Todes schuldig seyn," means to be under the obligation to suffer death as a penalty. " Des hollischen Feuers schuldig," means to be in justice bound to endure the fires of hell. So in the Lord's prayer, "Vergieb uns unsere Schulden," remit to us the obligation to satisfy for our sins. The German theologians, old and new, therefore, speak of the guilt (Schuld) of the offender being trans- ferred in the sacrificial services of the Old Testament, from the offender to the victim. " Die Schuld," says Ebrard,^ " kann, wie wir wissen, nur so hinweggethan werden, dass sie wirklich gestraft, d. h. gesuhnt wird ; entweder muss der Siinder selbst die Strafe tragen, oder es muss sich ein stellvertretendes Opfer ausfindig machen lassen, welches die Schuld zu iibernehmen, die Strafe zu tragen und alsdann die dadurch erworbene Schuldfreiheit oder Gerechtigkeit dem Menschen wieder mitzutheilen vermag." That is, " Guilt, as we know, can be removed only by punishment. Either the sinner himself must bear the punishment, or a substitute must be provided to assume the guilt, and bear the punishment, and thus freedom from guilt, or righteousness, be secured for the of- fender." This is the fundamental idea of atonement or satisfaction, which lies at the basis of all sacrifices for sin, the world over, and especially those of the Mosaic economy. And this is the essential idea of the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ as it is presented in the Scriptures from the beginning to the end, and which is so inwrought Into the faith and experience of the people of God that it has withstood all manner of assaults from within and from witli- out, from philosophizing believers and from avowed unbelievers. It assumes that guilt, Schuld, reatus, in the sense of the obligation of the sinner to satisfy divine justice, may be removed, may be transferred from one person to another, or assumed by one in the place of another. In perfect consistency with this doctrine it is maintained that guilt or reatus in the sense of demerit or ill-desert does not admit of removal or transfer.
Medemption.
Redemption sometimes means simple deliverance ; but properly, and always in its application to the work of Christ, it means deliv- erance by purchase. This is plain because it is a deliverance not by authority, or power, or teaching, or moral influence, but by blood, by the payment of a ransom. This is the etymological signification of the word aTroXvrpoicns, which is from Xvrpov, a ransom^ and that from Avw, to purchase, e. ^., the freedom of a slave or cap- tive.
1 Do^malik, § 401; edit. Konigsberg, 1852, vol. ii. p. 159.
478 PART m. Ch. VI.— priestly office.
Expiation and Propitiation. Expiation and propitiation are correlative terms. The sinner, or his guilt is expiated ; God, or justice, is propitiated. Guilt must, from the nature of God, be visited with punishment, which is the expression of God's disapprobation of sin. Guilt is expiated, in the Scriptural representation, covered, by satisfaction, i, e., by vicari- ous punishment. God is thereby rendered propitious, i. e., it is now consistent with his nature to pardon and bless the sinner. Propitious and loving are not convertible terms. God is love. He loved us while sinners, and before satisfliction was rendered. Sat- isfaction or expiation does not awaken love in the divine mind. It only renders it consistent with his justice that God should exercise his love towards transgressors of his law. This is expressed by the Greek verb tAao-/<o/xat, propitium facio. " To reconcile oneself to any one by expiation." ^ That by which this reconciliation is effected is called lAacr/xos or ikaarripiov. The effect produced is that God is lAaos. God is good to all, full of pity and compassion to all, even to the chief of sinners. But he is I'Aaos only to those for whose sins an expiation has been made. That is, according to the Old Testament usage, " whose sins are covered." " To cover sin," "iS3, is never used to express the idea of moral puritication, or sanctification, but always that of expiation. The means by whicli sin is said to be covered, is not reformation, or good works, but blood, vicarious satisfaction. This in Hebrew is "^rr', that whicli covers. The combination of these two ideas led the LXX. to call the cover of the ark tXao-Ti^/aiov, that which covered or shut out the testimony of the law against the sins of the people, and thus ren- dered God propitious. It was an tAaorr^ptov, however, only because sprinkled with blood. Men may philosophize about the nature of God, his relation to his creatures, and the terms on which He will forgive sin, and they may never arrive at a satisfactory conclusion ; but when the question is sim])ly. What do the Scriptures teach on this subject ? the matter is comparatively easy. In the Old Tes- tament and in the New, God is declared to be just, in tlie sense that his nature demands the punishment of sin ; that therefore there can be no remission without such punishment, vicarious or per- sonal ; that the plan of salvation symbolically and typically exhib- ited in the Mosaic institution, expounded in the prophets, and clearly and variously taught in the New Testament, involves the substitution of the incarnate Son of God in the place of sinners, 1 Bobinson, Lexicon of the New Teslament, in verbo.