to do thy will." By which will, i. e., by the execution of this purpose of sending his incarnate Son, we are cleansed by the one offering up of Iiis body. The ancient sacrifices, he says (verse 11), had to be constantly repeated. "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God." " For by one offering he hath perfected forever (^eT(Xd^^iKv. , brought to the end contemplated by a sacrifice) them that are sanctified," i. e., cleansed from guilt. That sacrificial cleansing is here intended is plain, for the effect of it is pardon. " Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin." And in verse 26, we are taught that for those who reject the sacrifice of Christ there remains " no more sacrifice for sins ; but a certain fearful looking for of judgment." It was pardon, therefore, founded upon the expiation of sin, that was secured by the sacrifice of Christ. And this is declared to be the only possible means by which our guilt can be removed, or the justice of God satisfied. It is to be always borne in mind, however, that the end of expiation is reconciliation with God, and that reconciliation with God involves or secures conformity to his image and intimate fellowship with Him. The ultimate design of the work of Christ is, therefore, declared to be to " bring us to God ; " to " purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works." The removal of guilt by expiation is, however, constantly set forth as the absolutely essential preliminary to this inward subjective reconciliation with God. This is a neces- sity, as the Scriptures teach, arising out of the nature of God as a holy and just Being.
What Paul teaches so abundantly of the sacrificial death of Christ is taught by the Apostle John (First Epistle, ii. 2). Jesus Christ " is the propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." Th« word here used is lAacr/xos, propitiation, expiation ; from " IXda-Ko/xai, to reconcile one's self to any one by expiation, to appease, to propitiate." And in chapter iv. 10, it is said, " Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." The inconsistency between love, and expiation or satisfaction for sin, which modern writers so much insist upon, was not perceived by men who spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. In chapter i. 7, this same Apostle says, " The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." To cleanse, KaOapt^eiv, KaOaipeiv, Ka9apLcr{x6v Trotetv, ayta^cu', Xovciv (Revelation i. 5) are established sac- rificial terms to express the removal of the guilt of sin by expia- tion.
512 PART III. Ch. Vil. — satisfaction OF CHRIST.
The above are only a part of the passages in which our blessed Lord is, in the Xew Testament, set forth as a sin offering, in the Scriptural sense of that term. What is thus taught is taught by other forms of expression which imply the expiatory character of his death, or his priestly function of making satisfaction for sin. Thus in Hebrews ix. 28, it is said, " Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." This is a quotation from Isaiah liii. 12, where the same word is used in the Septuagint that the Apostle here employs. The meaning of the Scriptural phrase "to bear sin" has already been sufficiently discussed. Robinson, who will not be suspected of theological bias, defines, in his " Greek Lexicon," the
word in question (dvadepoj) in the formula dreieyKeiv ra^ dfj.apTLa<;
rj/jLwv, " to bear up our sins, to take upon oneself and bea?- our sins, i. g., to bear the penalty of sin, to make expiation for sin." This is the sense in which the sacrifices of old were said to bear the sins of the people, and in which it was said that one man, in God's deal- ings with his theocratic people, should not bear tlie sins of another. DeHtzsch, on Hebrews ix. 28, says,^ " This assumption of the sufferings which the sins of men had caused, into fellowship with whom He had entered, this bearing as a substitute the punishment of sins not his own, this expiatory suffering for the sins of otl)ers, is precisely what drsveyK-etv d/xaprtas TroAAtoc in this passage means, aud is the sense intended in the Italic and Vulgate versions ; ' ad multo- rum exhaurienda peccata.' " He quotes with approbation the com- ment of Seb. Schmidt : " Quia mors in hominibus poena est, Christus oblatus est moriendo, ut morte sua portaret omnium hominum pec- cata h. e. omnes peccatorum poenas excequaret satisfaciendo." ^
Nearly the same language is used by the Apostle Peter (First Epistle, ii. 24). "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree." Whether a.va(f>ipw here means sufferre, to bear or endure, or sursum ferre, to carry up, the sense is the same. Only the figure is altered. Christ bore the guilt of our sins. This is the burden which He sustained ; or which He carried up with Him when He ascended the cross. In the parallel passage in Isaiah liii. 11, evidently in the Apostle's mind, the words are in the Septua- gint, Ttts a.ij.apTLa<; avrwv aLTos avoiaeL, where in Hebrew h'zc^ is used, which appears decisive in favour of the rendering in our version, He " bare our sins," as b^D always means to bear as a burden. As to the doctrinal meaning of this passage commentators of almost all classes agree. Wahl, in his " Lexicon," on the word dva^epw, referring to this place, makes it mean " peccatorum poenam et rea-
1 Page 442.
2 Commenlai-y on Hebreics, Leipzig, 1722.