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Laa diagrammas suivants illustrant la mithoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 M I ''' '. mm' I «V1» 1^ ^. SAINT PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF THE ATONEMENT: BEING THE Fourth Annual- Lecture before the Theological Union op Mount Allison Wesley an College. HOWARD SPRAGUE, D. D. Delivered June, 1882. ' SAINT JOHN, N. B. J. & A. McMillan, 98 Peince William Street. 1883. tj--.i!;i '1 -if ¥ ^ m t V Saint Pauls Doctrine OF THE ATONEMENT: BEING THE Fourth Annual Lecture before the Theological Union of Mount Allison Wesleyan College. BY HOWARD SPRAGUE, D. D. Delivered June, 1882. SAINT JOHN, N. B. J. & A. McMillan, 98 Prince William Strxjjet. 1883. A k I V ) i i j!f J( K^ I « a ^ ' ■| LECTURE. SAINT PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF THE ATONEMENT. 1I7HETHER it he wise or not to sj)eciilate upon a theme so '* mysterious as tlie rationale of Rc(lemj)tion, the human mind, oheying a native impulse, lias speculated, with abundant and varied, if not with satisfactory results. Numerous theories of Atonement, sanctioned by illustrious names and supported by ingenious reasoning, are offered to inquiring Christians. It is impossible to be indifferent spectators of the many-sided con- troversy, in which the disputants deal with the fundamental facts of the Christian religion, and in which they freely charge each other with mistaking the central truths of Revelation, and even with misrepresenting and traducing the character of God. But what hope is there that we shall be able to decide which of these theories is true, or whether any is ? Is it worth the effort to do so? Or may we more wisely decline the tedious task, and repose upon the simple facts which they profess to explaiii ? There is a disposition to put the facts and the doctrines of Christianity in contrast, the one as the objects of faith and the basis of hope, the other as a field of curious and useless specula- tion, and to arrange the Gospels and Epistles in this order of relative importance. But the facts of Redemption can be nothing to us until we have some view of their nature and relations ; and our view of their nature and relations is our doctrine of the Atonement. It may be meagre, and it may be false; but if Christ is our Saviour, and we are Christians, we hold some view of what He has done for us. DeQuincey, in old age, reports himself as having been always unable to resolve this theme, and as having obtained no assist- ance either from the philosophizings of Coleridge or the simpler (3) Saint Paui/h Dcktrine of tiik Atonement. explanations of Ills (;lcar-hoa(lo(l and tlionj^htt'ul niotlier. "Tiicre are," ho says, "countless (lincrcnt schoniCH to expound this do<^- trinc of trust and ai)propriation ; hut they ronund me of the ancilia at Home, the eleven eopies of the saered shield, or Palla- dium : to i)revent the true one heint? stolen, the eleven were made exaetlv like it. So with the true doctrine v'»f the Atonement: it is lurking among the others that look like it; but who is to say which of them all it is?"* So long as speculation busies itself with the construction of theories, for which it afterwards seeks sup|K)rt in the Scriptures, there will be the variety and confusion of o[)inion which per- plexed even the acute and brilliant essayist. The Atonement is a matter of revelation : the Scriptures alone can tell us what it is. After wo have found it there, we may seek confirmatory evidence in the speculations of the philosopher, and illustrations in history and the relations of social life. J^ut what we find, or fail to find, in these fields of inquiry, can neither affect its character as the Bible reveals it, nor disturb the foundations of its truth. To thi' inquiry into tlie testimony of Revelation, I propose to direct your attention ; and, as it would be impossible to sur- vey the whole field of the teaching even of the New Testament, 1 select that of a single writer, and ask : " What was St. Paul's doctrine of the Atonement ?" The question is not intended to suggest that Paul may have had a peculiar view, differing in important, or even in subordi- nate details, from that of other Apostles ; but simply that we may hope to find in his writings a view definite and (complete. There are, however, in his case, some special reasons for separat- ing his doctrine from that of the others, for the purpose of distinct consideration. One reason is the fact that he reached it independently of them. He tells us that for three years after his conversion he did not visit Jerusalem, and did not see an Apostle; that for fourteen years longer he pursued an independ- ent course ; that then he ^Msited the Capital to declare and defend the Gospel he preached among the Gentiles, and to assert the * Page's "Life of DeQuincey," Am. ed., Vol. I., p. 393. (/ * I* ^h Saint Paul's DocnuNE of tiik Atonement. i «i« !"