The Spiritual and Moral Power of the Atonement.

In Dr. Norman Macleod's diary for December 1848, there is an interesting confession. Among other things he says, "I have had inadequate views of Christ's cross. I saw a work done for me, a ground for pardon, an objective reality; but I did not see so clearly the eternal necessity of the cross in me, of sharing Christ's life as mine, of glorying in the cross as reflected in the inward power it gives, to be crucified to the world and the world to me." Every believer knows the power of the death of Christ as an objective reality, procuring pardon and justification; but it is not every child of God who has recognized that the death of Christ is to be a subjective reality in the heart and life, as Dr. Macleod indicates in his confession.
A number of believers were once conferring as to the best method to mortify sin. There were five ways propounded. One said, to meditate on death; the second, to think of the judgment; the third, to ponder the torments of hell; the fourth, to muse on the glories of heaven; and the fifth, to meditate on the death of Christ. Calvary is the place where the graces of the Spirit grow, where love is kindled, where consecration lives, where compassion for the lost is gained, where the world is robbed of its attractions, where sin is crushed, where zeal burns with impassioned flame, where hell is defeated, and where holiness has its birth and growth.
The editor of the British Weekly, in contrasting the effect of Law and Grace, says:
"Mount Sinai is not a place to stay at if you seek sanctification. It works wrath. It does not quicken. It does not give an inspiration which makes righteousness possible to sinful men. To get this, we must pass on to Mount Calvary. There we find ourselves in the presence of the one Power which can actually bring the dominion of sin to an end and safeguard the interests of morality. To live there is to live under grace, not under law; and this, as St. Paul knew, by tragic and triumphant experience, is the only way to holiness. At Sinai, God is against us; the law is outside of us, bears down upon us, oppresses us; does not reconcile, cleanse, or renew the heart. But at Calvary, God is on our side. In His Son, He takes our curse upon Himself that He may bless us and dies that we may live. It is the power which dwells in the atonement which sanctifies; nothing legal, nothing statutory, whether we call it ceremonial or moral, has anything whatever to do with it. He was crucified through weakness, but out of that weakness has come the one great spiritual force in history, the force which safeguards morality in the only possible way—the way the law could not attain to—namely, by producing it. This is the force which has made saints, and makes them, which cleanses foul hearts, makes hard hearts tender, selfish hearts generous, despairing hearts triumphant. This is the force in which Paul gloried as the redeeming omnipotence of God, for every man who opened his heart to it."
There are two points that we shall ponder, namely, the destructive and constructive power of Christ's death.
I. Christ's Death: Destructive of Sin.
The Holy Spirit in the Epistle to the Church at Rome says, in speaking of the death of Christ, "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Rom. 6: 6). The one specific effect of Christ's death which is mentioned is that the body of sin is destroyed. Sin is viewed as the master who once used the body through which to accomplish his own purpose, but the cross of Christ has severed the connection, so that now sin has got no body to claim.
The pivot to the whole passage is found in the meaning of the word destroy. The word is variously rendered in the New Testament. In Rom. 7: 2, it is loosed; in Rom. 7: 6, delivered; in 1 Cor. 1: 28; 2: 6, bring to nought; 1 Cor. 13: 8, shall fail; in 1 Cor. 13: 11, put away; l Cor. 15: 24, put down; 2 Cor. 3: 7, 11, 14, done away; Gal. 3: 17, none effect; and in Gal. 5: 11, ceased. Let us take the usage of the word to illustrate a few points.
l. The death of Christ destroys the old connection with sin.
We are told in Rom. 7: 2 that a woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he is alive; but when he is dead, she is loosed from the tie which held her to him. As death releases a woman from her husband, so the believer's death in the death of Christ, loosed him from the connection he had with sin. Principal Handley Moule says:
"He on the cross, our Head and Sacrifice, so dealt with our fallen state for us, that the body of sin, this our body viewed as sin's stronghold, medium, vehicle, might be cancelled, might be in abeyance, put down, disposed, so as to be no more the fatal door to admit temptation of a powerless foe within."
The children of Israel were not only protected in Egypt from the wrath of Jehovah by the blood of the paschal lamb, but they were delivered from the power of Egypt by Jehovah's power; and further, when Egypt would assert its authority over Israel again, He caused the Red Sea to overthrow their enemies. In like manner it is, when we see the Red Sea of Christ's death for us, and our death with Him, and enter by faith into His triumph, that we know experimentally what deliverance from sin's drudgery is. and we can sing, "The Lord hath triumphed gloriously."
2. The death of Christ destroys the influence of sin.
