James Nisbet Commentary - Daniel 9:24 - 9:24

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James Nisbet Commentary - Daniel 9:24 - 9:24


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THE MESSIAH CUT OFF

‘Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy.’

Dan_9:24

The leaders of the new school of criticism agree that this is a prophecy fulfilled only in Christ.

I. Let us look at this marvellous prophecy.—The words are vague enough to be indefinite, and yet they are so marvellously definite too, that we can apply them only to that one death—the only death in history which fulfils them. The cutting off of this Prince is the central point of the prophecy. Notice what this cutting off is to bring. It is ‘to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness.’ Is there any death in all history, but one, of which you can say all that? Try these words on Socrates, on Confucius, on Zoroaster. It is a difficult thing to fit the event to the prophecy, but the marvellous terms of this prophecy do it. Mark this, that there was not a single human being who could understand these words: not even Peter, James, and John could see how that death of their Master should bring in everlasting righteousness. We think that if they had not been slow of heart, these disciples might have understood it better. But at the critical moment they all forsook Him and fled, and on the day of His glorious resurrection they were saying, ‘We trusted that it had been He Which should have redeemed Israel.’ Even the women, who were last at His cross and first at His sepulchre, were inspired by love rather than by faith. Did not the fact of their bringing spices for His embalming show that their faith in Him was gone? From their present point of view the prophecy was reversed. Sin had made an end of Him, transgression had finished Him. His crucifixion seemed the final triumph of iniquity. Does it relieve this gloom at all to speak of His perfect holiness and purity? Nay, rather, so much the blacker is the crime, so much the more hideous the triumph of iniquity. ‘Anointing the Most Holy!’ The coronation of hellish hate and iniquity rather! No wonder that Unitarians make so little of the death of Christ on the Cross. They only see sin making an end of a good man, and what sort of gospel is that? But wait till the resurrection, and you see the seeming Victim become the Victor. The death on Calvary was not the end—it was only the dark passage to light and life. From the darkness He issues forth in triumph, with the banner of salvation in His hand. We understand all the prophecy of the text now—all stands luminous in the light of the risen Sun of Righteousness. Reading the story of the Cross in this light it is no longer the darkest event in all the world’s history, but it fills us with the hope of the ultimate triumph of righteousness.

His loving voice comes to each of us, ‘Thou canst love Me, Who hast died for thee.’

II. It seemed that God had deserted the innocent Sufferer.—‘In all our afflictions He was afflicted.’ That is true, but there is something more. ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.’ Jesus not only suffers with, but suffers for us. It meant that He finished our transgressions and made an end of our sins. But do you point me to the history of the world to-day, nineteen centuries since that crucifixion? Does that look like making an end of sin? Is this prophecy half fulfilled? In one sense it is; in another sense not quite yet; and in a third sense, scarcely at all.

(1) Jesus, Son of God, was also the Son of Man, the representative of humanity, and He bears the transgression of humanity, and dies the death of humanity. In His person, as our representative, He has made an end of sin. This is an important fulfilment of the prophecy, and we can point to the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sin of the world.

But it takes two to make a bargain! The representative must be accepted by humanity. His constituents, let us call them, as soon as they are united to Him by loyalty of heart, have their sins blotted out. There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. But there must be a bond between, so that His grace may flow into you. Your heart must be open to His, as His is all the time to you.

(2) Is there not still sin in us? Yes, the prophecy of making an end of sin is only in part fulfilled; but a time is coming, and for some of us coming soon, when we shall be entirely free. We are perfect in our purpose, though not in our life. All true Christians make an end of sin in purpose—they are eager to have every sin destroyed. Though conscious of great weakness, yet the purpose is pure. If you are not willing to be made free from every sin, you are still in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity, and on the road to death. What a terrible thing to choose sin and let Him go! Rather let us welcome this great salvation to our hearts and lives.

(3) The final fulfilment will be in the time coming. The advance seems slow to the bringing in of everlasting righteousness, but this is God’s method. If we stagger not at the æons which elapsed before the evolution of things terrestrial, whystagger at the millions of years in the evolution of things spiritual? ‘One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.’ ‘But the day of the Lord will come.’ Then shall the great words of this prophecy be completely fulfilled.