mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.' 'It serves as a means of exalting Jesus himself to heavenly glory in Jn. xii. 23 8q.: And Jesus answereth them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit. He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.'1 Through it he learns obedience according to Heb. v. 1 sq.; e.g. Though he was a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and having been made perfect, he became unto all them that obey him the author of eternal salvation.' It serves his own consecration, with the wider purpose of consecrating his disciples, in Jn. xvii. 19-26; e.g. For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.' It is a purifying offering for his people in Eph. v. 2 and 25 sq.; e.g. 'Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God. for an odour of a sweet smell.' It is an offering of deliverance and at the same time a covenant offering, according to Jesus' last indication in Mk. xiv. 22-24, 'My blood of the covenant shed for many.' Again it is an exemption offering, to be understood according to the true idea of Isa. liii, but not permanently adequate and therefore requiring to be supplemented by the suffering of Paul (and in principle also of others), according to Col. i. 24, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the Church.' With a one-sided reference to the ceremonial law, it is represented as a covenant offering in Heb. ix. 15-20 and x. 29: 'Mediator of a new covenant'; 'the blood of the covenant,' etc. It subserves the reconciliation of Jews and heathen, as a kind of peace offering, in Eph. ii. 13-16: 'But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace,

1 Cf. xvii. 1.

6

who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the twain one new man, so making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.' It reconciles the angelic powers with God in Col. i. 20, 6 Through him to reconcile all things unto himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross; through him, I say, whether things upon the earth, or things in the heavens.' It appears as an atoning offering for sin, without more exact determination, in 1 Cor. xv. 3; Mt. xxvi. 28; Eph. i. 7; Jn. i. 29, and elsewhere ('Christ died for our sins'; my blood shed for many unto remission of sins'; 'redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses'; 'the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world'); with one-sided reference to the ceremonial law, without substitutionary endurance of punishment, in Heb. v. 1, 3, vii. 27, and ix. 26, 28 (A High Priest offering both gifts and sacrifices for sins'; 'he offered a sacrifice for sins once for all when he offered up himself' ; 'manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself'; 'offered to bear the sins of many '); as a substitutionary satisfaction to penal righteousness in Rom. iii. 25 sq., 'whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, by his blood, to shew his righteousness, because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God.' It is a ransom from the curse of the law in Gal. iii. 13; Rom. iii. 24; 1 Cor. vi. 20, and vii. 23 ('Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us'; 'justified through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus'; 'ye were bought with a price'). It means the destruction of the power of the devil in Heb. ii. 14 8q.: 'that he might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is, the devil,' etc.; annihilation of the power which dwells in the flesh and compels to sin, in Rom. viii. 38q.: "God sending his own Son . . . condemned sin in the flesh,' etc.; is viewed as a vanquishing of the inclination that leads to sin in 1 Pet. i. 18, ii. 24, and iv. 1 (‘re

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deemed from your vain manner of life'; 'bare our sins .. that we might live unto righteousness'; 'since Christ has suffered, arm yourselves with the same mind'). It occasions the sending of the Holy Spirit according to Jn. xv. 26, xvi. 7 ;1 If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.' It serves, on the analogy of the ceremonial law, for the consecration of the heavenly temple, in connection with perpetual intercession before God, in Heb. vii. 25, ix. 21-24, and x. 19: 'The heavenly things, or places, themselves must be cleansed with better sacrifices than these' (animal-offerings), and opens the way to the preparation of the place of eternal blessedness in heaven according to Jn. xii. 32, xiv. 2 8q., and xvii. 24, 'If I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye shall be also.' Only the characteristic passages are herewith adduced."

1 Cf. vii. 39.

PART II

THE PRINCIPAL FORMS OF THE DOCTRINE

CHAPTER I

THE COMMERCIAL THEORY OF ANSELM

It lies outside the plan of the present work to write the history of the doctrine of salvation in the Church. For that the reader is referred to the standard histories of Christian doctrine. It is, however, germane to our purpose, and will greatly facilitate our subsequent discussions, to outline the principal types of theory which have obtained in Christian thought regarding the specific problem of atonement. By means of such a sketch it can best be shown in what various ways the death of Christ has been interpreted and how Christian reflection has attached itself now to one, now to another, of the biblical representations of the subject. We shall cover the ground which we most need to survey if we review the "commercial" satisfaction theory of Anselm,-noting the transformation which it experienced at the hands of the Reformation and post-Reformation theologians, the governmental theory of Grotius, and the more recent and present-day interpretations. While precise classification is impracticable, it will be sufficient for our illustrative purpose to distinguish, among present-day theories, three general types of

1 E.g. Fisher's History of Christian Doctrine and Ritschl's Critical History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation. A historical sketch of the doctrine of atonement is given in the appendix to Lidgett's work, The Spiritual Principle of the Atonement, and another somewhat more limited in range, in the appendix to Moberly's Atonement and Personality. I have frequently consulted these expositions, but have had recourse chiefly for my illustrative materials to the writings of the authors whose views I have sketched.

thought: (1) That which insists upon a strict substitution and ascribes a penal character to the sufferings of Christ. This type of theory is in line with the post-Reformation doctrine. (2) The theories of a satisfaction to the ethical nature, especially to the holiness of God, which, however, repudiate the idea of a penal substitution or equivalence. This group of views is more or less closely akin to the governmental theory. (3) The moral views which aim to interpret the work of Christ in terms of personal relationship and influences.

The earliest Church Fathers made no attempt to construct theories of atonement. They viewed the death of Christ as the fulfilment of prophecy, especially of Isa. liii, and, in this view, as the supreme attestation of Christ's mission.1 Clement of Rome sees in the Lord's death a proof of the divine love, but does not further define its relation to the nature of God. The Epistle of Barnabas, like the Epistle to the Hebrews, refers to the Saviour's death in terms of sacrifice, but offers no philosophy of its necessity or efficacy. The writings of Ignatius regard the love shown in Christ's death as a cleansing, lifebestowing power, and are fond of depicting his body and blood as the spiritual nourishment of the soul. The Epistle to Diognetus couples with the idea that God's love is supremely manifested in the death of his Son, the doctrine of a "sweet exchange," a transfer of our iniquities to Christ and of his righteousness to us. Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria contemplate Christianity as the divine philosophy. For them, as in the Fourth Gospel, the thought of revelation is paramount. In the view of the former, Christ suffered "as if accursed," "though he was blameless "; according to the latter, his death was a martyrdom endured in fidelity to the truth, "in imitation of whom the apostles suffered for the churches which they

1 "To them it was not the atonement, but the incarnation, which was the centre of Christian faith as of Christian life. The Fathers see in Christ's death, not an isolated act, or even an isolated sacrifice, but the natural consummation of that one great act of self-devotion whose unbroken energy stretched from the conception to the cross." Oxenham, The Catholic Doctrine of the Atonement, p. 166.