The Atonement

When I try to discover the meaning of the sorrow of Christ on the cross , I cannot escape the conclusion that He is somehow involved in this deep and dreadful darkness by the sins of the race whose nature He has assumed . If the dread with which He anticipated His death , and if the Divine desertion which made His death so awful , are to pass into doctrine , I can conceive of no other form in which they can appear than that which they assume in the Apostolic Epistles  -" He was delivered for our offences ." -" He died for our sins ." - He "suffered .....the just for the unjust ;  "He was made a curse for us ."  As I look , as I listen , I am driven to exclaim , "Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows . He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities ; The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all ."  In no other way are His sufferings explicable .  To fulfil these words of ancient prophesy , He can endure no greater , no keener anguish .  If this is not the explanation of His desertion on the cross , then the cross , instead of declaring that God has not forsaken  the human race , notwithstanding all its crimes , seems to be an appalling  testimony to all nations and to all centuries , that not even the purest goodness can secure for One who has assumed our nature the strength and the peace which come from the perpetual manifestation of God's presence and love . Instead of revealing the infinite love of God , refusing to forsake those who have sinned  , it is an awful proof that He may forsake in the hour of their utmost and sorest need those who have perfectly loved and perfectly obeyed Him . Either the Death of Christ was the Atonement for human sin , or else it fills me with terror and despair .

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