Spurgeon's Message of Christ's Atoning Sacrifice

by something else but the preaching of Christ crucified. We know that the greatest crowd in London has been held together these thirty years by nothing but the preaching of Christ crucified. Where is our music? Where is our oratory? Where is anything of attractive architecture, or beauty of ritual? " A

bare service, " they call it. Yes, but Christ makes up for all the deficiencies. ¹ T he Lord Jesus Christ on his cross cross of redemption was the center, circumference, and summation of the preaching ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Its themes he repeated continuously and tirelessly but always with a freshness of power and passion that would startle his hearers and set them alongside the congregation at Galatia before whose eyes Christ was plainly portrayed as crucified. Spurgeon was a cataract, an avalanche, a flooding Mississippi in his unrelenting emphasis on the death by crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Redemption is the "heart of the gospel" and the "essence of

redemption is the substitutionary atonement of Christ." ² If in one analogy it is the heart, then in another it is "the cornerstone of the gospel;" and when announcing it as his theme he, in some amazement, would ask himself before his congregation, "How many times will this make, I wonder? The doctrine of

Christ crucified is always with me." ³ Ironically, Spurgeon believed this truth to be so clearly delineated in Scripture that early in his ministry he doubted that it would ever be a point of controversy among Christians. "There are a few men who scoff at the statement and reject the thought of sacrifice," Spurgeon acknowledged in 1859, but these "never will be more than a few; they can never be many." The system which "denies the doctrine of atonement by the blood of Jesus... can never succeed [and] they will never convince the masses." One should not argue against this tendency but rather destroy it "by our own personal determination to preach more earnestly and more consistently 'Jesus Christ, and Him crucified'." ⁴ Among the few that

dared deny substitution, Spurgeon identified F. D. Maurice, McLeod Campbell, and "their great admirer, Mr. [Baldwin] Brown." They may go on with their preaching "but they will never make a convert of a man who knows what the vitality of religion is." Even with these easily identified few, Spurgeon vowed that "some of us must stand out against these attacks on truth, although we love not controversy." While he rejoiced in the liberty to dissent from these established and precious biblical truths, nevertheless, "that which infringes upon the precious doctrine of a covenant salvation, through the imputed righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ, —against that we must, and will, enter our hearty and

solemn protest." ⁵ The opportunities for such protest would become much more abundant.

By 1886 Spurgeon was troubled by the novel interpretations and philosophies of those who "deny the doctrines they profess to teach" and said that some who know what they believe "should just put our foot down and maintain our

standing." ⁶ By April of 1887 Spurgeon, in the first months of the Downgrade Controversy, upgraded the potency of his language: "Our warfare is with men

who are giving up the atoning sacrifice." ⁷ By October, Spurgeon wrote, "If we do believe in the inspiration of Scripture, the Fall, and the great sacrifice of Christ for sin, it behoves us to see that we do not become accomplices with those

who teach another gospel." ⁸ In December, after he had resigned from the Baptist Union, he showed he felt obliged to "argue" right earnestly, to "come out in earnest protest," against those who "treat the Bible as waste paper, and regard

the death of Christ as no substitution." ⁹ Spurgeon knew nothing of a Christianity without the blood of Christ because Holy Scripture itself establishes the doctrine of the death of Christ as "the very core of Christianity." He contended that "a mistake on this point will inevitably

lead to a mistake through the entire system of our belief." ¹⁰ "Christ's death for men is the great doctrine of the church" and so necessary to be dwelt upon continually that Spurgeon would "not feel satisfied without breaking bread on

every Lord's-day" ¹¹ and felt that it was impossible to think or preach on it too often. A man is never blamed in heaven for preaching Christ too much, and on earth among the sons of God the playing of that one string, a monotony to some, establishes such resonance and sympathetic vibrations that they could hear no more astounding harmony nor taste a greater and more delicious variety in all other doctrines put together than in the strumming of that one note or the slicing of that one fruit. "All good things lie within the compass of the cross," Spurgeon would say. It is in the cross that one can begin to grasp the whole of reality because "Its outstretched arms overshadow the whole world of thought" and

indeed the death of Christ was the "hinge of the world's history." ¹² "Its foot is planted deep in eternal mysteries and its top pierces all earth-born clouds, and rises to the throne of the most high." ¹³

Centrality of Redemption

For a number of reasons Spurgeon insists on this centrality of the cross—that God himself intends it always to be fresh in our minds is seen in the establishment of two ordinances both of which are pictures of the death of Christ and its effects.

Central to Scripture

One reason for its centrality is that the entire corpus of Scripture finds its coherence on the assumption of the cross. Spurgeon's sermons on the Old Testament priesthood, sacrificial system, prophecy, prophets, kings, law, exodus, and many other themes all roll along on a majestic and clearly-lighted road to Calvary.

Spurgeon (for the most part) does not force the issue in these, it seems to me, but shows that he has clear warrant for such a procedure. Biblical theology, acknowledging that all of it is subdued to the glory of God, moves relentlessly from fall to redemption. The Bible cannot be understood apart from Christ and him crucified. Nor can the ministry and preaching of Spurgeon.

