Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/156

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one as to the other,* He "gave himself a ransom [a cor- responding price] for all," in order that he might bless aU, and give to every man an individual trial for life. To claim that he gave "ransom for all" and yet to claim that only a mere handful of the ransomed ones will ever receive any benefit from it, is absurd; for it would imply either that God accepted the ransom-price and then unjustly refused to grant the release of the redeemed, or else that the Lord, after redeeming all, was either unable or unwilling to carry out the original benevolent design. The unchangeableness of the divine plans, no less than the perfection of the divine justice and love, repels and contradicts such a thought, and gives us assurance that the original and benevolent plan, of which the "ransom for all" was the basis, will be fully carried out in God's "due time," and will bring to faithful be- lievers the blessing of release from the Adamic condemna- tion and an opportunity to return to the rights and liberties of sons of God, as enjoyed before sin and the curse.

Let the actual benefits and results of the ransom be clearly seen, and all objections to its being of universal application must vanish. The "ransom for all" given by "the man Christ Jesus" does not give or guarantee everlasting life or blessing to any man ; but it does guarantee to every man an- other opportunity or trial for life everlasting. The first trial of man, which resulted in the loss of the blessings at first con- ferred, is really turned into a blessing of experience to the loyal- hearted, by reason of the ransom which God has provided. But the fa<ll that men are ransomed from the first penalty does not guarantee that they may not, when individually tried for everlasting life, fail to render the obedience without which none will be permitted to live everlast- ingly. Man, by reason of present experience with sin and its bitter penalty, will be fully forewarned; and when, as a result of the ransom, he is granted another,

that our Lord's death constituted him the Lord, Master or ruler of the entire human family, we now recognize a still broader meaning in the Apostle's words ; namely, that the entire human family was included in the expression " the dead ," From God's standp< >int the entire race, un der sentence of death, is treated as though already dead (Mutt Si 22) ; tence the expression "the living" would apply beyond the .human family to some whose lives had not been forfeited the Angels.
 * While ire still maintain the truth of the statement herein made,

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