17, 18 say, at this time His righteousness; that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus: that is, it enables Him to treat a sinner as a righteous man, and yet be Himself just in so regarding him. This vindicates the rectoral government of God, FOR THE PRESENT, of the Christian fulness of time. Afterwards, with reference to this same Gospel system, we read: Ye have Rom. vi. obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. That is, the Atonement insures the honour of the law after forgiveness. This vindicates the rectoral government of God, FOR THE FUTURE, both as to the race and the individual. The leading characteristic of this passage, therefore, is the vindication of God's rectoral character: the protection of law in the presence of the universe. Here is the truth of what is sometimes, but needlessly, called the Grotian or Governmental theory. 24. Moral. (2.) The words justified freely through His grace, grace displayed Rom. ii. in the Atonement as affectingly appealing to man, may be so interpreted as to lay the foundation of what is occasionally termed the theory of Moral Influence. If they are taken out of the context, and considered alone, they declare that the redeeming plan is the free expression of the Divine grace; which, however, found it expedient to exhibit in the sufferings of the Righteous Jesus the evil of sin and the glory of self-sacrificing zeal for its destruction. Apart from the perversion of these words, which regards them as standing alone, they do proclaim the supremacy of love and of grace in the whole economy of redemption. Whatever our salvation cost the Redeemer, it is in all its history and its issues the expression of free grace to us. The theory, not thus standing alone, is true. (3.) The words are connected with others: they refuse to be eliminated from the context. The unique expression which follows and represents the Redeemer as the Propitiatory or Mercyseat-to be a propitiation in IIis blood through faith-makes it most sure that there was a necessity for the Atonement in the Divine Nature. The Blood was not shed only as the life of one who renounced all for the good of others. It was not the life-blood of self-sacrifice only. It was the blood of propitiation; and this word for ever turns to the innermost recesses of the Divine nature. Man's heart is to be moved only because the heart of God VOL. II.-19 Vicarious Propitia tion. 25. was moved. This links St. Paul's with St. John's testimony in his First Epistle. There the ascendency is given to Love; but this only renders more impressive the necessity of the atoning sacriJohn iv. fice. Herein is LOVE, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the PROPITIATION for our sins. 10. As to God and Man. God the Reconciler and the Reconciled. AS TO GOD AND MAN: THE RECONCILIATION. The New-Testament term Reconciliation-or, as it sometimes occurs, Atonement-defines the Finished Work as having effected and exhibited the restoration of fellowship between God and man. The change of relation is mutual: God lays aside His displeasure against mankind, being propitiated in the intervention of His Son; and all men, through the ministry of the Reconciliation, are invited to enter into a state of acceptance with God, laying aside their enmity. The former belongs to the work of Christ as a decree of heaven fulfilled on earth; the latter belongs to the same work as finished on earth and pleaded in heaven, in the provision made for individual acceptance. The reconciliation, therefore, is a process accomplished in two senses: first, the Supreme Judge is reconciled to the race absolutely; secondly, provision is made for the reconciliation of all men individually to Him. GOD THE RECONCILER AND THE RECONCILED. God is the Reconciler in the Atonement, inasmuch as He provides the sacrifice which propitiates Himself: the very existence or possibility of the sacrifice proves Him to be already propitiated. But this does not exclude His being the Reconciled: indeed, so far as concerns the great change declared in or wrought by the interposition of the Mediator, it is God alone who is reconciled. The removal of the enmity in the sinner follows the great recon ciliation, and is its secondary effect. Here there are two oppo site errors to be guarded against. 1. Holy Scripture does not encourage the thought that the actual sacrificial obedience of Christ reconciled God, previously hostile, to man; nor that the atonement offered on the cross wrought as a cause the effect of modifying the intention of the Divine mind towards the human race. The purpose of redemption was an eternal purpose: change must be wrought in time. Our Lord was sent to declare a reconciliation with sinning human nature preceding and presupposing the sin that needed it; which was, indeed, no other than the reconciliation of the mercy of love and the justice of holiness in the Divine nature itself through the Incarnation rendered possible by the adorable mystery of the Three Persons in the Godhead. This is always and consistently declared in the New Testament, which makes the method of atonement simply and only a product of the Divine counsel. His purpose, His righteousness, His love are severally regarded as the originating principle. But always the overture and act of reconciliation is from Him. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. 