Why Did Christ

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Why did Christ have to die?

E.J. Waggoner

Present Truth UK
September 21, 1893
November 9, 1893
August 30, 1894

Printed by

maranathamedia.com

September 2023

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Contents

Introduction ...................................................................................................... 4
Why Did Christ have to die - Present Truth UK, September 21, 1893 .............. 8
Reconciliation.............................................................................................. 10
Remission .................................................................................................... 13
Propitiation - The Present Truth UK, November 9, 1893 ................................ 18
The Justice of Mercy. - Rom. 3:23-26 Present Truth UK Aug 30, 1894 ........... 21
Questioning the Text................................................................................... 21

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Introduction
I will borrow the opening page of Kevin J. Mullin’s excellent book, Did God kill
Jesus to define Christianity’s view of the death of Christ and why was it
required.

Here’s how John Piper, founder of desiringgod.org, explains the death of

Jesus:

“One of my friends who used to be a pastor in Illinois was

preaching to a group of prisoners in a state prison during Holy
Week several years ago. At one point in his message, he paused
and asked the men if they knew who killed Jesus. Some said the
soldiers did. Some said the Jews did. Some said Pilate. After
there was silence, my friend said simply, ‘His Father killed him.’
… Just as Abraham lifted the knife over the chest of his son Isaac,
but then spared his son because there was a ram in the thicket,
so God the Father lifted his knife over the chest of his own Son,
Jesus — but did not spare him, because he was the ram; he was
the substitute.” (John Piper, Who Killed Jesus? Desiringgod.org)

The doctrine that God killed His Son instead of killing us is called “penal
substitutionary atonement.” Here’s how Wikipedia defines it:

“The penal substitution theory teaches that Jesus suffered the

penalty for mankind's sins. Penal substitution derives from the
idea that divine forgiveness must satisfy divine justice, that is,
that God is not willing or able to simply forgive sin without first
requiring a satisfaction for it.”

Here's how it’s defined by another Christian website gotquestions.org:

“In the simplest possible terms, the biblical doctrine of penal

substitution holds that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross takes the
place of the punishment we ought to suffer for our sins. As a
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 result, God’s justice is satisfied, and those who accept Christ
can be forgiven and reconciled to God. The word penal means
‘related to punishment for offenses,’ and substitution means ‘the
act of a person taking the place of another.’ So, penal
substitution is the act of a person taking the punishment for
someone else’s offenses … Penal substitution is clearly taught by
the Bible.”

These ideas concerning the death of Christ, justice, and the atonement had
been framed, nurtured, and developed by the Roman Catholic Power, yet
spurred forward under the Protestant theology in the form of Penal
Substitution.

The Christian doctrine of righteousness by faith is built upon the premise that
God’s justice needed to be satisfied with death. Blood needed to flow from
an innocent substitute equal with God. Those who express faith in this
substitute are said to be righteous by faith.

I have collected here three articles from E.J. Waggoner from the years 1893
and 1894. In these articles you will find distilled some of the purest principles
of righteousness by faith. But the key theme coming through in them is
diametrically opposed to the Christian doctrine of satisfied justice. Here is
one of several examples

we have left the matter of reconciliation just where the

Scriptures have put it; and while they have much to say about
the necessity for man to be reconciled to God, they never once
hint of such a thing as the necessity for God to be reconciled to
man. To intimate the necessity for such a thing is to bring a
grave charge against the character of God. The idea has come
into the Christian Church from the Papacy, which in turn brought
it from Paganism, in which the only idea of God was of a being
whose wrath must be appeased by a sacrifice. E.J. Waggoner,
Present Truth UK, Sept 21, 1893

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Waggoner openly challenges the common Christian teaching of the death of
Christ satisfying God’s justice, presenting this idea as coming from paganism
and into the Roman Church.

The Bible speaks about the blood of Jesus Christ cleansing us from sin. 1 John
1:7. Christianity teaches that the blood of Christ makes reconciles us to God
through God’s justice being appeased but Waggoner presents a completely
different view

But how is it that the shedding of blood, even the blood of

Christ, can take away sins? Simply because the blood is the life.
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you
upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the
blood that maketh atonement for the soul." Lev. 17:11. So when
we read that apart from the shedding of blood there is no
remission, we know it means that no sins can be taken away
except by the life of Christ. In Him is no sin; therefore when He
imparts His life to a soul, that soul is at once cleansed from sin.
E.J. Waggoner, Present Truth UK, Sept 21, 1893

Many are shocked when we present to people that God didn’t require the
cross but rather man did, but Waggoner was the first to express this:

Of course the idea of a propitiation or sacrifice is that there is

wrath to be appeased. But take particular notice that it is we
who require the sacrifice, and not God. E.J. Waggoner, The
Justice of Mercy, Present Truth UK Aug 30, 1894

It is completely impossible to claim that the 1888 message is a reaffirming of

the Protestant doctrine of righteousness by faith because that faith system is
built upon appeasement theology derived from the principles of paganism, as
prophesied by Daniel in Daniel chapter 8.

