To bring to pass these broken harmonies that the rich lessons and necessary experiences they teach may be available to man, there must needs be "a fall of man," a violation of law, else there can be no broken harmonies.
Man falls; Adam transgresses law and the earth-life of man begins among all the conditions essential to his instruction and experience with opposite existences in conflict.
But this violation of law, though necessary to these ends, is nevertheless a violation of law, for which a satisfaction must be made and that the broken harmonies may be restored.
Not only did Adam transgress law in order to bring to pass the conditions necessary to man's instruction and consequent progress, but man—all men—coming to years of accountability, also violate law—sin on their own account and incur the consequences due to sin.
In both cases men are unable to restore that which was lost—give satisfaction to the injured honor and insulted majesty of God, or create grounds of justification for the pardon of man's sin; either for Adam's transgression—the fall—or for man's personal sins.
8. Alternatives—But One Admissable: This creates a situation that can only be met in one of two ways if justice is to be maintained, the integrity of the moral government of the world perpetuated, and the harmony of God's attributes remain unbroken;
First: Justice must take its course, the punishment must be inflicted upon the actual sinner, leaving man to satisfy justice by an endless misery; or
Second: God must satisfy his own claims against man; he must make a satisfaction to justice, there must be a vicarious Atonement made for man, since, as we have seen, man himself is helpless.
The adoption of the first of these alternatives would thwart the general purpose of God with reference to man, the bringing to pass his progress and the possibility of his eternal happiness; and also it would violate the covenant of God with man, made before the world began, the promise of eternal life.[A] This alternative, is impossible, then, and may be dismissed without further consideration.
[Footnote A: Titus i:2.]