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THE MEDIATION OF
JESUS CHRIST

A Contribution to the Study of
Biblical Dogmatics

BY
MILTON S. TERRY, D.D., LL.D.
Professor in Garrett Biblical Institute

There is one God, one Mediator also between God and men,
himself man, Christ Jesus, who gave
himself a Ransom for all

NEW YORK : EATON & MAINS
CINCINNATI : JENNINGS & PYE
1903

Copyright by
EATON & MAINS
1903

TO
TIMOTHY DWIGHT
WHOSE INSTRUCTIONS IN BIBLICAL EXEGESIS AT THE YALE DIVINITY
SCHOOL ABIDE WITH ME AFTER THE LAPSE OF MORE THAN FORTY
YEARS AN INSPIRATION AND A DELIGHTFUL MEMORY

PREFACE.

Many years of study in Christian doctrine have
worked in me the conviction that the best method of
conceiving and expounding the great truths of our holy
religion is that which most accurately reproduces the
ideas and teachings of the biblical writers. A scientific
criticism of the books of the Old and New Testaments
has prepared the way for a clearer and more thorough
going apprehension of their doctrinal contents, and has
brought about a reasonable recognition of the progress
cf doctrine traceable in both Testaments. The con
spicuous human element in the Scriptures is no longer
so universally ignored as in former years, and students
of the Bible are everywhere disposed to recognize the
varieties of thought and style among the prophets,
evangelists, and apostles.
One has only to look into the old catechisms and
text-books of dogmatic theology to perceive how much
the modern Church has been accustomed to accept
without question from mediaeval and early Protestant
scholasticism. Writers on Christian doctrine were once
accustomed to cite their proof-texts at random from
poet and chronicler, patriarch and apostle. So long as
it was "in the Bible," it mattered not with the polemical
dogmatist whether the text adduced were a "Verily,
verily" of Jesus Christ, or an utterance of "Elihu the
son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram,"
5

6 Preface.
when "his wrath was kindled against Job," or a frag
ment from "the words of King Lemuel, which his
mother taught him."
It has taken more than a hundred years of reaction
against such an irrational use of the Holy Scriptures
to bring to the front the more sober and scientific
methods of biblical theology which prevail to-day
among the influential students and theologians of
Christendom. But as is usual in such reactions the
leaders of the movement have been too generally men
of a rationalistic and iconoclastic spirit. For long time
their labors made but little advance against the current
methods and the dominant systems of religious teach
ing, and even at the present time it is matter of remark
that a large proportion of the American clergy have no
intelligent appreciation of the vast amount of work
that has been accomplished toward the reconstruction
of doctrinal systems by means of a more thorough
exposition of the Scriptures. It is, however, coming to
be seen more and more that even rationalistic and
iconoclastic writers may indirectly serve the cause of
truth. If they but stimulate the lover of God's truth
to revise his unscientific methods, to forsake untenable
theories, and to build more wisely and securely, their
very extravagance may prove a help to us. We may
profit much by their skillful labors of minute research,
though we reject much of what they think to be of
value. And so we may repeat what Hurst wrote nearly
forty years ago : "A glance at the various departments
of theology which have received most attention within
the last half century will prove that rationalism has
been the undesigned means of contributing to their
.advancement. The faith of the public teacher deter
mines the faith and practice of the masses ; and those
wlio are the commisgioned expounders of truth for the

Preface. 7
people have to-day a more substantial basis of theolog
ical literature than their predecessors possessed before
rationalism appeared in Germany." *
In the following pages I have made an attempt to
set forth the scriptural doctrine of Christ's redemptive
Mediation. The title I have chosen for the book is
preferred to Atonement, Reconciliation, Redemption,
and other terms of like import, as being on the whole
more comprehensively expressive of the ever-living
presence and power of our Lord as the Saviour of man
kind. Our theological libraries are stocked with
"works on the Atonement," and it would be presump
tuous to add another unless it show something in con
tent, scope, or method sufficient to justify a new
treatise on an old and familiar theme. Our apology is
that in the standard literature on this subject one has
to look over many a volume before he will find a work
that is not largely given to a discussion of the divers
theories and polemic issues of the past, or else is not
ably defective in handling the scriptural teaching.
There seems to be ample room for a book of moderate
size which shall confine itself to a faithful exposition
of what the biblical writers tell us concerning the medi
atorial revelation and ministry of Jesus Christ.
In speaking as we do of the comparative lack of
works giving a noticeably biblical treatment of Christ's
mediation, we mean no disparagement of those able
discussions of the Atonement which have commanded
deserved attention, and have shed light upon the nature,
the necessity, the sufficiency, and the extent of the sav
ing work of Jesus. There are many minds that take
hold of great truths best when they see them set in
1 History of Rationalism, pp. 579, 580. New York, 1865. Tha
same statement may be repeated to-day with even greater as§tif=
ance than in J865,

8 Preface.
systematic and logical forms of thoughtful disquisi
tion, and such minds are often repelled by the details
of biblical criticism and exegesis, for which they have
nO taste and with which they have little patience.
Moreover, a discussion of the atonement in Christ may
be in complete accord with scriptural teaching and yet
be conspicuously nonbiblical in its method.
It will be noticed by some that the method of this
book is substantially the same as that followed in my
little volume on The New and Living Way, which was
published about a year ago. Both these discussions
are in fact fragments of a larger treatise which has
been slowly growing in my hands for many years, and
which I hope to publish at some future day. The aim
throughout is to furnish the reader with a purely
scriptural presentation of "God in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself." In the present volume I have
perhaps made a slight departure from the biblical
method in my second chapter, where a brief notice is
taken of the ideals of incarnation traceable among the
various nations. But even this exception is so in
touch with biblical conceptions of incarnate mediation
that no reader, we hope, will find fault with our calling
attention to the interesting facts, and our supplying in
footnotes a few references to the sources from which
our statements have been derived, and where further
information may be found.
Except in occasional footnotes, the reader will find
in this volume scarcely a reference to the polemical
issues and methods of the older dogmatics. This omis
sion arises from no lack of appreciation of our rich
inheritance from the past. But those who are con-;
cerned with the former controversies may find then-
set forth in superabundance in the works on systematic
theology, and in nmwrous special treatises on the

Preface. 9
Atonement. I offer no other apology for my course
of procedure than the contents and methods of the book
itself. So far as the essential facts of Christ's media
tion are to be noted, and the nature, necessity, purpose,
reason, sufficiency, and extent of the redemption that
is in him are to receive attention in the following pages,
the reader must look to find them discussed in connec
tion with those scriptures where they are believed to
be expressed or recognized. We do not treat them as
just so many distinctive propositions to be maintained,
but rather as facts and teachings of the biblical record
to be fairly expounded, each in the light of its own
context. We append to this volume a bibliography, which,
aside from its main purpose as a help for special stu
dents, may also help ordinary readers to see how long
and laborious has been the task of bringing biblical
theology into the prominence it holds to-day. Our list
is far from complete, and aims only to present a select
but reasonably full catalogue of works in the depart
ment of doctrine to which this little volume belongs.
Few of all the books named in the list can be un
qualifiedly indorsed, but they are all needful for under
standing the history and trend of modern theology, so
far as modern thought recognizes the Bible as in any
sense a norm of doctrine. The value of this body of
literature may be inferred from the following state
ments of Beyschlag, found in the Introduction to his
New Testament Theology:
The presupposition that the Bible must everywhere teach with the
same divine perfection caused the Church to fall into the most arbi
trary allegorical exposition, and in spite of appeals to Holy Scrip
ture made the Church's doctrine more and more unlike the announce
ment of salvation which Scripture contains. The Reformation went
back in earnest to the Scriptures, but it suffered so much of that

io Preface.
erroneous assumption to remain as might render a more biblical dog
matic possible, but not an historical knowledge of the doctrinal
contents of the Bible. And the rigidity of the Protestant system soon
led back to a new scholasticism, which again closed the Bible that
had scarcely been opened. It was therefore reserved for the time of
the decay of this Protestant scholasticism, and the beginning of the
critical and historical study of the Bible, to advance gradually to the
idea of a biblical theology as now understood. Genuine friends of
orthodoxy were the first, from the sense of the insufficiency and ob
soleteness ofits scholastic form, to endeavor to regenerate it from the
utterly neglected Bible, and thus did the name Biblical Theology — in
the sense of a biblical as distinguished from a scholastic dogmatic —
first become current in the latter part of the eighteenth century.

CONTENTS AND ANALYTICAL OUTLINE.

CHAPTER I.
The Mystery and Purpose of the Ages.
PAGB
I. Christ a Revelation of God  15
2. All Grace and Truth from God  16
3. God's Mystery and Purpose  17
4. " Promised before Times Eternal "  18
5. Accords with Highest Teleology  19
CHAPTER II.
The Doctrine and Ideals of Incarnation.
1. Johannine Concept of the Incarnation  20
2. Self-revelation of God a Process through Ages  21
3. Revelation Cosmical and Personal  21
4. Man the Image of God  22
5. Chinese and Mazdian Ideas  23
6. Hindu Avatars  24
7. Ideas of Incarnation in Brahmanism  24
8. Doctrine of Transmigration  25
9. Buddhist Ideas of Incarnation  26
10. Older Ideas of the Vedic Hymns  26
(1) Varuna. (2) Indra. (3) Agni  27, 28
1 1 . Egyptian Ideas of Incarnation  29
12. Greek Ideas of Deity  31
13. Corresponding Ideas of the Latin Mythology  31
14. Idea of God not Evolved by Reasoning  32
15. Biblical Anthropomorphism  33
16. God's Immanence in all the World  34
17. Not without Witness among all the Nations  35
18. Incarnation of Christ the Supreme Revelation of God. . 37
CHAPTER III.
Ideas of Mediation Symbolized in Priestly Service
and in the Levitical Ritual.
1. Primitive Ideas of Priesthood and Mediation  38
2. Moses and Samuel as Priestly Mediators  39
3. The Levitical Priesthood  4°
4. Significance of Levitical Mediation. . ,  4"

12 Contents.
PAGE
5. The Sacrificial Offerings  42
(1) Cereal Offerings  43
(2) Burnt Offerings  44
(3) Peace Offerings  44
(4) Trespass Offerings  45
(5) The Sin Offering  46
(6) Day of Atonement  46
(7) The Goat for Azazel  47
6. Symbolical Significance of Blood Offered in Sacrifice . . 48
7. The Consuming of the Flesh  49
8. Meaning of the Word IBS and its Derivatives  50
9. Force of Sacrificial Allusions  51
10. Priesthood and Sacrifice Express Deep Religious Con
victions  52
11. Typical of Christ's Perfect Mediation  53
12. Erroneous Notions of the Offering of Blood to God. .. 54
CHAPTER IV.
Ideas of Mediation in the Prophets and the Psalms.
1. A Deeper Spiritual View of Approaching God  55
2. The Teaching of Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah  56
3. The Import of Isa. Iii, 13, to liii, 12  58
4. The Penitential Psalms  61
5. Import of Psa. xxii  62
6. Connection of These with Israel's Messianic Hope  64
7. Significance of Dan. ix, 24  65
CHAPTER V.
Doctrine of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels.
1. Relative Importance of Jesus's Words  67
2. His " Life a Ransom for Many "  68
(1) Significance of the Word Mirpov  68
(2) Christ's Entire Life Given as a Ransom  70
(3) Remote Analogies to be Ignored  71
3. Words of Jesus at the Last Supper  72
CHAPTER VI.
Doctrine of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel.
1 . Peculiarities of John's Gospel  77
2. Confirms and Supplements the Synoptics  78
3. Doctrine of John iii, 14-16  78
4. His Flesh and Blood Given for the Life of the World. . . 80
5. Dying for Others  81
6. Intercessory Prayer in Chapter xvii  82
7, Scope of Gospels not toTeach Significance of Jesus's Death 84

Contents. 13
CHAPTER VII.
Doctrine of the Other Johannine Writings.
PAGE
1. Doctrine of the First Epistle  85
2. Use of Old Testament Imagery of Blood Offerings  87
3. A Living Advocate with the Father  88
4. Coming " through Water and Blood "  89
5. Testimony of the Spirit  92
6. Doctrine of the Apocalypse  93
CHAPTER VIII.
Doctrine of Peter.
1. Peter's Discourses in the Acts of the Apostles  95
2. Teaching of the First Epistle  96
3. Partaking in Christ's Sufferings  98
CHAPTER IX.
Doctrine of the Pauline Epistles.
1. Paul's Discourses in the Acts of the Apostles  100
2. The Corinthian Epistles  100
(1) 2 Cor. v, 14-19  101
(2) The Reconciliation unto God  102
(3) God Originates, Christ Mediates, the Reconciliation 106
(4) 2 Cor. v, 21 : " Sin for Us "  107
3. Epistle to the Galatians  108
(1) Gal. iii, 13: "A Curse for Us"  108
(2) Gal. iv, 4  m
(3) Gal. ii, 19, 20  111
4. Epistle to the Romans  ,  112
(1) Rom. iii, 21-26. Six Points of Note  112
(2) Rom. iv, 25. Continual Work of Reconciliation.. 129
(3) Rom. v, 12-21. The Great Antithesis  131
5. Epistles to Ephesians and Colossians. .-  132
6. The Pastoral Epistles  134
CHAPTER X.
Doctrine of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
1 . Outline of the Epistle  1 36
2. Large Use of Old Testament in the Epistle  137
3. Superior Priesthood of Jesus  138
4. " After the Order of Melchizedek "  138
5. Symbolism of the Tabernacle  139
6. Offered Once for All  14°

14 Contents. Page
7. Heb. ix, 15-18. " Testament " or " Covenant " ?  141
(1) Reasons for " Testament "  142
(2) Reasons for " Covenant "  143
(3) Covenants " over Dead Victims "  147
(4) This Covenant not between Equals  149
8. Uniqueness of the Epistle  150
9. SubstantialAgreementof all the New Testament Writers 151
CHAPTER XI.
Christ's Mediation Efficient through the Spirit.
1. Departure of Christ Expedient  152
2. Significance of the Word " Comforter "  153
3. Procession and Personality of the Spirit  154
4. "The Spirit of God"  155
5. The Spirit One with God  1 56
6. Three Fundamental Truths Concerning the Spirit  158
7. Mediation Consequently Ever Continuous  160
8. " The Seven Spirits before the Throne "  160
9. Operations of the Holy Spirit  161
(1) Conviction of Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment. 162
(2) Regeneration  166
(3) Sanctification  167
(4) Witness and Communion  169
(5) Revealing the Truth  170
(6) Imparting Gifts of Power  172
(7) The Comforter  175
10. Through These Operations God in Christ Reconciles the
World  176
CHAPTER XII.
Summary of the Biblical Doctrine.
1. Mediation a Continuous Process, not a Finished Work. 177
2. Largely Set Forth by Symbols and Metaphors  178
3. Use by Christ and Apostles of Current Forms of Speech 180
4. Necessity of Christ's Mediation  181
(1) A Necessity in Man  182
(2) A Necessity in the Nature of God  183
5. Such Suffering not Penal  184
6. Does not Remove all Consequences of Sin  185
7. Not an Objective Process Outside of Humanity  185
8. Christ's Mediation Essentially Spiritual  186
9. Effectual through a Living Faith  187
10. No Theory of Atonement Sufficient to Explain all the
Facts of Christ's Mediation  188
11. The Mystical Body of Christ Made One with God  190

THE MEDIATION OF
JESUS CHRIST.

CHAPTER I.
THE MYSTERY AND PURPOSE! OF THE AGES.
From a New Testament point of view it appears
that all the mysterious problems of the moral world
center in Jesus Christ and must find their final solution
in the manifestation of his person, his mediatorial
activity, and the coming of his kingdom. For accord
ing to these Scriptures the Lord Jesus is a revelation of
the invisible God. One of his most re- Chr|st a revelation
markable sayings is, "All things have of6od-
been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one
knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any
know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son willeth to reveal him" (Matt, xi, 27). What
ever other ideas we derive from the prologue of John's
Gospel, this one thought is clear beyond controversy,
that all saving grace and truth spring from the bosom
of God. This entire Gospel is pre- Grace an(J truth
eminently a record of God's revelation from God-
of himself through incarnation in the person of his
15

16 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
"only begotten Son," and the opening words of the
First Epistle of John, written obviously by the same
author, are a noteworthy comment on the statements of
the Gospel, and a confirmation of them: "That which
was from the beginning, that which we have heard,
that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we
beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word
of life (and the life was manifested, and we have seen,
and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the
eternal life, which was with the Father, and was mani
fested unto us), that which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellow
ship with us." The language and style of this writer
bear the peculiar marks of a devout mysticism, but we
recognize in his various statements the testimony of a
most real and vivid experience. He is no dreaming
mystic that cannot distinguish between facts and
fancies. He knows by unmistakable acquaintance "that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh," and he desires that
others partake with him in the hallowed fellowship and
joy. It was a saying of one of the early Christian
fathers that the beloved disciple John had leaned so
much upon his Master's bosom that he himself became
almost another Jesus.
This revelation of God in Christ is often spoken of,
especially in the writings of Paul, as a holy "mystery"
(/ivoHjpiov). In the twenty-seven passages of the
Greek Testament in which this word occurs it always
denotes some blessed spiritual truth, some hidden fact
or mystical relation, which, though withheld from the

God's Mystery and Purpose. 17
many who care for none of these things, is made known
to them that have the Spirit of God. God,s mystery and
1 Cor. ii, 7, Paul speaks of "God's wis- Pul'P°se-
dom in a mystery, that which has been hidden, which
God foreordained before the ages unto our glory." In
Rom. viii, 28-30, he teaches that the calling, justifica
tion, and glorification of those who are "conformed to
the image of his Son" are but the foreseen and ordained
steps of a well-defined purpose of God. In Rom. ix, 11,
he mentions "the purpose of God according to election"
in the relations of Jacob and Esau, and in the doxology
with which that epistle closes we read of "the revelation
of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through
times eternal, but now is manifested, and through the
Scriptures of the prophets, according to the command
ment of the eternal God, is made known unto all
nations unto obedience of faith" (Rom. xvi, 25, 26).
In Eph. i, 9-1 1, we read of "the mystery of his will,
according to the good pleasure which he purposed in
him unto a dispensation of the fullness of the times, to
sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens
and the things upon the earth ; even in him in whom
also we were made a heritage, having been foreor
dained according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his will." ~ The same
1 It is no help to an understanding of this purpose and mystery
of the ages to complicate it with the conception of a "covenant
between the Father and the Son" as the basis of human redemp
tion, or to impose upon our theology the doctrines of "the
covenant of works" and "the covenant of grace," after the manner
of the so-called "Federal Theology." The postulates of such
theology belong to the speculative and scholastic methods of the
2

18 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
idea finds repeated statement in Eph. iii, 9, 11, ana in
Col. i, 26. It appears also in Titus i, 1-3, where eternal
life is spoken of as a boon "which God, who cannot lie,
"Promised before promised before times eternal." The
times eternal." WOrd "promised" here suggests a vivid
conception in the writer's mind of the ancient promises
recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, yet so associated
in common thought with God's eternal purpose of
grace that promise and purpose are scarcely dis
tinguished from each other. Also in 2 Tim. i, 9, 10,
salvation and the holy calling accord with God's "own
purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before times eternal, but hath now been manifested by
the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus." Here the
word "given," like "promised," in Titus i, 2, is ex
pressive of something purposed in eternity, but realized
in time. So, too, in 1 Pet. i, 20, Christ is conceived
"as a lamb without blemish and without spot, who was
foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world,
but was manifested at the end of the times." ~
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and have no legitimate place
in modern biblical dogmatics. The figure of a covenant between
God and Noah, and God and Abraham, and God and Israel, is
sufficiently familiar ; and the doctrine of Christ as mediator of
the new covenant of God with a new Israel is to be duly recog
nized in its proper connection. But the figure of a covenant,
compact, stipulation, or agreement between God and Christ, what
ever truth it may contain, is too far removed from the direct
scriptural testimony to require formal discussion in these pages.
. " Stevens observes that in emphasizing the divine purpose Paul
"shared that intense and living sense of God and of his causal
efficiency which was characteristic of the Hebrew mind. God's
action is the expression of his purpose. The work of salvation is
the realization of a gracious plan which lay in the mind of God
before the world was. Sometimes the divine purpose is conceived

God's Mystery and Purpose. 19
Whatever, therefore, we make of Christ's redeeming
work, we must recognize its origin in the bosom of
God, the everlasting Father, and conceive it both as a
holy mystery and as an eternal purpose of love and
wisdom, developing through untold ages. This sub
lime conception accords notably with all that is highest
and best in the theistic doctrines of .„„„,.,,„ „,,,.,, ,,,„,,
Accords with nigh-
teleology. The universe of being ^t teleology.
shows manifold evidences of intelligent design. Back
of all phenomena exists not only an invisible Force in
which all things consist and hold together, but also a
supreme Intelligence, which sees the end of all things
from their beginning. We see but parts of his ways,
and may therefore often fall into error in our efforts to
point out the design and to unfold the mysteries of the
high and holy One who inhabiteth eternity ; but we do
well to give heed to the teachings of prophets and
apostles, and especially to everything connected with
the manifestation of Jesus Christ; for in him and
through him are we most likely to obtain our deepest
knowledge, both of the mysteries and the purposes of
God.
of as eternal ; sometimes as historical. In either case the treat
ment of the subject is not speculative, but practical and religious.
The references to God's purpose illustrate the effort to form a
rational conception of God's historic action, to find an ideal prin
ciple underlying the course of the world, and to correlate the
doctrines of the Gospel with the character of God. For Paul the
purposes of God are rooted in the nature of God." — Theology of
the New Testament, p. 376. New York, 1899.

20 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER II.
THE DOCTRINE AND IDEALS OF INCARNATION.
The doctrine of John's Gospel is that the Word, in
whom was the life and the light of men, was in the
johannine doctrine beginning with God, and in some in-
of incarnation. explicable manner was God, became
flesh, and dwelt {koa^vcoaev, abode as in a tabernacle)
among us. We recognize in this allusion an ideal
derived from Exod. xl, 34-38, where it is said that the
glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle and hung like a
luminous cloud above that sacred dwelling "in the
sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their
journeys;" for the writer of the Gospel immediately
adds: "We beheld his glory, glory as of an only be
gotten from a father;" and in verse 18 he says that "no
man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son,
who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared
him." Here is a very remarkable presentation of the
doctrine of divine incarnation, and it would seem from
the teachings both of John and of Paul that the great
purpose of the ages, hidden from times eternal but
disclosed through the manifestation and the mediation
of Christ, was a marvelous incarnation of Deity.
The doctrine of the mediation of Jesus Christ cannot
receive a full scriptural exposition apart from that of
incarnation. "God was in Christ reconciling the world

God's Self-revelation a Process. 21
unto himself," and as this reconciliation was the pur
pose and the mystery of the ages we should think of it
as a process carried on through the ages. These ages
have their epochs and crises and con-
. God's selfrevela-
summations. lhe regeneration and tion a process
° through ages.
spiritual elevation of mankind are not
effected in a moment of time, nor are human hearts,
with all their emotions and intelligence, the creation of
an instantaneous act of omnipotence. A human spirit,
possessed of intellect, feelings, and the freedom of
moral action, is not changed from darkness to light or
from light to darkness by any sudden and arbitrary
exercise of divine power. In accordance with these
facts we shall find that the self-revelation of God is a
process running through ages and generations.
The great truths of incarnation may be shown to
have had from the beginning both cosmical and per
sonal expression in many different ways. "The divers
portions and divers manners" (Heb. Bevelation cosmical
i, 1) of God's outward expression of and personal.
"his everlasting power and divinity" (Rom. i, 20) may
be traced in manifold phenomena to which it has not
always occurred to man to apply a spiritual interpreta
tion. There has been a vast deal of "searching after
God," but too little attention to the fact that God has
been always seeking to make his nature known to man.
The heavens have declared his glory, and the visible
wonders of his creation have made known his power
and his wisdom, but the vain reasonings and senseless
hearts of men have too generally perverted the

22 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
heavenly Father's disclosures of his goodness (comp.
Rom. i, 19-23). Before we pass to the more direct
biblical teaching we may well point out some facts
which go to show that God has been revealing himself
unto all the peoples in their divers concepts of the in
carnation of Deity. The myths, the vague conjectures,
and even some of the strange superstitions of the
heathen world may serve to indicate how the most an
cient tribes of men had concepts of divine revelation
and incarnation written in their hearts.
It is maintained by some writers that the idea of
incarnation is a part of the crude beliefs of rude society
in its earliest stages. God is always conceived, they tell
Man the image of us> as essentially human in those early
God' cults, but later and more accurate think
ing brings about the conviction of an impassable gulf
between God and man. l But we may boldly challenge
this assumption, and submit as a more trustworthy
opinion that this human way of thinking about God is
a very proper conception. The heavenly Father may
naturally be believed to be very much like his noblest
offspring, and the alleged "impassable gulf which later
thought opens out between them" is an erroneous fancy
1 Thus J. G. Frazer : "The notion of a man-god, or of a human
being endowed with divine or supernatural powers, belongs essen
tially to that earlier period of religious history in which gods and
men are still viewed as beings of much the same order. . . .
Strange, therefore, as may seem to us the idea of a god incarnate
in human form, it has nothing very startling for early man, who
sees in a man-god or a god-man only a higher degree of the same
supernatural powers which he arrogates in perfect good faith to
himself. Such incarnate gods are common in rude society." — The
Golden Bough, vol. i, p. 32. London, 1894.

Ideals of Incarnation. 23
of deistic speculation. The biblical doctrine, and a
view to our thought much more truthful, is that man
is in fact the highest visible image and likeness of the
invisible God, and that the various ideals of incarnation
traceable in the religious thought and the mythologies
of the nations are so many evidences of the loving
"Father of the spirits of all flesh" making himself
known to his human offspring.
We are informed that the ancient Chinese fathers
employed a primitive written character as a visible
symbol of the idea of manifestation, or Chmese amJ Maz_
revelation, thereby expressing their dian ldeas-
belief in a real communication between Heaven and
men. ~ In the Zoroastrian scriptures we read of the
Iranian sage receiving revelations through the arch
angel Vohuman, who showed himself to him in colossal
form, "nine times as large as a man," and conducted
him "in ecstatic trance into the glorious and dazzling
presence of Ahura-Mazda and the Amshaspands,"
where he was instructed in the doctrines of the
Mazdian faith. *
1 See James Legge, The Religions of China, p. ii. London, 1880.
2 Jackson, Zoroaster, the Prophet of Ancient Iran, pp. 40-42.
New York, 1899. In the Dinkart, book v, chap, ii, it is said that
Zoroaster "was spiritually fashioned in the pure light, and pro
vided undefectively for the acceptance and propagation of the
religion in the world. And when he is sent for the manifesta
tion of restrained saintliness and bodily substance great glory and
radiance become discernible in him." Elsewhere it is written that
"the coming of the religion at a given time resembles the birth
of a child through two united powers. . . . The religion of the
Mazda-worshipers became manifest on the earth like the recep
tion of a child by mothers and delivering it back to the fathers."
See Sacred Books of the East, vol. xlvii, pp. 122, 133, 134.

24 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
Hindu mythology is particularly noted for its in
numerable stories of incarnation, which are called
avatars, or descents of the various
deities. The god Vishnu is remarkable
for his many manifestations. Whenever iniquity seems
to triumph and religion is exposed to danger he issues
forth from the unseen in some new avatar.1 Some of
these Hindu incarnations bear a very mystical char
acter, and resemble the "emanations" of gnosticism, as
being essentially outflowings of the divine substance.
These, however, belong rather to the refined specula
tions of oriental theosophy.'
But back of all these avatars of the later Hinduism
we find an older cult, in which Brahm is conceived as
the divine spiritual essence from which
Brahmanism. . ...
all things proceed, and Brahma is his
first manifestation, as the supreme Creator, the first
lawgiver of the Indian race, and the inspirer of the
ancient Vedas. The priests of this cult are called by
way of preeminence the Brahmans; they are said to
have sprung from the head of Brahma ; they form the
highest caste of India, and their persons are regarded
1 So in the Bhagavad Gita (iv, 7, 8) he says, "I manifest myself
from age to age for the defense of the good, for the suppression
of the wicked, and for the establishment of justice."
2 "An avatara," says Barth, "in the highest and fullest sense of
the word, is not a transitory manifestation of the deity, still less
the procreation, by the connection of a god with a mortal, of a
being in some sense intermediate ; it is the presence, at once
mystic and real, of the Supreme Being in a human individual, who
is both truly god and truly man, and this intimate union of the
two natures is conceived of as surviving the death of the indi
vidual in whom it was realized." — The Religions of India, p. 170.
Trans, by Wood. Boston, 1882.

Doctrine of Reincarnation. 25
as sacred and inviolable. Along with divers philosoph
ical conceptions of the origin of all things, there ap
pears also a pantheistic doctrine of the soul of the
world, an original principle {at-man, self) capable of
assuming all manner of visible forms and of effecting
all the changes that occur in the universe.
The doctrine of "transmigration," or reincarnation,
is conspicuous in all the native religions of India. The
human soul is thought of as some
. ., . . Transmigration.
subtle, incomprehensible principle of
life which is brought down into narrow limitations by
attachment to the changing world. Swept into the
vortex of human ways of life, it becomes ignorant of
its true nature, seeks sensual gratification, and sinks
lower and lower. Rebirth is a form of punishment im
posed upon the groveling soul until it turns to know
itself, and when.it learns that it is one in essence with
the great soul of the world, and shapes its life and
thought accordingly, it attains deliverance from all evil
desires and absorption into the primal essence. Herein
Brahmanism and Buddhism are at one. The ultimate
goal of all human incarnation and struggle is the
"Nirvana" of union and identity with the Infinite, the
Universal, the Absolute.
Buddhism itself presents to us a very remarkable
idea of incarnation. It is peculiar in that it recognizes
no supreme Being, who is self-existent
. Buddhism.
and eternal, and so it breaks away
from the older Brahmanism. In fact, it seems to deny
the real existence of any incorporeal spirit, whether

26 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
human or divine. But one fundamental tenet of this
system is that the so-called Buddhas are beings who
repeatedly make their appearance in human form, yet
only after immense intervals of time. Previous to his
incarnation in human form the Buddha is believed
to have passed through various phases of manifesta
tion, at one time appearing as a reptile, at another as a
bird ; but when at last he appears as Buddha he is al
ways born of a woman, and born under the ordinary
laws of human life. The distinguishing characteristics
of the Buddha, as at once an incarnation and a mani
festation of the highest excellence, are calmness, gentle
ness, and repose. Here we perceive an ideal of all that
is noblest and best in moral attainment set forth before
us in the form of a perfected human being. ~
But we must go back of Buddhism and Brahmanism
to the hymns of the most ancient Veda to find the
ideas in the Vcdie earliest religious conceptions of the
hymns. ancestors of the tribes of India. Pop
ular songs usually embody portraitures of the common
1 "Gautama Buddha himself was merely the last link in a long
chain of corporeal forms, and he had been preceded by twenty-
four Buddhas, who were to previous ages of the world what he
was to the present. Every one of these Buddhas was gifted with
the faculty of recollecting his previous personalities, and Gautama
often gave an account of his own former existences." — Monier-
Williams, Buddhism, in Its Connection -with Brahmanism and
Hinduism, and in Its Contrast with Christianity, p. in. London,
1889. Bishop Copleston observes : "The qualities most charming
to the Indian mind are gentleness and calm. . . . The picture
which is given to us of Gotama represents a character not only
calm and gentle, but active, genial, not devoid of humor, deeply
sympathetic, and intensely human." — Buddhism Primitive and
Present in Magadha and in Ceylon, p. 97. London, 1892. See also
R. Spence Hardy, Eastern Monachism, pp. 3-5. London, i860.

Ideals in the Vedic Hymns. 27
life and thoughts of their time, and numerous hymns
of the Rig-Veda carry us back to the time when the
old Aryans entered India through those same north
western passes by which Alexander led his victorious
forces some two thousand years afterward. The Indus
and the rivers of the Punjab water the fair fields where
the action of the Vedas is laid, and these old poems
show us that their authors conceived all the visible
forms and the forces of nature as instinct with Deity,
and as so many objects of worship. Out of this gen
eral conception it was possible to form various diver
gent ideas of God, and we do, in fact, find some Vedic
hymns clearly polytheistic in doctrine, others which
are pantheistic, and some which seem to breathe a pure
monotheism. The term henotheism was employed by
Max Muller to denote the worship often represented
in the hymns in which the Deity addressed appears
to be for the time the only God recognized by the
worshiper. Highest and central among the Vedic deities is
Varuna, identical with the Greek Ouranos. He is the
all-embracing Heaven, the former and
r r™ • Varuna.
ruler of all things. The sun in the
heavens, the moon and the stars in their courses, the
seasons in their rounds are his appointments. He
numbers the winkings of each mortal eye, and ob
serves all that is hidden in the secret places of the
world. The counsels of human hearts are open before
him. Other hymns address Indra as the god of the clear

28 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
blue sky, the air-space, whence come fertilizing rains,
without which the people of northwest
ern India are quickly reduced to gen
eral suffering. The language of these Indra hymns is
remarkably forcible and simple of comprehension to
those who have lived some time in India and have
watched there the phenomena of the changing seasons.
These hymns accord with ideals of an ancient nature-
myth. The clouds are conceived as the covering of
hostile demons, who hide the sun from view, darken
the world, and hold back the heavenly waters from the
thirsty earth. It is the glory of Indra that he alone
can vanquish the dreadful demons. Other gods shrink
back from the roaring monsters, but Indra boldly goes
forth to meet them, armed with his fatal thunderbolt ;
he smites them with his rapid lightnings, pierces their
covering of clouds, and releases the waters, which
thereupon fall at once in copious showers to bless the
earth. The principal earth-god, to whom more hymns are
addressed than to any other, is Agni (Latin ignis), the
god of fire. His proper home is
heaven, but he has come as representa
tive of other gods to bring light and comfort to the
dwellings of men. His births are without number, for
he appears every day in various forms of life. He lies
concealed in the soft wood, and when two sticks are
rubbed together Agni springs forth in gleaming
brightness. He is also born of the floods of heaven,
and comes down in the form of lightning to the earth,

Egyptian Myths. 29
In fact, he is a kind of priest both in heaven and upon
earth. He goes forth wisely as a messenger and
mediator between gods and men; and when the sun
goes down, and darkness covers the earth, the kindled
fire and light proclaim that Agni is mightier than all
the spirits of darkness.
We need not refer to other deities of the Vedic
pantheon, for the conceptions which attach to the
above-named suffice to show how even nature-myths
evince the doctrine of incarnation. The all-embracing
heaven, the moving elements and the forces of earth
and sky and air, are full of God. The mythical pictures
of Agni are but a poetic clothing of beneficent fire and
light in such apparent forms as will enable them to
dwell with men and so manifest the riches of the grace
of the heavenly Power.
The ancient religion of the Egyptians is so veiled
in mystery that it is next to impossible to determine
the real elements of its earliest forms. It has been
denied that the old Egyptian creed gives any evidence
of the idea of incarnation,1 but the fact
, . , „ . , . . Egyptian ideas
that so many of the Egyptian deities
1 Hardwick thinks that man's relation to God as offspring and
as bearing the divine image was very faint in the Egyptian cult,
and he observes that in accord with "this lack of faith in the
harmonious meeting of the human and divine is the remarkable
absence from the old Egyptian creed of the idea of incarnation." —
Christ and Other Masters, p. 511. Fourth ed., London, 1875.
But there is room for doubting the correctness of this statement.
The creed which is studied in existing texts taken from the pyra
mids seems at best but a confused evolution out of diverse pre
historic faiths and local cults, and Erman says: "Like the Greeks,
the Egyptians allowed their imagination to weave all manner of
legends round the gods, and to remodel their shapeless great

30 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
are depicted on the monuments in human form is
against such an opinion. The myth of Horus, the god
of light, is conspicuously suggestive of incarnation,
growth, and exaltation to the rulership of the world.
Born of Osiris and Isis, filled with life and wisdom,
victorious over the prince of darkness, ascending to
the throne of his father, who still lives in the stars,
and dwells in the phenix, and at the same time rules
over the kingdom of departed souls, Horus would seem
to exhibit a manifestation of Deity remarkably
analogous to Jesus Christ. In the point of analogy
named, even the Hindu Krishna scarcely shows a more
notable ideal of God manifest in human forms of life
and action. The hymns and prayers addressed to Ra
and to Osiris are also filled with sentiments of the high
est religious character, showing beyond question that,
however mixed with mystic superstitions, the old

genii into beings, acting and feeling as human beings of decided
character." — Life in Ancient Egypt, p. 263. Trans, by Tirard.
London, 1894. Wiedemann (Rehgion of the Ancient Egyptians,
London, 1897) maintains that "the idea of an animal incarnation
of deity is thoroughly Egyptian" (p. 173), and was in accord with
that ancient people's incapacity for abstract thought (p. 17s).
"In fixing upon certain animals as being respectively the incarna
tions of certain deities, the Egyptian was guided by what he
considered the salient characteristics of the different divinities
and of the different animals in question" (p. 178). "The death of
the sacred animal did not involve the death of the god whom it
represented, nor the loss of its own personal identity. Though
the dislodged deity at once sought fresh incarnation in another
animal of the same species and appearance as that which had
died, the soul of the latter was immortal. As the dead man
became an Osiris, so did the dead Apis become an Osiris Apis,
the dead ram an Osiris ram, etc. In all these cases the same
rites were performed for the animal as for the human mummy"
(p. 182).