These three articles need to be studied carefully and absorbed. While some
Adventist leaders claim Waggoner departed from the truth as early as 1892,
Ellen White wrote:
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 The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His
people through Elders Waggoner and Jones. This message was to
bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour,
the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented
justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to
receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in
obedience to all the commandments of God. TM 91

She wrote that in 1895. The articles we are presenting here are from 1893
and 1894 before Ellen White’s endorsement of their message as
righteousness by faith.

There are so many principles expressed here that give me great joy. The fact
that these things have been hidden to the remnant church is proof positive of
her Laodicean condition. I include myself in that diagnosis because I didn’t
discern the true value of these articles or their true meaning until now.

The framework given to us now as a people based upon Identity Wars, the
Divine Pattern, the channel of blessing, the present cross and the character of
God all find their foundations in the 1888 message. The following articles
collected here bear witness to this truth.

May you go through these line by line and pray for the light to connect
together in your mind. They will provide the perfect foundation for the
message now being presented by the Father of Love movement.

Adrian Ebens
Sept 11, 2023

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Why Did Christ have to die - Present Truth UK,
September 21, 1893
The fact that this question has been asked in all seriousness by an active
Christian is sufficient reason for considering it, apart from the fact that it
touches the very core of Christianity. It shows that the fundamental
principles of the Gospel are not so generally understood as people are wont
to imagine. This is not because they are so obscure and complex as to be
beyond ordinary comprehension, but because they have been so thickly
enveloped in the fog of theological terms. Those terms are the intention of
men, and have nothing to do with the Scriptures. If we are content with the
simple statements of the Bible, we shall see how quickly its light dispels the
fog of theological speculation.

"Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might
bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit."
1 Peter 3:18. That is a sufficient answer, but we will read further. "This is a
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners." 1 Tim. 1:15. "Ye know that He was manifested to take
away our sins, and in Him is no sin." 1 John 3:5. "The blood of Jesus Christ His
Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1:7

Read again: "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died
for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet
peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God
commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be
saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we
shall be saved by His life." Rom. 5:6-10.

Once more: "And you, that were sometime enemies, and alienated in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh
through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in
His sight." Col. 1:21, 22. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new

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creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And
all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and
hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them;
and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." 2 Cor. 5:17-19.

All men have sinned. Rom. 3:23; v. 12. Sin is enmity against God. "The carnal
mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be." Rom. 8:7. In one of the texts above quoted we read that
men need reconciliation, because they are enemies in their minds by
wicked works. Therefore since all men have sinned, it follows that all men
are by nature the enemies of God; and that also is what we read in Rom.
5:10, above quoted.

But sin is death. "To be carnally minded is death." Rom. 8:6. "By one man sin
came into the world, and death by sin." Rom. 5:12. Death came in by sin,
because it carries death concealed within it. "The sting of death is sin." 1 Cor.
15:56. Sin when it is full grown bringeth forth death. James 1:15.

Sin is death, for the reason that it is enmity against God. God is "the living
God." With Him is "the fountain of life." Ps. 36:9. Christ is called the "Author
of life." Acts 3:15, margin. Life is the grand characteristic of God. "He giveth
to all life, and breath, and all things." Acts 17:25. "In Him we live, and move,
and have our being;" "for we are also His offspring." Verse 28. The life of God
is the source of every created thing; and apart from Him there can be no life.

But righteousness, as well as life, is the grand characteristic of God. "There is

no unrighteousness in Him." Ps. 92:15. "As for God, His way is perfect." Ps.
18:30. Since the life of God is the source of all life, and all depend on Him, it
follows that His righteousness is the standard of righteousness of all
intelligent beings; for God's life is nothing but righteousness. Therefore life
and righteousness are inseparable. "To be spiritually minded is life." Rom.
8:6.

