THE EARLY UNDERSTANDING OF THE CROSS

We need to look now at the meaning given to the death of Christ in Pails Epistles. A helpful way to our understanding is to discuss first the words Paul uses to describe just what Christ has done for us through His atoning death, and then to see how His death has brought about the great plan of salvation. We will consider the terms used in the epistles to describe Christ's work; reconciliation, sanctification~ salvation, redemption, regeneration, new creation, and revelation. Of course these are not all Pauline words in particular. Revelation is found in a number of places in the New Testament. Regeneration is used by Jesus Himself in the Gospels (Matt. 19:28) this word also finds its equivalent in the term 'the restitution of all things' (Acts 3:21). Paul uses these words in a way that we can relate them in context to the Word of Christ. The writer of the New Testament did not use these words lightly. Each of these words were chosen deliberately to bring to our attention the distinct aspects of what CHRIST HAD DONE. It would be hard to fully understand the meaning precisely unless we follow the contexts in which they are used. This does not mean however that when we preach that what we have understood from the New Testament, that we are at liberty to use other words, or to coin new words. It is incorrect to think that we can substitute other words in an attempt to try to understand their meaning; this devalues and is not wise. It has been suggested that for the sake of clarity we can 'change' words i.e. 'justification' and place the word 'acceptance'. Justification is what Christ has done for me; Acceptance is that I received it with joy. These terms that have been chosen are used in the New Testament with a double reference. They each stand for something that has taken place for all men in and through the work of Christ in His life, death and resurrection - something we could call objective in its reference and implications. It is also uniquely individual, intimate and subjective; a happening or effect within the mind and heart, or a word or opportunity offered to the mind and heart of each single person. As we shall see reconciliation is something God has already done for the world before any appeal to accept it reaches the individual. Sanctification is something perfectly worked out for each of us - on the cross Christ perfected for us, and secondly something we take to ourselves by 'putting on Christ'.

Regeneration refers to bringing new life, to be made new as Paul says "Therefore if any man is in Christ Jesus he is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold all things become new" (2 Cor. 5:17).

As we think about the atonement it will be most fruitful to keep clearly in our minds its aspect as an objective work, before we confuse this with what happens within ourselves. We have noted that in the mind and purposes of Jesus that His conflict almost merged into His sacrifice to become one and the same thing and it yet was an important and distinct aspect in itself. So the meaning of our chosen words merge into one another. Words like 'salvation' 'regeneration' and 'redemption' indeed overlap so much that we have to treat them all together. The chief difference between them is that they indicate how Christ meets the different needs of each one of us. Paul's statement of the atonement as an act of reconciliation in 2 Cor. "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things have passed away; behold all things are become new, and all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit that God was reconciling the world unto Himself not imputing their trespasses unto them, and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:17-21). Here Paul is appealing to us to become reconciled to God, strengthened by theological consideration, which we can easily appreciate. However at the same time he shows that the appeal, and our response are only possible because of the reconciling act of God in the giving of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. On the surface Paul's words simply define the desperate plight that lost man is in and the remedy. There has been a total breakdown between God and His creation - man. Paul uses in other places words 'alienation' OR 'enmity' (Col. 1:21). The Old Testament analogy for such alienation of mind and heart between persons is that God's bride leaving Him to become a harlot (Hos. 1:1-2 & Jer. 2:32,37), It would seem that Paul had in mind Jesus' teaching of the son who became a prodigal in a far country (Luke 15:11:32).

