1. In the teaching of our Lord.— The .single in- stance in which our Lord is reported to have used the word l\d(TKo/j.at, in Lk 18'^, has little bearing on the question whether He thought His work a pro- pitiation. This question must be considered on the l)roader ground of His thought of the relation in which His work stood to the Levitical sacrifices out of which the idea of propitiation grew. Now, the Evangelists believed nnich relating to His birth, lifework, and death to be the fulfilment of OT prophecy (Mt P^ 2«- '« 3» 4'-^- '« 12'»-2' 13=*'' 2P etc. ). They evidently got this impression from our Lord Himself, who saw the OT fulfilled in Him- self (Mt 11'" 13'*- 1» 2V\ but esp. Mt 5" and Lk 2413-31). jjg (ii(i jjQt view His work and teaching as a break in the continuity of religious historical development, but as woven into its evolving pro-
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gress. He came to fill the Law and the Prophets full of a new meaning by strijjjiing them of Kabbinic accretions and revealing their deepest spiritual import. He saw His life and death re- lated to Moses (the Law) and all the Prophets.
In view of this general concejition, we must interpret our Lord's references to His death. The place His death had in His thought, apart from the more direct teaching as to its purpose and import, makes it plain that it was deemed of paramount importance in His mission work. Interpreting His words at His baptism (Mt 3'^ 'Thus it be- cometh us to fulfil all righteousness') in the light of Mt 2022- --is, but especially of His words in Lk 125o ('I have a baptism to be baptized Avith, and how- am I straitened till it be accomplished '), it would seem that His death was before Him from the first as an essential part of His mission. Of the same meaning is Mk 2-» (cf. Mt 9^^ Lk 5^^) of the taking away of the bridegroom. He foretold that His resurrection would follow His death (Mt 12^*' || Lk IP**). He dwelt upon the details of His betrayal and death (Mt 16-^', cf. Mk 8^1 W'^, Lk 9^2). In connexion with these prophetic statements He gives the warning : ' He that doth not take his cross and follow after me, is not worthy of me,' and ' he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it ' (Mt 1038- 39 iQii. 25^ cf. Mk S^"- 35 and Lk 9^^- "\ see also Jn 8^8)^ referring, doubtless, to the manner of His death.
On coming down from the Transfiguration, He forbade the three to mention what they had wit- nessed till He was risen from the dead (Mt 17^ cf. Mk 830), and Lk 9^^ declares that Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus of His death as of supreme moment. As the end drew near, He dwelt more upon His death and resurrection (Mt 1 722. 23 OQis-ia 2133-40, cf. Mk 126-8, Jn lO^i). The great space given to the circumstances connected with our Lord's death seems to show that the Evangelists saw in it the culmination of His redemptive work.
But our Lord connects Himself more explicitly with the sacrificial system. In Lk 22^^ He identifies Himself with the Servant of Jehovah of Is 53, as ' he was reckoned with the transgressors.' In Mt 2028 (cf. Mk 10*«) He says that He is to ' give his life a ransom for {avrl 'in the place of) many.' At the solemn institution of the Supper (Mt 2628, cf. Mk 1424, Lk 2220), ^j^g wine is said to represent ' my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many unto the remission of sins.' He was also to give His ' flesh for the life of the world ' (Jn b'^^^"). St. John also identifies Him with the Suffering Servant of Jehovah of Is 53, in Jn 1238. The words of the Baptist : ' Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world ' ( Jn l-^), probably also are in terms of Is 53^, as the Servant of Jeho- vah, ' bruised for our iniquities,' like the sacrificial lamb, endured death silently.
From all these lines of evidence it is impossible to escape the conclusion that our Lord and the Evangelists considered His death to be of para- mount importance in His mission, and gave it this value because it stood to the sins of the world in a similar relation to that which the Levitical sacri- fices held to the sins of the Jews.
If the conclusion be accepted that these sacrifices were expiatory and vicarious, we have a clear idea of the purpose our Lord supposed His death served. Neither need we wonder that He taught so little about the purport of His death. The false notions of His Kingdom entertained by His disciples made tliem invincibly opposed to His establishing it through the Cross instead of a crown. They were ' foolish and .slow of heart ' (Lk 2425). Consequently He had ' many things to say ' to them which they could not bear before His death shattered their false ideas (Jn W'^^). It was only then that this
fuller instruction could be given and was promised. Immediately after His resurrection He began to instruct His disciples as to the meaning of His mission and death as they stood related to the Law and the Prophets (Lk 2426- 27)_ They were not the men to invent an interpretation of His death, or to go back to Levitical explanations without His sanction. They reverenced Him too much to break consciously with His thought. The confidence with which they taught, beginning with Pentecost, can be explained only by their receiving from our Lord Himself and from the promised Spirit a cer- tain knowledge of the nature of His work. Any view which makes our Lord's mission a break with the religious development either before or after, but much more with both, has against it the strongest conceivable presumption. St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. John all believed themselves to be giving our Lord's own view of the purport of His work. They were in a better position to know His own thought of Himself and His mission than any at this late time of day. From them we can get the clearest light on our Lord's own conception of the purpose served by His life and death.