"But again, they say the atonement was made and finished on Calvary, when the Lamb of God expired. So men have taught us, and so the churches and world believe; but it is none the more true or sacred on that account, if unsupported by Divine authority.
Perhaps few or none who hold that opinion have ever tested the foundation on which it rests.
- 1. If the atonement was made on Calvary, by whom was it made?
The making of the atonement is the work of a Priest? [Lev. 4:20,26,31,35] but who officiated on Calvary? - Roman soldiers and wicked Jews.
- 2. The slaying of the victim was not making the atonement: the sinner slew the victim, Leviticus 4:1-4, 13-15. etc., after that the Priest took the blood and made the atonement. Leviticus 4:5-12, 16-21.
- 3. Christ was the appointed High priest to make the atonement, and he certainly could not have acted in that capacity till after his resurrection, and we have no record of his doing any thing on earth after his resurrection, which could be called the atonement.
- 4. The atonement was made in the Sanctuary, but Calvary was not such a place.
- 5. He could not, according to Hebrews 8:4, make the atonement while on earth. "If he were on earth, he should not be a Priest." The Levitical was the earthly priesthood, the Divine, the heavenly.
- 6. Therefore, he did not begin the work of making the atonement, whatever the nature of that work may be, till after his ascension, when by his own blood he entered his heavenly Sanctuary for us."