2. The meaning assigned to the death of Christ. — Having established the place given in the Epp. to Christ's death, we must now consider the mean- ing which is assigned to it. (1) The fundamental thought in all the gi-oujis is that the deatli of Christ is a manifestation of the lure of God. 'God coni- mendeth his own love toward us,' says St. Paul, ' in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us'(Ro5'). This Pauline keynote is one that is constantly struck. In 1 Peter ' the sprinkling of tlie blood of Jesus Christ' is brought into immedi- ate connexion with ' the foreknowledge of God the Father' (1-)— a view of the Father's relation to the death of Jesus which must not be lost sight of when the Apostle exclaims in the next verse, ' Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead' (v.''). The autlior of Hebrews declares tliat it was bi/ the fjrace of God that Jesus tasted death for every man (-2^), and that it was by the will of God that we were ' sanctified through the ottering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all' (lO'-W). In 1 Jn. we have the great utterance, ' Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins ' (4'").
In all these writers, then, tlio i;ra(0 of the
Heavenly Father is tlie source of tlie rr,l,-i,iptinn
which is bound up with the deatli of Chrisl. In
the case of St. Paul the attempt is frequently made
VOL. 1.—2S
to show that his teaching on the subject of Christ's death as a necessary sacrifice for sin is inconsistent with the utterances of Jesus Himself {e.(f. in the parable of the Prodigal Son, Lk lo-""'-) with regard to the Father's spontaneous love for sinners. But whatever St. Paul said as to the propitiatory character of tlie death of Christ, it is evident that he never felt that he was compromising the love of God in any way. On the contrary, he saw in God's love the original motive of Christ's sacrifice (2 Co 5"), and in that sacrifice the commendation of the Father's love (Ro .">').
(2)Furtlier, thedc.ithofCl sented as thr .s-ii/)i-riiii- r.r/irr.s; Himself. With SI. I'aul th stantly recurring thought. constraineth us,' he exclaims in one of his greatest passages, ' because we thus judge, that one died for air (2 Co o"). 'Christ also,' says St. Peter, ' suffered for sins once, the righteous for the un- righteous, that he might bring us to God' (1 P 3'*). In the view of the author of Hebrews, Jesus ' ottered himself (through His death, viz., as the preceding phrase, 'the blood of Christ,' shows) to jiurge the human conscience (9'''). And St. John writes, • He ' {i.e. Christ) 'laid down his life f,,r us' (1 Jn 3'").
The Father and the Smi are thus represented as working together in Christ's death for man's salva- tion, and working together from motives of love. As St. Paul expresses it, ' God was in Christ recon- ciling the world unto himself (2 Co 5'"). But " intary instrument of the
rist is uniformly repre- ion of the love of Christ i is a central and con- 'The love of Christ
Christ is not th
Father's love for men
sacrifice. He is the ' L
Baptist said (Jn l-^- ^') :
a lamb to the slaughtt
the OT prophet. Katlier, as in
self a willing indeed, as the it ' brought as dim figure of conception of
the writer of Hebrews, He is the High Priest who makes the offering, even more than the Lamb that is laid on the altar (9""'^). St. Paul sums up the matter apart from the imagery of the Tabernacle and the Temple, and in the simple dialect of the heart, when he says, 'The Son of God loved me, :iiid ,u.u e himself up for me' (Gal 2=").
(.'il Ihit while springing from the Divine love, the di-ath of Christ is represented in the Epp. not less clearly .'is n jiropitiatioiifor sin. According to St. r.iul, as we have seen, it was the initial article of the jpriinitive tradition that 'Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures' (1 Co 15'). And this part of the primary deposit of Apostolic testi- mony reappears in the witness of all the different epistolary groups. It reappears so constantly that no reader of the NT will challenge the statement that Christ's death is invariably associated with the putting away of sin (cf. 1 P l"*"- 2--' 3'^ Gal 1* 3" 6'^ 2 Co_5», Ro 3=i'''- 5^>'; He 9=«- "-«, 1 Jn V 2= 4"). The discussion of the precise natirre of the relation between these two magnitudes — the death of Christ and the sin of man— belongs properly to the doctrine of the Atonement (see Atonement, RAN- SOM, Reconciliation, Redemption). But this at least may be said, that however the matter may appear to those who deal with it from the point of view of a philosophy of the Atonement, any interpretation of the mass of NT evidence seems difiicult and forced which does not recognize that, in the view of these writers, Christ's death was really our death in a vicarious and propitiatory sense— that Jesus Christ died on our behalf that death which is the fruit of sin, taking upon Himself the Divine condemnation of sin, so that there might be no condemnation to those who are found in Him. That this is the I'.-uiline teaeli-