of sill. And tlie SiKaLoa-vvrj of God manifested in the sa'^u-ifice of Christ, was not in's benevolence, but that form of justice which demands the punishment of sin. " It is a fundamental idea of Scripture," says Delitzsch, " that sin is expiated (i^p*) by punish- ment, as murder by the death of the murderer."^ Again, " Where there is shedding of blood and of life, there is violent death, and where a violent death is (judicially) inflicted, there there is mani- festation of vindicatory justice, der strafenden Gerechtlgkeit." ^ In like manner, in Romans viii. 3, the Apostle says, God sent his Son as a sin offering (^irepl a/Aaprta?, which in Hellenistic Greek means an offering for sin, Hebrews x. 6), and thereby condemned sin in the flesh, that is, in the flesh or person of Christ. And thus it is that we are justified, or the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us. The same Apostle, in Galatians i. 4, says that Christ " gave himseli for our sins." That is. He gave Himself unto death as a sacrifice for our sins that He might effect our redemption. Such is the plain meaning of this passage, if understood according to the established usage of the Scripture. " The idea of satisfaction," says Meyer, on this passage, "lies not in the force of the preposition [i'~ep] but in the nature of the transaction, in dem ganzen Sachverhiiltniss." In Ephesians v. 2, it is said Clu'ist gave " himself for us, an offer- ing and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." His offering was a sacrifice (^ucriav). His blood was shed as an expia- tion. The question, says Meyer, whether Christ is here repre- sented as a sin offering, " is decided not so much by vTrep rjfxwv as by the constant New Testament, and specially the Pauline, concep- tion of the death of Christ as a tXao-rr^ptov." Hebrews ix. 14, is especially important and decisive. The Apostle, in the context, contrasts the sacrifices of the law with that of Christ. If the for- mer, consisting of the blood of irrational animals, nothing but the principle of animal life, could avail to effect external or ceremonial purification, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who was possessed of an eternal spirit, or divine nature, and offered Him- self without spot unto God, avail to the })urification of the con- science, i, e., effect the real expiation of sin. The purification spoken of in both members of this comparison, is purification from guilt, and not spiritual renovation. The Old Testament sacrifices were expiatory and not reformatory, and so was the sacrifice of- Christ. The certain result and ultimate design in both cases was reconciliation to the favour and fellowship of God ; but the neces- sary preliminary condition of such reconciliation was the expiation
1 Commentar zum Briefe an die ffebraer, p. 720. ^ ibid. p. 719.
510 PART m. Ch. VII. — satisfaction of CHRIST.
of guilt. Again, toward the end of the same chapter, the Apostle says that Christ was not called upon to "offer himself often, .... for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world : but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." The offering which He made was Himself. Its design and effect were to put away sin ; i. e., to put away sin as was done by expiatory sacriHces. This is confirmed by what follows. Christ came the first time " to bear the sins of many ; " He is to come the second time " without sin," without that burden which, on his first advent, He had voluntarily assumed. He was then burdened with our sins in the sense in which the ancient sacrifices bore the sins of the people. He bore their guilt ; that is, he assumed the responsibility of making satisfaction for them to the justice of God. When He comes the second time, it will not be as a sin offering, but to consummate the salvation of his people. The parallel passage to this is found in 2 Corinthians v. 21 : " He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin." The design of the Apostle is to explain how it is that God is reconciled unto the world, not imputing unto men their trespasses. He is free thus to pardon and treat as righteous those who in them- selves are unrighteous, because for us and in our stead He who was without sin was treated as a sinner. The sense in which Christ was treated as a sinner is, says Meyer, in loco " in dem er namlicli die Todesstrafe erlitt, in that he suffered the punishment of death.'' ' Here again the idea of the poena vicaria is clearly expressed.
In Hebrews x. 10, we are said to be " sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." The word dyia^ea', hei'e rendered sanctify, means to cleanse. Sin is, in Scri]>- ture, always regarded as a defilement in both its aspects of guilt and moral turpitude. As guilt, it is cleansed by blood, by sacrifi- cial expiation; as defilement, by the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Which kind of purification is intended is determined in each case bv the context. If the purification is effected by sacrifice, by thi^ blood or death of Christ, then the lemoval of guilt is intended. Hence, all the passages in which we are said to be saved, or recon- ciled unto God, or purified, or sanctified by the blood or death of Christ, must be regarded as so many assertions that He was an expiatory sacrifice for sin. In this passage the meaning of the Apostle cannot be mistaken. He is again contrasting the sacrifices of the Old Testament with that of Christ. They were ineffectual, the latter was of sovereign efficacy. " Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. Lo, I c Dme