The Malignity of Sin

Consider the dignity of Christ's Person: God the Father declares Him to be "His Fellow," "His Equal" (Zech. 13: 7). When Christ appeared in the world as the "first begotten," the Divine decree to the celestial hosts is to worship Him (Heb. 1: 6). Thus, when God the Father calls upon the Sword of Divine Vengeance to strike His "only begotten Son"; and as Christ received the repeating blows of that flashing sword, His sufferings demonstrated the holiness of God, which, like unto all God's attributes, is incomprehensible. The effects of sin as described in the Old Testament, the tragedy and death that has circled the world, and the most brutal and bestial crimes on the records of history show the malignity of sin; but the death of Christ affords a demonstration even beyond all this, else it would not have been given. "When the angels saw Him whom they were accustomed to worship, go forth into the world, "in the likeness of sinful flesh" - when they saw Him take upon Himself the penalty due to the sins of a lost world - when they saw Him undertake to pay the debt of such incalculable magnitude, they would be ready to say - He will spare His Son. But no, not one pang due to our guilt was withheld, not one drop of gall which guilt had mingled in our cup, was abstracted from His. "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all"; and He is able to forgive every sin, because there is no sin, the bitterness resulting from which He did not feel to the full. And this is what constitutes His death, so awful and solemn, and impressive, a demonstration of the infinite and inconceivable holiness of God, and of His unspeakable hatefulness of sin" (Marcus Dods).

The Revelation of God's Immutability

The death of Christ reveals the grace and mercy of God, but it also reveals God's immutability. "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy" (Psa. 103: 8). But God's mercy is extended only to those who call upon Him in the appointed way (Psa. 86: 5, 6). God does not forgive sin. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned." (Rom. 5: 12). "The wages of sin is death" (Rom. 3: 23). Had there been any possibility to change the sentence of death, surely, it would have been changed at Gethsemane in answer to the prayer, "O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt." (Matt. 26: 39). God loved the world, but that love cannot be compared with the love He had for the Son of His bosom, but the sentence was executed with all the intensity of its excruciating agony; with all the bitterness and anguish anticipated in the Garden of Gethsemane, "where He was sore amazed and very heavy" (Mark 14: 33).

The Revelation of God's Love

Mr. E. K. Simpson, commenting on Hebrews 9:26 says: "How conclusive a proof that the great atoning Act supplies that the Lord delights in mercy. We sold our birthright: He buys it back. We made a fatal breach; He makes it up. Nor is it with perishable rarities that the ransom-price of our enfranchisement is defrayed. No mention shall be found here of corals or pearls; for the cost of soul-redemption is above rubies. By what material standard shall we rate the preciousness of the blood of Christ shed for the remission of sins? And where is the crimson-hued transgressor, brought under the sound of the evangel, who may not pluck up heart to cast himself upon the mercy of God in Christ."(E.Q. p. 372).

The love of God, as demonstrated by our prophet on the Cross, goes beyond the power of language to describe. We feel that the Apostle Paul exhausts the powers of human expression when he says: "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor ally other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. 8: 38, 39). The Apostle John writes: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4: 10). While the Father loves the redeemed, His love for His only Son is far greater. To use the words of the late Dr. Alexander Stewart: "How shall we speak of the love of the Father to His only begotten Son - a love that pours forth its treasures in infinite gladness on Another who is worthy of it all, and who is able both to receive and return it in fullest measure? In this perfect communion lies, we must believe, the infinite joy that dwells everlastingly in the heart of the triune God; no small part of the eternal blessings of the Holy God consisteth in the mutual love of the Father and the Son by the Spirit. As He is the only begotten of the Father, He is the first, necessary adequate, complete object of the whole love of the Father.

In Him was the ineffable, eternal, unchangeable delight and complacency of the object of His love. The same description of Him, "The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father." Such love knows no reserve. The Father "showeth all things" to the Son because He loves Him. The language used is derived from the facts of human life. It is in the intimacies of mutual love among men that the secrets of the heart are most fully disclosed - from all eternity the Son has access to the profoundest counsels of the Father's will." (E. Q.). Such was the love of the Father to His Son, and Christ in His prophetic office reveals that "God loves us, and loved us while we were yet enemies. (Rom. 5: 10).

