But this is not adequate to the Pauline thought. The Resurrection is necessary to our justification, not merely because of the ditt'erence it makes to us as certifying the atoning efficacy of the Death and thus evoking faith in us, but also because of the difference it makes to Christ Himself. It marks the point at which His sovereign power as Lord is made effective. Our justification, the basis for which has been laid in the Death, becomes an accomplished fact and effective reality only through Christ's rising again, with the virtue of His atoning life and death in Him, to apply His atonement in those who are united with Him bj' faith. That which redeems is not Christ's atoning death apart from His living Person into union with whom we are brought by faith. Nearly every error in theories of the Atonement may be traced ultimately to separating the propitiatory work of Christ from Clirist Himself. The very ABC of Apostolic Christianity is that we are saved not by believing the fact that Christ died for our
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sins but by union with the Ciucilied anil now Kisen Exalted Saviour. Only tliinu;;!) union with a living Saviour who has in llini the virtue of His atoning death do justiliiation, forgiveness, and all the blessings of redemption heeonie ours — "In whom we have reileni]ition through his blood' (Kph 1', Col 1"). We are accepted ' in the beloved ' (Kph I") : 'there is therefore now no condemna- tion to them that are in Clirist Jesus' (Ko 8')- .lustilication is ours as we are 'in Christ' in such living union with Him that His life becomes identilied with ours and ours with His. Because of this identihcation or incorporation Christ's acts are repeated in us so that in His death we die to sin, 'crucilied with Christ' (Gal '2-'"), and in His life we live to rigliteousne.ss. But it is only by His ri.sen life that Christ cm come into such living union with men as thus to etlect their redemption.
The apo.stolic thought accordingly is this : ' He was delivered up [to death] on account of our tres- passes [to make atonement for them] ; and He was raised on account of our justification [that it might become an accomplished fact].' ' His rising again was the necessary antecedent of His applying to His elect the virtue of that Atonement which His dying wrought for all men. . . . He died to pur- chase what He rose again to apply ' (J. H. Newman, Lectures on the Doctrine of Justification^, London, 1874, p. 206). So it is that the resurrection rather than the death of Christ is spoken of as the cause of justification. It is doubtless true, as Denney urges, that ' Paul did not make an abstract separation between Christ's Death and His Resur- rection, as if the Death and the Itesurrection either had ditt'erent motives, or served ends separ- able from each other' (EGT, on Ro ll'-'*""'). Christ's work is one and its end one. He both died and was raised for our justification. But this end was made efl'ective only through the Resurrection ; cf. Ro S^-" : ' Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead ' ; S"" : ' saved by his life ' ; and 1 Co 15" : ' If Christ be not risen your faith is futile ; you are still in your sins.'
In the Epistle to the Hebrews the same truth is presented from the point of view of the Priesthood of Christ. Just as in OT ritual only when the high priest took the blood Avithin the veil and sprinkled it upon the Mercy Seat was the offering for sin completed and the covenant-fellowship with God established, so Christ's ottering for sin is not completed until in the heavenly sanctuary He presents Himself ' through his own blood ' (9'-), I.e. with the virtue of His atoning death in Him. Only then is the new covenant-fellowship between God and sinners established. It is in Him as the living prevailing High Priest, and not merely tlirough something He did in the past, that we have peace with God.
(b) Our sanctification, our moral and spiritual renewal or quickening, depends upon it. This is but a further explication of (a). ' In Christ,' and through union with Him, we have pardon; 'in Christ,' and through union with Him, we have sanctification of life. Through His resurrection, therefore, Christ becomes ' a life-creating Spirit ' (1 Co 15'"), the .source of spiritual quickening to believers. Here and now they share in tlie power of Christ's risen life, whereby they become the subjects of a moral and sjiiritual resurrection. Through union with Christ by faith, and symbolic- ally in baptism, they are 'crucified with Christ' (Gal 2-°) unto sin, ' engrafted (o-i'/^^in-oi, united vitally) into the likeness of his death' (Ro 6'), the old nature being ' annulled ' by the introduction through faith into the 'in Christ' environment, the environment of the power of the exalted victorious Lord. They rise with Him and live
with Him, 'engrafted into the likeness of his resurrection,' that 'like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life' (Ro li"- ; cf. Ro 8"-", Eph •_"-', Col 2'- .-J'-a, Ph 3'"').