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Now since God's life is the standard of righteousness, it is evident that
everything that is different from the life of God is unrighteousness; and "all
unrighteousness is sin." But if the life of any being is different from the life
of God, it must be because His life is not allowed free course through that
being. But where God's life is not, there is death. Whoever is out of
harmony with God-enmity against Him-has death working in him, and
death for his inevitable portion. So it is not by an arbitrary decree that the
wages of sin is death. That results from the very nature of things. Sin is
opposition to God,-rebellion against Him,-and is utterly foreign to His being.
It is separation from God, and separation from God is death, because there
is no life outside of Him. All that hate Him, love death.

Let us now sum up the case of the relation between the natural man and
God. (1) All have sinned. (2) Sin is enmity against God; it is rebellion. (3) Sin is
alienation from God; men are alienated and enemies in their minds by
wicked works. Col. 1:21. (4) Sinners are "alienated from the life of God." Eph.
4:18. But God in Christ is the only source of life for the universe, and
therefore all who are thus alienated from His righteous life are by the very
nature of things doomed to death. "He that hath the Son hath life; and he
that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John 5:12.

Reconciliation
From all that has preceded it is very evident that the only object that Christ
could have in coming to earth and dying for men, was the reconciliation of
man to God, so that he might have life. "I am come that they might have life."
John 10:10. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." 2 Cor.
5:19. "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by
wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through
death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight."
Col. 1:21, 22. Christ suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, "that He might
bring us to God." 1 Peter 3:18. "If when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we
shall be saved by His life." Rom. 5:10.

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"But," someone will say, "You have made the reconciliation all on the part
of men; I have always been taught that the death of Christ reconciled God
to man; that Christ died to satisfy God's justice, and to appease Him." Well,
we have left the matter of reconciliation just where the Scriptures have put
it; and while they have much to say about the necessity for man to be
reconciled to God, they never once hint of such a thing as the necessity for
God to be reconciled to man. To intimate the necessity for such a thing is to
bring a grave charge against the character of God. The idea has come into
the Christian Church from the Papacy, which in turn brought it from
Paganism, in which the only idea of God was of a being whose wrath must
be appeased by a sacrifice.

Stop a moment, and think what reconciliation means. The existence of

enmity is the only necessity for reconciliation. Where there is no enmity,
there is no necessity for reconciliation. Man is by nature alienated from
God; he is a rebel, full of enmity. Therefore man needs to be reconciled-to
have his enmity taken away. But God has no enmity in His being. "God is
love." Consequently there is no necessity for Him to be reconciled; there is
no possibility of such a thing, for there can be no reconciliation where there
has been no enmity.

Again: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
John 3:16. Surely, they who say that the death of Christ reconciled God to
men, have forgotten this blessed text. They would separate the Father and
the Son, making the former the enemy, and the latter the friend, of man.
But God's heart was so overflowing with love to fallen man, that He "spared
not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all;" and in so doing He gave
Himself, for "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself." The
Apostle Paul speaks of "the church of God, which He hath purchased with
His own blood." Acts 20:28. This effectually disposes of the idea that there
was any enmity toward man on the part of God, so that He needed to be
reconciled. The death of Christ was the expression of God's wonderful love
for sinners.

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Consider further what reconciliation means. It means a change on the part of
the one reconciled. If one has enmity in His heart towards another, a radical
change must take place in him before he is reconciled. This is the case with
man. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ." 2 Cor. 5:17,18. But to speak
of the necessity for God to be reconciled to man, is not only to say that He
cherished enmity in His heart, but to say that God was partially in the
wrong, and that a change had to take place in Him as well as in man. If it
were not in the innocence of ignorance that men talked about God's having
been reconciled to men, it would be blasphemy. That is one of the "great
things and blasphemies" that the Papacy has spoken against God. Let us not
echo it.

God is. He could not be other than He is, and be God. He is absolute and
unchangeable perfection. He cannot change. Hear Him: "I am the Lord, I
change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Mal. 3:6. Instead
of having to change and be reconciled to sinful man, in order that they
might be saved, the only hope for their salvation is the fact that he never
changes, but is everlasting love. He is the source of life, and the standard of
life. When any beings are unlike Him, the difference is on their part, and not
on His. He is the fixed standard, to which all must conform, if they would
live. God cannot change to accommodate the desires of sinful men, but
simply because such a change would lower His dignity, and make His
Government unstable, but because He cannot be other than He is, "He that
cometh to God must believe that He is."

