es a real difference
to God, and that even in forgiving God treats that difference _as_
real, and cannot do otherwise. He cannot ignore it, or regard it as
other or less than it is; if He did so, He would not be more gracious
than He is in the Atonement, He would cease to be God. It is Anselm's
profound grasp of this truth which, in spite of all its inadequacy in
form, and of all the criticism to which its inadequacy has exposed it,
makes the _Cur Deus Homo_ the truest and greatest book on the Atonement
that has ever been written. It is the same truth of a divine necessity
for the Atonement which is emphasised by St. Paul in the third chapter
of Romans, where he speaks of Christ's death as a demonstration of
God's righteousness. Christ's death, we may paraphrase his meaning, is
an act in which (so far as it is ordered in God's providence) God does
justice to Himself. He does justice to His character as a gracious
God, undoubtedly, who is moved with compassion for sinners: if He did
not act in a way which displayed His compassion for sinners, He would
_not_ do justice to Himself; there would be no [Greek] _endeixis_ of
His [Greek] _dikaiosune_: it would be in abeyance: He would do Himself
an injustice, or be untrue to Himself. It is with this in view that we
can appreciate the arguments of writers like Diestel and Ritschl, that
God's righteousness is synonymous with His grace. Such arguments are
true to this extent, that God's righteousness includes His grace. He
could not demonstrate it, He could not be true to Himself, if His grace
remained hidden. We must not, however, conceive of this as if it
constituted on our side a claim upon grace or upon forgiveness: such a
claim would be a contradiction in terms. All that God does in Christ
He does in free love, moved with compassion for the misery and doom of
men. But though God's righteousness as demonstrated in Christ's
death--in other words, His action in consistency with His
character--includes, and, if we choose to interpret the term properly,
even necessitates, the revelation of His grace, it is not this only--I
do not believe it is this primarily--which St. Paul has here in mind.
God, no doubt, would not do justice to Himself if He did not show His
compassion for sinners; but, on the other hand--and here is what the
apostle is emphasising--He would not do justice to Himself if He
displayed His compassion for sinners in a way which made light of sin,
which ign