(a) Atonement and Law. — This is the form in which St. Paul construes his doctrine' in the Galatian Epistle, which deals more exclusively than any other NT document with the significance of the death of Christ. 'Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for (vv^p) us; for it is ■UTitten, Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree' (Gal 3^^). The conception here is distinctly juridical ; whether it is also penal will depend upon the definition of 'penal.' If punishment imphes guilt, the sufferings of Christ were not strictly penal, for He is always set forth as guiltless ; moreover, guilt cannot be transferred as guilt. His sufferings did, in St . Paul's judgment, serve the end of punishment ; they were representa- tively penal ; Christ took the place of the guilty as far as it involved penal consequences ; for special emphasis is laid upon the instrument of death — the cross — and upon its curse, though there seems nothing to justify the attributing to Christ of the position suggested by the allusion to Dt 21"^ of one ' accursed of God ' which has at times been pressed by expositors. That He endured the consequences of such a position and in this sense was 'made a cm-se on our behalf' is the Apostle's apphcation of it. This endurance is regarded as the recognition of the just requirement of the law of God — not the ceremonial law alone, but also the moral demands arising out of God's holy and righteous nature, and especially those which empiricalty St. Paul had put to the test in vain in his seeking after personal righteousness. St. Paul does not deny the authority of this law ; he asserts it, but the fact that it was added to the promise for 'the sake of transgression ' resulted in its making men sinful; it brought a curse : ' Cursed is every one which con- tinueth. not in all things that are ■written in the book of the law, to do them ' (3^°). With this curse in its consequences Christ identifies Himself, as in the Apostle's thought He had identified Himself with mankind in being 'born of a woman, bom under the law' (4^). By thus making HimseK absolutely one with those under ban, absorbing into Himself all that it meant, He removed the obstacle to forgiveness in the righteous attitude of God towards sin which could not be overcome until sin had been virtually punished. It was thus that the way was opened for man to identify himself by personal faith and hving experience with Christ's death, so that St. Paul was justified in saying: 'For I through the law died unto the law, that I might five unto God. I have been crucified with Christ ; yet I hve ; and yet no longer I, but Christ hveth m me' (2"f-)
This conception of St. Paul's adds the ethical idea of atonement to the juridical, which other passages reiterate (5'^ 6^''). It is, however, essenti- ally Pauline to regard the ethical as depending for its possibility and efficacy in experience upon the juridical; otherwise 'Christ died for nought.' God must vindicate His law so that He may justly forgive ; the operation of grace is connected with the assertion of justice. But ultimately St.
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Paul's conception really transcends these contrasts ; for it is God Himself who in His love provides the way to be both just and gracious ; He, not another, provides the satisfaction. In the last analysis God is presented as removing His own obstacles to forgiveness ; the death in which His righteous law is exhibited is the provision of His antecedent love ; the commending of His love is the prior purpose resulting in Christ being 'made a curse on our behalf.'* Consequently the whole Christian life is resolved into a response to God's love exhibited in the death of His Son; it does away with the hindrance to forgiveness in God's law, and at the same time inspires the faith which conducts into ethical conformity to Christ in man's experience.
(6) Atonement and Righteousness. — This is dealt with exhaustively in the Epistle to the Romans ; the great question the Epistle discusses is — How shall a sinful man be righteous with God? and the answer is — By receiving 'a righteousness of God' which is 'revealed from faith to faith.' In the interpretation of this answer we reach the heart of the apostoUc doctrine, and upon it the great bulk of later historical discussions has turned. For more than the briefest hints here given of the points of exegesis involved, reference should be made to commentaries on the Epistle. St. Paul distinctly states the two sides of the meaning of atonement referred to in the beginning of this article. But his intere.st is primarily absorbed by the efficient cause of at-one-ment as the ideal end, viz. the atonement, the Divine provision of the satisfaction which the Divine righteousness requires to be exhibited in order that forgiveness of sins may be bestowed and a restoration of fellowship between God and man achieved. To this he devotes his utmost strength; he regards it as primary in the order of thought as well as in the redemptive process. StiU he is nobly loyal to both conceptions, if, indeed, they were for him really two ; for he thinks of the unity of the pro- cess with the end as exhibiting the perfectness of the Divine purpose of grace. This point will be discussed later. Meanwhile it must be pointed out that the strong divergencies revealed in the inter- pretation of the apostolic doctrine have frequently resulted from regarding one or other of these phases of the Pauline doctrine as in itself adequate to explain the whole. Ethical theories have sought to ignore the juridical means ; juridical theories have often stopped short of the ethical end. The PauHne doctrine does neither. Both are met in the conception, essential to his doctrine, of the ideal and actual identification of Christ with man in his sin, and of man with Christ in newness of fife ; and also in the identification of both with God in His unchanging righteousness and in His eternal love ; for St. Paul with ceaseless loyalty carries all the processes of redemption in time up to the initiative and executive of the Divine pur- pose.