Greek and Roman Ideas of God. 31
Egyptian was possessed of some very exalted and
worthy conceptions of God.
A glance at the religion of the Greeks shows among
the first things to be noticed the human character
of all its deities, and a familiar geneal- G?.eek ldeas o|
ogy of the principal gods. Zeus, "the deity-
father of gods and of men," is himself the offspring of
Kronos and Rhea, who sprang from Ouranos and
Gaia, and were thus conceived as offspring of heaven
and earth. And all the myths and legends of the
ancient Greeks move about this central notion of a
remarkably humanlike intercourse between gods and
men. Zeus is addressed in the Homeric poems as
"Our Father," * and the great artists of Greece, when
ever they would set in painting or in sculpture the
mightiest of all the gods, presented him in majestic
human form.
The Latin mythology had much in common with
that of the Greeks, but it was modified to accord with
national characteristics of the Roman . Latin mythology.
people. Janus was the mightiest
divinity who held the keys, and opened and shut the
gates of heaven and earth. Jupiter, Juno, Vesta, Mars,
Apollo, and the others figured as so many ideals of
"Thus in the Odyssey, i, 45 and 81, Athena addresses the son
of Kronos in the words <*> irdrep q/ierepe — O our Father. Compare
"Father Zeus" in Od., v, 7 ; vii, 331 ; //., iii, 276, 320. A likeness
may, perhaps, be traced between the myth of Athena springing in
full panoply from the brain of Zeus, and the figure of Wisdom in
Prov. viii, 22-31, "set up from everlasting, possessed by Jehovah
from the beginning, daily his delight, rejoicing always before
him."

32 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
heavenly power and excellence, and each one of them
was assumed to be capable of more or less actual reali
zation in human life. The deification of the Roman
emperors was in its way a witness to the very human
conceptions of deity which appear alike in the religions
of Italy and Greece. So simple and familiar were the
ideas of incarnation throughout the Roman empire in
the time of Paul that when the people of Lystra saw
the healing of a cripple by the word of the apostle they
cried out, "The gods are come down to us in the like
ness of men" (Acts xiv, n).
It is not necessary, for our purpose, to examine the
less historic religions for evidences of the idea of in
carnation, or its virtual equivalent, in the concept of
God as it has found varied expression among the tribes
of men. But the widest induction and the most
thoroughgoing analysis of the facts do not sustain the
Not evolved .from hypothesis that the idea of God was
human reasoning. ever evolved out of human reasonings.
The lowest savage tribes are not proven to be destitute
of the idea of one Supreme Being. It is even surpris
ing to find among some of the uncivilized races, "who
live nearest to the open heart of nature," and have not
been perverted by "vain reasonings," "foolish ques
tions," and "endless genealogies," relatively pure and
exalted concepts of one Supreme Being, as, for ex
ample, "the Great Spirit," commonly so called among
the American Indians. Polytheism and fetichism and
totemism are sometimes found in connection with the
concept of one God-over-all, and we are of opinion

Biblical Anthropomorphism. 33
that, to a greater extent than has been generally imag
ined, we may trace in all the known religions of man
kind evidences of one Supreme God and Father of all
working to make himself known to his offspring, who,
as Paul truly says, have quite generally "not approved
of having (the) God in their knowledge" (Rom. i, 28),
and so, though "knowing God, glorified him not as
God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their
reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened"
(verse 21).
Now, it is a remarkable fact that the various con
cepts of God imaged forth in the mythology of the
ancient nations find more or less ex- BibI|cal anthl.opo.
pression in the Hebrew Scriptures. ,noi"Phl8m-
The anthropomorphism which appears in some of the
ancient Hebrew writers has been offensive to modern
readers, and has been pronounced low and crass.
Jehovah's formation of man (Gen. ii, 7), his walking
in the garden in the cool of the day (iii, 8), his smelling
the sweet savor of animal sacrifice (viii, 21), his com
ing down to see the city and tower (xi, 5), his feasting
with Abraham (xviii) and wrestling with Jacob at
Peniel (xxxii, 24), his appearance as an angel (xvi,
7; Exod. iii, 2), his presence in the pillar of cloud
and of fire (Exod. xiii, 21), his coming down on the
top of Sinai and talking with Moses there (xix, 20),
his appearance to Joshua as Captain of the host (Josh.
v, 14) — these and other like theophanies seem very
human. But why should we assume that this naive
and childlike conception of Jehovah is unworthy of
3

34 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
our heavenly Father in his desire to approach the heart
of the children created in his image? It is in perfect
keeping with all the biblical declarations of his loving
kindness and tender mercies and wonderful works for
the children of men. It accords with the gracious
Providence that "loved Israel when a child" (Hos.
xi, i) and bore them as on eagles' wings out of the
house of bondage (Exod. xix, 4; Deut. xxxii, 11).
"In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel
of his presence saved them; in his love and in his
pity he redeemed them ; and he bore them and carried
them all the days of old" (Isa. lxiii, 9). Although the
heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and he in
habiteth eternity, yet his peculiar delight is to "dwell
with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit" (Isa.
lvii, 15). The Levitical tabernacle was a symbol and
object-lesson of Jehovah meeting and dwelling with
Israel (Exod. xxv, 22; xxix, 43).
If some Hebrew writers speak at times of God as
being in the heavens and man upon the earth (Eccles.
v, 2), others recognize his presence in every part of the
immanence in the universe (Amos ix, 2; Psa. exxxix,
world. y_12y He js the invisible power be_
hind all the forms and forces of the world of sense.
He waters the mountains from his chambers, sends
forth springs into the valleys, causes the grass to grow,
and plants the cedars of Lebanon (Psa. civ). His
voice thunders in the heavens, the clouds are his
pavilion, the lightnings are his arrows, the stormy
winds and tempests that move earth and sea are but

Witnessed Among All Nations. 35
the blasts of the breath of his nostrils, the foundations
of the mountains quake at his presence (Psa. xviii).
And it is the privilege and blessedness of every trusting
soul of man to "dwell in the secret place of the Most
High, and abide under the shadow of the Almighty"
(Psa. xci, 1). No myths or legends of the world have
given so vivid a concept of God's immanence in all the
visible forms of nature as that which appears in the
ancient Scriptures of the Hebrew people.
But our comparative research among the many re
ligions of mankind, both those which now exist and
those of past ages and peoples whose records yet
remain, shows that the God of love has not left
himself without witness among any of the nations,
but has been graciously caring for Witnessed in aI1
them all. Some writers seem to think natl0ns-
that the numerous analogies between religious cults,
and such striking correspondencies as are found be
tween the life of Jesus and the legends of Gautama,
the myth of Horus, and the avatars of Vishnu, throw
this whole world of thought and fact into a chaos of
vain superstitions. They accordingly disparage all
religions along with their traditions. But our studies
beget a very different conviction. In the most erratic
forms of worship, among the most haggard supersti
tions of abject races, one may discern a very earnest
"feeling after God" (comp. Acts xvii, 27), and such
religious feeling is begotten by the "drawing" of the
heavenly Father (John vi, 44). The only way by
which God himself, or any superior intelligence, can

36 The Mediation of Jesus Christ,
communicate with one inferior is through signs, or a
language which the lower being comprehends. Both
the means of communication and the ideas conveyed
may be very imperfect, and yet be the best which con
ditions will admit. The Old Testament revelations of
God come confessedly piecemeal, here a little and there
a little, and in like manner have all the peoples re
ceived whatever light and truth they possess. And
thus in varying degrees "the invisible things of God
since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being
perceived through the things that are made, even his
everlasting power and divinity" (Rom. i, 20). We
accordingly believe that our Father in the heavens
has been continuously through the ages making his
gracious manifestations of himself known to men. He
made himself known to the Melchizedeks and Jethros
of ancient time as truly as to Abraham and Moses.
The Wisdom from above has cried aloud in the high
places and along the pathways of the sons of men, and
made its appeal much after the manner of the Hebrew
prophet : "If I be a father, where is my honor? and if
I be a master, where is my fear?" (Mal. i, 6.) And
the men who have heard the heavenly voice have shown
"the work of the law written in their hearts, their con
science bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts
one with another accusing or else excusing them"
(Rom. ii, 15). The love and gracious condescension
of our heavenly Father have thus also been manifest
in the avatars and sundry myths of the nations, but
the senseless and darkened heart has not apprehended

Christ the Supreme Manifestation. 37
the real lesson. God so loves the world that he is ever
calling: "I am your Father, and ye are mine offspring.
I am a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and
abundant in loving-kindness and truth, but in your
disobedience and consciousness of guilt ye have
thought me vengeful. I am light, but ye have loved
darkness rather than light, and so have failed to learn
of me. Turn ye from all your evil ways, and know
the riches of my real affection."
But while our heavenly Father left not himself with
out witness among the nations, all other and previous
revelations of himself have been eclipsed by the in
carnation and mediation of Jesus Christ, "who was
manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of
angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the
world, received up in glory" (1 Tim. iii, 16). All the
marvelous revelations of God given in the books of
Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, are
consummated and superseded "by reason of the glory
that surpasseth" (2 Cor. iii, 10) them all in the mani
festation of the Christ of God ; much more completely
has this manifestation consummated and eclipsed the
inferior revelations of the whole Gentile world. "When
the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son,
born of a woman, born under the law, that he might
redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons" (Gal. iv, 4, 5). Such
an incarnation of God must needs reveal himself and
be revealed as "the way, and the truth, and the life."

38 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER III.
IDEAS OF MEDIATION SYMBOLIZED IN PRIESTLY
SERVICE AND IN THE LEVITICAL RITUAL.
It is quite natural for any worshiper of a super
natural Power to resort for assistance to some mediator
between himself and the Deity. This fact has been to
some extent apparent among the devotees of all the
religions of the world. Among savage tribes we note
the need and the reverence felt for the medicine man,
primitive priest- the soothsayer, or the priest, who is
hood and mediation. supposed to p0ssess some superior in
fluence with the powers invisible. In the biblical
narratives of early patriarchal times the head of the
household acted as priest and mediator. Melchizedek
is mentioned in Gen. xiv, 18, as "king of Salem" and
"priest of God Most High." Noah, Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, and Jethro, priest of Midian, are represented as
building altars, offering sacrifices, and calling upon
God, as if acting the part of a mediator and intercessor.
Especially noteworthy is the account of Abraham
standing as an intercessor before Jehovah, and plead
ing for the cities of the plain when their enormous
wickedness had exposed them to the sentence of de
struction from the righteous Judge of all the earth.
The hero of the book of Job is depicted as an ancient
patriarch and priest, offering up burnt offerings for the

Priestly Mediators. 39
sins of his sons and daughters (Job i, 5). Such media
tion, intercession, and sacrifice, whatever forms they
take on among different peoples, are an obvious pro
vision for the sense of spiritual need which is deeply
felt in the heart of man. For men are the offspring of
God, and they come into conscious being possessed of
a religious nature that instinctively feels and yearns
after the living God. And the most ancient forms of
priestly mediation between man and God evince an
inborn yearning of the soul for peace and favor with
the Author of its being.
Moses is represented as preeminently a mediator be
tween Israel and God. The people were filled with a
deep sense of awe, and they said unto
._ _ , , . , Moses as mediator.
Moses, Speak thou with us, and we
will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.
. . . And they stood afar off, and Moses drew near
unto the thick darkness where God was" (Exod. xx,
19, 21). We also read that "Jehovah spoke unto
Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend"
(Exod. xxxiii, 11; comp. Num. xii, 8; Deut. xxxiv,
10). We find remarkable examples of Moses pleading
before Jehovah in Exod. xxxii, 31, 32, and Num. xi,
11-15, and in the first-mentioned intercession he is
spoken of as "going up unto Jehovah" to make atone
ment for the sins of the people. Similarly Samuel the
prophet is besought to pray for the
. ; , , , ,. Samuel.
sinful people that they may not die
(1 Sam. xii, 19-23). He offered burnt offerings to
Jehovah, cried out aloud unto Jehovah, and was

40 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
signally answered in behalf of Israel (vii, 9, 10). In
all this he acted the part of a mediator and priest.
Moses was of the tribe of Levi (Exod. ii, 1), and
according to the Levitical tradition he consecrated his
brother Aaron to the priesthood, and the sons of Aaron
TheLeviticaipriest- were thereafter set apart by a perpetual
hood- statute to execute the office of priest
in Israel. According to Exod. xiii, 2, 12, 15; xxii, 29,
Jehovah claimed all the firstborn of Israel as his
peculiar possession, but he substituted the tribe of
Levi for the firstborn of all the people, and ordained
that they alone should minister in holy things before
him (Num. iii, 12, 41, 45; viii, 16-19). The trust
worthiness of this Levitical tradition has been ques
tioned, for subsequent to the times of Moses we read
of such men as Gideon and Samuel and David and
Solomon and Elijah offering sacrifices before Jehovah,
apparently without any knowledge of such exclusive
right of the descendants of Aaron. The great prophets
from Samuel to Jeremiah show no such respect for
priesthood, burnt offerings, and sacrifices as a knowl
edge of such a Mosaic appointment of Aaron's sons
and the elaborate ritual of Levitical worship would
naturally command. The probability is that this
elaborate ritual of priesthood and offerings and mul
tiplied ceremonies was of slow growth, and did not
reach the completeness in which it now appears in the
Priest Codex of the Pentateuch until the time of Ezra
and the second temple. But the story of the wander
ing Levite in Judg. xvii, 7-13, the eagerness pf Mi?ah

The Levitical Mediation. 41
to secure his priestly services, his subsequent capture
by the Danites to be the priest of their tribe, and the
fact that he is called "the son of Gershom, the son of
Moses," and that "his sons were priests to the tribe of
the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land"
(xviii, 30), show the priestly standing of the Levites
in those unsettled times. Moreover, the ministration
of Eli, the priest, in a temple of Jehovah at Shiloh, and
a going up "from year to year to worship and to sac
rifice unto Jehovah of hosts in Shiloh," as recorded in
1 Sam. i, 3-9, point to a very ancient seat of Levitical
worship at that place, where, according to Judg. xxi,
19, an annual "feast of Jehovah" was observed. The
priestly prerogatives of the whole tribe of Levi are
also clearly witnessed in Deut. xviii, 1-8.
But our concern is not so much with the history of
the Levitical priesthood as with its mediatorial sig
nificance. The officiating priest at the Si(miflcance of Le.
altar of sacrifice acted not for himself viticai mediation.
alone. He was mediator and representative of other
worshipers before God. He was required to care for
everything pertaining to the altar and the holy places
(Num. xviii, 5, 7), to offer incense, light the lamps,
attend to the showbread, and keep the fire continually
burning on the altar of burnt offerings. The priests
were also to be teachers of the law (Lev. x, 10, 11;
Deut. xxxiii, 10). Their highest service, however, was
to officiate in the offering of the various sacrifices de
scribed in the elaborate ritual of Lev. i-vii. In this
they appear as the divinely ordained representatives

42 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
of all Israel. The most solemn and significant service,
developed in the later history of the Levitical priest
hood, was that of the high priest on the day of atone-
ment. Having washed his body and put on the hal
lowed garments, he proceeded to offer the burnt
offering and the sin offering to make atonement for
himself and for his house (Lev. xvi, 2-6). After this he
took the censer full of burning coals, and burned in
cense so that the fragrant cloud arising therefrom
covered the mercy seat above the ark ; then he took
the blood of the bullock which served as a sin offering
for himself, and afterward the blood of the goat which
served as the sin offering of the people, and, passing
within the inner veil, sprinkled the blood of bullock
and goat upon the mercy seat, and thus "made atone
ment for himself, and for his household, and for all
the assembly of Israel" (Lev. xvi, 12-17). In all this
symbolical service the high priest appears as a repre
sentative of all Israel, a sanctified and sympathetic
mediator between a sinful people and a holy God, and
the mediation which he effects is supposed to accord
with the holiness of God on the one hand, and the
needs and necessities of the people on the other.
The office and work of the Levitical priesthood can
not be fairly set forth without at least a brief notice of
the various offerings which were required by the laws
and regulations of the Priest Code.
Sacrificial offerings. .-.,_. ,
these sacrificial offerings early ac
quired the threefold character of ( 1 ) self-surrender and
self-dedication of the worshiper to God, (2) thanksgiv-

Sacrificial Offerings. 43
ing for his benefits and mercies, and (3) propitiation
for sin. Cain and Abel are represented as bringing
fruits of the ground and firstlings of the flock to pre
sent before Jehovah, and both fruits and firstlings are
called attfiM, offering, or gift (Gen. iv, 3-5). The burnt
.offerings of Noah after the flood (Gen. viii, 20-22)
were of the nature of thanksgiving and dedicatory
worship. The ancient records of the patriarchs show
a noticeable connection of their sacrifices and their
prayers. We are not able to determine how far the
idea of sacrificial blood in the earliest times was con
ceived as an expiatory offering for sin, but it is evident
that in every case the sacrifice offered was a formal
expression of self-surrender to God. The animal sac
rifice, in its pouring out of the warm lifeblood of the
victim, was suggestive of a vicarious offering up of
life in accordance with what was believed to be the
good pleasure of God, and the accompanying acts of
festivity and thanksgiving were expressive of the
worshiper's trust in God and of his delight in the con
scious acceptance of all his benefits.
The elaborate ritual of the Priest Code carefully dis
tinguishes between bloody and bloodless offerings.
The cereal offerings ("meal offer-
. Cereal offerings.
ings ) consisted of corn in the ear, fine
flour, and cakes baked or fried, and were accompanied
with olive oil, frankincense, salt, and wine (Lev. ii).
These were associated with libations, or drink offer
ings, of wine, and both together were a devout ac
knowledgment, as stated in 1 Chron. xxix, 11- 14, that

44 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
all things in the earth and heaven belong to Jehovah,
and that all offerings which man can make to God are
but a giving back to him some respectful portion of
what he himself bestowed. '
The offerings which involved the shedding of blood,
according to the ritual of Lev. i-vii, were of four kinds :
burnt offerings (rib?), peace offerings
Blood offerings. ^2^ n^ sjn offerings (riSEn), and
trespass offerings (mss). The first two were in large
part, like the meal offering, expressive of self-dedica
tion and thanksgiving. The "whole burnt offering"
symbolized the offering up to God of all that the
worshiper represented, himself body and soul, his
family and household, his property of every sort. All
these were regarded as God's gracious gifts to him,
and were to be held in readiness for any service of God
to which they might be put. The peace offering was
a public declaration of peaceful and friendly relation
ship between the worshiper and his God. The sacri-

1 The awful practice of offering human sacrifices is probably
best explained as a giving up to God the best, the dearest, the
most sacred treasure possible. Abraham's willingness thus to
offer up his only son for a. burnt offering obtained for him
Jehovah's great blessing (Gen. xxii, 16, 17). Jephthah offered his
daughter and only child as the noblest possible sacrifice (Judg.
xi, 31, 39). The king of Moab in the extremity of battle as a
last resort offered his eldest son as a burnt offering (2 Kings iii,
27). But the prophets of Jehovah condemned this practice
(Mic. vi, 7 ; 2 Kings xvi, 3 ; xxi, 6 ; xxiii, 10) ; it is denounced
as an "abomination to Jehovah" in Deut. xii, 31, and explicitly
forbidden in the Levitical code (Lev. xviii, 21). The practice,
however, shows to what extremes religious zeal will go in efforts
to obtain and hold favorable relations to God. The devotion thus
evinced may be most admirable, but its method of display bar
barous and abominable.

Trespass Offerings. 45
ficial feast which accompanied it was a joyful expres
sion of fellowship with God, as if the happy partici
pants were really eating and drinking in the presence
of Jehovah. ~
But the sin offering and the trespass offering were
preeminently designed to make atonement for the sins
of the people. They presuppose a separation between
the worshiper and God, and also a deep sense of guilt
which must have, in order to remission, the shedding of
the lifeblood of the vicarious victim. The law of the
trespass offering (Qip?), according to
' Trespass offerings.
Lev. v, 14-vi, 7, and Num. v, 5-8,
contemplated individual offenses which call for resti
tution. If the trespass were a criminal appropriation
of another's goods, the guilty man was required to re
store in full, and also to add a fifth of its value as a
fine. When the offense was an act of carnal impurity
with a bondmaid the priestly law contemplated the deed
as an infringement of the rights of property which de
manded open satisfaction (Lev. xix, 20-22). Probably
also some similar thought of compensation for lost
service, or of fine for censurable defect, entered into
the reasons for the trespass offering required in the
case of the Nazarite (Num. vi, 12) and of the leper
(Lev. xiv, 11-18). The trespass offerings accord-

1 Sacrifices on high places, like the one indicated in i Sam. ix,
12, 13, 23-25, were obviously of the nature of a public banquet at
which the people and their God feasted and rejoiced together.
1 Sam. xx, 29, is evidence that families were wont to observe
such sacrificial meals together. Comp. also xvi, 2-5, and Gen.
xxxi, 54.

46 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
ingly contemplated individual offenses involving the
consciousness of personal guilt.
But among all these offerings the most solemn and
impressive appears to have been the riNB^jin offering,
the detailed ritual of which is read in
The sin offering. . .- , .
Lev. iv, i-v, 13. A specific order of
procedure and various sacrificial victims were ordained
according to the rank and position of those for whom
atonement was to be made. But whether the offender
be the anointed priest, the whole congregation, the civil
ruler, or one of the common people, in every case the
atonement called for the shedding of blood. The only
apparent exception is that of one so poor as not to be
able to bring even "two turtledoves or two young
pigeons" (v, 11-13). But the flour which in such
case was allowed as a substitute, was not to be mixed
with oil or frankincense, but to be burned upon the
altar, and upon "the fire offerings of Jehovah" (""eN
^Tty. Thus it was made to partake of the atoning
efficacy of the animal sacrifices and reckoned as a real
sin offering. The representative and propitiatory
character of the sin offerings is seen in the fact that
they were required not only for individual offenses,
and sins of ignorance, but also for the whole people.
They were offered on the great national feast days, on
the occasion of consecrating the priests, and at the
dedication of the tabernacle. They appear in most
solemn significance in the ritual of the
Day of atonement. day of atonement (Lev. xvi). Every
thing connected with the ceremonies of that day

Day of Atonement. 47
was of the most awe-inspiring character, and the
service was ordained not for specific and individual
sins, but rather to "make atonement for the holy sanc
tuary and the tent of meeting, and the altar, and the
priests, and all the people of the assembly." After all
the other expiatory rites of an individual character,
and aside from those of the other annual feasts and of
the new moons (Num. xxviii, 11-15), the ritual of
the day of atonement on the tenth day of the seventh
month assumes that there is yet some defilement or
deficiency which ought to be provided for in most im
pressive form. And so on that day the high priest
must take the censer full of burning coals from the
altar, and sweet incense and the blood of the sin offer
ing, and go within the veil and let the cloud of incense
cover the mercy seat, and sprinkle the blood upon the
mercy seat seven times.
The ceremonial of confessing all the iniquities of
Israel over the head of the goat that was "sent away
for Azazel into the wilderness," which
r , , , . , , . , The goat for Azazel.
formed also a notable part of the ritual
of the day of atonement, deserves at least a passing
notice. Whatever the origin of this part of the cere
monies, and whatever the real meaning of the word
Azazel,1 the formal confession of all their sins and put
ting them upon the head of the goat, which "bore upon
' Azazel appears in the book of Enoch as the name of the leader
of the evil angels, thus connecting this section of the Priest
Code with the later Jewish angelology, and forming one of the
many indications that this whole ritual of the day of atonement
is of postexilian origin.

48 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
him all their iniquities unto a solitary land," was a-
striking symbolical picture of the expulsion of sin and
iniquity from the people of Israel. It was a public
declaration that the sins of all the people were now
sent away from them unto their own place, trans
ferred to the abode of the evil spirits in the desert.1
Thus both the people and their dwellings would be
conceived as purged from the guilt and judgment of
transgressions. The classic passage in the Levitical law which de
fines the symbolical import of the expiatory offerings
o h„v„„i » „•„!« of blood is Lev. xvii, ii : "The life of
Symbolical signm- '
cance of the Wood. the flesh ;g jn the blood, and I have
given (appointed) it to you upon the altar to make an
atonement for your souls : for it is the blood that makes
atonement by reason of the soul (life)." It is not the
mere blood, as a material substance, that possesses the
efficacy here ascribed to it, but the blood yet warm
with the life of the victim. When the worshiper
brought his offering and placed his hands upon its
head he openly confessed thereby his guilt and obliga
tion, and must have conceived that the animal offered
was in some sense a vicarious sacrifice for himself;
and when the lifeblood was "poured out before
Jehovah" the symbolic rite was itself a public declara
tion that the life of the victim without blemish or spot
was substituted in the mercy of God for the life of the
1 Compare the "passing through waterless places'' (Matt, xii,
43), and the "casting into the outer darkness" (Matt, viii, 12),
and "departing into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels"
(Matt, xxv, 41), as a going forth to one's appropriate place.

Consuming the Flesh. 49
transgressor. Whether the blood were poured out at
the foot of the altar, or sprinkled on the horns of the
altar, or at the golden altar of incense, or on the mercy
seat within the veil, it was in every case regarded as a
divinely appointed offering to make atonement for the
souls of men. ~
In connection with these ideas of atonement, sym
bolized in the shedding of sacrificial blood, the disposi
tion of the flesh of the animal victims was not without
suggestions of purification. The burning of the fat
upon the altar, as an offering made by fire unto
Jehovah (Lev. iv, 26, 31, 35), signified a free offering
up to God of the better part of the worshiper, and the
burning of the flesh of the sin offering The consuming of
without the camp in the clean place tneflesn-
where the ashes of the altar were carried (Lev. iv, 12,
21) suggested a complete removal of the sins of the
flesh. For a thorough taking away of sin requires
more than the atoning efficacy of the blood of expia
tion: there must be also a blotting out of all iniquity;
and this was symbolized by devoting the flesh of the sin
offerings, as if defiled by its contact with sin, to the
consuming fire.
The word ""S3 and its derivatives, which are usually
translated by atone and atonement, deserve a passing
notice in connection with the Levitical laws of expia-
1 This was obviously the opinion, as we shall see farther on,
of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, who elaborates the
idea in his ninth chapter, and concludes that "according to the
law, I may almost say, all things are cleansed wifh blood, and
apart from the shedding of blood there is no remission" (ix, 22).
4

50 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
tion. The primary meaning seems to be indicated by a
Meaning of atone- usaSe which involves the idea of cover-
ment- ing over, or hiding. Thus in Gen.
xxxii, 20, Jacob thinks that he can cover the face of
Esau with such a princely gift that his injured brother
will not look upon the wrongs of the past.1 Hence easily
arose the meaning of covering over in the sense of ap
peasing, pacifying, propitiating, and in the sacrificial
codes of the later priestly legislation the atonement
offered was conceived as covering, concealing, and
blotting out the sins of the guilty. The individuals
thus covered or atoned for were regarded as delivered
from exposure to the penal consequences of transgres
sion. And this entire sacrificial arrangement appears
in the biblical record not as an invention of men, nor
as a service which recognized any merit in the person
who brought the offering, but as a conspicuous con-
condemnation demnation of sin. It is Jehovah that
of sln- has graciously provided this substitute
of animal life for the life of the sinner, and has ap
pointed the offering of blood upon the altar to make
atonement for the guilty soul. It should also be noted
that the Hebrew word commonly translated mercy
seat is f*iB3; the cover, or lid, of the ark of the covenant.
The ark contained the two tables of the Decalogue,
God's testimony against sin, and this capporeth, or
cover, was to be sprinkled with blood on the day of
'The word n*l03is used in the same way in Gen. xx, 16, where
Abimelech gives a thousand pieces of silver for a covering of the
eyes of all who were with Sarah that they might not see the
offense to which she had been exposed.

Symbolism of Sacrifice. 51
atonement (Lev. xvi, 11-17), and was thus made a
significant symbol of "mercy covering wrath." *
Further details of priestly mediation and of sacrifices
for sin, according to the Levitical ritual, need not de
tain us. But we shall find in other Scriptures, and in
the New Testament teaching, frequent allusion to the
offerings of blood as an atonement for Forc? 0{ gMrifloIa]
sin. How far these outward symbols almsions-
of expiation entered into the eternal purpose of God,
and were typical of holy mysteries which became mani
fest in the mediation of Jesus Christ, is a question not
to be lost sight of as we pursue our inquiries. The
Old Testament ritual of mediation and of service con
tains sundry object-lessons which were of the nature
of a preparatory discipline, looking to the mediatorial
ministry of the Son of God. And the same may be said
of other religious systems which have served to culti
vate the sense of spiritual need and to turn the
yearnings of the human heart toward God. For all
these methods of feeling after the Infinite Helper may
be conceived as so many expedients through which the
heart of unspeakable Love worketh to draw all men
unto himself. They also evince the necessity which the
guilty but penitent soul feels for some saving efficiency
higher than himself in order to deliverance from the
power of sin. Efficient rescue from depths of self-
despair must needs come through some manner of
suffering and sacrifice.
1 For fuller showing of this symbolism, see my Biblical
Hermeneutics, p. 272, and Biblical Apocalyptics, p. 83.

52 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
One unavoidable conclusion, which forces itself
upon us when we study those customs of priesthood
and sacrifice which go back to primitive times, is that
„ . „. „ they are all the expressions of religious
Priesthood and sac- J r a
viin?H^,Pc,re„sLd^e„p conviction, and evince the need, felt
tl0ns" everywhere and at all times, of some
kind of mediation between man and God. In earliest
times the head of the family acted as priest and offered
the sacrifice, as appears in the examples of Noah and
Jacob and Job. Whether the Deity recognized were
conceived as a household God, or the God of the tribe
to which the worshiper belonged, or to the one God
over all, the worship in its essential elements would be
the same. Hence we are to recognize the real depth
and significance of the lowest forms of sacrificial wor
ship, and to note that they all indicate desire and effort
on the part of the worshipers to be on good terms with
God. The offering seems in all cases to have been
prompted by the query, "Wherewithal shall I come
acceptably before my God?" The answer, of course,
may take on various phases at different times and
places. It may be in the form of fruits, libations of
wine, whole burnt offerings, the blood of choice vic
tims from flock and herd, and even a human sac
rifice. The principle is the same in all. Along with
such a variety of offerings would be associated divers
conceptions of propitiation, atonement, expiation, and
reconciliation, as also divers notions of priesthood.
But in all ministrations of this kind the priest acts the
part of a mediator between God and man. As it is

Types of More Perfect Sacrifice. 53
well stated in Heb. v, 1, he is "taken from among men
and appointed for men in things pertaining to God,
that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, and
bear gently with the ignorant and erring." And so,
probably, the best explanation of priesthood and sac
rifice, the wide world over, is that God himself thus
put it into the heart of man to do his best to be on
favorable terms with the Author of his being. Thus
has the Father sought to draw men ; but their forms
of approaching him were often matters of their own
devising. According to Heb. x, 1-4, all the Levitical offerings
were insufficient to perfect the worshiper. The blood
of animal sacrifices cannot take away sins. But those
symbolical and typical ministrations of mediation were
a "shadow of the good things to come." They serve to
illustrate and in their measure reveal the greater and
more perfect sacrifice of Christ, and Typical M ChrIst,s
the nature of his divine-human media- perfect mediation.
tion. The earlier forms of worship, regarded as divine
institutions, were graciously provided to assist man in
his earnest feeling after God. The heavenly Father
overlooked the misconceptions, the ignorance, and
the errors; but in the fullness of time he brought in
the clearer light to make known the mystery and the
purpose of the ages.
It is, accordingly, a great error to condemn, as some
do, all the sacrificial offerings of the Erroneous notions
old time as inhuman, heathenish, and "J offering wood.
barbarous, arising out of superstitious fear of a

54 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
vengeful Deity. No doubt demoralizing superstitions
have too largely prevailed, but the degrading concep
tions of placating an offended Deity spring from false
views of God. The deities of the heathen world were
often thought of as arbitrary, lustful, passionate be
ings, who deceived men by delusive dreams and sub
jected them to cruel plagues in order to gratify old
feelings of revenge. Service offered to such a deity
would naturally contemplate the removal of his wrath
and spite. But we cannot regard such notions of God
as having ethical content or value. The profound
views of sin and guilt symbolized in the Levitical cult
impart a nobler aspect to all offerings of blood. With
the Hebrews atonement meant a divinely provided
means of making God and man at one. The guilt-
laden soul sought peace with the Holy One by means
of the most sacred token of self-surrender he could
bring. The real object was not to placate a revengeful
Power, but to offer a reasonable, holy, and acceptable
sacrifice before the Giver of all life, who had himself
graciously instituted this means of reconciliation.

