answer is, "That He, all the time of His life which He led on earth, but especially at the end thereof,
1. The Heidelberg Catechism (used in the Scotch Church, along with Calvin's, till superseded by the
Westminster) asks, "What profit takest thou by Christ's holy conception and nativity?" and answers,
"That He is our Mediator, and doth cover my sins with His innocencv and perfect holiness, in which I
was conceived, that they may not come into the sight of God."
2. "These ceremonial observances were so many confessions of sin. Christ, then, who was made sin
for us, conformed to these" (Ames, Medulla Theologica, B. 1. ch. 21). "Hereby (by circumcision) He
was represented to the world not only as a subject, but also as a sinner. For though He was pure and
holy, yet this ordinance passing upon Him seemed to imply as if corruption had indeed been in Him,
which must be cut off by mortification....Thus was He represented as a sinner to the world, though
most holy and pure in Himself" (Flavel, Fountain of Life-Sermon 19). "He was circumcised, and kept
the law to deliver us from the condemnation of it....Therefore we must seek our righteousness, not in
the law, but in Christ, who hath fulfilled the same, and given us freely His fulfilling" (Latimer on
Matt 2:1,2).
3. The old hymns have not lost sight of those truths. As specimens, I give the following: - "Stillat
excisos pueri per artus -- Eficacious blood drops fromEfficax noxas abolere sanguis; -- The pierced
limbs of the boyObligat morti pretiosa totum -- To abolish punishments;Stilla cruorem." -- A
precious drop requires the whole bloodshed to death.Again: "Vix natus, ecce lacteum -- Behold the
infant, scarcely born,Profundit Infans sanguinem, -- Sheds the milk blood,Libamen est hoc funeris --
A sample of death,Amoris hoc praeludium." -- A prelude of love.And again: "Dixit; et Patris
veneratus iram -- He spoke; and having respectedSustinet vulnus silicis cruentae; -- The wrath of the
Father endures the wound of the bloody rock;Et jugum legis subit ipse, servis -- And he himself
submits to the yoke of the lawUt juga demat." -- In order to take away the yokes for his servants. --
Editor Little as these hymns contain of the finished work of the substitution, occasionally the great
truth breaks
4. The evangelist here translates directly from the Hebrew, and differs from the Septuagint.
5. The Heidelberg Catechism asks, "What believest thou when thou sayest, He suffered?" and the
answer is, "That He, all the time of His life which He led on earth, but especially at the end thereof,
sustained the wrath of God, both in body and soul, against the sin of mankind, that He might by His
passion, as the only propitiatory sacrifice, deliver our body and soul from everlasting damnation, and
purchase unto us the favour of God, righteousness, and everlasting life."
6. The old catechetical exposition of the Heidelberg Catechism brings out this fully: "The Godhead
hath so strengthened the human nature, and upheld it, that it could bear the weight of the wrath of
God against sin. It hath also given such dignity to the short sufferings of the human nature, that it