THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF ATONEMENT. 



47 



III. Xew Testament Views of Sin. 



The sacred writers view sin as bondage, as enmity, as defile- 

 ment, or as hampering limitation. They assume everywhere 

 that men are conscious of being guilty, miserable, impotent. 

 We may safely affirm that this assumption is sustained by an 

 experience so vast and varied as to be practically universal. 

 When St. Paul wrote, " 0 wretched man that I am," he wrote 

 as the prolocutor of the human race. 



In this light the Christian doctrine is only the highest 

 confession of the need for Atonement ; but if the Gospel be the 

 universal religion, it must offer some doctrine of Atonement; 

 and if it also be the Divine religion, it must also offer the best 

 doctrine of Atonement ; and accordingly the New Testament 

 announces that God is the author of a fourfold process. He is 

 the Eedeemer, the Eeconciler, the Consecrator, the Eeleaser. 



The New^ Testament, moreover, intimates that in thus 

 proceeding God acted liarmoniously with His essential character. 

 " God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself." 



" God set forth Jesus Christ to be a propitiation in His blood 

 through faith." 



" When we were enemies it was to God that we were 

 reconciled by His Son's death." 



" The Father sent the Son to be a propitiation for our sins." 



" It was the God of Peace Who brought again from the dead 

 the Lord even Jesus." 



" It is God Who commends His Love in that while we were 

 yet sinners Christ died for us." 



So confident is the New Testament of the truth that redemption 

 had its origin in the love and will of God that St. Peter declares 

 that Christianity was sent into the world in order that men's 

 faith and hope might be in God, 



The awful and abrupt impact of God upon the sinful world is 

 that whicli imparts to the Christian doctrine of Atonement its 

 signal and disquieting grandeur. Against it, therefore, rise all 

 lawless sentimentalities ; all vicious levities ; all insolent 

 sophistries; all despairing incredulities. The insurrection is 

 sometimes exasperated and inflamed by the indiscretion of 

 Christian preachers ; but it is provoked by the doctrine itself. 



In attempting therefore to sum up apostolic teaching on 

 Atonement, wliile I would avoid everything that may justly give 

 offence, I cannot hope, nor do I wish, to escape from that 



