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Indwelling sin (Ro 6'- '2-11 32 etc.), from bondage to Satan (Eph 22- ' 6'2, He 2»- " etc.), from the tyranny of the evil world (Gal 1< 6", Tit 2", 1 P 1" etc.), finally, from the effects of sin in death and all other evils (Ro 8», 1 Co IS^'ff- etc.).

In the NT teaching, therefore, the sacrifice of Christ fulfils all that was prefigurative in the OT doctrine of atonement; yet, as the true and perfect sacrifice, it infinitely transcends, while it supersedes, all OT pre-figurations. The relation of the Christian atonement to that of the Law is, accordingly, as much one of contrast as of fulfilment. This is the thesis wrought out in the Epistle to the Hebrews, but its truth is recognized In all parts of the NT. The sacrifices of the OT were, in their very nature, incapable of really removing sin (He 10*). Their imperfection was shown in the irrational character of the victims, in their frequent repetition, in their multiplication, etc. (He 9'°). In Jesus, however, every character meets, qualifying Him to make atone-ment for humanity — Himself at once perfect priest and perfect sacrifice: Divine dignity as Son of God (Ro 1< 8^, He V- ' etc.); a perfect participation in human nature (Ro 1' 8=, Gal 4*, He 2»-'8 etc.); absolute sinlessness (2 Co 52', He 4", 1 P l" 2^, 1 Jn 3= etc.); entire human sympathy (Ro 8m, He 2" 4"-"); as regards God, undeviating obedience and surrender to the will of the Father (Ph 2'- «, He 48- ' 10s-i»). He is ' Jesus Christ the righteous' (1 Jn 2'), and His sacrificial death is the culmination of His obedience (Ro 5", Ph 2", He 10»- i»).

iii. Rationale of the Atonement. — The way is now open to our last question — How was atonement for sin by Christ possible? And in what did Christ's atonement consist? The NT does not develop a theology of the atonement ; yet a theology would not be possible if the NT did not yield the principles, and lay down the lines, of at least a partial solution of this problem.

A chief clue to an answer to the above questions lies in what is taught (1) of Christ's original, essential relation to the creation (cf. Jn l^- ', 1 Co 8", Eph 1", Col 115-2", He V, Rev 1" 3"); and (2), as arising out of that, of His archetypal, representative relation to the race He came to save (cf. Jn l*- s-h, Ro S'""-, 1 Co IS^'-K. ti-iT), This connects itself with what is said of Christ's Divine dignity. Deeper even than the value His Divine Sonship gives to His sacrifice is the original relation to humanity of the Creative Word which renders His unique representative relation to the race possible. It is not going beyond the representations of the NT to say, with Maurice and others, that He is the 'root of humanity.' In Him it is grounded; by Him it is sustained; from Him it derives all the powers of its development. While He condescends to take on Him the nature of created humanity, His personality is above humanity. Hence His generic relation to the race — ' Son of God ' — 'Son of Man. ' In this ' mystery of godliness' (1 Ti 3") lies the possibility of a repre-sentative atonement for the race.

For this is the next point in the solution of our prob-lem ; Christ's identification of Himself with the race He came to save is complete. It is not merely 'federal' or 'legal'; it is vital, and this in every respect. His love is unbounded; His sympathy is complete; His purpose and desire to save are unfaltering. He identifies Himself with humanity, with a perfect consciousness (1) of what He is; (2) of what the race He came to save is and needs; (3) of what a perfect atonement involves (cf. Jn 8i«). Himself holy, the well-beloved Son, He knows with unerring clearness what sin is, and what the mind of God is about sin. He does not shrink from anything His identification with a sinful race entails upon Him, but freely accepts its position and responsibilities as His own. He is 'made under the law' (Gal 4-'); a law not merely preceptive, but broken and violated, and entailing 'curse.' Identifying Himself thus perfectly with the race of men as under sin on

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the one hand, and with the mind of God about sin on the other. He is the natural mediator between God and man, and is alone in the position to render to God whatever is necessary as atonement for sin.

But what is necessary, and how did Christ render it? Here come in the 'theories' of atonement; most of them 'broken lights'; all needed to do full justice to the Divine reality. We would dismiss as infra- Scriptural all theories which afiirm that atonement — reparation to the violated law of righteousness — is not necessary. Christ's work, while bringing forgiveness, conserves holiness, magnifies law, vindicates righteous-ness (Ro 3"-"). Also defective are theories which seek the sole explanation of atonement in the ethical motive; purely moral theories. Atonement is taken here in the sense only of 'reconciliation' — the recon-ciliation of man to God. Scripture recognizes obstacles to salvation on the side of righteousness in God as well as in man's unwillingness, and atonement aims at the removal of both. It has the aspect of propitiation, of expiation, of restitutio in integrum, as well as of moral infiuence. It is an act of reconciliation, embracing God's relation to the world equally with the world's relation to God (cf. Ro Z^ 5"- ", 2 Co S's-^').

There remain two views, one finding the essence of Christ's atonement in the surrender of a holy will to God — in the obedience of Christ unto death, even the death of the Cross (Maurice and others). This assuredly is a vital element in atonement, but is it the whole? Does Scripture not recognize also the submission of Christ to the endurance of the actual penal evil of sin — specially to death — as that rests in the judgment of God upon our race? All that has preceded necessitates the answer that it does. The other, — the legal or forensic view, — accordingly, puts the essence of atonement in this penal endurance; in the substitutionary submission of Christ to the penalty due to us for sin. But this also is one-sided and unethical, if divorced from the other, and from the recognition of the fact that not simply endurance of evil, but the spirit in which the evil is endured, and the response made to the Divine mind in it, is the one acceptable thing to God (cf. J. M'Leod Campbell). It is here, therefore, that we must seek the inmost secret of atonement. The innocent suffering with and for the guilty is a law from which Jesus did not withdraw Himself. In His consciousness of solidarity with mankind, He freely submitted to those evils (shame, ignominy, suffering, temptation, death) which express the judgment of God on the sin of the world, and in the experience of them — peculiarly in the yielding up of His life — did such honour to all the principles of righteousness involved, rendered so inward and spiritual a response to the whole mind of God in His attitude to the sin of the world, as constituted a perfect atonement for that sin for such as believingly accept it, and make its spirit their own. ' By the which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all' (He 10'»). See Propitiation, Reconciliation, Redemption.

James Orb.

ATONEMENT, DAY OF.— The Day of Atonement, with its unique and impressive ritual, is the culmination and crown of, the sacrificial worship of the OT. The principal details are given in Lv 16, supplemented by 232S-", Nu 29'-", Ex 30i», all from the Priests' Code, though not all, as we shall see, from the oldest strata of the priestly legislation. The date was the 10th day of the seventh month (Tishri) reckoning from evening to evening (Lv 16" 23"«). Not only was this day a 'sabbath of solemn rest,' on which no work of any sort was to be done, but its unique place among the religious festivals of the OT was emphasized by the strict observance of a fast. The rites peculiar to 'the Day' ( YBma), as it is termed in later literature, may be conveniently grouped in live stages.

(a) In the preparatory stage (Lv 16»-'»), after the