Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1874-07-02


of Christ as made of God unto us wis
dom, righteousness, etc. The Prophet
declares that in the Lord he has right
eousness and strength. And We sing
with the ancient saints ts--the Lord our
righteousness. But there is not word
in all this, or in any other scripture
that recollect, which speaks of pay
ing our debts by a surplus stock Of
righteousness, whick Jesus came here
to secure-not a word. He becomes
our righteousness, ;. in the sense of
bringing us to BE- SrighteOus-He is
made wisdom and righteousness unto
US, in the sense that he brings as to be
wise and righteous by means of his
wisdom and righteousness, manifested
to us. 1t is true too that God counts
our faith in Jesus, for righteousness,
that is. as in the place OF righteous
ness which is by the law, which we
should have had, had We never sinned,
but which now is out of the question !;
which means simply that though We
have not that righteousness which con-
sists in perfect record Ga record only
of payments-no debts-no sins) yet,
having faith in Jesus, God sees in that,
the guarantee of penitence and return
to obedience and love, on our part, and
so accepts US graciously, as If we had
the aforesaid Righteousness. His ac-
ceptance, however, is not constrained
one, our accounts having been squared
by some ones else Righteousness, but a
gracious free pardon Of the debts, in
view of that faith which guarantees a
righteousness in US as its result, such
as shall make us meet for the inheri-
tance of the saints. There is nothing
like paying our debts in all this. In
deed Jesus expressly teaches US against
this notion, by bidding us to pray for
giue rs our debts which would be a
very senseIess thing to do, if there
were no debts but there ore no debts,
if SO be they are paid. But we might
be sure, before looking, that the Bible
would not support such notion, for
our debts cannot be paid, Ill the very
nature of the case. To pay our moral
debts is to fulfil ratl our unfulGlled
moral obligations-to do "a fact what
ever ace ought to have done but failed
to do. This is impossible in the nature
of things. So long as it remains true
that when ne ought to have done a
thing oce did not do it, so long will an
obligation remain unmet. and since no
being or power can change that fact,
the obligation must remain unmet for
ever.
The debt may be forgicen but never
paid. Besides; it is nonsense to talk
of the work of Jesus, as being an effort
to gain stock of merit which might
be used with the government of God
to balance our account. Christ can no
more gain such stock than any one
else. He cannot do more than he
ought to in the line of duty. To say
that Jesus did more than he ought to,
is to say that he did eorong-how could
that wrong doing be reckoned as sur
plus merit Christ was and is under
the same eternal obligation to do his
utmost for the salvation and welfare of
the world, that any Of US are, and
when he has done his utmost, he has
only done what he ought to do he
has simply fulfilled his own obligations.
We all understand, Of course, that Je-
sus did not do what he did because 1t
aoas his duty. He did it because he
loued men. But it was his duty SO to
love them and had he not so loved
them and so done he would have been
guilty of moral failure, as truly as we
are who fail to love men and to do our
utmost for them. A provision for
paying debts was surely not the end of
Christ's mission.
.. According to others, the thing to
be done in saving sinners, was to pro-
vide an Offering or sacrifice, to be offer
ed to God, somewhat after the Jewish
or Mosaic idea, and for the purpose OF
propitiating God-Of bringing him to
feel like forgiving sinners.
According to this theory Jesus was
to be slain and offered unto God, and
this Staying and offering were the
chief thing, the main purpose, in the
mission of Jesus to the world. But
the objections to this view are insuper-
able. In the first place; it appears
from the history given in the gospels,