This object was grandly accomplished in our Savior's propitiatory death. But the vindication of God's righteousness was not the only result of the sufferings on the cross; it was merely the primary result. In the death of Christ, God not only upheld the requirements of his righteous government, but also made a wonderful exhibition of his own holiness of his hatred for sin as the most abhorrent of all evils and of his love for the world of mankind for whose salvation he devoted his only begotten Son to the sufferings of the cross. It may even be held that the death of our Redeemer has greater influence as a manifestation of the divine love than it has as a satisfaction of the divine justice. But these aspects of the Atonement on Calvary do not conflict with one another. They are complementary to each other, and are apprehended together in the act of saving faith. THE SUFFERING SAVIOR Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the World.-JOHN 1:29. What sore distress, what suffering That he the peace of God might bring Great was his garden agony; 'Mid pleading cries the blood drops fall; And dreadful was the ribaldry In Pilate's judgment hall. His gentle hands with thongs are bound; With plaited thorns his head is crowned; Forth from the stony judgment hall To be the rabble's spectacle; Arraigned again, the Savior hears Redeemer of the world, what woes, O glorious, suffering Son of God Thy slave, bought with thy sacred blood XII EXPLANATORY OF DIFFICULTIES IN opposition to the view that God's law is set aside when believers are forgiven, the words of our Savior may be quoted, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled" (Matt. 5:17). The plain answer to this objection is that the law calling for the death of the sinner has been set aside in the case of believers, tho we can speak of it as being fulfilled if we mean that it has not been disregarded and that the purpose of it has been accomplished in a better way than it would have been through the death of the sinner. VERBAL CONTRADICTIONS Here let us note how a natural use of words leads to various contradictions when we are speaking of Christ's Atonement. It is said that he died instead of us and that he did not die instead of us; that he suffered as a sinner and that he did not suffer as a sinner; that he bore the penalty of our sins and that he did not bear that penalty; that our guilt was transferred to him and that it was not transferred to him. These verbal oppositions arise because the positive statements employ a secondary use of language to set forth what would not be true in strict literality; while the negative statements use words in a primary way. Lately we heard an eloquent bishop declare from the pulpit that Christ did not die instead of sinners, but only for them, that is, on their behalf. He must have meant that our Savior did not undergo the same kind of death and ruin to which sinners are exposed, but a death peculiarly his own, with the object, however, that believers should not perish but have everlasting life. While that is true, is it not also proper to say that Christ died instead of us? He died that we should not die; in this sense his death took the place of ours. Again, it is incorrect to say that our Lord suffered as a sinner. He suffered as a righteous man that sinners might not suffer. Stating the truth carefully we say that he suffered as if he had been a sinner and to show what suffering sin deserves. Only this is taught when we are told that God regarded and treated him as a |