The Doctrine of Christ
LESSON TWENTY-FOUR Reconciliation Through Christ
1. Man is reconciled to God through Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:18. (To us it would seem that something needed to be done to reconcile God to man; but the sacrifice of Christ was not to appease God, but to win man. John 12:32.) TDOC 64.3
2. This reconciliation was accomplished through the manifestation of God in the flesh. Hebrews 2:17; 2 Corinthians 5:19; Colossians 1:21, 22, A. R. V. TDOC 64.4
3. This reconciliation extends to things in the heavens as well as upon the earth. Colossians 1:19, 20. (Compare verse 16.) TDOC 64.5
4. This reconciliation is due to the death of Christ. Romans 15:8-10; Ephesians 2:16. TDOC 65.1
5. Christ thus became the propitiation for all sin. 1 John 4:10; 2:2. TDOC 65.2
NOTES: The provision for reconciliation
“Christianity would never have supplied the spiritual wants of the world had it made no provision for the fundamental need of reconciliation. This provision was made in the incarnation.” TDOC 65.3
The all-sufficient sacrifice for sin
“The one thing that makes us ground our rebellious arms and say, Lord, I surrender, thou hast conquered, is to see in Christ’s life the perfect image of God, and in his death the all-sufficient sacrifice for sin.” TDOC 65.4
The corn of wheat
“He came to do the Father’s will, through death to lift man to the place of the Son oven in the Father’s bosom. So the corn of wheat tell into the ground and abode not alone, and has sprung up to bear much fruit.” TDOC 65.5
The sentence of death upon sin
“The atonement makes for righteousness to all who receive it. There can be no white-washing done at Calvary. The man who accepts pardon on the ground of Christ’s atonement cannot willfully continue in sin that grace may abound. The death by which his pardon is sealed becomes a sentence of death in his own heart upon all his own sin. The impenitent or insincere cannot, find forgiveness at the cross.” TDOC 65.6
Removing, the barrier
“It. must be carefully borne in mind that, throughout the apostolic writings, Jesus Christ is set forth as a Redeemer, making reconciliation, bringing about a reunion between God and man. His death, consummating a life of sinless obedience to the divine will, is represented as removing the barrier that separated man from God.” TDOC 65.7
A unique death
“The one and only adequate explanation of the death of Jesus Christ in the prime of life, when he might have continued to exercise a powerful and marvelous influence over all the land of Palestine, is that it was a sacrifice. And this is the account given to us in the Gospels. It was the death of one who was consciously innocent of one whose lifework has been completed, of one who had come into this world for the very purpose of dying, of one whose death was foreseen, foretold, provided for. It is thus exceptional and unique, and this is clearly the impression of those who wrote the Gospels, and the impression of every one who reads those Gospels honestly, fairly, and as a whole.” TDOC 65.8
A continuous work
“The efficiency of Christ’s redeeming work is perpetual. So long as sin and trespass and death continue in Adam’s posterity, so long the Christly redeeming grace continuously avails to counteract the evil, and is not therefore to be conceived as a finished work. Because of Adam’s trespass, sin abounds and death reigns; because of Christ’s redemptive mediation, grace abounds more exceedingly and reigns through righteousness unto eternal life.” TDOC 66.1
Three things
“To understand fully the atonement were to understand these three things and their ultimate relation to each other-the greatest thing n God, which is his love; the strongest thing in the universe, which is law; and the darkest thing in man, which is sin.” TDOC 66.2
An eternal salvation
“The complete redemption is, accordingly, not only a remission of sins through the mediating death of Jesus, but a continuous and eternal salvation, in which the believer, being reconciled to God, lives the new life of ‘righteousness by faith, and realizes that there is no enmity in his heart toward God, but a glorious state of reconciliation.” TDOC 66.3
A universal sacrifice
“The sacrificial death of Jesus Christ transformed the relations of God to mankind, and of Israel to the Gentiles. In him God reconciled not a nation, but a world to himself. 2 Corinthians 5:19. The death of the Son of man could not have reference to the sons of Abraham alone. If sin is universal and death is not a Jewish but a human experience, and if one blood flows in the veins of all our race, then the death of Jesus Christ was a universal sacrifice; it appeals to every man’s conscience and heart, and puts away for each the guilt which comes between his soul and God.” TDOC 66.4