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

sunCIeul 10 auopC SUBSTITUTE, and so
Jesus took the legal place of the sin
ner, without, in fact, taking the sim
ners character. [ reply, such an ar
rangement would be the enacting of
falsehood, Jesus Christ could not
legally take a sinners place, unless he
became sinner. To say, he became a
sinner in the eye Of the lar for legal
purposes, is sheer nonsense. He could
not become sinner in the eye of the
law unless he actually sinned.
In the fourth place-all scripture is
against the notion that Jesus was pun
iShed in the sinners stead. Take that
famous and classic passage in Isaiah,
which is most relied on by the adyo-
Gates of this theory-''He was wound
ed sfor our transgressions he was
bruised for our iniquities the chas-
tiSement Of our peace was upon him /;
with his stripes we are healed; God
hath laid on him the iniquities OF US
all" Q words ofloye !! What pathos;
what yearning sorrow; what ten der
ness, what he'll full IS is in h m We
look upon them, as interpreted by the
history Of Jesus and his work here, and
they are the natural outbnrst of a
grateful soul, in the strong. fgu rative,
poetic, language of the feeling By
the very nature Of love, Christ could
not but endure what he did, being engag-
ed to serve men and save them from the r
sins. Not truly loving soul in the
world, but has felt in his own exper-
fence, to his degree, the sorrow of Je-
sus. The man or woman who is not,
according to his or her appreciation of
it, wounded and bruised and sorrowful
by reason of the sin of the world, has
not yet learned what be the first prin-
ciples of the doctrine of Christ
What was loves natural inevitable
pain, by reason Of the woes of the
world, the penalty against sin? And
did not Jesus after all enjoy his work :?
was there not about him during all his
trial and work and pain and sorrow
perfect peace, a divine joy? Is such
an experience, punishment for sin?
Indeed the whole suffering of Jesus IS
but the revelation of God, and shows
US how his love suffers all the time.
by reason of the sins of the world
The Bible will never be understood.
until mere schoolmen let it alone, and
! locing hearts in the breasts of school
men begin its Interpretation. There is
much in the Bible can never be inter
! preted by logic. 1t can only be known
I by love. When love reads the Bible,
it will find no petifogging court, talk
/ ing of legalities and techaHties, and no
frowning God furnishing his holy son,
in the stead of sinners "God SO loved
the world he gaze his son''-not pun
lSAed him.
f. What then did Jesus come for
Those who have listened carefully will
know what [ shall now say, by the
hints that have fallen out thus far
Repeating my text; she came to save
sinners. He come to save them from
their sins that is, to bring them to
penitence, and loving obedience, and
righteousness and so, into li,tfe.
How? BY revealing truth and love
and power; and winning the ear, the
thought, the confidence, the love of
men. Did he not then come to die for
men? No; and yes; If you mean
was dying tie thing he same for, then
no; 1t is foolish to talk, as so many
do, as if the death of Jesus was the
one thing that procures our salvation
from sin. The coming and birth and
teaching and healing and all that goes
to make the life of Jesus is the main
thing. His death we're nothing, but
for his life, which lay back of it, with
its wondrous misistries and revelations
His death was a sublime testimony to
his life and his resurrection and as
cension, lifts it into absolute proof of
the truth of that life, and so we Law
hold of the death as the one fact about
which to gather the whole history j;
but the death was murder and no more
approved of God than any other MUIR
der, and it certainly ought not to be
approved by anyone else He did not
come to die therefore except in the
same sense that Paul went to Jerusa-
lem to be bound and abused, and to
Lystra to be stoned, and to Rome to be
Killed. Aut if you mean did he come,