In entering upon the second section of these studies it is necessary that the members of the class should have a fair understanding of the subjects presented in Section One. Otherwise the execution of God’s wonderful plan for the redemption of the human race will fail to be appreciated in its completeness.
The teacher should emphasize the fact that this Plan of Redemption is the manifestation of the suffering holy love of the Triune God and that this suffering antedated the historical manifestation at Calvary. Says Dr. Mabie in The Divine Reason of the Cross,
In a deep sense God “tasted death” upon the Cross-there was a Cross in heaven ere it was set up on Calvary; a sword pierced the heart of the Heavenly Father, long before it entered the heart of Mary, Jesus’ earthly mother. This pre- mundane anguish in God was the very fount and source of the entire sacrificial life of Christ, as well as a part of it. “God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son.”
This view of the suffering Trinity renders impossible the acceptance of the erroneous teaching that God in His holiness is kept from destroying the sinner only through the atoning work of the Son. Dr. Mabie continues,
Has it been anything short of a calamity to the evangelical system that God the Father has often been shown as a distinct impassable abstract majesty, and that the Son has been set over against Him to protect the sinner from Him? Has not this conception destroyed the real Fatherhood altogether and made God to appear as chiefly concerned to preserve His abstract passionless honor, with Christ enduring all the pain of upholding this standard while man gets the benefit of it?
Let the following passages now be read to prove the foregoing statements: 2 Corinthians 5:19; 1 Timothy 3:16; Acts 20:28, last phrase. Notice the expression “which He (God) hath purchased with His own blood”-a statement proving the Deity of Jesus Christ as well as the unity of the Triune God. We are now able to better understand those passages that speak of “the Lamb foreordained before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet. 1:18-20; Rev. 13:8). Truly, “the atonement in principle and in God is dateless, but as taking effect on man it is historical though dateless” (Dr. Mabie).
We shall now examine this historical event in detail. It is interesting to note that the Old Testament Scriptures foreshadow and foretell not only the fact of a Redeeming Achievement but also the very manner in which this is to be accomplished. The sacrificial element runs through its pages like a scarlet thread. It is first seen in Genesis 3:21. Have the class read this verse thoughtfully. What were these “skins” with which the Lord God clothed the sinful pair? Call attention to Genesis 4:2, 4 as furnishing a clue. Is it not reasonable to believe that the Lord God instructed Adam to kill a lamb to provide the necessary covering? Is it not a logical inference, considering the fact that throughout the entire Bible we see the lamb associated with the sacrificial offering for sin? We have every reason to believe that the Lord God instructed Adam to take a lamb-perhaps a choice lamb-the one upon which he had lavished the most tender care; his in a peculiar sense-and with his own hands plunge the sharp flint into the body of the innocent, trusting animal that had done nothing worthy of death. Can we imagine the emotions of the man as the life blood flowed forth? Then, as he proceeds to fashion from its skin the covering necessitated by his sin, does he need to be told the meaning of this sacrificial death? May we not believe that he knew in the depths of his being that the life which had been sacrificed for his sin was a type-a figure of a more precious life that should be sacrificed not only to cover the results of his sin, but which should effectually deal with it?
Is it not altogether probable that the promised “seed of the woman” was now associated with the slain lamb in the mind of Adam? Did he not now understand the “crushing of the heel” to mean sacrifice upon the part of the Promised One, and the crushing of the “head” of the serpent a victorious consummation which the “seed of the woman” should realize? And as he clothed himself with the covering of the slain lamb, did he not thereby perceive that he might become identified with the Promised One, in His sacrificial work and His complete victory over sin and Satan? We do not know how much of God’s Plan of Redemption was perceived by Adam and Eve, but we do know that through the illumination of God the Holy Spirit, they understood enough to put faith in God’s Slain Lamb.
From this time the thought of sacrifice for sin finds lodgment in the human mind: thus we see Abel bringing his lamb for a sacrificial offering as instructed by God; and later we read of the Passover Lamb in connection with the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and we note the commemoration and continuance of this Paschal Offering in the tabernacle in the Wilderness and still later in the temple at Jerusalem. Indeed, throughout the Bible from Genesis to the Revelation, we find the Slain Lamb in symbol or in substance.
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