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STUDY IV
THE MEDIATOR OF THE ATONEMENT
THE UNDEFILED ONE
Seemingly Conflicting Scriptures Reconciled--The Roman Catholic
Doctrine of Mary's Immaculate Conception Not Sustained--The Birth
of Jesus Separate from Sinners Essential to the Divine Arrangement--
Otherwise no Ransom Possible--The Latest Deductions of Science in
re the Union of Life and Protoplasm--The Logos Made Flesh--Born of
a Woman yet Undefiled--How the Imperfect Mother Could and Did
Bring Forth the Undefiled One--This Same Principle Operating in
Other Features of the Divine Plan, as Testified by the Scriptures.
"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." Job 14:4
"He was manifested to take away sins and in him is no sin."
"Such an
High Priest was suitable for us--holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from
sinners." 1 John 3:5; Heb. 7:26
HERE are Scripture statements apparently in conflict: the
first declaring, in harmony with our experience, that all of
Adam's posterity is affected by virus of sin from the poisoned
fountain: the latter declaring that our Lord Jesus was
as a man different from other men--unblemished, undefiled,
spotless. And since the entire theory of the Atonement,
presented in the Scriptures, demands that of
necessity our Redeemer must be an unblemished man--of
our race and yet separate from it--this becomes a very important
point before the minds of the Lord's thinking people.
How did God accomplish in our Lord Jesus' case what is
impossible to man, according to all human experience and
according to Job's testimony? To give ample proof of how
the divine arrangement did accomplish this desired yet
seemingly impossible thing of producing a member of the
race, yet separate from its blemishes, to be its ransom--to give
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a corresponding price for the first perfect man whose sin and
its curse blights the race--this is the pleasurable task of the
present chapter.
Not that a knowledge of the manner is essential either to
the faith or salvation of the true disciple taught of God; but
that in the light of present-day destructive criticism (reasonable
and unreasonable) it is expedient that this truth, so
closely identified with the Atonement, the very center and
foundation of true Christianity, should be solidly buttressed,
to the intent that the faith of the Lord's people may
be able to withstand the assaults of the Adversary against
the doctrine of the ransom--from pulpit, press and pew.
The Scriptural statement of the fact of our Lord's spotlessness
was, thank God, quite sufficient for his saints for centuries;
but now as "meat in due season" for the household
comes the scientific and philosophic attestation to the possibility
of all that is claimed in the divine Word on this subject
--quite in harmony with "the laws of nature."
The Roman Catholic Church in its doctrine of "The Immaculate
Conception" of Mary, attempts to establish faith
in our Lord's mother, as immaculate, spotless, perfect; and
thus to prove that Jesus could be born pure and separate
from sinners: but this is not our claim. We admit that our
Lord's mother was a member of Adam's race, in the same
sense as all other members of it--that her life was derived
from the Adamic stock, that she inherited human weaknesses
and blemishes and unavoidably was, like all others,
under the sentence of death. We claim that "the man Christ
Jesus" was an exception--the only exception.
And it is well for us not to forget that God's providential
care for the children of men is frequently manifested in the
exceptions of nature. For instance, it is the rule of nature that
heat causes expansion, while freezing causes contraction:
but how fortunate it is for humanity that water is an exception
to this principle--that water, contrary to the general
rule, expands in freezing. Were it to follow the customary
law of nature and contract with freezing, it would have the
effect of making the ice heavier than the unfrozen water,
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and cause it to sink to the river bottoms, so that as a consequence
our rivers would become solid ice, which even the
summer heat would not dissolve. How fortunate, too, that
antimony among the minerals is an exception to this law of
nature also: otherwise it would be impossible for us to secure
clear-cut edges on our printing types, secured by the
mixing of this metal, which contracts, with other metals
which expand under heat. So the one exception to sin-defilement
in our race was its only hope--its ransom, its salvation
under divine providence. With these thoughts we
proceed to examine how the Logos was "made flesh,"
"born of
a woman," "of the seed of Abraham," and yet was uncontaminated,
and could therefore be a suitable and acceptable
ransom for Adam and his race.
The Scriptures hold out the thought that all existence, living
energy or being, comes from the father and not from the
mother. The mother receives the sperm or seed of life from
the father, furnishes it a cell-nucleus out of which a form or
body is produced, and nourishes the germ of being until it is
able to maintain an independent existence; i.e., until it is
able to appropriate to its maintenance the life-sustaining
elements which the earth and air supply--then it is born.
