"Christ died for all, therefore all died—of course, that is so because
Christ was the representative of all when he died. The death that he
died on the cross was in itself the death of all. Since Christ was the
representative of all, therefore all may have been said to have died
there on the cross outside the walls of Jerusalem when Christ died.
We may imagine a dialogue between the law of God and a sinful man.
"Man," says the law of God, "have you obeyed my commands?"
"No," says the sinner, "I have transgressed them in thought, word, and deed."
"Well,
then, sinner," says the law, "have you paid the penalty which I have
pronounced upon those who have disobeyed? Have you died in the sense
that I meant when I said, 'The soul that sinneth it shall die'?"
"Yes," says the sinner, "I have died. That penalty that you pronounced upon my sin has been paid."
"What
do you mean," says the law, "by saying that you have died? You do not
look as though you had died. You look as though you were very much
alive."
"Yes," says the sinner, "I have died. I died there on the
cross outside the walls of Jerusalem; for Jesus died there as my
representative and my substitute. I died there, so far as the penalty of
the law was concerned."
"You say Christ is your representative
and substitute," says the law. "Then I have indeed no further claim of
penalty against you. The curse which I pronounced against your sin has
indeed been fulfilled. My threatenings are very terrible, but I have
nothing to say against those for whom Christ died."
That, my
friends, is what Paul means by the tremendous "therefore," when he says:
"One died for all, therefore all died." On that "therefore" hangs all
our hope for time and for eternity."
– J. Gresham Machen, Constraining Love
http://www.opc.org/machen/ConstrainingLove.html
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