• .•^« >f rifjjlits of the Gentile elinrehes ; and tliat the pillars of the mother eluireh — Peter, James, ami John — could add nothinfjj to his knowledge of the truth, hut, giving to him the right hand of fel- lowshij), recognized at once the fulness of his Gospel and the frnitfidness of his work.* By his own knowledge of the ancient Seri|)tures; by his reading, in the light of then>, the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord ;t above all, by "the revelation of the Son of God in him,"| he had gained his doctrine independ- ently of human aid. It was emphatically his. His own thought, his own spiritual ex|)erience. Lis own communings with the divine Saviour, had led him into the atoning mystery of Messiah's death. The doctrine of others may confirm his: he did not need the confirmation. He stood on independent and solid ground. Another reason for the separate consideration of St. Paul's doctrine is the transcendent infiuence it has had on the religious thinkings of the world. A few great minds, appearing, for the most part, singly and in widely separate epochs, have determined the course and the character of theologic thought ; and, among the few, the chief is Paul. He was ignorant of the Christian faith until near the middle of his life. After he embraced it, he had no leisure for study and system-building, except the three years in Arabia and the time he spent in Tarsus and its neigh- borhood before coming to Antioch. From Antioch onward he was on long journeys and in busy evangelism ; passed through repeated and severe suffering; through much of the time earned his daily bread by manual toil, and through most of it carried the burden of broken health. Yet his octcasional letters to the churches reveal an intense activity of thought, contain the sub- stance of Christian doctrine, and have controlled the thinkings of the great Christians of ancient and modern times. No influ- ence is so plainly impressed on the great theologians and sysiems of the church, — Augustine, Anselm, Luther, Calvin, Arminius, Edwards, — so that it has become the fashion with rationalistic students of the beginnings of Christianity to speak of St. Paul as the founder of the Christian church and faith. *Gal. i. 17— ii. 9. fActs xiii. 27-37. Gal. i. 12. G Satnt I*Ari,'.s Doctimm: nr tiik Atonkmknt. 1 T<» avoid any apiM.'araiicc of Ix'^'^in;;; the <|ii('sti()n in the very titl(! of this discourse, it may he well to explain tiic sense in wliieli I use the word ** Atonement." It (K*enrs lait once in tiie author- ized version of tlie New Testament,* and disa|>pears I'ntm the r(!vised, tlie substituted word heiu}:; " reeoiM'iliafion." This is the etymolorj;e of theology designates, not the residt of the work of Clirist, hut that work itself, or rather, so much of it as produced this i)ar- ticular residt. It is perfectly fair to (piestion the wisdom and convenience of this change ; but it is useless to insist U])on the ancient meaning in the theological discussions of the ])reseut day ; and it is frivolous to produce that meaning as an argument against the realitv of the thine; which the word now denotes. Christ reconciletl (iod and man : the iiarmony tljus secured could for- merly be called Atonement. How did He do so? The answer to this question gives what is meant by Atonement now. The word belongs to no particular theory, but to any theory which professes to answer the question. Did St. Paul give an answer? When we have found it, we have found his doctrine of the Atonement. There are two accounts of his teacrhing, — the fragmentary reports of his preaching in the Acts of the Apostles, and the record of his doctrine in his own Kpistles. It is not now j)ossible to discuss the authenticity of the reports and the genuineness of the letters. And it is not necessary. A successful defence has been made by comj)etent scholars against the assaults of Baur and *Roui. V. 11. fRi^liard the Third, I. iii. 3t). tOtheUo IV. i. 244. • 4 1 • J Saint PAur/s Dot tiiixk of tiik Atoxkmilvt. 