In speaking of prophecies, Paul by the Holy Spirit says, "They shall fail" (1 Cor. 13: 8), Prophecies will fail from the simple reason that they will be fulfilled. And as prophecies will fail, so sin fails to have any power over us as long as we keep in the atmosphere of the death of Christ, for "he that abideth in him sinneth not." The atmosphere by which our earth is surrounded is not only essential to life, but it is also protective. In the dark nights of winter, we have often seen what we call shooting stars. These shooting stars are small bodies of various sizes, which are dissipated as they come in contact with the earth's atmosphere. Sir Robert Ball says of them:
"In the course of its wanderings, the shooting star comes near the earth, and within a few hundred miles of its surface, begins to encounter the upper surface of the atmosphere with which the earth is enclosed. To a body moving with the appalling velocity of a meteor, a plunge into the atmosphere is usually fatal. Even though the upper layers of the air are excessively attenuated yet they suddenly check the velocity, almost as a rifle bullet would be checked when fired into water. As the meteor rushes through the atmosphere, the friction of the air warms its surface; gradually it becomes red hot, then white hot, and is finally driven off in vapor with a brilliant light, while we on the earth, one or two hundred miles away, exclaim, 'Oh look! there is a shooting star.' "
As the atmosphere thus preserves the inhabitants of the earth from the meteors which might injure them, so Christ keeps the believer, as he abides in the atmosphere of His death, from the contamination of sin, from the seductions of the world, and from the snares of the wicked one.
3. The death of Christ destroys the desire to sin.
Paul says, "When I became a man, I put away childish things" (1 Cor. 13: 11). The words, "put away," are the same as are rendered destroyed in Rom. 6: 6. The following incident will best illustrate how Christ takes away the desire to sin.
An officer in the army, who was noted for his fast life and worldliness, was brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus as his Redeemer. A lady friend twitted him, remarking, "Now, don't you desire to have some of your old pleasures? For instance, you were always fond of hunting. Would you not like to have a good run with the hounds?"
He replied: "When I was a boy, I was very fond of playing with marbles; but when I grew older, I became fond of horses; then I had no desire for the marbles. When I became a Christian, a new power took possession of me, which has taken away all desire for the world. You can work it out for yourself."
The lady did work it out, for the conversation led to her conversion. She saw there was something more in the Gospel, as exemplified in the testimony and life of the Christian officer, than a mere outward profession. Where was the power born that gave him what Chalmers calls the expulsive power of a new affection? It was in the death of Christ, as the late Dean Vaughan says, in speaking of Paul, "Paul found in the cross of Christ, a motive, and in the Spirit of Christ, a power to make him holy."
The question naturally comes up, How can we make the death of Christ a living practical reality in our lives? The answer is given to us by the Lord Himself, "Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God." Let us pray that the thorn-crowned brow of the Lord Jesus may make us die to the carnal mind of self-will. Let us ask that the nails of Christ's crucifixion may pierce the hands of self-action; let us plead that the feet of waywardness may be fixed to the cross of Christ's agony; let us supplicate the throne of grace, that the heart of unbelief may be pierced with the spear of Christ's death; let us implore the Lord that the eyes of our spiritual being may be closed to the attractions of the world; let us trust the Lord that our lips may be silent in the death of Jesus, so that no unkind, unclean, and unholy thing may pass them; and let us be content to be as a crucified thing to the world, so that it shall not want our company; and let the world be to us as a crucified thing, so that it shall have no attractions to us.
4. The Death of Christ: a Constructive Power.
The death of Christ is not only a separative influence, but a positive power in the life. The late Dr. Dale, in Christian Doctrine, says:
"Devout men have discovered, that in some wonderful way, the death of Christ has given them the power to die to sin, just as they have discovered that in His life, they have the power to love God and live righteously. They have learnt that the destruction of evil within us, is the effect and fulfillment in ourselves of the mystery of Christ's death, as the development of our positive holiness is the manifestation of the power of His life."
May we not even go farther and say that the death of Christ exhibits three great things, namely, great humility, great love, and great glory.
(1) Great Humility.
Christ becoming man and enduring the death of the cross, laid aside His resplendent glory, His surpassed riches. and the outward exhibition of His Godhead. He was in the form of God, but took the form of a slave. He humbled Himself to the death of the cross. What is the practical deduction that the Holy Spirit draws from this? That the same mind which was in Christ, should be in us. As we watch the Saviour as He is led away and crucified for us, in lowly garb and self-abandonment; does it not make us pray with Christina Rossetti:

"Give me the lowest place; not that I dare
Ask for the lowest place, but Thou hast died
That I might live and share
The glory by Thy side.

