Christ's doctrine of the atonement - Smeaton - V - Chapter 2 continued

Required reading
Christ's doctrine of the atonement by George Smeaton (Available from Amazon or free here) - Continue Chapter 2 by reading section XI to XII.

My summary
This week Smeaton continues giving us some presuppositions of the doctrine of the atonement.

Firstly Smeaton teaches us about the sayings of Jesus referring to a sending by the Father.  Smeaton gives a good summary of this point himself: 'There are few expressions more frequent in the mouth of Jesus than those which refer to His being sent. We find it used by our Lord in connection with all the three offices with which He was invested (John xii. 49 ; Luke iv. 18). But we limit our inquiry, according to the plan prescribed to ourselves, to the sayings which have a reference to His priestly sacrifice, or to His work of atonement; and, considered in this light, it was meant to represent God in the light of the Supreme Director and sole Fountain of the redemption-work. To this view of the sending we shall limit our attention ; and it will be found that, by the use of this phrase, the Lord uniformly intimates that He did not assume or arrogate to Himself the dignity or office of being the Redeemer of sinful men, but that He was appointed to it, or ordained by God to it.'

Secondly Smeaton examines the sayings of Christ which assume that he is the second Adam and acting according to a covenant with the Father in this atoning work.

What grabbed me
A strong focus on the covenant of redemption today.

I liked Smeaton's comment on the Father's role in redemption: 'The great truth intimated by all these phrases is, that the redemption is of God ; that the atonement to which the saints looked forward who were saved before His advent, and to which all look back who are saved since, was effected according to the direction or will of Him from whom the world had revolted ; that the sender was the Father personally considered ; and that the grand object of the sending was to atone for sin. The sending is thus an expression of authority, and a manifestation of every divine attribute working together to a definite object. But it is specially an exhibition of unmerited love or grace. The atonement emanated from sovereign grace, and was an expression of the boundless and incomprehensible love of God's heart to sinful men ; and we may affirm, in reference to this sending, that there was a twofold object a proximate and an ultimate, first of all to atone ; and then, by atoning, to secure the end that of all whom the Father had given Him He should lose none (John vi. 39). '

God the Father was certainly not without a role in the redemption of sinful man.  In fact, He is behind it all.

Next week's reading
Conclude Chapter 2.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.