When Christ said, "It is finished," all the "types, promises, and prophecies were now fully accomplished in him." In fact, "the whole book, from the first to the last, in both the law and the prophets, was finished in him." From Eden to Malachi, from the red heifer to the turtle-dove, from a branch of hyssop to Solomon's temple, whether great or small all types were fulfilled in him. All prophecies, all apparent contradictions, all mysteries, the offices of prophet, priest and king as well as all of Israel's deliverers, to be worshipped and despised, to reign forever yet die and be buried—taken together they appear as indecipherable hieroglyphs till one comes forward and exclaims, "The cross of

Christ and the Son of God incarnate." ¹⁴ Speaking of the rending of the veil at Christ's death, Spurgeon inquires, "Does it not mean that the death of Christ is the revelation and explanation of all secrets? " "Vanish all types and shadows of the ceremonial law," Spurgeon continued, and explained further, "vanish because fulfilled and explained in the death of Christ." But even beyond its essential relevance to biblical understanding, Christ's death is the "key to all true philosophy." "God made flesh, dying for man—if that does not explain a mystery, it cannot be explained."

And more, "If with this thread in your hand you cannot follow the labyrinth of human affairs, and learn the great purpose of God, then you cannot follow it at all." ¹⁵

Central to Full Understanding of God and Man

Another reason for its centrality is that the cross is the epitomized display of the character of God and the depravity of man. His wisdom, power, justice, holiness, and love all are shown most clearly in the cross—more clearly even than in the law. Even so the cross shows the utter moral horror into which mankind has fallen. "You need not talk about the virtues of the world," Spurgeon would remind London; "It slew the Christ and that is enough to condemn it." And to make the point more pungently, he adds, "We want no other proof of its guilt; you cannot bring evidence more complete and overwhelming than this, they slew

the Lord of life and glory." ¹⁶ And in another place, Spurgeon points his congregation toward the struggle of Christ with our sins: "See dear Friends, what an evil thing is sin, since the Sin-bearer suffers so bitterly to make atonement for it." Consider also the sobering implications of man's flippant treatment of the Lord: "Beloved, the treatment of our Lord Jesus Christ by men is the clearest proof of total depravity which can possibly be required or discovered. Those must be stony hearts indeed which can laugh at a dying Saviour, and mock even

at his faith in God!" ¹⁷ And one dare not pass over without great melancholy and dread the way that men today ignore such an infinite wonder as the cross. The devils themselves are incapable of a greater sin than this: "The incarnate God bleeds to death to save men, and men hate God so much that they will not even have him as he dies to save them." Though he stoops from his loftiness to their woe, they refuse to be reconciled to their Creator. "This is depravity indeed, and

desperate rebellion." ¹⁸ In an equally infallible and consummate way the character of God is displayed in the cross so that in contemplating it Spurgeon would say, "I have seen the foot of it go down deep as our helpless miseries are; and what a vision I have had of thy magnificence, O thou crucified One!" Truth, justice, holiness, wisdom, immutability, wrath, compassion, love, and grace all coalesce in the cross of Christ and dwell together without the slightest diminution of any attribute. "Learn ye my friends," Spurgeon called, "to look upon God as being as severe in his justice as if he were not loving, and yet as loving as if he were not severe.

His love does not diminish his justice nor does his justice, in the least degree, make warfare upon his love. The two are sweetly linked together in the atonement of Christ." ¹⁹

Central to Evangelistic Power

A third reason for the centrality of the cross is that by it sinners are drawn to salvation. Certainly sinners are drawn effectually by the Spirit of God who alone changes the affections and subdues the will. But the content of the truth to which one is drawn is that God has made the One who knew no sin to be sin for us; and the manifest evidence of this effectual call is that one embraces Christ freely offered to us in the gospel. After an incomparable verbal barrage depicting the geographical and historical sweep of Christ's drawing power, Spurgeon said, "Christ's people shall be made willing in the day of his power; and the great attraction by which they will be drawn to him will be his death on the cross." In a discussion of the kingship of Jesus and how it applies to missionary endeavors he described the magnetic power of Christ being set forth as a king at the lowest part of his humiliation. "This it is that touches men's hearts," he said. "Christ

crucified is the conqueror."

Not in his robes of glory does he subdue the heart, but in his vestments of shame. Not as sitting upon

the throne does he at first gain the faith and the affections of sinners, but as bleeding, suffering, and

dying in their stead. … and though every theme that is connected with the Saviour ought to play its

part in our ministry, yet this is the master theme. The atoning work of Jesus is the great gun of our

battery. The cross is the mighty battering-ram wherewith to break in pieces the brazen gates of human

prejudices and the iron bars of obstinacy. Christ coming to be our judge alarms, but Christ the man of

sorrows subdues. The crown of thorns has a royal power in it to compel a willing allegiance, the

scepter of reed breaks hearts better than a rod of iron, and the robe of mockery commands more love

than Caesar's imperial purple. There is nothing like it under heaven. 20

Central to Doctrine

The cross is central also because it is the coherent factor in biblical doctrine.