"Give me the lowest place; or if for me
That lowest place too high, make one more low
Where I might sit and see
My God, and love Thee so."

(2) Great Love.
As the Scottish clans in olden times caused the fiery cross of flame to flash out from the darkness of night from their mountain peaks, so the cross of Christ in its flame of wonderful love, flashes out from the mount of Calvary, proclaiming the love of Jesus for men. And that flame of love, which was kindled at the cross, has ignited many hearts to love as Christ loved, for love for men has its birth at the cross of Christ's love for us, as the Holy Spirit says: "Because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John. 3: 16). Our love for Christ, as manifested in love for those who are Christ's, is well expressed in the following lines from Francis Xavier:

"Jesus, I love Thee, not because I hope for heaven thereby,
Nor yet because, if I love not, I must for ever die;
I love Thee, Saviour dear, and still, I ever will love Thee,
Solely because my God, Thou art, who first hast loved me.
For me to lowest depths of woe Thou did'st Thyself abase;
For me did'st bear the cross and shame, and manifold disgrace;
For me did'st suffer pains unknown, blood sweat and agony,
Yes, death itself, all, all for me, who was Thine enemy.
Then why, O blessed Saviour mine, should I not love Thee well?
Not for the sake of winning heaven, nor of escaping hell;
Nor with the hope of gaining aught, nor seeking a reward;
But freely, fully, as Thyself hast loved me, O Lord.
Even so I love Thee, and will love, and in Thy praise will sing,
Solely because Thou art my God and my eternal King."

(3) Great Glory.
In Christ's prayer, as recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, He says, in speaking to His Father about Himself, "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." He glorified the Father because He completed the task allotted to Him. There is another man who used similar words, namely, the Apostle Paul. As he looked back over his life's work, as the servant of the Lord Jesus, he could say, "I have finished my course." Where did the apostle get the inspiration to begin, continue, and finish the course which he had run? It was at the cross. He was willing to be anathematized because Christ had been made a curse for him. He was willing to spend and be spent in the service of the Gospel because of the Lord who had poured out His life for him. The love for men was ever burning upon the altar of Paul's heart because it was ever fed from the altar of Christ's sacrifice. Paul was willing to have his back lacerated and his body bruised because it brought him into touch with the Man of Sorrows in His sufferings. The apostle was willing to give up all for the One who had given up all for him; and he was like a correct timepiece, for he ever kept to the Word of Goel in his obedience to the One who had loved him and had given Himself for him.
We read of the high priest, on the day of atonement, that there was only one place where he could get the burning coals to fill the golden censer, and that was from the altar of the burnt offering (Lev. 16: 12). In like manner, there is only one place where the fire of devotion to the Lord is kindled, and that is at the altar of Christ's sacrifice. There, the river of a pure life has its rise, even as the mighty St. Lawrence finds its source in the Rocky Mountains. It is at the cross of Christ that the lamp of faithful testimony finds its brightness, even as the lamps of the sanctuary were fed by the oil provided for them. It is at the cross of Christ that the golden incense of praise finds its stimulus, even as the perfume of the sweet spices filled the holy place as they were cast on the golden altar in the tabernacle. In the death of Jesus, the motive of true service finds its source, even as the electric light derives its power from the motor. In the death of Christ the tree of a holy life finds its nourishment, even as the splendid vine at Hampton Court has its roots in the bed of the River Thames; and in that same cross, do we find the secret of a holy, happy, and useful life.
Professor Drummond once related the following: "I knew of a very beautiful character —one of the loveliest that ever bloomed on this earth. It was the character of a young girl. She always wore about her neck a little locket but no one was allowed to open it. None of her companions knew what it contained, until one day, she was laid up with a dangerous illness. Then one of her friends was granted permission to look into her locket, and she saw written there, 'Whom having not seen, I love.' That was the secret of her beautiful life. And it will be ours too if we love Him." Dr. F. E. Marsh.
"The Alliance Witness" July 2, 9, 1932