Teaching of the Prophets. .55

CHAPTER IV.
IDEAS OF MEDIATION IN THE PROPHETS AND
THE PSALMS.
We find in the writings of the Hebrew prophets and
also in the psalms the portrayal of mediatorial inter
cession and of vicarious suffering which presents a
higher conception of approach unto A deeper spirituaI
God than that of offering animal sac- view"
rifices. Isaiah proclaims Jehovah as having no delight
in the oblations and burnt offerings of a people whose
worship is only an outward heartless formality, while
they fail to put away their evil doings (Isa. i, 10-17).
Similarly Micah declares (vi, 6-8) that righteous ac
tion, loving affection, and walking humbly with God is
a better means of approaching Jehovah than "thou
sands of rams, or ten thousands of rivers of oil."
Vainly will one offer up his firstborn child for the sin
of his soul. God looks rather for a deep struggle of
the soul after purity and righteousness that results in
spiritual transformation. And in like manner the
psalmists extol the thought that Jehovah's delight is in
the doing of his will rather than in ritual sacrifices and
offerings (Psa. xl, 6-8). The most acceptable "sac
rifices of God are a broken spirit : a broken and a con
trite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Psa. Ii, 17).

56 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
For these inner struggles of the contrite soul partake
more of the nature of God's own yearnings to bring
the fallen and erring ones into the experience of holy
life and peace.
And so in the prophets and the psalms of Israel
we read many a portraiture of vicarious struggles,
illustrative of the depths of Jehovah's
tender feeling. The book of Hosea is
remarkable for its doctrine of condemning judgment
mixed with divine compassion. Israel is depicted as a
faithless wife who has notoriously played the harlot in
departing from Jehovah. Her guilt is set forth in the
darkest colors, and the certainty of penal retribution
is forcibly declared. Having sown the wind, she shall
reap the whirlwind. Having plowed wickedness, she
must needs reap iniquity. And yet through all this
prophecy there breathes a spirit of divine affection for
the sinful nation. Jehovah would fain receive back
his faithless wife, notwithstanding all her running
after other lovers. He cries out as if in bitter anguish :
"O Ephraim, how shall I give thee up ? O Israel, how
shall I deliver thee over (to judgment) ? My heart is
turned upon me; my compassions are kindled to
gether. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger,
I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God
and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee" (xi,
8, 9). In a similar way Isaiah arraigns the "sinful
nation, a people laden with iniquity,
who have forsaken Jehovah and de
spised the Holy One of Israel" (i, 4), and he an-

Teaching of the Prophets. 57
nounces that because of their evil doings the judgments
of fire and desolation have visited the land. But at
the same time he pleads with them to put away the
evil of their doings, and "though their sins be as
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (i, 18).
Jeremiah recalls the piety of Israel's
youth, the love of her espousal in
the wilderness (ii, 2), but he cries out in astonish
ment over her backslidings, and her "playing the
harlot with many lovers" (iii, 1). If one runs to
and fro through the streets of Jerusalem he will seek
in vain to find a man that doeth justly, that seeketh
after truth (v, 1). And he speaks out the feeling of
Jehovah himself when he cries : "Oh that my head were
waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might
weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of
my people ! . . . For they proceed from evil to evil,
and they know not me, saith Jehovah" (ix, 1, 3). The
righteous judgment of God was signally executed on
the sinful nation by Assyria, the rod of his anger (Isa.
x, 5), and by the chastisements and woes of the
Babylonian exile; but in all their woes the loving
kindness of Jehovah continued toward them, and he
brought his people back from the lands of their exile
as he had in the older time brought them up out of the
Egyptian bondage. His loving purpose of redemption
never failed. The most remarkable prophetic por
traiture of vicarious suffering is found in Isa. Iii, 13-
liii, 12. It is an old question of exegesis whether the

58 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
Servant of Jehovah in this passage is the same "Israel
my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen,
the seed of Abraham my friend," so
frequently mentioned in preceding chapters (xii, 8, 9;
xiii, 1; xliii, 10; xliv, 1, 2, 21; etc.), or some one
individual of the nation, or the Messiah. Our use of
the prophecy, however, need not wait for a final deter
mination of that question; for the ideals of vicarious
suffering presented in the language of the prophet are
essentially the same in all these expositions, for the
character described is that of "a man of sorrows," who
leads Zion out of captivity, gives his soul as a trespass
offering for sin, and makes intercession for the trans
gressors. Whatever, therefore, the possible explana
tions of the whole passage, the ideal set before us is
that of an individual.
1. In the preceding context (Iii, 1-12) the restora
tion of Zion and Jerusalem is portrayed in lively form.
The captive daughter of Zion is called upon to shake
herself from the dust and to go forth out of captivity,
assured that her exodus from present oppression shall
be more glorious than that from the Egyptian bondage.
"For Jehovah hath comforted his people, he hath re
deemed Jerusalem, hath made bare his holy arm in the
eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth
have seen the salvation of our God." In departing
from the present house of bondage they need not go
out in such haste as in the ancient exodus, for Jehovah
will go before and behind them like a pillar of cloud
and of fire (verse 12). Thereupon the prophet intro-

Fifty-third of Isaiah. 59
duces his graphic picture of the servant who shall act
wisely and become highly exalted.
2. In this graphic outline we cannot fail to observe
such remarkable contrasts as acting wisely and being
exalted very high, but having his form marred more
than any man, and being despised and rejected of men.
He grows up as a tender plant, and as a root from the
dry ground, but somehow he brings healing to a sick
and sorrowing world. He is led as a lamb to the
slaughter, and yet he divides spoil with the mighty.
He is terribly stricken on account of the sins of the
people, but he sees the fruits of the travail of his soul
and is satisfied. He is even made a curse for others,
being wounded and bruised for their sins and bearing
their iniquities, but by his knowledge he succeeds in
making many righteous. It even pleases Jehovah to
bruise him and put him to grief, but, as a result, "the
pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand."
3. Among the many facts of his humiliation and
suffering is the notable statement of verse 6 that "Je
hovah hath mediated in him (ia Sp-iSfi) the iniquity of
us all." The word which we here translate mediated,
and which is commonly rendered laid on, or made to
light on, is used in the same causative form (Hiphil),
but intransitively, in verse 12, where it means maketh
intercession. It indicates in both places the media
torial soul-passion and struggle of personal interces
sion, and what is remarkable is that in verse 6 Jehovah
himself is the causative subject of the intercession,
and in verse 12 the suffering servant of Jehovah, who

60 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
pours out his soul unto death and bears the sin of
many, is the one who intercedes for the transgressors.
So it is Jehovah who causes the iniquity of others to
strike (ws) and work an agony of travail in the soul
of his servant, and the servant's mediatorial interces
sion avails for the transgressors.
4. The final triumph and exaltation of this servant
of Jehovah are as wonderful as his subjection to suffer
ing. He becomes highly exalted, attracts the attention
of many nations and kings, his days are lengthened, a
great posterity is promised him, he brings righteous
ness to multitudes, his soul is satisfied with the result
of its travail, and he is conceived at last as a great
conqueror who divides the spoil among his mighty
heroes. Though numbered with the transgressors, he
is a revelation of the arm of Jehovah's power.
5. Well might Christian interpreters have ever rec
ognized in this prophetic picture of "a man of sorrows"
a striking portraiture of Jesus Christ. For, whatever
collective idea may here as in other parts of this book
attach to the "servant of Jehovah," this description ob
viously contemplates a person who is distinguished
from the whole house of Israel and who suffers for
transgressions not his own. No less than seven times
is it said in one form or another that he was smitten for
the sake of others, and verse 9 declares that he himself
was guilty of no violence or wrong. After the manner
of the sin and trespass offerings of the Levitical ritual,
his soul was made an offering for sin, poured out unto
death, and he bare the sin of many.

Penitential Psalms. 6i
In many of the psalms we find an abundance of
passionate soul struggles voiced in the poetic language
peculiar to the Hebrew psalter. The
„ , „ . . . , . Penitential psalms.
so-called penitential psalms (vi,
xxii, xxxviii, li, eii, cxxx, cxliii) are like so many cries
out of the depths of profound humiliation over the
consciousness of sin, and confessions that rescue must
come, if it comes at all, from a loving-kindness of God
which is able to blot out transgressions. Other por
tions of the psalter are also remarkable for the keen
insight they show into the guilt of human sinfulness
and the need of redemption by means of a spiritual
power from on high. We select Psa. xxii for more
special examination, inasmuch as this
r Psa. xxii.
is exceptionally remarkable for its
agonizing self-expression. Some expositors believe it
to be a composition of David, describing a terrible
struggle of soul through which he himself passed.
Others have ascribed it to Hezekiah, and some to
Jeremiah the prophet. Others discern in the pleading
sufferer of this psalm a personification of Israel in
exile, and not a few insist that the language can be
legitimately explained only of the sufferings of Christ
'and the glorious results secured thereby. Whatever
view one takes of its authorship and immediate occa
sion, the various sentiments of this impassioned lyric,
like those of Isa. liii, are to be studied for their pro
found suggestions touching the personal agony that
may be felt in mediatorial intercession.
The exclamation at the beginning implies a terrible

62 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
sense of abandonment by God: "My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me ?" This feeling of rejection
is the more amazing and impressive in view of the
supplicant's continual cry, and the trust and deliver
ance of his fathers, as stated in verses 1-5. He thinks
of himself as a writhing worm rather than as a man,
an object of reproach and contempt among the people.
All who gaze upon him in his agony treat him with
derision; they laugh him to scorn, wag their heads,
and cry out with biting sarcasm:
"Roll it on Jehovah ; let him deliver him ;
Let him rescue him, for he delighted in him."
In the midst of this great distress he finds no de
liverer at hand, although God has been his trust from
infancy. The following words show the extremity of
his affliction :
"Many bulls have compassed me about,
Strong ones of Bashan have surrounded me.
They have opened their mouth upon me, —
As a lion tearing and roaring.
Like waters am I poured out,
And all my bones are sundered ;
My heart has become like wax,
Melted in the midst of my bowels.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
And my tongue is cleaving to my jaws ;
And thcu dost set me in the dust of death.
For dogs have compassed me about ;
A crowd of evildoers have encircled me.
They have pierced my hands and my feet,
I can number all my bones ;
They keep looking and gazing at me.
They divide my garments among them,
And upon my vesture they cast lots."

Twenty-second Psalm. 63
In this extremity of woe he directs his prayer again
to Jehovah (verses 19-21), and suddenly a marvelous
answer comes. "vC??, Thou hast answered me, he
cries ; "I will declare thy name to my brethren :
In the midst of the assembly will I praise thee."
The remainder of the psalm (verses 23-31) is a tri
umphal declaration of the result of his sufferings and
his prayers. He seems to struggle up out of depths of
agony into heights of power, whence he calmly surveys
"all the ends of the earth" returning to Jehovah and
bowing down before him as their rightful ruler, whose
righteousness is to be celebrated through all genera
tions. This remarkable poem abounds with metaphors
which run into hyperbole, but the extravagance of the
figures serves to intensify to the uttermost the por
traiture of personal affliction. The psalm is usually
reckoned among the Messianic psalms, but it contains
expressions which are inapplicable to Jesus Christ.
This much, however, should be said, that the sufferer
who gives utterance to these impassioned words is an
innocent sufferer, and in all his agony he gives forth
no vent of anger against those who revile him. No
other Old Testament scripture suggests in equal space
so many facts mentioned in connection with the cruci
fixion of the Son of man. Verse 1 was uttered by him
on the cross (Matt, xxvii, 46; Mark xv, 34). The
wagging of heads, the mockery and sarcasm, the thirst,
the piercing of hands and feet, the parting of his rai-

64 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
ment and casting lots for it, are all mentioned in the
Gospels in describing the last agony of Jesus. And
the last word of the psalm, Fra??, he has done it, or
it is accomplished, reminds us of Jesus's last word, ac
cording to John xix, 30, rereXearai, it is finished. All
these facts along with the representative character of
the sufferer, who assumes that his triumph through
unspeakable agony is destined to secure the redemption-
and reunion of "all the families of the nations," makes
the twenty-second psalm a typical prophetic oracle. It
sets before us an ideal Israelite, in whom is no guile,
subjected to a passion of soul that makes him a rep
resentative partaker of the sufferings of Christ and of
the glories destined to follow. For the speaker in this
psalm is a remarkable type of mediatorial suffering.
His own personal experience of woe and deliverance
enabled him to voice an ideal which has found its
most complete fulfillment in the Christ of the New
Testament. A study of the foregoing ideas of priestly and sac
rificial mediation, as found in the Hebrew scriptures,
will enable us also to see how this general concept
of mediatorial intercession and salva-
Oonneetion with . ...
Israel's Messianic tion became naturally associated with
hope. Israel's Messianic hope. The Lord
who sits at the right hand of Jehovah, according to
Psa. ex, and is destined to subdue and judge among
the nations, is declared by the oath of Jehovah to be
"a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." The
Epistle to the Hebrews (chaps, vi and vii) magnifies

Daniel ix, 24. 65
this saying as a most significant ideal of the priesthood
of Jesus Christ, who is proclaimed (viii, 1, 2) as "a
high priest who sat down on the right hand of the
throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the
sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord
pitched, not man." The significance of this concep
tion of Melchizedek will be considered farther on.
The language of Dan. ix, 24, is worthy of attention
as indicating the writer's idea of the termination of an
old order, the end of certain forms of
, . , , Dan. ix, 24.
transgression and sin, and the intro
duction of a new order of everlasting righteousness.
The passage is best translated in the form of Hebrew
parallelisms :
"Seventy heptades are decreed upon thy people and upon thy
holy city,
To close up the transgression and to consummate sins,
And to expiate iniquity and to introduce eternal righteousness,
And to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint a holy of
holies.''
The expiation of iniquity here spoken of seems to be
some propitiatory mediation of epochal significance,
which is to be effected at the point of time to which
the prophecy refers. The sealing up of vision and
prophecy most naturally means the fulfilling and cessa
tion of prophetic oracles by the opening of the Mes
sianic age of universal knowledge (comp. Isa. xi, 9).
The consecration of a new holy of holies implies the
institution of a "greater and more perfect tabernacle,"
with its new and living way of entrance for all the
5

66 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
pure in heart (comp. Heb. ix, n; x, 19). It is easy
to see how these references to some new and superior
methods of expiation were capable of a special Mes
sianic application, and the song of Zacharias contains
(,Luke i, 68, yy) profound conceptions of "redemption
for his people," "knowledge of salvation," and "re
mission of sins," which formed a part of Israel's Mes
sianic hope as held among the most pious of the nation.
And it was thus through sacrifices, and symbolic forms
of worship, and soul-stirring oracles of prophets, and
prayers of the psalmists, that God's purpose and the
mystery of the ages were slowly working in the course
of Israel's history and preparing the way for a clearer
revelation.

The Sayings of Jesus. 6j

CHAPTER V.
DOCTRINE OF JESUS IN THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS.
The beginning of the Epistle to the Hebrews as
sumes the variety and the progressive character of
divine revelation: "God, having of old time spoken
unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and
in divers manners, hath at the end of these days
spoken unto us in (the person of one who has the
position and quality of a)1 Son, whom he appointed
heir of all things, through whom also he made the
ages." It is important for us above all things in this
study of mediation to learn as accu- Beiativeimportanee
rately as possible the teachings of of Jesus's words.
Jesus Christ himself, and it is the prevalent belief
that the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke,
furnish us with the most exact tradition of the words
of our Lord.
Of all the reported sayings of Jesus, bearing on the
doctrine of mediation, the most noteworthy is probably
that which is recorded in Matt, xx, 28, and Mark x,
45 : "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto,
but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for

1 All that is expressed in this parenthesis is implied by the
absence from the Greek text of the article in the phrase ev vhf;
not Iv ru viu, nor ev tu viu aiirov.

68 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
many." The main question in this passage touches
the precise meaning of the last three
"Ransomformany." , , ,
words, a ransom for many {Xvrpov avn
noXX&v). In defining the word Xvrpov, ransom, in such
a statement as is here made, we cannot fairly ignore
the usage and connotation it holds in the Septuagint
version of the Old Testament. ~ In Exod. xxi, 30, it
means the price that may lawfully be put upon the life
of one who is exposed to the penalty of death, and by
the payment of which he is to be released from such
penal exposure. In Exod. xxx, 12, the word is em
ployed to designate the poll tax of half a shekel which
"every man shall give as a ransom for his soul unto
Jehovah." In Lev. xxv, 51, it stands for the price paid
for the liberation of one who has been sold into bond
age. The word is also used in connection with the
redemption of land that had been sold (Lev. xxv, 24),
and the redemption of the produce of the land which
by the law of tithing belonged unto Jehovah (Lev.
xxvii, 31). In all these examples and illustrations of
the ransom the main idea is that of substituting one
thing for another. Hence the preposition dvri, for, in
place of, is naturally employed in Matt, xx, 28, as most
consonant with the idea of a ransom price.' The Son
1 It is used alike for the translation of "1E3 "\V~\B and rfrN-i
all of which have in common the meaning of ransom, redemption,
or price of redemption. The word avrlXirrpov in i Tim. ii, 6,
seems to be substantially identical in meaning, and Tivrpaaic: (Luke
i, 68; ii, 38; Heb. ix, 12) and anolvrpuac (Rom. iii, 24; Eph.
i, 7, 14; Col. i, 14; Heb. ix, 15) also have the same general
significance and connotation.
1 The preposition irepi is, however, used in connection with
Xhrpa in the Septuagint of Num. xxxv, 31.

Ransom for Many. 69
of man gives his life as a ransom price for the libera
tion of many who are assumed to be held under some
sort of bonds. In what this bondage consists nothing
in the text or context tells ; but the statement in Matt.
xxvi, 28, that his blood "is shed for many unto remis
sion of sins," and the use of the verb Xvrgoio in Titus
ii, 14, and 1 Pet. i, 18, in the sense of "ransoming from
all iniquity," and "ransoming from a vain manner of
life," are good evidence that the ransom contemplated
by Jesus in the text under discussion is deliverance
from the bondage of sin. The figure of "selling one's
self to do evil" would probably have been familiar to
readers of the Old Testament (comp. 1 Kings xxi, 20,
25; 2 Kings xvii, 17), and Paul develops the idea at
length (Rom. vi, 16-23; vn> :4> 23)- What Jesus
himself taught about the impossibility of serving two
masters and about repentance and remission of sins
accords with the same idea. When, therefore, he de
clares that he "came to give his life a ransom for
many" the most natural and obvious thought suggested
is that of redemption from the bondage of sin. But
the process or mode by which this redemption is ac
complished is not here described ; nor need we assume
that the "giving of his life" in this text refers exclus
ively to his death on the cross. Jesus foretold his death
and spoke of its necessity (comp. Luke ix, 22;
xxiv, 7, 26, 46; John xii, 23-27) ; he recognized the
closing period of his earthly life as a crucial hour ; but
when he says, "For this cause came I unto this hour,"
we are not justified in the inference that the events of

70 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
his death on the cross were of more value in his work
of mediation than many other events of his life. We
must duly recognize all the great facts of his incarna
tion, and his resurrection and ascension, and the
apostolic teaching that he ever lives to make inter
cession for us. The sacrifice of his life includes also
every cup of agony which he drank (comp. Matt.
His entire life a xx> 22 ' xxvi> 42; John xviii, II ),
ransom. an(j tjje baptism of overwhelming
trials which he underwent (comp. Mark x, 38; Luke
xii, 50). His severe temptations in the wilderness,
his longsuffering with a "faithless and perverse
generation" (Matt, xvii, 17), his upbraiding of
Chorazin and Bethsaida, his weeping over Jerusalem,
and his amazement and bloody sweat in Gethsemane
were all of them together only a part of the mediatorial
struggle involved in his giving his life a ransom for
many. He recognized it as the high purpose of his
mission "to seek and to save that which was lost"
(Luke xix, 10). He "came not to call the righteous,
but sinners" (Matt, ix, 13), and he would search far
and labor long to gather in "the lost sheep of the house
of Israel." In all these statements we read the struggle
of an intensely sympathetic friend of the sinner, and,
like the ideally good shepherd, ready to lay down his
life for the sheep. He endured all manner of opposi
tion of sinners, and "resisted unto blood, striving
against sin" (Heb. xii, 3, 4).
Such a giving of his life for the ransom of many
from the bondage of sin need not and ought not to be

Christ as a Ransom. 71
complicated in thought by attempts to discover in the
mediation of Christ something analo- Ignore remote anal.
gous to every idea which the figure of °sles-
a ransom suggests. In what manner this heavenly
Redeemer accomplishes his ministry of redemption is
a legitimate inquiry, and will be considered in the
pages which follow ; but when Jesus says that his life
was given to bring about the liberation of mankind
from the power of sin, it diverts attention from his
main thought when one asks "to whom the ransom was
paid," and how it could be an "equivalent satisfaction"
of the debt which guilty man owed God.1 Confusion
of thought must needs attend the effort to press
into dogmatic significance every suggestion and im
plication of a metaphor. In such a text as Deut. vii,
8 — "Jehovah redeemed you out of the house of bond
age, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt" — we
1 It seems hardly necessary to make mention of the old patristic
fiction of God giving the soul of Jesus as a ransom to Satan,
who was thought of as holding humanity in captivity. Such an
importance accorded to Satan formed part of a fanciful and
absurd demonology now quite effectually exploded. The later
Anselmic theory of substituting the infinite merit of Christ's
sufferings as an equivalent satisfaction for the infinite demerit
of sin moves in a realm of thought quite foreign to the Scriptures.
It has a logical affinity with the later Romish doctrine of indul
gences, and with ultra Antinomianism and its fictions of the
imputation of man's guilt to Christ, and of Christ's personal
righteousness to the elect. The originators and advocates of
these theories failed to perceive that a ransom of such infinite
merit, and such a complete satisfaction of justice, logically leave
no reasonable ground for the doctrine of salvation by grace.
Whatever grace may be alleged in such a monergistic scheme is
by the hypothesis so essentially compulsory as Jo rob it pf all the
real qualities of mercy. But perhaps the worst feature of this
monergistic scheme was its sovereign exclusion of the nonelect
from any share in the. imputed righteousness pf Christ.

72 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
do not suppose that a ransom price was paid to
Pharaoh or to the Egyptians ; nor do we even imagine
that Sheol and death receive a stipulation when we
read Hos. xiii, 14: "From the hand of Sheol I will
ransom them; from death I will redeem them." The
great fact in this case is that Jesus Christ entered into
all the experiences of human life. He was tempted in
all points as we are; he confronted the scorn and
malice and violence of a hostile world ; and in all this
struggle he sacrificed himself and gave up his own life
to rescue men from sin. It seems, therefore, irrele
vant and idle to inquire after some particular creditor
to whom such a ransom must have been paid. When
we think properly of a deliverer who of his own good
will subjects himself to a fearful struggle, involving
the sacrifice of his life to rescue others from the peril
of death, we do not ask to whom, but rather for whom,
that costly price of self-sacrifice was paid. Such ran
soms are prompted by the purest emotion of love, one
noble life is given instead of the many exposed to
death, and the sufferings involved are even gladly
borne for the sake of the rescued ones and the glory
that must result from such a work of redemption.
Another important saying of our Lord bearing on
the doctrine of his mediation is found in connection
words of Jesus at with the last supper, when he took the
last supper. cup and gaye jt tQ the disciples, and
said, according to Matt, xxvi, 28, "Drink of it all ye ;
for this is my blood of the covenant, which is shed for
many (-rep? noXXuv) unto remission of sins," Th§

Body and Blood. y^
parallel text in Mark xiv, 24, reads, "This is my blood
of the covenant, which is shed for many" {v-neg noXXuv).
The reading in Luke xxii, 20, is peculiar, is omitted
from some ancient manuscripts, and has been thought
by some critics to be an interpolation : 1 "This cup is
the new covenant in my blood, that which is poured
out for you" {imp vp*>v). Paul's statement in 1 Cor. xi,
25, corresponds closely to that of Luke : "This cup is
the new covenant in my blood : this do, as oft as ye
drink, in remembrance of me." These solemn words,
together with what Jesus said in the same connection
about eating the bread as a symbol of his body given
and broken for them, have obvious allusion to some
typical significance in the passover meal which our
Lord and his disciples were eating together. They
clearly imply that in some sense he became for them a
true paschal lamb and all else which the paschal supper
signified ; and it accords with this idea that, according
to Luke xxii, 16, 18, he himself partook of it neither
by eating nor drinking. All the Synoptists record
Jesus's refusal to drink thenceforth from the fruit of
the vine until he should drink it new {itatvov) in the
kingdom of God. But if we suppose that he ate of
the paschal lamb with them, but declined to eat of the
bread and drink of the cup, we obtain nothing of essen-
1 Thus Westcott and Hort, after stating the difficulties of the
critical problem, observe : "These difficulties, added to the sus
picious coincidences with i Cor. xi, 24, 25, and the transcriptional
evidence given above, leave no moral doubt that the words in
question were absent from the original text of Luke, notwith
standing the purely western ancestry of the documents which
pmjt them,"rr-A"0<e,s on Select Readings, p. 64.

74 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
tial value for determining the significance of our Lord's
words on the occasion. He declared the bread to be his
body and the cup his blood of the covenant which was
shed for many, and the language can mean no less
than that he himself was in some sense given as a
sacrifice for many, whether he himself at that time
ate of the paschal lamb or not. It is also well to note
in passing that Paul conceived Christ as "our passover
slain" (i Cor. v, 7). Whatever the particular forms
observed in the course of the paschal meal in the time
of our Lord, there can be no doubt that the feast itself
was celebrated as a memorial of Israel's deliverance
from the bondage of Egypt (comp. Exod. xii, 14;
xiii, 9). The story of that deliverance could not well
be told apart from the memorable sprinkling of the
blood of the first paschal lamb upon the side posts and
lintel of the houses to defend the dwellers therein
against the destructive plague. Thus the entire feast
of the passover was on the one hand essentially a
memorial of Israel's redemption unto Jehovah ; on the
other hand, the words "my blood of the covenant,"
used by Jesus according to all the Synoptists, can hard
ly be explained otherwise than as a conscious appro
priation of the language of Exod. xxiv, 8, where the
reference is to the blood of burnt offerings and peace
offerings sacrificed unto Jehovah; but the emphatic
statement that he would not drink of this symbol of
the blood of the covenant until he should drink it
Kaivov, new in kind, with them in the heavenly kingdom,
reminds us pf the words of Jeremiah (xxxi, 31-34)

Blood of a New Covenant. 75
about the new covenant between Israel and Jehovah, *
and helps to point out the spiritual significance of all
this language of Jesus at the paschal meal. It was a
new kind of eating and drinking to which he would
elevate their thoughts by means of this symbolic meal,
a feasting together in the heavenly kingdom of his
Father.2 The eating of his body and drinking of his
blood must mean a partaking of his spirit and of the
eternal life which he imparts (comp. John vi, 53-58,
63). He surrenders himself, body and soul, to the
death of the cross, for the redemption of many from a
worse than Egyptian bondage. For it is only as his
spotless life is thus freely offered that he himself be
comes the potent means and mediator of human salva
tion. The shedding of the blood of this paschal lamb
has for its object, as Matthew (xxvi, 28) records it,
"remission of sins." We cannot therefore with proper
regard to the simplest suggestions of the language and
its occasion divorce from the words of Jesus at the
last supper the then current ideas of atonement through
the sprinkling of blood. One may appropriately say,
in the language of Isa. liii, 10, "It pleased Jehovah to
bruise him and to make his soul an offering for sin."
The institution of the new covenant of his gospel, like
1 The use made of this passage from Jeremiah in Heb. viii,
6ff., is worthy of careful study in connection with the words of
Jesus. The plan of our treatise requires us to treat it in another
connection. * One might compare the figure of "reclining with Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt, viii, ii), and
the blessedness of those "who are bidden to the marriage supper
of tbe Lamb" (Rev, xix, 9).

y6 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
that of the old covenant of Mount Sinai, was accord
ingly ratified by the shedding of blood, and it was the
blood of Jesus, the blood of the new covenant, shed for
many because given for the life of the world.
It appears from the foregoing discussion that the
teaching of Jesus touching his own mediation, as found
in the Synoptic Gospels, is not extensive, but what we
do find is very direct, positive, and unmistakable. And
we cannot fairly or satisfactorily explain his language
without admitting the obvious allusions to Old Testa
ment ideas of atonement and redemption.

The Fourth Gospel. yy

CHAPTER VI.
DOCTRINE OF JESUS IN THE FOURTH GOSPEL.
The peculiarities of the Fourth Gospel are such that
it has become common in biblical theology to treat its
contents of doctrine as having received Peculiarities ot
some measure of coloring from the J°na's sospei.
subjective and mystic type of thought which belonged
to the mind of the writer. The critical questions of
its date and authorship have undergone tlie most
searching investigation, and resultant opinions are
divided; but it is now generally conceded that this
unique and matchless portraiture of Christ was abroad
upon its world-wide mission in the early part of the
second century. For myself, I do not find any hypoth
esis of its origin is so well supported as the common
tradition of the early Church, and my own reading and
meditation on the subject during the past forty years
have steadily deepened my conviction that this remark
able Gospel is a genuine composition of the apostle
John. It is not difficult to believe that after surviving
his Lord nearly two generations, and repeating over
and over the divine thoughts which he had learned
from him, those thoughts would take on a cast and
style peculiar to the aged disciple and apostle.
But so far as this Gospel presents the doctrine of
mediation and atonement for sin it confirms and supple-

78 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
ments the teaching of the Synoptics. In John i, 29, 36,
Confirms and sup- JesUS is P°inted 0Ut hy J°hn the BaP"
plements Synoptics. tjgt ag «the Lamh 0f God, who takes
away the sin of the world." This language contem
plates a sacrificial lamb, for it is one that removes or
bears away {a'lpwv) sin, a statement which at once sug
gests to anyone familiar with the Jewish Scriptures
the idea of propitiatory offerings. 1 This Lamb of God
is one who makes atonement for "the sin of the world ;"
and while the statement is represented as coming from
John and not from Jesus, it nevertheless accords with
what appears to be the teaching of Jesus in this Gospel.
For this idea of a world-atonement through the offer
ing up of a most precious sacrifice is the essential doc
trine of John iii, 14-16: "As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must
John iii, 14-16. , . , ... , , ,
the Son of man be hfted up : that who
soever believeth in him may have eternal life. For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not
perish, but have eternal life." It is an old question of
exegesis whether all these are words of Jesus or an
enlargement of his words made by the evangelist. The

1 So Meyer : "Christ was, as the Baptist here prophetically
recognizes him, the antitype of the Old Testament sacrifices:
he must, therefore, as such, be represented in the form of some
animal appointed for sacrifice ; and the appropriate figure was
given not so much in the law as by the prophet (Isa. liii, 7, 10),
who, contemplating him in his gentleness and meekness, repre
sents him as a sacrificial lamb, and from this was derived the
form which came to be the normal one in the Christian manner
of view." — Critical and Exegetical Handbook, in loco.

John hi, 14-16. 79
Only trustworthy answer seems to be the general one
that the teaching of Jesus had so thoroughly taken
possession of the evangelist's thought and life as to
find its true expression not in the exact terms employed
by the Lord, but rather in the language and style of
the disciple. Whether Jesus uttered these sentiments
near the beginning or at the end of his ministry is a
question of no essential importance to John. His aim
is to present Jesus for all that he is worth to the
believer (comp. xx, 31), and the words to Nicodemus
in iii, 14-16, fairly interpreted, include the following
truths : ( 1 ) The mediatorial offering of Christ has its
origin in the love of God, which is a world-embracing
love. (2) The offering involves the most affecting of
all possible sacrifices, the giving of an only begotten
Son ~ for the rescue and the eternal life of the perishing
world of mankind. (3) The Son thus offered is in
some sense a vicarious sacrifice for those who are liable
to perish, but who, through faith in him, may have
eternal life and be saved. (4) In the course of this
divine procedure the Son of man is exalted before the
eyes of men (comp. the npoeypdtpr), openly portrayed,
of Gal. iii, 1) "even as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness" (comp. Num. xxi, 9). (5) In order to
accomplish this salvation of the world it was somehow
necessary {del) that the Son of man should be thus
lifted up {vijxj&rivai) . This being lifted np refers most

1 The offering of "the only begotten Son" may find some
measure of its impressiveness in a conscious allusion to the
offering of Isaac by Abraham in Gen. xxii, 2, 16.

80 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
naturally to his being lifted up on the cross, ~ and the
voluntary surrender of himself to the death of the
cross is the mode, according to John's Gospel, in which
the love of God asserted itself and became effectual for
the salvation of the world.
This giving of the Son of man for the life of the
world is further set forth in the remarkable words of
John vi, 50, 51, and what is written in
andnfio°od for tne connection with them. The figure here
life of the world. . , ...... „ ,
is not that of a sacrificial victim offered
on the cross, but of living bread out of heaven : "I am
the living bread which came down out of heaven: if
any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: yea,
and the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life
of the world." But the provision of such heavenly
food necessarily involves the sacrifice of the life of the
Son of man; for he goes on to say that, "except ye
eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye
have not life in yourselves. He that eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood hath eternal life; and I will
raise him up at the last day." This is no doubt mystical
language and is to be spiritually interpreted (comp.
verse 63), but it has the most vital relation to the
doctrine involved in the words of the last supper touch
ing the eating of his body and the drinking of his
1 Compare John viii, 28 ; xii, 32-34. In the last-named passage
the writer understands Jesus to "signify by what manner of
death he should die;" but the words "if I be lifted up from the
earth" (en rye. yijc, out of the earth) are hardly compatible with
the mere idea of being lifted up on the cross, and verse 33 has
been suspected as an interpolation. But viii, 28, "When ye have
lifted up the Son of man," indicates the crucifixion.

Vicarious Offering of Life. 8i
blood. The gracious provision of God in giving his
Son that the world through him might be saved be
comes effectual in the individual believer only as he
personally accepts the wonderful gift of the Father's
love, and inwardly appropriates the living bread
from heaven. So "he that believeth hath eternal life"
(verse 47).
The vicarious offering of his own life for the sake
of others is also seen in John x, 11, 15, where Jesus
declares himself the good shepherd
who lays down his life for the sheep.
The idea suggested in this illustration is not that of
an expiatory offering for sin, but rather of an exposure
to loss of life consequent upon faithful care of the
flock. A similar thought is conveyed in the language
of xv, 13: "Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends." A man
may thus lay down his own life for the sake of his
friends in one or another out of many ways; and yet
it is in keeping with the imagery of offering the blood
of life upon the altar to speak of all such modes of
giving up one's life for the sake of another as examples
of vicarious sacrifice without which there could have
been no salvation of the one that was rescued. This
idea certainly pervades the Gospel of John, and appears
in the construction which the author puts upon the say
ing of Caiaphas, "that it was expedient that one man
should die for the people, and that the whole nation
perish not;" for he looked upon this utterance of the
high priest as an inspired oracle, "that Jesus should
6

82 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
die for the nation; and not for the nation only, but
that he might also gather together into one the chil
dren of God that are scattered abroad" (xi, 50-52).
The idea of sacrifice, even unto the laying down of life,
appears also in the proverbial saying of xii, 24: "Ex
cept a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it
abideth alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit."
This principle of sacrifice in order to reach some
greater good is fundamental in the moral world, and
the death of Jesus is its highest possible illustration.
But in no portion of the Fourth Gospel do we find a
more impressive self-revelation of Jesus Christ as
intercessory prayer Mediator between God and man than
in chapter xvii. in his high-priestly prayer in chapter
xvii. With a sublime self-consciousness of oneness
with the Father, and at the same time of oneness with
the men who are given him out of the world, he stands
as a great high priest who has already virtually passed
into the heavenly places and "appears before the face
of God for us" (comp. Heb. ix, 24). He is conscious
of having come forth from the Father, of having
glorified him on the earth, of having accomplished the
ministry of his incarnation, and of having arrived at
the crucial hour of leaving the world and' being
glorified with the glory which he had with the Father
before the world was. He has manifested the Father's
name and given his word to the disciples; and now,
as he is about to leave them and go unto the Father,
he prays for them that they may be kept and guarded
from the evil of the world, and sanctified in the truth.

