SAVIOUR
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SAVIOUR
sometimes we have hardly any means of judging what place the sufferings of Jesus held in the teaching of the apostles; but when we read that they "preached Je- sus," or the like, it is only fair to infer from other pas- sages that the cross of Christ was never concealed, whether Jews or Greeks or barbarians were the listen- ers. And this very pertinacity shows how much weight they attached to the facts of the life of our Lord. They did not merely repeat in each new place the pure morality of Jesus as he uttered it in the Sermon on the Mount : of such lessons we have no record. They took in their hands, as the strongest weapon, the fact that a certain Jew crucified afar off in Jerusalem was the Son of God, who had died to save men from their sins; and they offered to all alike an interest, through faith, in the resurrection from the dead of this outcast of his own people. No wonder that Jews and Greeks, judg- ing in their worldly waj', thought this strain of preach- ing came of folly or madness, and turned from what they thought unmeaning jargon.
G. We are able to complete from the epistles our ac- count of the teaching of the apostles on the doctrine of atonement. "The Man Christ Jesus" is the mediator between God and man, for in him the human nature, in its sinless purity, is lifted up to the divine, so that he, exempt from guilt, can plead for the guilty (1 Tim. ii, 6 ; 1 John ii, 1, 2 ; Heb. vii, 25). Thus he is the sec- ond Adam that shall redeem the sin of the first; the interests of men are bound up in him, since he has power to take them all into himself (Eph. v, 29, 30; Eom. V, 12, 17 ; xii, 5 ; 1 Cor. xv, 22). This salvation was provided by the Father, to "reconcile us to him- self" (2 Cor. v, 18), to whom the name of " Saviour" thus belongs (Luke 1, 47) ; and our redemption is a sig- nal proof of the love of God to us (1 John iv, 10). Not less is it a proof of the love of Jesus, since he freely lays down liis life for us — offers it as a precious gift, capable of purchasing all the lost (1 Tim. ii, G; Tit. ii, 14; Eph. i, 7; comp. Matt, xx, 28). But there is another side of the truth more painful to our natural reason. How came this exhibition of divine love to be needed? Be- cause wrath had already gone out against man. The clouds of God's anger gathered thick over the whole human race ; they discharged themselves on Jesus only. God has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin (2 Cor. V, 21) ; he is made "a curse" (a thing accursed) for us that the curse that hangs over us may be re- moved (Gal. iii, 13) ; he bore our sins in his own body on the tree (1 Pet. ii, 24). There are those who would see on the page of the Bible only the sunshine of the divine love ; but the muttering thunders of divine wrath against sin are heard there also ; and he who alone was no child of wrath meets the shock of the thunder-storm, becomes a curse for us and a vessel of wrath ; and the raj^s of love break out of that thunder-gloom and shine on the bowed head of him who hangs on the cross, dead for our sins.
7. We have spoken, and advisedly, as if the New Test, were, as to this doctrine, one book in harmony with it- self. That there are in the New Test, different types of the one true doctrine may be admitted without peril to the doctrine. The principal tj'pcs are four in num- ber.
(1.) In the Epistle of James there is a remarkable ab- sence of all explanations of the doctrine of the atone- ment; but this admission does not amount to so much as may at first appear. True, the key-note of the epistle is that the Gospel is the law made perfect, and that it is a practical moral system in which man finds himself free to keep the divine law. But with him Christ is no mere lawgiver appointed to impart the Jewish sj's- tem. He knows that Elias is a man like himself, but of the person of Christ he speaks in a different spirit. He calls himself "a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ." who is "the Lord of glory." He speaks of the Word of Truth of which Jesus has been the ut- terer. He knows that faith in the Lord of glorj' is in-
consistent with time-serving and "respect of persons" (James i, 1, 18; ii, 1). "There is one lawgiver," he says, " who is able to save and to destroy" (iv, 12) ; and this refers, no doubt, to Jesus, whose second coming he holds up as a motive to obedience (v, 7-9). These and like expressions remove this epistle far out of the sphere of Ebionitish teaching. The inspired writer sees the Saviour, in the Father's glory, preparing to return to judge the quick and dead. He puts forth Christ as prophet and king, for he makes him teacher and judge of the world ; but the office of the priest he does not dwell on. Far be it from us to say that he knows it not. Something must have taken place before he could treat his hearers with confidence, as free creatures able to resist temptations, and even to meet temptations with joy. He treats "your faith" as something founded al- ready, not to be prepared by this epistle (i, 2, 3, 21). His purpose is a purely practical one. There is no in- tention to unfold a Christology such as that which makes the Epistle to the Bomans so valuable. Assum- ing that Jesus has manifested himself and begotten anew the human race, he seeks to make them praj' with undivided hearts, and be considerate to the poor, and strive ■with lusts, for which they, and not God, are re- sponsible; and bridle their tongues, and show their fruits bj; their works (see Neander, I'Jkmzum;, b. vi, c. 3 ; Schmid, Theologie des N. T. pt. ii ; and Dorner, Christo- lofjie, i, 95).