"kissed" #11; The Sufferings and Death of Christ were a Real Atonement.

ABSTRACT OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST.

"The theory of the atonement is, that in the sufferings and death of Christ, he incurred the penalty of the sins of those whose substitute he was, so that he made a real satisfaction to the justice of God for the law which they had broken.

"On this account, God now pardons all their sins, and being fully reconciled to them, his electing love flows out freely towards them.

"The doctrine as thus taught involves the following points:

I. That the sufferings and death of Christ were a real atonement.

II. That in making it Christ became the substitute of those whom he came to save.

III. That as such he bore the penalty of their transgressions.

IV. That in so doing he made ample satisfaction to the demands of the law, and to the justice of God.

V. That thus an actual reconciliation has been made between them and God.

"Each of these will need explanation and amplification, as well as proof, that its precise meaning may be clearly ascertained.

"I. The first point to be proved
is that the death of Christ was a real atonement.

"By this is meant that the death of Christ was not merely a moral example, as say the Socinians;

"that it was not a mere exhibition of God's determination to maintain his government for the benefit of his creatures, according to the governmental hypothesis;

"that it has not only a manifestation of God's abhorrence of sin by which man could be led to penitence, as held by the New Theology;

"that it was not merely an arrangement set forth in the universe as the means of lowering the demands of the law, as say the Arminians;

"but that it was a sacrifice for sin, the great antitype of the Mosaic sacrifices, by which, guilt and condemnation is taken away from those for whom he made it, and they are made at-one with God.

"The proof that this was the nature of Christ's act, is:

1. That this is the generally received notion of sacrifice in all nations.

2. That the earliest record of sacrifice, in the history of Cain and Abel, points to the idea that God had appointed a mode of expiation for guilt.

"The sacrifice of Abel was in one sense no better than that of Cain.

Each was a gift; but that of Abel was a sacrifice of blood, in testimony of acknowledged guilt; that of Cain merely a thank offering.

"The Lord had respect to the offering of Abel, and when Cain was angry, the Lord remonstrated with him, and said:

"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?
and if thou doest not well, sin coucheth at the door." Gen. 4:7.

"This account establishes the fact that the idea of sacrifice, which thus has prevailed among all men, originated in early instruction by God, beginning from the time of our first parents.

3. When we come, however, to look at the sacrifices of the Mosaic economy, we find still the same idea taught, and even more fully;

"since the type was now confined to the nation through which the antitype was to appear.

"That economy shows that the blood of animals was constantly offered to God; that this was done by his command as making reconciliation and atonement;

"that in these offerings was always involved the idea of sin committed by the people, or the individual, or the priests, or a ceremonial defilement of the nature of sin, which made essential the cleansing of the altar itself or the persons officiating;

"that, in the act of sacrifice, the hand of the individual, or of the elders, or of the priests was laid upon the head of the animal for the confession of sin upon it, that it might be made a proper sacrifice;

"that the animal was then slain or sent away; and that, as the result of all these arrangements, the forgiveness of sin followed.

"This latter idea may appear too strongly put, but it is owing to our overlooking the fact that the sins thus atoned for were not all the sins of the Israelites, but only the sins which took place in their civil relations as individuals, or as a nation to God.

"The forgiveness of them involved, therefore, only the temporal blessings thus associated.

"As they were typical of Christ and of a heavenly Canaan, so those who looked through the type to the antitype received full pardon for all sins, because of the offering that God was to make, and in which they trusted.

"In either case, however, there was actual remission of sins.

"For the national or individual sins, for which God had appointed this method of pardon, there was actual remission because of the sacrifice, and, in those who looked forward to Christ, and for whom, therefore, his sacrifice was made, there was also actual remission of the sins thus laid upon him.

"Another caution is also suggested here. We speak of the sacrifices of old as the means God appointed for the pardon of sin.

"And in like manner we speak of God's method of salvation being by the death of Christ.

