3. Proceeding now to the Acts of the Apostles and to the Epistle of James, we are met by this remarkable fact, that in neither is there a single reference to the saving significance of the death of Christ. The accusation of having put the Holy One to death is brought home most forcibly in the speeches of Peter and Stephen (Ac 2-^ S^^-'^ 7^-) ; but the Cross is not once spoken of as necessary to
salvation. Repentance and conversion are alone mentioned as essential to forgiveness ; and even when (Ac %'^^^-) Philip overhears the Ethiopian reading tlie fifty-third chapter of Isaiah and inter- prets it for him, though this chapter above all others seems to speak of Messiah's vicarious suffer- ing and deatii, the all-important passage — ' He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities,' etc. (v.^), is not even quoted. The natural conclusion is that the sacrificial significance of Christ's death, so far from having been a cardinal doctrine of the Church from the outset, had not yet dawned upon tiie disciples' minds. The glad facts of the Resurrection and Ascension, with all of spiritual quickening that these had brought them, were the all-important things to them. The death, except in so far as it was the passage to this larger life, was still obscure. They had no thouglit that Christ's sacrifice alone procured their pardon ; for if they had, they could not possibly have kept silence regarding it. It was the Resur- rection they preached, not the Cross (3'^-^« IQ-^"-^^). 4. When we turn to the First Epistle of St. Peter, we find a marked advance upon this early preach- ing. The Apostle explains the death of the Lord as an example, as a power of redemption, and as a deliverance from the sense of guilt. But through- out, this development is on the lines of Christ's own teaching. He does not speak a word to which a parallel could not be found in the Gospels. As the Lord told His disciples that the world would treat them as it treated Him, so St. Peter bids his readers follow in the steps of Christ ; ' for this is thankworthy,' he says, ' if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering Avrongfully.' ' If, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God ' (2'3- ^<* ; cf. 3'^ 4'). Here he inculcates a sacrifice on the part of believers similar to the sacrifice of Christ, and asserts its acceptance in God's sight. Of the re- demptive power of Clirist's sacrifice he speaks in p8-22 221. 24 318 . and in each of these it is redemption from sin's bondage that is thought of, with the end in view of service to God. Forgiveness is never thought of by itself as a consequence of the death of the Saviour, but always in connexion with sanctification, its end and aim. Believers are re- deemed from their vain conversation by the blood of the Lamb, that they may purify their souls in obeying the truth. He bears their sins that they should live unto righteousness. He suffered for sins to bring them to God. Christ's death is only for those who let it act upon them. It is not a satisfaction of God that removes for ever the guilt of men by bearing their penalty : it is a moral deliverance : it is the impression which it creates upon the hearts of believers that is the delivering power — a power increased and fulfilled by the influence of the quickening Spirit ( l^^). In 4^ St. Peter says, ' He that liatli suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.' By following Christ's ex- ample men are to be delivered. Just as the suffer- ing of a mother for her erring son becomes to that son redemption, — a force to make sin liateful in his eyes, — so the picture of Christ's suffering for us acts upon our hearts ; and our imitation of Him, our suffering borne for righteousness' sake, breaks the will of the flesh, so that in St. Paul's words we die to sin and live to God. That Christ ' suffered once for sin, the just for the unjust ' (3'^), means simply that human sin brought Him to death, a death which love and righteousness compelled Him to bear for our sakes, and that the spectacle of that Divine transcendent love becomes to all be- lievers a power of regeneration. But, further, it is also a pledge of Divine forgiveness. In P he mentions the ' sprinkling of the blood of Christ ' along with obedience and sanctification of the
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Spirit, and by it he can mean only the remission of sins— the removal of tiie sense of guilt. More- over, in 1"*"-' he sjjeaksof the shedding of the blood of the Lamb as having for one object ' that your faith and hope may be in God.' What can this mean but that the love of the Father manifested in the death of His Son is to be to believers a means of breaking down the barrier which the sense of guilt had erected between them and God ? It shows the Father read}' to forgive and draw men unto Him (3^**). To get rid of sin and to be assured of partlon are tlie two essentials to salva- tion, which by His death Christ has procured, but He has procured them only for those who make Christ their example by suffering Him to write God's law upon their hearts — who appropriate God's life unto themselves.