rselves whether these
representations of Christian truth adhere to the perspective of
Scripture, which do not in like manner set forth in the foreground of
the whole the atoning death of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Then note, further, that this death, the fountain of life, is a death
for us. Now I know, of course, that the language here does not
necessarily involve the idea of one dying instead of, but only of one
dying on behalf of, another. But then I come to this question, In what
conceivable sense, except the sense of bearing the world's sins, and,
therefore, mine, is the death of Jesus Christ of advantage to me? Take
the Scripture narratives. He died by the condemnation of the Jewish
courts as a blasphemer; by the condemnation of the supercilious Roman
court--cowardly in the midst of its superciliousness--as a possible
rebel, though the sentencer did not believe in the reality of the
charges. I want to know what good that is to me? He died, say some
people, as the victim of a clearer insight and a more loving heart than
the men around Him could understand. What advantage is that to me?

Oh, brethren! there is no meaning in the words 'He died for us' unless
we understand that the benefit of His death lies in the fact that it was
the sacrifice and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world; and
that, therefore, He died for us.

But then remember, too, that in this expression is set forth, not only
the objective fact of Christ's death for us, but much in reference to
the subjective emotions and purposes of Him who died. Paul was writing
to these Thessalonians, of whom none, I suppose, except possibly a few
Jews who might be amongst them, had ever seen Jesus Christ in the flesh,
or known anything about Him. And yet he says to them, 'Away across the
ocean there, Jesus Christ died for you men, not one of whom had ever
appealed to His heart through His eyes.'

The principle involved is capable of the widest possible expansion. When
Christ went to the Cross there was in His heart, in His purposes, in His
desires, a separate place for every soul of man whom He embraced, not
with the dim vision of some philanthropist, who looks upon the masses of
unborn generations as possibly beneficially affected by some of his
far-reaching plans, but with the individualising and separating
knowledge of a divine eye, and the love of a divine heart. Jesus Christ
bore the sins of the world because He bore in His sympathies and His
purposes