The Nature of the Atonement and Its Relation to the Remission of Sins and Eternal Life

PAGE

Difficulty of habitually realising these two opposite states, .

Importance of doing so in studying this subject,

Belief that there is forgiveness with God, the first demand of

the Gospel,

This belief found difficult by the awakened conscience,

The doctrine of the Atonement alone meets this difficulty,

This doctrine, however, involves difficulties of another kind,

Due prominence has not been given to the prospective aspect

of the Atonement,

The righteousness as well as the love of God a ground of hope, 26

CHAPTER II.

TEACHING OF LUTHER-

Bearing of Luther's personal experience on his teaching,

His commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians,

How he sets forth the reality of Christ's bearing our sins,

Luther's conception, Ist of the nature of Faith,

2nd of its results,

His views of the difference between the Law and the Gospel,

God's will as revealed in Christ the proper object of faith,

Importance of the personal appropriation of the Atonement,

Nature and limits of Luther's teaching,

CHAPTER III.

CALVINISM, AS TAUGHT BY DR. OWEN AND PRESIDENT

EDWARDS-

Characteristics of these two writers,

Their treatment of the subject contrasted with Luther's,

Results at which they arrived-

I. Limitation of the Atonement,

How they met objections to this doctrine,

(1) First objection and answers to it by Owen and Chalmers,

Consideration of these answers,

(2) Another objection taken by the present writer,

An arbitrary act cannot reveal character,

Contradiction between the faith of the head and the love of

II. Substitution of a legal for a filial confidence,

Reasons for not being satisfied with this view,

The Son alone could reveal the Father,

CHAPTER IV.

CALVINISM, AS RECENTLY MODIFIED-

Four points of difference from the earlier Calvinism,

Other differences involved in these,

Assumed advantages of this system,

The mental history of these writers commands our sympathy,

Their conception of "rectoral justice,'

Sense in which they hold that our sins were imputed to Christ,

Two points of coincidence with earlier Calvinism,

Their analysis of the elements of Christ's sufferings,

It does not accord with the penal character ascribed to them,

Like the earlier Calvinists they think of the Atonement as

purely legal,

Their view of the relation of the Atonement to justification by

faith,

Their modification of the doctrine of imputation untenable,
Teaching of Edwards on this point, preferred to that of Payne,
Relation of faith to justification, not in truth arbitrary,
Reason for examining this system at length: its merits and
defects,

The Atonement even imperfectly understood, a source of light,
Still we ought to desire a fuller apprehension of it,

CHAPTER V.

REASON FOR NOT RESTING IN THE CONCEPTION OF THE

NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT ON WHICH THESE SYSTEMS

PROCEED.-THE ATONEMENT TO BE SEEN BY ITS OWN

LIGHT-

What was the atoning element in the sufferings of Christ?

The Calvinistic writers held that it was pain as pain,

Was it not rather pain as a condition and form of holiness?

The staying of the plague by Phinehas affords us light,

Light to be sought not in types but in the antitype,

In the Epistle to the Hebrews we find the true method used,

Consideration of Heb. x. 4-10, Ps. xl. 7-11, and John xvii. 26,

Love to God and love to man, united in Christ,

CHAPTER VI.

RETROSPECTIVE ASPECT OF THE ATONEMENT-

I. Christ's dealing with men on the part of God,

Both joy and sorrow had a place in Christ's witness-bearing,

I12

113

This sorrow a part of the Atonement,

But not to be regarded as penal suffering,

II. Christ's dealing with God on behalf of men,

God's wrath against sin a reality,

Christ's perfect response to God's condemnation of sin,

Edwards' alternative: equivalent punishment, or equivalent

repentance,

Sorrow for another's sin not penal,

The Atonement a development of the incarnation,

Due repentance for sin expiates guilt,

An illustration of what is here meant,

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Question of personal identity of the guilty and the righteous, 127

Christ's confession was followed up by intercession,

128

CHAPTER VII.