Our sin is to mistrust our Father's love, and a pride that causes our will to be independent, and at the same time to squander His loving bounty. What then does reconciliation mean since we are caught with such an attitude to God? It means that, like the prodigal son, we must think again about the true family life of God's family, to which when He made us He intended us to belong. This means that a miracle must happen to us, just as happened to the prodigal son when he 'came to himself'. So the same miracle must happen to us, we must become a 'new creation' just as Jesus performed when He raised the woman's dead son at Nain to life (Luke 7:14- 15). All this is what God has to do for us in reconciling us, but our part in this wondrous offer means a willingness to turn to Him and change forever and return home to our Father. When we receive the reconciliation, we know that we are back, accepted not grudgingly but lovingly with open arms and given not only a meal at the table, but also a seat at the hearth. To 'be reconciled' in our text is exactly the same as to 'be in Christ' and this time it implies a deep personal relationship of faith that is set up between the believer and the risen Christ. There are signs that this union with Christ is real i.e. believer's baptism, participation in the Lords supper and fellowship and worship with God's people. These are evidences of new life, the new creation in which old things have passed away. God - through Christ - reconciled the world unto Himself (2 Cor. 5:19). These words bring out an important aspect of the whole passage. Paul here makes it plain that reconciliation has already taken place in the humanity of Jesus before it affects us. When Jesus offered Himself to God, all His life and finally on the cross in our name and place, He was not only our substitute, He was also our representative and indeed for all mankind (John 3:17). Paul in the Epistle to the Colossians speaks of our having been reconciled to God in Christ in order that we might be presented to God in Christ holy, blameless and unreproveable before Him (Col. 1:22). The thought of reconciliation draws a cry of wonder from us, the representation in Christ and wonder of wonders, the thought of our self-presentation in Christ to God causes us to bow down in reverent worship before His throne. In His act of presenting us to God in His humanity, what God offered in our name was a full response of reconciliation adequate in every aspect. It was the kind of response that we ourselves as truly penitent sinners would have made should the possibility ever have come our way. It was a returning home, a confession in our name that we have been without excuse and wholly in the wrong; and a vow on our behalf that we will live forever in the presence of the Father. Christ has given all this in our name, and has given a pledge in His own name that no one coming through Him would ever be allowed to fall back. This full and adequate response of reconciliation to God's love is perfectly described for us in the parable of the prodigal son, from the moment that 'he came unto himself' and said "I will arise and go to my Father" (Luke 15:17-18). If the parable suggests to us that we can have a part in such a 'coming to ourselves' a repentant heart, new thoughts of God and finding a way home -and all this because Christ has already done it for us, in our name and in our place. When we ourselves come to be 'in Christ' then all that He has already done for us in reconciling us to the Father is realised within us, and we find ourselves through the spirit of son- ship which we receive from Christ, giving ourselves back to God in love, repeating earnestly in our hearts the prayer of pleading, confidence and son- ship that He took up for us on the cross. Thus we are brought through Jesus to the Father. He is as Augustine remarked, the way by which we go as well as the truth to which we come. Him He made to be sin, three or four times we are reminded in the passage that 'reconciliation' as we have described it is only one aspect of what took place in Christ. The stress in the passage on the 'new creation' reminds us to be reconciled this involves for us a change not merely in our dispositions but in our total state of life'. Paul speaks in Colossians of God designing in Christ to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven. The mention that God does not impute to us our trespasses, leads our thought into the doctrine of Justification. The last sentence of our passage reminds us that being reconciled involves both Christ and ourselves in making an exchange, the thought of substitution. Christ in reconciling us to the Father took our sins upon Himself so completely that Paul describes Him as being 'made sin for us'. It is Paul's way of reminding us of the crucial hours on the cross when He drank the cup, and faced the power of darkness, but if He took our sins upon Himself in this way, then exactly in this way He offers to us His righteousness. This then is not fiction, not a mere act of stopping the non-imputation of sin, although this, thank God, is involved also. This righteousness is our possession just as surely as Christ is our possession. It grows within us just as our relationship grows with Christ.

