It is important, however, to observe that the death of Christ regarded as a penalty or an act of suffering is not per se stated to be the propitiation or the satisfaction offered to Divine Justice or the Moral Law. It was the perfection of the offering and the finished obedience cvdminating in the death of the cross which won the acceptance by God of the sacrifice. The moral value of the offer- ing was the sacrifice of a complete and absolutely perfect life which met and satisfied the claims of the law. It was not the transfer of an exact equivalent in suffering which constituted the worth and efficacy of the atonement, but the ofiering of a complete personality in holy obedience and full surrender. Such was the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
(2) The redemption of mankind is wrought by means of Christ's death upon the cross. — The race is under condemnation and a curse through sin, but Christ has taken the curse upon Himself, and in doing so has made an offering for the whole of mankind — a cosmic sacrifice by the life of perfect obedience that the Law required. This righteous- ness is imputed to all who exercise true faith in Him. ^Whilst the holy love of God in Christ makes it possible that sin should be transferred to the Redeemer, it is faith on the part of the be- liever which makes possible the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to the sinner's account. The man who believes in Clirist appropriates tiie righteousness of Christ as his own, by accepting the sacrifice and the satisfaction rendered to the eternal laAv of right as being offered on his behalf. Thus there is on the part of the believer the identi-
fication of himself with Christ in His perfect sacri- fice. He lays his hand as it were upon the head of the scapegoat, and he makes the offering of the Paschal Lamb his own act. Christ is to him the expression and the fulfilment of the perfect righteousness which he feels is expected of him and that is worthy of him. Ideally all that Christ did, accomplished in His life of perfect obedience to the will of God, culminating in the death of the cross, is appropriated by the believer as his own. Christ's righteousness is transferred to the believer in so far as he is united to his Saviour by living faith. He can say with St. Paul, ' I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live ; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me ' (Gal 2=°), and ' That I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the laAv, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith ' (Ph 3^). The true self is not the actual self, but the ideal self, which the believer finds in his Lord. In the life and character of the believer this ideal is being continuously and progressively realized, in such a manner that he dies to sin and rises with Christ in the power of His resurrection, and is en- abled more and more to live the Christ-lii'e in the world. By faith we are united to Christ in His death, dying to sin, and are raised into newness of life in His resurrection.
The death of Christ upon the cross secures the forgiveness of sin for those who accept the Christ and His sacrificial work on their behalf. In Him we have our redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Eph V, Col 1^^). The demands of the Law are satisfied, God's requirements are met in the perfect life and personality of our Lord, the Tightness of the moral obligation is acknowledged, and the God of Holiness can forgive. The need of forgiveness is seen in the psychological fact that every man requires, before he can make a fresh start in a life of holiness, the consciousness that he is entering upon a new, unstained, and unblemished chapter of his life, and that tiie guilty past is blotted out. The incubus of guilt must be removed, and he must take up his life as if the past had not been. He needs to know that he is in a right relation with God, and that his ideal is yet attainable. The as- surance of forgiveness is absolutely necessary ; for although the Lord is full of mercy, and there is always forgiveness with Him, yet the requirements of the Law must be acknowledged and satisfied. They have been fully met in the death of Christ, and the acceptance of that offering has been sealed in the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
The mystic union of the believer with his Lord, which is constituted by love and wrought through faith, results in the crucifixion of self to the world and of the worid to self (Gal 6'^). The spell of sin is broken, and the believer is dead to its power ; the violated law has no hold upon the believer. He is one with his Lord in the love that sacrificed itself to the death, and is kindled within the heart of the man who accepts the sacrifice as made on his behalf. The love which brought Christ to the cross and the grace of God in Christ establish a spiritual unity with Christ in all His sufferings and His judgment upon sin, so that man's lower nature is crucified with Christ and His blood washes away sin and cleanses from all guilt. Thus the blood of the cross becomes the symbol of that redemptive grace which brings men back to God, and by which the triumph of the Redeemer over sin and death is achieved.