II. The Work of the Saviour. — This we propose to trace as developed in the several portions of the New Testament.
1. The first three evangelists, as we know, agree in showing that Jesus unfolded his message to the disci- ples by degrees. He wrought the miracles that were to be the credentials of the Messiah ; he laid down tlie great principles of the Gospel morality, until he had established in the minds of the Twelve the conviction that he was the Christ of God. Then, as the clouds of doom grew darker, and the malice of the Jews became more intense, he turned a new page in liis teaching. Drawing from his disciples the confession of their faith in him as Christ, he then passed abruptly, so to speak, to the truth that remained to be learned in the last few months of his ministry, that his work included suffering as well as teaching (Matt, xvi, 20, 21). He was instant in pressing this unpalatable doctrine home to his disci- ples from this time to the end. Four occasions when lie prophesied his bitter death are on record, and they are probably only examples out of many more (ver. 21). We grant that in none of these places does the word "sacrifice" occur; and that the mode of speaking is somewhat obscure, as addressed to minds unprepared, even then, to bear the full weight of a doctrine so re- pugnant to their hopes. But that he must (ch) go and meet death ; that the powers of sin and of this world are let loose against him for a time, so that he shall be betrayed to the Jews, rejected, delivered by them to the Gentiles, and by them be mocked and scourged, cruci- fied, and slain ; and that all this shall be done to achieve a foreseen work, and accom[ilish all things written of him by the prophets — these we do certainly find. Thcj' invest the death of Jesus with a peculiar significance ; they set the mind inquiring what the meaning can be of this hard necessity that is laid on him. For the an- swer we look to other places ; but at least there is here no contradiction to the doctrine of sacrifice, though the Lord does not yet say, " I bear the wrath of God against your sins in your stead ; I become a curse for you." Of the two sides of this mysterious doctrine — that Jesus dies for us willingly, and that he dies to bear a doom laid on him as of necessity, because some one must bear it — it is the latter side that is made prominent. In all the passages it pleases Jesus to speak-, not of his desire to die, but of the burden laid on him, and the power given to others against him.
2. Had the doctrine been explained no further, there would have been much to wait for. But the series of announcements in these passages leads up to one more definite and complete. It cannot be denied that the words of the institution of the Lord's supper speak most distinctly of a sacrifice : " Drink ye all of this, for this is my blood of the new covenant;" or, to follow Luke, " the new covenant in my blood." We are carried back by these words to the first covenant, to the altar with twelve pillars, and the burnt-offerings and peace-offer- ings of oxen, and the blood of the victims sprinkled on the altar and on the people, and the words of Moses as he sprinkled it: "Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made witli you concerning all these words" (Exod. xxiv). No interpreter has ever failed to draw from these passages the true meaning: " When my sacrifice is accomplished, my blood shall be the sanction of the new covenant." The word "sacri- fice" is wanting; but sacrifice, and nothing else, is de- scribed. And the words are no mere figure used for il- lustration, and laid aside when they have served that turn. " Do this in remembrance of me." They are the wonls in which the Church is to interpret the act of Je- sus to tiic end of time. They are reproduced exactly by Paul (1 Cor. xi, 25). Then, as now, Christians met together, and by a solemn act declared that they count- ed the blood of Jesus as a sacrifice wherein a new cove- nant was sealed; and of the blood of that sacrifice they partook bj' faith, professing themselves thcrel)y willing to enter the covenant and be sprinklcil with tlie blood.
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SAVIOUR
3. So far we have examined the three "sj'iioptic" Gospels. They follow a historical order. In the early chapters of all three the doctrine of our Lord's sacrifice is not found, because he will first answer the question about himself, ''Who is this?" before he shows them "What is his work." But at length the announce- ment is made, enforced, repeated ; until, when the feet of the betrayer are ready for their wicked errand, a command is given which secures that the death of Jesus shall be described forever as a sacrifice and noth- ing else, sealing a new covenant and carrying good to man}-. Lest the doctrine of atonement should seem to be an after-thought, as, indeed, De VVette has tried to represent it, John preserves the conversation with Nic- odemus, which took place early in the ministry; and there, under the figure of the brazen serpent lifted up, the atoning virtue of the Lord's death is fully set forth. ''As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of INIan be lifted up ; that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John iii. 14, 15). As in this intercessory act the image of the deadly, hateful, and accursed (Gen. iii, 14, 15) reptile became by God's decree the means of health to all who looked on it earnestly, so does Jesus in the form of sinful man, of a deceiver of the people (Matt. xxvii, 63), of Antichrist (xii, 24 ; John xviii, 33), of one accursed (Gal. iii, 13), become the means of our salva- tion; so that whoever fastens the earnest gaze of faith on him shall not perish, but have eternal life. There is even a significance in the words " lifted up ;" the Lord used, probably, the word Tp^, which, in older Hebrew, meant to " lift up" in the widest sense, but began in the Aramaic to have the restricted meaning of '• lifting up for punishment." With Christ the lifting- up was a seeming disgrace, a true triumph and elevation. But the context in which these verses occur is as important as the verses themselves. Nicodemns comes as an in- quirer; he is told that a man must be born again, and then he is directed to the death of Jesus as the means of that regeneration. The earnest gaze of the wound- ed soul is to be the condition of its cure ; and that gaze is to be turned, not to Jesus on the mountain or in the temple, but on the cross. This, then, is no passing al- lusion, but it is the substance of the Christian teaching addressed to an earnest seeker after truth.