(2.) In the teaching of Peter the doctrine of the person of our Lord is connected strictly with that of his work as Saviour and Messiah. The frequent mention of his sufferings shows the prominent place he would give them ; and he puts forward as the ground of his own right to teach that he was "a witness of the sufferings of Christ" (1 Pet. v, 1). The atoning virtue of those sufferings he dwells on with peculiar emphasis, and not less so on the purifying infiuence of the atonement on the hearts of believers. He repeats again and again that Christ died for us (ii, 21; iii, 18; iv, 1); that he bare our sins in his own body on the tree (ii, 24). He bare them; and what does this phrase suggest but the goat that " shall bear" the iniquities of the people off into the land that was not inhabited ? (Lev. xvi, 22), or else the feeling the consequences of sin, as the word is used elsewhere (xx, 17, 19) ? We have to choose be- tween the cognate ideas of sacrifice and substitution. Closely allied with these statements are those which connect moral reformation with the death of Jesus. He bare our sins that we might live nnto righteousness. His death is our life. We are not to be content with a self-satisfied contemplation of our redeemed state, but to live a life worthy of it (1 Pet. ii, 21-25; iii, 15-18). In these passages the whole Gospel is contained; we are justified by the death of Jesus, who bore our sins that we might be sanctified and renewed to a life of godli- ness. And from this apostle we hear again the name of " the Iamb," as well as from John the Baptist ; and the passage of Isaiah comes back upon us with unmis- takable clearness. We are redeemed "with the pre- cious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (i, 18, 19, with Isa. liii, 7). Every word carries us back to the Old Test, and its sacrificial sys- tem : the spotless victim, the release from sin by its blood (elsewhere [1 Pet. i, 2] by the sprinkling of its blood), are here ; not the tj'pe and shadow, but the truth of them ; not a ceremonial purgation, but an effectual reconcilement of man and (Jod.
(3.) In the inspired writings of John we are struck at once with the emphatic statements as to the divine and human natures of Christ. A right belief in the incarna- tion is the tost of a Christian man (1 John iv, 2; John i, 14 ; 2 John 7) ; we must believe that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, and that he is manifested to destroy the works of the devil (1 John iii, 8). And, on the other hand, he who has come in the flesh is the one who alone has been in the bosom of the Father, seen the things that human eves have never seen, and has come to de-
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dare them unto us (i, 2; iv, 14; John i, 14-18). This person, at once divine and human, is "the propitiation for our sins," our '"advocate with the Fatlier," sent into the world "that we miglu live through him;" and the means was liis laying down his life for us, which should make us readv to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John i, 7; ii,"l, 2; iii, 16; iv, 9, 10; v, G, 11-13; John xi, 51). And the moral eifect of his redemption is that " the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John i, 7). The intimate connection between his work and our holiness is the main subject of his first epistle, '• Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin (iii, 9). As with Peter, so with John; every point of the doc- trine of the atonement comes out with abundant clear- ness. The substitution of another, who can bear our sins, for us who cannot; the sufferings and death as the means of our redemption, our justification thereby, and our progress in holiness as the result of our justifica- tion.
(4.) To follow out as fully, in the more voluminous writings of Paul, the passages that speak of our salva- tion would far transgress the limits of our paper. Man, according to this apostle, is a transgressor of the law. His conscience tells him that he cannot act up to that law, which, the same conscience admits, is divine, and binding upon him. Through the old dispensations man remained in this condition. Even the law of Moses could not justify him : it only by its strict behests held up a mirror to conscience that its frailness might be seen. Christ came, sent by the mercy of our Father who had never forgotten us; given to, not deserved by lis. He came to reconcile men and God by dying on the cross for them, and bearing their punishment in their stead (2 Cor. v, 14-21 ; Pom. v, G-8). He is "a propitiati'on through faith in his blood" (iii, 25, 26; comp. Lev. xvi, 15) (IXaor/'/ptoj' means "victim for expiation")— words which most people will find unintel- ligible, except in reference to the Old Test, and its sac- rifices. He is the ransom, or price paid, for the redemp- tion of man from all iniquity (Titus ii, 14). Still stronger in 1 Tim. ii, 6, "ransom instead of" {aiiriXv- rpoi>) ; also Eph. i, 7 (aTro\vrpw(7tg) ; 1 Cor. vi, 20 ; vii, 23. The wrath of God was against man, but it did not fall on man. God made his Son " to be sin for us," though he knew no sin ; and Jesus suffered, though men ha<l sinned. By this act God and man were reconciled (Pom. v, 10; 2''Cor. v, 18-20; Eph. ii, 16; Col. i, 21). On the side of man, trust and love and hope take the place of fear and of an evil conscience; on the side of tiod, that terrible wrath of his, wliich is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, is turned away (Pom. i, 18; v, 9; 1 Thess. i, 10). The question whether we are reconciled to God only, or God is also reconciled to us, might be discussed on deep metaphysical grounds; but we purposely leave that on one side, content to sliow that at all events the inten- tion of God to punish man is averted by this " propitia- tion" and " reconcilement." See Pf.conciliation.