Often arguments are made that distinguish between preaching designed to edify the saints and preaching that is strictly evangelistic. Spurgeon did not seek to make such a neat cut between the two. The sword of the Spirit, that sharp twoedged sword, itself could not cut so fine. Is the book of Hebrews for edification of believers or is it evangelistic? Is the emphasis on propitiation in ¹ John not in the context of edifying and exhorting believers? May they not at the same time shed light on a path of hope for the unbeliever? Do those passages that edify believers not also show the way of salvation to unbelievers? Are not warnings designed at the same time to convict the ungodly and serve as a canon for examination for the saint and a means for his perseverance? And don't passages of comfort give pleasure to the children of God and, by God's grace, draw those blinded by this world by making them jealous for such pleasures as are at the right hand of God? Spurgeon preached many sermons that were specifically intended to call the unbeliever to repentance and faith; the universal response was that these brought the believers to exult in Christ in a more purified praise with a more refined grasp of the freeness of divine mercy.

Some may isolate passages from the whole biblical context so severely that they can give an outline, and word studies, and fairly acceptable advice without having any energy from the cross electrify its delivery. Spurgeon could not do this, and would not accept any attempt to do so as a biblical message. In a sermon on John 13:1, Spurgeon came to the close by summarizing his intent. "I have been preaching what I trust will comfort God's people;" he immediately added, "but I wish some poor soul would come to Christ through it." And, as if to establish the validity of his homiletical style and the unity of exhortation and evangelism, stated, "I believe that is the right way to preach the gospel."

Referring briefly to the parable of the prodigal son, he began then to apply the Father's words, "Let us eat." "So dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us eat," Spurgeon encouraged, "and then sinners will begin to feel their mouths watering, and they will also want to eat, and to have a share of the feast." Pressing this point further and continuing to demonstrate the theory which supported his preaching, Spurgeon adds, "So if you and I enjoy the sweetness of the love of Christ, there may be some in the gallery, and some downstairs who will say, 'We wish that we knew it, too,' and they will be wanting it; that is the way to make

them eat." ²¹ The cross penetrated everywhere with Spurgeon because he believed it to be the defining factor of Scripture and, thus, of every aspect of the ways of God

with men. This is particularly striking in the way Spurgeon developed its centrality to the doctrines of grace and the covenant of redemption. "Remember, dear friends," Spurgeon tenderly reminded his hearers, "that redemption is that which gives effect to all the other great blessings of God." All these "great blessings" need redemption to complete their design. Election, "the well-head of grace, needs the conduit pipe of redemption to bring its streams down to sinners." Our being chosen of God makes sure our obedience and makes necessary the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. If the saints are chosen in him, of what avail would election be without him? Would calling be of any purpose without redemption? "Vain would it be to be called if there were no feast of dying love for us to be called to, and no fountain filled with blood to which we might come at the call." Christ's redeeming death "is the fulness of all the blessings of God," the "key of heaven, the channel of grace, the door of hope." It constitutes the substance of our worship, and thus the motivation for our perseverance, on this earthly journey "and will be the theme of our eternal music above." ²²

The Person of The Redeemer

A key factor in Spurgeon's understanding of the atonement, and one to which he refers explicitly very often, and implicitly without fail, is the person of our Lord Jesus Christ in the orthodoxy given shape by Nicea and Chalcedon. Adhering to the mystery of godliness has been seen as essential to biblical soteriology ever since the church first engaged in literary interaction with the world. Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Athanasius all argued for the full deity and humanity of Christ, two natures in one person, as particularly necessary "for us men and for our salvation."

In "Our Suffering Substitute", Spurgeon says that "The Substitute was of complex nature [a favorite phrase with Spurgeon]. He was truly man, and yet He was truly God." In his manhood Christ shares the substance of his mother and all the natural creaturely weaknesses of humanity but without original depravity or imputed sin. Though hell's quiver of temptations was emptied upon him he stood invincible and invulnerable; indeed, "he could not be wounded by temptation." If he were to redeem man by paying man's debt for sin, and give man eternal life by conquering death then he himself must be man.

But let us also bear in mind that he was, in the Nicene phrase quoted frequently by Spurgeon, "very God of very God". His perfect humanity did not lower his perfect deity. Spurgeon declared, "We know nothing of a human atonement apart from the Deity of Christ Jesus. We dare not trust our souls upon a savior who is but a man." Neither all the men that have ever lived, nor all the angels that exist, nor all together, had they striven throughout eternity, could have wrought a sacrifice that should be a propitiation for the sins of a single man. They must utterly have failed. "None but the shoulders of the Incarnate God could bear the stupendous burden. No hand but that which set fast the spheres could shake the mountains of our guilt, and bear them away. We must have a Divine Sacrifice, and it is our joy to know that we have this in the person

of our Lord Jesus Christ." ²³ Deity was required in the atonement because of the infinite and eternal issues involved in sin against God. "It is not possible to hold a proper substitutionary

propitiation for sin unless you hold that Christ was God." ²⁴ One of the classic developments of this idea is Anselm's discussion of the proposition, "You have not yet considered what a great thing sin is," in Why God Became Man. On occasion, Spurgeon combined the impact of this moral condescension on the part of our Lord with a contemplation of the metaphysical condescension. Not only did the Holy One come to dwell among sinners and bear their curse but the infinite, eternal, and unchangeable One put himself within the sphere and frame

of the temporal and mutable to rescue them, from corruption yes, but from the

mutability and declension of the temporal condition also.

