(iii. ) The doctrine of the New Covenant. The first Covenant was not dedicated without blood (9"*; cf. Ex 24'- ■*) ; sacriheial blood was for Israel essenti- ally ' the blood of the covenant' (9'-" ; cf. Mt 26^). The sacrittces of the Mosaic Covenant were the sign of the establishment of the Law ; the New Cove- nant in Christ's blood was the sign of its fulfilment, and therefore 'unto remission of sins' (Mt 26™; cf. Jn 6=3-7', 1 Jn 1'). The blood divided by sprinkling between the parties to the covenant was the seal of the friendship it established or restored. It was under the shelter of this covenant relation that the whole system of Levitical sacrifices was instituted ; they availed only for those within its bonds. This conditioned its permanence ; it could not abide. It was the prophetic attitude towards sacrifice that initiated the concejition of the necessity of a New Covenant which should be ethical and spiritual and therefore permanent and univer.sal. Jeremiah's prophecy of the New Cove- nant (Jer 31^') is the principal link between the sacrilices of the Law and Christ's fulfilment and consequent abolition of them. This is a covenant under which God laj's His laws upon the hearts of men and inscribes them upon their minds, and undertakes no longer to remember their sins and iniquities (10'^*' S'"-). 'Now where remission of these is, thei'e is no more ottering for sin' (10"). A real remission makes all other sacrifices useless. The sacrifice of Christ, ' the me<liator of a new covenant' (9'°) by which such a new covenant is established, is the 'one ottering by which he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified' (lU"). The prophetic idea of the value of the sacrilicial suH'erings of the Kighteous Servant is thus restored in close association with the use of sacrilicial ideas which were the current coin of Jewish thought. Henceforth there was no longer room for the sacri- fices of the Law (lu"). The only sacrilice that retained its permanence for the future was ' a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the
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SACRIFICE
fruit of lips which make confession to his name '
(13").
(rf) Johnnnine. — These writings probably repre- sent apDstolic views on saerilice towards the close of the Apostolic Age and therefore later than the sources hitherto consiilered. It is a question for discussion, however, whether the ideas they suggest represent a development of the apostolic thought upon this subject or whether they simply reproduce the common positions to w'liich the Church liad be- come accustomed as traditional interpretations. That so little is said of sacritice itself and so much of the abiding ethical and spiritual results that Christian thought had learned to connect with the sacrificial death of Christ seems to favour the opinion that the apostolic conception had by this time become more completely separated from the Jewish and more perfectly expressed in purely ethical applications ; the mystical rather than the legal aspect of sacrifices prevails. But direct sacri- ficial terms appear at times in the Gospels, Epistles, and .4poealypse, and probably quite as frequently, proportionately, as in the Pauline writings, (i.) The references to ' the Lamb of God ' (Jn l-"") pre- dominate. The great saying of John the Baptist, whether critically valid or not, is a good illusti'ation of the Jobannine type of reference. This sacrificial symbol is definitely applied to Jesus. Whether the reference is to the Paschal Lamb or to the prophetic sacrificial ideal of the Sutl'ering Servant (Is 53") is not certain. But there is no doubt of the expiatory value attached to the symbol ; for the Lamb ' taketh away the sin of the world ' (I^ ; cf. 1 P 1"). Jesus takes away sin by the sacrificial method. Symbol and expiatory idea occur again several times in the Apocalypse, where ' the Lamb' is combined with references to the sacrificial blood ; 'a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain' (Rev 5"-'''); those who have 'washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb' (T") ; ' they overcame because of the blood of the Lamb' (12"). Salvation is ascribed unto ' our God which sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb' (7'"). These references indicate how easily and naturally sacrificial ideas were associated with the work of Christ and especially with its results. Although textual difficulties attacli to ' the Lamb that hath been slain from the foundation of the world ' ( 13'), it may illustrate how influentially the sacrificial idea applied to Christ persisted in apos- tolic thought, (li.) The references of Jesus to ' eat- ing my flesh, and drinking my blood,' in Jn 6 are sacrificial ; they are interesting as references in apostolic times to sacrifice as the sharing in a common meal with a view to enriching human life by communion. Here such ideas, though presented in sacrificial symbolism, are intensely ethical and spiritualin value, (iii. ) lUustrationsof the elevation of the sacrificial idea to the sublime acts of ethical self-sacrifice by which Christ accomplished His re- demptive mission may be traced in the references to the laying down of His life in vicarious surrender; ' the lifting up' (Jn S" \1^->-), ' the good shepherd' (Jn 10"). 'the prophecy of Caiaphas' (1P»), 'the corn of wheat' (IS-'"'-), (iv.) Andin Jn 17'' the work of Christ is paralleled, as in Hebrews, by that of the high priest on the Day of Atonement by the use of a word of sacrificial associations, (v.) In the First Epistle of John words and ideas with direct sacri- ficial implications are frequently observed ; ' the blood of Jesvis his Son cleanseth us from all sin' ( I') ; ' he is tlie propitiation for our sins ' (2'- 3'^ 4") ; 'he was manifested to take away sins' (3*); with these may be read the distinctive saying of the Apocalypse, ' Unto him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood' (Rev P). The con- tribution these sayings make to the interpretation of the apostolic thought respecting sacrifice is that