THE ATONEMENT
‘The Son of Man came … to give His life a ransom for many.’
There can be no doubt at all that the main message of the New Testament is the Death, Passion, and Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, with the attendant circumstances which led up to the crowning fact.
I. The view of Holy Scripture.—The Atonement has been explained in many ways. But there is no doubt what is the view of Holy Scripture—and where else can we look for a better guide? At the Baptism of our Lord, John the Baptist uttered the memorable words: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!’ At the Transfiguration, ‘Behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias: who appeared in glory, and spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.’ After the retirement to the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, and the declaration of Simon Peter, our Lord spoke more explicitly of that which was ever present in His mind. And again on the last journey to the Holy City. So you see the sacrificial character of our Lord’s death was no mere theological afterthought, suggested after the event by His disciples; it was woven into every part of His mission.
II. The apostolic age.—And so immediately after His Resurrection and Ascension the Apostles began to teach. It was always the same message: the sacrificial death, the Resurrection, faith, repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost (note St. Peter’s sermon at the Gate Beautiful; Philip and the Ethiopian; St. Paul’s epistles). In the same way the Revelation rings with the praises of the Lamb that was slain, Who hath redeemed us to God by His own blood.
III. The witness of the Sacraments.—The two great Christian institutions imply the full doctrine of the Atonement: Baptism, for the remission of sins through faith in the sacrifice of Christ; Holy Communion, which is the Christian counterpart of the memorial feast of the Passover, which commemorated the deliverance of God’s people from Egypt, and is itself the closest memorial of the redemption of the world by the Death and Passion of our Saviour Christ. Church history follows without one single break in the steps of the Sacraments.
—Archdeacon Sinclair.
Illustrations
(1) ‘The Atonement is the reconciling work of Jesus Christ the Son of God, in gracious fulfilment of the loving purpose of His Father, whereby, through the sacrifice of Himself upon the Cross once for all, on behalf and instead of sinful men, satisfaction was made for the sins of the world, and communion between God and man restored.’
(2) ‘ “Some have endeavoured,” says Bishop Butler, “to explain the efficacy of what Christ has done and suffered for us beyond what the Scripture has authorised; others, probably because they could not explain it, have been for taking it away, and confining His office as Redeemer of the world to His instruction, example, and government of the Church. Whereas the doctrine of the Gospel appears to be not only that He taught the efficacy of repentance, but rendered it of the efficacy which it is, by what He did and suffered for us: that He obtained for us the benefit of having our repentance accepted unto eternal life: not only that He revealed to sinners that they were in a capacity of salvation, and how they might obtain it; but, moreover, that He put them into this capacity of salvation, by what He did and suffered for them; put us into a capacity for escaping future punishment, and obtaining future happiness. And it is our wisdom thankfully to accept the benefit, by performing the conditions upon which it is offered, on our part, without disputing how it was procured on His.” ’
(3) ‘So remarkable is the unanimity of the two great primary preachers of Christianity, St. Peter and St. Paul, that it leaves no room to question the statement of the modern contemporary German writer Harnack, that “the primitive community called Jesus its Lord because He sacrificed His life for it, and because its members were convinced that He had been raised from the dead, and was then sitting at the right hand of God.” ’