The design of setting forth Christ was, as the apostle assures us, “to declare the righteousness of God for the remission of sins;” “to declare His righteousness, that He might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.” Now we can very well understand how divine justice or righteousness was displayed if Christ died for sin, bearing for us its penalties, so as to propitiate God’s judicial displeasure against it. But how there could be any such thing as a declaring or manifesting of God’s justice in a simple and unconditional proclamation of His mercy, without respect to any expiation of human guilt, it is certainly not very easy to imagine.

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