and consequently a return of his favor. It also implied either that God would relent, change his decree and clear the guilty race, or else that he had some plan by which it could be redeemed, by having man's penalty paid by another.
God did not leave Abraham in doubt as to which was his plan, but showed, by various typical sacrifices which all who approached him had to bring, that he could not and did not relent, nor excuse the sin ; and that the only way to blot it out and abolish its penalty would be by a suffici- ency of sacrifice to meet that penalty. This was shown to Abraham in a very significant type: Abraham's son, in whom the promised blessing centered, had first to be a sac- rifice before he could bless, and Abraham received him from the dead in a figure. (Heb. 11:19.) I* 1 that figure Isaac typified the true seed, Christ Jesus, who died to redeem men, in order that the redeemed might all receive the prom- ised blessing. Had Abraham thought that the Lord would excuse arid clear the guilty, he would have felt that God was changeable, and therefore could not have had full con- fidence in the promise made to him. He might have rea- soned, If God has changed his mind once, why may he not change it again? If he relents concerning the curse of death, may he not again relent concerning the promised favor and blessing? But God leaves us in no such uncer- tainty. He gives us ample assurance of both his justice and his unchangeableness. He could not clear the guilty, even though he loved them so much that "he spared not his own Son, but delivered him up [to death] for us all."
As the entire race was in Adam when he was condemned, and lost life through him, so when Adam's life was redeemed by the man Christ Jesus, a possible race in his loins died also, and a full satisfaction, or corresponding price, was rendered to justice for all men ; and he who thus bought all has full authority to restore all who come unto God by him.
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