2. The other error is that of those who insist that the only reconciliation is of man to God. It is a very superficial, and it might be added sentimental, feeling that leads to this assertion: the opposite would, as we have seen, be nearer the truth, as will be further evident from the following considerations concerning the ideas presented to us in the Scriptures which speak on the subject, and the consistent phraseology adopted for the expres sion of these ideas. Reconciliation of God to Man. 2 Cor. v. 19. of Man to God. alone. (1.) He who offers the reconciliation yields His righteous Of (lod claims, as it were, before they are enforced; and, instead of enforcing them, beseeches men to be reconciled to Him. But all Divine claims-to repeat a word which theology reluctantly uses have been in the presuppositions of the atoning work satisfied. The word seems to look only to man, but its face is turned towards God also. Not to betake ourselves to abstract principles, the Scripture must be our appeal. The few sentences containing that aspect of the Saviour's work which views it as the Reconciliation speak in their context of a Divine wrath, and in such a way as to give wrath its uttermost meaning. In the classical Corinthian passage we read not imputing their tres- 2 Cor. v. 2 Cor. v. 21. Matt. v. 24. 1 Sam. xxix. 4. passes unto them, which has behind it, or rather before it, that most solemn declaration, Who, though He knew not sin, was MADE SIN for us. These last words give the key to the whole doctrine closing the statement of it with deep emphasis. : (2.) A due regard to the habitual use of the term will ead o the same conclusion. We may fairly collate the Lord's word, first be reconciled to thy brother, which is a strict parallel in meaning, though the word Staλλáynot is not precisely the same: it is the offended brother who is really propitiated. So too in the case of the Philistines and David: wherewith should he reconcile himself unto his master? it was the master and not David that was to be appeased. The verb karaλλáσσew is never used of the Atonement in the Old Testament; but there are a few texts in the Apocrypha which prepare for its subsequent use. For instance: they besought viii. 29. the merciful Lord to be reconciled with His servants. Though the New Testament does not speak of God as being reconciled, the meaning is precisely the same as in this and similar passages. The eternal God, however, it must be repeated, was reconciled before Christ came to display His saving grace: He only brought the reconciliation, which we receive. There was in heaven an Atonement before the Atonement. 2 Macc The Reconciled World. 2 Cor. v. 19. THE RECONCILIATION. The Reconciliation is a change of relation between God and mankind, or the human race, or the nature of man. It is true that inspired phraseology does not use these abstract terms; but it says that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself: where ἦν καταλλάσσων, combined with μή λογιζόμενος, indicates that the Father in the Son was and is always carrying out a purpose of grace: the eternal decree was accomplished in Christ on the cross; it is always in course of accomplishment. It is the former which suggests, as compared with eroínoev afterwards, He made sin for us: the wrath of God against our transgression was expended upon our Representative, and diverted from us. He reconciled the world to Himself by removing from it, as a world, His eternal displeasure. What is now going on through the ministry is the winning of individual souls to the enjoyment of the Divine peace. For the full interpretation of this classical passage it is necessary to consider more distinctly the meaning of both terms: Reconciliation and World. Recon ciliation 11. 18. 1. The entire world of mankind God is said to have reconciled to Himself in Christ, inasmuch as the atoning sacrifice was the actual realisation of a purpose which had been regarded as wrought out from the beginning of human history. An economy or relation of peace had always prevailed in His government of a sinful race. The term may be said to characterise the kind of administration the Supreme Ruler has exercised over a guilty race. St. Paul shows this when he says, We also joy in God through our Lord Rom. v. Jesus Christ, by Whom we have now received the Atonement, or the reconciliation, which here is simply equivalent to the grace of redemption. The Reconciliation is a title of the work of Christ, just as the words Grace and Gospel and Righteousness give it their names. As the world has received a Saviour or Deliverer, and the Gospel is preached to the world, so the world has from the beginning had the benefit of the amnesty. But a dispensation of forbearance BEFORE Christ is IN Christ a dispensation of perfect Peace. Hence the Gospel is called the ministry of reconciliation. God is adminis- 2 Cor. v. tering, through the stewards of this mystery, a system or economy of forgiveness and peace. The ambassadors of Christ announce a general declaration of the Divine good will to the world. Their ministry is not so much to induce sinners to lay aside their oppo*sition to God as to persuade them that God has laid aside His opposition to them, not imputing their trespasses. They are repre- 2 Cor. v. sentatives of Christ's work as the expression of the Father's will. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell; and, vol. i. 19, having made peace through the blood of His Cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself: these last two clauses may well be inverted; the reconciliation is not the sequel of the making peace, but the making peace itself. There is nothing said here of a reconciliation between the upper intelligences and man, or between both united and God: it is evident that the Atonement is a ground of amnesty in the Divine government universal, so far only as the human race is concerned. The Cross belongs to the world, and to all the world. Its two arms stretch backward and forward, to the beginning and to the end of time. So it is in a 19. 20 |