brethren.” Christ’s death was for us as a sacrifice, and therefore, from the nature of the transaction, in our place. Whether the idea of substitution be expressed by ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν depends on the context rather than on the force of the preposition. To die for any one, may mean either for his benefit or in his stead, as the con- nection demands. Christ gave himself, as an offering and a sacrifice, προσφορὰν καὶ Svoiav ; the latter term explains the former. Any thing presented to God was a προσφορά, but Svcia was something slain. The addi-
tion of that term, therefore, determines the nature of | the offering. This is elsewhere determined by the nature of the thing offered, as in Heb. 10, 10, “ the offering of the body of Christ ;” or, “ himself,” Heb. 9, 14. 25; by the effects ascribed to it, viz. expiation of guilt and the propitiation of God, which are the ap- propriate effects of a sin-offering ; see Heb. 2, 17; 10, 10. 14; Rom. 3, 25; 5, 9.10: by explanatory expres- sions, “the one offering of Christ” is declared to be μίαν ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτιῶν ϑυσίαν, Heb. 10,12; “a sacrifice for sin,” and προσφορὰ περὶ ἁμαρτίας, Heb. 10, 18; ἀντίλυτρον, and λύτρον ἀντὶ πολλῶν, as in 1 Tim. 2, 6. Matt. 20, 28; it is called a propitiation, Rom. 3, 25, as well as a ransom. Christ himself, therefore, is called the Lamb of God who bore our sins; his blood is the object of faith or ground of confidence, by which, as the blood of a sacrifice, we are redeemed, 1 Pet. 1, 18. 19. He saves us as a priest does, i. e. by a sacrifice. Every victim ever slain on Pagan altars was a declara- tion of the necessity for such a sacrifice ; all the blood
CHAP. v. vs. 1. 2. 279
shed on Jewish altars was a prophecy and promise of propitiation by the blood of Christ; and the whole New Testament is the record of the Son of God offer- ing himself up as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. This, according to the faith of the church universal, is the sum of the Gospel—the incarnation and death of the eternal Son of God as a propitiation for sin. There can, therefore, be no doubt as to the sense in which the apostle here declares Christ to be an offering and a sacrifice.
There is some doubt as to the construction of the words, “to God.” They may be connected with what precedes, “ He gave himself as a sacrifice to God ;” or with the following clause, “ For a sweet savour to God,” i. e. acceptable to him. The sense of the whole would then be, ‘He gave himself, παρέδωκεν ἑαυτόν, (unto death, εἰς Savarov,) an offering and sacrifice well pleasing to God.’ The reasons in favour of this con- struction are—l. That παραδιδόναι means properly to deliver up to the power of any one, and is not the suit- able or common term to express the idea of presenting as a sacrifice. The word almost always used in such cases is προσφέρειν, to bring near to, to offer. 2. With Paul the favourite construction of παραδιδόναι is with εἰς and not with the dative. 3. In Hebrew, from which the phrase εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας here used is borrowed, the expression is ninsd naan (ὦ sweet smelling savour to Jehovah), which the Septuagint render, ὀσμὴ εὐωδίας τῷ Κυρίῳ. It is not probable in using so familiar a scriptural phrase Paul would depart from the common