Who stooped to pick thee up, O insect of a day? Who stooped to save thee? Who but he who bears

earth's huge pillars up and spreads the heavens abroad? The Son of God omnipotent, eternal, and

infinite, has fallen in love with the fallen sons of men, and for them has donned the garment of human

flesh, and in that flesh has suffered to the death, and died a most shameful death upon the gibbet of

Calvary. Oh tell it everywhere that Jesus Christ, who is God over all, blessed for ever, has redeemed

us! and after that, who will say that we do not belong to him? 25

And in the sermon "Majesty in Misery" Spurgeon marveled that "the God, who had reigned in glory over myriads of holy angels, should be mocked by miscreants" who, in an infinite irony of the relation of the eternal to the temporal, "could not even have lived an instant longer in his presence if he had not permitted them to do so." The incongruity is unfathomable that "he who made the heavens and the earth, stood there to be despised and rejected of men, and to be treated with the utmost contumely and scorn." ²⁶

Substitutionary and Propitiatory

Absolutely essential for a proper biblical view of the atonement in Spurgeon's understanding is the affirmation that it is both substitutionary and propitiatory.

He viewed these elements as inseparable and non-negotiable. In 1858 he preached, "Think how great must have been the substitution of Christ, when it satisfied God for all the sins of his people. … think what must have been the greatness of the atonement which was the substitution for all this agony which

God would have cast upon us, if he had not poured it upon Christ." ²⁷ And thirty years later, "There is no way of salvation under heaven," he unfalteringly affirmed, "but by faith in the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ;" and, stirring in the ingredient of propitiation, he immediately continued: "and the way by which we are redeemed from eternal wrath is by Christ having stood as

Substitute for us, and having died in our place." ²⁸ And halfway between, in 1874, he preached, "Our Lord's death was penal, inflicted upon him by divine justice; and rightly so, for on him lay our iniquities, and therefore on him must

lay the suffering." ²⁹ Because of Christ's propitiatory substitution justice and mercy peacefully embrace and confer double honor upon each other. These two elements combine inextricably into one point as Spurgeon makes clear: "It was meet that the Substitute should bear a similar chastisement to that which should have fallen upon the sinner. … he bore the pain the loss, the ruin, the separation, the overwhelming which is intended by death. He was even forsaken of God. … The law demanded death, and death has fallen upon our great covenant head. … Let us rejoice that the Lord Jesus Christ has evidently by his substitutionary sacrifice put away, not a part and a portion of our sin, but the whole of it. By bearing death itself he has removed all our legal obligations, and has placed us beyond

the reach of further demands." ³⁰ Spurgeon often emphasized that Christ's position as covenantal head of the new race necessarily involved substitution. Jesus was not slain as a private individual, as Spurgeon developed this idea, but he was put to death as a representative man, and by that death sealed all the blessing of the covenant; all provisions of the eternal covenant were ratified. Spurgeon desired "more and more of this covenant doctrine" to be spread throughout England. A person who understands the "two covenants has found the marrow of all theology," according to Spurgeon, "but he who does not know the covenants knows next to

nothing of the gospel of Christ." ³¹ The covenant of grace was well-ordered and made sure by the blood of Christ. "When the blood of Christ's heart bespattered

the divine roll, then it could never be reversed, nor could one of its ordinances be

broken, not one of its stipulations fail." ³² Among these was the determination to give new hearts and right spirits to the people for whom the surety of the covenant had died. While as covenant head his death produces forgiveness and justification, it also becomes the dynamic by which his people are made holy. "He forgives our sins with the design of curing our sinfulness. We are pardoned

that we may become holy." ³³ Spurgeon often pointed to the water and the blood from Christ's side and, in the tradition of Toplady, spoke of cleansing from both

the guilt and power of sin. ³⁴ In a sermon on Zechariah 13:1 Spurgeon emphasized the double nature of the evil of sin. The fountain opened in the atonement removes "the offence rendered to God's honor and dignity." God has "punished that sin in the person of his own Son." The guilt, therefore, "of those for whom he was a substitute is put away consistently with the righteousness of the great Lawgiver." But, there is a second mischief, namely, "that our nature has become unclean" and "our mind is in itself biased towards evil and averse from good." God, therefore, does not grant a forgiveness that leaves "the sinner as he was in other respects." When forgiveness is granted, "a renewal of the nature is wrought; the fountain opened for pardon is also opened for purification." Not only is the offence removed, the

love of offending is mortified.

