The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1908, Page 42

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42 The Lutheran Pioneer.

Justification Before God.

(A paper read before Immanuel Lutheran Conference, and
published by its request.)

Iii.

We become righteous by the obedience of Christ,

in whom God has justified the world.
20

Christ lived the life He did and died the death
He did to redeem us, that is to say, to free us by
paying the ransom, the requisite price of our liberty.
No mere man could do this, no matter how great
his wealth, as we read of the rich in Ps. 49, 7:
“None of them can by any means redeem his
brother, nor give to God a ransom for him.” The
redemption of man’s soul is too precious for mere
man to purchase release. The Son of God became
man, that He, the God-man, might.do what was not
possible for other men to do, as He says Matt.
‘20, 28: “Even as the Son of Man came not to be
ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His
-life a ransom for many.” The word “many” draws
our attention to the fact that the one life of Christ
‘is given for a large number, but it does not mean
that any man is excluded; for St. Paul says of
Christ 1 Tim. 2, 6: “Who gave Himself a’ ransom
for all.” For this purpose He gave Himself, His
whole life-work, and life itself. We read in Gal. 4,
4.5: “But when the fullness of the time was come,
‘God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the Law, to redeem them that were under
the Law, that we might receive the adoption of
‘sons.” Not with the agony in the garden, not with
the baptism of Christ, did the work of redemption
begin, but with His very conception; for, according
to the words just quoted, to buy off from under the
Law those who were under it, Christ, the Son of
God, was made to be of a woman and was made to
be under the Law. While it is true that the work
of redemption began with the very first beginning
of Christ’s life on earth, it is also true, I think, that
the Scriptures generally, when speaking of redemp-
tion, state that we were redeemed, reconciled, by
the cross, by the blood, by the death of Christ. This
is not difficult to understand. It is especially in
His great passion on ‘the cross, in the shedding of
His blood, in His dying, that we see to what degree
He loved us and how much our redemption cost
Him; it is this part of His life that especially ar-
rests our attention; it is there we behold the per-
fection of His obedience, as is indicated in Phil.

2, 8,,where St. Paul says of Christ that “He became

obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
We are not, however, to think of the.blood, of the
death, apart from the life, the perfect life He led.

The Bible itself, in speaking of Christ’s suffering, ©

at various places leads us to ponder on the fact that
the person suffering and dying is a sinless one.
Thus, 1 Pet. 3, 18: “For Christ also hath once
suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He
might bring us to God.” Likewise Isaiah, describ-
ing the “Man of sorrows,” not only tells us that
“He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,” but also
points out that “He had done no violence, neither
was any deceit in His mouth.” When I state that
we are justified by the obedience of Christ, I am

‘thinking of His obedience from the beginning of

His life on earth to His death on the cross.

The obedience of Christ was vicarious, in our
stead. When some people proclaim that Christ suf-
fered and died for us, they mean to say that Christ
did this for our good, on our behalf, so that it was
for our benefit; they do not, however, mean to say
that He did this as our Substitute. But according
to Christ and the Bible He died for our good by
dying in our stead. When Christ declared that He
came to give His life “a ransom for many,” that
“for” means “in the stead of.” St. Paul says 2 Cor.
5, 14: “We thus judge, that if one died for all,
then were all dead.” Isaiah proclaims: “But He
was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised
for our iniquities:.the chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed.
All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned
every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid
on Him the iniquity of us all,” Is. 53, 5. 6. “Be-
hold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin
of the world,” John 1, 29. The purpose of God in
laying all our sins upon Christ was not only to free
us from the punishment of our sins, but to remove
our guilt. In other words, mark well, our sins
were laid upon Christ, and not merely the penalty
of sin. If our sins were transferred to Christ, then
we no more stand before God as sinners deserving
condemnation. That God so wishes us to under-
stand. and believe this transfer is seen from 2 Cor.
5, 21: “He hath made Him to be sin for us who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteous-
ness of.God in Him.” J. Pz. S.

eo

THE sum and substance of Christian doctrine
is this, that God has sent His Son Jesus Christ,
and through Him alone forgives our sins and ia
tifies and saves ys, — Luther.