When our first parents transgressed they came at once under desert of penalty. The Lord visited the garden but instead of then and there pronouncing their doom, and casting them forever away from His presence, He talked to them of a certain seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent’s head.
The curse, descending first upon the soil, and secondarily upon the man; first upon the serpent, and more gently on the woman, whose very pain would bring forth deliverance for the race and vengeance on the enemy.
The man and the woman each had a separate sentence, but how mild were these sentences compared with what they might have been. How joyful is the fact that over all, there was the sparing hand of G_D letting them live, and His voice promising them ultimate deliverance.
Would the Lord have spared them if He had not meant to show mercy? Would He not have crushed a sinful race even in its egg, and have blotted out forever those of whom not long after it repented Him that He had made them upon the earth?
Assuredly the Lord meant pardon when He tarried to inquire, “Adam, where are you?” In the morning of human history the Lord’s long-suffering displayed itself and gave promise of larger grace. The same is true of you and of me.
If G_D had no pardons would He not long ago have cut us down as cumberers of the ground? We sinned early in life, perhaps we sinned grossly in our youthful days, doing evil with great wantonness and willfulness, according to our obstinate hearts. Why did He not then say, “I will take these away, they will only go from bad to worse, and they will infect others with their vices. Therefore will I root them out lest they become injurious to those about them and a curse to future generations”?
But no, even a blasphemer was not smitten to death when he imprecated damnation upon himself. The Sabbath-breaker was not cut down when he made the Lord’s holy day to be an opportunity for wickedness. He that lied was not made a dreadful example of judgment like Ananias and Sapphira.
Why is not everyone to oppose Him, not swallowed up quickly like Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Why have they been spared to this day, to what end? Surely, the long-suffering of The Lord is repentance, and repentance is mercy. The Lord waits long because He wills not the death of any, but that they turn to Him.
Why did The Lord institute the ceremonial law if there were no ways of pardoning transgression?
Why the bullocks and the lambs offered in sacrifice? Why the shedding of blood if He did not intend to blot out sin? Why the burnt offerings in which The Lord accepted man’s gift, if man could not be accepted? Assuredly He could not be accepted if regarded as guilty.
Why the peace offering in which The Lord feasted with the offerer and the two united in feeding upon the one sacrifice? How could this be unless He intended to forgive and enter into fellowship with men?
Again, why was there a tabernacle for Him to dwell with His people if He would not forgive their iniquities? How could He dwell with unforgiven men? Why was there a mercy seat? Why was there a high priest ordained from among men who should enter into the holy place, and make a typical atonement?
Why the scapegoat to take away sin in symbol, if sin cannot be taken away in reality? Why the burning of the offering outside the gate in order that sin might be put away from The Lord’s people, if it could not be put away?
Certainly, the evident design of the whole Mosaic economy was to reveal to man the existence of mercy in the heart of God, and the effectual operation of that mercy in washing away sin.
Furthermore, if there were no forgiveness of sin why has the Lord given to sinful men exhortations to repent?
Why does the Lord say, “Turn you to your G_D: keep mercy and judgment and wait upon The Lord continually”?
Why does He cry, “Therefore also now, says the Lord, turn you even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your G_D”? Is it not because it can be added, “for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repents Him of the evil”?
Is it not true, even as Elihu said, “He looks upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light”?
If sin could not be pardoned why under the gospel are we bid to urge men to repent of sin, to confess their sins, and to forsake them? Might not the Lord have said, ‘Let them alone’?
John the Baptist’s cry of “Repent!” is a note of hope to transgressors. The times of their ignorance, The Lord winked at, but now under gospel rule, He commands all men everywhere to repent, why? because repentance is the pre-cursor to blotting out sin.