JUSTIFICATION WITHIN THE ATONEMENT

Sin has brought to us a moral crisis as well as a personal one. We have been cut off from God and have truly lost all that fulfils life. We have lost our right-standing before the one that really matters. We have lost the love of the Father, and yet He seeks that we be reconciled to Him. His forgiveness means our restoration to a covenant relationship with Him in Christ. An important passage from Rorn.3 illustrates Paul's thoughts on the atonement as an act of justification "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and open to all them that believe; for all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God has 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 I say, at this time His righteousness that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" (Rom. 3:21-26).

Down through the years God's righteousness has been called into question because of the forbearance with which He has treated human sin. It would seem that sin had never been judged, punished and crushed, as it should have been. In Acts 17:30 Paul in his speech to the men at Athens said "At the times of this ignorance (or disobedience) God winked at". It is true to say that in the Old Testament grim and fearful judgments from God were visited on many nations, and especially Israel; but such judgments were in many ways restrained. History has shown many times that far too often evil men have profited from their evil ways. However if in this context God simply justified all the ungodly without doing something about His reputation for past laxity, would His action not simply encourage the world in its carelessness to truth, honour and right (Hos. 11:9). In justifying the ungodly in Christ, God has vindicated His righteousness once and for all. The death of His dear Son is an act of expiation, fearful costly and bitter in its fulfilment. Surely no one with any understanding of this awful cost and its meaning can ever regard sin as trifling, or God's righteousness as of any shadow of doubt. In the death of His dear Son, God visited human sin with all the judgment it deserves, and Jesus in His acceptance of the cross confirmed such a sentence. In the cross, God from the very throne of heaven, as it were, declared Himself righteous in His justification of those who believe in His Son Jesus. In the death f Christ God not only manifested and upheld what we might term His "legal" or self-vindicating righteousness as the upholder of law, order and stability in the universe, but also He sought to impart His righteousness to those who would trust in His promises and His covenant, God brings to those who seek Him and hunger and thirst for such a gift as He offers. To be justified through the cross is to be justified by His grace freely. The cross is the place where sin is dealt with. In Rom. 3:25 we read "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood! [A.V]. Many of the modern versions change the central word to 'expiation' James Denney gives it as "propitiatory value". The Greek word, which causes difficulty, is hilasterien, which can literally mean 'mercy seat'. From this we can assume that the death of Christ is treated here as a sacrifice and the cross is regarded as the place where sin has been dealt with as in the temple. Perhaps a further question is at issue here, had Paul in mind the idea of Christ's death being a means of meeting or pacifying God's anger, or of dealing with it so that it no longer falls on those for whom the sacrifice is made. In this case the word propitiation would be the most suitable. Expiation implies that God has done away with sin itself. So it would seem that the Old Testament generally regarded the sacrifices as an expiation of sin rather than propitiatory God. The New Testament use of a word is not entirely decided by the Old Testament, and the case for using propitiation here can be strongly supported by the fact that the context in which the passage occurs speaks much of the "wrath of God" yet Paul, when he uses the phrase, is referring to justification and justice and in this more immediate context we would tend to think of Christ as suffering a penalty for sin, rather than the ~~wrath of God". Of course Christ in His cross does in some way deal with the "wrath of God" but Paul uses this in connection with His work of salvation. As to the meaning of the word expiation, the passage before us brings it out most clearly that what Christ bore on Calvary was the penalty for human sin. He expiated our sin by receiving in Himself its judicial consequences. What happened to Him was an act of judgment in which all our sin, having been totally condemned, was punished and put away. Thus it was dealt with righteously. It was with this thought in his mind that Paul later in the same letter could put the good news so confidently. "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). In the Old Testament, sin is shown to be always at work in an endless variety of forms, enslaving and destroying. In the form of idolatry it dominated the life of the people of Cod from generation to generation, corrupted every aspect of their moral life, and robbed God of their service. In the form of perverted sex it made the city of Sodom a place of unspeakable cruelty, oppression and depravity. In the form of greed it caught up the rich into a financial manipulation and social ordering of affairs that crushed and deprived the poor even of their means of livelihood. In its many brutal forms it brought all the many atrocities of wars.

