d parts,'
says the Psalmist. 'Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.' 'If
thou, Lord, shouldst be extreme to mark what is done amiss, Lord, who
may abide it?'[6]

[1] Dr. King (The Psalms in Three Collections, &c.: Cambridge, 1898)
has remarked that Ps. xiv. 1-3 closely resembles the general
condemnation of 'all flesh upon the earth' in Gen. vi. 5, 12.

[2] Cf. above ver. 4, from Ps. xxxii.

[3] See Ps. li. 4; Job xxxii. 2; Prov. xvii. 15; Isa. v. 23; Matt. xi.
19; Luke vii. 29; x. 29; xvi. 15.

[4] Cf. Dan. ix. 4-20.

[5] The word for 'fall short' in ver. 23 is a 'middle' verb, and
apparently implies not only failure in point of fact, but conscious
failure. Thus in Luke xv. 14, the prodigal son begins to _feel_ his
destitution (middle). But in Matt. xix. 20, the rich young man asks,
'What, as a matter of fact, is wanting to me' (active)? See Gifford,
or S. and H. _in loc._

[6] Cf. app. note C, on recent reactions from the teaching about hell.

{130}

DIVISION II. CHAPTERS III. 21-IV. 25.

_Justification by faith only._

Sec. 1. (III. 21-31.)

_Christ our propitiation._

Now we have been brought to recognize the true state of the case as
between ourselves and God--the facts about ourselves as we are in God's
sight. We were meant for fellowship in the divine glory. 'The glory
of God,' says an old Father, 'is the living man: the life of man is the
vision of God.' But, meant for fellowship in the divine glory, we have
fallen short of it and have come to appreciate our failure. We have
sinned, and that universally and wilfully. We are such that God cannot
accept us as we are: the 'day of His appearing' could be for us but a
'day of wrath.' And in this dire situation we are helpless. We can
supply no remedy. 'Can the Ethiopian change his {131} skin, or the
leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do
evil[1].' But to acknowledge this--to abandon the claim so dear to the
human heart, that we can be independent and manage our own life
successfully: to repudiate all our false pride, and to come before God
all of us on the same level, confessing our failure and our sin--this
is to let man's necessity be God's opportunity, and to open the
flood-gates of the divine righteousness. God is righteous in all the
richest meaning of that word, and that righteousness of His He is now
extending to us and giving us admittance into it. And this He does
purely and simply