SACEIFICE
SACRU-"ICK
345
^VeHtoott, llehrexrg, p. 301). Yet a^in It has been Interpreted u of tiie nature of a honorific ^ift which as such was acceptable to t;o<J (Wendt, op. cit. ii. 237). And once more, recurring to the evolutionary account, we might utilize the idea that by sharing the blood God and His people were knit into a close physical union and communion. Corresponding to these accounts the aacritice of Christ would be necessarily interpreted as ettlcocious as a penal substitution, as an act declaratory of the inmiutability of God's gracious purpose, as an acceptable gift of perfect ol>edience, and as a sacramental act uniting Cod and man. It thus appears that the conce)>tion of the death as a Covenant-sacrifice docs not itself yield a theory, but otdy supplies a form which con be utilized to illustrate a theory otherwise grounded. Probably Christ's meaning was simpler than any that has been specified, viz. that it was God's plan to seal a covenant by a socrilice, and that, like the Old, the New Covenant, which provided for the remission of sins, had a sign of ita origio and validity in the shedding ood sphiikiing of blood.
(6) The Pauline Epistles bring us closer to the familiar theological issues. In view of his specu- lative interests, it is antecedently probable that St. Paul had reHected on the problems which have proved so fa.scinating to later Christian thoufjht, while his rabbinical training must have lelt a dcjiosit of answers to similar questions touching O'V sacrifice. As a fact, he makes a large con- tribution to a theory of the Atonement.
(«) The element of Christ's sacrifice to which decisive import- ance attaches b llie death upon the cross. So vital is this that the gospel may be summarily described as the message of the cross ^1 Co lis). It is in the death of the Son (lio 5l»), in His cross, m the blood of His cross (Col 1^), that the procuring cause is found of the blessings of redemption. It is obviously true that St. Paul recognizes other elements without which the death would have had no significance. Especially does it derive its value from the dignity of the person of liim who was Messiah, declared to be the .Son of God in the resurrection, and who is now exalted (Ko 1^, Col li-*"^-). But it waa not •imply as obedient (Ko .^Ifl, Ph 2«), it was as the obedient One who was slain, and whose blood was spilt, that He had power and prevailed (Ro 323). * n jg upon the moment of death that 'iie grounding of salvation is exclusively concentrated ' (Holtz- raann, Snitfgf. Throl. ii. p. 111).
(3) The sacrifice of Christ had the significance of the death of an innocent victim in the room of the guilty. It is vain to deny that St. Paul frcfly euiploys the category of substitution. Involving the conception of the imputation or transference of moral Qualities. He does not, indeed, expressly say that Christ nie<l in our stead («r?/) : the phra.se is 'on our behalf iy*ip, Ito 68 8^-*, 1 Th 610 etc.), or 'on accoimt of our sins' (8j«. Ro 4^6 ; wtoi, 1 Co 15^). But the idea of an exchan^eof parts *» netwixt Christ and man is unmistakable. Chnst suffers death, which is the penalty of our sins, not of His own ; man is the recipient of a righteousness which he has not built up, but which is won for him by Christ (2 Co 521). From his reference to Christ as a means of propitiation (jXaerrn^'dv, Ro 323) it is probable that the apostle conceived of Christ u expiating guilt through the vicarious endurance of itfl characteristrc penalty. It does not, indeed, follow that he conceived of Christ as becoming the object of the Father's wrath, and construed the cross as having the quality of a punishment indicted upon Christ and recognized as such, or the content of an erjuivalentof the misery of the lost (Pfleiderer, I'aulinUmug, p. ^ZB.).
(r) The necessity of Christ's sacrifice tiad Its ground in the Divine Justice. "The economy of grace, which includes the Atonement, Is indeed derived, as its ultimate spring, from the love of God(Ro6iH0 8M-«'); but the justice of Ood had a voice in the shaping and developing of the economy. The atoning sacrifice was necessary in order 'that God might be just' as well as 'the Justifier of them that believe' (Ro 825). But this answer only opens up new vistas of questionings. Why was Christ's vicarious death demonded by God in virtue of His justice? We nmy safely say that neither the Orotian Iheorj — to prevent the spread of sinful disorder by an example of
{lunishment, nor even the orthodox view — because Divine justice ty its very nature insists on punishment or satisfaction, lay within the apostle's horizon. The ground of the necessity was something more positi\'e, viz. that God, whose word could not be broken, had enacted and provided In Scripture that sin would 1« punished with death. According to PHeidcrer, this is one of the instances of the contnulictions of Paulinism. The Law, which the apostle pronounced to be temporary and now abrogated. Is here utilized to lay the foundation of the doctrine of the Atonement (op. eit. p. 103). But the proclamation of death as the wages of sin is not confined to the Lnvi ; It goes bock to the patriarchal and earlier times (On 3»), In which St. Paul always recognized an anticipation of the religious condi- tions of the age of the gospel.