What land? Emmanuel’s land—a garden enclosed, and measured by the line of God’s eternal purpose; including all the redeemed of the Lord, who will ultimately be brought to glory. The map of “that land” was in the mind of Jehovah, when he made this promise through the prophet. He remembered his covenant engagement before the foundation of the world in reference to its redemption. He saw it encumbered by mountains of sin, and blasted by the fiery curse of the law; and in the fulness of time, he sent his Son to deliver it.
To remove iniquity is to remove its penalty and its pollution. Christ hath accomplished both for believers. He “bore our sins in his own body on the tree!” He carried upon his own shoulder the burden which must have sunk the whole human race to eternal perdition. By enduring our punishment, he provided for our purification. In his own wounds a fountain was opened wherein we may wash and be clean. From his own heart the balm was extracted whereby our moral leprosy may be cured. “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.” See how our great High-priest removes the iniquity of his people; not, like Aaron, by many sacrifices; but by the single offering of himself, “in one day.”
The word which is here rendered “remove” is in the original the same as that which is used to express the translation of Enoch. As Enoch was removed from the earth, beyond the sight of man, and the power of death; so sin is removed by the Mediator—removed for ever from the believer’s heart and conscience—blotted out—cast into the depth of the sea—carried away into the land of forgetfulness. The removal is perfect and everlasting.
This was a work which Jewish sacrifices were too weak to accomplish. For two thousand years the victims bled upon the altar, and not a single sin was actually removed. Every year the goat of the burnt-offering must bleed afresh, and the scape-goat must be sent away into the wilderness. But Jesus, the great ante-type of all these emblems, removed in one day, by a single offering, the iniquities of all who believe in him, from the fall to the end of time.
All the sacrifices that preceded his coming were intended only to remind men that they were sinners, that they needed an atonement, and that justification and eternal life could flow only from the meritorious sufferings of the future Christ. But when the substance came, the shadows passed away, and the promised work was at once accomplished; and all our iniquities were lost in the sea of mercy, which rose to a full tide in the Mediator’s merit.
Sinners, do you expect ever to be made free from sin? Would you have your leprosy cured, your impurity cleansed, and the curse removed? Come to our great High-priest! Lo, he stands by the altar, and the blood is on his hands! He waits to be gracious! Come, for he has virtually removed your iniquity, and it requires in you but a simple act of faith to realize the benefit! “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved!”
SERMON XIX.
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.
“But how should man be just with God?”—Job ix. 2.
The Almighty proclaimed himself to Moses, “the Lord, merciful and gracious;” and in the New Testament, he is called “the God of all grace.” “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin reigned unto death, even so might grace reign, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.” God is determined to glorify the unsearchable riches of his grace in the salvation of sinners. But how can this be done, without casting a cloud over the Divine throne, and bringing into contempt the Divine law? How can the guilty be considered and treated as innocent, without an apparent indifference to the evil of sin, and a total disregard of the claims of eternal justice? How can the rebel be acquitted in the court of Heaven, with honor to the character of God, and safety to the interests of his moral government? This is a question which angels could not answer; but it has been answered by the God of angels. The light of nature and reason is too feeble to afford us any aid in this inquiry; “but we have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do well that we take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place;” for “God hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Following, then, the guidance of the New Testament, let us consider the nature and the ground of a sinner’s justification with God.