7 Zcller upon tlio crodibility of tlic Acts. The Paulino EpistlcH aro tlio part of Scriptiin; whicli has ^ivcii tlio atuHt trouhlo t«) the (loHtriK'tivc critics. Those of them which arc the most im- portant for the present piirpo-^e are, on all hands, confessed to he genuine, and have never \m>i\ the subjects of serious doubt. Even so free a critic as Uenan, dividinjjc them into five classes, — the unquestioned, the certain, the probable, the doubtful, and the false, — puts but three fipistles in the fifth class, and one in the fourth, viz., those to Timothy, to Titus, and to the K|)he8ians.* So far as I am capable of jndjjjinj!:, the arji;uments against the genuine- ness of these letters are more than answered bv the internal evi- deuce and the belief of the ancrient church. St. l^aul's doctrine of the Atonement would, however, be comj)letc without them ; and almost every passage of them to which I shall have occasion to refer, has its meaning expressed in parallel passages of the other letters. The Epistle to the Hebrews is held by some critics of all schools to be the work of another writer ; but some of those who hold this view maintain that it furnishes abundant evidence that its author was familiar with St. Paul's teaching, and probably wrote it under his inspiratio-> or supervision. It is sublime in its Christology, and rich in its treatment of the doctrines of the Cross ; and these doctrines are the doctrines of St. Paul. But we are not at liberty to use it in the present inquiry. With this exception, however, all the letters which bear the Apostle's name may be appealed to in illustration of his doctrine. It would not be necessary to say that our investigation is purely inductive, and aims at discovering the truth by finding and comparing the facts, were it not that convenience and brev- ity of discussion compel a classification of texts from the begin- ning, and that it may be supposed the texts have been selected and arranged to meet the demands of a foregone conclusion. On the contrary, everything that has come down to us from the lips and pen of the Apostle has been carefully examined ; every passage bearing upon the subject, unless the bearing is very * Kenan: Saint Paul, Am. Trans, p. 10. " 8 Saint Pattj.'s Doctrink of thk AT()M-:Mi:xT. r I indirect, has been jiotod ; and the ciassification to ho given is tlie result. The necessit}'' for some ehissilication arises out of the cliaracter of the Ejv'stles, of which nearly all are not formally doctrinal. They were written, save in two instances, to churches or persons whom Paul had directly instructed, and who must have been familiar with his doctrine in a matter so fundaniental as the redeeming work of the Lord. His references to this sub- ject are therefore incidental in the majority of his letters, and, on this very account, have an im[)ortance which docs not belong to formal reasoning; for they imply a general accej)tance of the doctrine by the churches and persons addressed, that it was of the verv substance of tiie Christian faith as universalis held in the churches planted by St. Paul. • 1 ♦ i * 1 ' I. One characteristic of St. Paul's treatment of the work of Redemption is conspicuous and constant throughout the letters : it is that his notice of the earthly life of the Redeemer, as related to it, begins at the end. He does not detail the facts of the Saviour's history, — only two or tliree times does he refer to any, — until he comes to the close ; and then he fixes upon the Cross a fascinated eye. The death and the resurrection of Jesus, these are for Paul the two momentous facts : and his whoie treat- ment of them implies that in these, but especially in the former, the Cross, the Blood, the Death of Christ, he regards the Lord as sustaining a unique relation to the world. This is characteristic both of the general preaching and of the letters of the Apostle. It is not very conspicuous in the discourses reported in the Acts; but this is accounted for by their evidently exceptional character, intended, as the selection of them is, to illustrate the bearing of the Apostle .n the great crises of his life. There are but six in all ; omitting those spoken in self defence, there are but three ; one, suggested by the idola- try of Athens, on the spirituality and unity of God ;* one, to a congregation of Jews, in which he attempts to convince them of the Messinhship of Jesus by a comparison of Messianic prophe- *Actsxvii. 22-31. • • t K « IV 4 Saint Paul's Doctrinp: of the Atonement. 9 i •# .