The attempt has been made to prove that this great phrase, ‘‘the blood of Christ,” covers two ideas which ought to be distinguished, namely, that of the blood as shed and that of the blood as offered, or death and life as two different conceptions, Thus the phrase in question is interpreted as setting forth Christ’s life in two distinct aspects, namely, as laid down in the act of dying and as liberated by the same act and made available for us, so that we are saved by having it com- municated tous. So West., Epistle to the Hebrews, pp. 293 ff. ; Epistles of St. ohn, pp. 34 ff. But neither in the present para- graph nor in any other Pauline passage is there anything to bear this out. Paul, indeed, speaks largely of the Christ who having died is now alive, and of what is effected for us by His life (Rom. v. 8-11; Phil, iii, το, etc.). But what the Living
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Christ does for us in the forgiveness of sin, or in the subjugation of sin, is done as the power of what He did in dying for US.—Thv ἄφεσιν τῶν παραπτωµάτων: the forgiveness of our trespasses. The term ἄφεσις, while used occasionally in the general sense of release (Luke iv. 18; cf. Isa. Ixi. 1), expresses statedly the idea of the letting go of sin (ἀφιέναι τὴν ὀφειλήν, Matt. xviii. 32; ἀφιέναι τὰ ὀφειλήματα, τὰ παραπτώματα, Matt. vi. 12, 14, etc.), its dismissal or pardon, in the sense of the remission of its penalty (Matt. xxvi. 28; Mark i. 4; Luke i. 77, iii. 3, xxiv. 475 Acts ἅν 38, ν. 32; αν, κι, 98, etc.), and as distinguished from πάρεσις, the praetermission or passing by of sin in simple forbearance (Rom. iii. 25). The term παράπτωμα describes sin as lapse, misdeed, trespass (nearly equivalent to παράβασις, transgression, and ἁμάρτη- μα, evil deed, these differing not so much in their use as rather in the metaphors underlying them), as distinguished from ἀνομία, lawlessness or iniquity, ἀδικία, unrighteousness or wrong, and ἁμαρτία, which is applied not only to acts of sin, but to sin as a power, a habit, a condition (cf. Trench, Syn., § Ixvi.; Fritzsche, Kom., i. 289; Light., Notes, ut sup., on Rom., v., 20Ο)---κατὰ τὸν πλοῦτον τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ: according to the riches of His grace. The read- ings vary between τὸν πλοῦτον (TR, following $¥°D°KL, etc.) and τὸ πλοῦ- τος (LTTrWHRYV, following ΒΝΙΑΡΙ, etc.). The masculine is the usual form, but the neuter is found in the best MSS. in several passages in the Pauline Epistles (2 Cor, viii. 2; Eph. i. 7, ii. 7, i. 8.16: ΕΠΗ. αν. το, Col. 1. 27. ii, 2). Elsewhere in the NT the masculine pre- vails. Winer explains the exchange be- tween the two forms as due to the popular lauguage, as 6 and τὸ πλοῦτος are used indifferently in modern Greek (Winer- Moult., Gram., p. 76). The great word χάρις, “grace,” which has been used twice already in these opening verses, touches the pulse of all Paul’s teaching on the redemption of sinful man. It has a large place in all his Epistles, and not least inthisone. For here it meets us at every turning-point in the great statement of the Divine counsel, the securities of the forgiveness of sin, the way of salvation. While it has the occasional and subor- dinate senses of loveliness (Col. iv. 6), favour or good will, whether of God or of man (Luke ii. 40, 52; Acts ii. 47, iv. 33, vii. το, etc.), in the Pauline writings it has the particular sense of free gift, undeserved bounty, and is used specially
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