B.–I begin to see a harmony and beauty connected with the introduction of evil which I had not suspected. May we not reasonably say that God could not have displayed those qualities of his nature so attractive to us–mercy and pity–nor could his great love have been made so apparent had not the occasion for their exercise been presented by man’s necessities?

A.—I am glad that you have suggested this thought. It is true, that though “the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy,” yet neither of these would have been seen had there not been a sinner requiring them; and while “God is love,” and always has been the same, yet it is true that “in this was manifested the love of God, and hereby perceive we the love of God, because he (Christ) laid down his life for us.”

And do you not see that in the arrangement of the whole plan the wisdom of God is beautifully shown? Let me say further, that as we proceed, we shall find God’s justice made to shine because of the introduction of evil. God might have told his creatures of these attributes, but never could have exhibited them had not sin furnished an occasion for their exhibition.

B.—I am becoming anxious to see the outcome. You have suggested that Christ is the remedy for man’s recovery from the effects of the fall, and that it was so arranged and purposed by God before creating the race, but you have not shown how the recovery is affected.

A.—I am glad that you have not lost sight of the real object of our conversation. The answer to this question will involve the consideration of two points:–First, What was the penalty pronounced and inflicted? And, Second, What was the remedy, and how applied?

May I ask you to state in Scripture language what penalty God pronounced on Adam’s sin?

B.—I believe it reads, “In the day thou eats thereof, thou shalt surely die.” But he did not die for nine hundred and thirty years.

A.–You quote correctly. The marginal reading will help you over the difficulty of his living nine hundred and thirty years. It is a more literal rendering of the Hebrew text: “In the day thou eats thereof, dying thou shalt die,”–i.e., from the moment he should disobey God, death would have dominion over him— would have a claim and right to him, and would begin its work. It was only a question of time how soon it should lay him low. Elements of disease infested all nature with which he came in contact, since separated from Eden and its trees of life. We all are in a dying condition, partially dead; mentally, morally, and physically. From the moment of birth, and before it, we have been in the clutches of death, and he never lets go until he has conquered.

Man, by means of medical aid, attempts resistance; but, at best, it is but a very brief struggle. Adam, because physically perfect, could offer great resistance. Death did not completely conquer him for nine hundred and thirty years, while the race at the present time, through the accumulated ills handed down through generations past, yields to his power on average in less than a hundred years.

C.—We are, then, so to speak, overshadowed by death from the cradle to the tomb, the shade increasing each moment until it is blackness complete.

A.–Yes; you get the thought, even as David expresses it in the twenty-third Psalm: “I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” The further we go down into this valley the darker it becomes, until the last spark of life expires.

B.—I understand you to believe that diseases of the various kinds are but the mouths of death by which we are devoured, since we were placed within his reach by Adam’s sin?

A.—Yes; every pain and ache we feel is evidence NOT that death will get hold of us, but that he has us in his grasp EVEN NOW. Adam and his entire race have been in death ever since he disobeyed.

C.—We frequently speak of death as the “Angel God has sent,” “the gate to endless joy,” etc., and yet I confess I could never regard it except as an enemy, and such it would really seem to be.

A.—Nowhere in Scripture is it represented as our friend, but always as an enemy of man, and consequently the enemy of God, who loves man; and we are told that “for this purpose Christ was manifest, that he might destroy death and him that hath the power of death,–that is, the devil.”

B.—If death is the penalty for sin, has not mankind paid that penalty in full when dead? Might he not be released from death the moment after dying, yet fully meet the demand of justice?

A.–“The wages of sin is death,”–not dying, but “death” — FOREVER.

As well say we might say that a man condemned to imprisonment for life, had received the full penalty in the act of going into prison, as that man received his penalty in the act of going into death.

It was not the penalty merely to go to prison, no the penalty was to stay there for life. Thus too it is not merely the process of going to death (the dying process), but death itself, forever.

By disobedience man fell into the hands of Justice, and, though God is merciful and loving, there can be no warfare between his attributes. Mercy and love must be exercised in harmony with justice. “God is just,” and “will by no means clear the guilty.”

Man was guilty, and must therefore be dealt with by justice. Justice cries, your life is forfeited, “dying thou shalt die.” Man is cast into the great prison-house of death, and Justice, while locking him in, says: “You shall not by any means come out of this prison until you have fully paid the price.”

B.—Do I express the same idea by saying that man forfeited his right to life by his disobedience, and, consequently, God, in justice, recognizing and enforcing his own law, could not permit him to live again unless he could meet the claims of justice?

A.–The idea is the same. Man is the debtor, and unless he can pay the debt he cannot come out of the prison-house of death– cannot have life. He cannot pay this debt, and consequently cannot release himself. But man’s weakness and helplessness gives occasion for the display of God’s mercy and love in Christ Jesus, for “When there was no eye to pity, and no arm to save,” God devised a way by which he could be both JUST and MERCIFUL; and so, “while we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”

C.—How for them? His death does not prevent men from dying.

A.—It does not prevent their dying, but it does prevent their continuance in the prison-house of death. He came to “open the prison doors and set at liberty the captives.”

This he does, NOT BY OPPOSING GOD’S JUSTICE, but by recognizing it, and paying that which is due. He has a right to set those prisoners free. In his own death–the just for the unjust–he ransomed us, as it is written, “I will RANSOM (purchase) them from the power of the grave;” “I will REDEEM them from death;” “for ye were BOUGHT with a price, even the precious blood (life) of Christ.”

C.–I understand you to mean, that as Jesus came into the world by a special creative act of God, he was free from the curse which rested upon the balance of the race, therefore not liable to death. As the second Adam he was tried, but came off conqueror. “He was obedient even unto death;” but his right to life not having been forfeited, either through Adam’s sin or his own, death had no claim upon it. He, therefore, had an un-forfeited life to offer Justice as a ransom for the forfeited life of mankind.

A.–Yes, as he himself said, “My flesh I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:51) He must have a right to continuance of life; else he could not give it. He did not conquer nor overthrow Justice, but recognizing the justice of the law of God in the forfeit of the sinner’s life, he purchased it back with his own, and thereby obtained the right to “destroy death,”—the enemy who for a time is used as the servant of Justice.

B.–Then Justice accepted the life of Christ as a substitute for the sinner’s life. But it seems unjust to make the innocent suffer for the guilty.

A.—It would be unjust to make or compel such suffering, but “Christ gave himself for us.” “He for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.”

C. But how could the life of one purchase the life of many?

We shall see in our next post.