(1) Christ Himself, as the Head of our race, presented Himself as an offering on our behalf. The laying down of His life is represented as His own deliberate voluntary act (.In 10'"-). He made His soul an ofl'ering for sin (Is 53'°, cf. Mt 26^). He gave His life {<j/vxv) a ransom for many (Xiirpoy uKxi iroXXiy, Mt 20'^). This presentation involved, according to OT analogy, the surrender to death of an appointed victim, together with a con- fession of our guilt, and the acceptance, with a full acknowledgment of its justice, of the sentence of death which has been pronounced upon us for our sin.
(2) He was at the same time not only the Offerer but the 'Victim. His whole life was (as we have seen already) a life of perfect self-surrender to the loving service of His brethren in trustful obedience to His Father's wUl. His voluntary submission to the death of the cross for the redemption ot His murderers, was the ultimate expression at once of His obedience and of His love. It is therefore tlie culminating point in His ofl'ering, and the final test of its completeness.
(3) The blood of the offering, which, again according to OT analogy, is regarded as the special seat of the atoning power, is represented as oeing sprinkled on those who enter the new covenant (He 12'", 1 P V). It is brought into the most intimate and impressive relation with each one of them when he talies into his hands the Cup of the covenant (Mt 26" etc., cf. Ex 24^*) and drinks of it according to the commandment.
In the power of the same blood, our Lord, as the great High Priest, has entered into the inmost heaven, and there without ceasing offers inter- cession (He 7") on our behalf. The blood thus becomes a living bond reuniting man to man and the whole race of man to God.
The effect of the atonement is therefore to re- move altogether the obstacle introduced by sin, to undo the work of the devil (1 Jn 3"), and to open anew the way by which sinful men can return into communion with their Father in heaven (He 10*). The blood of Christ, understood in tlie fuU measure of its spiritual reality, reveals the true law of man's being, and brings home to him the extent of his degradation. By its revelation of the love of God triumphant over sin, it wins men back from their spiritual alienation, making them ready to return to their allegiance, and willing to give up their sin. It cleanses their consciences from the stain of sin, and sets them free from the curse of the law, by the assurance that a perfect satisfaction has been oU'ered to the rigliteous claims of the divine justice, and by enabling them to make their own the perfect confession of their sins that has already been oflered in their name. It is the wellspring of a new power of moral self-determination by which they may be enabled, in spite of the tyrannous domination of past habits acquired and inherited (1 P 1'"), and in the niid.st of an atmosphere of temptation, to live henceforward in ohedieuco to God's will, submitting in patience and in hope to
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all tlie sufl'ering that He may require from them, whether by v,tiy of discipline or of service. It thus robs evun Jeath itsell of its sting.
It is true that we can but dimly see why such a sacrifice as the death of Christ should have been necessary, and guess in the light of partial human analogies at the secret of its power. But it is enough for our present guidance to know tliat the sacrifice itself has been od'ered, and that there have been men in every age who, from their own experience, have borne witness that it is eli'ectual. 8ee also FORGIVENESS and PROPITIATION.
LrrEaATTRi. — Among English treatises on the Atonement it will be enough to mention M'Leod Campbell, On the Mature of tlif. Atonement -.Vi. W. Dale, The Doctrine of the Atonement; K. D. Maurice, The Doctrine of Sacrifice ; H. N. Oxenham, The Cathoiie Doctrine of the Atonetnent ; B. F. Weatcott, Tfie Viclory of the Crou. See also Bruce, 11 urniiiatum of Christ, 317-400 ; Fairbairn, CTirtrt in Modem Theology, 479-487 ; Simon, Ufiiemption of Man ; Dorner, System of Christian Doctrine, iv. 1-124 et passim (see Index); Weiss, Bib. Theol. of NT, i. 419- 4.V2, IL 202-218; Ritschl, Christ. Lehre con d. llechtfert. u. rerr^ihtt, ( liiik'- tr. uf I't. i., HisUny of the Chriml'in Doctrine of Juuijl' 'ition and liecowtliatwn) ; Baur. lAhre vtm rf. Vmohn. in ihrer gesch. Bntiricfcetung ; Thomasius, Lehre von Christi Perton u. H'erk ; Hamack, Luther's I'heologie mil bes. BfZieh. aitj soine Versohn.'tk. Erios.-lehre.
J. O. F. Murray.
ATONEMENT, DAY OF (D-!s;n dv Lv 23" 25», ijiiifia. {ii)i\aafioO, (lies expirttionum, or (Lv 2S-^}pro- /litiationis).* — Tlie principal passages relating to this great annual fast of the Jews are Lv 16 and .2;}i«-8j . ^,^t^ some additional particulars are to be found in Nu 29'"", Ex SO" ; of. Lv 25». All these pa.ssages, though probably belonging to different dates, are connected with the priestly code. The Day of Atonement, which was a day for the assembling of the people for divine worship (a ' holy convocation ' Lv 23"), was kept in the autumn, on the 10th day t of the 7th month, or, according to our reckoning, from the evening of the 9th till the evening of the 10th. The people were charged (Lv 23""^^, cf. 16^- ^'), under pain of extermination from the community, to rest from every kind of work, and to ' atHict their souls,' t he last phrase denoting the strict abstinence from food and drink which marked a day of fasting and self-humiliation. The special olierings for the day (in addition to the regular burnt-, meal-, and ilrmk- oU'ering), are prescribed in Nu 29'"" ; they consisted of a young bullock, a ram, and seven lambs of the first year, as burnt-ollerings, with their appropriate meal-oflenngs, viz. three-tenths of an ephah for each bullock, two-tenths for the ram, and one-tenth for each lamb, also of a he- goat for a sin-oliering. These additional oflerings are similar to those for the 1st day of the month, and the 8th of the Feast of Booths (vv.>-«- ""j.