In the lives of individuals too, sin was always ready to take over, with devastating effect. Ahab well intentioned at first, was finally a destroyer of truth and goodness in his land. David gave way to lust and sowed the seeds of bitter tragedy for all his growing family. The incidents from the Old Testament no doubt formed the background for Paul's thinking. He never forgot the comment of the Old Testament writer on Ahab that he "sold himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord". The power to which he sold himself was simply that of an evil personal force stronger than himself and determined to pervert him in every way (1 Kings 22:25). Paul identified his own state, in common with all other men, as being 'sold under sin' (Ram. 7:14). He recognised that in his 'flesh' i.e. what he was by nature, that sin indwelling in all that he was, and found that sin reigned in every aspect of his life (Rom. 7:4, 17-18,20). Early in his life, in the form of pride, morality and religion, he was separated from God and was a vicious enemy of truth and goodness that was in Christ, and was the architect of destruction to the people of God. Paul in his analysis of what had gone wrong with humanity did not hesitate to name other enemies who held people in bondage. Besides sin there was the devil and death. In his own experience he also named the law as belonging to the same company, although it must be said that the law could be a schoolmaster to make us aware of sins. When he spoke of these enemies he didn't see them as abstracts but as awful realities, as demonic powers deceiving and tyrannising men, bringing them "the more they yielded, into deeper bondage, and into the realm of utter despair". This is the background that Paul used when he spoke about the atonement as the 'liberating' act of redemption, which is in Christ Jesus. The curse of the law, Paul saw that when Jesus came to deliver mankind from the power of sin, the darkest and most sinister aspects of human bondage and the evilness were revealed vividly.

Those in authority at the time when they engineered the crucifixion did so in the name of the 'law', which in the traditions of their religion was as holy as the temple and the name of Jehovah. They saw Jesus as the great threat to the very core of their religious life. He had shown himself to be far superior to their tradition, which they believed came unchanged and unchangeable from God through Moses. No doubt they had persuaded Judas that in betraying Jesus he was upholding the very finest traditions of the law. Paul clearly saw that those who put the redeemer to death, not only covered what they did with the cloak of the law, but also found in the same law the justification for their action. Paul from his observations found insight into the Christian faith. This was that the powers of evil in extending their bondage over humanity did so from behind the law. Paul wrote, "The power of sin is in the law" (1 Cor. 15:56). The powers of sin turned the law into one of the greatest potential enemies of all that was Christian.

Looking back on the history of the nation Paul began to see a long established connection between sin and the law. Sin was in the world long before Moses gave the law, but when the law came sin was so entrenched in human nature that it seemed to provoke it more. Originally the law was given to the children of Israel for a good purpose. It was a gift of God to His people. It not only revealed His will but something of His nature in order that His people might be able to understand His loving purposes for them. The parchment on which a summary of the Ten Commandments was written was kept in the Ark of the Covenant in the temple. It was there to help to maintain a proper distance and a true communion between God and His people. It could inspire fear in those who believed in God, and restrain their lawless tendencies. In itself it was beneficial and holy (Rom. 7:13-16). The law brought a twofold curse on those under it - both because of its goodness and in spite of its goodness. It brought a curse on those who failed to keep it, and it terrified them. It brought a more dreadful curse on those who made it their refuge from God, and became the servants of the evil they found there. Paul spoke in his letter to the Galatians about redemption from the curse of the law. The Galatian Christians after starting out well and putting their trust in Christ alone for salvation had begun to think that they could make great progress in the Christian way if they put some trust in legal achievement and observances. In two short passages, Paul to put them right referred them back to Christ's work on the cross, effecting redemption from the curse of the law. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal. 3:13-14). Even so, when we were children we were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law. To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons and because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying "Abba Father" (Gal. 4:3-6). We must look at both passages together to get Paul's meaning. Jesus born under the law like everyone else was different in that He kept the law, was different also in that He alone suffered its full curse. No -one should have escaped its curse except He alone- and He alone took it. This is our liberation from the penalty of the law. Because it fell on Him it does not fall on us. We are also delivered from the power of the accusation of the law to terrify us.

