race was still under that curse, which we thought was eternal torment. We did not understand the Bible as thoroughly as now. Later in life, when my mind began to see that the penalty of sin is death--NOT life in any condition--
I began to inquire how it was that, if there is to be a redemption, how one person could die for an entire race; for the proposition did not seem reasonable.
In reply my teachers told me that in the three and a half years of His ministry, and especially during the short time of His crucifixion, our Lord Jesus suffered as much as all the human family would have suffered. But the longer I ponder over this idea, the more unreasonable it appeared to me. Finally, I came to understand the meaning of the word Ransom; and then this subject ceased to be a mystery.
A PRICE THAT CORRESPONDS
A careful study of the word Ransom with the aid of an unabridged concordance brought to light the fact that the Greek word thus rendered—anti-lutron--means a price that corresponds. Anyone can study the matter out for himself in Strong's or in Young's Concordance. Gradually we began to get the correct idea that our Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself a Ransom, a Corresponding-price, for all mankind. Then we began to understand the Apostle's words, "As by a man came death, by a man came also the resurrection from the dead." (1 Cor. 15:21.) There was one man who sinned--Adam, who brought the death penalty upon all his posterity. There was one Man who died, the Just for the unjust—Christ Jesus. Thus we have the corresponding-price.
But we had been taught that there are three persons in the Godhead, that our Lord Jesus was the second of these, and that God cannot die. Again we inquired of our teachers, and were told that being God our Lord could not really die--that His body alone died. So again we were confused. But further study of our Bible began to clear our heads from all the nonsense and confusion which crept into the Church during the Dark Ages, and we saw that the doctrine of the Trinity is not found in the Scriptures at all (accept by those who wrestle and confound the scriptures to support the creeds of men). Then we saw that Our Lord was the Son of God, as He Himself had declared, "the Beginning of the creation of God." (Rev 3:14; Col 1:15.)
Next we saw that the thought contained in the word Ransom did not call for a God to redeem a man, nor could a spirit being of any rank do so; for there could be no correspondence between them. (The human nature and the spirit nature are separate and distinct natures; there is no correspondence between the two.)
Finally the matter cleared up in our mind; and we perceived that whoever would redeem man MUST himself be a man--THE FULL EQUIVALENT OF THE MAN WHO SINNED. This thought helped us to understand all that the Bible said about our Lord's having left the Heavenly glory and becoming a man.--Phil. 2:6-11; 2 Cor. 8:9;John 1:14.
Continued with next post.
This Divine quality of economy is manifested even in the great Plan for human salvation. When first my mind grasped this thought, I exclaimed, "Wonderful! Nobody but our Heavenly Father Himself would have thought about this principle!" Having been reared by Presbyterian parents, I had been indoctrinated in the Shorter Catechism during childhood; and as my parents had never strayed away from the Bible into Evolution and Higher Criticism, I had all the advantages which accrue from the Westminster teachings about the fall of man and original sin. Although we had wrong conceptions as to what constitutes the penalty of sin, nevertheless we had the facts--that our first parents were created perfect and placed in a perfect environment in Eden, that they had sinned and had come under God's curse, and that somehow the result was that all our race was still under that curse, which we thought was eternal torment. We did not understand the Bible as thoroughly as now. Later in life, when my mind began to see that the penalty of sin is death--NOT life in any condition--
I began to inquire how it was that, if there is to be a redemption, how one person could die for an entire race; for the proposition did not seem reasonable.
In reply my teachers told me that in the three and a half years of His ministry, and especially during the short time of His crucifixion, our Lord Jesus suffered as much as all the human family would have suffered. But the longer I ponder over this idea, the more unreasonable it appeared to me. Finally, I came to understand the meaning of the word Ransom; and then this subject ceased to be a mystery.
A PRICE THAT CORRESPONDS
A careful study of the word Ransom with the aid of an unabridged concordance brought to light the fact that the Greek word thus rendered—anti-lutron--means a price that corresponds. Anyone can study the matter out for himself in Strong's or in Young's Concordance. Gradually we began to get the correct idea that our Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself a Ransom, a Corresponding-price, for all mankind. Then we began to understand the Apostle's words, "As by a man came death, by a man came also the resurrection from the dead." (1 Cor. 15:21.) There was one man who sinned--Adam, who brought the death penalty upon all his posterity. There was one Man who died, the Just for the unjust—Christ Jesus. Thus we have the corresponding-price.
But we had been taught that there are three persons in the Godhead, that our Lord Jesus was the second of these, and that God cannot die. Again we inquired of our teachers, and were told that being God our Lord could not really die--that His body alone died. So again we were confused. But further study of our Bible began to clear our heads from all the nonsense and confusion which crept into the Church during the Dark Ages, and we saw that the doctrine of the Trinity is not found in the Scriptures at all (accept by those who wrestle and confound the scriptures to support the creeds of men). Then we saw that Our Lord was the Son of God, as He Himself had declared, "the Beginning of the creation of God." (Rev 3:14; Col 1:15.)
Next we saw that the thought contained in the word Ransom did not call for a God to redeem a man, nor could a spirit being of any rank do so; for there could be no correspondence between them. (The human nature and the spirit nature are separate and distinct natures; there is no correspondence between the two.)
Finally the matter cleared up in our mind; and we perceived that whoever would redeem man MUST himself be a man--THE FULL EQUIVALENT OF THE MAN WHO SINNED. This thought helped us to understand all that the Bible said about our Lord's having left the Heavenly glory and becoming a man.--Phil. 2:6-11; 2 Cor. 8:9;John 1:14.
Continued with next post.