Herein is double joy, for does not every true penitent feel that mere pardon would be a poor boon to

him if it allowed him to continue in sin? My God, deliver me from sin itself, for this is the great burden

of my soul. Oh could I have the past forgiven, and yet live an enemy to my God, enslaved by evil and a

stranger to holiness—then were I still accursed! … To love the wrong is the beginning of hell. 35

Definite Atonement

In 1854, in Spurgeon's first full year as a pastor in London at the New Park Street pulpit, the American commentator Albert Barnes published an article in the Church Advocate entitled "A Limited Atonement Not to be Preached."

Barnes claimed that "there is nothing that more cramps the powers, fetters the hands, and chills the heart of the preacher, than such a doctrine." The characterization he gave of the preacher who would dare do such is singularly unflattering: "one so clearly and thoroughly tainted in such a form of systematic theology, so fettered and bound by authority, and by the manacles of a creed so wholly under the influence of a theology derived from a past age," who himself is frozen by the doctrine he preaches. Barnes considered it so contradictory to every aspect of gospel ministry, so contrary to the purest feelings of a sanctified person, and so cold and withering in its influence on the heart that "men will not preach it." Should it be found to be an essential part of the gospel message, warm hearted ministers "would abandon preaching altogether, and engage in farming, or teaching, or the mechanic arts—anything; rather than have their better feelings subjected to constant torture." Barnes, moreover, found the doctrine so objectionable that he said not only that it should not be preached, but

it could not be preached.

It is found in ancient books on divinity, written in a sterner age, and when the principles of

interpretation were less understood, and the large and liberal nature of the gospel was less appreciated.

It is petrified in certain creeds maintained by the church—made firm, like fossil remains in a transition

state, when ancient opinions were passing to a more liberal form. It is taught in a few seminaries,

where men feel themselves constrained to repress the warm emotions of their own minds to reach

conclusions which they can scarcely avoid. But the doctrine is not preached, except when the heart is

cold and dead. It is not preached when the soul is on fire with the love of men, and when the cross, in

its true grandeur rises to view. It is never preached in a revival of religion—a proof, not feeble, that the

doctrine is not true. 36

Barnes could not have known that the warmest, most powerful preacher of the nineteenth century could and would preach the doctrine that Barnes found so unthinkable, and preach it without bringing a chill either to himself or his hearers. Spurgeon believed that the fountain of Christ's blood was open and would cleanse every sinner who came to it. He felt no more inhibition to invite sinners to the fountain of Christ's blood than he did to call on all sinners to repent and believe the gospel. Both effectual calling and effectual, or limited, atonement are doctrines of grace. Grace never serves as a barrier to anyone's coming to Christ, nor to the freedom with which ministers may, must, issue the gospel invitation.

Spurgeon labored to demonstrate the congruity between these two doctrines.

The command to repent of sin and believe in Christ, Spurgeon said, is universal.

He knew, however, that "there are some who will deny this, and deny it upon the ground that man has not the spiritual ability to believe in Jesus." His reply emphasized that "it is altogether an error to imagine that the measure of the sinner's moral ability is the measure of his duty." Universal responsibility merely accentuates the divine prerogative in grace for no one would ever "believe in Jesus with the faith here intended, except the Holy Spirit led him to do so." "Faith is too celestial a grace," Spurgeon continues, "to spring up in human nature till it is renewed." Christians must "rise above the babyhood" which truncates these doctrines and should "not find it difficult to believe faith

to be at the same time the duty of man and the gift of God." ³⁷ Because of that, where belief exists, regeneration exists. "To believe in Jesus is a better indicator of regeneration than anything else, and in no case did it ever mislead." By the same token, to believe in Jesus is the sure indicator that Jesus has died for you. Faith does not consist in believing that Christ has died for me in particular but in coming empty-handed, and with a whole heart, to Christ himself who has died for sinners. And it is in trusting in him alone that one discovers that Christ has died for him in particular and with effect. Spurgeon

says:

I do not believe in Jesus because I am persuaded that his blood was shed for me, but rather I discover

that his blood was shed especially for me from the fact that I have been led to believe in him. I fear me

there are thousands of people who believe that Jesus died for them, who are not born of God, but rather

hardened in their sin by their groundless hopes of mercy. There is no particular efficacy in a man's

assuming that Christ has died for him; for it is a mere truism, if it be true as some teach, that Jesus died

for everybody. On such a theory every believer in a universal atonement would necessarily be born of

God, which is very far from being the case. When the Holy Spirit leads us to rely upon the Lord Jesus,

then the truth that God gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him might be saved, is

opened up to our souls, and we see that for us who are believers, Jesus died with the special intent that

we should be saved. … Merely to conclude that Jesus died for us on the notion that he died for

everybody is as far as the east is from the west, from being real faith in Jesus Christ. 38

