How were the men of Nineveh forgiven without sacrifice?

But here there is a point which has arrested the attention and excited the deep thought of reflecting men: How is it that there is this difference between the kindness shewn to Nineveh and the kindness shewn to us; that whereas the men of Nineveh were forgiven without sacrifice, believers in the gospel are called upon to recognise the fact that “without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins?” The truth has cleared away this difficulty, though some, who once knew the truth, (at least, in a measure), would restore the difficulty by their renunciationism. The truth enables us to perceive that in spirit, there is no difference between the case of Nineveh and the case of believers in the gospel; and that the difference in form is due to the great difference between the goodness bestowed in one case and in the other. The Ninevites humbled themselves absolutely before God, in fasting and clothing themselves in sackcloth. This supplied the one condition which He himself has defined as the one that secures his favourable consideration: “To this man will I look, that is broken and contrite in heart and trembleth at my word.” Consequently, He relented towards them, and remitted the penalty of that immediate destruction which their prolonged wickedness had nearly brought upon them. This was the extent of the goodness bestowed: exemption from sudden death.

In the case of believers in Christ, the goodness is of a very different nature. They are called to the fellowship of the Father, and that fellowship an eternal fellowship, and involving a participation in His incorruptibility and deathlessness. Now, considering who they are, members of a race condemned for sin at the start, and guilty each one of “many offences,” and considering the exalted nature of the privilege of friendship and companionship with God, it is no marvel that a special and adequate form of broken-heartedness and fear should be provided for them. God is great and holy; and He receives not sinners to his eternal society without the utmost recognition on their part of His position of prerogative and their position of no claim—yea worse, deserving death. Hence, his requirement of the shedding of blood, as the basis of propitiation. But we are too far astray for Him to accept even this at our hands. Therefore, in the Son of Mary—His own Son—He gives us one in whom He will accept it, and in whom He has accepted it, for “He, by His own blood, entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption (“for us,” is not in the original, and is excluded by the “voice” of the verb—the middle—which concentrates the application on himself). Yet this Son of Mary and Son of God, was one of the sufferers from the evil that sin has brought into the world, though without sin as regards his character. His mission as the propitiation required this combination in harmony with the principle to be exemplified in his death, viz., the declaration of the righteousness of God as the basis of His forbearance in the remission of our sins (Rom. 3:25, 26). In the righteous Son of David, the law of sin and death was destroyed by death and resurrection, and now in Him is “the law of the spirit of life” established in harmony with the indispensable requirement of God’s supremacy and righteousness. In Him now is life for all who will come unto God by Him, morally participating in His crucifixion, and sharing His death in the act of baptism. God will grant forgiveness to all who come to Him in the way appointed. It is no case of substitution or debt-paying which would obscure the righteousness and the goodness of God. It is a case of God approaching us in kindness, and giving us, by His own manipulation, one from among ourselves in whom His “law is magnified and made honourable”—(Isa. 42:21), that by His blood we may be washed from our sins, in the sense of being forgiven unto life eternal for His sake; and that of His righteousness we may partake in the assumption of His name.

The fact that sacrifice is required in order to life eternal is, therefore, not inconsistent with the goodness which God showed to the Ninevites without sacrifice. It is rather the form which His goodness takes in a higher matter, and required by the greater highness of the matter. It is the same goodness manifested in both cases. It is the same God who shines in all parts of the Bible. “What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but freely gave Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth—who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? . . . I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”—(Rom. 8:31–39).


(2001). The Christadelphian, 14(electronic ed.), 64–66.