The Mediatorial Prayer. 83
As he had sanctified or consecrated himself in willing
sacrifice, he prays that they also may be consecrated in
a freewill offering of themselves in the truth. And
finally he prays that they and those who should there
after believe on him through their word "may all be
one ; even as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that
they may be perfected into one; that the world may
know that thou didst send me, and lovest them, even as
thou lovest me." And so the one great Mediator pleads,
desiring that those who are thus united in holy fellow
ship "be with me where I am, that they may behold
my glory, which thou hast given me : for thou lovedst
me before the foundation of the world."
This remarkable intercession is equivalent to a dec
laration on the part of Jesus that he came forth from
God as a divinely appointed Revealer of the Father's
grace and glory, and as a Mediator divinely consecrated
to effect the perfect union and fellowship of God and
all them that are sanctified in the truth. He alone can
say to the Father, "They are thine : and all things that
are mine are thine, and thine are mine: and I am
glorified in them." After the manner of Heb. ii, 13,
and its context, we may here behold the sanctifier and
the sanctified "all of one," and we see the author of
their salvation, made perfect through suffering, lead
ing many sons into glory, and saying, "Behold, I and
the children whom God hath given me."
The Gospel of John, then, so far as it reports any
teaching of Jesus on the subject of his redemptive
mediation and the offering of his own life for men, is

84 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
in fundamental harmony with the Synoptists. The
author understood these sayings of Jesus as conveying
the most profound spiritual significance of sacrificial
offerings. The life of Jesus was given in exhibition
of God's boundless love to rescue a perishing world,
and to provide eternal life to everyone who would per
sonally appropriate the gift.
It is to be observed, however, that the Gospel records
are not the class of biblical writings in which one
should look to find any formal or extensive treatment
Gospels not the of the doctrinal significance of Jesus's
fclsignSc^oi death. They are rather the memoirs
Jesus's death. of h;g WQrdg ^ workg They recount
the facts of his birth, life, death, and resurrection, but
they enter into no discussion of the doctrines of re
ligion which are connected with those facts. It does
not appear that Jesus himself furnished his disciples
with detailed instruction on the significance of his lay
ing down his own life for the world. His followers
were strangely slow to understand what he did say to
them on those matters (Mark ix, 32; Luke ix, 45;
xviii, 31-44), but afterward they received a deeper in
sight, and recalled his words, and found them filled
with a meaning which they had not comprehended
while he was with them in the flesh (comp. John xii,
16; xiii, 7; xvi, 13). We may therefore expect to
find in other New Testament writings a fuller state
ment of the mediatorial office and ministry of Jesus
Christ.

First Epistle of John. 85

CHAPTER VII.
DOCTRINE OF THE OTHER JOHANNINE WRITINGS.
The doctrine of the First Epistle of John accords
so closely with that of the Fourth Gospel that in now
passing to a study of the apostolical D0etrine of the First
epistles we may appropriately begin EPlst,e-
with this important document of the early Church.
For though this epistle may be among the very latest
products of the apostolic age its doctrine of the media
torial work of Christ appears to be in substance iden
tical with what we find in the very earliest examples of
apostolic teaching. A remarkably close parallel to the
great text in John iii, 16, is the comprehensive state
ment of 1 John iv, 9, 10, where, in immediate con
nection with the words "God is love," we read:
"Herein was the love of God manifested in us, that
God hath sent his only begotten Son into the world,
that we might live through him. Herein is love, not
that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his
Son to be a propitiation for our sins." Verse 14 says
that "the Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the.
world." Nothing is clearer in these statements than
that the "propitiation for our sins" originates in the
love of God. The work of Christ as "Saviour of the
world" is not to appease a wrathful Deity, as was sup
posed in propitiatory sacrifices among the heathen,

86 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
but rather a move on God's part to provide a covering
of sins. This word IXaofiog, translated propitiation, is
employed in the Septuagint for the Hebrew Q,*"S3j
coverings, in the sense of atonement for sin and the
consequent pardon and removal of the sin. So in
this epistle of John the manifestation of Christ was
for the purpose of taking away sin (iii, 5 ; comp. John
i, 29), and thus destroying the works of the devil
(iii, 8). This provision for the uttermost removal of
sin centers in Jesus Christ, who "is the propitiation for
our sins ; and not for ours only, but also for the whole
world" (ii, 2). He brings to the knowledge and
within the reach of man the potent means by which
sin is covered, blotted out, taken away; and such an
effectual doing away with sin as the work of the
devil is inseparably associated in John's thought with
purification from sin. He who embraces the Chris
tian's hope "purifieth himself even as God is pure"
(iii, 3). A new and heavenly life is begotten through
this divine propitiation, so that continuance in sin
becomes utterly incompatible with the soul thus
purified. For "whosoever is begotten of God doeth
no sin, because his seed (that is, God's seed, the germ
of heavenly life imparted dvutiev, from above, John
iii, 3) abideth in him: and he cannot sin because he
is begotten of God" (iii, 9). The obstacle in the way
of bringing the sinner into fellowship with God is the
essential opposition of sin and holiness. This epistle
emphasizes it as the contrast of light and darkness.
"God is light, and in him is no darkness at all," If

Purification from Sin. 87
sinful man come into this light of God, and see and
know and love the God of light, he cannot go on
walking in darkness. He must become a child of the
light. "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (i, 5-7).
The difficulty, accordingly, in the way of reconcilia
tion between sinful man and God is not some imagi
nary exigency of divine government, but the fact of
sin in man. This fact, however, is a breach of the
divine order of life, and in that sense may be con
ceived as rebellion against God's rule. Righteousness
and love alike require that this rebellion cease. No
change is required in God. He is essentially un
changeable in love and truth and fidelity and righteous
ness. But "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and righteous (juorbe- Kai
SiKaioe;) to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness" (i, 8, 9). Herein we discern the
origin, the means, the process, and the result of
Christ's "propitiation for our sins."
No faithful exposition of these texts can separate
them from the imagery of Old Testament offerings of
blood for the remission of sin. It is
,,,, t_ 1 j r t /~i • . 1 • c » Old Testament tm-
the blood of Jesus Christ his Son agery of blood ofier-
which is recognized as in some power
ful way efficient for the purification of the sinner from
all unrighteousness. The sinner has no means or
resources within himself to effect a cleansing from all

88 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
sin. His own penitence and confession of guilt have
in them no cleansing power. There must come to his
rescue some mediatorial ministry from a source higher
than himself; the mediation must involve sacrifice of
sufficient significance and worth to affect both God
and man, and it should fulfill all those ideals of pro
pitiation, expiation, removal of sin, reconciliation with
God, atonement, and satisfaction which are symbolized
in offering the blood of life upon an altar to make
atonement for the souls of men (Lev. xvii, n). Such
mediatorial propitiation is manifested in the death of
Jesus, and "hereby know we love, because he laid
down his life for us" (i John iii, 16). This laying
down one's life for others is, as we have already read
in John xv, 13, the greatest possible manifestation
of love.
This manifestation of love in the person and min
istry of the Son of God has an abiding value in the
propitiation for our sins. For Jesus is conceived as
The living Para- now 'n actual living intercession with
clete- the Father, and thus his presence be
fore God in the heavens is a perpetual ministry of
reconciliation. "And if any man sin we have an
Advocate (TrapdKX-r]Tov, Comforter, Helper, sympa
thetic and cooperative Intercessor) with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous" (ii, 1). The concept of
the holy and righteous Advocate ever living and mak
ing intercession for sinners (comp. Isa. liii, 12; Rom.
viii, 34; Heb. vii, 25) helps us in the interpretation
of all the scriptures which refer to his work of media-

Jesus a Paraclete. 89
tion and atonement. We are not to press to a literal
significance every metaphorical suggestion of such
terms as expiation, intercession, and propitiation; but
we do recognize in them all, as employed by the New
Testament writers, a true and profound conception of
the saving work of Jesus Christ. He is the bleeding
sacrifice, the righteous friend and comforter, the in
terceding advocate and mediator between God and
man, and by being all this and more he ever abides as
a "propitiation for our sins." But all this ministry of
atonement is of no avail for us except "we confess our
sins" and "walk in the light" of God.
It is noticeable that in this epistle Jesus Christ is set
forth as Paraclete, while in the Fourth Gospel the
Paraclete is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sends in
the name of the Son. The peculiar office and work of
the Holy Spirit demands its own separate treatment, as
showing the abiding and continuous operation of the
heavenly ministrations of saving grace. Jesus Christ
has finished the work given him to do in the flesh, but
as the effective Paraclete he continues the same im
manent Saviour of the world. This subject will receive
a special discussion near the close of this treatise. But
we cannot complete our study of Christ's mediation
as found in this epistle without giving attention to
the somewhat obscure passage in v, 6-8. The best
accredited text may be thus literally translated : "This
is he who came through {did) water Coming..tlirol]„n
and blood, Jesus Christ; not in {kv) water and bl00*"
the water only, but in the water and in the blood. And

90 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
the Spirit is that which is bearing witness, because
the Spirit is the truth. Because three are they who
bear witness, the Spirit and the water and the blood,
and the three agree in one" («c to ev elcuv, are directed
toward the one thing; that is, unite in one and the
same testimony). There is no sufficient reason for
supposing that the coming through water and blood
refers to the "blood and water" which came out of
Jesus' side when he was pierced by the spear of the
soldier (John xix, 34) ; for that incidental fact, men
tioned only in the Fourth Gospel, cannot be shown to
have been any important feature of the Saviour's
coming. The reference of the words to the sacra
ments of baptism and the Lord's Supper is also un
tenable ; for the aorist tense of the verb came (eAtfwv)
points to a definite historical fact in the past, and it is
not true that he came or comes through the sacra
ments. The sacraments, moreover, are institutions
for acknowledging covenant relations and for perpetu
ating the memory of Christ's death, and are not in any
proper sense the accompaniment or means of his com
ing. And if the writer intended to refer to the two
sacraments he should have employed terms more
specific than the mere words "water" and "blood ;" for
while water may suggest baptism, the single word
"blood" is not sufficient to indicate the Lord's Supper,
in which the bread is as conspicuous as the wine.
A satisfactory explanation of these words requires
that we point out two conspicuous facts in the incarnate
life of Jesus which may properly be designated by the

Through Water and Blood. 91
phrases "through water and blood" and "in the water
and in the blood." And there are two signal events,
one at the beginning and the other at the end of
his public career, which most obviously answer to the
expressions "water" and "blood" as here employed.
Those events were his baptism in the water of the
Jordan and his bloody death upon the His baptism and his
cross. This exposition satisfies the cross-
requirements of the language, and is confirmed by the
analogous statement of Heb. ix, 12, that Christ came
near {-rrapayevdfievog) "through his own blood, and en
tered once for all into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption." The water of his baptism and
the blood of his cross mark two distinctive crises in
the mediatorial ministry of Jesus, and a special em
phasis is put upon the blood by the more definite
formal repetition: "Not in the water only, but in the
water and in the blood;" and the change in preposi
tions employed [ev after did)1 serves to indicate that
the baptism and the cross were not only means through
which, but also conditions in the bounds and elements
of which, he came into the world to be a propitiation
for our sins. But this more definite statement not
only presents an additional form of conceiving the
two great events referred to, but seems intended also
to controvert the heresy of Cerinthus, who maintained,
according to Irenseus," that the Christly nature came
1 Compare a similar use of the prepositions ev and did in 2 Cor.
vi, 4-8.
'Against Heresies, chap, xxvi, 1.

92 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
upon Jesus at his baptism but withdrew from him
before he suffered on the cross.
The testimony of the Spirit as stated in verses 6-8
gives peculiar interest to this whole passage, and sup-
Testimony of the Plements the idea of the continuous
sP'rlt- heavenly ministry of Jesus Christ the
righteous as our Advocate with the Father already
noticed (ii, i). Along with these notable facts of the
water and the blood we have also the abiding witness
of the Spirit ; and this fact is of the greatest possible
value in the case, "because the Spirit is the truth,"
even as the Christ himself claims to be in John xiv, 6.
Accordingly, no one of these great facts stands apart
by itself, but all combine in threefold testimony to the
saving ministry of Jesus ; "for there are three who
bear witness, the Spirit and the water and the blood,
and the three agree in one." The Spirit is here as
signed the precedence, and instead of the neuter the
masculine form (""pe«c) of the numeral is used, as if
the writer's thought was mainly on the personal
Paraclete, somehow identical with the Christ himself
(ii, i), whose living presence gives perpetual efficacy
to the water and the blood. All this united testimony
witnesses to the great central truth, stated in v, n, but
which is in fact the burden of the whole epistle : "God
gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son."
His coming through water and blood was the mani
festation of the mystery of the ages, to which the
Spirit of truth is ever pointing. ~
1 So in substance Huther : "By means of the witness of the

Doctrine of John's Apocalypse. 93
The doctrine of John's Apocalypse is equally posi
tive and unmistakable in presenting the saving work
of Jesus Christ under the figures of Doetrine of Jolm,s
atonement by means of the shedding AnooalyPse-
of blood. In the salutation (i, 5) he is called the one
"who loves us and loosed us from our sins by his
blood," and in i, 18, he declares himself the living one,
who "was dead, and behold, I am alive for the ages
of the ages." More than a score of times in this
Apocalypse he is called "the Lamb," The Greek word
employed is not dfivog (as in John i, 29, 36), but apviov,
little lamb. A very suggestive passage is that in
v, 1-6, where we read that, when no one could be
found in heaven or on earth or under the earth able
to open the sealed book, it was said that "the Lion
who is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David,"
would open the book; and when the seer looked to
see the mighty Lion come forward, he beheld "a little
lamb standing as though it had been slain." But
though the diminutive form of the word for lamb may
suggest something small or feeble, the picture of this
Lamb by the throne is otherwise portrayed so as to
suggest the highest power and wisdom. He has seven
horns and seven eyes, "which are the seven Spirits of
God, sent forth into all the earth," and he was wor
shiped in the songs of heaven as the Lamb "who was
Spirit the whole redemptive life of Christ is permanently present,
so that the baptism and death of Jesus, although belonging to the
past, prove him constantly to be the Messiah who makes atone
ment for the world." — Meyer, Critical and Exegetical Handbook,
in loco.

94 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
slain and who purchased unto God with his blood men
out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation"
(verse 9). In vii, 14, the glorified multitudes of
heaven are described as those who "washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." In
all these allusions, and others like them which appear
in later portions of the book, there is unquestionable
reference to sacrificial ideas of the blood of atonement.1
1 It is an error, however, of some interpreters to find in the
"garment sprinkled with blood," in xix, 13, an allusion to the
blood of expiation or atonement. There we have the figure of a
conquering hero, drawn from Isa. lxiii, 1-6, and the blood which
stains his apparel is not his own blood, but that of his enemies
whom he tramples down in the fierceness of his wrath.

Doctrine of Peter. 95

CHAPTER VIII.
DOCTRINE OF PETER.
The early teaching of Peter, as recorded in the
Acts of the Apostles, makes prominent the provision
for remission of sins in the name of
t ru ¦ ,. /a t •• o ••• ^ Teaching of Peter.
Jesus Christ (Acts 11, 38; 111, 20;
iv, 10-12; v, 31; x, 43). The emphasis placed on
"the name of Jesus Christ," and on his work as
Saviour from sin, can be satisfactorily explained only
in the light of his mediatorial office and work as set
forth in other scriptures. How else shall one interpret
the strong words of Acts iv, 12 : "In none other is
there salvation: for there is not another name under
heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must
be saved" ? If this teaching of Peter stood alone, un
supported and unexplained by other apostolic preach
ing, we might not cite these fragments of his sermons
as conclusive proof that current ideas of the expiation
of sin entered into his conception of the saving work
of Christ. Nor are we to suppose that this apostle's
doctrinal views of the death of Christ were fully
developed at the time he spoke the words recorded in
the Acts. But we find upon further inquiry that he,
as well as the other apostles, recognized from the first
that Christ had made an atonement for sin. The
preaching of Philip (Acts viii, 35), based upon Isa.

96 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
liii, 7, 8, set forth Jesus in the figure of a sheep that
is led to the slaughter, and would most naturally have
explained that same scripture in the light of sacrificial
offerings of blood to one who had come from Ethiopia
to Jerusalem to worship.
Passing to the First Epistle of Peter, we observe in
the salutation (i, 2) an allusion to the "sprinkling of
First Epistle of the blood of Jesus Christ," and in
Peter- verses 18 and 19 of the same chapter
we read: "Ye were redeemed, not with corruptible
things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of
life handed down from your fathers ; but with precious
blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and
without spot." No faithful exegesis of this scripture
can fail to recognize the obvious allusion to such
atonement as was wont to be made by the blood of
sacrificial lambs. A comparison of the phrase "with
out blemish and without spot" with the requirements
of sacrificial offerings in the law of Exod. xii, 5 ; Lev.
xxii, 19-21 ; Deut. xvii, 1, puts this beyond all reason
able question. How could a Jew like Peter or any
other of his time conceive redemption from sin by
means of blood except in the light of that doctrine of
vicarious blood of life enunciated in Lev. xvii, 11, and
so familiar in the ritual of Jewish worship? The
entire passage is one of the most explicit on record
for showing the propitiatory character of the death of
Jesus Christ.
In 1 Pet. ii, 21-24, the mediatorial sufferings of
Christ are further set forth in language which has

Vicarious Suffering. 97
obvious allusion to the Servant of Jehovah as described
in Isa. liii, 4-9 : "Christ suffered for you, leaving you
an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did
no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who,
when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he
suffered, threatened not; but committed himself to
him that judgeth righteously: who his own self bare
our sins in his body upon the tree, that we, having
died unto sin, might live unto righteousness ; by whose
stripes ye were healed." The statement that he "car
ried our sins in his body up to the tree" {avr/veyKev ent
rd gvXov, up to and on the tree) conveys the idea that
somehow our sins were crucified upon his cross. The
thought is not that of bearing sins up to an altar and
placing them thereon; for the cross was in no true
sense an altar, nor can we think of sins as an offering
upon an altar; but rather he carried the burden of
our sins upon his soul up to the cross and nailed it
with himself thereon. His soul was thus made an
offering for sin (comp. Isa. liii, 10), and by his per
sonal suffering and sacrifice we obtain remission of
guilt and the power of living unto righteousness. But
this vicarious suffering was no fictitious quid pro quo,
no mechanical or commercial payment of a debt, no
infinite equivalent for an inconceivable infinite de
merit. ~ It was rather a mighty mediatorial struggle
1 The theory that the sins of the world were imputed to Christ,
or that the guilt of sin was thus imputed, and that he was
punished for the same with an infliction of suffering and death
equal in penal value to all the woe that must have come upon the
guilty world, and that all this was necessary to satisfy the de-
7

98 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
even unto death, the death of the cross, whereby we,
"having died unto sins," that is, having broken with
sin and having become separate from its power by
faith in the passion of our Lord, and by an intense
sympathetic fellowship in his sufferings, "might live
unto righteousness." And so again, to use Isaiah's
words (liii, 5), "by his bruise ye were healed."1 In
this respect there is a vicarious element in the suffer
ings of Christ, and in his bearing our sins up to the
cross, which is no example for us, and cannot be.
But while some aspects of Christ's sufferings place
him apart from other men, and render his the only
Partaking in name under heaven by which we may
Christ's sufferings. be sayedj there jg another point of
view from which it appears that all who suffer for
Christ's sake are partakers of his sufferings. We are
told in 1 Pet. iii, 17, 18, that it is praiseworthy to suffer
in the will of God for welldoing, "because Christ
also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the
unrighteous, that he might bring us to God." In iv, 1,
we also read : "Forasmuch then as Christ suffered

mands of justice in the nature of God, may now he treated as
obsolete. The theory of full penal satisfaction made by Christ is
logically at the basis of the Romish doctrine of indulgences and
the later forms of Antinomianism. If Christ has truly paid all the
penalty, divine justice can have no further claim on anyone for
whom Christ died. A righteous God cannot exact his claims
twice over. The theory of penal satisfaction, moreover, logically
excludes grace. Where an obligation has been fully discharged,
there is nothing left to pardon. See above, p. 71.
1 Healing is to be taken here in the sense of cure and restora
tion from sin as a fearful disease. Comp. the figure in Isa. vi, 10;
Jer. iii, 22 ; Hos. xiv, 5.

Partakers of Christ's Sufferings. 99
as to the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind,
for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from
sin." The writer's thought is here turned to the more
ordinary sufferings of our fleshly human nature in its
struggle with temptations to sin. He who suffers in
his struggle to overcome sin, and steadfastly refuses
to yield to its power as Jesus did in the days of his
flesh, "hath ceased from sin," that is, has utterly
broken with it and ceased from its control. The
brethren, therefore, who are exposed to fiery trial, are
exhorted to rejoice in the thought that they are thus
made "partakers of Christ's sufferings" (iv, 13). The
writer of this epistle was himself "a witness of the
sufferings of Christ" (v, 1), and he had confidence
that he and all who followed the divine Master should
also be partakers of the heavenly glory that was to be
revealed; but Christ alone could be spoken of as "a
lamb without blemish," whose precious blood makes
expiation for the sins of men.

loo The Mediation of Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER IX.
DOCTRINE OF THE PAULINE EPISTLES.
In the Pauline epistles we find the mediatorial work
of Christ set forth as the very substance of the Gospel.
The few allusions to the doctrine in
Teaching of Paul. _ „ , . , , .
Paul s preaching, as recorded m the
Acts, accord also with the teaching of the epistles.
Thus he proclaims, at Antioch of Pisidia, remission
of sins and justification through the crucified and risen
Jesus (xiii, 38, 39) ; at Athens he declares that "it
was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise
again from the dead" (xvii, 3) ; at Miletus he enjoins
the elders of the church "to feed the church of the
Lord which he purchased with his own blood" (xx,
28). In 1 Thess. i, 10, Jesus is mentioned as the one
"who delivers1 us from the wrath to come," and in
v, 10, as our Lord "who died for us, that, whether we
wake or sleep, we should live together with him."
Such incidental allusions imply a well-defined doctrine
of the saving work of Christ.
The Corinthian epistles contain numerous allusions
of a similar character, but do not attempt any elaborate
treatment of the doctrine of the cross.
Corinthian epistles. T ... ,-, .
In proclaiming at Corinth the mystery
1 Compare the deliverer, tov f>v6fievov, of this text with the same
word in Rom. xi, 26.

One Died for All. ioi
or the testimony " of God, Paul made "Jesus and him
crucified" his great central theme (i Cor. ii, 2). He
held "the word of the cross" to be "the power of God
to them that are saved" (i, 18), and that "Christ Jesus
was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteous
ness, and sanctification, and redemption" (i, 30). The
Christian believer is "bought with a price" no less or
other than the death of the Lord Jesus (vi, 20; vii, 23 ;
viii, 11 ; xv, 3), who "died for our sins according to
the scriptures." It was therefore no new or excep
tional idea for this apostle to recognize the bread and
cup of the Lord's Supper as a symbol of the com
munion of the body and of the blood of Christ (x, 16 ;
xi, 25-27), and for him to speak of Christ as our
immolated paschal lamb (v, 7). In the light of all
these statements it seems impossible
_ , ,. 2 Cor. v, 14-19.
to read 2 Cor. v, 14-19, without feeling
that the writer is intending to give unmistakable ex
pression to the vicarious nature of the death of Jesus :
"The love of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus
judge, that one died for all, therefore the all died {oi
travrsg am-Savov) ; and he died for all, that they who
live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto
him who died for them and rose again." There is, no
doubt, a certain mystical element, peculiar to Paul, in
this manner of thinking and speaking (comp. Rom.
vi, 5-1 1 ; Gal. ii, 20). All who partake of the saving

1 There seems little to choose between the two alternative
readings fivarfipiov and fiaprvpiov, both pf which are well attested
by ancient authorities.

102 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
grace of Christ are conceived as crucified and dying
along with Christ. In this ideal but spiritually real
sense these all die, because in fact and truth he died
for the sake of all of them {v-rrep ndvrwv). This entire
ministry of saving mercy has its source in God
{ex rov -&eov, verse 18), "who reconciled us unto him
self through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of
reconciliation." According to Paul, all men are by the
depraved tendencies of their nature and by their per
sistent habits of transgression at enmity toward God,
but from the bosom of God, as from a fountain of
infinite love, spring the passion and the purpose of
restoring the fallen, of redeeming the captives of sin,
and of effecting a state of harmony and holy fellowship
between himself and man. "The ministry of recon
ciliation" is the mediatorial work of Christ, who died
for all, and its magnitude and scope are set forth in
most impressive words: "God was in Christ recon
ciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them
their trespasses." The object sought in this ministry
of reconciliation is the whole world {k6o[iov). Nothing
less than this could satisfy the yearnings of infinite
love, and no more profound or suggestive statement
bearing on the doctrine of redemption can be found
than finds expression in the words, "God was in Christ
reconciling the world to himself." It may well seem
Reconciliation unto strange that any exegete should argue,
God" in the face of this statement, that we
are to think of God as reconciled to the world rather
than the wprld tp God, But it has been maintained.

Reconciliation unto God. 103
that, inasmuch as the Scriptures represent God as a
righteous judge, indignant every day with the wicked
ness of the wicked (Psa. vii, 9-1 1), and as Paul him
self speaks of "the wrath of God against all ungodli
ness and unrighteousness of men" (Rom. i, 18; comp.
Eph. v, 6; Col. iii, 6), the reconciliation here spoken
of must needs have reference mainly to the removal of
God's wrath against the sinful world. It may be that
the controversy is to some extent a vain wrangle over
words, for there can be no question as to the attitude
of the Holy One toward human sinfulness : he is "of
purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on
miserable perverseness" (Hab. i, 13). But the ques
tion in 2 Cor. v, 18, 19, is not about the essential an
tagonism of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of
the world, but about the object or aim of the recon
ciliation in Christ; and if the usage of the word
KaraXXdaou, reconcile, in the New Testament is per
mitted to have its full weight in deciding the point at
issue there ought to be no controversy. In the passage
before us the word is employed three times in three
successive verses (18-20), and in each case the recon
ciliation is unto God, not of God unto the world, or
unto us. The noun naTaXXay-i], reconciliation, occur
ring twice in this same passage, in the phrases "the
ministry of reconciliation" and "the word of reconcilia
tion," is spoken of as something given and committed
unto us, and in the absence of any other reference must
be understood as in strict harmony with what the thrice
repeated verb affirms—^'' reconciliation unto God,

104 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
The use of these same words in Rom. v, 10, n, is pre
cisely the same: "Being enemies, we were reconciled
to God through the death of his Son." The reconcilia
tion thus received is affirmed in the most explicit terms
to be a reconcilation unto God (tu deco). The wrath
of God against all unrighteousness of men is every
where and always to be assumed or understood, but
what is made conspicuous in Rom. v, 8-n, is not this
wrath, but the adorable love of God which provides
for the reconciliation of his enemies unto himself.
The peace between God and the sinner effected by this
reconciliation is conceived by Paul as a peace of the
sinner toward God {trpog rov -deov, Rom. v, 1) rather
than a peace of God toward the reconciled and justified
sinner. The incidental mention of the "reconciliation
of the world" in Rom. xi, 15, is in perfect accord with
the construction of the word given above, as is also
the solemn charge of the apostle, in 1 Cor. vii, 11, that
the wife who has improperly departed from her hus
band ought to be "reconciled to her husband." The
wife is the erring party in the case supposed, and, like
the sinner, is to be reconciled to the husband. And
these are all the instances in the New Testament where
the words katallasso and katallage occur. The in
tensified form dnoKaraXXdoab), which seems designed
to add to the shorter word a suggestion of the com
pleteness or thoroughness of the reconciliation, occurs
only in Eph. ii, 16, and Col. i, 20, 21, and is in each of
these texts employed to express the complete recon-i
ciiiation unto God of those who stood in the relation

The Reconciliation. 105
of aliens and enemies to him. There would seem there
fore to be no ground whatever, in the usage of this
term, for the idea that it contemplates a reconciliation
of God to man. Even the word diaXXdoau, as employed
in Matt, v, 24, shows that the reconciliation enjoined
is toward the injured brother. The sinner in this case
is the one who is about to offer his gift at the altar;
he is to go at once and be reconciled to the brother
who has good reason to complain against him. ~ The
injured brother holds toward this offender a relation
similar to that which God is supposed to hold toward
the sinner in the texts previously cited, and here as
there the reconciliation is explicitly spoken of as a
reconciliation of the offender to the offended, not of
the injured person to the transgressor. This latter
may be understood as something necessarily involved
in the transaction and sure to follow, but it is not the
particular thing affirmed in any of these scriptures.
All these scriptures, however, teach that the recon
ciliation of the sinner to God is effected through the
mediation of Christ, and God and Christ are conceived
as one in seeking to bring about this reconciliation.
There is nothing in the entire passage of 2 Cor.
v, 18-21, which speaks of God as an enemy to be
reconciled toward man. There is no allusion to a
wrath and hostility toward the sinner on the part of
God, but, on the contrary, the whole process of recon-
'A very different course is prescribed in Matt, xviii, 15, for
one who thinks that his brother has sinned against him. In such
a situation he is to go after his faulty brother, show him his sin,
and seek like God himself to gain him over to the Church.

106 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
ciliation originated in him, is mediated through Christ,
and proclaimed by the ministers of the
God originates, . , , , < ,r r
Christ mediates, the word as ambassadors on behalf of
reconciliation. . .
Christ. It would seem, therefore, a
perversion, not to say a caricature, of this scripture to
read into it the idea of God standing afar off, filled with
sovereign displeasure and hostility toward the world,
and only to be appeased and reconciled to man by re
ceiving some satisfactory compensation for offenses
against his majesty. The apostle's representation is the
most striking opposite of this. God is set forth as en
treating and beseeching those who are estranged from
him by their trespasses to become reconciled to him
self: "As though God were entreating by us, we
beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to
God." When now we proceed to inquire into the nature of
Christ's mediation in the reconciling of the world to
God, we find that he embodies and
God in Christ. ,,.,.,.. ,
illustrates by his humiliation and
vicarious suffering on account of sin the spirit, the
heart, the mind of God. In his saving ministry of
reconciliation God is in Christ, not apart from him.
Hence the remarkable words that follow in 2 Cor.
v, 21 : "Him who knew not sin he
2 Cor. v, 21. , ,
made sin on our behalf, that we might
become the righteousness of God in him." That is,
the perfectly sinless Christ, yearning with the emotion
of God himself to rescue man from the power of sin,
is appointed by God to the task of identifying himself

Made Sin for Us. 107
with humanity so closely as to feel the burden and
horror of all its sinfulness. The language is bold and
striking, but no more so than Isa. liii, 10, where it is
said that Jehovah was pleased to bruise his servant
and to make his soul a trespass offering (taiDN ; Sept.,
TTspi a/uipriag). It is not improbable that the apostle
had this very passage of Isaiah in his thought. The
statement cannot mean that God in any literal or real
sense made the sinless one an actual sinner. Many of
the older interpreters maintain that the word sin is
here to be understood in the sense of sin offering, and
not a little may be said in favor of this explanation.1
It is much to be preferred over that interpretation
which holds that Christ was made to suffer the punish
ment of sin; for the conception of punishing the sin
less for the sinful, and of imputing guilt to Christ
and his personal righteousness to the credit of the
guilty transgressor, is a scholastic fiction and abhorrent
to the moral sense. But we may understand the
apostle here as using the word sin in an old pregnant
sense for a personal contact with sin, a subjection to
suffering and death on account of sin, so real as to be

1 The fact that it is used in the Septuagint of Isa. liii, io, for
D^JN, trespass offering, and regularly in the Priest Codex for
nNUn, sin offering (for example, Exod. xxix, 14, 36; Lev. iv, 3,
8, 20, 32, etc.; Num. vi, 11, 16; vii, 16, 22, etc.), furnishes a
strong support for this view. In Ezek. xliii, 25 ; xiv, 17, 22, and
other places it is used in the same sense and construed with
¦xoika. The objection that the Septuagint usually has the phrase
nepi dfiapriac- is not insuperable. Codexes A and B have etc
d/iapriav In Lev. Iv, 32. Moreover, the explanation of sin in
2 Cor. v, 21, in the sense of sin-bearer, is virtually equivalent to
yi-Jiat is represented by the §irj offering.

