Now, this view of the atr>nement is set forth in the Epistle to the Hebrews as typilie<l by the sin-offering, especially by that (larticular sin-offering with which the high-|)riest entered the most holy place on the great day of atonement (ix, 7- 12), and by that which
hallowed the inauguration of the Mosaic covenant and cleansed the vessels of its ministration (ix, 13-23). In the same way Christ is called " our Passover, sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. v, 7) ; and is said, in even more start- ling language, to have been " made sin for us," though he " knew no sin" (2 Cor. v, 21). This typical relation is pursued even into details, and our Lord's suffering without the city is compared to the burning of the jniblic or priestly sin-offerings without the camp (Heb. xiii, 10-13). The altar of sacrifice {BvaiaoTi^pioi') is said to have its antitype in his passion (xiii, 10). All the expiatory and propitiatory sacrifices of the law are now for the first time brought into full light. Al- though the prineii)le of vicarious sacrifice still remains, and must remain, a mystery, yet the fact of its exist- ence in him is illustrated by a thousand types. As the sin-offering, though not the earliest, is the most funda- mental of all sacrifices, so the aspect of the atonement which it symbolizes is the one on which all others rest.
(ii.) On the other hand, the sacrifice of Christ is set forth to us as the completion of that perfect obedience to the will of the Father which is the natural duty of sinless man, in which he is the representative of all men, and in which he calls upon us, when reconciled to God, to " take up the cross and follow him." " In the days of his fiesh he offered up prayers and supplica- tions . . . and was heard, in that he feared; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered : and being made perfect" (by that suffering; see ii, 10), "he became the author of salva- tion to all them that obey him" (v, 7, 8, 9). In this view his death is not the principal object; we dwell rather on his lowly incarnation, and his life of humility, temptation, and suffering, to wliich that death was but a fitting close. In the passage above referred to the allusion is not to the cross of Calvary, but to the agony in (iethsemane, which bowed his human will to the will of his Father. The rnain idea of this view of tlie atonement is representative rather than vicarious. la the first view the "second Adam" undid by his atoning blood the work of evil which the first Adam did; in the second he, by his perfect obedience, did that which the first Adam left undone, and, by his grace making us like himself, calls upon us to follow him in the same path. This latter view is typified by the burnt-offer- ing; in respect of which the N. T. merely quotes antl enforces the language already cited from the O. T., and esijecially (see Heb. x, G-9) the words of Psa. xl, 6, etc., which contrast with material sacrifice the "doing the will of God." It is one which cannot be dwelt upon at all without a previous im])licatiou of the other: as both were embraced in one act, so are they insepara- bly connected in idea. Thus it is put forth in Itom xii, 1, where the "mercies of God" (i.e. the free salvation, through the sin-offering of Christ's blood, dwelt uiton in all the preceding part of the epistle) are made the ground for calling on us " to present our bodies, a liritn/ sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God," inasmuch as we are all (see v, b) one with Christ, and members of his body. In this sense it is that we are said to be " cruci- fied with Christ" (tJal. ii, 20 ; Eom. vi, 6) ; to have " the sufferings of Christ abound in us" (2 Cor. i, 5); even to "fill up that which is behind" (ra varepiifiaTa) thereof (Col. i, 24) ; and to "be offered" {(nrfi'dtaSrai) " ui)on the sacrifice of the faith" of others (Phil, ii, 17; conip. 2 Tim. iv, ti ; 1 .John iii, H!). As without the sin-offer- ing of the cross this, our burnt-offering, would be im- possible, so also without the hurnt-offering the sin-of- fering will to us be unavailing.
((/.) With these views of our Lord's sacrifice on earth, as ty|)ificd in the Levitical sacrifices on the outer altar, is also to be connected the ottering of his intercession for us in heaven, which was represented iiy the incense. In the Epistle to the lkl>rews, this part of his priestly office is dwelt upon with particular reference to the of- fering of incense in the most holy place liy the high- priest on the great day of atonement (Heb. ix, 24 28:
SACRIFICE
227 SACRIFICIAL FESTIVAL
comp. iv, 14-16; vi, 19, 20; vii, 25). It implies that tlie sin-offering has been made once for all to rend asunder the veil (of sin) between man and God, and that the continual burnt-offering is now accepted bj' him for the sake of the greai interceding High-priest. That intercession is the strength of our prayers, and "with the smoke of its incense" they rise up to heaven (Rev. viii, 4). See lNCf;NSE.