meaning of God's word, should you not rather, reader,
bow in reverence before such love, realize that it was for you, yes,
_you_, and that through His suffering and in no other way, you may
escape the just punishment of your sins and spend eternity in Heaven?
The world weeps over the story of the noble fireman who gave his life
to rescue a little girl from a burning building, but it coldly scorns
and proudly rejects salvation through the redemption of Jesus the
Christ. Oh, the pride and wickedness of the human heart! Be not you,
reader, of those who sit in the seat of the scornful, but the rather
of those who at the last day will sing, Rev. 5:9, "Worthy art thou to
take the book and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and
didst purchase unto God with thy blood, men of every tribe and tongue
and people and nation."

Let us consider carefully what it really means when we are told that
"Christ died _for our sins_,"--1 Cor. 15:3, that He "gave himself _for
our sins_,"--Gal. 1:4; that "his own self bare our sins in his own
body upon the tree,"--1 Peter 2:24; that "Christ also suffered for
sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous."--1 Peter 3:18. God's
word explains it clearly: "That he might himself be _just_ and the
_justifier_ of him that hath faith in Jesus."--Rom. 3:26. "_That he
might be just._" Notice it carefully, "_That he might be just._" Take
it in its full meaning, "That he might be just." A question: How
_could_ God be _just_ and _justify_ any sinner apart from the fact
that "Christ died for our sins," that "the Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all"? Reader, no man, however learned, will ever answer
that question. He may sneer; he may cavil; he may warp; he may try to
confuse; but he will never come out in the open and answer that
question. He may say that it is morally wrong for the innocent to bear
the penalty of the guilty, but that objection is met and answered
above in this chapter.

Let us face a trilemma; three, and only three plans, were possible for
God with man:--

First, To have been just with man, without any love or mercy; hence,
for every sinner to have suffered the just penalty for his sins,
without any redemption. That would have meant Hell for every
responsible human being, without any Heaven at all.

Second, To have been all mercy and all love and no justice. That would
have meant no moral laws; for why have moral laws, if there would be
no penalty, no justice? That