108 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
mystically conceived as a terrible identification with
the sins of the world. The divine purpose of his thus
becoming sin for our sake was "that we might become
the righteousness of God in him." Here too the word
SiKaioavvr], righteousness, is employed in the same
bold way as the word sin in the previous sentence.
The abstract is used for the concrete, and the strange
brevity of each expression involves an obscurity in
the thought which no exegesis has been able to clear
away. We find a somewhat similar declaration in the
Epistle to the Galatians (iii, 13) : "Christ redeemed
Epistle to the Gala- us from the curse of the law, having
tians' become in our behalf a curse : for it is
written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
that upon the Gentiles the blessing of Abraham might
come in Jesus Christ; that we might receive the
promise of the Spirit through faith." In this passage
the word curse, Kardpa, is emphatic and bears a bold
ness of expression much like that of sin in 2 Cor.
v, 21, and it is to be noticed that in both cases the
words are used without the article, thus indicating
some general character or quality of Christ's redeem
ing work, and "the abstract is used for the concrete to
intensify the rhetorical force of the statement. Ac
cording to Deut. xxi, 22, 23, "a sin worthy of death"
was to be punished by putting the criminal to death
and hanging his dead body on a tree; but the body
was not to be left all night upon the tree, but buried
the same day; for, says the Hebrew text, "accursed

A Curse for Us. 109
of God is one that is hanged." Our apostle does not
quote accurately either the Hebrew text or the Septua
gint, but expresses the main thought in both. The
publicly executed criminal was looked upon as an
object of God's curse. In a similar manner in verse 10
he quotes another passage from Deut. xxvii, 26, to
prove that "as many as are of the works of the law are
under curse." That is, all who are conditioned in life
by a law of works are under strictest obligation to
observe perfectly all that the law prescribes and to
continue in such perfect obedience. Otherwise they
fall at once under the curse which the law of Deut.
xxvii, 26, pronounces. But the apostle insists that as
matter of fact no man is justified before God by way
of such perfect continuance in keeping the whole law,
and he cites in proof the words of Hab. ii, 4 : "The one
who is righteous shall live by faith." Here then is a
way of salvation by faith, opened by the mediation of
Christ, and availing to redeem the Jewish people from
the curse which their law imposed on every one who
failed to perform all its requirements. The divine
purpose of Christ's mediation, however, was not
merely the redemption of the Jews from the curse of
the law, but that upon the Gentiles also the Gospel
preached beforehand unto Abraham (verse 8) might
come with its fullness of blessing. Thus it is that
both Jews and Gentiles "receive the promise of the
Spirit through faith."
In order to accomplish this redemption from the
curse of the law Christ "has become a curse for us"

no The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
{imp r\\u#v, on our behalf; for our sake). The refer-
Christ a curse for enCe to the CUrSe °f beinS hanSed °n
oursake. a tree associates most naturally with
the thought of Christ nailed upon the cross (comp.
I Pet. ii, 24; Col. ii, 14). So in Gal. iii, 1, Christ is
said to have been "openly set forth crucified." This
public and shameful suffering of death had all the
outer semblance of the curse of the law, and this open
exhibition of Jesus as if he were an accursed criminal
was a conspicuous part of his humiliation. It is, per
haps, a little less startling to say he "became a curse
on our behalf" than to say that God "made him a sin
on our behalf." But both statements are of the nature
of metonymy, and cannot be literally understood. Both
express the voluntary self-humiliation of Christ and
his vicarious identification with man under the curse
of sin. He entered into the depths of human suffer
ing and felt most keenly the bitter exposure of sinful
man to the curse of violated law, and being himself
personally without sin and without any condemnation
from law he was the more capable of becoming
"greatly amazed and sore troubled" (Mark xiv, 33)
over the desperate situation of sin-cursed humanity
under the curse of holy law. In all this portraiture of
the vicarious suffering of the Redeemer we should
look, therefore, to see, not a victim of some extraneous
demand of law, but rather a voluntary sympathetic
friend of the sinner, the purest embodiment of love as
well as of fidelity to truth and righteousness, in whom
God's Spirit rules, and whose every action reveals

Crucified with Christ. iii
the mind and feeling of God himself. Hence the
peculiar force of the language employed farther on in
the epistle (iv, 4, 5) : "God sent forth his Son, born of
a woman, born under the law, that he
might redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."
This redemption from the curse of the law delivers
one also from its dominion as a rule of life leading to
salvation, so that the newly adopted sons of God are
no longer in the position of bondservants, but of sons
and heirs, in whose hearts the Spirit cries Abba,
Father (verses 6 and 7). Hence, too, the exultant
confession of the apostle in vi, 14 : "Far be it from me
to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom the world hath been crucified unto me,
and I unto the world." Being crucified with Christ
he lives in Christ, as we have already heard him say
in 2 Cor. v, 14, 15 ; and in this new and heavenly
relationship there is no more curse of legal condemna
tion, but marvelous salvation from sin. Hence the
mystical but characteristic Pauline confession of faith
(Gal. ii, 19, 20) : "Through law I
died to law, that I might live to God. • • • •
With Christ have I been crucified ; and it is no longer
I that live, but Christ liveth in me; and that which
I now live in the flesh I live in faith, namely, that of
the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up on
my behalf." These words suggest how God is truly
in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. The
Lord Jesus Christ "gave himself for our sins, that he

112 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
might deliver us out of this present evil world accord
ing to the will of our God and Father" (i, 4). Thus
this epistle furnishes a most valuable contribution to
the doctrine of the mediation of Christ.
Paul's Epistle to the Romans is usually regarded
as his masterpiece for the exposition of Christ's media-
Epistie to the Ro- torial work in the salvation of men.
mans- His great theme is the gospel consid
ered as the "power of God unto salvation to every one
that believeth" (i, 16). After a very full showing
that all the world of mankind is under condemnation
before God on account of a universal sinfulness he
makes in iii, 21-26, one of the most formal and com
prehensive statements in the New Testament touching
the redemption from sin which is effected by the grace
of God in Jesus Christ. The passage may be quite
literally translated as follows: "But now apart from
law a righteousness of God has been
Rom. iii, 21-26. . , , , . . , ,
manifested, being witnessed by the
law and the prophets ; even the righteousness of God
through faith of Jesus Christ1 unto all them that
believe ; for there is no distinction ; for all sinned and
fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus: whom God set forth as a mercy seat" through
1 Genitive of the object : faith that takes hold on Jesus Christ.
So too, in verse 26, "he who is of the faith of Jesus" is the one
who has faith in Jesus, and believes unto salvation.
2 IXaoTJ/piov, mercy seat. Here used without the article, as is the
word Son in Heb. i, 2 (iv vlij), because the nature, relative quality,
or symbolic import of the term is uppermost. This word occurs
elsewhere in the New Testament only in Heb. ix, 5. where the

The Redemption in Christ. 113
faith in his blood, for a showing of his righteousness
because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime
in the forbearance of God; for the showing of his
righteousness in the present time, that he himself
might be just and the justifier of him who is of the
faith of Jesus."
There are numerous contrasted phrases and minute
shades of thought suggested in this passage which it
is scarcely the province of dogmatics to expound. Our
aim must be to set forth as clearly as possible the
apostle's conception ofthe redemption that is in Christ
Jesus," and the manner by which it The redemption in
becomes effective in showing forth the Christ-
righteousness and grace of God and in securing the
forgiveness and justification of the sinner. With this
object in view we must study carefully the import of
the more striking words and phrases of the text.
1. We observe first that Paul does not regard his
teaching here as something new and original with him
self, but as a truth which is "witnessed
... , , , „ . Not a new teaching.
by the law and the prophets; for he
cites the law, the prophets, and the psalms throughout
the epistle to confirm his doctrine (comp. i, 17; iii, 10;
iv, 3-8; ix, 25-33). We understand it, however, as
Paul's exposition, the way in which this gospel of God
was revealed in his conscious experience and thought
(comp. Gal. i, n-17). It accordingly bears the
peculiarities of a gospel according to Paul.
writer is specifying the different articles of furniture in the holy
places of the tabernacle.
8

114 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
2. According to Paul's gospel the entire work of
redemption in Christ originates with God, so that
originates with whatever Christ does God does; and
Go"- "the redemption which is in Christ" is
a manifestation ~ both of the righteousness and the free
grace of God. Justice and love divine thus "meet and
kiss each other" in this manifestation of God. Hence
it follows that God may be shown to be righteous and
to be at the same time a justifier of the man who has
faith in Jesus Christ.
3. This demonstrable proof of the righteousness of
God explains also his forbearance in passing over the
Passing over former sins which had been committed in the
Slns- times previous to the appearing of
Christ. His righteousness and grace were never
wanting, and were never separate from his eternal
purpose in Christ (comp. Eph. iii, 11), but his for
bearing mercy overlooked times and conditions of
ignorance (comp. Acts xvii, 30). This, however, is
not to be understood or construed as inconsistent with
the fact that "the wrath of God is also revealed from
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of

1 Two Greek words are employed in this passage to express the
idea of manifestation, Qavtpuoic and iviu^tc. The former seems to
point to an outward sensible exhibition, which anyone so disposed
may look upon, and so it differs from arcoita'kwpie., revelation,
which is a disclosure made subjectively to the individual soul.
A manifestation, however, perceptible to all, may be the outcome
of a series of revelations witnessed by prophets of God. The
word iv8ei%ii;, on the other hand, conveys the idea of a public
demonstration, an evidential showing forth of some great fact
or truth. Both ideas unite in the npoi-dcTo of verse 25 : whom
Cod set forth, etc.

The Redemption in Christ. 115
men who restrain the truth in unrighteousness" (Rom.
i, 18), but it is a vindication of his love and justice in
all the ages of human history. What, therefore, finds
an open demonstration in the manifestation of the
historical Christ "in the present time" is essentially
true for all times, and furnishes our only theodicy of
the divine administration of the moral world.
4. There are two Greek words in this passage which
must necessarily have great significance in the apostle's
doctrine of the mediation of Christ Two Greek words.
between Cod and man. lhey are
a-KoXvrpwaig, in verse 24, and \Xaarr\piov, in verse 25.
The first means redemption in the sense of deliverance
from some condition of bondage, and does not differ
in any essential or important manner from the main
signification of the word Xvrpov, ran
som, which we have already considered
in connection with the teaching of Jesus (page 68). ~
Jesus offered his life "a ransom for many" (Mark
x, 45), and that self-sacrifice provided for the redemp
tion of the many. "The redemption that is in Christ
Jesus" is the divine power in his person and work by
the efficiency of which the sinner may be delivered

1 For the convenience of the reader disposed to examine all
the passages in the New Testament where Xvrpiu and its com
pounds occur we subjoin the following : The verb Ivrpdu only in
Luke xxiv, 21; Titus ii, 14; 1 Pet. i, 18; Xvrpov only in Matt.
xx, 28; Mark x, 45 ; ^vrpaatc in Luke i, 68; ii, 38; Heb. ix, 12;
y,VTpuTfjQ in Acts vii, 35 ; avTik-vrpov in 1 Tim. ii, 6 ; a-KoJ.VTpumc in
Luke xxi, 28 ; Rom. iii, 24 ; viii, 23 ; 1 Cor. i, 30 ; Eph. i, 7, 14 ; iv,
30 ; Col. i, 14 ; Heb. ix, 15 ; xi, 35. At the root of all these words is
7i.vu, to loosen, or set free.

116 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
from his sins. It is through this redemption that he
"is justified freely by his grace." In all this more
elaborate statement, however, we find thus far no
essential thought which we have not already obtained
from the simpler declaration of Mark x, 45, that Jesus
"came to give his life a ransom for many."
But the word lXaor-r]piov seems designed to direct
the reader to a more definite conception of "the re
demption which is in Christ Jesus,"
XkaaTripiov. and may be regarded as a concrete
figurative illustration of r\ d-rroXv-puotg, the redemption.
Here we meet with one of those niceties of biblical
exegesis which is of sufficient importance to be studied
with much patience and care. Four distinct interpre
tations have been put upon this word, which may be
fairly represented by the Latin terms, propitiator, pro-
pitiatorium sacrificium, propitiatio, and propitiato-
rium.1 The distinctive thought in each of these terms
may be expressed by the corresponding Greek words
iXaar-qg, IXaerrrjpiov dvfia, IXaonog, and IXacrrrjptov, and
in English by propitiator, propitiatory sacrifice, propi
tiation, and propitiatory, this last word in the concrete
sense of place or instrument of propitiation. Of these
different interpretations it is safe to say that the first
named has too little in its favor to deserve extended
notice. If the writer intended a personal reference to
Christ as a propitiator he should have used the word
1 The three forms propitiator, propitiatio, and propitiatorium
are actually found in the different manuscripts of the Latin
versions of the New Testament.

Propitiatory Sacrifice. 117
\Xaar-r\g, and not the neuter form IXaorrjpiov, The
second interpretation, which supplies the word -&vfia,
sacrifice, or else maintains that, as a neuter substan
tive, iXaar-qpiov without any additional word like -dvfia
understood here means propitiatory sacrifice, has been
adopted by a goodly number of dis- Propitiatory sacri.
tinguished expositors.1 The meaning floe-
then is that God has exhibited Jesus Christ conspicu
ously as a propitiatory offering for the sins of men.
Against this interpretation there are several weighty
objections: (1) The word does not appear to be else
where (unless very rarely) employed in this meaning."
If the writer wished to express the thought of sacri
ficial offering he ought by all means to have added
the word &vp,a, or some equivalent. (2) It is incon
gruous with New Testament thought and teaching to
speak of God setting forth his Son Jesus Christ as a
propitiatory sacrifice. As such an offering Christ
rather presented himself unto God (Eph. v, 2; Heb.
vii, 27; ix, 14, 26, 28; comp. John xvii, 19. (3) The
phrase in his own blood would be superfluous and
tautological if the preceding IXaorrjpiov meant an expia
tory sacrifice.
The Authorized and Revised English Versions of
1 So De Wette, Fritzsche, Meyer, Alford, Jowett, Hodge,
Wordsworth, Conybeare, and Howson.
3 Dion Chrysostom (Orat. xi, i) and Nonnus (Dionysiaca xiii)
are cited by Meyer and others as sustaining the meaning of
sacrificial offerings. Also 4 Mace, xvii, 22, where, however,
Swete (.Sept. in loco) reads dta . . . tov ikaarripiov ftavdrov aiiruv,
through their propitiatory death. Here the word is masculine and
an adjective qualifying death, and hence not a parallel example.

118 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
the New Testament translate the word by the abstract
term propitiation, thus following most
Propitiation. copjes 0f tne Vulgate. This interpre
tation may construe lXaarr\piov as a neuter noun in the
sense of means of propitiation, or it may construe
'iXaorrjpiov as an adjective in the accusative masculine
and as a predicate of ov, whom. Thus the margin of
the Revised Version has it, whom God set forth to be
propitiatory. Against the first construction lies the
fact that the word is found nowhere else as a neuter in
the abstract and general meaning of propitiation. No
other example is adduced in which iXaor^ptov appears
as equivalent or synonymous with IXaouog. If the
writer desired or intended to say propitiation, why did
he not employ the unequivocal word which is so ren
dered in all versions of I John ii, 2, and iv, io?
Against the construction which makes it a masculine
adjective qualifying ov, whom, and explains it as de
scriptive of a personal element in Christ, it may be
urged (i) that the adjective is nowhere else applied
to persons; (2) that in the examples adduced the
object to which it is applied follows the adjective;1
and (3) it is an uncouth and unexampled assertion to
say that "God set forth Christ propitiatory," or "to be
propitiatory." God has indeed sent forth and set forth
his Son as a manifold revelation of himself in the
Christ, but not as propitiatory to himself. So far as

1 The examples often cited are l7,aarfipiov pvijpa (Josephus,
Ant. xvi, 7, 1) and 'ikaarripiov davarov (4 Mace, xvii, 22), already
cited above.

A Mercy Seat. 119
he is a sacrifice unto God he offered himself by the
sacrifice of himself. Otherwise conceived, there is
needless confusion of thought.
We prefer that interpretation of lXaorr\ptov in this
text which accords the word the meaning which it
bears everywhere else in the biblical Greek, and which
has the support of the ancient Greek commentators
and a large number of the ablest exegetes of modern
times.1 In the only other place where it occurs in the
New Testament (Heb. ix, 5) it designates the "mercy
seat," the lid or cover of the ark. This Mercy seat.
cover was the most central and sacred
article of furniture in the holy of holies in the taber
nacle. According to Exod. xxv, 17-22, it was made
of pure gold, and two cherubim were wrought into the
same piece, one at each end, with their wings spread
out over the mercy seat and their faces toward it and
toward one another. This golden lid covered the two
tables of "the testimony" which were placed within
the ark, and there, "from above the mercy seat,"
Jehovah promised to meet and commune with Moses.
Into this place the high priest entered alone, once in
the year, and sprinkled the mercy seat with blood,
"to make atonement C"®=k, Sept., egiXdoKeodai) for
the children of Israel." The slab of gold thus fitted to
cover the top of the ark was called in the Hebrew
1 So Origen, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Cyril, Theophylact, Eras
mus, Luther, Calvin, Grotius, Olshausen, Philippi, Tholuck, Um-
breit, Liddon, Gifford (in Speaker's Commentary), Lange, Cremer
(Bibl.-Theol. Lex.), Ritschl (Recht fertigung und Versohnung,
vol. ii, p. 169).

120 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.

the capporeth, and this word is everywhere
translated in the Septuagint by iXaorrjpiov. In Exod.
xxv, 16 (17), where the word first appears, this
Greek version reads: "Thou shalt make a propi
tiatory cover of pure gold" {iXaor-qpiov em-defia xpvoiov
KaSapov).1 Elsewhere throughout the Septuagint rfii-3
is uniformly translated by 'iXaarr\piov, without any fur
ther defining word. In view of these facts it is diffi
cult to suppose that Paul would have employed a
Greek word so familiar to all readers of the common
version of the Old Testament in any other meaning
than that which it bears in that version. The reasons,
accordingly, for this meaning of the word in the pas
sage under discussion are the following:
( 1 ) This is the only well-accredited meaning of the
word in the biblical Greek.
(2) The mercy seat was the most sacred and solemn
symbol connected with the system of Levitical service
in the tabernacle and in the temple. It was the secret
place of the Most High, the throne of the presence
chamber of Jehovah, the God of Israel. In that most
holy place he would meet and commune with his
people, through their anointed representative.
(3) The symbolical significance of the mercy seat
made it a very appropriate figure for the apostle to
1 It may be equally proper to construe the hiri-defta in this ex
ceptional text as in apposition with IXaarf/ptov, and so Gifford
actually does : "Thou shalt make a propitiatory, a lid of pure
gold." He also observes that this apposition of the two words
"is the more natural, because on this first occurrence of n"lB3
the translators might wish to show that they had both meanings
under their consideration."

A Mercy Seat. 121
use by way of metaphor to illustrate "the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus." It is worthy of special note
that in Heb. ix, 7-12, immediately following the only
other place in the New Testament where iXaorrjpiov
occurs, the symbolism of the holy of holies is spoken
of as a figure {-napafioX-fj) of the atoning ministry of
Christ, who "through his own blood entered in once
for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption." *
(4) This interpretation best explains the addition
of the emphatic phrase in his blood. The mercy seat
was a golden covering, over which were the faces and
wings of the cherubim. It had no propitiatory sig
nificance until the priest sprinkled it with the blood of
atonement. So, in the figure, it is only after Christ
has entered the holy place through his own blood that
God set him forth as a mercy seat and exhibited the
saving mystery of eternal redemption "through faith
in his blood." And so it was "that the way into the
holy place was not made manifest while the first
tabernacle was yet standing" (Heb. ix, 8).
(5) The middle voice employed in the Greek verb
¦npoe-&ero, set forth for himself, also comports with this
interpretation of IXaor-fjpiov. It indicates God's own
personal interest and participation in the redemption
which is in Christ, and in the consequent "showing
forth of his righteousness." God openly set forth in
his own interest his Son Jesus Christ as the reality and
1 On the symbolism of the mercy seat, see further my Biblical
Hermeneutics j p. 272, and Biblical Apocalyptics, p. 83.

122 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
fulfillment of all that was symbolized by the mercy
seat. Further confirmation of this interpretation will be
seen, we think, as we pass under review the various
objections that have been raised against it:
(i) Some writers have declared that iXaorrjpiov is
an incorrect translation of the Hebrew rv-fiD. To
which it would be sufficient to reply, in view of the
facts already adduced, that, whether it be a correct or
an incorrect translation, it is the one word uniformly
employed in the biblical Greek to represent the cap-
poreth, and Paul would not have been likely to make
use of it in another or an exceptional meaning. But
the truth is that the verb ica in its intensive form
(Piel), and the derivatives of the same, are almost
invariably used in the sense of making an atonement
for sin ; covering it over as if putting it out of sight.
And this is the obvious significance of the capporeth
in the holy place. Sprinkled with the blood of atone
ment it was a perpetual symbol of the divine reconcilia
tion secured thereby. It covered "the testimony" of
the two tables of law deposited within the ark, and
thus proclaimed how mercy covers wrath, and effects
the reconciliation of the sinner unto God. And this
idea was appropriately set forth by the Greek word
iXaorrjpiov, a means and instrument divinely appointed
to secure reconciliation between the sinner and his
God, and hence it is appropriately translated into
English by mercy seat.
(2) It has been objected that there is an incon-

Christ as Mercy Seat. 123
gruity in the figure of the blood of a sacrifice and that
of a mercy seat. But the incongruity, if any, is one
of the objector's own making. The mercy seat as such
was not without blood (Lev. xvi, 14; Heb. ix, 7), and
the text under discussion affirms explicitly that Christ
as a mercy seat effects the redemption by means of his
own blood. We have already seen that iXaorrjpiov does
not mean a sacrifice, or a propitiatory offering ; but its
significant symbolism is never apparent apart from the
blood which the high priest sprinkled thereon in the
day of atonement.
(3) Others object that the idea of mercy seat would
be inappropriate in view of the fact that Christ is here
said to be set forth "for a showing {evdeii-tg) of his
righteousness." But this objection overlooks the fact
that in Paul's thought the grace and the righteousness
of God in Christ are never separate. No more emphatic
statement appears in this whole passage than that we
are "justified freely by his grace through the redemp
tion that is in Christ Jesus." Moreover, both grace
and righteousness are alike symbolized in the blood-
sprinkled cover of "the ark of the covenant."
(4) It is also objected that it would be violently
abrupt to introduce such a figure here, without any
thing in the preceding context preparing the way for
it. But this objection seems to forget that the word
IXaorrjpiov occurs nowhere else in Paul's writings, and
if its well-attested and uniform meaning elsewhere
seem abrupt in this connection, how much more out of
place would be an exceptional and questionable use of

124 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
the word? We believe, on the contrary, that the em
phatic mention in the preceding verse of the gracious
"redemption that is in Christ Jesus" does prepare the
way for this figure of atonement, and the repeated
references to "the law," both before and after this
verse, assume that the readers of this epistle were
familiar with the means and methods of atonement
provided in the law.
(5) The last observation may also sufficiently dis
pose of the objection that such a reference to the cap-
poreth would be out of place in an epistle addressed in
part to Gentile readers. If this objection were valid,
it must also apply to numerous other Old Testament
references in the epistle. But Paul's contention
throughout this epistle is first and mainly with the Jew,
and he may as well have assumed that his first readers
would be familiar with the mysteries of the holy place
in the tabernacle, as does the author of Heb. ix, 7-14.
(6) But it is urged that Christ is nowhere else in the
New Testament presented under the figure of a mercy
seat; to which it has been well replied that the same
objection may be made to the figure of the brazen ser
pent (John iii, 14), the baptism unto Moses and the
spiritual Rock (1 Cor. x, 2-4), Christ "made sin for
us" (2 Cor. v, 21), and "a curse for us" (Gal. iii, 13).
And it should also be observed that in the immediate
context and argument following the only other men
tion of the mercy seat in the New Testament (Heb.
ix, 5) we read quite an elaborate exposition of the
"figure" {trapafioXr)) of Christ's mediation as seen in

Christ as Mercy Seat. 125
his "entering in once for all into the holy place,
through his own blood, and (his thus) obtaining
eternal redemption" (verse 12; comp. x, 19, 20).
(7) But the most weighty objection is generally
felt to be the absence of the article before iXaor-qpiov.
In the somewhat analogous illustration of 1 Cor. v, 7,
the language of the apostle is, rb -rtdoxa tjiiuv krvd-i]
Xpiorog, Our passover (that is, paschal lamb) was
sacrificed, even Christ. Here the word passover is
made definite both by the article and the pronoun, and
it would seem to have been certainly proper, if not
necessary, to qualify the word mercy seat in like man
ner, had the apostle used iXaarr\piov in this specific
sense.1 The force of this argument is not to be denied,
and it may be admitted that the more general term, a
propitiation, would have suited the context. Never
theless, as Schaff says in his additions to Lange's com
ments, this objection is by no means conclusive. For
in expressing the main thought of 1 Cor. v, 7, Paul
might truly have said, "Christ was sacrificed as a
paschal lamb." This form would have emphasized his
character as a paschal lamb rather than his being our
paschal lamb. And so we believe that the absence of
the article before iXaor-rjptov gives emphasis to the
symbolical character and significance of the word. He
was not manifested or set forth as the mercy seat of
the sanctuary made with hands (comp. Heb. ix, ii),
but as a mercy seat which embodied and represented
"And so Theodoret paraphrases it: "The Lord Christ is the
true mercy seat" (to atoftivbv HaaT-tjpiov).

126 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
all that was ever typified and symbolized in the well-
known blood-sprinkled mercy seat of the tabernacle.
Furthermore, the two clauses, through faith and in his
blood, which follow and attach immediately to the
word iXaor-qpiov, are of such a definitive character as to
exclude the article before the word. God set forth
Christ not as the mercy seat of the old tabernacle, but
as a mercy seat in which the Christly redemption be
comes eternally efficient through faith in his blood.
These additional words, thus defining and enhancing
the saving significance of Christ's priestly mediation,
sufficiently account for the absence of the article.
(8) Finally, it has been objected that npoedero, set
forth, would not be a suitable word to use in reference
to the cover of the ark which was ever kept in the most
holy place and hidden from the view of the people.
But this objection is thoroughly refuted by the fact
that Christ's mediation makes known the mystery of
the ancient types and symbols. "The way unto the
holy place was indeed not made manifest while the
first tabernacle remained standing" (Heb. ix, 8) ; but
the veil no longer hides that secret place ; we may now
enter "with boldness into the holy place by the blood
of Jesus" (Heb. x, 19). The great thought in the
setting forth of Christ as a mercy seat is that God has
thus manifested the profound mystery of the most
secret and sacred symbol connected with his ancient
law and testimony. Every essential truth which is
found in the words "propitiation," "reconciliation,"
and "atonement" is included in Christ's mediation

Realized Through Faith. 127
conceived as the reality of what was symbolized by
the mercy seat, and God's setting forth his Son in this
light was the consummate revelation of his own glory,
grace, and truth.
5. This passage, furthermore, emphasizes the im
portant truth that the righteousness of God manifested
in Christ is a blessedness to be realized EeaIized through
only "through faith in his blood." The mth-
Pauline phrase "righteousness of God" (comp. Rom.
i, 17; x, 3; 1 Cor. i, 30; 2 Cor. v, 21 ; Phil, iii, 9) is
to be here understood as a righteousness which in some
sense proceeds from God, and it is well-pleasing in his
sight when it becomes the actual possession or state
of him that believes in Jesus. It is "through the re
demption that is in Christ," and "through faith in his
blood" that a man may become "freely justified" by
the grace of God. Like Abraham, one believes in God
and in Christ, and it is reckoned unto him for right
eousness (Rom. iv, 3). This doctrine of faith is
something that may be verified in human experience.
The gracious blessedness is mediated in Jesus Christ
and appropriated by personal faith on the part of the
believer. God's justice and grace are both magnified
in the sacrifice of Jesus. While the first tabernacle
stood the way into the holy of holies was hidden from
view (Heb. ix, 8), but the blood of Jesus has opened
the way into the holy places not made with hands, and
exposed to the eye of faith a mercy seat which assures
the free and complete pardon of every sinner "who
is of the faith of Jesus." In all this divine ministra-

128 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
tion God and Christ are one, and in the blood of the
cross we have an exhibition of the way of salvation
that was symbolized by the mercy seat.
6. It is to be noticed that this "righteousness of
God," while attainable "apart from law," has in the
highest possible manner honored the
Magnifies the law. , ™ , ...
law. There can be no unrighteousness
in the God who judges the world (iii, 5, 6), and
his law is essentially holy and righteous and good
(vii, 12). The symbolism of the mercy seat forever
sets Christ forth as the "end1 of the law unto right
eousness to every one that believeth" (x, 4). The
law is not dishonored, but rather enhanced, by the
gracious provision of making faith in Christ the regu
lative principle which leads the believer unto righteous
ness. "Through the law cometh the knowledge of
sin" (iii, 20; vii, 7), for in its inmost nature and
essence "the law is spiritual" (vii, 14) ; that is, it is
of the very nature of the Spirit of God. The law, in
this deepest sense, is God himself revealing his essen-

1 The word te/Io?, end, is here to be understood in its ordinary
meaning of termination, conclusion. Christ has ended the law
as a condition and means leading unto righteousness. But, as
Philippi has well said, "in a dogmatic point of view, the fact of
Christ being the end of the law is no doubt based simply upon
the fact that he is the fulfillment and aim of the law. For either
the law itself would be without sanction, or its abolition by
Christ without reason, if he had abrogated without fulfilling it.
On the other hand, the law evinces its own as well as Christ's
authority, in the fact that it proposed as its object and aim to
come to an end through fulfillment by Christ. It has come to
an end, because now, in place of the requirement of works, the
requirement of faith is established (vii, 1-6)." — Commentary on
Romans, x, 4.

Holy Mystery of God. izcj
tial holiness and righteousness to the hearts of men
(comp. i, 15). But in the symbolism of the mercy
seat the claims of this spiritual law, as represented in
the "tables of testimony" within the ark and safely
guarded there, are seen to be now covered and ended
for him that believes in Jesus; for faith in the blood
of Christ, instead of perfect obedience to the law, is
reckoned unto him for righteousness.
In this important passage in Romans we thus have
in somewhat fuller form, and by means of symbolic
illustration, the same truth that we have already
studied in the profound statement of 2 Cor. v, 19, that
"God was in Christ reconciling the world unto him
self." We are not able to derive from either passage
a particular theory of atonement. The Fact and must,.a.
sublime fact is declared; deep and tion, but no theory.
far-reaching suggestions arc put forward; but the
holy mystery of God in Christ remains. The redemp
tion in Christ is an exhibit of mysterious necessities of
the moral world, and is mediated and becomes efficient
unto salvation "through faith in his blood." Sin is
shown to be "exceeding sinful" (vii, 13), and in the
light of the holy, righteous, good, spiritual law every
mouth is stopped and all the world is seen to be under
the condemning judgment of God (iii, 19).
But according to Paul the redemption that is in
Christ is effected and carried on to completion by the
resurrection and heavenly life of Jesus
, • , , Eom- iv> 25-
as well as by his death on the cross.
He says in iv, 25, that he "was delivered up for
9

130 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
our trespasses, and was raised for our justification."
In some places it is said that God delivered him up
for us (viii, 32) and in others that Christ delivered
himself up (Gal. ii, 20; Eph. v, 2; comp. 1 Tim. ii, 6;
Titus ii, 14; Matt, xx, 28), but whichever way we
state it, his being delivered up unto death was on ac
count of human sinfulness, and his resurrection was
equally necessary for the consummation of his media
torial work. Hence the significance of what is written
in v, 8-1 1 : "God commendeth his own love toward us,
in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified in his blood,
shall we be saved from the (divine) wrath through
him. For if, while we were enemies, we were recon
ciled to God through the death of his Son, much more,
being reconciled, shall we be (continuously) saved in
Continuous recon- his life ' and n0t 0nly SO> but We also
cihation. glory in God through our Lord Jesus
Christ, through whom we have now received the
reconciliation." The complete redemption is, accord
ingly, not only a remission of sins through the media
ting death of Jesus, but a continuous and eternal sal
vation, in which the believer, being reconciled to God,
lives the new life of righteousness by faith, and realizes
that there is no enmity in his heart toward God, but a
glorious state of reconciliation. To the same effect is
that which is written in vi, 8-1 1: "If we died with
Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him;
knowing that Christ being raised from the dead
dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over

The Great Antithesis. 131
him. For the death that he died, he died unto sin once
for all : but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin,
but alive unto God in Christ Jesus." This general
trend of thought and argument is carried on to the
close of chapter viii, where the apostle asks (verse 32),
as if in a rapture of emotion: "He that spared not
his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how
shall he not also with him freely give us all things?"
Again in xiv, 9, he returns to this inspiring thought:
"Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to
this end Christ died and lived, that he might be Lord
of both the dead and the living."
In the great antithesis set forth in v, 12-21, we
should observe how the gracious mediation of Christ
is made to offset all the consequences Great antltlieals of
of Adam's transgression. "By the v-12-21-
trespass of one the many died, but much more did the
grace of God, and the gift in the grace of the one man
Jesus Christ, abound unto the many" (verse 15). In
all these contrasts we note especially the difference in
the kind of effects resulting from the acts of the two
opposite representatives of humanity. Through the
one, condemnation and death were imposed upon all
men, but through the righteous act of Christ provision
is made for the justification of all, so that "where sin
abounded, grace did more exceedingly abound, in order
that, as sin reigned in death, even so Gracesuperabound.
might grace reign through righteous- ing-
ness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

132 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
In all these scriptures we may perceive the great
thought of iv, 25, that Christ died for our sins, and
was raised and ever lives for our justification and
eternal life. And so the efficiency of Christ's redeem
ing work is perpetual. So long as sin and trespass
and death continue in Adam's posterity, so long the
Christly redeeming grace continuously avails to
counteract the evil, and is not therefore to be con
ceived as a finished work. Because of Adam's tres
pass, sin abounds and death reigns; because of
Christ's redemptive mediation, grace abounds more
exceedingly and reigns through righteousness unto
eternal life.
So far as the Ephesian and Colossian epistles refer
to the mediation of Christ they are in perfect accord
m Ephesians and with the other Pauline writings. In
Colossians. Eph {> 6> ?> we read of «the glory of
his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Be
loved, in whom we have redemption in his blood, the
forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches
of his grace." According to ii, 13-16, the Gentiles
who "once were far off are made nigh in the blood of
Christ," and both Gentile and Jew are happily "recon
ciled in one body unto God through the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby." With great confidence,
therefore, the apostle speaks of the love of Christ, who
"gave himself up in our behalf, an offering and a sac
rifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell" (v, 2).
Such an obvious allusion to Old Testament offerings
(comp. Exod. xxix, 18; Lev. i, 9, 13, 17) shows be-

Sacrifice of His Life. 133
yond question that the writer had no hesitation in
putting forward the sufferings and death of Christ as
having something in common with the expiatory sac
rifices of the Hebrew ritual. It was the offering up of
a spotless life on behalf of the lives of 0flertag rf a ^
many who were "dead through tres- lessUfe>
passes" that they might live and walk in light as be
loved children of God. Further on (v, 25) it is said
that "Christ loved the church and gave himself up on
her behalf." Thus we observe that Christ's giving
himself up as a sacrifice for the benefit of others is a
very familiar Pauline thought (comp. Gal. i, 4; ii, 20;
Rom. iv, 25). It is prominent in the great kenotic
text (Phil, ii, 5-8) which emphasizes his humbling
himself and becoming obedient even unto the death of
the cross. It is equally explicit in the Epistle to the
Colossians, where we are told that it was the Father's
good pleasure "through him to reconcile all things
unto himself, having made peace through the blood
of his cross" (i, 20). In him, the Son of the Father's
love, "we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our
sins" (i, 14). So far as Jew and Gentile were guilty
of trespasses' and felt the condemning power of the
law upon their conscience, the death and resurrection
of Christ effected complete deliverance. They are
conceived as "buried with him in baptism," and
"raised with him through faith in the working of God,
who raised him from the dead, having forgiven us all
our trespasses; having blotted out the bond written
in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary

134 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
to us : and he hath taken it out of the way, nailing it
to the cross" (ii, 12-14). The condemning statute
of the law hung like a bonded debt over us ; but the
Lord Jesus took it as he did the burden of all our
sins, carried it in his own body upon the cross and
nailed it there (comp. 1 Pet. ii, 24). Our faith lays
hold with adoring wonder on this vicarious sufferer,
so that we become crucified with him, but with him
also live again.
The Pastoral Epistles have but few direct references
to the doctrine of redemption in Christ, but these con
firm the Pauline teaching. In 1 Tim.
InPastoralEpistles. . . . . . .
1, 15, we are admonished how faithful
is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus
Christ came into the world to save sinners." In ii, 5, 6,
we have the very comprehensive declaration, "There
is one God, one mediator also between God and men,
himself man,1 Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom
1 Effective mediation between two parties, disparate as God and
man, would seem to require the intervention of one who was at
once partaker of the nature and secrets of both parties. And this
was the peculiar qualification of Christ Jesus, who came into the
world as the representative of "the King of the ages, the incor
ruptible, invisible, only God" (i, 17), and "came to save sinners"
(i, 15). To accomplish this redemptive mediation, he must needs
be "manifest in the flesh" (iii, 16) in order to reveal the invisible
God to men in the flesh, and to give himself a ransom for all.
Hence the emphasis here put upon the humanity of the mediator.
"The human nature of Christ," says Ellicott, "is specially men
tioned as being the state in which his mediatorial office was
visibly performed. The omission of the article (before man, in
ii, 5) must be preserved in translation. In a different context
Christ might clearly have been designated as the man, 'the repre
sentative man of humanity ;' here, however, as the apostle only
wishes to mark the nature in which Christ acted as mediator, but
not any relation in which he stood to that nature, he designedly
omits th? article."^=-Commentary, in loco.

