O the Wonder of Heaven and Earth!

"This is the great mystery of the Gospel; this is that which the angels (as I tell you) pry into; nay, this is that which the angels and saints too shall admire, and bless God for to all eternity; this is that which set the infinite wisdom of God on work from all eternity. If all the angels in heaven, and all the men in the world, had been put to it to find out a way to answer this question, "How shall sin be pardoned, the sinner reconciled, and God glorify His justice?" they could never have done it; this cost God dear, it cost Him the heart-blood of His own Son, and that is a sure sign that God's heart was much in it, and indeed we are not Christians, until in some measure we see and have our hearts taken with the glory of God in this mystery. O the wonder of heaven and earth!...God will have mercy on the man, and He will take vengeance on that sin; the eternal wisdom of God hath found out a way to translate this man's sins on another person who is able to bear them, and to interest this man's person in another's righteousness, which is able to cover him: so that now all is one in regard of man, as if the law had been utterly abrogated; and all is one too in regard of God, as if the creature had been utterly condemned. And all this is done in our Jesus; on Him was executed the curse of the law, by Him was fulfilled the righteousness of the law, for Him was remitted the sin of man, and through Him were all things made new again. The world was in Christ as in its surety, making satisfaction to the justice of God; and God was in Christ as in his ambassador, reconciling the world unto Him again, (O bathos!) "O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out?" (Romans 11:33). You have seen the project and the councils of God for man's salvation, before all worlds; it is but dimly "For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counsellor?" (Romans 11:34). ~Isaac Ambrose, Looking Unto Jesus