While the carnal mind was totally hostile towards him (Rom. 8: 7). While sin reigned in the heart of man, and found its expression in the foul orgies of wickedness, as described in Rom., chap. 1. Had God waited or required that we should humbly seek His mercy, not one of us would escape the damnation of hell. But God takes the initiative and sends forth His only begotten Son; the Son of His love, and the motive was love; love streaming from its inexhaustible source (1 John 4: 16), and revealing its matchless and inexpressible grandeur, that moved the earth and darkened the sun, by Jesus Christ, our Prophet, on the Cross; all other manifestations of the love of God are dwarfed before the spectacle of Christ suspended on the tree of Golgotha. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3: 16). What a mighty proof of the love of God? Giving His only beloved Son to the sufferings of the Cross; suffering inflicted with the severity that banished Satan and his rebel hordes from the Divine Presence, and whom He "hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." (Jude 1: 16. See also Rev. 20: 10).

We cannot "conceive of any other way our Great Prophet could show forth the love of God than in His death. It was the love of the Father that the Son was designated to a work so glorious, and it was of the Son's love that He took our nature, and carried through Calvary and death to the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. "Love divine, all love excelling, reaches its acme in rescuing offenders from perdition by an expenditure so stupendous. Behold the Holy One satisfying the claims of His own holiness. Behold the Father of mercies charging the sinner's liabilities on His own well-beloved Son, the radiant Nonpariel of heaven; and one superlative wonder, sublime beyond expression, has riveted your gaze, a marvel that reduces all other marvels to commonplace, that beggars the resources of language and outsoars imagination's utmost stretch of wing. (E. K. Simpson. E.Q.).

Whatever knowledge we may have gained by the life and work of our Lord Jesus Christ of the love of God, is displayed with such expressive emphasis by Christ's death that it will be the subject of eternal investigation by the whole of heaven's inhabitants. (Rev. 5:11)

The offices of Christ as a Prophet, Priest and King are distinct offices, but they cannot be separated in the sense that Christ exercises His prophetic office at a given time, and assumes His Priestly Office at another time. Prof. A. A. Hodge says: "The mediatorial office involves all the three great functions of prophet, priest and king; and Christ discharges them all, both in His estate of humiliation and exaltation. These are not three distinct offices meeting accidentally in one office, but three functions inhering essentially in one office as mediator. And they each so belong to the very essence of the office that the quality peculiar to each gives character to every mediatorial action. When He offers sacrifice or intercession for sin, He is always a Prophetical and Royal Priest." (Conf. of Faith - Hodge)

Long before the incarnation, Christ was in the world as the true prophet. The revelation of redemption came to man as soon as sin entered. There have only been two dispensations in the history of the world - the Old Testament dispensation, and the New Testament dispensation. In Old Testament times various modes or forms were used by God to reveal His purpose; on many occasions dreams were used; sometimes the medium used was a vision; but the highest forms of revelation were communicated by the Spirit to the prophets. (1 Pet. 1: 10, 11, 12). "All these modes of prophecy were the beginnings of the work of the great prophet upon whom the Spirit would dwell without measure, who was Himself the Word become flesh, and who declared the Father unto us. It is important to note that all individual revelations given during Old Testament times (by various modes) are not to be considered as standing by themselves. In the first place, they are to be regarded as parts of the great body of true interpretation that came to its climax in the Prophetic work of Christ. Every bit of prophecy given in the Old Testament has its meaning in relation to Christ, and as part of the revelation of Christ. In the second place, every bit of individual revelation must be taken in conjunction with true theophany and true miracles that were given; just as in the case of the Person of Christ we must not separate His prophetic work from His work as a Priest, and as a King, so also the prophecies given in the Old Testament must be connected with the revelation of God in miracles and theophany." (Lect. C. Van Til).

We conclude this section by quoting from the work of Dr. Hugh Martin: "As a Prophet, it was Christ's duty and office to reveal to the Church precisely the import and glory of His Priesthood - to reveal His Priesthood in its presuppositions, its actings, and its fruits. The character of God, His sovereignty, His holiness and justice, His law, His claims - these on the one hand; and on the other, man's sin, his guilt, his liability to eternal death, and his utter impotence under the sentence thereof, and under the bondage of spiritual death; such are the presuppositions of the Priesthood." (Atonement, p. 47).

Texts with reference to dreams:

Genesis 20: 3; 28: 12; 31: 10; 31: 24; 37: 5; 40: 5; 41. Judges 7: 13; 1 Kings 3: 5; Daniel 2: 4; Matthew 1: 20; 2: 13; 27: 19.

Texts with reference to visions:

Genesis 12: 7, 15; 28: 10; Numbers 24: 4; 1 Kings 22: 9; Job 33: 14-16; 7: 14; Isaiah 1: 1, 6; Ezekiel 1; 10; 11; 37; 40; Daniel 7; Joel 2: 28; Zechariah 1: 8-21; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; Acts 2: 17; Revelation 1. Compare Deuteronomy 18: 15-18; Acts 3: 22; 7: 37; and Hebrews 1: 2. - See also Question 43, Larger Catechism.