Because the law accused and penalised Jesus, it proved it false. By taking on Himself the curse of the law, Jesus broke the power of the law. Both our previous verses describe Jesus as effecting between us and Himself an exchange of status and condition. We were slaves but now have received the adoption as sons. He was the Son and free, but He accepted slavery under the law, which bound us. He took the curse so that we might enjoy the blessings. it is important to notice here that Paul links up the death of Christ with His birth. The shadow of Calvary falls over the cradle. We come now to the word which only occurs three times in our New Testament 'Propitiation' Rom. 3:25, '1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10. This to us seems rather surprising seeing that it is used many times in the Greek version of the Old Testament and often translated by our English word 'Atonement'. We would think that as it was used in the Old Testament so much that the writers would have done so in the New Testament. However this is not so, but of course this does not mean that the atoning work of Christ is not to be seen in terms of propitiation. Many times this concept appears in the Old Testament in relation to the sacrificial rituals and it is important to notice that the New Testament applies to the work of Christ in these same terms, and the fact that the New Testament regards the Levitical ritual as providing the pattern for the sacrifice of Christ. In other words the idea of propitiation is interwoven with the Old Testament ritual that we cannot come to any other conclusion that the Old Testament sacrifices and Christ's death on the cross are perfectly expressed in the word 'propitiation In the Hebrew of the Old Testament the meaning of the word 'propitiation' is in the context of 'cover'. In connection with this covering there are in particular three things to be noted:

1. It is in reference to sin that the covering takes place,
2. The effect of the covering is cleansing and forgiveness,
3. It is before the Lord that the covering and its effect take place (Lev. 4:35, 10:17).
4. This means that sin creates a situation in relation to the Lord and a situation that makes the covering necessary.

We see that it is toward God that both sin and its covering need to be appreciated, and it is through this that the person who has sinned and come to God is covered in the sight of God.
There is only after careful thought, only one construction that we can place on this provision of sacrificial ritual in the Old Testament and that is that sin offends a holy God. This fact brings the wrath of God upon those sins and vengeance is the reaction of the holiness of God to sin, but the covering is the means provided for the removal of Divine displeasure, which the sin brings. This then brings us face to face with the Greek rendering in both the Old and New Testament of propitiation. To propitiate means to "pacify" "placate" "appease". Very simply the doctrine of propitiation means that Christ propitiated the wrath of God and rendered God propitious to His people. Perhaps no tenet respecting the atonement has been more criticized than this one. It has been indicated as involving a mythological conception of God, and as having caused conflict within the Godhead. It has been charged that this doctrine shows the Son as winning over the Father to clemency and love when the fact is that the love of God is the very fount from which the atonement springs. These criticisms have failed to understand or appreciate some of the important distinctions. First, to love and be propitious are not convertible terms. It is wrong to think that the doctrine of propitiation is that which regard that which causes or constrains divine love. It is deplorable then, going to claim that propitiation of divine wrath does prejudice or is incompatible to the fullest recognition; the atonement is the provision of divine love. Propitiation is not a way of turning the wrath of God into love. Divine wrath is effected in the expiatory work of Christ, and is the provision of God's eternal and unchangeable love. It would be wrong to say that a wrathful God's eternal and unchangeable love. It would be wrong to say that a wrathful God is made loving, it is another thing to say the wrathful God is loving. However it is perfectly true that the wrath by which He is wrathful is propitiated through the cross. This propitiation then is the fruit of the divine love that provided it. "Herein is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). This propitiation is then the ground on which the divine love operates and the channel through which it flows. "Whom God has sent forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to show His righteousness that He might Himself be just and the justifier of Him that hath faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:25-26).

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