Just a thought concerning the idea that Christ's death was necessary to
satisfy outraged justice. Christ death was necessary to satisfy the love of
God. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet
sinners Christ died for us." Rom. v. 8. "God so loved the world that He gave
His only begotten Son." Justice would have been met by the summary
death of the sinful race. But God's love could not suffer that. So we are
justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

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Through faith in His blood, God's righteousness-which is His life-is declared
upon us, and thus He is just, and at the same time the justifier of him that
believeth in Jesus. Rom. 3:21-26. The reason why it was necessary that Christ
should die, in order that men might be saved, will be considered in the next
edition of this article.

Why have we dwelt so long upon the fact that man must be reconciled to
God, and not God to man? Because in that alone is man's hope. If God ever
had any enmity in His heart against men, there would always arise the
torturing thought, "Perhaps He is not yet sufficiently appeased to accept
Me; surely He cannot love so guilty a being as I am." And the more one
realised his guilt, the greater would be his doubt. But when we know that
God never had any enmity towards us, but that He has loved us with an
everlasting love, and that He has loved us so much that He gave Himself for
us, that we might be reconciled to Him, we can joyfully exclaim, "If God be
for us, who can be against us?"

Remission
Freedom from sin, or at least from its consequences, is what men have
been seeking ever since the fall. Sad to say, however, the great majority
have sought it in the wrong way. It was with a lie against the character of
God, that Satan caused the first sin, and he has been vigorously engaged in
trying to induce people to believe that lie ever since. So successful has he
been, that the mass of mankind regard God as stern and unsympathetic, a
being who regards man with a coldly critical eye, and who would much
rather destroy than save. In short, Satan has largely succeeded in putting
himself in the place of God, in the minds of men.

Thus it is that much of the worship of the heathen is, and always has been,
devil-worship. "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they
sacrifice to devils, and not to God; and I would not that ye should have
fellowship with devils." 1 Cor. 10:20. Consequently all heathen worship
springs from the idea that a sacrifice must be made to appease the wrath of
their God. Sometimes this sacrifice is in the shape of property, but often it

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is of the person. Thus arose the great hordes of monks and hermits among
the heathen, and later among the professed Christians, who borrowed their
ideas of God from the heathen. These thought to gain the favour of God by
scourging and torturing themselves.

The prophets of Baal cut themselves with knives, "till the blood gushed out
upon them" (1 Kings 18:28), hoping thereby to induce their god to listen to
them. With the same idea of God, thousands of so-called Christians have
worn hair shirts, walked barefoot on glass, made pilgrimages on their
knees, slept on the hard floor, or the ground, and scourged themselves with
thorns, starved themselves nearly to death, and set themselves the most
impossible tasks. But nobody ever found peace in any of those ways,
because no man could get out of himself that which was not in him, and
righteousness and peace are not in man.

Sometimes this idea of propitiating the wrath of God has taken an easier
form, that is, easier for the worshippers. Instead of sacrificing themselves,
they have sacrificed others. Human sacrifices have always been to a greater
or lesser extent connected with heathenism. Men shudder as they read of
the human sacrifices offered by the ancient inhabitants of Mexico and Peru,
and by the Druids; but professed (not real) Christianity has its awful list. Even
so-called Christian England has made hundreds of burnt offerings of men, for
the purpose of turning away the wrath of God from the country. Wherever
there is religious persecution to any degree, it springs from the mistaken
idea that God demands a victim. This is shown by the words of Christ to His
disciples: "The time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he
doeth God service." John 16:2. All such worship has been devil worship, and
not worship of the true God.

Just here somebody has remembered that it is said in Heb. 9:22, "Without
the shedding of blood there is no remission;" and this makes him think that
after all God did demand a sacrifice before He would pardon man. It is very
difficult for the mind to rid itself of the idea received as a legacy from
Paganism, through the Papacy, that God was so angry at man for having
sinned, that He could not be mollified without seeing blood flow, but that it
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made no difference to Him whose blood it was, if only somebody was
killed; and that since Christ's life was worth more than the lives of all men,
He accepted Him as a substitute for them. This is almost a brutal way of
stating the case, but it is the only way that the case can be truly presented.
The heathen conception of God is a brutal one, as dishonouring to God as it
is discouraging to man; and this heathen idea has been allowed to colour
too many texts of Scripture. It is sad to think how greatly men who really
loved the Lord, have given occasion to His enemies to blaspheme.

"Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission." What is remission? It

means simply "sending away." What is to be remitted, or sent away? Our
sins, for we read that "through faith in Christ's blood the righteousness of
God is declared for the remission of sins that are past, through the
forbearance of God." Rom. 3:25. So we learn that apart from the shedding of
blood there is no sending away of sins.

What blood is it that takes away sins? Only the blood of Christ, "for there is
none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved." "Ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is
no sin." 1 John 3:5. "Knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible
things, with silver and gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from
your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and
without spot, even the blood of Christ." 1 Peter 1:18, 19. "If we walk in the
light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1:7.

But how is it that the shedding of blood, even the blood of Christ, can take
away sins? Simply because the blood is the life. "For the life of the flesh is in
the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement
for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul." Lev.
17:11. So when we read that apart from the shedding of blood there is no
remission, we know it means that no sins can be taken away except by the
life of Christ. In Him is no sin; therefore when He imparts His life to a soul,
that soul is at once cleansed from sin.

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Remember that Christ is God. "The Word was God," "and the Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us." "God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto Himself." God gave Himself in Christ for men, for we have read of "the
church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood." The Son of
man, in whom was the life of God, came to minister, "and to give His life a
ransom for many." Matt. 20:28.

The case, therefore, stands thus: All have sinned. Sin is enmity against God,
because it is a condition of alienation from the life of God. Therefore sin is
death. The one thing, then, that man stood in need of was life, and this is the
one thing that Christ came to give. In Him was life that sin could not touch,
and that could triumph over death. His life is the light of men. A single light
may make ten thousand other lights, and still not be diminished. No matter
how much sunlight any person receives, there is just as much for everybody
else; and if there were a hundred times as many people on earth as there
are, there would be no less sunlight for each one than there is now. So with
the Sun of Righteousness. He can give His life to all, and still have as much
left.

Christ came to impart the life of God to man, for it is that that they lack. The
lives of all the angels in heaven could not have met the demands of the case;
not because God was so inexorable, but because they could not have
imparted any life to man. They had no life in themselves, but only the life
that Christ imparted to them. But God was in Christ, and in Him God's
everlasting life could be given to everyone who would receive it. Remember
that in giving His Son, God gave Himself, and you will see that a sacrifice
was not demanded to satisfy God's outraged feelings, but that, on the
contrary, God's inexpressible love led Him to sacrifice Himself, in order to
break down man's enmity, and reconcile us to Himself.

"But why could He not give us His life without dying?" That is to say, Why
could He not give us His life, and still not give it? We needed life, and Christ
alone had life to give; but the giving of life is dying. His death reconciles us
to God, provided we make it our own by faith. We are reconciled to God by
the death of Christ, because in dying He gave up His life, and He gave it to
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us. Being made partakers of the life of God, through faith in Christ's death,
we are at peace with Him, because one life is in us both. Then we are
"saved by His life." Christ died, but He still lives, and His life in us keeps us
united to God. The imparting of His life to us frees us from sin and the
continuing of it in us, keeps us from sin.

"In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." John 1:4. Jesus said, "I am
the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but
shall have the light of life." John 8:12. Now we can understand how it is that
if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." His
light is His life; walking in the light is walking in His life; and when we thus
walk, His life is flowing through us, a living stream, cleanses from all sin."
"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." His life is light, and will dispel
all earth's darkness. In His light (life) we shall see light. Only as we consider
hard questions in the light of His life, can we understand them.

"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against
us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall
He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Rom. 8:31,32. Let the weak
and fearful sinner take courage, and trust in the Lord. We have not a God
who demands a sacrifice from man, but one who in His love has offered
Himself a sacrifice. We owe to God a life perfectly in harmony with His law;
but since our life is just the opposite of that, God in Christ has substituted His
own life for ours, and so we can offer up "spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to
God by Jesus Christ." Then "let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there
is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel
from all his iniquities." Ps. 130:7, 8.

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Propitiation - The Present Truth UK, November 9,
1893
"And He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the
sins of the whole world." If men would allow the Bible to explain itself,
instead of trying to explain it, much difficulty would be saved. All the logical
definitions are derived from Paganism, since theology is principally the
study of heathen philosophy. Men have looked into the human heart in
order to find God, instead of looking into His word and His works.
Accordingly they have thought of God as a being whose wrath against men
must be appeased by sacrifice; and the history of religion in the world is
largely a history of the attempts of men to devise some sacrifice that would
"appease the Divine justice, and conciliate the Divine favour." Men have
punished themselves almost to death, and have persecuted others quite to
death, because they thought that God demanded it of them as the price of
His favour. This is the human idea of propitiation, but it is not God's.

