The incarnation of the second person of the Godhead, —the assumption of human nature by One who from eternity had possessed the divine nature, so that He was God and man in one person, —is, as a subject of contemplation, well fitted to call forth the profoundest reverence, and to excite the strongest emotions; and if it was indeed a reality, must have been intended to accomplish most important results. If Christ really was God and man in one person, we may expect to find, in the object thus presented to our contemplation, much that is mysterious— much that we cannot fully comprehend; while we should also be stirred up to examine with the utmost care everything that has been revealed to us regarding it, assured that it must possess no ordinary interest and importance. He who is represented to us in Scripture as being God and man in one person, is also described as the only Mediator between God and man— as the only Saviour of sinners. If it be indeed true, as the Scripture plainly teaches, that the divine and human natures were united in His one person, it is undeniable that this union must have been formed in order to the salvation of sinners, and that the plan which God devised and executed for saving sinners, must just consist in, or be based upon, what Christ, as God and man in one person, did, in order to effect this object. This was the work which the Father gave Him to do; and by doing it He has secured the deliverance from everlasting misery, and the eternal blessedness, of as many as the Father has given Him, —“an innumerable company, which no man can number, out of every kindred, and nation, and people, and tongue.”
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Table of Contents
Introduction
I. Connection between the Person and Work of Christ.
II. Necessity of the Atonement.
III. The Necessity and Nature of the Atonement.
IV. Objections to the Doctrine of Atonement.
V. Scriptural Evidence for the Atonement.
VI. Socinian View of the Atonement.
VII. Arminian View of the Atonement.
VIII. Extent of the Atonement.
IX. Evidence as to the Extent of the Atonement.
X. Extent of Atonement and Gospel Offer.
XI. Extent of Atonement, and its Object.
XII. Extent of the Atonement, and Calvinistic Principles.
