Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-03-22

ton that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners" l Tim.
IL.
One day God found Himself face
to face with a tremendous problem
the world that He had created
had been stolen from Him; man who
had been created in His image had
rebolled against Him. How to get
them back was the problem. The
world was lost; it had gotten. away
from it's original state. Man had
asserted his independence Of God
and had reached the point of enmlty
against Cod God was not mad
with man, but man had REDEEMED
against God.
Another element in the problem
that Cad had to face was His own
character. He is a holy God and
lust GOD. God has other attributes.
but He does not act separately.
Whatever His love does, His justice
must approve; whatever His mercy
would dictate, His holiness and JUS
tice must not be offended at. He
had stated to man in forbidc1nS him
to eat of the tree of knowledge or
good and evil Gin the day thou eat
est thereof thou shalt surely die"
His law had been broken, the law
must be satisfied. His love might
prompt Him to overlook the offend
ers act of disobedience; but His
Holiness and justice and truth de-
lnanded that He keep His word.
Nothing less than death could sat
isfy the demands Of divine justice.
A third element entered into the
problem of saving lost world Man
had sinned, man must die. The
death of an animal could not satisfy
the demands of His divine justice;
ne death of an angel could not; l.
must be a man. But what man
couldP Certainly not any man who
had also sirned. One man who had
sirDed could not die for another
who had sinned. 1t must be man
who had never sinned. And that
man must be a man of new crea-
ticn. not one of an ordinary gem
GRAFTON; a man in whom there was
no sin.
Such q man was the Son of Man
whom Luke pcrtrays-all that hu-
manity stands for, as expressed by
His characterization Of Himself, and
vet far mere, God manifest in the
flesh. To solve His problem Goa
must take upon Himself the form OF
a man, upon whom the worlds SIN
NAV be laid, and who must bear me
Denalty of broken law-must dle.
Gods Justice would be outraged by
any less way.
luke tells us of the Goldman, the
Son of Man, who was born, grew
ND. was inaugurated, went about
touching human personalities on
every hand, and who gave up HIS
own life to satisfy the demands Oh
the broken law.
There is a superficial way of think
ing which reasons something IKE
this-God was angry at us because
of the broken law; but Christ loved
us so much that He gave His lie
for us, AMI made the Father forgive
us. This is absolutely wrong. IL
was God who $50 loved the world
that He gave God in Christ was
reconciling the world to Himself.
Tt was the Fathers love which sent
Him to the cross; it was the Fathers
holiness that made Him forsake
Him there. His death was abso:
lutely necessary; His example would
not have sutticed.
So God faced the problem and de-
vised a plan-God the Son would De
born of a virgin, and thus be new
creation; He would live a sinless life,
in the power of the Holy Spirit; He
would die, the just for the unjust,
the holy Jesus foc the unholy man
kind. And thus would Gods love,
holiness, justice, goodness, ana
truth be indicated.
The Sons Problem
The Son, however, had problem
peculiarly His own. While the Father
had devised an adequate plan, the
Sons problem was to make this plan
effective. The Son of Man came to
seek and to save that which was
lost. Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners-but he had
to find them first. Where are they?
What are they doing? How do they
think? How may we reach them?
How can we lift them? These were
questions That must be answered.
Jesus Christ answered them; He
solved that part of His problem by
living as a man, thinking mans
thoughts, being subjected to the
same temptations, suffering the
same pangs of hunger, of fatigue, of
want, of need of sympathy. He came
down and lived where we live and
as we live, that He might lift us
up.
The other problem was to save
to seek and to save. There was but
one way He could accomplish that,
and that way was by dying. AS a
man, sinless, He had to suffer the
penalty of sin so that the demands
of divine justice could be satisfied.
He came to die that we might live.
Mind you, the devil tried his best
to keep Jesus from dying on the
cross. He tried to kill Him as a
baby; he tried to drown Him; he
tried to deceive Him in the wilder
ness as he had done the woman in
the garden; he tried and nearly sue
ceeded in killing Him in Gethsemane.
He did not want Jesus to die on
the cross.
Therefore, on the cross, Jesus sat
isfied all the demands of divine JUS
tice and holiness thus blotting out
| all the handwriting that was against
us, saving us from all the guilt of
sins that are past. On the cross
Jesus broke the power of the devil.
He came that He might destroy the
works Of the devil and on Calvary
! this was done. The devil was whip
| ped then-but he will not admit it.
| And since He blotted out the
handwriting that was against us,
and overcame the devil on the cross,
at the same time and place He made