Thomas Williams

“ The ancient custom among the Persians, and other nations, no doubt, had their origin in God's manner of allowing man to enter into covenant relation with him. The custom was, as indicated by Jeremiah, to divide the victim and the covenanting parties "passed between the parts." In this way, in covenants between God and men, man, who is a sinner and under justice without mercy, deserves death, may be said to have passed into the death of the victim, or to have died sacrificially or representatively, admitting of atonement. ”

“ Man was estranged from God, having no right to approach Him, being under His just condemnation. On the strength of a promise that Christ would meet all the requirements of divine justice, man is permitted by sacrificial offerings to draw in advance, as it were, and the efficacy of the blood of the atonement the covenant sacrifice reaches back through the typical offerings and effects reconciliation and atonement between God and men. ”

“ It is by the new birth that we become the children of God, not by natural birth. We are not born into covenant relationship with God by natural birth, but when we are "born again," then we enter into that covenant relation which makes us one with God, the children of the covenant; because we are then in Him who is the covenant sacrifice and are reconciled to God in Christ where alone reconciliation can take place from that alienation imposed by Adam upon all the race. ”

“ By typical sacrifices covenant relationship between God and man was made possible as soon as man fell and redemption became a necessity. Had no provision been made till the real covenant sacrifice Christ was offered upon the cross, all who died from Adam to Christ would have hopelessly gone down into death and the grave under the sentence, "Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return." ”

“ We have entered therefore into "the only name given among men whereby we must be saved," and we are now no more strangers and foreigners to the covenants of promise, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, waiting the time of the realization of these covenants, which will take place when all the ancient worthies, with us, shall be made perfect together to rejoice in the blessings which shall fill the earth as declared in the promise, "in thee and in thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed." ”

“ Since the fall of our first parents all mankind has been in what the Scriptures term a state of alienation from God afar off; and the apostle, in speaking of those who have been inducted into Christ, says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Cor. 5: 17) . This implies that before they became "new creatures" in Christ they may be said to have been by nature old creatures in the old man Adam, hopeless and helpless. ”

“ Human customs must always fall short of fully illustrating God's wonderful and wise works, as the finite cannot reach the heights of the infinite; but they may help to a deeper understanding of things divine. There is a breach between two men on account of one having incurred a debt to the other and is not able to pay it. ”

“ If the penalty on our first parents had been inflicted without any merciful provision, all would have forever been lost, but redemption from under the penalty of the law by sacrifice was arranged for, and in it we have Christ "as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 13: 8) , and it was shown in the beginning that through Him redemption would take place of what had been lost by Adam the first. ”