Salvation for All. 135
for all" {dvriXvrpov v-rxbp ndvruv). The word here
translated ransom occurs nowhere else in the New
Testament, but seems to be intended for a more em
phatic form of Xvrpov, which is employed in Matt.
xx, 28, and Mark x, 45. The meaning is substantially
the same in all these texts. The Redeemer is a
vicarious sufferer; he freely lays
.,.,., . ' Ransom for aU.
down his life in the place of and on
behalf of many. The same truth is also affirmed in
Titus ii, 14: "Christ gave himself for us, that he
might redeem us {Xyrpu>o-r\rai rftidg) from all iniquity,
and purify unto himself a people for his own pos
session, zealous of good works." Thus we are as
sured that the grace of God brings salvation within
reach of all men who deny themselves all ungodli
ness and live righteously (verses 11 and 12). God
and Christ work together in accomplishing this
glorious salvation.

136 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER X.
DOCTRINE OF THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.
Of all the New Testament writings the Epistle to
the Hebrews furnishes the most elaborate discussion
of the mediatorial ministry of Christ. In that part of
the epistle which we may regard as peculiarly doctrinal
(i-x, 18) the Lord Jesus is set forth in several different
outline of the Epis- relations, and an outline of the au-
tle' thor's argument is in substance as
follows : After an introductory paragraph (i, 1-4) in
which the Son of God is extolled as heir of all things,
maker of the ages, effulgence of God's glory, and very
image of his being, upholding all things, effecting puri
fication of sins, and enthroned with the Most High, he
proceeds to show (1) that as Son of God he is far
above the angels (i, 5-ii, 18) ; (2) that he is worthy
of more glory than Moses and Joshua (iii, i-iv, 13) ;
(3) that he is a great high priest, superior to Aaron
and like Melchizedek (iv, 14-vii, 28) ; and (4) that
he is minister of a more perfect tabernacle and media
tor of a better covenant (viii, i-x, 18). It will be seen
upon the very face of this outline how largely the.
Large use of old w"ter draws upon the Old Testament
Testament. for imagery an(j illustration to enforce
his argument. He seems never to forget tliat he is
writing to Hebrews, Though Jesus is made for a

Author of Salvation. 137
little time lower than the angels, it is "that by the grace
of God he should taste death for every one," and,
"having made purification of sins," and "because of
the suffering of death," should be "crowned with glory
and honor." It was eminently fitting (e7rpeTrev) that
God, "for whom are all things, and through whom are
all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, should
make the author of their salvation perfect through suf
ferings" (ii, 9, 10). ~ This princely leader partook of
the flesh and blood of the seed of Abraham that he
might be truly identified in nature with the children
he would save, and "that through death he might bring
to naught him that had the power of death, that is,
the devil, and might deliver all them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bond
age" (ii, 14, 15). He is not laying hold upon angels
for the purpose of helping such beings as they are,
but upon men of flesh and blood, beset with manifold
temptations. It was, accordingly, a matter of obliga
tion and necessity {ucpeiXev, verse 17) that he should
"in all things be made like unto his brethren, that he
might become a merciful and faithful high priest in
things pertaining to God, to make propitiation {iXdo-
Keodai) for the sins of the people." Here for the first
time in this epistle Jesus is called "high priest," and it
deserves note that the word propitiate, profoundly sug
gestive in its metaphorical allusion to the mercy seat

1 We have no English word that fully represents all that is
suggested by apxvydc, here and in xii, 2, rendered author. It fairly
mean§ or? wJiq both begins and leads on in some great enterprise.

138 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
{iXaorrjpiov, comp. ix, 5 ; Rom. iii, 25), is employed to
designate his priestly work. It is also worthy of note
that Jesus is called priest and high priest only in this
Epistle to the Hebrews, and here the title of high priest
is ascribed to him at least ten times.
Having introduced him (in ii, 17) as "a merciful
and faithful high priest," and having further called
him in iii, 1, "the apostle and high priest of our con
fession," he goes on to speak in chapters iii and iv of
superior priesthood Christ's superiority to Moses and
of Jesus. Joshua, and at iv, 14, returns to this
subject of the high-priesthood of "Jesus the Son of
God, who has passed through the heavens," and de
votes the rest of the epistle mainly to a presentation of
his heavenly ministry. Of this superior priest we are
told that he is touched with the feeling of our infirmi
ties, tempted in all points as we are, without sin, called
and appointed of God, a man who prayed with strong
cries and tears, who learned obedience by the things
which he suffered, and, having been perfected through
suffering, became to all who obey him the author of
eternal salvation (iv, 15-v, 9). Psa. ex, 4, is cited and
repeated several times (v, 6, 10; vi, 20; vii, 17), and
the whole of chapter vii is given to show that Christ
is divinely styled "a priest forever after the order of
Melchizedek." The superior order or
Like Melchizedek. manner of Melchizedek is enhanced in
chapter vii by a number of considerations, all well
adapted to impress a devout Hebrew of the first Chris
tian century. (1) First, it is pointed out that the

Priest Like Melchizedek. 139
ancient king of Salem, described only in Gen.
xiv, 18-20, was both king and priest, and, being with
out recorded genealogy, and without record of his
birth or his death, he remains a priest continually
(verses 1-3). (2) His superiority to Abraham and to
the sons of Levi is next argued by means of a peculiar
rabbinical argument (verses 4-10). (3) Further, if
the Levitical priesthood had been perfect, there could
have been no reason for another priesthood after the
order of Melchizedek rather than of Aaron (verses
11-19). (4) Christ's priesthood, moreover, is con
firmed by Jehovah's oath, giving it a majesty unknown
to the Levitical priests (verses 20-22). (5) It is also
an unchangeable priesthood, for, ever living to make
intercession, Christ can have no successor (verses
23-25). (6) Finally, he is sinless, made higher than
the heavens, and by the word of the oath perfected
forever (verses 26-28).
But the deeper mysteries of his priestly work are
to be seen in the symbolism of the tabernacle and the
mediatorial ministry of the new cov- SymDOlism o£ the
enant in Christ. The Son of God is tabema<!le-
declared to be the minister of a more perfect tabernacle
and the mediator of a better covenant, enacted upon
better promises (viii, 1-6), and Jer. xxxi, 31-34, is
cited as the word of the Lord in proof of this declara
tion. The old sanctuary and its holy places and vessels
and ordinances of divine service were only "a copy
and shadow of the heavenly things" (viii, 5 ; ix, 9, 23 ;
x, 1), and were destined in the nature of things to

140 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
grow old and vanish away (viii, 13), giving place to
that which is essentially better and more spiritual. As
every priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices
(viii, 3), so Christ entered once for all into the holy
of holies in the heavens (ix, 12, 24), as if sprinkling
the heavenly mercy seat with his own blood. He has
thus "been once offered to bear the sins of many"
(ix, 28) ; "once at the end of the ages manifested to
put away sin by his sacrifice" (ix, 26). This repeated
mention of the offering of Christ through his atoning
blood "once for all" (comp. vii, 27;
Offered once for all. . . '
ix, 12, 26, 28; x, 10; 1 Pet. 111, 18)
has obvious allusion to the well-known law of the
Jewish high priest going into the holy of holies "once
in the year" (ix, 7; Lev. xvi, 34), and sprinkling the
mercy seat with "blood of goats and calves and bulls"
(ix, 12, 13; x, 4; comp. Lev. xvi, 14, 15). The en
trance of Christ "into heaven itself now to appear be
fore the face of God for us" (ix, 24) has made that
presence-chamber a "throne of grace," into which we
too may boldly enter by the new and living way which
he has dedicated for us in his blood (iv, 16; x, 19-21).
Thus has he "obtained eternal redemption" (ix, 12;
comp. Rom. iii, 24) ; "for if the blood of goats and
bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling them that
have been defiled, sanctify unto the cleanness of the
flesh : how much more shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without
blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God?" (ix, 13, 14.) AU this

Hebrews ix, 15-18. 14I
language with its multiplicity of metaphorical allusion
to the places and ordinances of the Levitical sanctuary,
and especially to the divine service of the day of atone
ment, accords strikingly with our exposition of Rom.
iii, 24, 25, and goes far to confirm it. Our high priest
and minister of the true tabernacle "sat down on the
right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens"
(viii, 1, 2) ; his throne is God's throne (i, 8) ; he is
conceived as sprinkling that throne with his own blood,
and abiding there forever as a heavenly mercy seat,
"manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself." This manifoldness of metaphorical allusions all cen
tering in the thought of a heavenly high priest, who
enters the holy place offering his own blood and abid
ing thus continually, is also in accord with that inter
pretation of the difficult passage in ix, 15-18, which
recognizes in "the mediator of the
„ , . , . Heb. ix, 15-18.
new covenant one who in his own
person and work is at once maker, mediator, and sac
rificial offering.1 This fact does not seem to be duly
1 It will be well for the reader to notice the following transla
tions of Heb. ix, 16, 17. The Authorized Version reads: "For
where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death
of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead :
otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth."
The Anglo-American Revision has : "For where a testament is,
there must of necessity be the death of him that made it. For
a testament is of force where there hath been death (margin, over
the dead) : for doth it ever avail while he that made it liveth ?"
The American Standard Edition makes the last sentence affirma
tive instead of interrogative : "For it doth never avail while he
that made it liveth." Macknight on the Apostolical Epistles
translates: "For where a covenant, there is a necessity that the

142 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
appreciated by those interpreters who insist that the
word dia&rjic-r) must in verses 16 and 17 mean a testa
ment, a will, or deed of bequest. Outside of these two
verses the word is used fifteen times in this epistle,
always in the sense of covenant. Such is its meaning
also in every other passage of the New Testament
where it occurs, as also in the Septuagint, where it
nearly always appears as the representative of the
Hebrew ^"Q, It would seem, therefore, like a harsh
and violent procedure in biblical exegesis to import a
new meaning of the word in these two verses, and such
procedure should be justified only by most decisive
reasons. The following reasons for such a sudden change of
meaning have been offered: (1) The language of
Reasons for testa- verses l6 and l7 is exceedingly harsh
ment and unmeaning on retaining the idea
of a covenant; for (2) dia-df^evog in both these verses
can only mean a maker of a will or testament, and not
of a sacrificial offering; (3) it is not true that the
death of a covenant maker is necessary to make a
death of the appointed sacrifices be brought in. For a covenant
is firm over dead sacrifices, seeing it never hath force whilst the
appointed sacrifice liveth." In a similar way "J. C," in Adam
Clarke's Commentary : "For where there is a covenant, it is
necessary that the death of the appointed victim should be ex
hibited ; because a covenant is confirmed over dead victims, since
it is not at all valid while the appointed victim is alive." He
further observes : "Atadl/iEvoc/ is not a substantive, but a participle,
or a participial adjective, derived from the same root as dia-dquri
and must have a substantive understood. I therefore render it
the disposed or appointed victim, alluding to the manner of dis
posing or setting apart the pieces of the victim, when they were
going to ratify a covenant."

Testament or Covenant. 143
covenant valid; (4) the mention of "the eternal in
heritance" in verse 15 suggests the idea of a will or
testamentary document, and so justifies the change in
meaning from covenant to testament. (5) Moreover,
the statements of verses 16 and 17 are of the nature of
a general well-known custom, and therefore most
naturally explained as referring to the fact that the
death of a testator is necessary to place his will and
deed of bequest beyond question.
These reasons, however, are not satisfactory or con
clusive,1 and whatever relief they may seem to afford
in explaining some of the statements of verses 16 and
17, they leave other statements without a clear inter
pretation. Difficulties present themselves on any expo
sition, and our search should be for that view of the
passage which best satisfies all the demands of the
writer's argument. Over against the reasons given
for translating 6ia^rJK7j testament we may say (1) that
the word appears to have that meaning nowhere else
in biblical Greek; (2) that the context is very much
against it: SiafrfiK-q is the main word in the passage,
and the "new covenant" and "first Eeasons for cove.
covenant" mentioned in verse 15 can- nant"
not be properly rendered testament, but unquestion
ably refer back to vii, 22; viii, 6-10; and the same
thought of covenant is continued in verse 18, where
the first covenant is again referred to as having been
1 It should be observed that every one of them is either a bare
assertion or virtually a begging of the question at issue. The
third and fifth of the assertions may be as truly affirmed of the
view which insists on the sense of covenant.

144 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
dedicated with blood.1 (3) There is nothing, more
over, in the entire context to suggest the idea of a tes
tamentary document, not even in the mention of "the
eternal inheritance;" for that is conceived as a matter
of God's promise {k-nayyeXia)) not as an estate be
queathed through forms of legal attestation. But
covenants and promises are correlative ideas." (4) A
mediator of a covenant and a testator of a deed of
bequest are not correlative ideas; so that to use the
word in such a different meaning would be to intro
duce without justification an idea foreign to the
Hebrew mind and unlikely to be employed in address
ing Hebrews. (5) It may also be urged that the death
of a testator is not necessary to make his will valid in
law; no more so, at any rate, than the death of a
covenant-maker is necessary to confirm a covenant. If
it be strange and harsh to say that "where a covenant
is, there must be of necessity the death of him that
made it" (verse 16), is it not equally strange and very
questionable as a matter of fact to say that a testament
or will is valid only after the death of him that made
it? In the case of the author, mediator, and finisher
1 "The connection makes it most difficult to suppose that the
key-word (dia-^fjuti) is used in different senses in the course of the
verses, and especially that the characteristic of a particular kind
of 6twltf/Kr!, essentially different from the first covenant of verses
15, 18, should be brought forward in verse 16. For it is impos
sible to maintain that the sacrifices with which the old covenant
was inaugurated could be explained on the supposition that it
was a testament. Nor does it appear that it could be called a
testament in any sense." — Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews,
p. 300. London, 1889.
- Compare the phrase "the covenants of the promise" in Eph. ii,
12, and compare Rom. ix, 4.

Testament or Covenant. 145
of our redemption from sin, such a statement about a
testamentary deed has no relevancy, nor does it tend
to illustrate any feature of the continuous mediatorial
work of Christ. Any supposable word, testament, or
declaration of the Christ must needs be as valid and
sure before his death as after. (6) But the conspicuous
fact of this new covenant is that the great mediator of
it gave his own blood for the eternal redemption of
those who have been called {oi KeKXrjuevot), and the
writer of this epistle makes this point most emphatic
throughout the entire argument, and farther on he
speaks of it as "the blood of the covenant," and "the
blood of an eternal covenant" (x, 29; xiii, 20).
(7) With this important fact in mind we should also
observe that the death, which according to verse 15
"took place for the redemption of the transgressions
that were under the first covenant," was the death of
the mediator, Christ himself. (8) Accordingly, as
stated above, the remarkable and unique feature of
this new covenant is that its maker, mediator, and sac
rificial victim, by whose blood the promise of the
eternal inheritance is made forever fast and sure
{Pe/3aia), are all one. This fact explains the boldness
and apparent harshness of the language of verses 16
and 17, and it is in keeping with that style of thought
which also conceives Christ as a throne of grace
(iv, 16) and a mercy seat (Rom. iii, 25). (9) This
interpretation, moreover, accords best with the words
cbepeo-Sat and km veKpoig in verses 16 and 17. If one
would speak of proving, attesting, or announcing a
10

146 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
person's death, he could not appropriately use the word
ebepeodai, which might, indeed, refer to the bringing
forzvard of a legal document for probate, but not to
prove the testator's death. But the one manifestation
of the Christ at the end of the ages for the putting
away of sin by the sacrifice of himself (ix, 26) is fit
tingly designated by epepeo-dai, which points to the
bringing of his death forward into prominence,1 and is
equivalent to the open setting forth of Jesus Christ
crucified, as in Gal. iii, 1, and the setting him forth as
a mercy seat through faith in his blood, as in Rom.
iii, 25. In this case the death of Christ, referred to in
verse 15, is conceived as brought forward and set in
strong light as the seal of the new covenant. The
words em veKpoig, in verse 17, have peculiar force and
significance in connection with the foregoing exposi
tion, but are unsuitable for expressing the idea of the
death of a testator. The phrase is seen in its true
significance in connection with ratifying a covenant in
Psa. 1, 5, where km -dvoiaig is employed by the Septua
gint translators for the Hebrew nat "^S) over sacrifice:
"Assemble unto me my pious ones,
Those that ratify my covenant over sacrifice."1
1 "It is not said that he who makes the covenant must die, but
that his death must be brought forward, presented, introduced
upon the scene, set in evidence, so to speak. This sense of
Qepeodat appears to be perfectly natural, and to be more simple
than the sense commonly attributed to the word, either to be
alleged as a fact, or to be pleaded in the course of an argument,
or to be current as a matter of common notoriety." — Westcott,
The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 265.
2 The best illustration of the formalities of making or cutting
a covenant (see the Hebrew Lexicons on the phrase rP^O fTD)

Covenant over Dead Victims. 147
To make or ratify a covenant it was necessary that
a sacrificial victim or several victims be slain, and in
the specific reference to the dedication Covenants made
of the first covenant which immediate- over dead victims.
ly follows in verses 18-22 Moses is mentioned as taking
the blood of calves and goats and sprinkling it as the
sign and seal of the covenant which God com
manded (citing from Exod. xxiv, 8). Accordingly,
the only suitable explanation of a covenant k-rri veKpoig
(iejiaia would seem to be one made strong over dead
victims slain for the purpose of ratifying the covenant.
The death which "took place for the redemption of the
transgressions" (verse 15), and also for providing
"the blood of an everlasting covenant" (xiii, 20), is
the death of Jesus Christ the mediator of the new cov
enant. This death, which marked a crisis of the ages,
is brought forward into prominence, and is to furnish
the solution of the apparent incongruity of making
the mediator and sacrificial victim of the covenant one
and the same. As high priest Jesus entered the holy
places "through his own blood" (verse 12) ; as media
tor and author and finisher of the new covenant he

over sacrifice is read in Gen. xv, 8-i8, where Abram divides the
dead victims, and places the parts over against each other, and
the flaming torch is seen to pass between the pieces. The same
custom of cutting and dividing the victims, and of passing be
tween the portions is referred to in Jer. xxxiv, 18, 19. It will
be noticed that the phrase iirl veKpoic, over dead ones, in Heb.
ix, 17 (A. V., "after men are dead;" R. V., "where there hath
been death") when used in reference to the ratification of a
covenant, is virtually equivalent to int dvaiaic, over sacrificial
victims, in Psa. 1, 5. Compare also the phrases irri Bpufiaaiv,
rrd/iaoiv, and Ba-rrTia/iolc, in Heb. ix, 10.

148 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
secures by his own death "the promise of the eternal
inheritance" to all who have been called (verse 15) ;
and so we are assured that the new covenant as truly
as the first covenant has been consecrated with blood
(verse 18), and it is as true under the one as under
the other that "apart from the shedding of blood there
is no remission" (verse 22). This significant sym
bolism of sacrifice and blood is prominent throughout
the entire context (verses 13-22), and is not for a
moment to be lost from view, or interrupted by a sup
posed irrelevant reference to the making and attesting
of legal deeds of bequest.
With such an understanding of the main thoughts
in this passage, it makes no essential difference whether
we translate the last part of verse 17 affirmatively or
interrogatively. The entire verse may be rendered
thus: "For a covenant over dead (sacrificial victims)
is firm, since it never has any force while the maker
of it lives." That is, a covenant is confirmed on the
basis and with the accompaniment of sacrifice, so that
in reality it is without force or validity unless the cov
enant maker signify the surrender of his own life by
the blood of the slain victims which he offers in the
course of the solemn transaction.1
1 Westcott has written so ably on this passage that we here
add one more citation : "In ordinary covenants the death of the
persons who made the covenant was represented of necessity in
symbol only, and both parties were alike liable to change. . . .
Here fresh considerations offer themselves which underlie the
argument of the passage. The covenant to which the writer looks
is not one between man and man, who meet as equal parties, but
between man and God. The death of the covenant victim, there
fore, assumes a new character. It figures not only the un-

Not a Covenant between Equals. 149
In studying these illustrations which rest upon the
customs and the symbolism of covenants, we must not
overlook the fact that any covenant between God and
man cannot be a covenant between ™,.This not a covenant
equals. Such a covenant is, however, between equals.
a most striking assurance of the gracious condescen
sion of the Most High, and Jesus, as the mediator of
the new covenant, represents in his redemptive work
the interests of both God and man. These considera
tions serve to show also how, in the mind of the writer,
covenant maker, mediator, and sacrificial offering all
unite in the Son of God who is so remarkably described
in the opening words of this epistle. This adorable
mediator is heir of all things, maker of the ages, efful
gence of the glory of God, upholder of all things, and
purifier from all sin. Only such a transcendent Son
of God can be at once maker, mediator, and sacrificial
victim of an eternal covenant.
The foregoing study of Christ's priesthood and
mediation as set forth in the Epistle to the Hebrews
has doubtless put beyond question our statement that
no other book of the New Testament furnishes so
elaborate a discussion of this subject. Uniqueness of ffie
The entire treatment is unique, and e-)istle-
the learned critic and exegete cannot fail to note the
Alexandrine cast of thought and the extensive and
peculiar use of the Old Testament writings. These
changeableness of death, but also the self-surrender of death.
. . . Christ was himself the covenant victim. In this aspect he
attested the inviolable force of the covenant which he estab
lished." — The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 302.

150 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
are recognized as a sacred deposit of heavenly truth;
but the Septuagint version, not the Hebrew text, is
uniformly quoted, and passages where this version
differs notably from the Hebrew are made the basis of
special argument and illustration.1 The tabernacle
and its holy places are looked upon as figures of
heavenly realities opened to us through the mediation
of Jesus Christ, and Melchizedek is extolled as a
type of our high priest who is now seated at the right
hand of the throne of God. But with all these and
other peculiarities, which scientific exegesis must duly
note, the teaching of this epistle on the subject of
Christ's mediation is in fundamental harmony with the
other books of the New Testament. The writer treats
the death, exaltation, and everlasting intercession of
our Lord much after the manner of Paul. Neither of
these writers seems to know much of Jesus Christ in
the days of his flesh, but they both magnify his heaven
ly exaltation. Paul emphasizes the idea of righteous
ness, and the writer to the Hebrews that of holiness;
but so closely do they agree in the main that the Epistle
to the Hebrews was long believed to be the work of
1 Most notably so in x, 5, a citation of Psa. xl, 6, reads, "a
body didst thou prepare for me," according to the Septuagint;
but the Hebrew text of this passage reads, "ears thou hast dug
for me," the word dug most naturally referring to the hollow
cavity of the ear. However the error of the Greek version arose,
the author of the epistle makes the word "body" significant by
regarding it as the organ of Christ's incarnation and the means
of doing the will of God. This is seen further in verse 10, where
"the body of Jesus Christ" has obvious reference to this citation
from the psalm. God "takes away the first," that is, sacrifices
and offerings, "that he may establish the second," that is, the
will of God.

Agreement of New Testament Writers. 151
Paul, and this opinion has not been without some ad
vocates in quite recent times.1 On the offering of the
body and blood of Christ the teaching of the epistle is
also remarkably like that of the First Epistle of Peter.
We find, then, that on the sacrifice and mediation of
Christ all the New Testament writers are in substantial
agreement. After showing due re-
., . . . Substantial agree-
spect to the various classes of writ- ment of all the New
. . ...... Testament writers.
ings, and to their obvious individual
peculiarities of thought and diction, we are compelled
to acknowledge that according to all the Scriptures of
the New Testament there is no salvation apart from
Jesus Christ crucified, "nor is there any other name
under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we
must be saved." Peter and John and Paul and the
author of Hebrews have their own ways of setting
forth this truth, but none of them gets away from the
doctrine which we trace in the words of Jesus at the
last supper and at all those other times when he spoke
of giving his life a ransom for many, or of laying it
down in behalf of others.
1 It is noteworthy that the English revisers of the New Testa
ment so late as 1881 deemed it best to leave unchanged the title
of "The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews."

152 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER XI.
CHRIST'S MEDIATION EFFICIENT THROUGH THE
SPIRIT.
The biblical doctrine of Christ's mediation cannot
be fully presented without due recognition of the Holy
Spirit working out the consummation of the purposed
redemption. According to John's Gospel the departure
Departure of Christ of JesUS fr0m the world was exPe'
expedient. dient, and indeed necessary, for the
highest good of the disciples and of those who should
believe on Jesus through their word. "It is expedient
for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the
Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I go, I will
send him unto you" (John xvi, 7). The visible pres
ence of Jesus Christ in the flesh was not compatible
with the building of a universal Church of God and
a household of faith possessed of the most exalted
communion of saints. It was accordingly for the
advantage of the disciples of Jesus, and for the con
summation of the purposes of divine Love, that Jesus
disappear from the gaze of the world. The spiritual
and eternal things of God are not seen by mortal eyes
(comp. 2 Cor. iv, 18), and the saving efficacy of the
life and death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus has
its perfect work through the mission and the ministries
of the Holy Spirit.

The Comforter. 153
It is only in the writings of John that the Holy
Spirit is called the Comforter (6 -napdKX-qrog) (Gospel,
xiv, 16, 26; xv, 26; xvi, 7; First
t- • . , . . .. _, . , _ , , The Comforter.
Epistle, 11, 1). This word Paraclete
may also be translated Helper, Advocate, Pleader,
Intercessor, for all these ideas attach to the term as it
is used ; and one may well compare what Jesus says of
the efficient advocacy and help of the Holy Spirit in
the disciples when they are delivered up to the courts
(Matt, x, 2; Mark xiii, 11). In 1 John ii, 1, "Jesus
Christ the righteous" is himself called an "Advocate
with the Father; that is, one who acts as intercessor
and mediating high priest for us (comp. Heb. vii, 25 ;
ix, 24; Rom. viii, 34). Being such an Advocate, he
must needs also be our Helper and Comforter, and
hence his own words in John xiv, 16-20, where our
Lord implies that he is himself the Comforter, but will
come to his disciples in the abiding presence of the
Spirit of truth: "I will pray the Father, and he shall
give you another Comforter (such as I am now), that
he may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of
truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it be-
holdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him;
for he abideth with you and shall be in you. I will not
leave you desolate (like orphans) : I will come unto
you. Yet a little while and the world beholdeth me no
more; but ye behold me: because I live, ye shall live
also. In that day ye shall know that I am in my
Father, and ye in me, and I in you."
It is to be observed that this heavenly Comforter is

154 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
sent or given by the Father at the prayer and in the
name of Jesus (xiv, 16, 26) ; he "proceedeth from
Procession and per- (l«™peverai, goeth forth from) the
sonaiityofthespirit. Father» txv> 35), and bears witness
of Christ. He is to take the place of Jesus with the
disciples, and so Jesus himself declares, "I will send
him unto you from the Father." We need not wonder,
then, that in 2 Cor. iii, 17, 18, the Lord Christ is him
self called the Spirit, and in other epistles "the Spirit
of God" and "the Spirit of Christ" are interchangeable
terms. So in the mystic and mysterious relations of
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit we are to recognize an
adorable Unity. The Son is the only begotten of the
Father; the Spirit proceedeth from the Father; the
Son and the Spirit are alike sent by the Father, and the
Spirit is sent both by the Father and the Son. These
truths become still more impressive when we compare
the trinitarian formula in 2 Cor. xiii, 14: "The grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Spirit." The same distinction
appears in the baptismal formula of Matt, xxviii, 19:
"The name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit." A like distinction is seen in the saluta
tion of Rev. i, 4, 5 : "Grace and peace ( 1 ) from him
who is and who was and who is to come, and (2) from
the seven Spirits before his throne, and (3) from
Jesus Christ." In the foregoing examples we note
that Jesus Christ, or the Son, holds the first place in
the first text, the second place in the second text, and
the third place in Rev. i, 5. We also find that each of

The Spirit of God. 155
these hallowed names is again and again mentioned
in the New Testament as the source and means of
divine help, and yet at times the Father is spoken of
as distinctively the source from whom {ki; ov), and
the Son as the one through whom {did ov), and the
Holy Spirit as the one in whom {kv «3), or by whose
efficient agency, all things are.1
The Scriptures furnish us no definition of the word
spirit. The Hebrew Oil and the Greek trvevfia have
the same meaning, usage, and conno-
, x . . 7 , . , , The Spirit of God.
tation as the Latin spiritus, which has
become familiarly Anglicized, and is employed in the
same variety of signification, namely, breath, wind,
courage, disposition, temper, vital principle which ani
mates all sentient life. In its highest sense it desig
nates that rational element in man to which we at
tribute feeling, thinking, and volition, and the word
may be applied to God in the same general way. "The
spirit of a man," however, is a phrase that commonly
distinguishes his higher rational nature from his bodily
form, while the phrase "Spirit of God" points rather
to the essential quality of his nature. "God is Spirit"
(John iv, 24). Spirit constitutes, so to speak, the
characteristic element and totality of his nature. But
in the Eternal Spirit we assume the same trinal con-

1 See 1 Cor. viii, 6; xi, 12; xii, 3; Rom. vi, 23; xv, 16;
xvi, 27 ; 1 Thess. i, 5. "In every work," says Kuyper, "effected
by Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in common, the power to bring
forth proceeds from the Father; the power to arrange, from the
Son ; the power to perfect, from the Holy Spirit." — The Work of
the Holy Spirit, p. 19. New York, 1900.

156 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
stituents of personality as in the spirit of man — will,
feeling, and intelligence. Man exists in the image
and glory of God (Gen. i, 26; 1 Cor. xi, 7), and in
Christ "dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily" (Col. ii, 9). These two important truths may
enable us to see more clearly how "God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself." Conceived as the
Logos or Word of God, Christ is the wisdom of God,
the thought, reason, intelligence of the divine Per
sonality, and in his incarnation he reveals at once the
glory of heavenly wisdom, love, and power. But as
all the fullness of Deity found bodily expression
through him, and yet he was distinctively the Word,
so in the Father dwelleth all the fullness of the God
head potentially and actively, and all things are accord
ingly from him; while in the Holy Spirit dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead efficiently. And so all the
fullness of God becomes operative and personally pres
ent in the world and in the spirit of man by the power
of the Holy Spirit. Thus the Lord Christ and the
Father dwell personally and lovingly in him who loves
Christ and keeps his word : "My Father will love him,
and we will come unto him, and make our abode with
him" (John xiv, 23).
Whatever mysterious distinctions exist in the per
sonal nature of the Godhead, we must according to
John's Gospel recognize the Holy Spirit, the Comforter,
The spirit one with as essentially one with God. If in the
God" deepest sense God is spirit, the Spirit
of God and God himself are one. We are, therefore,

Personality of the Spirit. 157
not to think of this eternal Spirit as merely an in
fluence, an energy, or some impersonal emanation
flowing out from God, but as the personal God him
self, the creative, sustaining, ever-present Spirit. The
Spirit of God is described in Gen. i, 2, as "brooding
over the face of the waters," and acting as the all-
powerful Generatrix of swarms of living things which
come forth from the waters by the Word of God
(comp. verse 20). The Hebrew poets conceive the
heavens as made and garnished by the Spirit as truly
as by the Word of God (Psa. xxxiii, 6; civ, 30; Job
xxvi, 13; xxxiii, 4). In the parallelism of Psa.
cxxxix, 7, the Spirit of Jehovah and his presence are
conceived as ubiquitous :
"Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?"
The prophets also represent or assume that the Spirit
of Jehovah is the same as Jehovah himself (comp. Isa.
xl, 13; xlviii, 16; Ixi, 1; lxiii, 10; Ezek. xi, 5; Zech.
iv, 6; vii, 12).
It is also worthy of notice that in John's Gospel, the
personality of the Spirit, the Comforter, is made
peculiarly emphatic by means of the masculine form
of the pronoun. Not only have we the masculine
6 irapaKXr/Tog, the Comforter, but the demonstrative
kneivog is repeatedly employed in referring to the
Spirit. The Greek word nvevfia is a neuter noun, and
any pronoun coming in immediate connection should
grammatically take the neuter form. Hence such ex-

158 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
amples as the following are noteworthy: "The Com
forter, the Holy Spirit, ... he (e/ceZvoc) shall teach
you all things" (John xiv, 26). The same construction
appears again in xv, 26, and xvi, 13, 14. In the last-
named passage the use of kKeivog is the more striking,
since it is used in immediate appositive connection with
ro nvevfia rrjg dX-rfdeiag, the Spirit of truth. Such a
remarkable use of the personal pronoun is not fairly
explained by way of personification, for the personal
acts of God himself are conspicuously set forth.1
From what we have now observed touching the
nature and operation of the Holy Spirit, three things
Three fundamental may be affirmed: (1) God is essential-
truths. ly Spiritj and the Spirit of God is n0
other than the Holy One himself; but what is written
about the Spirit "proceeding from the Father," and
the sending of the Spirit by the Father and the Sou,
the pouring out of the Spirit, as on the day of Pente
cost, and other like expressions concerning the power
and gifts of the Spirit, lead us to think of the Holy
Spirit as in some specific sense a manifestation of the
active sympathy of God with man, and of his personal
cooperation with those children of God who delight to

1 "The Spirit here spoken of is a personal existence. Personal
epithets are applied to him, and the actions ascribed to him are
personal actions. He is to be the substitute of the most marked
and influential Personality with whom the disciples had ever
been brought into contact. He is to supply his vacated place.
He is to be to the disciples as friendly and stanch an ally and
a more constantly present and efficient teacher than Christ him
self." — Marcus Dods, in Expositor's Bible, Gospel of John, in
loco.

Promise of the Father. 159
do his will. In order that the clivers operations of the
Spirit might accomplish their perfect work, it (2) was
necessary for Jesus to appear among men, proclaim
the coming of the kingdom of God, and give his life a
ransom for man. It was expedient and necessary that
he should go away from the gaze of men, and with his
Father send the Comforter in his place to be the effi
cient executive of the Godhead in the salvation of men
and the regeneration of the world. (3) The. signal
event of the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost was
a specific fulfillment of Jesus's promise of the Com
forter, and it is called, in Acts i, 4, "the promise of the
Father." That event indicated the near approach of a
new age, "the age to come," of which the prophets and
the Christ had spoken, a dispensation of the Spirit.
From that time onward men were to learn that the
heavenly excellence, and the "eternal life, which was
with the Father and was manifested" in Christ, must
be realized through faith in the unseen, and not by
fleshly sight. All these facts and truths have vital
connection with the redeeming ministry of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and cannot be separated from a full
biblical conception of his priestly mediation.1
In the light of these truths we see that the saving
mediation of Jesus Christ is now no finished work, but
1 "The Spirit of the Incarnate," says R. C. Moberly, "is the
Spirit of God. But it is not so much the Spirit of God, regarded
in his eternal existence, or relation, in the being of Deity ; it is
the Spirit of God in humanity, the Spirit of God become the
Spirit of man in the person of the Incarnate — it is this which is
the distinctive significance and life of the Church of Christ." —
Atonement and Personality, p. 193. New York, 1901.

