Chapter 13. The Necessity of Christ's Coming in for Our Reconciliation
Chapter 13.
The Necessity of Christ's Coming in for Our Reconciliation For the first, the necessity of Christ's coming in for our reconciliation; and surely this is something that must be instilled and emphasised to you repeatedly, for you cannot truly know God,
Christ, or your own condition unless you understand the necessity of Christ's coming in to undertake the work of reconciliation.
I suppose if we were to ask any of you how you hope to be saved, you would promptly answer, "By Jesus Christ." However, truly understanding the absolute necessity of Christ's coming to reconcile us to God is not as common. Therefore, I beseech you to seriously consider it.
The necessity of it, in a word, is this: There was such a distance created between God and His creatures through sin that it necessitated a mediator to come between them. The distance was so great—God being the infinite First Being, and we, His creatures, being so far removed—that sin caused a separation between God and us that was so vast and wide that it required a mediator to intervene.
This was especially necessary because the Lord was resolved to have the wrong done to Him by the sin of man perfectly made right. Sin had wronged God, and God was determined that this wrong would be fully and completely rectified, and that He Himself would be entirely justified. God's justice demanded this, and thus stood the terms between God and man.
Man, having wronged God, found himself in a state of enmity, and God, in His infinite justice, resolved thus: "Though I am willing to be at peace with them, I will only do so if the wrong done to Me is made right. My justice must be fully satisfied; I must be justified because I am God, and there shall not be such a flaw remaining in My justice for all eternity that such creatures should sin against Me, and I should pass it by without requiring satisfaction. For," says God, "this would be a flaw in My justice forever, and that I will not permit.
Therefore, I will be justified in the wrong done to Me by the fall of man."
It is true that when one human being seeks reconciliation with another, it is sometimes necessary to overlook an offence, especially when the offender is incapable of making restitution. However, it is not so between God and man. While one person may forgive another who has wronged them when they see that the offender is unable to make satisfaction, God's mercy has never operated in this way.
Although God's mercy is infinitely greater than any creature's, the way in which God's mercy works is different from that of any creature.
This does not mean that there is less mercy in God than in a human; rather, God's mercy operates differently. The way God's mercy works is not to overlook the wrong done but to provide some means of satisfying that wrong Himself, to ensure that His justice is satisfied.
Because this was necessary, it is through Jesus Christ that we are reconciled to God.
The necessity of Christ's role as mediator is not merely because we are grievous sinners in need of abundant mercy from God. If the only factors were that we are great sinners and in need of great mercy, there would not be a necessity for Christ. But, because we are great