CHAPTER V THE ATONEMENT* BY PROFESSOR FRANKLIN JOHNSON, D. D., LL. D., AUTHOR OF "OLD-TESTAMENT QUOTATIONS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT,” ETC., CHICAGO, ILL. The Christian world as a whole believes in a substitu tionary atonement. This has been its belief ever since it began to think. The doctrine was stated by Athanasius as clearly and fully as by any later writer. All the great historic creeds which set forth the atonement at any length set forth a sub stitutionary atonement. All the great historic systems of theol ogy enshrine it as the very Ark of the Covenant, the central object of the Holy of Holies. While the Christian world in general believes in a substi tutionary atonement, it is less inclined than it once was to regard any existing theory of substitution as entirely adequate. It accepts the substitution of Christ as a fact, and it tends to esteem the theories concerning it only as glimpses of a truth larger than all of them. It observes that an early theory found the necessity of the atonement in the veracity of God, that a later one found it in the honor of God, and that a still later one found it in the government of God, and it deems all these speculations helpful, while it yearns for further light. GROUNDS OF BEL IEF IN SUBSTITUTION I f we should ask those who hold this doctrine on what grounds they believe that Christ is the substitute for sinners, there would be many answers, but, perhaps, in only two of them would all voices agree. The first o f these grounds ♦Copyrighted by the “Homiletic Review,” and published bv permission of Funk & Wagnalls Co. 64
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