160 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
a process of salvation going on in the manifold opera-
Mediation conse- tions of the Comforter, the Spirit of
quently continuous. truth_ To use the figure of Heb. vii, 25,
and ix, 24, Christ has entered into the heavenly holy
of holies, and now appears before the face of God for
us, ever living to make intercession for the many sons
whom he brings into glory. It accords beautifully
with these conceptions of Christly mediation that we
find in the beginning of John's Apocalypse (i, 4) an
invocation of grace and peace "from the seven Spirits
"The seven Spirits which are before *e throne." We
before the throne." nQte the mention of these «seven
Spirits" between the threefold designation of the
Eternal, who is and was and is to come, and Jesus
Christ who "loosed us from our sins in his blood." It
appears farther on that "the Living One," who was
dead but is alive for the ages of ages and holds the
keys of death, also holds in his right hand "the seven
stars which are the angels of the seven churches." He
is furthermore said to hold or "have the seven Spirits
of God" (iii, 1). The apocalyptist also saw "seven
lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the
seven Spirits of God" (iv, 5), and in a later vision
he beheld "in the midst of the throne a Lamb standing
as though it had been slain, having seven eyes, which
are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the
earth" (v, 6). This language reminds us of Zech-
ariah's vision of "seven eyes of Jehovah that run to
and fro through the whole earth" (Zech. iii, 9 ; iv, io),
and language and symbols are characteristic of apoca-

Sevenfold Operations. 161
lyptic writings. "The seven Spirits that are before
the throne" of the Eternal are no other than the Holy
Spirit, the Comforter that proceedeth from the Father,
and cooperates with Father and Son in effecting the
redemption of mankind. The mystical significance of
the number seven, as here referring to the Holy Spirit,
in all probability prompted the ancient Christian
hymn: "Thou the anointing Spirit art,
Who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart."
These sevenfold gifts may, perhaps, be fairly repre
sented in those diverse operations of the Spirit which
are commonly designated by the terms Seven opei.ations ot
"conviction," "regeneration," "bear- «* Spirit.
ing witness with our spirit," "sanctifying," "revealing
the truth," "anointing with power," and "comforting."
It is not important that we assign these manifold
works of the Spirit to just seven forms of gracious
help. These may be more or fewer, as various expe
riences show, but the seven well-known works of the
Spirit named above are sufficiently comprehensive for
our purpose in pointing out the continuous mediation
of Christ through the Holy Spirit.
i. Conviction. According to what we read in John
xvi, 8, it is one leading purpose of the Comforter to
"convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteous
ness, and of judgment." The word here rendered
convict {kXeyxu) carries with it the idea of exposing
things in their true light. It involves the process and
the result of a searching test which is sure to bring
ii

162 The Mediation Of Jfisus Christ.
condemnation, reproof, and shame to the evildoer.
"All things when they are reproved {kXeyxofieva) are
made manifest by the light" (Eph. v, 13). And so it
is said in John iii, 20, that the evildoer hates the light
and refuses to come to the light lest his works should
be reproved {kXeyx^-q, exposed to severe censure and
the shame of open conviction). But according to
Jesus the conviction effected by the Spirit of truth has
regard to sin, righteousness, and judgment in a man
ner which he goes on to indicate in verses 9-1 1 : "Of
sin, because they believe not on me ; of righteousness,
because I go to the Father, and ye behold me no more ;
of judgment, because the prince of this world has been
judged." The meaning of these words is not apparent
at first sight, for it involves a depth and scope of re
ligious conception peculiar to the most profound say
ings of the Fourth Gospel. The Lord Jesus is speaking
from his own elevated point of view, and seems to
contemplate the whole period and work of the Spirit's
operations in one comprehensive glance. As the devil
once "showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a
moment of time" (Luke iv, 5), so now the eternal
Spirit opens in one moment the vision of all the ages
to his eye. The language implies a crucial hour like
that of chapter xii, 31, 32: "Now is the judgment of
this world : now shall the prince of this world be cast
out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw
all men unto myself." The words should therefore be
interpreted as a momentary eonic conception of the
world {Kdouog).

Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment. 163
There are three things concerning which the Spirit
works conviction, namely, sin, righteousness, and
judgment. The world is convicted Convictlon concern.
nepi duaprlag, "concerning sin, because lng sin'
they believe not on me." As in the judgment picture
of Matt, xxv, 31-46, all sin and all righteousness of
the persons judged were determined by the relations
and activities of those persons toward the Son of man,
who there appears upon his judgment throne, so here
all sin is viewed as a failure or a refusal to believe on
Christ. Being the Light of the world, he becomes the
supreme test of all human hearts in their relation to
truth ; for "this is the condemning judgment, that the
light is come into the world" (iii, 19). And therefore
Jesus says : "If I had not come and spoken unto them,
they had not had sin : but now they have no excuse for
their sin" (xv, 22; comp. Acts xvii, 30, 31). Christ is
the supreme revelation of God, and the most fearful
and fatal form of sin is a persistent and blasphemous
rejection of the truth when it comes with the clearest
conviction of the Spirit to one's heart. And so all sin
is shown, in its real nature, by persistent refusal of
the manifested truth of God. We need not say that
all sin consists in unbelief of Christ, but rather that he
is the typical sinner, whose attitude toward Christ as
"the way, and the truth, and the life" (xiv, 6) is that
of persistent unbelief. It is in the light of this sort of
conviction concerning sin that John writes: "Who is
the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?
This is the antichrist — he who denies the Father and

164 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
the Son" (1 John ii, 22). The Spirit of truth that
proceeds from the Father, and witnesses of Christ, is
the living agent who convinces the sinful heart of its
personal guilt by disclosing what sin is. It is by the
direct working of this Spirit that the word of God
becomes "living, and active, and sharper than any two-
edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of
soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick
to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb..
iv, 12).
But the convincing power of the Spirit deals also
with righteousness, the direct contrast and opposite of
Concerning right- sin- And as sin has its seat and mani-
eousness. testation in the heart of the unbeliev
ing world, so, on the other hand, righteousness has
found its supreme exhibition in Him who could calmly
say before his enemies, "Who among you convicteth
me of sin?" (viii, 46.) The spotless righteousness of
Christ is the most conspicuous possible antithesis of the
sin of the world, and his going unto the Father so that
his disciples behold him no more in the flesh has
exalted, completed, and glorified this ideal of right
eousness into absolute perfection. He was and shall
forever be "the righteous one" (Acts iii, 14; vii, 52;
xxii, 14; 1 Pet. iii, 18; 1 John ii, 1 ; James v, 6). He
is the only being who could pray: "O righteous
Father, the world knew thee not, but I knew thee;
and these knew that thou didst send me; and I make
known unto them thy name, and will make it known"
(John xvii, 25, 26). It was expedient for him to go

Sin, Righteousness, and Judgment. 165
unto the Father, and being thus glorified, to send forth
the living Spirit of truth, convince the world concern
ing righteousness, and make this perfect ideal of
righteousness forever monumental. It was also expe
dient for him to go away from the gaze of his disciples
in order that they thenceforth might live by faith, not
by sight, and that the righteousness of faith might
become the blessed possession of every believer (comp.
Rom. iii, 21, 22).
Furthermore, the Spirit is to convict the world
"concerning judgment, because the prince of this world
has been judged." Twice before in Concernmg judg.
this Gospel has "the prince of this ment-
world" been mentioned (xii, 31; xiv, 30), and he is
no doubt to be identified with the devil, of whom it is
said, in viii, 44, that "he was a murderer from the be
ginning, and stands not in the truth, because there is
no truth in him." He is the arch-antichrist, and hath
nothing in common with the Son of God (comp.
xiv, 30). The prince of light stands in essential oppo
sition to the prince of darkness, and according to
1 John iii, 8, "The Son of God was manifested that he
might destroy the works of the devil." Therefore the
eternal Spirit of truth, who witnesses of Christ and
reveals the things of God, must needs pass condemn
ing judgment on the enemy of all righteousness. This
judgment of the prince of this world, as expressed
here and in xii, 31, covers the whole period of the
dispensation of the Spirit, and yet seems like the
vision of a moment, as when Jesus "beheld Satan fallen

166 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
as lightning from heaven" (Luke x, 18). It is in
truth a process extending through all the centuries
required for drawing all men unto Christ.1 It is a,
judgment that exposes the wiles of the devil, exhibits
him as the bitter enemy of all truth, and declares what
his penal sentence has been and must ever be. Hence
the force of the perfect in the verb KeKpirai, has been
judged; is already adjudged to condemnation. And
such judgment of the prince of this world is also the
condemnation which the Spirit of truth must needs
pronounce against all workers of iniquity who, Satan
like, oppose and exalt themselves against God. And
so, in the parable of eternal judgment in Matt.
xxv, 31-46, the Son of man, sitting on the throne of
his glory, executes this judgment of the Spirit when
he says to those on his left hand, "Depart from me, ye
cursed, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the
devil and his angels." Thus, in every case, the work
of conviction concerning sin, righteousness, and judg
ment, brings out into unmistakable certainty the real
nature of both the evil and the good.
2. Regeneration. That mighty work of the Holy
Spirit of God whereby one is "delivered out of the
power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of
the Son of his love" (Col. i, 13; comp. 1 Pet. ii, 9) is

1 "That which was to be effected by his Spirit in the Church
during the whole course of ages down to the end of the world,
he concentrates, as it were, into a single point of space, and a
single moment of time ; even as our eye, with the help of dis
tance, concentrates a world into a star," — Hare, The Mission of
the fomforter, p. 38. London, 1876,

Sanctification of the Spirit. 167
spoken of in John iii, 5-8, as being "born of the Spirit."
Whosoever is thus begotten of God is conceived as a
"new creation" (2 Cor. v, 17; Gal. vi, 15), "created
in Christ Jesus for good works" (Eph. ii, 10), "the
new man, who after God hath been created in right
eousness and holiness of truth" (Eph. iv, 24). This
mighty change is also conceived a being raised from
the dead so as to "walk in newness of life" (Rom.
vi, 4), and even the quickening of our mortal bodies
into the resurrection life is through the power of the
indwelling Spirit (Rom. viii, 11). The new birth,
conceived as a new creation and a resurrection from a
state of death, is thus enhanced in our thought as
essentially a supernatural work wrought within us, but
it is effected by the specific agency of the Spirit of
God. And so it is written, "According to his mercy
he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus iii, 5).
3. Sanctification. Regeneration, strictly speaking,
only introduces one into newness" of spiritual life.
"The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" makes
and keeps one free from the law of sin and of death
(Rom. viii, 2). He that is dead unto sin cannot live
any longer therein (Rom. vi, 2). "Whosoever doeth
not righteousness is not of God," and "hereby we
know that we abide in him, and he in us, because he
hath given us of his Spirit" (1 John iii, 10; iv, 13).
All growth in the Christian life, and all deepening
and perfecting of Christian graces, come through the
continual supply and ministration of the Spirit (Phil.

168 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
i, 19; Gal. iii, 5). So we read of the "sanctification
of the Spirit" (1 Pet. i, 2 ; 2 Thess. ii, 13 ; comp. Rom.
xv, 16). All the saints of God "are sanctified in Christ
Jesus" (1 Cor. i, 2), but the sanctification like the
washing of regeneration, and justification in the name
of Christ, is effected and realized "in the Spirit of
our God" (1 Cor. vi, 11). The Holy Spirit operates
directly in the human spirit by means of every instru
ment of truth, and Jesus prayed that the disciples
might be sanctified in the truth (John xvii, 17). We
noticed above that the Spirit's work of conviction was
wrought through the word of divine revelation, which
discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart (Heb.
iv, 12) ; sanctification of the heart is effected by the
same mighty instrument of truth. "The Spirit of
truth" must needs appropriate and employ the truth in
the entire sanctification of one's spirit and soul and
body (1 Thess. v, 23).
He who truly walks in newness of life lives by the
Spirit and walks by the Spirit (Gal. v, 25). The
purified soul that is blessed with the vision of God is
"transformed into the same image from glory to glory
by the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Cor. iii, 18). Here the
Lord Jesus Christ is himself called the Spirit (verse
17), and those who are transformed into his image"

1 Mahan observes : "The Spirit sanctifies by presenting Christ
to the mind in such a manner that we are transformed into his
image. The common error of Christians, in respect to this sub*
ject, seems to be this — looking away from Christ to the Holy
Spirit for sanctification, instead of looking for the Spirit to
render Christ their sanctification," — Christian Perfection, p. 17a,

Witness of the Spirit. 169
are also spoken of as "epistles of Christ, written with
the Spirit of the living God" (verse 3). The abiding
presence of the Spirit is a personal fellowship or com
munion (2 Cor. xiii, 14; Phil, ii, 1) which promotes
sanctification of the human spirit, and the love of God
is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit (Rom.-
v> 5)- "J°y m the Holy Spirit" (Rom. xiv, 17) is a
phrase worthy of notice in the same connection, for
fellowship, love, and joy point to high and blessed
attainments of the sanctified. "The earnest of the
Spirit" (2 Cor. i, 22 ; v, 5), which is given the believer
as both a foretaste and a pledge of his inheritance in
God's own possession (Eph. i, 14), is an expression
which richly enhances the holy fellowship of God, and
being "sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph.
i, 13; iv, 30) adds to the thought of foretaste and
pledge the idea of God's fixing thereon the special
stamp of his personal assurance. The privilege of
being "filled with the Spirit" (Eph. v, 18; Acts ix, 17;
xi, 24) is also a good assurance that the pentecostal
baptism of the Spirit (comp. Acts ii, 4) is available
unto all who will receive it. By these manifold attain
ments of holy life in the Spirit one "comes to know
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge," and ap
prehends how he "may be filled unto all the fullness of
God" (Eph. iii, 19).
4. Witness and Communion. Another specific work
of the Holy Spirit is to impart directly to each child
of God the assuring testimony that he is born from
above. The classic text is Rom. viii, 16 : "The Spirit

170 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are
children of God." This divine assurance is also
necessarily involved in the establishing and anointing,
referred to in 2 Cor. i, 21, 22, as a work of God, "who
also sealed us and gave us the earnest of the Spirit in
our hearts." Paul speaks in Rom. ix, 1, of his own
conscience bearing witness with him in the Spirit.
John says (1 John v, 7) that "it is the Spirit that
beareth witness, because the Spirit is the truth."
"Hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit
that he gave us" (1 John iii, 24). This witness of the
Spirit is the assuring conviction of the new birth and
of the spiritual life which is wrought in the heart by
the direct agency of the Holy Spirit of God. The
abiding presence or "communion {Kotveovia, fellowship,
2 Cor. xiii, 14; Phil, ii, 1) of the Holy Spirit" must
needs be of essentially the same nature, an assuring
continual conviction that our new life in the Spirit "is
hid with Christ in God" (Col. iii, 3). Our filial rela
tion to God is thus impressed upon us as a blessed
conviction, and so long as that conviction remains we
cry, Abba, Father, thereby witnessing on our part that
we are children of God.
5. Revealing the Truth. Along with this assuring
witness of the Spirit we should also notice the direct
agency of the same Spirit in communicating light and
knowledge and wisdom to the soul. He is called enn
phatically "the Spirit of truth," and comes to "guide
into all the truth," to take of the things of Christ and
declare them to the heart an<! cPn?9Jen?e °f $e believer

Revealing the Truth. 171
(John xvi, 13-15). In this passage the Spirit is spoken
of as hearing the things he makes known, just as in
xv, 15, Jesus says, "All things that I heard from my
Father I have made known unto you." The Son and
the Spirit hear of God the things they reveal : they are
alike partakers of those divine secrets which it has
pleased the heavenly Father to reveal unto men. But
the Spirit declares the things of Christ and so con
tinues his ministry of heavenly revelation. It is this
Spirit of truth who enables us "to know the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven" (comp. Matt, xiii, 11, and
xi, 25 ) . Thus the Holy Spirit bears witness of Christ
(John xv, 26). All this accords most closely with
what is written in 1 Cor. ii, 9-14: "Things which eye
saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered not into
the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for
them that love him, (these things) God revealed unto
us through the Spirit." These are called "the things
of the Spirit of God," which the natural man cannot
receive or know. This communicating of truth by the
Spirit is called in 1 John ii, 20, 27, "an anointing from
the Holy One." "The anointing which ye received of
him abideth in you, and ye need not that anyone teach
you; but his anointing teacheth you concerning all
things, and is true." This Spirit also reveals the
future and "declares the things that are to come" (John
xvi, 13), and also brings to mind the sayings of Jesus
(xiv, 26). These operations of the Spirit show that he
is the great Illuminator, who flashes light upon the
human understanding, so that in his light we see light

172 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
(Psa. xxxvi, 9). So the psalmists and prophets were
in some sense organs of the Spirit (comp. Heb. iii, 7;
Matt, xxii, 43; 2 Sam. xxiii, 2), when they uttered
the oracles of God. "Men spoke from God, being
moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Pet. i, 21 ; comp. 1 Pet.
i, 11). The Holy Scriptures were thus God-breathed
(2 Tim. iii, 16), and hence their profitableness for
teaching and instruction in righteousness. For thus
one becomes "filled with the knowledge of God's will
in all spiritual wisdom and understanding" (Col. i, 9;
comp. Eph. i, 17, 18). The sons of God are led by the
Spirit of God (Rom. viii, 14; Gal. v, 18). And we
should not overlook the fact that the Messianic Branch
to come forth from the stock of Jesse was to be gifted
with the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
Spirit of counsel, and the Spirit of knowledge (Isa.
xi, 2). It is also profoundly suggestive in the sym
bolism of Rev. v, 5, 6, that the Root of David appears
as a Lamb "having seven eyes, which are the seven
Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth." He thus
represents "the wisdom of God."
6. Imparting Gifts of Power. The Spirit of Jehovah
which was to rest upon the Branch of Jesse, according
to the prophecy of Isa. xi, 2, was to be also a "Spirit
of power," and Jesus bade the disciples tarry in
Jerusalem "until clothed with power from on high"
(Luke xxiv, 49). "Ye shall receive power," he said
(Acts i, 8), "when the Holy Spirit is come upon you."
The great outpouring of the Spirit which came upon
the disciples at Pentecost was the first signal fulfill-

Gifts of the Spirit. 173
ment of that "promise of the Father;" but the same
blessed gift is an abiding power in the Church of God.
Jesus went to the Father and was seen no more; but
the Spirit was sent as his invisible Executive to abide
permanently. "He abideth {p,evei) with you and shall
be in you" (John xiv, 17). Paul speaks of "the power
of the Holy Spirit" (Rom. xv, 13, 19), and of "being
made powerful in all power according to the might of
his glory" (Col. i, 11), and "being strengthened with
power through his Spirit in the inward man" (Eph.
iii, 16). After his temptation Jesus "returned in the
power of the Spirit into Galilee" (Luke iv, 14), and
every disciple who has since that time triumphed over
evil has done so in the power of the same Holy Spirit.
"It is the Spirit that giveth life" (John vi, 63; 2 Cor.
iii, 6), and "the last Adam, the man from heaven, is a
life-giving Spirit" ( 1 Cor. xv, 45 ) ; and so the power
of God which effects the resurrection of the dead
(comp. Matt, xxii, 29 ; 1 Cor. vi, 14) is exerted and be
comes effective through the Spirit (Rom. viii, 11, 23).
As the first awakening of the soul of man from the
death of sin and his regeneration into newness of life
is accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit, so the
uttermost consummation of his redemption is to be
realized by means of the mighty working of the same
Spirit. And all this is "according to the working
{kvepyeia) whereby the Lord Jesus Christ is able to sub
ject all things unto himself" (Phil, iii, 21). Thus we
see that the phrase "the power of the Holy Spirit"
(Rom. xv, 13, 19) is essentially equivalent to the

174 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
power of God. The apostle speaks of preaching the
gospel "in demonstration of the Spirit and of power"
( i Cor. ii, 4 ; comp. i Thess. i, 5 ; 2 Cor. vi, 6, 7), and
all human efficiency in the ministries of the gospel
and the propagation of the truth of God in the world
must needs be through the power of the Holy Spirit,
which is the only real "power from on high."
Among the Spirit's gifts of power we also note those
extraordinary charisms of the early Church which are
referred to in Heb. ii, 4: "God bear-
Gifts of the Spirit. . . , ,, , ¦ j
ing witness both by signs and won
ders, and by manifold powers and distributions of the
Holy Spirit, according to his will." These remarkable
manifestations are thus described in 1 Cor. xii, 4-1 1:
"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same
Spirit. . . . To each one is given the manifestation
of the Spirit to profit withal. For to one is given
through the Spirit the word of wisdom ; and to an
other the word of knowledge, according to the same
Spirit: to another faith, in the same Spirit; and to
another gifts of healings, in the one Spirit; and to
another workings of powers {Swdfieuv, of miracles) ;
and to another prophecy; and to another discernings
of spirits : to another kinds of tongues ; and to another
the interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh
the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each one sev
erally even as he will." ~ These manifold gifts of
1 Whedon classifies these divers charisms "into gifts of mind,
of voice, and of action; thought, word, and deed. Under mind
are gifts of wisdom, knowledge, faith, discerning of spirits, and
interpretation ; under gifts of voice or utterance, prophecy and

The Comforter. 175
power have been distributed into great diversities of
ministrations, manifesting themselves at certain times
and places more notably than at others. But altogether
they give assurance of the mighty energy with which
the Holy Spirit ever worketh to consummate the age
long triumphs of the kingdom of God and of Christ.
7. The Comforter. Finally, if in the foregoing out
line we have omitted any distinctive form or quality of
the manifold operations of the Spirit, all that remains
to be noticed may be comprehended under the word
Paraclete {napdKXrjrog), which our English versions of
the New Testament have commonly translated Com
forter. The word is found only in the writings of John
(xiv, 16, 26; xv, 26; xvi, 7; 1 John ii, 1), and we
have already observed that, in the one passage in the
First Epistle where it occurs, it is explicitly applied to
Jesus Christ as our "Advocate with the Father." And
when Jesus says, in John xiv, 16, that the Father "will
give you another Paraclete" he clearly implies that the
title is also truly descriptive of himself. It is generally
admitted that Comforter is not an adequate transla
tion of napaKXnrog; the primary meaning of the Greek
word is that of advocate, as commonly rendered in
1 John ii, 1. It designates one who pleads the cause
of another, and acts as his legal counselor and friend.
The Paraclete is a helper, an official friend at court,
an advocate, who not only keeps himself in closest
touch with those who desire his assistance, but is also
tongues ; under gifts of action, healing and working of miracles."
— Commentary on the New Testament, in loco.

176 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
ever ready to plead their cause in time of need. And
so "the Spirit helpetli our infirmity," and "maketh, in
tercession for the saints according to God" (Rom.
viii, 26, 27) . Such a divine helper in our times of need
is a great Comforter, and hence the propriety of this
title to represent the Spirit of truth as an abiding
Helper. There is unspeakable comfort in the promise
that "he may be with you forever;" "he abideth with
you, and shall be in you" (John xiv, 17). Moreover,
the Greek words napaaaXeu) and iragdKXnoig are not
infrequently used in the sense of bringing comfort and
consolation. "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies," is called "the God of
all comfort, who comforteth us in all our affliction,
that we may be able to comfort them that are in any
affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God" (2 Cor. i, 3, 4). In Acts ix, 31,
we read of "the comfort of the Holy Spirit."
Such, according to the Scriptures, are the sevenfold
manifestations of the Spirit, and these divers ministra
tions of the personal "Power from on high" are the
source of all life and growth in the kingdom of God.
Through the continuous and unfailing work of the
Holy Spirit of truth the kingdom of heaven cometh,
and the will of God is done on earth as in heaven.
And in all these ways our Lord continues his saving
mediation, and "God is in Christ reconciling the world
unto himself."

Summary of Doctrine. 177

CHAPTER XII.
SUMMARY OF THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE.
Having now examined with some care the import of
the language of the biblical writers touching the media
tion of Jesus Christ, we shall conclude
, . ' . , , . . , Results of exegesis.
this essay with a brief statement of
the principal truths which may be read in these scrip
tures and clearly proved thereby. Our statements in
this epitome of doctrine are of the nature of so many
expressions of conviction as to the real teaching of the
various portions of Scripture which we have examined
and endeavored to expound, and they should, accord
ingly, be read as the results of a faithful exegetical
study of the word of truth rather than as the dogmas
of a formulated creed.
1. Our first observation is that the mediatorial min
istry of Jesus Christ is a continuous process, not a
finished work. We are not authorized
 , . ... A continuous pro-
bv any biblical teaching to maintain cess, not a finished
¦" •* & . . work.
that such terms as atonement, propitia
tion, expiation, and redemption, as applied to the sav
ing ministry of our Lord, imply that he has completed
or is near the completion of the work for which he
came into the world. He truly died, and thus offered
himself "once for all" (Rom. vi, 10; Heb. vii, 27;
ix, 12, 26, 28; x, 10; 1 Pet. iii, 18); that fact is
12

178 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
simple and definite matter of history; but that par
ticular event was, relatively, only an incident in the
vast work of Christ's mediation. It was only the pass
ing of our great high priest into the heavenly holy of
holies "through his own blood," that he might appear
in the presence of God for us, and there abide forever
as our high priest and mediator. How could his being
"delivered up for our trespasses" have availed had he
not also been "raised for our justification"? (Rom.
iv, 25.) According to Paul, "It is Christ Jesus that
died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, who
is at the right hand of God, who also maketh inter
cession for us" (Rom. viii, 34). And according to
this apostle it is also the Holy Spirit that "maketh
intercession for the saints according to the will of
God" (Rom. viii, 27), and in 2 Cor. iii, 17, he calls
our Lord himself the Spirit who transforms us into
the image of the glory of God. The eternal Spirit
and Christ and God are one in all this ministry of
reconciliation, and the Lord Christ has no more
finished his work of mediation than has the Holy
Father or the Holy Spirit finished yearning for man
kind. The heavenly redemption is thus seen to be a
process that must needs go on so long as there remains
one sinner to be saved.
2. The nature of Christ's mediation is largely set
forth by means of metaphors and sym-
symbols and meta- bols. This fact should admonish us
phors. .
that greatest care must be exercised
in our interpretations of biblical texts bearing on this

Metaphorical Language. 179
subject.1 Human language is at best imperfect, and
there are some figures of speech from which, perhaps,
no two men would derive precisely the same idea. We
need not wonder, therefore, that divers theories of
atonement have sought support in what on close
analysis appears to be only incidental features of an
object referred to in a metaphor. We have seen that
the New Testament writers speak often of the saving
work of Christ in terms that plainly derive their sig
nificance from the sacrificial ceremonies of the Jewish
people, and their language cannot be fairly interpreted
without attention to Old Testament facts and teachings
concerning the offering of blood upon the altar. Such
words as atonement, propitiation, and expiation' are
1 Due regard must also be had for peculiar forms of expression
which characterize particular writers. There are mystical sayings
which are peculiarly Johannine, and for that very reason not to
be understood as if they were of the nature of a dogmatic
formula. There are also texts and paragraphs in Paul's writings
which evince his rabbinical training, and also bold realistic
statements which may by valid exegesis be resolved into mystical
or ideal conceptions. It is a misleading procedure for anyone
arguing in the interests of a disputed dogma to insist on a literal
interpretation of such peculiar forms of speech.
2 The word atonement occurs in the New Testament but once,
in the common English version of Rom. v, ii, where the Revised
Version substitutes reconciliation. In the Old Testament it is
the common rendering of some form of the Hebrew l"!EO> the
primary meaning of which is to cover, as we have elsewhere ex
plained. Hence as an English word it can have no weight in
determining the biblical conception. Propitiation is a Latin
term, and appears in the New Testament only as a translation of
ITuaariipiov in Rom. iii, 25, which we have shown to mean a
mercy seat (as in Heb. ix, 5), and of Xkaa\i&c in 1 John ii, 2, and
iv, 10. The word in these two last-named texts has obvious
reference to what Christ does for the forgiveness and removal
of the sins of the world, but furnishes no explanation of the
method of the propitiation. Expiation is not a biblical word,
and so far as it suggests anything other than what Scripture

180 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
inseparable from sacrificial customs and the ideas such
customs were adapted to inculcate. These customs
and ideas are also part and parcel of the religious his
tory of mankind. We have aimed to indicate in the
foregoing pages the fundamental ideas which attach
to the Old Testament ritual of sacrifices and offerings,
and also to guard the reader against pressing incidental
points of analogy and symbolism too far. Language
and illustrations based upon popular customs should
always be treated as popular, not as exact and scientific
in its purpose. To apprehend aright the vicarious ele
ment in the self-offering of Christ, we must eliminate
the pagan notion of placating a wrathful Deity, and
look more deeply into the spiritual significance of "the
blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself without blemish unto God."
3. To make known a truth so far-reaching and pro
found, Christ and his apostles most fittingly appro-
useofcurrentforms Priated figurative conceptions and
of speech. forms of speech that were at once cur
rent and popular and sacredly associated with religious
service. It is to be noted that our Lord chose the time
of the passover for the laying down of his life in
vicarious sacrifice, and that Paul speaks of the sacrifice
of Christ as our passover (1 Cor. v, 7). Sacrificial
worship, priestly intercession, and the lofty ideals of a
covenant relation to God had furnished a large part of
the providential preparation of the chosen people for
teaches concerning atonement, propitiation, and reconciliation it
has no place in a biblical theology.

Necessity of Mediation. 181
the advent of the Christ. But the great prophets of
Israel from Samuel onward had taught that sacrifices
and burnt offerings were of no intrinsic value, and
could not be acceptable before Jehovah unless ex
pressive of a pure devotion of the heart of the wor
shiper and a faithful obedience to the word of God
(comp. i Sam. xv, 22; Isa. i, 11-17; Hos. vi, 6; Mic.
vi, 6-8; Amos v, 21-24; Jer. vi, 20; vii, 22, 23; Psa.
xl, 6-8). Much more, then, may we suppose that our
Lord and his apostles would penetrate beneath the
forms of priestly service and of sacrifices (comp. Matt.
xii, 5-8; 1 Cor. v, 7, 8; Rom. xii, 1, 2; Heb. ix, 9;
x, 4) , and fill their metaphorical allusions to them with
the deepest spiritual significance. We should study
in like manner to pass beyond the letter and to grasp
the true spiritual import of such words as atonement
and propitiation when applied to the sufferings of
Christ. Our expositions, we trust, have shown that
there is no need of loading the biblical writers with
the pagan notions of placating a vengeful Deity, or of
reconciling an offended God to the sinner. One may
construct such a dogma, and many have so interpreted
certain scattered texts of Scripture ; but we think such
a construction is unnecessary, and not justified in the
light of the more authoritative statements of Christ
and his apostles.
4. A certain divine necessity for the mediatorial
sufferings of Christ is assumed in NecessityofChrist's
many scriptures (Matt, xvi, 21 ; "*<"*«<»•
xxvi, 54 ; Mark viii, 31 ; Luke ix, 22 ; xiii, 33 ; xvii, 25 ;

182 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
xxii, 37; xxiv, 7, 26, 44, 46; John iii, 14; ix, 4;
xii, 32-34; Acts iii, 18; iv, 12; xvii, 3; Heb. ix, 23) ;
and aside from any such specific statement it would
truly seem in the nature of things that such suffering
and sacrifice must have been imperatively necessary
or the only begotten Son of God would not thus have
given up his life. Wherein, then, this necessity ? Not,
as we have read the Scriptures, in a demand of ab
stract justice to maintain God's honor and dignity as a
Ruler of the moral world. God's righteousness,
whether as Father, Ruler, or Judge, is sure to manifest
itself in Love, so that even in the pardon of our sins
and cleansing us from all unrighteousness he is ever
"faithful and righteous" (1 John i, 9).
(1) The necessity for Christ's redeeming work is
from our point of view most readily seen, first, in the
sinfulness of man and his inability to
Necessity In man. , , . . ... „,
release himself from its thraldom. The
soul that sins must surely die (Gen. ii, 17; Ezek.
xviii, 4, 20) ; "lust, when it hath conceived, beareth
sin ; and the sin, when it is full-grown, bringeth forth
death" (James i, 15); "the wages of sin is death."
When, therefore, we ask who shall deliver men from
this fearful bondage of sin and of death our only
answer is that such salvation is the free gift of God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. It must come from
above. There is no other way of life, no other name
under heaven in whom we must be saved, if saved
at all.1
1 Studying the whole manifestation of God in Christ, we are

Necessity of Mediation. 183
(2) But there is also intimation in such scriptures
as John iii, 16, that there exist mysterious necessities
in the nature of God, as well as in the Necessityln nature
helplessness of perishing men, that re- of God-
quired the giving of his only begotten Son to be the
Saviour of the world. The creation of such a world
as ours, with its myriad forms of life and its innumer
able "offspring of God," capable of becoming children
of God by heavenly birth and adoption, would seem to
have involved obligations on the part of the Creator
which no human mind can properly estimate. Accord
ing to the profound conception of the Fourth Gospel,
the Word that became flesh was with God in the entire
process of creation, and no man has ever seen God or
is capable of revealing him except "the only begotten
Son, who is in the bosom of the Father." We may,
accordingly, believe that, speaking after the manner of
man, and not irreverently, the righteousness of love
and the love of righteousness toward God oWigated „,
the dependent objects of his creation ,ove'
required on the part of God a redemptive manifesta
tion of himself in the mediation of Jesus Christ. We
thus conceive God as the eternal Father counting him
self obligated by every conceivable bond of love and
righteousness to exert himself to the uttermost to save
from sin and its perdition every creature whom he
led, especially in John's Gospel, to conceive him as light, life,
love, righteousness, wisdom, power, and glory — a sevenfold reve
lation. Christ comes forth from the bosom of the Father, makes
an end of the law for righteousness unto everyone that believeth,
and brings life and immortality to light.

184 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
permitted to come into being bearing the image and
likeness of God. If, after all such mighty provisions
of love, the human offspring persist in sin and "sell
himself to do evil," the Father has proven his own
unspeakable affection, and has discharged his own
obligation. 5. The sufferings of Christ, then, are not to be
thought of as a penalty. No righteousness, human or
such suffering not divine> can inflict penalty on the right-
pena1- eous or on any being that is not con
victed of sin. But, according to Paul (Rom. viii, 3),
"God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and concerning sin (wept auap-iag)1 condemned
sin in the flesh." The entire manifestation of Christ
as the holy, self-sacrificing Son of God has broken the
power of sin in human nature, and thus put it forever
under condemning judgment (comp. 1 John iii, 8;
Heb. ii, 14). And if we inquire further why Christ
must suffer in this public condemnation of sin, the
true answer is, because God suffers and must needs
have suffered concerning sin as soon as it ever ap
peared in the moral world. Whatever view we take
of Christ's life, work, and suffering, we must recognize
in him some corresponding manifestation of his

1 This phrase, being the usual rendering of the Hebrew for
sin offering in the Septuagint (comp. Heb. x, 6, 8), may be
explained in that sense here ; or it may be explained as in
substance equivalent to what this apostle expresses in somewhat
stronger form in 2 Cor. v, 21. But it cannot be shown to mean
that God visited punishment on Jesus Christ, as if by any sort of
imputation he could be made a real substitute for the guilty and
suffer the penalty due to them.

