In virtue of the primitive relationship of man- kind to Him, the Son of God is concerned in the curse that came upon us through transgression, and becomes answerable on this account (see Dale, Atonement, Lect. x.). God ‘made him sin on our behalf.’ Yet His freedom was never compromised, His purity remained unspotted ; ‘in the likeness of βιὰ] flesh’ He was ‘sent forth,’ not in its actual carnality ; in fact, He ‘knew no sin’ (Ro 8°, 2 Co 5*': contrast Ro 77-8). This statement implies a large acquaintance on St. Paul’s part with the per- sonal life of Jesus, to which his references are few but significant (Ro 15°, 2 Co 10!, Eph 4-4, 1 Ti 6", Ac 20%, 1Co 11%). The miraculous conception, which in a manner explains the unique character of Jesus, the apostle never alludes to. His power- ful manifestation as ‘Son of God,’ from the time of the resurrection, was ‘in accordance with the spirit of holiness’ that marked His earthly course (Ro 1".
The Messiahship of Jesus, ex pressed in His name Christ—the main topic of missionary preachin to Jews (Ac 9 137%: ete.)—is taken for ga" in the Epp., like the Fatherhood of God, as accepted to begin with by all Christians, Two
ints Paul had to make out in proving Jesus to
‘Christ’: (1) to show from Scripture that the Christ was παθητός, was destined to suffer in order to reign—this general doctrine of a sufferin Messiah being an open question in the Jewis schools; (2) to identify Jesus with the Christ so defined (Ac 1755 18*°), On the abstract point of doctrine he might carry his Jewish hearers with him, but fail when he applied it to the crucified Nazarene. That Christ was ‘of David’s seed according to flesh,’ that His Jewish birth was the crown of Israelite privilege and glory, that ‘Christ had become minister of the circumcision,’ and that
PAUL THE APOSTLE
God had ‘thus fulfilled the promise made to the fathers’: these were essential conditions of the case, and sacred matters to the Gentile apostle (Ro 1? 955 1651, Ac 13%), But the Messianic kingship of the OT has expanded into the larger royalty of ‘the Lord Jesus Christ’; and he who had fervently expected a Χριστὸν κατὰ σάρκα, ‘now no longer knows him’ (2 Co 51%), See, further, art. MESSIAH.
(6) The Death of the Cross.—The Christ so con- stituted, David’s seed and God’s own Son, sin-curst γεν sinless, died the death of the cross—a victim or human transgression. THE Cross is the main shaft of the superstructure resting on the basis already described ; it is the trunk into which run up all the roots of Paul’s Christian thought, and that supports its branches and fruitage. ‘Far be it from me to glory,’ he exclaims, ‘ save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!’ Everything that Pau! knows, exults in, builds upon, is poised there.
The apostle uses many terms to express the meaning of the death of Christ, for it is a fact of boundless significance. It is a vicarious, repre- sentative death, as He who thus suffered is the Leader of the race, the ‘One’ who ‘died for all,’ who alone had the right and power to do so (2 Co 515), It is a legal expiation in the ve largest sense, coming under that awful law which links death to sin as its universal human penalty (Ro 5! 82,1 Co 15%, Gal 4*5); the pardon based upon it is accordingly a ‘justification,’ an acquittal and release in the court of the Divine justice, since ‘he that died hath been justified from sin,’ and ‘all died in him’ (Ro 4* 67, 2 Co δ᾽, Col 2" #4), Christ’s death was an intrinsically ‘justifying act’ (δικαίωμα), right in itself and rectifying in its scope, that turned to ‘justification of life’ the ‘condem- nation’ lying on ‘all men’ in Spr at sana of Adam’s trespass ; it is ‘the obedience of the One,’ through which ‘the disobedience of the one man’ is counter- vailed (Ro 5"), It was a ‘propitiation,’ since He who thus shed ‘ his blood’ in doing so realized with sympathy and entire submission the holy resentment that burns against sin through all the miseries which it entails, and the endurance of this undeserving voluntary Sufferer for His sg brethren was ‘an odour of sweet smell’ ( “ἢ Eph δ). In every fitting sense the death of Jesus was a ‘sacrifice,’ offered upon man’s part, which God in His righteousness accepts. In His grace God first provided it ; for ‘Christ is God’s’ rather than ours. The Father of Christ and of men ‘ sent his own Son, in likeness of sinful flesh and for sin’ ; He ‘delivered him up for us all’; He ‘set him forth a propitiation,’ and so ‘commends his own love tow: us... sinners’ (Ro δ᾽ 8553). Thus the sacrifice effects a ‘reconciliation’ (καταλλαγή),
roposed by God who through Christ admits into ees those who could otherwise be treated only as enemies, and accepted by men who endorse the satisfaction which Christ renders on their behalf (Ro δι}, 2 Co δ᾽53), On this ground God and man meet in friendship. The Divine family is gathered again round the Elder Brother, who restores to each other those whom He reconciles to God, slaying all enmity by the blood of His cross (Eph 2"). On the basis of this atonement the entire sum of blessings making up our salvation is bestowed— blessings collectively named ‘redemption’ (ἀ πολύ- Tpwois), as they are won for us at the cost of the blood of Christ (1 Co 1” 6%, Eph 14, Ac 20%).