Wesley Corpus

ix.12.) In consequence of this we are accepted, ‘through the offering of the body of Christ once for all.’ (x. 10.) In all the ancient types and figures, “without shedding of blood there was no remission; which was intended to show, there never could be any without the blood of the great Antitype; without that grand propitiatory sacrifice, which (like the figure of it) was to be offered “without the gate.’ “Indeed, the whole worship of the Old Testament teaches nothing else but the satisfaction made by the blood of Christ, and our reconciliation with God thereby: Hence he is styled, “The Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world; with a view to the paschal lamb, and the other lambs that were offered in sacrifice: On which account the inhabitants of heaven likewise ‘give glory, and sing a new song, because he hath redeemed’ them ‘unto God by his blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.” (Rev. v. 9.) “(5.) To this might be added the numerous figures that occur in the lives of the old patriarchs, prophets, and kings. But it may suffice to add to the preceding only two testimonies more of the manner of our redemption by a proper sacrifice; the one that of St. Paul,--‘Christ hath delivered us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; as it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree;’ (Gal. iii. 13;) the other of St. Peter,-‘Who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree.” (1 Peter ii. 24.) From all this abun dantly appears the substitution of the Messiah in the place of his people, thereby atoning for their sins, and restoring them to the favour of God. “These are the points which are so vehemently opposed by Socinus and his followers, who rob Christ of the principal part of his priestly office, and leave him only that of inter ceding for us by prayer; as if any intercession were worthy of Christ, which had not his full satisfaction and propitiatory sacrifice for its foundation. Indeed these cannot be put asunder, as sufficiently appears from the words cited before,-- ‘He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors; where the Holy Ghost closely joins his inter cession with his satisfaction made by sacrifice.