The Atonement 73 Yet the Christian thinker will never cease to seek for an adequate theory of the atonement, and it may be well for us to consider some of the conditions with which it is necessary for him to comply in order to succeed in casting any new light upon this divine mystery. TH E ADEQUACY OF SUBSTITUTIONAL ATONEMENT 1. Any theory of the atonement, to be adequate, must proceed from a fair and natural interpretation of all the Bibli cal statements on the subject. It must not pick and choose among them. It must not throttle any into silence. 2. It must make use of the thought which other genera tions have found helpful. It must not discard these old ma terials. Though they are not a completed building, they consti tute a foundation which we can not afford to destroy. They may be covered over with an accumulation of verbal infelici ties from which we must set them free; but whoever would advance our knowledge of the peace made for us by Christ must not disdain to build upon them. 3. It must take account of all the moral attributes of God, for all are concerned in our salvation. It will find the chief motive of the atonement in the love for God, who “so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son” (John 3:16). It will find one necessity of the atonement in the righteousness of God, who “set forth Christ to be a pro pitiation, through faith in His blood, to show His righteous ness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God; for the showing of His righteous ness at this present season; that He might Himself be just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:25, 26). It will find one effect of the atonement in the aversion from man of the wrath of God, the product of love and righteousness outraged by sin: “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, shall we be saved from wrath through Him.”
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