Did God sacrifice Himself to Himself to save us from Himself because of a rule He made Himself?

What then was to be done? Could God leave sin unpunished, and so have His character tarnished, as One who can be complacent with evil? No! whatever happens, God must maintain His own glory unsullied. But the love that could love unworthy sinners found out a way for their salvation. What the creature could not do, God Himself has done. The Father gave the Son, and the Son in love and compassion undertook the task. He became incarnate, in order to offer in the nature of man, that which the offended Majesty of heaven could accept. And this was no make-believe. He underwent the wrath of God due to sin. Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree. Look at the garden of Gethsemane! He asks, implores, that if it were possible, the cup which even He so dreaded, might pass from him. He was not yet drinking the cup, the cup of the fearful wrath of God against sin, but the mere anticipation made Him sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. It was not the human sufferings that made propitiation for sin; not the scourge, or the nails, or the mocking; these were sufferings from man for righteousness. Far, far beyond all these He suffered upon the cross from God for sin, "He who knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21). No creature could have borne the wrath of God against sin; but He being God as well as man, could do so; and the glory of His person gave to the sacrifice, a value that was not only profound but infinite.

God does not want the death of the sinner; He would like all to be saved (Ezek. 18:23; 2 Peter 3:9). But it would be incompatible with His character as a just Judge to save sinners simply because of His love for them. He would be violating His own law if He did so. Suppose the Judge, after pronouncing sentence on the guilty, proves His love by sending His own Son to undergo the death sentence that the guilty one deserved. Would not the Judge then be just in setting the guilty one free? That is exactly what God has done; He justified us by the blood of His Son. His well-beloved Son has “appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26). “Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).

He became man for the vindication of His own law; the Source of all justice stooped even to the sinner's place, and submitted to the penalty that the eternal throne imposed for the vindication of His own everlasting righteousness. In this glorious plan, we do not see the guilt of one creature unjustly laid upon the head of another creature; but we see the infinite wisdom and love of God providing a way by which He can lavish His love upon men, and yet be consistent with His character. We see God taking upon Himself the whole cost of the redemption of men.

He became man for the vindication of His own law; the Source of all justice stooped even to the sinner's place, and submitted to the penalty that the eternal throne imposed for the vindication of His own everlasting righteousness. In this glorious plan, we do not see the guilt of one creature unjustly laid upon the head of another creature; but we see the infinite wisdom and love of God providing a way by which He can lavish His love upon men, and yet be consistent with His character. We see God taking upon Himself the whole cost of the redemption of men.

And where indeed, as in the blood of atonement, has God's righteousness been displayed? Where has it been seen, as here, that God's judgment of sin is no arbitrary thing, but the fixed necessity of His holy nature? The penalty had to be met, when God Himself had to meet it, and at His own personal cost (and who can estimate at what cost?) to "provide Himself a lamb for the burnt-offering."

PROPITIATION was for God, though about our sins. It is brought before us repeatedly in the New Testament, and always in reference to sins. "He is the propitiation for our sins;" God "sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins;" "a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people." Propitiation gives us the Godward side of the finished work of Christ. (See 1 John 2:2, 4:9; Heb. 2:17.) As another has said, "God was not as a heathen god, one who had to be propitiated that He might not be against us, but He did require that righteousness and holiness should be maintained in the universe." Man had sinned, had rebelled against God, and dishonoured His throne, which righteously called for the pouring out of divine wrath and judgment; and though God is love, and loves sinners, yet is He righteous and holy in all His ways. What was then to be done? for the claims of His throne in dealing with His creature man must be unsparingly met, and His righteousness and truth vindicated. God gave His Son. Divine love and wisdom brought in propitiation - "not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." Propitiation then met the claims of the throne of God as to our sins. Hence, in this, the first part of the work of atonement, the blood of the sin-offering was carried by the high priest into the holiest of all - the presence of God - accompanied with a cloud of burning incense which covered the mercy-seat that is upon the testimony, when Aaron took of the blood and sprinkled it with his finger upon the mercy-seat, and then sprinkled it seven times before the mercy-seat. (vv. 12-14.) The cloud of incense set forth the sweetness of the excellencies of Christ, and the blood the value of His atoning work for us in the presence of God. There was that now before the eye of God which spoke of propitiation for sins, of divine judgment, and blood-shedding for remission. Such was the type on the great day of atonement.

Further, if Adam believed the enemy that gainsaid God's warning of death, Christ went down under the death of the cross, and (what was infinitely more) under the judgment of our iniquities, which Jehovah laid on His holy head as a sacrifice (Isa. 53). Thus was God's truth vindicated in a way worthy of Himself and of His Son. That He is light was thereby proved; that He is love, no less; both beyond dispute in the gift of His Son to die for the guilty according to His word. All the cost was God's, all the suffering was His Son's: when Man, on behalf of men, with all the value of a divine Person and, for those that believe, its infinite transferable efficacy with God.

He sent His Son, who submitted to the judgment that rested upon sinful men, and bore that judgment Himself on the tree. The blood of the One who made His soul an offering for sin is on the mercy-seat, and is the witness that God has not been indifferent to the sin of which man was guilty, nor forgetful of the judgment that had gone out of His own mouth against it; and neither was He regardless of the miserable state into which sin had plunged His thoughtless, foolish, and erring creature.

In espousing man's cause, the Son of God made Himself answerable for his sin and guilt. This rendered the cross a moral necessity. Not by His incarnation, but by His death, He made atonement for sin. He who personally knew no sin was made sin for us — such is the teaching of the Apostle in 2 Cor. 5:21. Having placed Himself in His ineffable grace in this position, sin's wages were meted out to Him in divine righteousness. Hence the prophetic statement of Isaiah: "It pleased Jehovah to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief; Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin" (Isa. 53:10).

We are in a world where sin has marred everything, and has also brought in its train sorrow, trouble, misery, and death. As connected by nature with this scene we are partakers of these consequences, and not only so, but we have a sense of distance from, and unfitness for, God, and a dread of judgment to come pressing on the conscience. It is as finding ourselves thus that God begins this blessed revelation of Himself to our hearts, not, indeed, in the way of slighting the question of sin, as every true believer well knows, but giving up His own Son to glorify Him about it by His atoning death on the cross. As to sin, God could never be at peace with it, nor rest where it was present; nor could we enjoy peace except by the complete putting of it away from God's sight. Hence we see at the cross (and we shall never forget it through all eternity) God pouring out His wrath upon sin; and we see His own blessed Son entering into those unfathomable depths of sorrow and anguish; as, "alone in that dark hour," He bore the sins of many, enduring the hiding of God's face, and sustaining His righteous judgment against sin. It was infinite grace that brought Him there, infinite love that gave Him up to suffer, and to die. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." What are the results? Who can ever tell a thousandth part of them? Let us get hold in our souls of this one grand result which gives character to all, namely, that God can have man before Him in perfect peace and acceptance (even as Jesus is now before Him as man), and reveal Himself to man as the Fountain of all blessedness and glory, also that those who are thus brought nigh "in Christ Jesus," and by His blood, are free to drink into this blessedness even now, and shall be eternally satisfied with it. Peace has been made, and now God can present Himself as "the God of peace," so that His people may know Him, and joy in Him, as the One from whom all true peace flows, who is Himself the Source and Author of it; and we, as brought to Him, can know and enjoy it in proportion as we practically abide in His presence.