• % K « t« cies .v'itli the circumstances of His deatli and resurrection, and in wliich lie declares the forgiveness of sins to be dependent on the work of Christ;* and one to the Elders at Miletus, — an exhor- tation to pastoral fidelity, patterned after the example he had given them, and sustained by the solemn consideration tliat the church of which they were overseers the Lord had "purchased with his own blood." f And, fu»'ther, all these addresses, except that to the Ephesian Elders, were spoken to hearers who were not Christians. It is evident, then, that these discourses afford no indication of the general character of the Apostle's ministrv, of his way of dealing with the penitent and inquiring, or of his education of the newly-formed churches in the truths of the Christitin religion. For information on these points we must turn to his letters. There we find, not only the advanced teach- ing which he gave to Christians of mature experience, but de- scri})tions of his way of winning souls and of feeding the infancv of faith. In reviewing his ministry at Corinth, he says he had been sent " to preach the Gospel : not with wisdom of v.ords, lest the cross of Chr.^i should be made of none effect. * * * J^nt we preach Christ crucified. * * * For I determined not to know aiiything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified." I He gives in brief the same account of his preaching to the Galatians, before whose eyes he had set forth Jesus Christ, as if visibly crucified before them. || There is no room for doubt that this was his theme wherever he preached the Gospel, in the synagogues, the market-places, the houses of friends, from Damascus to Rome. He further tells us wiiat feelings were aroused in his hearers by this preaching of the Cross, by the emphasis which iie laid not only on the fact, but on the manner, the infamous and degrading manner, of Jesus' death : for we may assume Corinth to be no excicption in this particular. " The preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness * * * to the Jews a stumblingblock, and to the Greeks foolishness." § *Actr, xiii. 16-41. fActs XX. 17-35. XI Cor. i. 17-23 — ii. 2. IIGal. iii. 1. ^ 1 Cor. i. 18-23. 10 Saint Paul's Doctrine op the Atonement. The unKpeakable shame of the Cross may account for the feeling of the Jew, if Paul identified Jesus with Messiah, but it does not explain tlie derision of the (lentile. As a good man's proof of his sincerity and goodness, it could have offended none. As a wrong inflicted on the innocent by the hands of malice, it (!0uld only have aroused indignation against Jewish injustice and cruelty, and pity for a good man's fate. As a martyr's final testimony to his high and heroic faith, to the sincerity of his motives, to the importance of his message, it could only have excited admiration of a self-denial and fortitude, at that time rare in the Greco-Roman world. It could not, then, have been these aspects of the Cross that appeared prominently in the preaching of Paul. It was, it must have been, the explanation which he put upon the Cross, the relation in which he made it stand to his hearers and to the world, that provoked the scorn of Grecian culture, and the hatred of Pharisees and priests. And why, we may ask, finding such feelings aroused by his manner of presenting the Gospel, did he persist in his course ? Why, after his reasonings with the wise men of Athens, meeting them upon their own ground, and laying a basis in philosophy for his Christian conception of the Godhead, and the unsatisfac- tory result, did he go on to Corinth with the firm resolve to have no theme but "Christ and Him crucified," and never afterward alter that resolve? To win men to Christ was the supreme pur- pose of his life : he gave up all for it; he bore all things for it; he " took pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in di.stresses, for Christ's sake." * Yet his message wins ten, but alienates a huni r." f " The Son of Go * loved me, and gave Himself for meJ'X "Christ hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us."§ He "loved the church, and gave Himself for it." || Such is Paul's account of the relation of Christ to the world, in His sufferings and death. III. On the other hand, he represents Him as sustaining, in the Atonement of His death, a relation to God. Three particulars may be named : 1. He dies by God's appointment. "It is appointed unto men once to die ;" but in the view of St. Paul, everything con- nected with the death of Christ, — the end, the time, the means, the circumstances, — Is by divine decree. He "gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father." ^ " God hath appointed" the end, "to obtain salvation," and the means, "by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us." ** God made Him the sinner's substitute, and laid upon Him the burden of sin and its atoning woe: for "He hath made Him to be sin for us."tt God appointed the whole course and character of the Redeeming history : for " when the fulness of the time was come, God sent 1 » 4 *Gal. i. 4. 