"But, in either case, we do not mean by the expression that the means of salvation alone was in the sacrifice, but salvation itself.

"The law of sacrifice was the method of God for the remission of sin, but the sacrifice itself secured the actual remission:

"so, the death of Christ may be contemplated as God's method of saving sinners so long as we are speaking of it as the arrangement or scheme devised by God to accomplish a certain work;

"but, as itself a sacrifice, the death of Christ secured salvation, and not the mere means of salvation.

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4. Such, now, being the usage of the word sacrifices among all men, and especially in the Jewish nation, did we find merely the word sacrifice used in reference to Christ, we should be justified in believing that there was made by him a real sacrifice or atonement.

"If the New Testament or the other Scriptures said nothing of the nature of his work or of its effects, we should be fully warranted in saying that, because it was a sacrifice, it secured an actual remission of sins by the shedding of his blood.

"Were we confined to this argument, therefore, we might simply show that the New Testament does speak of him as the Lamb of God, as our Passover, and as having died for us, and thence we might argue that he has made a real atonement for us.

"But we may go much farther and show that it actually teaches this fact.

5. It is clearly taught that by Christ's sacrificial death was made an offering for sin which actually secured the pardon of the sinner.

The prophets of old spake of it in this wise.

Thus in Isaiah 53:6, 10, 11.

"All we like sheep have gone astray, . . .

and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. . . .

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief:

when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin,

he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, . . .

He shall see of the travail of his soul,

and shall be satisfied:

by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many:

and he shall bear their iniquities."

The points here are:

(1.) Our sins are laid on him.

(2.) he is afflicted.

(3.) He is made an offering for sin.

(4.) Thus he justifies many (not all,--and why these?),
because "he shall bear their iniquities."

Daniel 9:24, 26. "Seventy weeks are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish transgression, and to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in ever-lasting righteousness, . . .

And after the threescore and two weeks
shall the anointed one be cut off, and shall have nothing."


The New Testament teaching corresponds with that of the Old.

John 1:29. The announcement of the Messiah by John shows that the sacrifice of Christ was the prominent work of his life.

"Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world."

"The same announcement was made again the next day.

John 6:51. The Saviour says,
"the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world."

"The above are positive declarations.

"We must take them in the fulness of the declaration made.

"It may be necessary to show how these expressions are applicable only to some and not to every individual in the world, to avoid the error of Universalism, but they distinctly declare of all to whom they may be applied that sin was taken away and life given by the atonement.

Matt. 20:28. "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Matt. 26:28. "This is my blood of the Covenant
which is shed for many unto remission of sins."

Acts 20:28. "The church of God which he purchased with his own blood."

Romans 5:10. "We were reconciled to God through the death of his Son."

2 Cor. 5:18, 19. "But all things are of God,
who reconciled us to himself through Christ,
and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation;

To-wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,
not reckoning unto them their trespasses,
and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation."

Eph. 5:2. "Christ . . . gave himself up for us,
an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odour of a sweet smell."

Col. 1:14, 19, 22. "In whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of sins. . . . For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell;

And, through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross;

through him I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.

And you being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him."

"This passage includes all the points under the head we are now discussing.

"We have here a sacrifice by Christ in his death;

"through his blood peace is effected, and forgiveness of sins;

"not the means, but the things themselves; actual forgiveness, actual peace.


The whole Epistle to the Hebrews is proof upon this point.

1 Peter 1:18-20. "Knowing that ye were redeemed, not, etc.,
but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,
even the blood of Christ."

1 John 2:2. "He is the propitiation for our sins;
and not for ours only, but also for the whole world."

1 John 4:10. "God sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

"The passages adduced will suffice to show that Christ's work was a real sacrifice; that by his blood he procured pardon, peace, redemption and remission of sins for those whom he represented.

"How many or how few these are does not here affect the question.

"The work here done was a sacrifice and was completely accomplished.

"The proof to be given of the other points will add materially to the evidence of the nature of the work of Christ in this respect.