At One Ment by Propitiation 39 of the fundamentals of the faith. I t may be stated in language that a modern theologian finds difficult to accept and would gladly explain away; but it is unquestionably asserted to be no mere at-one-ment in the Ritschlian sense, but a real vicarious offering; a redemptive death; a reconciling death; a sin-bearing death; a sacrificial death for the guilt and sins of men. His death was the death of the Divine Victim. I t was a satis faction for man’s guilt. I t propitiated God. I t satisfied the justice of the Father. The modern mind sees only one side to reconciliation. I t looks at truth from only one standpoint. I t fails to take into account the fact of the wrath of God, and that 1 John 2: 1, and Rom. 3: 25 teach that Christ’s death does something that can only be expressed as “propitiating.” The modern theory ignores one side of the truth, and antagonizes the two complementary sides, and is, therefore, not to be trusted. The Church standards simply set forth, of course, in necessarily imperfect language, the truth as it is in the Scrip tures of God. Perhaps no finer summary of their teaching could be found than the language of the Anglican communion service: “Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, suffered death upon the cross for our redemption, and made there, by His one oblation of Himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.” We finally consider the atonement in its actual power. As we glance through the vistas of history we see it exempli fied in innumerable lives. Paul, Augustine, Francis of Assisi, Luther, Latimer, with a myriad myriad of the sinful, strug gling, weary, despondent, and sin-sick sons of men, laden with the sin-weight, haunted with the guilt-fear, struggling with the sin-force, tormented with the sin-pain, have found in Him who died their peace. “The atonement,” said the great scien- IV. THE PRACTICAL THE POWER OF HIS DEATH - -
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