Suppose there are three persons: A,
B, and C. Person C has sinned, and A
asks B to die for C. This would show
that A has love toward C, and that C
has answered the requirements of the
law; however, this is rather unjust to
B. I sinned, and God caused Christ to
die for me. Although this shows
God's love and although I meet the
requirements of the law, this is rather
unjust to Christ. Only when Christ is
both God and man is this just.
First, we need to know what
forgiveness is. Forgiveness means that
the one who forgives takes the loss
upon himself. It means that the
forgiver is suffering the loss of the
forgiven one. The loss is on the side of
the one who forgives. For instance, if
someone owes you 500naira and
you forgive him, we can say that you
bore the loss since you suffered the
loss of 500naira.
In God's plan of redemption, Christ
should not be a third party. If Christ is
a third party, then God is unrighteous
toward Him because He has no sin
and does not deserve to die. The Bible
tells us that man has sinned and that
God is the One whom man has
sinned against. The relationship here
is a two-party relationship between
God and man. Asking a third party to
die in a substitutionary way may,
perhaps, satisfy God's righteousness,
and it may meet the law's demand on
man, but this is rather unrighteous
for the third party. It is righteous only
because Christ is both God and man.
Micah 6:6 and 7 say, "With what shall I
come before Jehovah/And bow myself
before the high God?/Shall I come
before Him with burnt offerings,/With
one-year-old calves?/ Will Jehovah be
pleased with thousands of rams,/With
tens of thousands of rivers of oil?/
Shall I give my firstborn for my
transgression,/The fruit of my body
for the sin of my soul?" These verses
say that when we have sinned against
God, not only is an offering of rams of
no avail, all the sacrifices are of no
value. Even offering up our own
offspring is of no avail. In order for
Christ to not be a third party, He must
be God since He Himself is the One
being offended. The work of
propitiation for sins is righteous only
because Christ is God. Conversely,
since the work of propitiation for sins
is righteous, Christ must be God
because only the one who is offended
can forgive the one who offends. Who
can say forgiveness is unrighteous?
Christ is God; He is the offended One
and, therefore, He can forgive men.
Romans 7:10 says, "And the
commandment, which was unto life,
this very commandment was found to
me to be unto death." Romans 6:23
says, "For the wages of sin is death."
These verses show us that a person
has to fully keep the law in order to
live; otherwise he must die. In order
for the Lord to make us live, He had to
suffer the penalty of sin; He had to
die. However, 1 Timothy 6:16 says that
God alone has immortality. Therefore,
Christ must also be a man in order to
die for us. He had to take a body
upon Himself so that He could die for
us. He is God; this makes His salvation
of men righteous. He is a man; this
makes His salvation of men possible.