On January 1, 1863, the president of the United States took a bold step. He issued his Emancipation Proclamation that legally freed every slave being held within the states that were in rebellion against the Federal government.
Some 40 years later a certain writer grasped the idea that Lincoln's Proclamation was an analogy that illustrated what Christ accomplished on His cross. The statement occurs in her 1905 book The Ministry of Healing, page 90: "With His own blood He [Christ] has signed the emancipation papers of the race." The New English Bible translates what Paul said that in essence is the same analogy: "The judicial action, following upon the one offence [of Adam], issued in a verdict of condemnation [slavery], but the act of grace [of Christ], following upon so many misdeeds, issued in a verdict of acquittal. … It follows, then, that as the issue of one misdeed was condemnation for all men, so the issue of one just act is acquittal and life for all men" (Rom. 5:16, 18). (All responsible translations say essentially the same.)
All Lincoln could do was issue the Proclamation (which he had a perfect right to do as military Commander in Chief of the nation). But no slave would experience freedom unless (a) he heard the news, and (b) believed it, and (c) acted upon his belief and told his slave-master goodbye. So Christ reversed for "all men" the "judicial verdict of condemnation" that came upon them "in Adam," and instead proclaimed His "judicial … verdict of acquittal" for the same "all men." This is why God can treat "every man" as though he were innocent!
Christ has truly borne "the iniquity of us all," died "every man's" second death. God is reconciled to the sinful human race; now He begs us, "Be ye reconciled to God" (cf. Heb. 2:9; 2 Cor. 5:18-20). And in His closing work as our great High Priest Christ is seeking to complete that reconciliation in the hearts of all who will believe and appreciate what He accomplished as "the Lamb" of Revelation. That work of reconciliation in human hearts is spoken of as "the final atonement," which results in a people who "follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth" (Rev. 14:4, 5).
Be one of them!
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: December 15, 2000.Copyright © 2011 by Robert J. Wieland.
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