The word father has the significance of life-giver. Accordingly,
God was the "Father," or life-giver, while the earth
was the mother, of Adam, and hence of the human race.
(Luke 3:38) Adam's form or organism was of and from earth
(which therefore served as his mother); but his spark of life
which constituted him a man came from God (who thus
was his Father or life-giver): and in the male of the human
species has since resided the power to communicate that
spark of life or living seed to progeny.
In harmony with this principle, children are spoken of as
being of or from their fathers, and borne by their mothers.
(Gen. 24:47) Thus the children of Jacob, counted through
his sons, were seventy when he came down to Egypt. All of
those seventy souls or beings are expressly said to have come
out of the loins of Jacob. (Gen. 46:26,27; Exod. 1:5) So of
Solomon, it is said that he came out of the loins of David.
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(1 Kings 8:19; 2 Chron. 6:9) So also the Apostle
Paul and Israelites
in general claimed that they all came out of the
loins of Abraham; and of Levi it is written that "he was yet
in the loins of his father when Melchisedec met him."
Heb. 7:5,10
Thus also the whole race was in and sprang from Adam
their father, by mother Eve but not from her. And thus it is
written that "all in ADAM die," but not all in Eve. Because
the race came of Adam, it was tried in his trial, condemned
in his failure and included under his sentence.
This, which the Scriptures teach, is the latest deduction
of science on this subject of progeneration, as applied to humanity
and to all mammalia. Scientists find abundant and
conclusive proof in nature that life or being comes always
from the male. The simplest form of illustration is a hen's
egg: of itself it originally contains no life, but is merely a
cell-germ with its supply of nutriment ready to build up an
organism as soon as vivified, fecundated or impregnated
with the life-germ or life-seed from the male bird.
The egg contains not only the germ-cell but also the
proper elements of nutrition and in proper proportion,
adapted to the minute organism begotten in it by the sperm
or life-seed; and under proper conditions that organism develops.
The germ-cell, or "formative yolk," or protoplasm,
receives the life-germ or sperm, and this becomes the embryo
chick, which appropriates to its own development the
"food-yolk" and the albumen, until it breaks the shell and
is able to sustain itself by appropriating cruder elements of
nutrition. The principles here involved are the same in human
and other animals.
In view of these harmonious testimonies of the Bible and
science, it is a reasonable deduction that if the father were
perfect, the child would be perfect. Under even moderately
favorable conditions a perfect sperm or life-seed in uniting
with the female germ-cell would produce a living embryo
so vigorous and healthy as to be capable of appropriating
the proper elements of nutrition, and voiding, throwing off
or neutralizing the unfit. And the perfect being thus produced
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would likewise possess the power of neutralizing or
repelling, by its perfect functions and without injury or inconvenience
to itself, all elements not beneficial. On the
contrary, in proportion as the sperm or life-seed be imperfect,
the living embryo will be weak and unable to overcome
the unfavorable conditions of its environment, and
will appropriate whatever its mother furnishes--good or
bad--and will be the prey of disease. Being imperfect, it is
unable to reject wholly the poisonous elements and the consequence
is weakness and disease.
The old proverb, "One man's meat is another man's poison,"
rests upon the principle here enunciated. A person
possessed of good digestive powers can eat and extract nutriment
and strength from food which would speedily
sicken and eventually kill another of inferior powers. The
more rugged extracts the good and avoids the injurious elements:
the weaker is unable to do this and is really poisoned,
frequently to the extent of sickness. Yet let us
remember that no member of our race is nearly perfect--
none are able to defend their imperfect systems against the
myriads of foes that assail through food and drink and air.
Consequently none are born perfect and none can avoid
the encroachments of disease for long. It preys upon the
weakest organs first and soon all collapse.
From this standpoint it follows that had mother Eve
alone sinned the race would not have died; for had Adam
remained perfect, his life unforfeited and unimpaired, his
offspring would have been born without blemish. And even
had the death sentence passed upon mother Eve, bringing
imperfections to her, these would not have impaired her
offspring; being perfect, they would have appropriated good
elements, and have neutralized, voided or passed off naturally
and without injury, any unwholesome elements of nutrition
supplied them.
