diately over this mercy-seat, and between the cherubin, habitually dwelt the Shekinah, or visible manifestation of Jehovah's presence. On the great day of atonement, the high priest entered within the veil, first with the blood of the bullock, slain as an atonement for the sin of his house ; and again with the blood of the goat, slain as a sin-offering for the sin of the people ; and he sprinkled them both in turn over the mercy-seat, and seven times before it (Lev. xvi. 14, 15). Hence, when God looked down towards his law, on which rests his throne, and which called for the execution of the penalty upon every transgression, his eye rested first on the nnD3, or covering bearing the sacrificial blood ; the sins were therefore covered, and God was reconciled. Hence this small slab of gold became the most important part of the tabernacle—the-. Holy of Holies being at times designated as “the house of the n153,” or “the house of the blood-bearing covering” (1 Chron. xxvii. 11).* Tfence the word 93, originally signifying to cover, came to be used by the Holy Ghost to express the effect of a sacrifice in expiating the guilt of sim, and hence in propitiating the infinitely holy God. / Hence it is pro- perly translated in our version, in différént constructions, by the words to make atonement, to appease, to pacify, to reconcile, to purge, to purge away (lizek. xvi. 638 ; Gen, xxxii.} 20/21; Ps. jlxv, 3,4; lexviii-38:-b Sam ii. 14; Num. xxxv. 33). And hence also the cognate word ompd is translated atonement, and 5 is. trans- lated sometimes ransom (Ps. xlix. 7). “If there be laid upon him a sum of money” (an atonement, some- thing to cover his offence), ‘“‘then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him” (Exod.
* See Hengstenberg, Gen. of the Pent., vol. ii., pp. 524-526. See Fair- bairn’s Typology, vol. i1., chap. v.
XIT.
CHAPTER AIT.
‘Effect of
Christ’s death as it respects the guilt of sin.
170 THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT.
xxi. 30). “Iam the Lorp thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee” (Isa. xlii. 3). And sometimes it is translated satisfaction (Num. xxxv. 31, 32). Thus under the Old Testament, as well as under the New, sacrificial expiation is declared to be of the nature of a ransom ; that is, of some person or thing given for another as the condition of deliverance. But the fixed idea of the basis of the whole usage of the word and its derivatives is, that (a) God is reconciled to the sinner only by covering his sin; and (6) that sin is covered only by sacrificial blood, Thus, in Lev. x. 17, it is said that the ‘“ sin-offering is given to make atonement” (that is, covering of sin by blood) “for them before the Lorp.” Paul declares, as the sum of Old Testament ritual, that “without shed- ding of blood is no remission ;” and, ‘‘ Where remis- sion is, there is no more offering for sin” (Heb, ix. 22; x. 18). The Seventy habitually translate this word 752 _ (to. cover sin by blood) by the Greek word (AacKcecOai, the fixed meaning of which was to propitiate by expia- tion. And the apostles, following the Seventy, apply the same word to Christ and his work. His “ blood is shed for the remission of sins” (Matt. xxvi. 28). He is the iNacpuos (1 John ii. 2); and the ‘Aacrijprov, or mercy-seat (Rom. iii. 25), covering our sins with sacrificial blood. II. The effect of Christ’s sufferings, as they respect the sins of his people, was expiation of guilt. Propitiation has reference to the bearing or effect of satisfaction upon God. Expiation has reference to the bearing of the same satisfaction upon the guilt of sin. It does not, in the least degree, remove the pollution or moral turpitude of sin. It removes only its guilt or moral obligation, and hence its legal exposure to punishment. The same words, alike in classical Latin, and Greek, and in the originals. of both the Old and the New Testaments, are
EFFECTS OF CHRIST’S WORK. 171