Denney, who discusses these views at length, f maintains that the righteousness of God has not the same meaning throughout this passage (3^'*^) ; it has ' in one place — say in v.-- — the half-technical sense which belongs to it as a summary of St. Paul's gospel ; and in another — say in v.-® — the larger and more general sense which might belong to it elsewhere in Scripture as a sjoionym for God's character, or at least for one of His essential at- tributes.' But these two views are not unrelated ; they cannot be discussed apart ; we see them har- monized as complements in the true meaning of 'propitiation.' Christ is set forth by God as a propitiation to exhibit their unity and consistency with each other. When the Pauline view of 'pro- pitiation,' as 'relative to some problem created by sin for a God who would justify sirmers,' is accepted in a substitutionary sense and the argument of the passage reaches its climax, the two senses of the righteousness of God in it 'have sifted themselves out, so to speak, and stand distinctly side by side.' J God is the Just in His o-mi character ; and at the same time, in providing a righteousness of God through faith, which stands to the good of the beheving sinner, He is the Justifier. That both these meanings are present in atonement and are there harmonized with one another, is what St. Paul seeks to bring out.
St. Paul would show God righteous in His forbearance in 'the passing over of sins done aforetime.' But, as he defines the effects of the propitiation, he leaves the wrath of God in the background ; the forbearance of God becomes the centre of his thought ; that is a gracious fact and must be accounted for. Why has God never dealt with sinful men according to their sins? He has always been slow to anger and of great kindness, a gracious God and merciful ; sins done aforetime were passed over. Does the doing of this impugn His righteousness? St. Paul finds his apology for, and explanation of, the universal graciousness of God in the propitiation wliich He has set forth in Christ by His blood. God cannot be charged with moral indifference because He has always been God, the Saviour. Sin has never been a trivial matter ; any omission to mark it by inflicting its full penal con- sequences has been due to forbearance, which now in the propitiation justifies itself to His righteous-
* Rerhtfertioung und Versohnung, ii. 117.
t L>e<Uh of Chrifl, lU 1 ff. t Th. 1 05.
ness. If, apart from this, God had invested with privilege those whose sin deserved the manifesta- tion of His wrath. He would, St. Paul thinks, have suppressed His righteousness. To show the Justi- fier, whether ' in respect of sins done aforetime ' or 'at this present season,' to be Himself just, St. Paul holds the setting forth of His righteousness by the propitiation in the blood of Christ to be necessary. Christ's death, therefore, was something more than a great ethical appeal of the love of God in suffer- ing for sin to the heart and conscience of men ; it had been rendered necessary by the remission of sins in ages before the Advent, as well as to justify the readiness and desire of God to remit the sins of any man who 'at this present season' 'hath faith in Jesus.'
This e.xaltation of the forbearance of God as the ultimate explanation of the propitiation is intended to make known the ultimate fact that thewTath of God against sin lies within the supreme constraint of the love of God — ' His own love ' which He com- mendeth toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (5®^) . Christ was set forth by God Himself ; His love provided the propitiation ; there was no constraint upon Christ. He gave Himself up for us ; there was no conflict between the Divine ^Tath and the Divine love ; they were reconciled in God, and their reconciliation set forth in the pro- pitiation in the blood of Christ. The wrath is the expression and minister of the love ; mere self-con- sideration is unknown in the Divine activity. More- over, where the love has prevailed, the wTath fails, ' While we were yet sinners, Ckrist died for us ; much more then being now justified in his blood shall we be saved through him from the WTath. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life' (5^^). The achieve- ment of redemption in its ethical value proceeds from the death of Christ as the supreme demonstra- tion of the Divine love, by evoking in sinful souls the response of a personal surrender to the ne-^vmess of life to which it constrains. This may introduce the classical passage in St. Paul's writings on the doctrine of atonement. 'AU things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconcihation ; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their tres- passes, and having committed unto us the word of reconcihation. We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us ; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God. Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him' (2 Co 5^^*^). The Pauline doctrine receives its most satisfying and probably its most permanent interpretation in the restoration of acceptable personal relations between God and man, and the perfecting of these in a fellowship of holy love.