^ There are three great trees of the Bible, towering above all other trees, as the cedars of Lebanon tower above the humble shrubs. These are the tree of life in Eden, the tree of death on Calvary, and the tree of life in heaven. The first is the tree for the sinless, the second is the tree for the sinful, and the third is the tree for the saved in glory. We are neither sinless nor saints in glory, and therefore the tree for us is the tree on Calvary. Notice that St. Peter calls it simply the tree. A family have been promised a Christmas-tree by a friend. All their talk for weeks beforehand is about the tree, just as if there were no other tree in the world for them. One day a cart with a nodding fir-tree is seen approaching the house. They rush in and shout, "Oh, mother, the tree has come ! " And so the Apostle says, " the tree." No Christian can mistake it. It is the tree of trees, the prince of trees for us.^
2. Now in what sense can it be truly said that Christ bore our sins as a burden ? It cannot mean that He bore the guilt of our sin, for guilt is by its very nature inextricably attached to the sinner, and cannot be transferred ; no one else can be guilty of the sin which I have committed. Nor can it mean that He bore the punishment of our sin ; for punishment, likewise, can attach only to the one who is guilty of the sin. Another may suffer for my sin, but his suffering cannot be called punishment. In what sense, then, could Christ bear our sins ?
(1) He lore them ly sympathy. — A good mother once heard that her only son had done a deed of shame. The evil news caused her intense agony, her hair soon grew grey, health and joy forsook her, and soon she was brought down in sorrow to the grave. She bore her son's sin by sympathy. It caused her such
^ E. Vaughan. ^ James Wells, Bible Echoes, 145.
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grief, because she was so near him, and loved him so fondly. If one sin, or rather that small part of one sin we can know on earth, be such an awful burden, what must it have been to bear the sins of us all ? What bounds can be set to " the unknown agonies " of Christ, who has made Himself one with us sinners ? Let Gethsemane and its bloody sweat, let the cross and its pains explain these words, " Who bare our sins."
(2) Christ also lore our sins hy sacrifice and suhstitution. — The whole Bible is filled with this truth, and the names of Jesus help us to understand it. He is " the Lamb of God," upon whom the Lord hath laid the iniquities of us all. The Jew laid his hand upon the head of the lamb, and confessed his sins. The lamb then in a type had the burden of the Jew's sins laid upon it, and bare them by being offered as a sacrifice.
^ In Dr. Bainbridge's Around The World : Tour of Christian Missions, there is a curiously interesting and suggestive incident. When in his journey he had reached Tokio, Japan, intending to remain there some little time, he was waited upon one morning by an official, with this singular inquiry, " Who stands for you ? " Supposing it to be a question of passports, he presented his, but that was not what was wanted. He then offered some letters of introduction he had, but they also were unsatisfactory, and the question was repeated, "Who stands for you?" It was finally explained that there was an ordinance in that city to the effect that no foreigner could take up his residence there for any length of time, unless he provided himself with a " substitute." And as a matter of fact there were natives who hired themselves out to foreigners for this purpose. If the foreigner transgressed any law the substitute suffered the penalty for it. Even if the penalty were death, the substitute suffered death. Dr. Bainbridge secured a substitute, and was thereafter permitted to remain in peace and security as long as he chose.
XL
The Ethical Purpose of the Suffering.
"That we, having died unto sins, might live unto righteousness."
What was the object of Christ's death ? Why did He come and live on earth, and die, and rise again ? This may seem
no THE ETHICS OF THE ATONEMENT
a very elementary question, but it is really an all-important one. Our answer to it will colour, if not determine, our theory of atonement. Why, then, did Christ die ? You would probably answer, offhand, that Christ died to save men. And you would be right, provided you used that word " save " in the right sense. What does " save " mean ? " Salvation," " save," are great words which have been used so much that, like worn coins, the original sharpness of their meaning has been almost rubbed away. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes would say they needed "depolarising." To the ordinary "man in the pew," salvation too often means simply " safety." To be saved is to be " safe." A saved man is a man who has got off the just punishment of his sins, who will escape hell and go to heaven when he dies ; and this because he has accepted some mysterious saving work that Christ wrought for him, and instead of him, on the cross. But that is not the New Testament idea of salvation. "To save," in the New Testament, means to make whole and sound. When a sick man is cured he is said to be " saved " ; that is, made well and healthy. To be saved, in the spiritual sense, means to become morally sound, morally healthy, morally well. The idea it conveys is emphatically ethical. In New Testament language, a saved man is a good man, or a man who is on the way to becoming good.