the grace displayed in a living person, man was too far gone—nay, so truly dead in sin, that, so far from being won by God’s love, he only took advantage of it, and when Jesus put Himself at the foot of man, he lifted up his heel and trod on Him, the Son of God. But if man thus, under Satan’s malicious guidance, cast out and crucified Christ, God in the cross not only demonstrated His love (herein is love, indeed!), but wrought out redemption, a work suited even for those that crucified Jesus, capable of blotting out the foulest sin man was ever guilty of. God has triumphed even where man did his worst against Him.
But this is not all. In the previous dealings of God, when He had given His law, God had separated the nation that was called out of Egypt—had marked them off in the most distinct and positive manner from all others. It was needful. Men might have complained that there had been no fair trial; the corrupt examples of others might have led them astray. God set Israel apart by their institutions, rites, ordinances, services, and His law; and by that law, and by those rites. He severed them from all others; so that it would have been sin against God for a Jew to have communion with a Gentile, no matter how godly and disposed to respect the law of God. No doubt there might be such a thing as being brought out of Gentilism, at any rate to a certain extent; but still, all through the system of God’s dealings by His law with the Jewish people, there was the express and total severance of His people from all others. I do not speak of the abuse