Spurgeon pulled on this same cord of unity within the doctrines of grace in a "The Open Fountain." One will never participate in this fountain which eradicates sin and uncleanness unless one knows himself to be a sinner; but if there "be here one really guilty, one who feels his sin to be deserving the wrath of God;" one who mourns his sin, confesses his guilt, and feels himself undeserving and unworthy—"then you are the man to whom the mercy of heaven is this day freely proclaimed." In this context then it is no wonder that Spurgeon proclaimed the saving efficacy of the death of Christ with unbounded

enthusiasm and generosity. Because the fountain is open "there is no barrier on account of uncircumcision or natural descent." We learn also that it is "personally approachable by us" and dependent on no mediator or intercessor other than the Lord Jesus himself. Also "the fountain is not barred by any amount of sin which we have already committed." No effectual barrier is created by the consideration of our inward sinfulness nor are there any "demands in the gospel requiring you to prepare yourself for it before you come." Spurgeon increased in boldness as he goes vowing to push any theologian into the fountain who would bar it from any sinner who is coming. "There cannot be anything in theology, nor in nature nor in heaven, nor earth, nor hell, which can shut what God declares to be open. If thou willest to be saved, if thou comest to Christ, believing in him, there is nothing to shut up the fountain of life or prevent thee from being cleansed and healed. If there be any shutting and forbidding it is thy

heart that is closed, and thy pride which forbids." ³⁹ It is clear that Spurgeon absorbed and implemented that line of thought developed and defended with such clarity and strength by Jonathan Edwards concerning the relation between natural abilities and moral abilities. The whole scheme of salvation springs from the holiness of God. Total depravity must be defined in terms of God's holiness and the sinner's antipathy toward that conglomerate attribute. "Your condition is not only your calamity, but your fault," Spurgeon insisted. The sinner must be not only pitied but blamed for he is without a will for what is good; "Your 'cannot' means 'will not,' your inability is not physical but moral, not that of the blind who cannot see for want of eyes,

but of the willingly ignorant who refuse to look." ⁴⁰ Election determines that we should be holy and without blame; effectual calling and the new birth produce the new creature who reflects true righteousness and holiness; perseverance implies that God's seed remains in us and we cannot continue in the direction of sin but must be holy; the cross draws sinners to it, if they are drawn savingly, because of its just verdict on their sin and its crushing display of the holiness of God. It is, therefore, the holiness of the cross that is a barrier to a sinner's embracing it, not the fact that in God's secret purpose he has determined that it shall certainly be saving in its effects for the people he has given to the Son.

Spurgeon was overwhelmed with the lavishness of God's grace in the atonement, and though he spoke clearly of its limited nature, it was always in the context of the certainty with which God carried out his purposes of grace.

Infinite mercy that a holy God would condescend to save sinners, and do it in such a public promiscuous fashion so that none can complain that it was done in a corner! The certainty of the salvation that God accomplished gave endless

material for Spurgeon's clear affirmations. "There is a fountain opened in the atonement, by which the offence rendered to God's honor and dignity is put away. What if we have sinned, yet the Lord has punished that sin in the person of his own Son, he has thus fulfilled his threatening, and proven the truth of his word. In Jesus Christ, therefore, the guilt of those for whom he was a substitute

is put away consistently with the righteousness of the great Lawgiver." ⁴¹ That "righteousness of the great Lawgiver," in conjunction with the substitutionary and propitiatory aspects of the atonement, was compelling to Spurgeon. They bore infinite comfort to Christ's people and Spurgeon would not have his listeners come short of any spiritual comfort legitimately theirs. Since Christ has suffered the penalty for sin and has made recompense to divine justice, if indeed the Lord Jesus has been condemned for us, then "While justice survives in heaven, and mercy reigns on earth, it is not possible that a soul condemned in Christ should also be condemned in itself. If the punishment has been meted out to its substitute, it is neither consistent with mercy nor justice

that the penalty should a second time be executed." ⁴² Clearly a favorite hymn of Spurgeon's was the Toplady number entitled "Whence This Fear and Unbelief?" He quoted it at length or in part on several

occasions and was particularly attached to this verse.

If Thou has my discharge procured,

And freely in my room endured

The whole of wrath divine;

Payment God cannot twice demand,

First at my bleeding Surety's hand,

And then again at mine. 43

He wanted no one to lose the ineffable mystery of the fact that God himself had died for man the creature's sin. And that this rendered such a certainty to its efficaciousness, and a limitlessness to its possibilities, that it would be

impossible that it could not atone for any sin anywhere.

Never could justice be more gloriously exalted in the presence of intelligent beings than by the Lord of

all submitting himself to its requirements. There must be an infinite merit about his death: a desert

unutterable, immeasurable. Methinks if there had been a million worlds to redeem, their redemption

could not have needed more than this "sacrifice of himself." If the whole universe, teeming with

worlds as many as the sands on the seashore, had required to be ransomed, that one giving up of the

ghost might have sufficed as a full price for them all. However gross the insults which sin may have

rendered to the law, they must be all forgotten, since Jesus magnified the law so abundantly, and made

it so honourable by his death. I believe in the special design of our Lord's atoning death, but I will

yield to no one in my belief in the absolutely infinite value of the offering which our Lord Jesus has

presented; the glory of his person renders the idea of limitation an insult. 44

For this reason Spurgeon used the nomenclature of limitation sparingly and with positive explanation in his exposition of the atonement. He preferred to speak of effectuality and certainty. But just as strongly, his consideration of "limitation" as an insult led him to reject the concept of universal atonement. In fact he was glad to use the term "limited" if one set the idea of "general" opposite it, for

such a limitation was really no limitation at all.

