The Pulpit Commentary — Leviticus — Section 5

reflected his own imperfections on false gods, and may have made them vindictive, the Divine justice that underlies the Christian religion owns none of this Imperfection, but is in accordanoe with that perfect ideal that man is capable of forming, though not always of pl'IICtising. How, then, does the Christian religion regard the Divine justice In relation to the· forgiveness of sins? Does it impute to that justice vindictiveness, or retaliation, and then "devise a scheme by which a commutation may be secured, and a vicarious satis- faction obtained," to meet the inexorable demands of that Divine retaliation? The Scripture does indeed say that "by the deeds _of the Law there ~hall no flesh be justified in his sight." But this is no threat of retaliation; for it simply states a self-evident fact, that a man cannot be both guilty and guiltless. And there is no part of Holy Scripture which says that "the Deity cannot be just, and yet a Justifier of offenders." On the contrary, it says that "God can be just, and yet the Justifier of the ungodly;" and it makes it a part of the justice of God that he does forgive offences,, for "He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." But it will be said, this act of God's justice, in forgiving offenders, is only extended, according to the Christian Scriptures, in view of the "satisfaction " made to the Divine justice in the death of the Saviour Jesus Christ as a vicarious offering; and that a satisfaction implies somethin~ to be satisfied. This is in a certain sense true ; but there is no word in the New Testa- ment which represents the satisfaction as made to any principle of retaliation. And I may note, in passing, that the word itself," satisfaction," though occurring in the Prayer· of Consecration in the English Prayer-book, does not anywhere occur in that connection- in the New Testament. The utmost care is needed in enforcing the doctrine of the atonement from the pulpit, lest the idea of retaliation should be inferred. The spirit of retaliation would make God thirst for the blood of the ~inner, whereas God" willeth not the death of a sinner;" it would represent the Deity as injured, whereas God cannot be injured. We cannot shut up the doctrine of the atonement under the naked formula, that man must be punished on account of his sins unless some one else can be found to- be punished for him; that the justice of God must have suffering somewhere, if man is not to suffer. To provide suffering was not the one only object of the atonement; it wa& not merely to. balance suffering against suffering that the one Great Sacrifice was offered.. To what, then, was satisfaction made? It is made to absolute justice, to the truth of God; and it is made not only by the sufferings, but by the perfect life of Jesus, as the perfect man, in obedience to the Law. Jnstice-not retaliation-demands that what e, man sows, that shall he reap. Man sows sin, and reaps the necessary results-death,. the forfeiture of God's presence. Man cannot be pardoned and restored on his own merits. The merits of another are offered to him. The picture of atonement in the Old Testament is that of a covering of sins, and in the New Testament is reconciliation of man to God. In the English version of the New Testament the word "atonement" occurs once, and tnnslates the word which is elsew,here translated "reconciliation" (katallage). The satisfaction on which this covering of sins and reconciliation of man to God is based embraces the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and mediation of the Saviour God- man. The object in yiew of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus was not one, but manifold. It was to manifest God (" Gqd manifest in the flesh"); to reconcile man's heart (" Yon, that were sometimes .,Iienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now bath he reconciled in •.be body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and un blaneable and unrepro-..eable in his sight"); to show man that he has a- Mediator (" the ont Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus"); to prove his love (" Greater love bath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"); to enter death that he might show man that he is the victor over it, a&  AN ESSAY ON SACRIFICE. vii