---

I. The influence of the blood of the CROSS ON GOD. "Peace" cannot mean the actual reconciliation of man to God, for it is prior to and with the design of afterwards effecting it. It must therefore have been peace that looked toward God, for He is the only other party to the enmity. But this could not have been a change in God Himself or His purposes, for He is immutable; nor any alteration in His feelings towards sin, for that must ever be the abominable thing which He hates; still less the purchase of His love for man, for the whole purpose of reconciliation sprang out of His "pleasure." But it is the effect produced by the death of Christ upon God's moral government, so that it became possible for Him to forgive righteously. It will follow —

1. That they are greatly in error who maintain that the only purpose of Christ's death was to reconcile man to God by the simple manifestation of Divine love. The fact is there are two elements in the Cross — love and righteousness — and we must allow neither to overshadow the other. If we do, in one case the gospel will assume the appearance of indifference to evil, in the other it will be made to assume an appearance of terror.

2. That they are greatly in error who make little of the death of Christ. "Without shedding of blood is no remission."

II. The blood of the Cross AS IT RESPECTS MAN. "Things on earth" may perhaps be taken to mean the whole lower creation which "groans and travails in pain," etc.; but as the curse passed on the earth through man, so must the blessing. How, then, are men reconciled to God? More than pardon through the satisfaction of God's justice was needed; for sin has not only broken the law, but filled the sinner's heart with enmity against God. But —

1. The atonement of Christ has also secured the Holy Spirit for the regeneration of human hearts.

2. Then the Spirit uses the story of Christ's love and death to remove the enmity. All along the sinner has been misjudging God; but when he, through the Spirit, is led to see that God has given Christ to secure his pardon, he discovers that he has done God the foulest wrong, and returns in penitence and affection to Him.

III. The blood of the Cross As IT AFFECTS ANGELS. They, of course, cannot be reconciled in the strict sense of the term; but the work of Christ has let them see further into the heart of God, drawn them nearer to Him, and given them a higher degree of blessedness. Conclusion:

1. All obstacles have been taken out of the way of a sinner's salvation as far as God is concerned. If they are not saved, it is because they reject God's overtures of reconciliation.

2. If the sinner passes from earth unreconciled, there is no salvation for him. The text says nothing of "things under the earth."

(W. M. Taylor, D. D.)

---

---

KJV: For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

WEB: For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him;