If instead of the long word, "propitiation," we read "sacrifice," we shall

simplify matters a great deal, because the shorter word is more common.
Then let it be remembered that God Himself has provided the sacrifice, or the
propitiation. Thus we read, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory
of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in
His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,
through the forbearance of God." Rom. 3:23-25.

Notice that it is God who has set forth Christ as the propitiation or sacrifice.
Then since God provides the sacrifice for sin, it surely cannot be that He has
enmity against sinners. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life." John 3:16. "God is love" (1 John 4:16); but "the carnal mind
is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be." Rom. 8:7. The enmity that is to be appeased is all on the part of

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men, and God, who is sinned against, provides the means of reconciliation.
Of Christ we read:-

"For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell; and, having
made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things
unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in
heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by
wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through
death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight."
Col. 1:19-22.

Now remember that "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself,"
and you will see that God Himself has made the sacrifice for us. It is by the
death of Christ that we are reconciled, and God was in Christ reconciling the
world. The Word that was made flesh, and that was offered upon the cross,
was God.

It would be impossible for man to make a sacrifice that would atone for sin.
Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high
God? shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of
rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my
body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and
what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and
to walk humbly with thy God?" Micah 6:6-8.

Even a human sacrifice would not avail, not because God requires
something more valuable, but because it cannot remove sin. The sacrifice
which God provides, and which He alone can provide, is one that will
remove sin, and thus destroy the enmity that is in man's heart against God.
God gives to us His life in Christ, and that life can take away sin, as has been
demonstrated by the fact that it has conquered death. "There is none good
but one, that is God." Therefore the only way in which man can become
good is to be filled with the life of God, and this He gives us freely in Christ.

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Why will not men believe the Lord, and take Him just as He reveals Himself?
The only reason is, as stated before, that they take counsel of their own
hearts, and not of God. They do not come close enough to the Lord to get
acquainted with Him. To Him belongs power, but His mercy is equal to His
power. "God is love," and therefore the more we learn of His power, the
more powerful must we know His love to be. When we taste, and continue to
taste, and see that the Lord is good, we shall turn a deaf ear to all the
insinuations of Satan, no matter in what guise they come.

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The Justice of Mercy. - Rom. 3:23-26 Present Truth UK
Aug 30, 1894
The last lesson [not in this booklet] showed us that since all men are declared
guilty by the law, there can be no righteousness in the law for any man, and
that, as a consequence, if men were left alone with the law there would be
no hope for any. The law is only the written statement of the righteousness
of God, and therefore can impart no righteousness; but God is a living God,
and His righteousness is a living righteousness; His Spirit has all-pervading
power, and therefore He can put His own righteousness into and upon all
that believe; for faith is the reception of God into the heart. In the reception
of this righteousness "there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come
short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the
remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I
say, at this time His righteousness; that He might be just, and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus."

Questioning the Text

How is the righteousness of God manifested apart from the law?

"By faith of Jesus Christ."

In whom is it manifested?

"Unto all and upon all them that believe."

What distinction is made between people?

"There is no difference."

Why not?

"For all have sinned."

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In sinning, of what have men come short?

"All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."

While in this state, what do those who believe receive?

"Being justified."

How justified?

"Freely."

By what?

"By His grace."

Through what?

"Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."

How did this come about?

"Whom God hath set forth."

What for?

"To be a propitiation."

"By what means?

"Through faith in His blood."

What does He declare?

"To declare His righteousness."

Whose righteousness does He declare?

God's righteousness-the righteousness of Him who set Him forth. See Ps. 40:
6-10.

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For what is God's righteousness declared in Christ?

"For the remission of sins that are past."

Of what is this a manifestation?

"The forbearance of God."

Why is it that God's own righteousness is declared for the remission of sins?

"That He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

"No Difference."-In what is there no difference? There is no difference in the

way in which men receive righteousness. And why is no difference made in
the manner of justifying men? Because "all have sinned." Peter, in relating to
the Jews his experience in first preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, said,
"God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy
Ghost, even as He did unto us; and put no difference between us and them,
purifying their hearts by faith." Acts 15:8, 9. "Out of the heart of men," not of
one class of men, but of all men, "proceed evil thoughts," etc. Mark 7:21. God
knows the hearts of all men, that all are alike sinful, and therefore He makes
no difference in the Gospel to different men.

