The greatest act in the universe

George Smeaton, in his classic work on the atonement entitled The Apostles' Doctrines of the Atonement, addresses a passage of Scripture where Paul curses any who would come against the gospel either by changing it or denying it. The verse in question is found in Galatians. Chapter1 and verse 8 reads, "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed."


Smeaton acknowledges the gravity of the issue writing,

Were the atonement not the principal matter of the gospel, and the highest exhibition of the united wisdom, love, and faithfulness of God, — in a word, the greatest act of God in the universe, — that terrible anathema on its subverters would seem to us something inexplicable, if not intolerable. But the doom is justified by the nature of Christ's death, and by the great fact of the atonement.

 The gospel-the life,death, and resurrection of Jesus-is of the greatest import and we need to come to terms with this even as Paul did.