6. We now come to the Epintle to the Hebrews, which, more than any other NT writing, relates the sacrifice of Christ to those of the Mosaic ritual. In this relation the author views the sacrifice of Jesus as the only one that can satisfy the needs of men, the one which alone requires no repetition. Fol- lowing the example of our Lord Himself in the institution of the Supper, the writer alludes to
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SACRIFICES
the covenant sacrifice of Ex 24 ; and it is perfectly manifest from the way in which he speaks of it that he no more regards Christ's death as having created the New Covenant, than he does the sacrifice at Sinai as having procured the Old. In each case it is but a dedication, a ratification. He also refers to the ottering of the great Day of Atonement, and with it he compares the sacrifice of Christ, calling- it the great atonement by which the conscience is purged from dead works to serve the living God (9", cf. lO'^-). The mention of conscience, of course, suggests deliverance from the sense of guilt ; but the immediately following words — ' to serve the living God ' — point to something far beyond mere escape from punishment, namely, to sanctification and obedience. Rej^eatedly he tells us that the sacrifices of the OT could not take away sin (10^- ") ; but if by taking away sin he means merely remission of guilt, his words become meaningless ; for why should not obedience to a Divinely ap- pointed ordinance have j^rocured deliverance from guilt? Wlierein they failed — what made their continual repetition necessary — was not that they could not give the sense of jjardon, but that they could not give deliverance from the bondage of sin. It was in this that Christ's sacrifice was superior to all the Mosaic otterings, that it led to the service of the living God, that it put sin away (9^®), that it jjerfected tliem that are sanctified (10^*), that it worked a change in the will of the believer, realiz- ing the covenant which Jeremiah foresaw when God's law should be written on the mind and heart (10^^). If holiness is the great essential to salvation (12^^), and Christ's sacrifice procured no more than deliverance fi-om guilt, then it did not procure salvation. The old ritual could not make the worshipper ' perfect as pertaining to con- science ' (9** 10^), because it only pointed to the need of purity : it could not create the power to attain that purity : there was no force in it to break the power of sin and set free the will to attain holiness and communion with God. We are accustomed to think of atonement as meaning that God is made willing to pardon ; but to make Christ's sacrifice an atonement in this sense is to charge it with exactly the same weakness as belonged to the old ritual. Unquestionably Christ's death does, in the writer's view, guarantee forgiveness ; but every- where this forgiveness is regarded not as an end in itself, but only as the accompaniment of deliver- ance from the power of sin and the attainment of actual holiness. Indeed, there can be no cer- tainty of pardon to the conscience until it is sensible of sanctification. God forgives not be- cause Christ's death has been accepted in lieu of the punishment of men, but because the perfect holiness and love of Christ's life consummated by a death of shame are a pledge to God for the sanctification of all believers (10^- ^°). Christ's life and death established perfection as an actual fact in human history, broke the hitherto victorious power of evil ; and by virtue of His resurrection and ascension that power of victory can be com- municated to all wlio believe. It is in this sense that Christ intercedes for men in heaven, in that He is there as a guarantee of the perfectibility of human nature ; and because of His pledge that in those who are His, sin is, and will be, conquered and cast out, God is just to forgive (cf. V^^ 8^ 9'- i-i. 24 1320 716 211 59).
7. We come, finally, to the Epistles of St. John, Avith which we shall conclude our consideration. Here, as was to be expected in the Beloved Dis- ciple, the ultimate explanation of the sacrifice of Christ is love, the love of God (1 Jn 41"). There is nowhere a suspicion of the thought that a change is made in God by the oftering of Jesus. It was. as the manifestation of the Father's love that the
Son was sent to suffer and die, and it is the infiu- ence of this love on us that creates love in us (4'^), and renders possible the keeping of God's com- mandments (5^). To be filled with love is to dwell in God (4^-), to be born of God ; and this ensures the victory that overcometh the world, and sin, which is the world - spirit (S'*- ^). Selfishness and hatred are the signs of unregenerateness, because salvation means love to God, and consequently love to all mankind (42"- 21). The death of Christ was the proof of His Divinity, because it sliowed perfect love. Once more, then, in St. John's view also it is a morally eft'ective sacrifice, a jjower of renewal, not a substitution. God forgives all in whom sin is broken by the death of Christ, and who are being sanctified by His indwelling life. 'If we confess our sins,' he says, 'he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins' (P) ; for if we confess, it is plain that the holiness and love of Christ are acting upon us, so that we realize our sinfulness, and hate it (cf. 1'^). The belief in Christ, as the whole Epistle shows, to which foi- giveness and cleansing are granted, is no mere passive acceptance of deliverance from guilt, no mere belief in substitutionary merit, but the per- ception of the jperfect holiness and love of Jesus Christ, so that sin is revealed in all its hideous- ness as rebellion against a Father of love, and the man is delivered from its jwwer by his hatred of it, and longing to serve and love God and the brethren. It is the creation in man of a spirit akin to that which fired the life of Jesus, that is man's salvation ; and it is the jiower in Christ's self-sacrifice to produce this and to perfect it, that is the pledge to God of man's sanctification, and that makes Him just in forgiving sin.