1 2 Cor. viii. 9, J Gal. ii. 20. II Eph. V. 25. if Gal. i. 4. ** 1 Thess. v. 9, 10. § Eph. V. 2. tt 2 Cor. V. 21. i ■) * « » 4 Saint Paul's Doctrine op thk Atonemrnt. 21 forth His Son, nmdeof a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that wore under the law."* 2. He dies as the renutt and expreftmon of the love of God to man. **(Uk\ commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for U8."t 3. He dies to illustrate and honour thej^istice of God, and so to make possible the exercise of meroy coward sinful men : " Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God : to declare at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." | The full consideration of this great passage is deferred to a subsequent stage of the discussion. Meanwhile, the foregoing may, I think, be called a complete summing and an accurate classification of the Pauline passages relating to the Atonement. It is, perhaps, liable to the charge of being commonplace, and of being based on old and familiar interpretations of the Sacred Text. It may, on that account, be more confidently claimeci for it that it represents the mind of the Apostle, than if it rested on novelties of exegesis. Recent attempts in our own language, elaborate and ingenious as some of them have been, to put new meanings into the Apostle's words, in the interest of modern theories of the Atonement, confirm a remark of that great philologist and exegete, Heinrich Meyer, with reference to the theological literature of Germany : " Long experience and observation in this field of scientific inquiry have taught me that — after there have been expended upon the New Testament, the labours of the learning, the acuteness, the mastery of Scripture, and the pious insight of eighteen centuries — new interpretations, undiscerned hitherto by the minds most convers- ant with such studies, are destined, as a rule, speedily to perish and be deservedly forgotten. I am distrustful of such exegetical discoveries, and those of the present day are not of a kind to lessen my distrust." § *Gal.iv.4,5. fRora.v. 8. See also Titus ii. 11-14 ; iii. 4-7. X Romans iii. 25, 26. § Meyer : Com. on Corinthians, Clark's Trans., vol. 1, p. ix. note. i Ji2 Saint Paul's Doctrine of the Atonement. IV. In passages included in the foregoing summary. St. Paul dchoribes the atoning work of Christ by several general terms; each of which gathers up some of the particulars already specified, while giving prominence perhaps to one; and all of which taken together present a very full view of his doctrine of the Atonement. ]. One of these general terms is Sacrifice, the comparison being at one time with sacrifice as appointed by the Mosaic ritual, and, at another, wkh sacrifice as a religious institution of the world. We have the former when, having exhorted the church at Corinth to jturify herself by casting out the old leaven, he adds: " For our Passover also hath been sacrificed, even Cb.rist."* This is a proof of the propriety of the exhortation, and a motive for obeying it. It is not an accidental comparison suggested by the figure of leaven already used, but one founded in a real and divinely intended similitude: it is type and anti-type. Paul says, there is a ^rue analogy between your position and duty, and those of the Hebrew family celebrating the Passover and putting away all leaven from the dwelling ; for theie is not only a general like- ness, but in one particular, and that the chief, your position is the same : " Our passover also has been sacrificed, even Christ." This is not only an illustrative reference, comparing things that differ: it is a descriptive illustration, presenting the feature in which two things are alike. This view of the Apostle's words is justified by other passages of the New Testament; by the coincidence of the Lord's passion with the time of the Paschal celebration ; f by His own substitution of the memorial of His death and the great deliverance it wrought, for the annual com- memoration of the first Passover and the ancient redemption;! by St. John's assertion that the Scriptures which described the offering of the Paschal Lamb were fulfilled in the circumstances of the death of Christ. § i * ^ » t •• *1 (^)r. V. 7. Revised version. JLukexxii. 15-20. fMatt. xxvi. 17. § John xix. 36 Saint Paul's Doctrine of the Atonement. 23 ( * •t What, then, is that feature in which the Paschal Lamb and our liord are alii