spared not His only Son the natural
consequences of obedience in a world of sin. The Son spared not
Himself, but shed His blood--the 'blood which is the life'--at the
Father's will. This is the one full, perfect, and sufficient
sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.
It is the sacrifice offered in the power of nothing less than 'eternal
spirit.' Henceforth, then, no man can come to God in faith in Jesus,
in the faith which even at its root is moral allegiance, and think
lightly either of God's holiness or of his own or others' sin. God
forgives him his sin, but it cost Him much to forgive it. The Cross is
the measure of the antipathy between God and sin.

And it is well to notice how the great {151} thought of this passage is
made intelligible to the ordinary English reader again, only by the
Revised Version. In the old Bible the word signifying 'passing over'
of sins is translated 'remission'--the very thing with which it is in
fact contrasted. It is not an exaggeration to say that, in this and
very many places of the epistles, the Revised Version for the first
time renders the thought of the apostles again intelligible to the
English reader. And if the Revised Version is not popular, as the
booksellers tell us it is not, this is, I fear, only a sign that the
majority of English Christians do not really care to _understand_ the
meaning of the message with which, as a matter of words, they are so
familiar.

iii.

The metaphor of 'redemption' and the metaphor of 'propitiation'
complete and check one another. As in the parables it is only the
exact point of comparison between the earthly and the heavenly which
can be pressed for the spiritual lesson, so it is with these
metaphorical words, which are in fact parables compressed. The word
'redemption' is meant to suggest a price paid by God, or by Christ, for
our being {152} made free; it is the price of the Son's death. He
'gives His life a ransom for many.' The word 'propitiation' again is
meant to suggest that the offering of the life in sacrifice was the
means to win for us forgiveness from God. So far, both metaphorical
words have their clear and harmonious meaning. But in old days the
metaphor of redemption was worked out by Origen and others beyond the
exact point of the original suggestion. The price, they argued, must
have been paid to the enemy who held us captive; i.e. Christ's life was
offered as a price to the