God's Plan with Men

by T. T. Martin

"Christ died for sins once for all, and the man who believes in Christ and in His death has his relation to God once for all determined not by sin but by the atonement."—Denny, in "The Death of Christ."

"One who knew no sin had, in obedience to the Father, to take on Him the responsibility, the doom, the curse, the death of the sinful. And if any one says that this was morally impossible, may we not ask again, What is the alternative? Is it not that the sinful should be left alone with their responsibility, doom, curse, and death?"—Denny, in "The Death of Christ."

"Redemption, it may be said, springs from love, yet love is only a word of which we do not know the meaning till it is interpreted for us by redemption."—Denny, in "The Death of Christ."

"Unless we can preach a finished work of Christ in relation to sin, a reconciliation or peace which has been achieved independently of us at infinite cost, and to which we are called in a word of ministry of reconciliation, we have no real gospel for sinful men at all."—Denny, in "The Death of Christ."

"If the evangelist has not something to preach of which he can say, 'If any man makes it his business to subvert this, let him be anathema,' he has no gospel at all."—Denny, in "The Death of Christ."

"As there is only one God, so there can be only one Gospel. If God has really done something in Christ on which the salvation of the world depends, and if He has made it known, then it is a Christian duty to be intolerant of everything which ignores, denies, or explains it away. The man who perverts it is the worst enemy of God and men."—Denny, in "The Death of Christ."

"We should remember, also, that it is not always intellectual sensitiveness, nor care for the moral interests involved, which sets the mind to criticise statements of the Atonement. There is such a thing as pride, the last form of which is unwillingness to become debtors even to Christ for forgiveness of sins."—Denny, in "The Death of Christ."

But the Saviour could not have been a Redeemer, if He had not been God manifest in the flesh, for two reasons:—

First, if He had not been Deity, God manifest in the flesh, His dying for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3) would not have been Redemption, but a mere makeshift. "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins."—Heb. 10:4. Why not? Because in that case there would have been no real redemption, but only a makeshift. Second, had the Saviour been anything other than God manifest in the flesh, He would have won men from God and alienated them from God. On this point let the reader consider well the following from Walker, in "The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation":—"As God was the author of the law, and as He is the only Proper Object both of supreme love and obedience; and as man could not be happy in obeying the law without loving its Author, it follows that the thing now necessary, in order that man's affections might be fixed upon the proper object of love and obedience, was, that the Supreme God should, by self-denying kindness, manifest spiritual mercy to those who felt their spiritual wants, and thus draw to Himself the love and worship of mankind. If any other being should supply the need, that being would receive the love; it was therefore necessary that God Himself should do it, in order that the affections of believers might centre upon the proper object." "Now, suppose Jesus Christ was not God, nor a true manifestation of the Godhead in human nature, but a man, or angel, authorized by God to accomplish the redemption of the human race from sin and misery. In doing this, it appears, from the nature of the thing, and from the Scriptures, that He did what was adapted to, and what does, draw the heart of every true believer, as in the case of the apostles and the early Christians, to Himself as the supreme or governing object of affection. Their will is governed by the will of Christ; and love to Him moves their heart and hands. Now, if it be true that Jesus Christ is not God, then He has devised and executed a plan by which the supreme affections of the human heart are drawn to Himself, and alienated from God, the proper object of love and worship: and God, having authorized this plan, He has devised means to make man love Christ, the creature, more than the creator, who is God over all, blessed for evermore.