tion is the _only way_ of salvation when justice and
love are both considered. It was God's justice that made it necessary
for Christ to die for our sins. "Even so _must_ the Son of man be
lifted up,"--John 3:14;--"that he might himself be _just_ and the
_justifier_ of him that hath faith in Jesus."--Rom. 3:26. And it was
God's love that let Him die for our sins, "for God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son."--John 3:16. What you, reader,
ought to desire to know, is simply God's way. The Scriptures at the
beginning of the chapter, if language can make anything plain, show
clearly that the sinner's only escape from the just punishment of his
sins lies in Jesus dying in his place to set him free from the just
penalty due his sins; and they make it plain that this settles the
_full_ penalty for _all sins_.

But the objection is raised and pressed with all the force of human
ingenuity and scholarship, backed by the prestige of some occupying
the highest positions in literary and theological institutions, that
it is morally wrong for the innocent to suffer the penalty of the
guilty. With a zeal deserving a better cause, many who stand high as
professed Christians and teachers join hands with the rankest, most
blatant infidels, and press this, to them, unanswerable objection to
Christ dying for our sins as our substitute. This friendship between
infidelity and professed Christian teachers reminds one of another
occasion when our Saviour was set at naught and two became friends
with each other that very day (Luke 23:11, 12). Let us face this
objection honestly and earnestly, for our eternal destiny turns on
this one point. _Is it morally wrong for the innocent to bear the sins
of the guilty?_ In the first place it is _not_ morally wrong, because
God would not do morally wrong, and God _did_ let the innocent suffer
the penalty of the guilty. The language of Scripture teaching that
Jesus suffered the penalty of our sins for us is plain and simple, and
all efforts to take from the Scripture language its simple, plain,
natural meaning are pitiable, and if contempt were ever justifiable,
would deserve the contempt of all honest men. Let the reader turn back
and read the Scriptures at the head of this chapter and decide for
himself as to their obvious, intended meaning.

Now, because God's word tells us plainly that God gave His only
begotten Son, that He might be just, and thus the justifier of him who
believes