5. It is in the writirujs of St. Paul, however, that the Cross of Christ attains its pre-eminent position. The whole gospel is to him the jjreaching of the Cross. 'Christ and him crucified' is the subject of all his teaching. Yet the emphasis he lays on it is never one-sided ; for the death of Christ is but the consummation of His holy life of Divine love, and at the same time the prelude to the fuller life of glory beyond ; both of which are essential to the meaning and value of the sacrihce. Nor is it that the mind of the Pharisaic Saul has led him to the contemplation of the Cross because of his close study of tlie OT ritual. It is his own personal experience of salvation that has caused him to understand — the marvellous change wrought in him by the Lord who appeared to him on the road to Damascus, and which he has expressed in the words, ' I am crucified with Christ ; neverthe- less I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ' (Gal 2^0, cf. 6'^).
It certainly cannot be denied that in many passages the Apostle speaks of the death of Jesus as a means of deliverance from guilt, or of justifi- cation (Ro 3^-^ 2 Co 5-1, Gal 3^^ Col 2^^ etc.); and in the Epistle to the Romans the first place is certainly given to this doctrine ; but justification is always conditioned by faitii ; Christ is never repre- sented as reconciling God to us, but contrariwise, God through Christ reconciles the world to Him- self ; even our faith in Christ is useless except Christ be risen (1 Co 15"), i.e. except He be in us a living power to lead to sanctification ; and Christ is never said to die avrl, but always virep rtfxQv • all of which facts are radically opposed to the theory of legal substitution. But, most important of all, guilt is no more than sin's consequence, and we cannot conceive of St. Paul, who above all others under- stood the meaning of sin's bondage, ascribing to Christ a mere redemption from sin's consequences and not from sin itself. The Ajiostle, however, speaks for himself. It was, he says, to deliver us from the evil world, it was that we should live together with Him, it was that men should not henceforth serve sin, that Christ died (Gal 1", 1 Th 5'", Ro 6"). The whole sixth chapter of Romans is on this theme — death to sin in Christ ; and the seventh expresses the same thing in reference to the Law. The death of Christ is in his view, then, the direct cause of our death to sin, the breaking of sin's bondage, the putting ott' the sensuous selfish nature, the .subjugation of its desires and appetites (Col 2", Ro S^'* 6'*- * V) ; and this is the first step to the energizing of the life-giving Spirit of the glorified Lord within us. The passage in 2 Co 5'*- 1^ seems to express St. Paul's view with perfect clearness. Here we are told that it is the love of Christ that constraineth — that makes the death of the One a means of death to sin in all. It is as the Lord of humanity, tlie spiritual Head, spiritually related to all, tliat He dies ; but He rose again and lives now, so that all who recognize VOL. II.— 35
the relationship are comjielled, by the love which His perfect saciifice excites, to break for ever with sin — sin which slew Him — and to live henceforth His life, the life of love and righteousness (cf. Ro 6'"- >i S'", Gal 2"'- -0). It is not, however, the lovs of Christ only tiiat is manifested by His death, but also that of the Father. ' God conimendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us ' (Ro 5'*- '")• The attitude of the fleshly mind is enmity against God (Ro 8''). Men are rebels towards Him. It is the sense of guilt that keeps them from Him. They cannot even believe it possible that God can pardon. It is this, then, that God seeks to remove by the death of His Son. He gives an infinite pledge of His desire to forgive (2 Co 5^^). Yet it still remains true that this pledge is not the actual justification of the sinner. He must accept God's otter ; he must allow God's love to enter his heart ; and that means death to sin, and makes him a new creature (2 Co 5"). Sanctification in principle is his from that moment. Thenceforth he lives spiritually — lives to God. In St. Paul, too, we find that aspect of Christ's death as a conquest of evil, an objective breaking of the power of sin, of which we have already spoken. He speaks of Christ coming in the likeness of sinful flesh and condemning .sin in the flesh (Ro 8^). By this he means that Christ's death was the com- pletion of a life of righteousness, and the final act of triumph over evil. He condemned sin in that He resisted it all His life, and in the end gave His life to that resistance. He submitted to the .shameful death of the Cross, because to that the path of Divine righteousness led Him. It is for this reason that thei"e is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus (8^). In Him they sjnritually delight in the law of God ; by their love to Him and life in Him they, too, condemn sin ; and ' the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made them free from the law of sin and death ' (8^). It is in the same manner that the Apostle represents the death of Christ as a ' pro- intiation through faith in his blood ' (S^'). It is not a propitiation to God in the sense that it hides sin from His eyes, but in that Christ's sacrifice con- tains tlie power of breaking sin in all who accept Him by faith. God is just in forgiving the sin of the believer, because Christ's victory is the guarantee of ultimate victory to all who live in Him (cf. 2 Co 5^1 and 1 Co 5''). Finally, the importance which St. Paul attaches to the resurrection of Christ en- forces all that has been said. Without that fact his whole doctrine of the scheme of salvation would fall to pieces (1 Co 15''). It is not even the death of Christ, but only the risen Saviour that justifies (Ro 4-'). It is in Christ — therefore in a Christ who lives — that justification is obtained (2 Co 5-\ Eph 1''), and that sanctification is rendered possible (Ro 5" 8^^ 14", 2 Co 3'^- '», Gal 2-% It is only be- cause tiie believer is in living union with the holy Lord that God can justify him ; for the union and communion are the guarantee that the work of sanctification begun will be carried to com- pletion, that the believer will be conformed in all things to his Redeemer. To have Christ dwell in our hearts by faith, to be rooted and grounded in love, to know the love of Christ, is to be filled with the fulness of God (Eph 31^-'''). If the old view of legal satisfaction through the suflerings of Christ be accepted, all this becomes absurd.