"One Blood."-This lesson is one of the most important to be learned by the

missionary, whether laboring at home or abroad. Since the Gospel is based
on a principle that there is no difference in men, it is absolutely essential that
the Gospel worker should recognise the fact, and always keep it in mind. God
"hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the
earth." Acts 17:26. Not only are all men of one blood, but they are also of
"one kind of flesh." 1 Cor. 15:39. The great burden of the epistle to the
Romans, as has appeared up to this point, is to show that so far as sin and
salvation therefore are concerned, there is absolutely no difference between
men of all races and conditions in life. The same Gospel is to be preached to
the Jew and to the Gentile, to the slave and to the freeman, to the prince and
to the peasant.

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Coming Short.-People are fond of imagining that what are called
"shortcomings" are not so bad as real sins. So it is much easier for them to
confess that they have "come short" than that they have sinned and done
wickedly. But since God requires perfection, it is evident that "shortcomings"
are sins. It may sound pleasanter to say that a bookkeeper is "short" in his
accounts, but people know that the reason for it is that he has been taking
that which is not his, or stealing. When perfection is the standard, it makes
no difference in the result, how much or how little one comes short, so long
as he comes short. The primary meaning of sin is "to miss the mark." And in
an archery contest, the man who has not strength to send his arrow to the
target, even though his aim is good, is a loser just as surely as he who shoots
wide of the mark.

"The Glory of God."- From the text we learn that the glory of God is His
righteousness. Notice, the reason why all have come short of the glory of God
is that all have sinned. The fact is plain that if they had not sinned they would
not have come short of it. The coming short of the glory itself consists in sin.
Man in the beginning was "crowned with glory and honour" (Heb. 2:7)
because he was upright. In the fall he lost the glory, and therefore now he
must "seek for glory and honour and immortality." Christ could say to the
Father, "The glory which thou gavest Me, I have given them," because in Him
is the righteousness of God which He has given as a free gift to every man. It
is the part of wisdom to receive righteousness; and "they that be wise shall
shine."

"Being Justified."-In other words, being made righteous. To justify means to

make righteous. God supplies just what the sinner lacks. Let no reader forget
the simple meaning of justification. Some people have the idea that there is a
much higher condition for the Christian to occupy than to be justified. That is
to say, that there is a higher condition for one to occupy than to be clothed
within and without with the righteousness of God. That cannot be.

"Freely."-"Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." That is, let
him take it as a gift. So in Isaiah 55:1: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye
to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come,
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buy wine and milk without money and without price." It was the epistle to
the Romans that accomplished the Reformation in Germany. Men had been
taught to believe that the way to get righteousness was to purchase it either
by hard work or by the payment of money. The idea that men may purchase
it with money is not so common now as then; but there are very many who
are not Catholics who think that some work must be done in order to obtain
it

Making Prayer to Be a Work.- The writer was once talking with a man in
regard to righteousness as the free gift of God, the man maintaining that we
could not get anything from the Lord without doing something for it. When
asked what we must do to win forgiveness of sins, he replied that we must
pray for it. It is with this idea of prayer that the Roman or Hindu devotee
"says" so many prayers a day, putting in an extra number some days to make
up for omissions. But the man who "says" a prayer, does not pray. Heathen
prayer, as for instance when the prophets of Baal leaped and cut themselves
(1 Kings 28:26-28), is work; but true prayer is not. A man comes to me and
says that he is starving. Afterwards he is asked if anything was given him, and
he says that he received some dinner, but that I made him work for it. When
asked what he had to do for it, he replies that he asked for it. He could hardly
make any one believe that he worked for his dinner! True prayer is simply the
thankful acceptance of God's free gifts.

Redemption in Christ Jesus.-We are made righteous "through the redemption

that is in Christ Jesus." That is, through the purchasing power that is in Christ
Jesus, or "through the unsearchable riches of Christ." Eph. 3:8. This is the
reason why it comes to us as a gift. Some one may say that everlasting life in
the kingdom of God is too great a thing to be given to us for nothing. So it is,
and therefore it had to be purchased, but since we had nothing that could
buy it, Christ has purchased it for us and He gives it to us freely, in Himself.
But if we had to purchase it from Him, we might as well have bought it in the
first place, and saved Him the task. "If righteousness come by the law, then
Christ is dead in vain." Gal. 2:21. "Knowing that ye were redeemed, not with
corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed

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down from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a Lamb without
blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ." 1 Peter 1:18,19. The
blood is the life. Lev. 17:17. Therefore the redemption that is in Christ Jesus is
His own life.