Consequences of Sin. 185
Father. And so when we behold Christ weeping and
lamenting over Jerusalem, and crying, "O that thou
hadst known the things that belong unto peace ! How
often would I have gathered thy children, but ye would
not !" we behold the Father also. And in like manner
in all his utterances of sorrow, of judgment, or of love
he is the divinely anointed Revealer of the thoughts
and feelings of God.
6. A fact not to be overlooked is that nothing which
God in Christ has done or can do removes all conse
quences of sin. Sins that are past Does not remove all
events, "the sins done beforetime," consequences of sin.
may be freely forgiven in the blessed forbearance of
God, but they must forever remain as deeds of the past.
They cannot possibly be undone, or cease to be facts in
the history of the moral world. And the natural results
or consequences of many sins work on through suc
cessive generations in spite of all the redeeming effi
cacy of the grace of God. These facts also serve to
show that the great saving work of Christ is not to
rescue man from punishment for wrongdoing, but
rather to deliver him from sin itself. The sacrificial
mediation of Christ is not a penalty for the sins of
men, nor even a substitute for penalty ; but it is rather
to be apprehended as "a power of God unto salvation
to every one that believeth."
7. The biblical conception of Christ's work is not
that of an objective process going on Not an objective
outside of humanity. Such a notion recess or ground.
seems possible only as we are taught to think of the

1 86 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
atonement as "an objective ground" on which it is
made possible for God to forgive sin. The logic of
this conception implies that God's love and saving
mercy could not be exercised except as a result of
Christ's offering his life as a ransom; whereas, ac
cording to the Scripture, the entire mediation of
Christ has its origin in the love of God. The suffer
ings of Christ are not the ground or cause of the ex
ercise of God's saving grace; the love of God is the
cause and source of the sufferings. So God is in
Christ, not apart from Christ, reconciling the world
unto himself. And the atonement, the propitiation,
the reconcilation, is in us, not apart from us. Nor
should we think of God as apart from his world, or
outside of humanity, in any such way as to warrant
our affirming objective grounds for his becoming
reconciled to us.
8. It is evident, therefore, that we are to think of
Christ's work of mediation as something essentially
Essentially spiritual. Sacrifices and offerings
spiritual. have no value except as figures of
spiritual realities, or as illustrations of heavenly
truths. In his coming to do the will of God, and so
to manifest the nature and power of God, Christ taketh
away such formal rites that he may establish the will
of the heavenly Father (Heb. x, 9). And it is the will
of God that all men should be saved from sin. His
love for the world has given his only begotten Son to
reveal a saving grace sufficient to embrace all hu
manity. But the grace and the mediation can become

Effectual through Faith. 187
effective only as men in faith accept the heavenly pro
vision and are born of the Spirit. Thus they "pass out
of death into life," and "walk after the Spirit."
9. Inasmuch, then, as Christ's mediation is a
spiritual work, it becomes effectual in the heart and
life of men only as they become united Effiectual through a
with Christ by a strong living faith. llvmg falth-
The Christ of God is a living Saviour, and in him we
have our most blessed access to God. The personal
experiences of life and light and peace and fellowship
with God enable the Christian believer to apprehend
the profound significance of such biblical concepts as
a personal participation in the sufferings of Christ
(comp. Rom. viii, 17; 2 Cor. i, 5, 7; Phil, iii, 10;
1 Pet. iv, 13), a being crucified with Christ (Gal. ii, 20;
v, 24; vi, 14; Rom. vi, 6), dying and being buried
with Christ (Rom. vi, 4, 8; 2 Cor. v, 14; Col. ii, 12;
iii, 3), and also rising and reigning with him
(Eph. ii, 2; Col. ii, 12, 13; 2 Tim. ii, 11, 12). As we
are thus "partakers of the sufferings of Christ"
(1 Pet. iv, 13), we may also "become partakers of the
divine nature" (2 Pet. i, 4). And so the conviction of
sin, the deep sense of guilt, the experience of repent
ance and conversion, the remission of sin, the new
birth from above, and all the blessedness of the new
spiritual life "hid with Christ in God" are brought
about by means of the redemption in Christ, and are
possible in no other name under heaven or among men.
Like the new birth from above, all these gracious ex
periences of salvation are opened unto us by reason of

188 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
the love and righteousness of God as revealed in the
mediation of his Son Jesus Christ.
io. We offer no theory or philosophy of atonement
in Christ other than what may appear in these state-
No theory of atone- ments of the manifold Scripture teach-
ment ing on the subject. The Scriptures
certainly furnish us no theory of Christ's divine-human
mediation, but we ought not therefore to condemn, as
some do, all attempts to formulate such theories. For
what is a theory of the atonement but an attempt to
set forth a rational conception of the nature and neces
sity of Christ's redeeming work?1 Regeneration and
eternal life are impossible to man without the removal
of his sinfulness and guilt, and the rational theorist in
quires how this salvation is brought about in the mani
festation of Christ. The result of our study has been
to show that this divine redemptive mediation is so
multifarious in its operation that no definitive theory
can fairly express its depth and breadth and height.
Whether we say with John iii, 16, "God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso-
1 It would seem that each of the more notable theories of the
atonement has had a sort of genetic relation to certain dominant
ideas of the time when it originated. The patristic notion of a
ransom paid to Satan for the release of mankind from his thrall
could have been possible only at a time when crass doctrines of
demonology were widely prevalent. The Anselmic theory of
absolute satisfaction had a stronghold in mediaeval ideas of
absolute monarchy and the divine rights of kings. The "govern
mental theory" may be traced to Grotius and the prominence given
in his day to international law. And the great humanitarian
movements of the nineteenth century with their emphasis on altru
ism and moral reforms prepared the way for the "moral influence
theory," and have supplied its chief arguments and illustrations.

No One Theory Sufficient. 189
ever believeth on him should not perish, but have
eternal life ;" or with 2 Cor. v, 19, "God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself;" or with 1 Pet.
iii, 18, "Christ suffered for sins once, the righteous for
the sake of the unrighteous, that he might bring us to
God;" or with 1 John iv, 10, "God loved us and sent
his Son as a propitiation for our sins;" or with Heb.
ii, 10, "It became God in bringing many sons unto
glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect
through sufferings" — whether, I say, we appropriate
any one of these or of a score of other biblical state
ments of similar character and import, we express at
most only an incomplete idea of all that belongs to
Christ's mediation. The great work of redemption
expressed in any one of these texts is generally found
to be involved in one or more figures of speech which
call for some measure of analysis and explanation.
Hence appears the impossibility, also, of maintaining a
doctrine of atonement in Christ on the basis of the
language of divers texts of Scripture taken as so
many authoritative utterances. A rational exegesis of
each separate text and its immediate context often
shows that men have read their doctrinal theories into
biblical statements which furnish them no real support.
While, therefore, a number and variety of observa
tions may fairly summarize the teachings of Christ
and his apostles on the subject, the doctrine of redemp
tive mediation in Jesus Christ is too broad and deep
and mysterious to be satisfied with any single defini
tion or theory.

190 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
ii. There is, however, an ideal of "the mystical
body of Christ," given in the New Testament, which
Mystical body of should receive distinctive attention be-
Chnst- fore we close this treatise on the
divine-human mediation of our Lord. The profound
truth of the communion of saints in and through the
Spirit of Christ finds, perhaps, its most remarkable
expression in John xvii, 20-26, where Jesus prays that
all those, whom the divinely appointed ministry of
reconciliation shall gather together out of the world,
may be perfected into one {rereXeitDp.evoi elg ev).
They are all to be one, even as the Father is in the
Son, and the Son is in the Father, that they may ulti
mately be with the glorified Christ in the heavenly
light, and behold the glory and the love which were
existent before the foundation of the world. There
comes to us with these words an ideal of perfection in
the love and fellowship of God which no comment of
ours can place in clearer light. Paul's words about
being raised up with Christ, and sitting "with him in
the heavenlies" (Eph. ii, 6), seem like an echo of
Jesus's intercessory prayer. "The heavenlies" of per
fection in Christ and in God are not "heavenly places"
merely, but heavenly fellowship of all saints, heavenly
powers, heavenly wisdom and knowledge, and all
heavenly glories of the life eternal.1
The vital unity of the mystical body of Christ is also
shown in the figure of the vine and its branches (John
xv, 1-9). Jesus is himself the genuine living vine, his
1 See my Biblical Hermeneutics, p. 276. New York, 1890.

Communion of Saints. 191
Father is the vinedresser, and his disciples are the
branches which can have no fruit apart from the true
vine. In strict accord with this ideal we are assured,
in John vi, 53, that no one can possess the eternal life
except he "eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink
his blood." Thus only can the living Christ, "ascend
ing up where he was before" (verse 62), bestow the
heavenly manna, and make good the word, "He that
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me,
and I in him." These words are offensive to the
literalist and the man of a carnal mind, but to the man
of spiritual intuition they are instinct with spirit and
with life. In the First Epistle of John (i, 3) we meet
another statement of the same spiritual truth: "Our
fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus
Christ." Such fellowship is also called "abiding in
the Son and in the Father," and constitutes the essence
of "the life eternal" (ii, 24, 25).
The same rich mystical thought appears in Paul's
allusions to the communion of saints at the Lord's
table: "The cup of blessing which we Communlon of
bless, is it not a communion {Koivuvia, saints-
a joint participation) of the blood of Christ? The
bread which we break, is it not a communion of the
body of Christ?" (1 Cor. x, 16.) So again in 1 Cor.
xii, 12, 13, we read: "As the body is one and hath
many members, and all the members of the body,
being many, are one body ; so also is Christ. For in
one Spirit were we all baptized into one body." The
saints of all ages and lands are to be thus conceived as

192 The Mediation of Jesus Christ.
constituting the mystical body of Christ, and they are
"severally members thereof." They make up his
"church, which is his body, the fullness of him that
filleth all in all" (Eph. i, 23). This mystical body is
not yet complete. Divers ministries of apostles and
prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers exist
"for the perfecting of the saints, unto the building up
of the body of Christ ; till we all attain unto the unity
of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. iv, 12, 13).
Here, surely, is an ideal of the great consummation
contemplated in the mediation of Jesus Christ which
inspires holiest thoughts. And when to all this we
add the figure of the Church as the Spouse of Christ,
who is at once her Saviour and her Lord, we but en
hance our concept of the all-embracing love of God
in Christ. The Lord Jesus is the Saviour of the
mystical body, for he "loved the Church, and gave
himself up for her, that he might present the Church
to himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any
such thing" (Eph. v, 25-27). It is worthy of note
that while in Pauline thought the Church of Christ
was "purchased with his own blood" (Acts xx, 28),
in the Apocalypse of John the great and glorious com
pany of those who were, by the blood of the Lamb that
was slain, "purchased for God out of every tribe, and
tongue, and people, and nation" (v, 9), are shown in
heavenly vision as "the Bride, the wife of the Lamb"
(xxi, 9).

With the Lamb at the Throne. 193
This picture consummates our highest and final
thought of "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
By means of it we are elevated far above all special
theories of the atonement. We "behold the Lamb of
God, that taketh away the sin of the world." We be
hold the mystical body of Christ, all those who believe
on him through the word of his apostles, sanctified and
cleansed by the washing of water in the word, made
one in the Father and in the Son, abiding in the heav
enlies, and sharing in the glory of the risen and as
cended Lord. The members of this mystical body are
"a great multitude which no man can number, out of
all peoples, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their
hands, their robes washed and made white in the
blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the
throne of God, and he that sitteth on the throne shall
spread his tabernacle over them, and the Lamb that
is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd,
and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life :
and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes."
And thus we behold the Author of our salvation
made perfect through sufferings, bringing many sons
into glory, and saying, as he presents them in the
presence of that glory with exceeding joy, "Behold, I
and the children whom God hath given me." Thus
we behold God, in Christ, through the eternal Spirit,
reconciling the world unto himself.
13

INDEX.

THE NUMBERS INDICATE PAGES.

Agni, 28.
Alford, 117.
Anselmic theory, 71, 188.
Anthropomorphism, 33.
Apis, 30.
Atonement, Day of, 42.
Avatar, 24.
Azazel, 47.
Barth, 24.
Bhagavad Gita, 24.
Blood offerings, 44.
Brahmanism, 24.
Buddhism, 25.
Calvin, 119.
Cereal offerings, 43.
Chinese ideas, 23.
Chrysostom, 119.
Clarke, 142.
Comforter, 88, 153, 175.
Conybeare, 117.
Copleston, 26.
Cremer, 119.
Cyril, 119.
De Wette, 117.
Dinkart, 23.
Dion Chrysostom, 117.
Dods, 158.
Egyptian religion, 29.
Ellicott, 134.
Enoch, Book of, 47.

Erasmus, 119.
Erman, 29.
Federal theology, 17.
Fetichism, 32.
Fire offerings, 46.
Frazer, 22.
Fritzsche, 117.
GlFFORD, II9.
Greek religion, 31.
Grotius, 119, 188.
Hardwick, 29.
Hardy, 26.
Hare, 166.
Henotheism, 27.
Hinduism, 24.
Hodge, 117.
Hort, 73.
Horus, 30, 35.
Howson, 117.
Human sacrifices, 44.
Huther, 92.
Immanence of God, 34.
Incarnation, 20.
Indra, 28.
Irenseus, 91.
Isis, 30.
Jackson, 23.
Josephus, 118.
Jowett, 117.

196
Krishna, 30.
Kuyper, 155.
Lange, 119.
Last supper, 72.
Latin mythology, 31.
Legge, 23.
Levitical priesthood, 40.
Liddon, 119.
Luther, 119.
Macknight, 141.
Mahan, 168.
Mazdian religion, 23.
Mercy seat, 112, 119-126.
Messianic hope, 64.
Meyer, 78, 117.
Moberly, 159.
Muller, 27.
Mystery of ages, 17, 66.
Nirvana, 25.
Nonnus, 117.
Odyssey, 31.
Olshausen, 119.
Origen, 119.
Osiris, 30.
Paraclete, 88, 153.
Penitential psalms, 61.
Philippi, 119, 128.
Polytheism, 32.
Priest Codex, 43.
Purpose of ages, 17.

Index.

Reconciliation to God, 102-104,
130.
Rig-Veda, 27.
Ritschl, 119.
Sacrifices, 42.
Schaff, 125.
Sin offering, 46.
Stevens, 18.
Supper, Last, 72.
Swete, 117.
Teleology, 19.
Theodoret, 119, 125,
Theophylact, 119.
Tholuck, 119.
Totemism, 32.
Transmigration, 25.
Trespass offering, 45.
Umbreit, 119.
Varuna, 27.
Veda, 26.
Vishnu, 24, 35.
Vohuman, 23.
Westcott, 73, 144, 146, 148.
Whedon, 174.
Wiedemann, 30.
Williams, 26.
Wordsworth, 117.
Zeus, 31.
Zoroaster, 23.

APPENDIX
A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
FOR THE CONVENIENCE AND USE OF
SPECIAL STUDENTS IN
BIBLICAL THEOLOGY AND BIBLICAL DOGMATICS.

So far as satisfactory English translations exist the original titles are not given.
Adeney, Walter F. — The Theology of the New Testament.
New York, 1894.
A brief, readable, and useful compendium.
Alexander, W. Lindsay. — A System of Biblical Theology.
2 vols. Edinburgh, 1888.
Consists of theological lectures, abridged, arranged, and edited from
the author's manuscripts by James Ross. Is comprehensive, and com
bines some features of both biblical and systematic theology.
Baumgarten-Crusius, L. F. O. — Grudziige der biblischen The
ologie. Jena, 1828.
Interesting mainly as one of the earlier efforts to construct a biblical
rather than a confessional theology.
Bauer, Georg Lorenz. — Theologie des alten Testaments,
oder Abriss der religiosen Begriffe der alten Hebraer, von
den altesten Zeiten bis auf den Anfang der christlichen
Epoche. Leipzig, 1796.
.... Biblische Theologie des neuen Testaments. 4 vols. Leip
zig, 1800-1802.
Valuable for studying the early attempts to distinguish Old and New
Testament theology, and to note the various types of doctrine in the
different biblical writers.
Baur, Ferdinand Christian. — Vorlesungen iiber die neutesta-
mentliche Theologie. Leipzig, 1864. New edition with
Introduction by Otto Pfleiderer. Gotha, 1892.
These lectures were first edited by F. F. Baur, son of the author.
They give the distinguished professor's views on the teaching of Christ
and of the apostles more fully than any one of his other works.

200 Bibliography.
Beck, J. T. — Vorlesungen iiber christliche Glaubenslehre.
2 vols. Ed. by Lindenmeyer. Giitersloh, 1886-1887.
The second volume gives under four main sections a valuable outline
of biblical dogmatics.
Bernard, Thomas D.— The Progress of Doctrine in the New
Testament. New York, 1867. New ed., 1900.
The Bampton Lectures for 1864, and worthy of note as an early Eng
lish attempt at biblical theology.
Beyschlag, Willibald. — New Testament Theology, or His
torical Account of the Teaching of Jesus and of Primitive
Christianity according to the New Testament Sources.
English Translation by Neil Buchanan. 2 vols. Edin
burgh, 1894.
The most able and commanding work on New Testament theology
that is now accessible to English readers. No student in this depart
ment can afford to do without it.
Biedermann, Alois E. — Christliche Dogmatik. 2 vols. Berlin,
1884-1885.
The first 169 pages of the second volume, under the title of Die Sc/trift-
lehre^ contains a valuable outline of biblical dogmatics.
Bovon, J. — Theologie du Nouveau Testament. 2 vols. Lau
sanne, 1893-1894.
In this learned and valuable treatise the New Testament is recog
nized as the historical foundation and beginning of the author's pro
posed " Study of the Work of Redemption." The first volume discusses
the life and teaching of Jesus, and the second presents the apostolic
teaching under five sections : (1) Jewish Christianity, (2) Paulinism, to
which the Epistle to the Hebrews belongs as "Paulinism of the second
degree," (3) the Catholic Epistles, (4) the Apocalypse, and (5) the Jo
hannine Theology.
Bruce, Alexander Belmain. — The Kingdom of God; or,
Christ's Teaching according to the Synoptic Gospels.
Edinburgh, 1890.
. . . .St. Paul's Conception of Christianity. New York, 1894.
 The Epistle to the Hebrews. The First Apology for
Christianity. Edinburgh and New York, 1899.
These, like all the works of Professor Bruce, are of permanent value,
and deserve repeated study.
Buesching, A. F. — Dissertatio exhibens epitomen theologiae e
solis literis Sanctis concinnatse. Gottingen, 1756.
Deserving notice chiefly as one of the very earliest efforts to construct
a biblical rather than a dogmatic and scholastic theology.

Bibliography. 201
Coelln, Daniel Georg Conrad von. — Biblische Theologie, mit
einer Nachricht iiber des Verfassers Leben und Wirken,
herausgegeben von David Schulz. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1836.
Exhibits extensive learning, but follows the method of De Wette and
adopts his headings for the main divisions. The Old Testament theol
ogy is given under the two heads of Hebraism and Judaism, and that
of the New Testament under (1) The Teaching of Jesus, and (2) The
Teaching of the Apostles.
Cone, Orello. — The Gospel and its Earliest Interpreters.
New York, 1893.
A suggestive work, well worthy of attention.
Cramer, L. D. — Vorlesungen iiber die biblischen Theologie
des neuen Testaments. Edited by Naebe. Leipzig, 1830.
Cremer, August H. — Biblisch-theologisches Worterbuch der
neutestamentlichen Gracitat. Gotha, 1866. Many later
editions. English Translation by William Urwick. Edin
burgh, 1872. Several later editions.
An invaluable work, indispensable to the scientific student of New
Testament theology.
De Wette, Wilhelm Martin Leberecht.— Biblische Dogmatik
des alten und neuen Testaments ; oder kritische Darstel-
lung der Religionslehre des Hebraismus, des Judenthums
und Urchristenthums. Berlin, 1813. Third improved edi
tion, 1831.
Like all the productions of this author, a masterpiece of lucid, con
cise, and comprehensive presentation of the subjects which it handles.
The first and larger part of the volume sets forth the religion of the
Old Testament under the heads of Hebraism and Judaism. The apocry -
phal books, Philo, and Josephus are drawn upon as sources of informa
tion, as well as the canonical books. The New Testament part treats
the teaching of Jesus and that of the apostles under two distinct
divisions,
Dillmann, August. — Handbuch der alttestamentlichen The
ologie. Herausgegeben von R. Kittel. Leipzig, 1895.
Accurate in its statements, thorough in exegesis, and always helpful.
Drummond, Robert J. — The Relation of the Apostolic Teach
ing to the Teaching of Christ Edinburgh, 1900.
The Kerr Lectures for 1900. Somewhat discursive, but contains much
of real worth.
Duff, Archibald. — Old Testament Theology ; or, The History
of Hebrew Religion from the Year 800 B. C. London, 1891.
This volume deals mainly with the books of Amos, Micah, and por
tions of Isaiah, and furnishes much valuable material for the study of
pld Testament theology.

202 Bibliography.
Duhm, Bernhard. — Die Theologie der Propheten, als Grund-
lage fiir die innere Entwicklungsgeschichte der israelit-
ischen Religion. Bonn, 1875.
A valuable help in tracing the historical development of biblical doc
trines in the prophets of the different periods of Assyrian, Babylonian,
and Persian supremacy.
Everett, C. C— The Gospel of Paul. Boston, 1893.
Estes, David Foster. — An Outline of New Testament The
ology. Boston, 1900.
Ewald, Heinrich. — Old and New Testament Theology. Eng
lish Translation by T. Goadby. Edinburgh, 1888.
Ewald's German work consists of four volumes and covers a wide
field. This translation is confined mainly to the second and third vol
umes, and treats of God and the universe, the nature of faith in Christ,
the Christian Trinity, and immortality.
Fulliquet, Georges. — La Pensfie religieuse dans le Nouveau
Testament. Etude de Theologie Biblique. Paris, 1894
A popular and interesting exposition of New Testament doctrine,
with special emphasis on the relation of doctrines to spiritual life and
experience.
Gould, Ezra P.— The Biblical Theology of the New Testa
ment. New York, 1900.
An admirable treatise in small compass, but quite comprehensive in
its plan and method.
Haupt, Erich. — Die eschatologischen Aussagen Jesu in den
synoptischen Evangelien. Berlin, 1895.
Hitzig, Ferdinand. — Vorlesungen iiber biblische Theologie
und messianische Weissagungen des alten Testaments.
Herausgegeben von Kneucker. Karlsruhe, 1880.
Apparently lacking in unity of aim and in comprehensiveness, but,
like all this author's works, incisive, suggestive, and critical.
Hofmann, Johann Chr. Karl von. — Der Schriftbeweis. Ein
theologischer Versuch. 2 vols. Nordlingen, 1852-1856.
2d ed., 1857-1860. (2d vol. in two large parts.)
. . . .Biblische Theologie des neuen Testaments. Nach Manu-
skripten und Vorlesungen bearbeitet von W. Volck. Nord
lingen, 1886.
The older work is a mine of valuable exegetical discussions of bibli
cal doctrine, and has exerted wide influence on subsequent writers
The later work, edited by Volck, is an excellent compendium of New
Testament theology.

Bibliography. 203
Holsten, Karl Johann. — Zum Evangelium des Paulus und
des Petrus. Rostock, 1867.
 Das Evangelium des Paulus dargestellt. Berlin, 1880.
 Paulinische Theologie dargestellt. Berlin, 1898.
Valuable as the successive contributions of one who was a leader in
the formulation of Pauline theology.
Holtzmann, Heinrich Julius. — Lehrbuch der neutestament-
lichen Theologie. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1897.
Somewhat radical in its critical treatment of the documentary
sources of New Testament theology, but easily to be ranked among
the most thorough, scientific, comprehensive, and masterly works on
the subject extant.
Horton, R. F. — The Teaching of Jesus, London, 1896.
Immer, A. — Theologie des neuen Testaments. Bern, 1877.
This learned and comprehensive treatise discusses (1) the Religion
of Jesus ; (2) the Jewish Christianity of the primitive apostles ; (3) Paul
inism; (4) the post-Pauline Jewish Christianity; (5) the mediating
course between Paulinism and Jewish Christianity ; and (6) the Johan
nine Gospel and First Epistle.
Kayser, August. — Die Theologie des alten Testaments, in
ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung dargestellt. Nach des
Verfassers Tode herausgegeben mit einem Vorwort von
Ed. Reuss. Strassburg, 1886.
Knapp, George Christian. — Lectures on Christian Theology,
translated by Leonard Woods. 2 vols. Andover, 1831-
1832. 8th American ed. 1 vol. New York, 1859.
An elaborate work of real value. It is cast in the form of a system
atic theology, but is, in fact, a very full treatise on biblical dogmatics.
In its English translation it has had an extensive circulation.
Krop, Frederic. — La Pensee de Jesus sur le Royaume de
Dieu d'apres les Evangiles synoptiques avec un appen-
dice sur la question du " Fils de l'homme." Paris, 1897.
Ladd, George T. — The Doctrine of Sacred Scripture. A crit
ical, historical, and dogmatic Inquiry into the origin and
nature of the Old and New Testaments. 2 vols. New
York, 1883.
An exceedingly valuable work, but too diffusely written to serve
the most helpful purpose. It treats many of the most important topics
of biblical doctrine, and is a storehouse of information.
Laidlaw, John. — The Bible Doctrine of Man ; or, The Anthro
pology and Psychology of Scripture. Edinburgh, 1879.
New ed., 1895.
Belongs strictly to works on biblical dogmatics, and is well worthy
of thoughtful study.

204 Bibliography.
Lutz, J. L. S.— Biblische Dogmatik. Nach dessen Tode her
ausgegeben von Rudolf Rutschi, mit einem Vorwort von
Schneckenburger. Pforzheim, 1847.
A comprehensive and valuable contribution for its time.
Menegoz, Eugene. — Le Peche et la Redemption d'apres Saint
Paul. Paris, 1882.
 La Predestination dans la Theologie Paulinienne. Paris,
1884.
 La Theologie de l'fipitre aux HSbreaux. Paris, 1894.
These are all treatises of sterling value.
Milligen, George. — The Theology of the Epistle to the He
brews, with a critical Introduction. Edinburgh, 1899.
A volume to be cordially commended to students.
Moorhouse, J. — The Teaching of Christ: its Conditions, Se
cret, and Results. London, 1891.
Neander, Johann August W. — History of the Planting and
Training of the Christian Church by the Apostles. Trans
lated by J. E. Ryland. Revised by E. G. Robinson. New
York, 1865.
An old standard work, having permanent value for the student of
New Testament theology.
Noach, Ludwig. — Die biblische Theologie. Einleitung in's
alte und neue Testament, und Darstellung des Lehrgehal-
tes der biblischen Biicher nach ihrer Entstehung und
ihrem geschichtlichen Verhaltniss. Halle, 1853.
Treats the Old and New Testament in two parts, but bestows much
more attention to the literature than to the doctrinal contents.
Oehler, G. F. — Theology of the Old Testament. A revision
of the translation in Clark's Foreign Theological Library,
with additions of the second German edition, an Introduc
tion and Notes by George E. Day. New York, 1883.
A comprehensive and standard work, arranged under the three
heads of Mosaism, Prophetism, and Old Testament Wisdom.
Pfleiderer, Otto. — Der Paulinismus. Leipzig, 1873. 2ded.,
1890.
 Paulinism: a Contribution to the History of Primitive
Theology. Translated by Edward Peters. 2 vols. Lon
don, 1877.
 The Influence of the Apostle Paul on the Development of
Christianity. Translated by J. F. Smith. New York, 1855.
All these works are indispensable to the critical study of New Testa
ment theology, but the author's views fre often radical, and have not
met with general favor,

Bibliography; 205
Piepenbring, Ch. — Theology of the Old Testament. Trans
lated from the French by H. G. Mitchell. New York, 1893.
Exhibits the development of religious thought among the Hebrew
people.
Riehm, Edward Karl August. — Der Lehrbegriff des Hebraer-
briefes dargestellt und mit verwandten Lehrbegriffen
verglichen. Basel. In two parts, 1858-1859. New and
improved ed. in one vol. , 1867.
An elaborate and masterly exposition of the doctrines of the Epistle
to the Hebrews, along with comparison with corresponding ideas in
the other biblical writers.
Ritschl, Albrecht. — Die christliche Lehre von der Rechtfer-
tigung und Versohnung. 3 vols. Bonn, 1870-1874.
The second volume of this famous work (2d ed., 1882) treats the " bib
lical material of the doctrine," and is an important contribution to bib
lical theology. The influence of Ritschl on the modern theological
thought of Germany has been powerful and far-reaching, and is now
felt in much of the English world.
Sabatier, A. — The Apostle Paul. A Sketch of the Develop
ment of his Doctrine. Translated by A. M. Hellier.
Edited, with an additional Essay on the Pastoral Epistles,
by George G. Findlay. 3d ed. New York, 1896.
An important contribution to the Pauline theology.
Schlottmann, Konstantin.— Compendium der biblischen The
ologie des alten und neuen Testaments. Herausgegeben
von Ernst Kiihn. Leipzig, 1889. 2d ed., 1895.
A very convenient and comprehensive manual, covering both the Old
and the New Testament.
Schmid, Christian Friedrich. — Biblical Theology of the New
Testament. Translated by G. H. Venables. Edinburgh,
1871.
One of the earlier and best-known books on the subject, and still
worthy of consultation.
Schmidt, Wilhelm. — Die Lehre des Apostels Paulus. Giiters-
loh, 1898.
Critical, and deserving the attention of students in Pauline theology.
Schnedermann, Georg. — Jesu Verkiindigung und Lehre vom
Reiche Gottes in ihrer geschichtlichen Bedeutung. Erste
Half te : Die Verkiindigung Jesu vom Kommen des Konigs-
reiches Gottes. Leipzig, 1893.

206 Bibliography.
Schultz, Hermann. — Old Testament Theology. The Religion
of Revelation in its pre-Christian Stage and Development.
Translated from the fourth German edition by J. A. Pat-
erson. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1892.
The learned and accomplished author modified his critical views of
Old Testament literature and doctrine after his first German edition
of this work was issued (1869), and his more matured opinions appear
in this translation (made from the 4th German ed.). It holds a com
manding place among works on Old Testament theology.
Seeberg, Alfred. — Der Tod Christi in seiner Bedeutung fiir
die Erlosung. Eine biblisch-theologische Untersuchung.
Leipzig, 1895.
A remarkably comprehensive discussion of the saving significance of
the death of Christ, and an important contribution to biblical theology ;
but not altogether satisfactory. It maintains the essential harmony
of all the New Testament writers in their views of Christ's death, but
he begins with the Epistle to the Hebrews, and then examines, in order,
the teaching of John, of Paul, of Peter, the speeches recorded in the
Acts, and, last of all, the Synoptic Gospels.
Somer ville, David. — St. Paul's Conception of Christ; or. The
Doctrine of the Second Adam. Edinburgh, 1897.
A book that cannot well be overlooked in the study of Paul's Chris
tology.
Steudel, Joh. Christian Friedrich. — Vorlesungen iiber die
Theologie des alten Testamentes. Nach dessen Tode
herausgegeben von G. F. Oehler. Berlin, 1840.
One of the older books that deserves study. It adopts the method
of biblical dogmatics in three parts : (1) the Doctrine of Man, (2) the
Doctrine of God, and (3) the Doctrine of the Relation between God
and Man.
Stevens, George B. — The Theology of the New Testament.
New York, 1899.
 The Pauline Theology: a Study of the Origin and Corre
lation of the doctrinal teaching of the Apostle Paul. New
York, 1892.
 The Johannine Theology: a Study of the doctrinal con
tents of the Gospel and Epistles of the Apostle John. New
York, 1894.
These volumes constitute the most important and valuable contri
bution which American scholarship has thus far made to biblical the
ology. They all deserve cordial recommendation to students of New
Testament doctrine.

Bibliography. 207
Titius, Arthur. — Jesu Lehre vom Reiche Gottes. Freiburg.
1895.
A very thorough and systematic statement of the doctrine of the
kingdom of God, and worthy of special commendation.
Van Oosterzee, J. J. — The Theology of the New Testament.
A Handbook for Bible Students. Translated from the
Dutch by M. J. Evans. New York, 1871.
A condensed, convenient, and useful manual.
Vatke, Wilhelm. — Die biblische Theologie wissenschafthch
dargestellt. Die Religion des alten Testamentes, nach
den kanonischen Biichern entwickelt. Erster Theii. Ber
lin, 1835.
This first part is devoted to a presentation of the religion of the Old
Testament, and the work was never completed by a further setting
forth of the theology of the other canonical books. This work is noted
as one of the first attempts to construct the historical development of
the Old Testament theology after the manner now generally adopted
by the more advanced biblical criticism.
Weiss, Bernhard. — Biblical Theology of the New Testament.
Translated from the third German edition by David Eaton.
2 vols. Edinburgh, 1882.
A work of exceeding value and a thesaurus of material for working
out the problems of New Testament doctrine. It ranks among the
foremost of its class.
Weiss, Johannis. — Die Predigt vom Reiche Gottes. Gottingen,
1892. 2d ed., 1900.
. . . .Die Idee des Reiches Gottes in der Theologie. Giessen,
1901.
The last named was read at a theological conference at Giessen, and
is a supplement to the preceding. They both maintain the eschatolog
ical conception of the kingdom of God.
Wendt, Hans Hinrich. — The Teaching of Jesus. Translated
by John Wilson. New York, 1892.
This English translation gives only the second part of the German
original, but it contains the author's exposition of the teaching of
Jesus. The first part Is a critical discussion of the Gospels as sources
of doctrine. A second edition of the German work (GBttingen, 1901)
has condensed the two volumes of the first edition into one of 640
pages. No other work on the teaching of our Lord holds a higher
place among New Testament scholars.

208 Bibliography.
Wittichen, Carl. — Beitrage zur biblischen Theologie:
. ...1. Die Idee Gottes als des Vaters; ein Beitrag zur bib
lischen Theologie, hauptsachlich der synoptischen Reden
Jesu. Gottingen, 1865.
 2. Die Idee des Menschen, zweiter Beitrag zur biblischen
Theologie hauptsachlich der synoptischen Reden Jesu.
Gottingen, 1868.
 3. Die Idee des Reiches Gottes, dritter Beitrag zur bib
lischen Theologie, inbesondere der synoptischen Reden
Jesu. Gottingen, 1872.
These three small volumes present altogether an admirable out
line and discussion of the biblical doctrine of the Father, of Man, and
of the Kingdom of God. While dealing mainly with the teaching of
Jesus, they also pay becoming attention to the other biblical writings,
especially the Old Testament and the Apocrypha.
Zacharia, Gotthilf Traugott.— Biblische Theologie, oder
Untersuchung des Grundes der vornehmsten biblischen
Lehren. 4 vols. Gottingen, 1771-1775.
Interesting as one of the elaborate treatises of its time, and one of
• the early attempts at biblical theology, but of little value for a mod
ern student.

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