A remarkably original work was issued several years ago by the Rev. John M'Leod Campbell, on the subject of the A. His views are as follows: The work of the Son of God, who came to do and did the will of His Father, must, in view of the deliver ance which he wrought, be regarded as twofold : first. as dealing with man on behalf of God, and second, as dealing with God on behalf of man.
In dealing with man on behalf of God, Christ revealed to us the Father in his rela tion to a sinful world, showed us what our sins were to God, vindicated in the world the Father's name, and witnessed to the excellency of that will against which we were rebelling, In thus revealing the will of the Father towards sinful men, he necessarily became a man of sorrow and suffering, but these arose naturally out of what lie was, and the relation in which he stood to those for whom he suffered; and to the holiness and love of his very nature must we refer their awful intensity and immeasurable amount, lie suffered what he suffered just through seeing sin and sinners with God's eyes, and feeling in reference to them with God's heart. By what he suffered, he con demned sin, and revealed the wrath of God against it. His holiness and love taking the form of suffering, compose the very essence and adequacy of his sacrifice for sin.
Again, in dealing with God on behalf of man, the oneness of mind with the Father which towards man took the form of condemnation of sin, became in his dealing with the Father in relation to us a perfect confession of our sins, which was a perfect amen in humanity to the judgment of God on the sin of man. Such an amen was due in the truth of all things, due on our behalf, though we could not render it, due from him as in our nature and our true brother. He who was the truth, could not be in humanity and not utter it; and it was necessarily a first step in dealing with the Father on our behalf. This confession of our sins by him who, as the son of God and the son of man in one person, could perfectly realize the evil of man's alienation, was a peculiar develop ment of the holy sorrow in which lie bore the burden of our sins; and which, like his sufferings in confessing his Father before men, had a severity and intensity of its own. But apart from the sufferings present in that confession, this amen from the depths of the humanity of Christ to the divine condemnation of sin, isnecessarily conditioned by the reception of the full apprehension and realization of the wrath of God, as well as of the sin against which it comes forth into his soul and spirit, into the bosom of the divine humanity, and, so receiving it, he responds to it with a perfect response, and in that per fect response he absorbs it. For that response has all -the elements of a perfect repent ance in humanity, for all the sin of man—a perfect sorrow—a perfect contrition—all the elements of such a repentance, and that in absolute perfection; all—excepting the per sonal consciousness of sin—and by that perfect response or amen to the mind of God, in relation to sin, is the wrath of God rightly met, and that is awarded to divine justice which is its due, and could alone satisfy it.
This confession of the world's sin by the head and representative of humanity, was followed up by his intercession as a part of the full response of the mind of the Son to the mind of the Father—a part of that utterance in humanity which propitiated the divine mercy by time righteous way in which it laid hold of the hope for man which was in God. " He bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." The Rev. F. D. Maurice professed to hold a purely biblical theology, as opposed to the theologies of consciousness, which he repudiates. His doctrine of the A. is the
answer which the Bible gives to the demands of a sin-smitten conscience. A sinner requires, and is content to be told on the authority of Scripture, that the Son of God has taken away sin. This message from God is the gospel for all men. The sinner wants to be assured that God has spoken, that he has declared himself the reconciler, and desires to be shown how and in whom he has accomplished that work on his behalf.
To this question—How and in whom the work of reconciliation has been accom plished ?—Mr. Maurice replied, in effect and almost in words as follows: The will of God is set forth in the Bible to be a will which is good to all, and the ground of all that is right, true, just, and gracious; that it also sets forth the Son of God as being one in will, purpose, and substance with the Father, and that his whole life on earth was an exhibition of and submission to his Father's will; that the Son of God was Lord of men, time root and head of humanity, and the source of all light and righteousness in man: that being thus one with God and one with man, he brought the will of God into our nature, fulfilled it in our nature perfectly, and carried it down into the lowest condition into which it had fallen through that in the fulfillment of this will in our nature, as its head, he shared its sufferings, enduring that wrath, or punishment. which proceeded from holy love, thus realizing, on the one hand, the sins of the world, and on the other, the con suming fury of the holiness of the love of God—with an anguish which only a perfectly pure and holy being, who is also a perfectly sympathizing and gracious being, can feel: that the man Christ Jesus was for this reason the object of his Father's continual com placency—a complacency fully drawn out by the death of the cross—which so perfectly brought out to view the uttermost power of self-sacrifice which lay hidden in the divine love, and consequently that he exhibited humanity, in its head, atoned for, reconciled. In this way, to Mr. Maurice, is Christ "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Finally, Dr. Trench, who may be regarded as fairly representing the prevalent views of the more devout and thoughtful men of the present day holding orthodox opinions, speaks as follows: "The spint, of man cries out for something deeper titan repentance, confession of sin, amendment of life; something which shall reach further back; which shall not be clogged with sinful infirmities, as his own repentance even at the very best must be. Men cry for some work to rest upon, which shall not be their work, but which shall he God's; perfect., complete. They feel that there must be something which God has wrought, not so much in them as for them; they yearn for this, for A., propitiation, ransom, and purged from dead works by the blood of sprinkling; a rock to flee to which is higher than they, than their repentance, than their faith, than their obedi ence, even than their new life in the spirit. Now, this rock is Christ; and John the Baptist pointed to this rock, when, to those about him who longed after more than amendment of life. he exclaimed, in the memorable words: 'Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.'" Christ's sacrifice was vicarious—he died not merely for the good of, but in the room and in the stead of others, tasted death for them. He did this of his own free will. He Saw that nothing else would overcome their sinful perversity and willful obduracy, and that this would be effectual to do so.