5. The importance of biblical ideas regarding Christ's death
When we reflect that all Christ's statements are expressions of his own consciousness, the Christian who understands their meaning, will say, as the Christian astronomer did when he discovered certain laws of the solar system, "My God, I think my thoughts with you." This cannot he a trifling matter for theology. Yet many today who exalt the inner life at the expense of true and right teaching are not slow to say that it does not matter whether Christ's death is regarded as what provides the ground for pardon or as what merely assures us of it. They do not want to know how atonement was made. They avoid defining terms and all biblical precision of thought, as if it could matter little to a Christian, whether the death of Jesus is considered to be a sacrifice on behalf of others or an expression of God's love, whether it displays the evil of sin or merely signifies the end of the Old Testament sacrifices. For them, such matters are mere theological debates or human speculations, from which they self-righteously stand aloof when such things are discussed. This process of unlearning, of leaving everything uncertain does not spring from a commendable zeal for truth but from a wish to blunt its edge. It is as if they are saying that the Bible teaches us nothing on the subject. Such is the watchword of those who tend to be opposed to clearly-defined views of Christian teaching or Bible truth.
Our duty is the very reverse of this. We must acquire, as far as we can, sharply defined ideas of the atonement from the Gospels themselves. In our judgement they are far superior to any human wisdom on this subject. Whatever cannot be established from the Bible or is undermined by its teaching must go. We will not lose out for that. On the other hand, whatever really is taught, must be gathered by comparing text with text, the less obvious statements being put alongside the clear and easy ones. That is how to think our thoughts with God.
It is no less common either today for some people to allege that the death of Jesus was his fate or fortune rather than a spontaneous sacrifice in the proper sense. Such writers claim that Christ fell victim to his holy and ardent zeal, while preaching religious and moral truth and discharging his high commission as the Herald of forgiveness. His death thus becomes a merely historical event or occurrence that, it is alleged, served only to give a weighty confirmation to the declaration of absolute forgiveness that he preached. This is an insipid half truth that may seem right but that is essentially wrong. It offers a certain spiritual cache to those who are hostile to the idea of an atonement and who say that only love is found in God. They see Jesus only as a preacher or herald of salvation and not as a true Saviour in the fullest sense. They will even extol him as Prince of Life and as Giver of Life but they do not connect this with a price paid or a ransom offered. When people give prominence to Christ's example or to the pattern of his life, there is inevitably an influence that operates like a trap. We will test this view, a view that makes strong pretensions to spirituality, by the very words of our Lord himself. For now, we simply draw attention to the danger this viewpoint poses. It can never deliver the mind from legalism, from self-reliance or self-dependence. It perverts the spiritual life and makes the Lord's example a pretext, if not an outright argument, for fostering a certain self-justifying confidence. This is the vortex into which every philosophy is irresistibly drawn if it offers no objective atonement or no perfect plea on which the soul can lean. Nothing carries the mind off from self-dependence like the atonement. Nothing so exalts grace and humbles the sinner. This is why God appointed that acceptance and forgiveness should come only through a Mediator and by depending on his merits. Hence the concern of the apostles and of the whole Bible at this point. The apparent spirituality of any tendency to go another way will never be compensation enough for this danger.
Those who lay the greatest weight on Christ's person or his incarnation, often comparatively make light of his cross. Some, it is true, concede a little by saying that if any find terms such as penalty, price, suretyship and the satisfaction of God's justice helpful then they are welcome. However, the very way this is said calls in question their necessity. In fact, however, whenever any real progress in spiritual knowledge is made it will involve a growing appreciation of Christ's atonement as well as of his person. What happened to the disciples before and after his crucifixion proves this. The more fully we enter into Christ's truly human experience, treading his chequered course of joy and sorrow, the more lively our understanding of his curse-bearing life and of his penal death will be.
We will also keep in view attacks on the atonement by Socinians and other heretics. Our main aim, however, is to bring out positive truth and teaching that will build people up rather than merely score points against our opponents. Our object is positive truth rather than refuting errors.
In short, we are not asking what men believe or have taught but rather what Christ has said. Our main concern will be to examine this question and to attempt to enter into his consciousness.
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