As it respects God’s pardoning the human race, I contend that this pardon existed from the beginning.  Do not the Scriptures declare that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world?  Yes, for “he calleth those things which be not as though they were.”  Well, could we be chosen in Christ without being pardoned?  No, for the apostle says, “he that is in Christ is a new creature;” and, certainly, a man cannot be a new creature in Christ without being pardoned in the mind of Deity.  If then in the omniscient mind of God, to whom there is no future, they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, then in his mind, they must also have been pardoned before the world began.  God never does a new act.  By pardon we are not to understand the clearing of a guilty man from deserved punishment, but an entire deliverance from a disposition to sin.  The period, when we are to be released from sin, is through death, where the earthly nature, with all its wants and temptations to sin, falls, and the heavenly nature rises in incorruption and glory through a resurrection from the dead.  Is not this the day of redemption when we are set free?  Yes, so saith the Scripture.  Well do not redemption, remission, and forgiveness mean the same thing?  They do.  Then our pardon, remission or redemption will be realized through death and the resurrection.  We will produce the Scriptures “in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.”  Here forgiveness and redemption are used synonymous, and are declared to be through the blood of Christ—­that is, through his death, as a sacrifice for sin.  Sin cannot exist beyond the sacrifice designed to take it away.  He is represented as taking away the sin of the world under the figure of a Lamb.  Sin will come to a finish, under the first covenant, exactly where Christ said “it is finished,” at which moment the vail, concealing the “holy of holies,” will be rent in twain, and the second covenant be opened.  If we step beyond what Christ has said, we may as well give up the Scriptures, and trust to our own vain imaginations.  There sin will end; and that is dismission, pardon or redemption from it.  “O death!  Where is thy sting?  O grave!  Where is thy victory?  The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law —­but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now, here it is represented, that our victory, over sin and death, is when we rise to immortal glory.  Our victory over sin is at the same instant with our victory over death; and who will deny that our victory over death will be at the resurrection?  The objector may as well deny our victory over death at the resurrection, as to deny our victory over sin at that period.  The whole is said to be “through Christ.”  He was our “forerunner” and “first fruits” to represent our condition there.  When he expired, he was free from pain, and when he arose, he was free from temptation.  So when we pass the same scene, we shall be like him, who is our “resurrection and life,” otherwise the harvest will not be like “the first fruits.”