• Such theories, like the IJotiio to express the Atnn society dominant in thr -M no doubt perform useful
they are a method of expn problem.
in in Cur Deus
ATONEMENT
ATONEMENT
3. Reconciliation is antecedent to the rcncical of the individual. — This is almost wholly ignored in modern German theology, which thereby goes far to forfeit its claim to be a true development of Lutheran teaching, losing touch with the NT generally and especially with St. Paul. Ritschl, for example, for whom the statement that 'Christ expiated sin by His passion ' has ' \ery little war- rant in the Biblical circle of thouglit,' regards the death of Jesus merely as ' the summary expression of the fact that Christ maintained His religious unity with God,' and places the forgiveness of sins in the ' efi'ective union ' of believers with God in that Divine kingdom which it was the vocation of Jesus to found {Justification and Reconciliation, Eng. tr. oh. viii.). Now, while Kitschl thus re- covers a truly Apostolic conception in the King- dom of God as the primary object of reconciliation (see below), he does so only at the expense of the ' finished work,' which is the glory of all true evangelicalism. St. Paul in particular leaves no doubt as to the objective character of the ' recon- ciliation' wrought by Christ, which stands com- plete before the preaching whereby comes hearing and faith. 'While we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son ' (Eg 51", cf. vv.«- »• », Col !-'• ==). He has previously shown (Ro 3''''"-'') that the vindication of God's righteousness (^i/Seifis t^s SiKtuoaiv-qs airod), which conscience requires as a condition of the acquittal of sinners, has already been given in the redemp- tion wrought by Christ, involving as it did the bloodshedding of the Son of God, which con- stituted the Redeemer a propitiation for sin. The equivalence adumbrated by the symbolic transfer of guilt to the head of the victim was consum- mated in Christ (Ro 8', 2 Co 5=', Gal 3'=, cf. Lv 16' also Hebrews, passim, see below). The spectacle of such a substitution — not one man redeeming Ms brother, but God putting Himself in the sinner's place — was the manifestation of a Divine righteousness to which Law and Prophets, the Hebrew dispensation, had witnessed (Ro 3-')- In Christ crucified that righteousness is complete, needing no human condition (Ipyov) to perfect it, but oftered freely to him that believeth on the iustifier of the ungodly, so that his faith can be reckoned instead of righteousness,* because through it the sinner appropriates Christ's finished work and becomes ' the righteousness of God in him' (2 Co 5='). Here the Atonement, as St. Paul interprets it, leads to the development of the doctrine of the Incarnation (Ro 5'--', cf. 1 Co 1 5^'' ^-). Christ is the second Adam ; He ' recapi- tulates' (Eph l'", cf. Protcv. Jac. 13, and Irena^us, bk. III. ch. XXX. ' recapitulans in se Adam') the human race, so that His redemptive, recreative act has more than a representative value. In Him 'all died' (2 Co 5"). This characteristic principle of Pauline theology — ' in Christ ' — ex- pands on the other side into the doctrine of the new life through membership (Ro 12^-*, Eph 4-»') in the body of Christ and fellowship of the one Spirit (I ('.. l->'\ -JC. 13"). The second Adam is a quickHiini;4 spii i(, ciidcwed with the grace of unc- tion (Hooki M, /;,,/. I;, I., bk. V. ch. lv.), imparting througli thu KL^uirceaion a Spirit which dwells in the believer and finally quickens even his mortal body (Ro 8").
That the communion of the elect people with God meant the indwelling of His Spirit, is a familiar idea of the OT (Is 63«-" Ezk 36"). So
• Much harm has resulted from insisting on the ' forensic' character of this justification. No doubt hx«.,iu has associa- tions of the law court ; but it is as absurd to suppose that legal fictions were present to the mind of St. Paul as to ascribe these ideas to the compiler of Genesis (On 156) or the author of the thirty-second Psalm (Ps 322). The word expresses only the free forgiveness of the Father's love.
the body of Christ, which is the Church (Col 1"), being the primary object of redemption (Ac 20=«, Eph !"• " 2"-'s i*-\ Tit 2" ; cf. 1 P 2*- 1»), reconciled through death (Eph 2}^), becomes a habitation of the Spirit (Ejih 2='- ^2), distributed according to the measure of faith to the several members (Eph 4'- ", Ro 12'), which through the Presence ('Christ in you,' ' the Spirit of the Son shed abroad in your hearts,' 'the fulness of God,' Eph 3'-') have a com- mon access to the Father (Ephi2'», cf. 3'=), manifest the gifts of the Spirit (1 Co 12^-", Ro 126-8), ^^^ j^ mutual dependence grow together to ' the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ ' (Eph i^^- '=•", Col2'3, Ro 12*-';). That this teaching, though given in St. Paul's individual manner, was no personal speculation of his own, may be gathered from its close relation to the great social sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist, which would be start- ling if, in viewjof their generally accepted signifi- cance in the primitive community, it were not obvious (Eph 4-'- *, l Co 10").