Legalism lacks the supreme sense of worship. It obeys but it does not adore.

Legalism lacks the supreme sense of worship. It obeys but it does not adore.

The term ‘reconciliation’ describes the atonement as springing from the initiative of God Himself.

By raising Christ from death, God as the supreme Judge set his seal to the absolute perfection and completeness of his atoning work. The resurrection is a public announcement to the world that the penalty of death has been borne by Christ to its bitter end and that in consequence the dominion of guilt has been broken, the curse annihilated forever more.

There prevails still a subtle form of legalism which would rob the Saviour of his crown of glory, earned by the cross, and would make of him a second Moses, offering us the stones of the law instead of the life-bread of the gospel.

In the resurrection there is already wrapped up a judging-process, at least for believers: the raising act in their case, together with the attending change, plainly involves a pronouncement of vindication. The resurrection does more than prepare its object for undergoing the judgment; it sets in motion and to a certain extent anticipates the issue of the judgment for the Christian. And it were not incorrect to offset this by saying that the judgement places the seal on what the believer has received in the resurrection.

The best proof that He will never cease to love us lies in that He never began.