On the other hand, suppose that Adam had sinned and
Eve had remained sinless: Adam's condemnation and
death would have affected the entire posterity just the
same. However perfect the germ-cells and nourishment
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provided by mother Eve, only imperfect dying beings could
be produced from diseased sperm or life-seed from Adam.
Hence the appropriateness of the Scriptural statement that
"All in Adam die," and "By one man's disobedience...
death passed upon all." 1 Cor. 15:22; Rom. 5:12,19
How wonderful the correspondence here between the
first and second Adams and their brides. As the death of the
race depended not upon Eve but wholly upon Adam, and
yet she shared in the bringing of it, so the restored life of the
redeemed race depends not at all on the bride of Christ, but
upon Jesus, the Redeemer, though by divine favor it is arranged
that his bride shall share in the restitution of "that
which was lost."
The fountain, Adam, having become contaminated by
sin and death, none of his posterity can be free from contamination;
for, "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
Not one." The reference here must be understood as
applying to the man, and not to the woman: none coming
from or out of the contaminated fountain can be clean.
Hence, "There is none righteous, no, not one"; none can redeem
his own life, much less give to God a ransom for his
brother. Rom. 3:10; Psa. 49:7
It is a well-recognized fact that the mind of a mother,
during the period of gestation, has an important bearing
upon the character and disposition of her children, for good
or evil. There are many instances of mental as well as of
physical "birthmarks." Whether at all or how much a perfect
embryo, begotten of a perfect life-germ, might be injured
by an evil mind in the mother, it would be impossible for humanity
under present conditions to determine; for we have
no opportunity for proofs along this line. Nor is it necessary
to our argument to determine this proposition, for it was
not under such conditions that the "man Christ Jesus" was
born. The Scriptures explicitly point out: (1) That the Lord
chose for the mother of Jesus a holy woman "blessed among
women," who had "found favor with God" (Luke 1:28,30,42);
(2) Mary was full of faith and the joy of the Lord, to be
an instrument in his plan: and (3) not regarding fear of
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reproach from Joseph or the world, she lived rejoicing in
God, saying--"My soul doth magnify Jehovah; my spirit
rejoiceth in God my Savior." (Luke 1:45-47) Thus we perceive
that the mind of Jesus' mother, instead of being antagonistic
to his perfect development, cooperated to that
result.
It follows, then, that the only obstacle to the generation
of a perfect man of an imperfect, blemished, but well-willed
mother is the lack of a perfect father to supply perfect spermatozoa.
And hence the consistency of the teaching of Scripture,
that in the case of Jesus a perfect life (not of or from the
Adamic fountain) was transferred by divine power from a
pre-existent condition to the embryo human condition, was
born "holy" (pure and perfect), though of an imperfect
mother. (Luke 1:35) That Jesus was thus uncontaminated
with the imperfections, mental, moral or physical--which
his mother in common with the entire human race shared,
is entirely reasonable and, as we have just seen, in perfect
accord not only with Scripture but also with the latest scientific
findings and deductions.
Another fact which scientists are demonstrating to themselves,
which seems to concur with the Scripture testimony,
is, that though life or being comes from the father, form and
nature come from the mother. The scientific proofs of this
are more abstruse and less easily grasped by the ordinary
mind; and this, because in wisdom God has not only separated
the various kinds or natures, but in great measure has
limited them, so that they cannot mix or blend beyond certain
limits without losing the powers of fecundation. A
common illustration of this is the mule, a hybrid which cannot
propagate.
The old idea that form and nature came from the male is
abandoned by modern students of nature, who now agree
that the female furnishes organism as well as sustenance--in
fact furnishes all except the life-seed or sperm which comes
from the father or life-giver. Take as a Scriptural illustration
of the foregoing claims the improper union between
"the daughters of men" and those angels which kept not
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their proper estate or condition. (Gen. 6:2,4; Jude 6; 2 Pet. 2:4)
The angels, when they assumed human form, being
perfect in vitality, begat children far superior to the then
greatly fallen race of Adam in mental acumen as well as in
physical powers, so that the record is--"the same were men
of renown." These wonderful men, let us remember, were
born of imperfect, dying mothers, but begotten by vigorous,
unimpaired fathers.