Now, beloved, when you hear any one laughing or jeering at a limited atonement, you may tell him

this. General atonement is like a great wide bridge with only half an arch; it does not go across the

stream: it only professes to go half way; it does not secure the salvation of anybody. Now, I had rather

put my foot upon a bridge as narrow as Hungerford, which went all the way across, than on a bridge

that was as wide as the world, if it did not go all the way across the stream. 45

The infinite dignity of Christ's person demanded the utter success of his aim in giving himself up for the sake of sinners. Spurgeon's refusal to admit any limitation to Christ's death meant especially that its efficacy was not subject to man's will. If it were, then it falls short of its purpose in the punishment of every sinner who dies short of salvation, and the final arbiter of this infinite transaction set up in the decrees of eternity is the will of a mutable, temporal, fallen,

rebellious creature. The incongruity of it all should obliterate its feasibility. ⁴⁶ In addition to the dignity of the person who was substituted for us, two factors render this transaction certain and efficacious. First, it was the intent and purpose of God to save a people for himself by the sacrifice of his Son. "We declare that the measure of the effect of Christ's love, is the measure of the design of it. We cannot so belie our reason as to think that the intention of Almighty God could be frustrated, or that the design of so great a thing as the atonement, can by any

way whatever be missed of." ⁴⁷ Without blasphemy it is not possible to conceive that he has failed in his purpose. "It is quite certain, beloved," Spurgeon reasons, "that the death of Christ must have been effectual for the removal of those sins which were laid upon him." We cannot conceive that Christ has died in vain. "He was appointed of God to bear the sin of many," and it is "not possible that he should be defeated or disappointed of his purpose. Not in one jot or tittle will the intent of Christ's death be frustrated. Jesus shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. That which he meant to do by dying shall be done, and he shall

not pour his blood upon the ground in waste in any measure or sense." ⁴⁸ If he has been condemned, those united to him in his death as indicated by their faith in him shall in no wise come into condemnation.

This statement of purpose leads to the consideration of the second point which contributes to the certain unfailing efficacy of Christ's death. That is, in some sense Christ's sufferings were quantitative. Spurgeon paints a vivid mental

picture of the intensity and exact justice of Christ's substitutionary suffering for his people and suggests that his hearers suppose a man who has passed into hell.

Then they suppose that his eternal torment should all be brought into one hour and multiplied by the number of the saved, a number past all human enumeration. Is it possible now to imagine what "a vast aggregate of misery there would have been in the sufferings of all God's people, if they had been punished through all eternity?" Then we should remember that "Christ had to suffer an equivalent for all the hells of all his redeemed." Christ gave God "the satisfaction for all the sins of all his people, and consequently gave him an

equivalent for all their punishment." ⁴⁹ In speaking on "The Determination of Christ to Suffer for His People," Spurgeon considers why Christ refused the cup of wine mingled with myrrh.

One of the reasons was that such a refusal was "necessary to make the atonement complete." If Christ had drunk from the cup, the atonement would not have been valid because he would not have suffered "to the extent that was absolutely necessary." Christ suffered "just enough, and not one particle more than was necessary for the redemption of his people." The ransom price would not have been paid had the wine cup taken away part of his sufferings. Had as much as a grain of his suffering been mitigated "the atonement would not have been sufficiently satisfactory." Insufficiency to any degree would have condemned his people to perpetual despair. The utmost farthing must be paid; inexorable justice cannot omit a fraction of its claim. Christ must go the whole length of suffering.

50

Not only did Spurgeon see great comfort and assurance in the doctrine of limited atonement, he found the doctrine of universal atonement to be positively destructive of the moral attributes of God. His "Defence of Calvinism" includes

a particularly striking presentation of limited atonement.

Some persons love the doctrine of universal atonement because they say, "It is so beautiful. It is a

lovely idea that Christ should have died for all men; it commends itself," they say, "to the instincts of

humanity; there is something in it full of joy and beauty." I admit there is, but beauty may be often

associated with falsehood. There is much which I might admire in the theory of universal redemption,

but I will just show what the supposition necessarily involves. If Christ on His cross intended to save

every man, then He intended to save those who were lost before He died. If the doctrine be true, that

