CHAPTER II.

THE ATONEMENT MADE BY THE DEATH OF CHRIST.

IN instituting the Lord's Supper, our Saviour states, that his body was given and broken for his disciples, and his blood was shed for them, and for many, for the remission of sins.

There is an evident reference in these words, to the sacrifices of the law of Moses, which were figurative of the one great sacrifice of Christ. The epistle to the Hebrews shews this sufficiently. A body broken, and blood shed for the remission of sins, exhibit the meaning and intent of the Mosaic sacrifices.

Those sacrifices, and that of Christ, are thus contrasted in the Hebrews. (ix. 11.) But Christ being come, an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building: neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall

the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God.

Indeed the blood of the sacrifice was in the law of Moses so indispensable to the pardon of sin, that we are assured, without shedding of blood is no remission. Heb. ix. 22. The reason is given in Lev. xvii. 11. For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul.

The word atonement in our language signifies agreement: or the means by which agreement or reconciliation is made. The general meaning of the original Hebrew word is to hide or cover. When it refers to sin, it means sin forgiven, remitted, or expiated, through the legal rite appointed for that purpose.*

The Levitical atonement, in all cases, produced the effect of fitting for the divine service. Where moral character was concerned, (which in one view was the case, even when atonement was made for the holy place, &c. for they were unclean through the transgressions of the people, Lev. xvi. 16—19,) the atonement was an act of propitiation, being the appointed way for making the Divine Being propitious and favourable to his people. So that atonement and reconciliation, or forgiveness, were thus intimately connected.

By the atonement made by the death of Christ, we mean, then, that the sufferings and death of our Lord were accepted as a sacrifice for sin, in regard to which God forgives our iniquities.

Were there no other proofs of this doctrine than

*See Magee on the Atonement, and Wardlaw on the Socinian Controversy.

those expressions used in the appointment of the Lord's Supper, they would establish it. But it has pleased God to express so important a truth in a great variety of ways.

Before we quote additional proofs of this great doctrine, let us briefly notice the dignity of the victim who gave himself up as a sacrifice. God was manifest in the flesh; He who is over all, God blessed for ever; Jehovah our Righteousness; the Mighty God; the Everlasting Father; the Alpha and the Omega; the beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come; He was made flesh and dwelt among us. By this mysterious and incomprehensible union of the divine and human natures in the person of our Lord, an infinite value was given to his sufferings and death, so that his blood cleanseth from all sin; he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. It is this view alone that speaks peace to the troubled conscience. When a man is truly awakened to a sense of the multitude and the magnitude of his transgressions, the infinite majesty of Him against whom he has offended, and the true desert and tremendous consequences of his sins, he then feels the value of an atonement made by one who is God as well as man, and rejoices in it as that which can alone be a sufficient satisfaction for his guilt.

What then do the scriptures say of the sufferings and death of the divine Redeemer? In the Old Testament we find various testimonies to his atonement. Thus in the 53d of Isaiah, we read, The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all—He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his

stripes we are healed.-When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He was foretold by Daniel as the Messiah to be cut off, but not for himself. The appointed period of his coming was fixed, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity. The New Testament language is still more express and decisive-The Son of Man came to give his life a ransom for many. Matt. xx. 28. He died for the ungodly. Rom. v. 6. God hath made him to be sin (a sin-offering) for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Cor. v. 21. He gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God. Eph. v. 2. He has reconciled both (Jew and Gentile) unto God, in one body by the cross. Eph. ii. 16. Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. Heb. ix. 26, 28. Who, his own self, bare our sins in his own body on the tree. 1 Peter ii. 24.

These are but a brief selection of passages, which show that the all-important truth of an atonement for sin, made by the Son of God, is confirmed by a great variety of expressions, and by repeated testimonies and declarations. How very different would have been the mode of expression, had Christ merely died as an example, and pattern of patience and long-suffering! How easy and natural would it have been for all the sacred writers to have used another phraseology, had they designed to convey any other instruction than that which is obvious at the first glance, to every simple and humble mind! The doctrine of the atonement will from such passages be manifested to those who read the Scriptures with an unbiassed and unprejudiced mind!

The great design of this atonement is clearly and full explained by St. Paul, in the 3rd of Romans. After having shewn the universal sinfulness and guilt of man, he goes on to declare the way of acceptance with the holy and righteous God, in these words,-Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

We may observe in this passage, that the Apostle notices two leading effects connected with, and resulting from the atonement of Christ. It illustrates the divine perfections, and at the same time brings salvation to the guilty.

IT ILLUSTRATES THE DIVINE PERFECTIONS. The doctrine of Christ's propitiation is the solution of an apparently inexplicable difficulty. The holy and righteous God, who had asserted that he would not acquit the guilty, and who had declared, he that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination to the Lord, had yet for four thousand years been pardoning and blessing sinful man, and was then dispensing pardon to believers through the world. This procedure the Apostle shows is consistent with the justice of God, and the truth of his word, by the death of Christ being an atonement for sin. The strictness, purity, and excellence of God's holy law are fully manifested, his authority is preserved, the ends of justice are obtained, even in a more impressive way, by the incarnation, sufferings and death of the divine sub