PROSPECTIVE ASPECT OF THE ATONEMENT-

131

132

133

The Atonement rightly understood essentially prospective,

That its ultimate reference is prospective, all admit,

But in truth its results are directly connected with itself,

Erroneous views as to imparted and imputed righteousness, 134, 135

The subject of atoning confession recurred to,

The revealer of the Father, also the revealer of man,

Two aspects of the life of love in Christ-

I. Christ witnessing for the Father to men,

His hope for humanity closely connected with His sufferings,

Our hope ought to have the same foundation as His,

Christ revealed the hidden capacities of humanity,

The life of sonship is eternal life,

God's fatherliness and man's capacity of sonship alike

How we ought to think of the righteousness of Christ,

149

II. Christ's dealing with the Father on behalf of men,

Right conception of Christ's pleading His own merits on our

151

behalf,

151

The full light of the Atonement shines in Christ's life,

Three important points which are thus made clear,

Fitness for worship the true end of the Levitical sacrifices,

Access to God must be in the Spirit of Christ,

Superiority of a moral and spiritual Atonement as an

Error of supposing that the fatherliness and the righteous

severity of God are at variance,

162

Man is encompassed with spiritual necessities,

165

CHAPTER VIII.

FURTHER ILLUSTRATION OF THE FIXED AND NECESSARY

CHARACTER OF SALVATION AS DETERMINING THE

NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT AND THE FORM OF THE

GRACE OF GOD TO MAN-

As the Mosaic sacrifices were a preparation for worship, so by

the blood of Jesus we enter into the holiest,

Consideration of 1 John i. 5-ii. 6, .

173

Christ himself the propitiation for our sins, (ii. 2)

Meaning of "making reconciliation" as illustrated by Heb. ii.
17, 18,

Further illustration from Eph. ii. 14.- -"Christ our peace," 174-176

This peace first spiritual and then, as a consequence, legal, 177-179

An Atonement which is morally and spiritually adequate,

will of necessity be also legally adequate,

"He suffered, therefore I shall not suffer,'

sidered,

Reconciliation to "the Father of spirits" the essence of salvation, 181

We cannot too soon present the Father to awakened sinners,

St. Paul's argument in Gal. iii. 17 accords with this view,

Faith the highest righteousness because in it glory is given to

A common error as to I Cor. i. 30, "Christ made unto us

righteousness," &c.,

191

No fiction need be introduced into the doctrine of justification, 193

Illustration of this derived from Rom. vii. 24, 25, and viii. 1, 2, 194

Summary of what has been advanced in this chapter,

CHAPTER IX.

THE INTERCESSION WHICH WAS AN ELEMENT IN THE

ATONEMENT CONSIDERED AS PRAYER-

How this chapter is related to the foregoing, .

Christ's work not to be thought of as the acting out of a plan,.

Special difficulty of realising Christ's intercession for men,

How was intercession necessary? Answer to the question,

The intercession and the Father's response to it alike realities,

Real source of our difficulty in regard to Prayer,

Bearing of these considerations on our own religious life,

CHAPTER X.

THE ATONEMENT, AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE DETAILS OF

THE SACRED NARRATIVE-

The outward course of Christ's life, now to be considered,

Christ's inward life developed through outward circumstances, 211

Significance for us of the private life of our Lord,

His public ministry: the Sermon on the Mount,

The life of Sonship as presented in His ministry,

Christ's sufferings as anticipated by Himself,

The agony in the Garden,

CHAPTER XI.

HOW WE ARE ΤΟ CONCEIVE OF THE SUFFERINGS OF

CHRIST, DURING THAT CLOSING PERIOD OF WHICH

SUFFERING WAS THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTER-

Two opposite ways in which the subject has been ap-

proached,

Both errors arise from regarding the sufferings as penal and so

as sufferings merely,

220

222

223-225

Christ's sufferings, (1) as related to the life of Sonship and (2)

as intended to be shared in by His disciples,

The life in the Father's favour, untouched by the permitted

suffering,

Importance of taking into account the mind in which He

suffered,

The cross as implying shame,

In what sense the favour of man is to be desired,
Christ sought men's good more than their favour,
Physical aspect of Christ's sufferings, .

233-235

THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, IN WHICH THE ATONEMENT

WAS PERFECTED, CONSIDERED IN THEIR RELATION,

FIRST, TO HIS WITNESSING FOR GOD TO MEN, AND

SECONDLY, TO HIS DEALING WITH GOD ON BEHALF OF

MEN-

I. Christ's sufferings as related to His witnessing for the

Father,

Psalm xxii. to be taken as supplementing the narrative of the
Gospels the sufferings here seen from Christ's side,
Detailed examination of this Psalm,

Light thus shed upon the nature of Christ's sufferings,
The continuity of the life of Sonship unbroken,

The close of the Psalm sheds light,-

(1) On the fact that the interests of all humanity were

involved in these sufferings,

(2) On the way in which mankind were to share in salvation, 245

II. Christ's sufferings as related to His dealing with the Father

on behalf of men,

247-255

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