The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1915, Page 18

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_18 The Lutheran Pioneer.

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Christ Is the Propitiation for Our Sins.

God’s wrath rested upon all men. In Adam,
our first father, the whole world had insulted God,
so greatly insulted Him that His wrath was en-
kindled against all, and His justice demanded full
satisfaction. ‘The curse of God the Righteous lay
upon us, and if no satisfaction be rendered Him,
the whole world must remain under the curse. The
anger of God was great; we all were the children
of wrath, and death and hell must be our lot, unless
the debt be paid. But who could pay the debt:
who would come to our rescue?

God must be reconciled by God. In no other
way could we be helped. No man could by any
means at his disposal redeem his brother, nor give
to God a ransom for him: neither were the angels
able to devise a way of helping us. The insult
which had been offered God was infinite, the satis-
faction must be equally infinite. But who was able
to render such infinite satisfaction? Only One
could do that, and that One was Christ, the in-
carnate Son of God. - He alone could ransom our
souls, appease God’s wrath, and heal our wounds.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, was the only
means that could cleanse us from our sins, and once
more make us acceptable in the eyes of the holy
and just God.

And Christ has reconciled us unto God. God
was in Christ, and reconciled the world unto Him-
self. Here we have, indeed, a mystery which no
mind of man is able to fathom. A full and sufli-
cient ransom was necessary to redeem us, but since
no man was able to give the infinite God such a ran-
som, infinite Justice, so to speak, took such a sulli-
cient ransom from Himself: God, the One insulted,
suffered in the flesh, so that flesh, the insulter,
might not have to suffer eternally. ‘The infinite
God had been insulted, hence no one but an infinite
Savior of infinite power could bring about a recon-
ciliation. ‘Therefore God reconciled the world unto
Himself. He Himself became the Mediator, He
Himself redeemed lost mankind with His precious
blood. Our debt was great, but Christ paid it to
the last penny. Our sins deserved the greatest
punishment, but Christ took all our sins upon Him-
self, was bruised for them, and fully atoned for
all. Through Christ God is fully reconciled to all.
Through Jesus’ bloody merit we are at peace with
God. Our sins will no longer be imputed to us;
the debt is paid. and will no longer be charged
against us. The blood of Jesus Christ has fully

quenched the flames of God’s wrath; all sins are
forgiven, and the whole world of sinners is par-
doned.

Yes, the whole debt is paid. ‘The angry Judge
has become a gracious Father; His wrath is changed
into love, His threats into benedictions.
Christ’s death all our sins are wiped away, and we
are holy in the sight of God. The angry Judge
Himself has atoned for our sins, and brought about
a reconciliation which includes the -whole world
and excludes no one, even though he be God’s

Through

worst enemy and the greatest sinner on earth. he
Lamb of God has taken away the sin of the world,
of the whole world: He has borne each and every
man’s load of sin.

“Surely, He hath borne our griefs, and carried
our sorrows. ... He was wounded for our trans-
gressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: /he
chastisement of our peuce was upon Him, and with
His stripes we are healed?’ (1s. 53, 4. 5.)

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The Creation and Preservation of the
World. —

The fabulous claims of modern unbelief with
regard to the origin of the universe are that “the
order and beauty of the world are not the result
of one directly: creative act, but the outcome of
a long and gradual process, continued probably over
myriads, tens of thousands, of years; and that the
varied life of nature is not as it was fixed ‘in the
beginning,’ but as it has been evolved, that is, de-
veloped, through age-long periods and many lower
stages, from original germs.” — God’s Word, how-
ever, which is the infallible truth, gives us a true
record of how the universe came into being. It
tells us in such simple and ‘yet sublime language
that “in the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.” “And the earth was without form and
void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light’; and
there was light,” ete.

On the first day God inade the light and on the
second the firmament of heaven. On the third
day He gathered the waters under heaven together,
so that the dry land appeared; then He caused
grass, herbs, and fruit-trees to grow. On the fourth
day He made the sun, the moon, and the stars.

_ On the fifth day He caused the waters to bring

forth fish, and created birds. He then blessed these
living creatures, saying, “Be fruitful and multi-