the hand against which you committed all these offenses which blotted
out your transgressions.
Third: It is the offended hand which blots them out. It was the hand
that opened the fountains of the deep, and behold the floods came, the
waters above and the waters below clasped their hands and destruction
was everywhere save in the Ark. It was his hand that brought
destruction upon the cities of the plain, consuming them with a mighty
flame, and it was his hand that opened the sea for the children of
Israel and then closed the sea over the pursuing Egyptians. The very
thought of the offended hand makes us tremble, but behold, it is this
hand that blots out all our transgressions.
Fourth: It is the hand of justice that does the work. The same hand
wrote, "The wicked shall not go unpunished," and wrote again, "The soul
that sinneth it shall die," and wrote yet again, "The wages of sin is
death." This hand is stretched forth in our behalf.
I doubt not the question has often come to us, "How can God be just and
be the justifier of them that believe?" In the light of such
statements as these just quoted I am sure it is for this reason--it is
for the offering of the just for the unjust. He made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in
him. A man was needed for such an offering, and Christ became man.
The man required must be born under the law, so Christ came in the
likeness of sinful flesh. The man born under the law must be without
sin, so he was born pure. The man born under the law and without sin
must be willing to die, and so he came saying, "I delight to do thy
will, O God." And the man born under the law, without sin and willing
to die must be able to provide an atonement which would make the
wandering sinner and the love of God one, and so Christ at the command
of God was thus furnished a sacrifice of sufficient power and magnitude
to save the whole world. It is this hand of God that blots out our
transgressions.
Fifth: It is the hand of the Supreme Being that does the work. What a
word of encouragement this is. It was this hand that made the worlds
and hurled them off into space. It was this hand that created man and
made him in the likeness of God. It was this hand that formed the
countless number of angels, and has ever directed their heavenly
movements. It was this hand that wrote the law upon Sinai. And it was
this hand that holds the keys of
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