The dying race of Adam would have had hard masters in
those superior Nephilim (Hebrew, fallen ones) which were
never recognized by God, either by a trial for life, or by a
condemnation to death. It was a mercy indeed which, not
having authorized their existence, blotted them from existence
in the flood, and sparing as a new beginning for the
race Noah and his family, with the comment--"Now Noah
was perfect in his generation," which implies that the majority
of Adam's posterity had become greatly contaminated and
more or less a new race by association with the angels in human
form. We say a new race because of their new life and
vigor coming from new fathers.
So great was the renown of these "Nephilim," that the
dread of them is to be found with more or less distinctness
in heathen mythologies to this day; and hundreds of years
after their destruction in the flood, the false report that some
of these were yet alive caused a panic among the Israelites
while flushed with the victory of recent battles. (See Num. 13:33; 14:36,37.)
No doubt there were some large men in
Canaan, as other scriptures show, but never except in this
"evil report" are they called Nephilim.
Another illustration of this principle that life (vitality)
comes from the father, and organism (nature) from the
mother, is found in the fact that Jehovah, himself of the divine
nature has begotten sons of various natures. He is the
father or life-giver to those sons of angelic nature (Job 2:1; 38:7;
Heb. 2:9), as well as to sons of human nature (Luke 3:38),
as well to the "new creatures" who, in the first resurrection,
shall be made partakers of his own divine nature. (2 Pet. 1:4)
The spirit or energy of Jehovah operating upon
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spirit-substances produced and developed angels; the same
energy or spirit operating upon earthly substances produced
man and the lower animals. (Gen. 2:7; 1 Cor. 15:47)
And when God would give us a clear conception of the generation
of the new creatures to the divine nature, he represents
them as begotten of his word of promise in the womb of
the Covenant which he made with Abraham, which Covenant
was symbolized by a woman, Sarah, telling us that as
Isaac was the heir of Abraham and child of promise (by Sarah),
so we, as or like Isaac, are children of God, being children
of the promise, or Sarah Covenant. See Gal. 4:23-31; 1 Pet. 1:3,23;
2 Pet. 1:4.
The same principle is illustrated in the fact that in the
typical Jewish dispensation, prior to the Christian age, a
child inherited blessings and privileges of its father, according
to the favor and standing of its mother, thus again declaring
that the mother's nature, rights, privileges and liberties
attached to the child, though not of necessity the father's.
See Gen. 21:10; Ex. 21:4; Gal. 4:30.
The foregoing arguments are clinched by the fact that
our Lord Jesus was born of a woman. The "holy thing"
born of a woman partook of the woman's nature, i.e., human
nature--"of the earth, earthy." Though retaining all
the purity and perfection of the pre-existent (spirit) state,
the transferred germ of being (in harmony with this law we
are examining) partook of the nature of the mother and
was "made flesh" by being "born of a woman." Yet the
"clean thing" came not out of the unclean race, but "proceeded
forth and came from God" and was merely developed
and nourished in Mary. John 8:42; Gal. 4:4
It is yet further in harmony with this same principle that
though our Lord Jesus has since been highly exalted to the
divine nature, and is no longer human, yet it is declared of
him that he shall be the life-giver or "father" of the whole
human race, while it is also shown that his work for the race
is to restore the perfection of human nature, which was lost for
all through Adam's sin. Thus, while their "father" or life-giver
will be on the divine plane, his children will be on the
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human plane, born out of a Covenant of restitution, illustrated
by Keturah, Abraham's third wife.
Reviewing our subject then, we perceive that the "miraculous"
birth of our Lord Jesus, perfect, unblemished, of an
imperfect mother, was not contrary to the usual procedure
of the Creator's arrangements, but in full harmony with
them: we see that similarly father Adam was born into
being perfect because he was born of God, though his
mother (the earth) was still imperfect except the specially
prepared Garden of Eden. The Scriptural assurance then
that our Lord had a prehuman existence, the life-principle
of which was transferred to Mary's womb and born of her
"holy," is abundant assurance that he was as the same
Scriptures declare "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from
sinners."
Just such an one "became us" or was suitable to the
necessities of our case--such an one as could be accepted by
Justice as our ransom-price; and then being made humanity's
High Priest in things pertaining to God, would be able to
compassionate the weak and burdened--having been
touched with a feeling of human infirmities when he himself
compassionately took our sicknesses. Matt. 8:16,17;
Heb. 7:26
We pass on now to the consideration of how he could be
thus without sin and yet be "made like unto his brethren."
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