1 H. P. Liddon.
384 CLEANSING OF THE CONSCIENCE
our moral state before God ; and that, as sinners, we are above all things interested in the "fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness " in the blood of Christ. Do we look to our successive Communions for the strengthening and refreshing of our souls ? This is because the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for us of old, and is given us now, can " preserve our bodies and souls unto everlasting life." Does even a single prayer, offered in entire sincerity of purpose, avail to save a despairing soul ? It is because " we have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus." ^
^ " Suppose that I, a sinner, be walking along yon golden street, passing by one angel after another. I can hear them say as I pass through their ranks, " A sinner ! a crimson sinner ! " Should my feet totter ? Should my eye grow dim ? No : I can say to them, " Yes, a sinner, a crimson sinner, but a sinner brought near by a forsaken Saviour, and now a sinner who has boldness to enter into the Holiest through the blood of Jesus." ^
2. "Who offered himself without blemish unto God." — This brings out more than His personal holiness. His perfect obedience. It was a tuhole sacrifice. He took this life and laid it on the altar of God. He said : " Lo, I come to do thy will " ; and God laid His yoke upon Him. Day by day as in providence the yoke of Divine command came. He met the will of God with perfect submission. As the clouds began to gather, and the opposition of men grew fiercer, Christ rose to the level of perfect obedience and every moment did the will of God. He stands before the judgment-seats of Caiaphas, Pilate, and Herod, is at last brought out to " the green hill beyond the city wall," and there He reaches the crown of His perfect obedience.
^ Obedience is not really separable from atonement. Obedi- ence is atoning ; and the atonement itself can be exhibited as one great consummation of obedience. Only in Christ's death is the climax of obedience reached ; while the life is a sacrifice from end to end. The life, as apart from the death, is characterized more immediately by the homage of perfect obedience than by the agony of extreme penitence. The death, viewed apart from the life, is characterized even more by the anguish which was requisite to perfect contrition than by the normal homage to the character of God which consists in being holy. Our thought is of
^ H. P. Liddon, Passiontide Sermons, 81. 2 AT'drew A. Bonar, Heavenly Springs, 175.
HEBREWS IX. 13, 14 385
the life of conaummate obedience, as a perfect manifestation, and offering, of holiness : holiness in terms of human condition and character ; yet a perfectly adequate holiness ; a response worthy of the holiness of God. How, in this aspect, shall we chiefly characterize the picture of the life as a whole ? The essential point of the truth, the truth which sums up all other and more partial truths, would seem to be this. It is a life of unreserved, unremitting, absolute, and clearly conscious, dependence. The centre of His life is never in Himself. He is always explicitly the manifestation, the reflection, the obedient Son and Servant, of another. There is no purpose of self ; no element of self-will ; no possibility, even for a moment, of the imagination of separate- ness ; no such thing, we may even say, as a consciousness alone and apart. He is the representative agent of another, the Son of the Father, the Image of God.^
3. "Through the eternal Spirit." — The voluntary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ was a Divine act. He assumed the nature of man, but even in His humiliation He was God still. When He laid aside His eternal glory, it was God who made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant, and assumed the likeness of men ; and throughout the whole history of His sorrow and shame, although the majesty and splendour of His heavenly estate were obscured, it was still the everlasting Son of the Father — the Divine Word dwelling upon earth — that was the object of the malignity of Satan and the cruelty of man. The sufferings of the sacrifices of the ancient law were not to be ascribed to any voluntary submission on their part ; but it was "through the eternal Spirit" — the Divine personality and will which constituted the very centre and root of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ — that He endured the cross, despising the shame. The mystery of the union between the Divinity and the humanity of our Lord cannot be penetrated ; but the difficulties are meta- physical, not moral. They defy the power of the intellect, but do not trouble the conscience. On the other hand, if this union is forgotten, and if the sufferings of the Lord Jesus for human salvation are regarded as the sufferings of a third person interven- ing between God and man, to allay the wrath of the One and to secure the escape of the other, moral difficulties arise of the most portentous kind; and the conscience, instead of finding rest in ^ R. C. Moberly, Atonement and Personality, 99. I THESS.-HEB. — 25