salvation is arrived at is the belief that
Jesus was sent by God and did reveal Him, that in Jesus God was present
revealing Himself, and that His Spirit can bring us also to God and to
His likeness.

Still further, and not going beyond the facts apparent in the Gospel, it
is plain that Christ died for us, in the sense that all He did, His
whole life on earth from first to last, was for our sake. He came into
the world, not to serve a purpose of His own, and forward His own
interests, but to further ours. He took upon Him our sins and their
punishment in this obvious sense, that He voluntarily entered into our
life, polluted as it was all through with sin and laden with misery in
every part. Our condition in this world is such that no person can avoid
coming in contact with sin, or can escape entirely the results of sin in
the world. And in point of fact persons with any depth of sympathy and
spiritual sensibility cannot help taking upon them the sins of others,
and cannot help suffering their own life to be greatly marred and
limited by the sins of others. In the case of our Lord this acceptance
of the burden of other men's sins was voluntary. And it is the sight of
a holy and loving person, enduring sorrows and opposition and death
wholly undeserved, that is at all times affecting in the experience of
Christ. It is the sight of this suffering, borne with meekness and borne
willingly, that makes us ashamed of our sinful condition, which
inevitably entails such suffering on the self-sacrificing and holy. It
enables us to see, more distinctly than anything besides, the essential
hatefulness and evil of sin. Here is an innocent person, filled with
love and compassion for all, His life a life of self-sacrifice and
devotion to human interests, carrying in His person infinite benefits to
the race--this person is at all points thwarted and persecuted and
finally put to death. In this most intelligible sense He very truly
sacrificed Himself for us, bore the penalty of our sins, magnified the
law, illustrated and rendered infinitely impressive the righteousness of
God, and made it possible for God to pardon us, and in pardoning us to
deepen immeasurably our regard for holiness and for Himself.

Still further, it is obvious that Christ gave Himself a perfect
sacrifice to God by living solely for Him. He had in life no other
purpose than to serve God. Again and again during His life God expressed
His perfect satisfaction with th