Christ Set Forth.-Christ is the one whom God has set forth to declare His
righteousness. Now since the only righteousness that is real righteousness is
the righteousness of God, and Christ is the only one who has been ordained
of God to declare it upon men, it is evident that it can not be obtained except
through Him. "There is none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12.

A Propitiation.- A propitiation is a sacrifice. The statement then is simply that

Christ is set forth to be a sacrifice for the remission of our sins. "Once in the
end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself." Heb. 9:26. Of course the idea of a propitiation or sacrifice is that
there is wrath to be appeased. But take particular notice that it is we who
require the sacrifice, and not God. He provides the sacrifice. The idea that
God's wrath has to be propitiated in order that we may have forgiveness
finds no warrant in the Bible. It is the height of absurdity to say that God is
so angry with men that He will not forgive them unless something is
provided to appease His wrath, and that therefore He Himself offers the gift
to Himself, by which He is appeased. "And you, that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He
reconciled in the body of His flesh through death." Col.1:21, 22.

Heathen and Christian Propitiation.-The Christian idea of propitiation is that

set forth above. The heathen idea, which is too often held by professed
Christians, is that men must provide a sacrifice to appease the wrath of
their god. All heathen worship is simply a bribe to their gods to be favorable
to them. If they thought that their gods were very angry with them, they
would provide a greater sacrifice, and so human sacrifices were offered in
extreme cases. They thought, as the worshipers of Siva in India do to-day,
that their god was gratified by the sight of blood. The persecution that was
carried on in so-called Christian countries in times past and is to some extent
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even now, is but the outcropping of this heathen idea of propitiation.
Ecclesiastical leaders imagine that salvation is by works and that men by
works can atone for sin, and so they offer the one whom they think rebellious
as a sacrifice to their god not to the true God, because He is not pleased with
such sacrifices.

Righteousness Declared.-To declare righteousness is to speak righteousness.

God speaks righteousness to man, and then he is righteous. The method is
the same as in the creation in the beginning. "He spake, and it was." "We are
His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them." Eph. 2:10.

God's Justice In Redemption.- Christ is set forth to declare God's

righteousness for the remission of sins, in order that He might be just and at
the same time the justifier of him who believes in Jesus. God justifies sinners,
for they are the only ones who need justification. The justice of declaring a
sinner to be righteous lies in the fact that he is actually made righteous.
Whatever God declares to be so, is so. And then he is made righteous by the
life of God given him in Christ. The sin is against God, and if He is willing to
forgive it, He has the right to do so. No unbeliever would deny the right of a
man to overlook a trespass against him. But God does not simply overlook
the trespass; He gives his life as a forfeit. Thus He upholds the majesty of the
law, and is just in declaring that man righteous who was before a sinner. Sin
is remitted sent away from the sinner, because sin and righteousness can not
exist together, and God puts His own righteous life into the believer. So God
is merciful in His justice, and just in His mercy.

"There's a wideness in God's mercy,

Like the wideness of the sea;
There's a kindness in His justice,
That is more than liberty."

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 Why did Jesus have to die?
The answer to this question determines whether a person understands
righteousness by faith. Did God require the Cross to pay for our sins? Did His
justice require this?

Of course the idea of a propitiation or sacrifice is that there is

wrath to be appeased. But take particular notice that it is we
who require the sacrifice, and not God. E.J. Waggoner, The
Justice of Mercy, Present Truth UK Aug 30, 1894

Waggoner exposes the little horn power of Daniel 8 stemming from paganism
and coming into Christianity when he says:

we have left the matter of reconciliation just where the

Scriptures have put it; and while they have much to say about
the necessity for man to be reconciled to God, they never once
hint of such a thing as the necessity for God to be reconciled to
man. To intimate the necessity for such a thing is to bring a
grave charge against the character of God. The idea has come
into the Christian Church from the Papacy, which in turn brought
it from Paganism, in which the only idea of God was of a being
whose wrath must be appeased by a sacrifice. E.J. Waggoner,
Present Truth UK, Sept 21, 1893

In this booklet are presented three articles from E.J. Waggoner between 1893
and 1894 showing the biblical foundations of Christianity to give you a true
understanding of righteousness by faith

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