LECTURE XLVI. 2 CORINTHIANS, v. 18-21. -December 12, 1852. THE : 'HE last verses on which we spoke declared the Christian aspect of human nature, and the law of regenerated Humanity. The aspect of Humanity in Christ is a new creation in Him human nature is re-created (v. 17). Consequently, every one is to be looked at now, not merely as a man, but as a brother in Christ. No man is to be known now any more after the flesh. A more striking instance of this is not to be found than the way in which Philemon was desired by St. Paul to consider Onesimus his slave. The "middle wall of partition" has been broken down for ever between Jew and Gentile, between class and class. The law of Humanity in Christ is, that "they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them" (v. 15). Such is the Christian law of sacrifice to present our bodies and souls to Christ as a living offering. It is no longer the law of nature which rules our life, no longer self-preservation, self-indulgence; but it is self-surrender towards God and towards man. We come now to another subject, and the connection between it and the former is contained in the 18th verse. All this, says St. Paul, arises out of the reconciliation effected between God and man by Christ. First then, we will speak of Christ's work, the reconciliation of God to man. Secondly, the work of the Christian ministry, the reconciliation of man to God. I. God "hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ." Now reconciliation is identical with atonement. In Romans, V. II, the word "atonement occurs, but on referring to the margin you will find that it is the same word which is here translated "reconciliation." Here therefore, you might read : "Who hath atoned us to Himself by Jesus Christ." We cannot repeat this too often. The "atonement" of the Bible is the reconciliation between God and man. : Now atonement or reconciliation consists of two things :1. The reconciliation of God to the world. 2. The reconciliation of the world to God. 1. We say that God needed a reconciliation. On the other hand, the Unitarian view is, that God requires nothing to reconcile Him to us, that He is reconciled already, that the only thing requisite is to reconcile man to God. It also declares that there is no wrath in God towards sinners, for punishment does not manifest indignation. Nothing can be more false, unphilosophical, and unscriptural. First of all, take one passage, which is decisive: "But now after that ye know God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?" St. Paul is there describing the Christian state, and he declares that the being recognized of God is more characteristic of the gospel state than recognizing God. "Know God:" here is man reconciled to God. "Are known of Him:" here is God reconciled to man. St. Paul holds it a more adequate representation of the Gospel to say, Ye are known of God, that is, God is reconciled to you— than to say, Ye know God, that is, ye are reconciled to God. So much for those persons who recognize the authority of Scripture, and assert at the same time that it does not speak of an Atonement which reconciles God to man. Next, it is perilous to explain away, as a mere figure of speech, those passages which speak of God as angry with sin. God is angry with the wicked, and the first proof of this is to be drawn from our own conscience. We feel that God is angry; and if that be but figurative, then it is only figurative to say that God is pleased. There must be some deep truth in those expressions, or else we lose the personality of God. 2. The second proof comes to us from the character of Christ. He was the representative of God: of God under the limitations of Humanity. Now Christ was angry." That therefore, which God feels corresponds with that which in pure Humanity is the emotion of anger. No other word then, will adequately represent God's feeling, but the human word anger. If we explain away such words, we lose the distinction between right and wrong: we lose belief in God: for you will end in believing there is no God at all, if you begin with explaining away His feelings. Again, it is said that God needs no reconciliation, because He is immutable. But remember that, God remaining immutable, and the sinner changing, God's relation to the sinner changes. "God is love," but love to good is hatred to evil. If you are evil, then God is your enemy. You change God by being changed yourself. You thus alter the relation; and hence St. James says, "Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you." Now the way in which the text speaks of the reconciliation of God to us is, "Not imputing their trespasses :" for the Atonement is made when God no longer reckons the sinner guilty. Here is the mystery of the Atonement. God is reconciled to men for Christ's sake. Earnestly I insist that the Atonement is through Christ. God is reconciled to Humanity in Christ; then to us through Him; "God was in Christ." It was a Divine Humanity. To that Humanity God is reconciled: there could be no enmity between God and Christ: "I and my Father are one." To all those in whom Christ's Spirit is, God imputes the righteousness which is as yet only seminal, germinal: a seed, not a tree; a spring, not a river; an aspiration, not an attainment; a righteousness in faith, not a righteousness in works. It is not then, an actual righteousness, but an imputed righteousness. Hence we see what is meant by saying, "reconciled or atoned through Christ." We do not mean that each man reconciles himself as Christ did, by being righteous; but we mean that God views him favourably as partaking of that Humanity which has been once exhibited on earth a Holy, Perfect and Divine thing. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." But we must distinguish this from a vulgar notion of the Atonement. Some use it as meaning appeasal, not reconciliation; not that the All Holy One was reconciled to Humanity by seeing in it His own image, and received full satisfaction by beholding the perfect sacrifice of the Will of the Man to the Will of God; but that not having taken out the full satisfaction of punishment in one place, He was content to do it in the other. Justice, they say, must strike; and if He can strike the innocent, it is richer satisfaction of justice than striking the guilty. Strange justice! Unjust to let the guilty go free, but quite just to punish the innocent! So mournfully do we deface Christianity! It is singular that the Romanists have a similar perversion. There are pictures which represent the Virgin as interposing between the world and her angry Son; laying bare her maternal bosom by way of appeal, and the Son yielding that to His mother's entreaty which He would not do for Love. What the Virgin is to the Romanist, that is Christ to some Protestants. Observe that, according to both opinions, there are two distinct Beings, one full of Wrath, the other full of Mercy. Those Romanists make Christ the Person of fury, and Mary the Person of mercy. Some Protestants represent God the Father as the wrathful Being, and Christ as the Loving One. But the principle in both views is the same. No! this text contradicts that notion. It was not Christ appeasing His Father's wrath, but His Father descending into Humanity through Him; and so, "by taking the manhood into God," reconciling the world unto Himself. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself." It was God's Infinite Love which redeemed the world, and not God's fury which was appeased. God created a Divine Humanity, and so changing the relation between man and Himself, reconciled Himself to man. And this Divine Humanity sacrificed itself for us. It was a vicarious sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ was the meritorious cause of our acceptance. What was there in it which satisfied God? Was it the punishment inflicted? No! It was the free offering of Christ's Will even unto death. "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life for the sheep." II. The work of the Christian ministry-the reconciliation of man to God. Now distinguish Christ's position from ours. It was Christ's work to reconcile God to man. That is done, and done for ever; we cannot add anything to it. That is a priestly power; and it is at our peril that we claim such a power. Ours is ministerial: His alone was priestly. We cannot infuse supernatural virtue into baptismal water; we cannot transform bread and wine into heavenly aliment. We can offer no sacrifice: the concluding sacrifice is done. "By one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." So far, then, as we represent anything besides this as necessary, so far do we frustrate it, and turn the Christian ministry into a sacrificial priesthood. We are doing as did the Galatians of old. Therefore the whole work of the Christian ministry consists in declaring God as reconciled to man: and in beseeching with |