He died for all men, then He died for some who were in hell before He came into this world, for

doubtless there were even then myriads there who had been cast away because of their sins. Once

again, if it was Christ's intention to save all men, how deplorably has He been disappointed, for we

have His own testimony that there is a lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, and into that pit of

woe have been cast some of the very persons who, according to the theory of universal redemption,

were bought with His blood. That seems to me a conception a thousand times more repulsive than any

of those consequences which are said to be associated with the calvinistic and Christian doctrine of

special and particular redemption. To think that my saviour died for men who were or are in hell,

seems a supposition too horrible for me to entertain. To imagine for a moment that He was the

substitute for all the sons of men, and that God, having first punished the Substitute, afterwards

punished the sinners themselves, seems to conflict with all my ideas of Divine justice. That Christ

should offer an atonement and satisfaction for the sins of all men, and that afterwards some of those

very men should be punished for the sins for which Christ had already atoned, appears to me to be the

most monstrous iniquity that could ever be imputed to Saturn, to Janus, to the goddess of the Thugs, or

to the most diabolical heathen deities. God forbid that we should ever think thus of Jehovah, the just

and wise and good! 51

This concept of a definite atonement encouraged Spurgeon in his evangelism also. When Jesus used the word "many" he indicated a certainty in the efficacy of his death. But just as surely he meant "many"—not just a few, but "many." "Let us expect to see large numbers brought within the sacred enclosure," Spurgeon encouraged his congregation. Because the blood is shed for many, the masses must be compelled to come in. While a group of half a dozen converts gives us joy why should we not expect half a dozen thousand at once! "Cast the great net into the sea," Spurgeon challenged and to his young men he urged, "Preach the gospel in the streets of this crowded city, for it is meant for many."

And to personal workers he said, "You who go from door to door, do not think you can be too hopeful, since your Saviour's blood is shed for many, and Christ's 'many' is a very great many." No one shall ever trust Christ in vain or find the atonement insufficient for him. "O for a large hearted faith," he cried, "so that by holy effort we may lengthen our cords, and strengthen our stakes, expecting to see the household of our Lord become exceeding numerous." Isaiah 53, a crucial passage in Spurgeon's exposition of limited atonement, rivets fast the reality of "many." "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; by his righteousness shall he justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities." "Dwell on that word 'many'," Spurgeon argued in his recapitulation, "and let it nerve you for far-reaching labours." ⁵²

Summary

Spurgeon's gift of oratory was exclusively his and one would be foolish to feel either capable or obliged to duplicate it. Giving adequate expression in human language to the glory and importance of Christ's substitutionary death taxed, even far surpassed, the massive talent of Spurgeon. His intense passion for Christ jumps off the pages of his published sermons and must have been mesmerizing and overwhelming in the spoken form. Even in reading his sermons one can feel his intensity about Christ's passion. It swallowed Spurgeon up. He exhausted himself verbally, emotionally, and physically seeking to transfer the mental and spiritual power which emanated to him from the cross and energized his ministry.

The unity of biblical theology, the eternal covenant, depended on the cross for its cohesion. For Spurgeon, it permeated the entire corpus of divine revelation and provided a touchpoint where the eternal and ineffable divine self-knowledge intersected with human observation. Even if occasionally he took disjointed verbal cues to engage in applicatory allegory, his overall vision was true and infused every sermon with the sweep of canonical theology flowing from every part of the Bible. In the cross one has a historic tangible presentation of the eternal purposes of God in the eternal covenant. Predestination, election, effectual calling—these are hidden from our view and are mysterious in their operation. The cross, though its power, wisdom, and dimensions are mysterious and unsoundable, nevertheless gives a location where all the metaphysical aspects of redemption become immanent. It is there that we can say, "These things were not done in a corner."

An atonement of certain and particular efficacy, far from increasing the distress of Christians short on assurance, should encourage them. Prior to any benefit gained by examination of personal experience for assurance of salvation, one must explore the historical reality and salvific certainty embedded in the cross. The death of the Word incarnate and the purpose of God to save sinners by that death, so Spurgeon surmised, should be immense encouragement to any person whose distress comes from a true picture of the lethal nature of his sin.

Spurgeon would remonstrate endlessly and exhaust his creative and applicatory powers to show a downcast saint how firm and infallible his assurance might be once he grasps the reality that he who spared not his own Son will certainly give us all things.

Spurgeon proclaimed, and had palpable evidence for, the evangelistic power of definite atonement. His sermons surge and vibrate with the positive and optimistic application of the wondrous doctrine. Many who believed the doctrine

seemed to operate as if it should be kept a secret. A minister should be forbidden to give public display of it. Spurgeon in contrast obviously meditated strongly on that biblical truth and found it to be a power with saints and sinners alike. It arms the evangelist with certainty and every sinner with hope. God saves sinners and will not bring this world to a close until the efficacy of Messiah's death has been fully satisfied. Every "coming sinner" may find real hope in the certainty of Christ's absolute victory on the cross.

For Spurgeon, the cross was both spiritual power and motivation to sanctification. The Christian is the purchased possession of Christ and his determination is that they shall be a peculiar people filled with zeal for good works. He shed his blood for this purpose, and, as surely as he will bring his blood and righteousness to them, so will he work in them holiness. Because by the cross we are bought with a price and are no longer our own, we may be sure that God will be glorified in the bodies of his people. He will transform their minds, recreate them in true righteousness and holiness, and mortify their flesh just as surely as he has rescued them from its dominance. "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by

whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. 6:14).