South church lectures - 1865 Author:Unknown Author Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The atonement has its origin in the depths of God's compassion, in God's wonderful love to sinners. " God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, ... more »that whosever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii. 16. " God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ." Eph. ii. 4, 5. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be a propitiation fdr our sins," 1 John iv. 10. The salvation of the sinner commenced in love, a love infinite and eternal, a love which seeks expression in numberless ways, but finds its only adequate manifestation in the gift of God's Son. It is a love which transcends human conception; a love which even the words of inspiration cannot express, for it passeth knowledge. The first, great, blessed truth which relates to the atonement is, that it was prompted and planned by the sovereign, free, unmerited love of God. Whatever other motives enter into it, whatever other ends are accomplished by it, its primal origin is in. the love of God for sinners. But man is guilty. God's law has beenbroken by him. And there is an eternal and inevitable antagonism between God and sin. " Our nature, sinful and guilt-laden, is not capable of coming into immediate contact with a holy God and Judge." God is infinitely holy. Before him the cherubim veil their faces as they cry, " Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts." His holiness is inseparable from his essence. It is an attribute at once fundamental and central. It pervades his whole nature, so that in whatever he is, or does, or feels, his holiness is manifest. We can not imagine him laying it by even for a moment. The la.w of God is the declaration of his ...« less