CHAPTER IV. THE TYPICAL SACRIFICES OF THE LAW. 6 IN studying the sacrifices of the law, and the language of the Old Testament concerning them, not only must it be remembered that they were only shadows, and not the very images' (Heb. x. 1), of the truth which had yet to be revealed, but the circumstances under which they were observed must be taken into consideration. In those sacrifices, forgiveness of sin is the only moral effect that was then regarded, because it was not possible for any other view to be taken of at-one-ment at that time. Under the law men were restrained from sin by the fear of the punishment which would follow it, but such restraint did not change the spirits of men, nor was it holiness or real reconciliation to God. It was restraint, and not redemption. The redemption could not be revealed until Christ had lived and died, and therefore the spiritual principle, the reason and effect of the future at-one-ment, was necessarily hidden. Indeed, if the meaning and intention of Christ's death is wholly spiritual-viz., its spiritual effects on the hearts and spirits of true believers, or its power of redeeming them from all iniquity-then that meaning and intention must still be hidden from the world, who cannot receive the Spirit of truth,' and must still be foolishness to the natural man.' To all such, Christianity is only a new law, and being ignorant of, or not believing in, the true nature and character of Christ's death, they are without that power which springs from true belief, and which the Apostle calls the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth' (Rom. i. 16), changing their hearts and spirits, and conforming them to the spiritual image of Christ Himself; and without this they must still, like the Jew, be under the law-that is to say, forced to base their hopes of salvation on what they do or do not. To all such, whether Jew or Gentile, the aspect of the at-one-ment will be its effect in obtaining the forgiveness of sin, and to this effect, therefore, the rites and sacrifices under the law, which foreshadowed the at-one-ment, were necessarily limited, and it was consequently the only effect referred to by the Old Testament Scriptures. It was very necessary also that mankind should be deeply convinced of the terrible consequences of the sins they love, and of their absolute inability, in spite of fear of punishment and hope of reward, to restrain themselves in sin, before they would be willing to give heed to the means of redemption from it; and until a man is so convinced and humbled by the consequent sense of utter helplessness, he can hardly be prevailed upon to give such means of redemption even thought or consideration. . This was the reason, therefore, for leaving the world four thousand years under the law. For the pagans, so far as their knowledge of right and wrong went, were also under the law, and the bloody sacrifices and expiations under which they groaned, were but the expressions of the human conscience trembling under the anticipation of punishment as the desert of sin; while the very misery which sprang from their religious system itself, and from the sins it permitted and gave rise to, was so evident a manifestation of the sin in the world that the more thoughtful revolted against that state of things, and the world was prepared for the coming Redeemer. Yet there was no real ground for the idea of expiation in the Old Testament Scriptures. In the typical sacrifices the broad fact was shadowed forth, even although not recognised at the time, that the Redeemer of mankind should not be a mighty king or conqueror possessing material power, but the helpless victim of man himself, whose power, therefore, not then possible to reveal, could only be moral and spiritual. In the complete consumption of the body of the victim was foreshown Christ's perfect death unto sin, His crucifixion of the body of sin, being Himself at once priest and victim. So also in the ritual of the two scapegoats: the one which was slain typified the death of the Redeemer; the other, bearing on him the sin of the people into the wilderness or place not inhabited, typified the fact that Christ would bear the weight and burden, without the guilt, of human iniquity, forsaken apparently by both God and man.* These things simply foreshadowed the circumstances of Christ's death, and do not in themselves point to any effects resulting from that death. But let the great significance be observed of the ritual character attached to the blood of the slain victim. So holy was this blood, that the same ritual sanctity was attached to the blood of all animals. For the life of the flesh,' said God, is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an at-one-ment for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an at-one-ment for the soul' (Lev. xvii. 11). Now, how was this blood The Apostle refers to this where he says: 'Let us go forth, therefore, without the camp, bearing his reproach' (Heb. xiii. 12, 13); that is to say, just as Christ suffered without the city as a heretic and blasphemer, so must His followers go forth without the city' bearing a similar reproach. made use of in the Jewish ritual ? It was used for cleansing, purifying, sanctifying. Almost all things, says the Apostle, are by the law purged with blood (Heb. x. 22). It was not the agony or suffering of the victim, but the blood, or sacrifice of its life, which had this typical cleansing efficacy. Herein, therefore, is most clearly typified the moral and spiritual efficacy of the blood or death of Christ, not to expiate, but to cleanse from sin. 'Without shedding of blood there is no deliverance'. (aphesis); and no man can be cleansed or delivered from the power of any sin save by the moral effect on his spirit of the death (or blood) of Christ, by which he also, like Christ, is enabled to die unto sin.'* This is yet more clearly typified by the sacrifice of the Passover. The blood of the slain lamb had to be sprinkled on the lintels and doorposts of every dwelling, and when the destroying angel saw it he passed that house over. That household had on it the mark of the blood of the paschal lamb, which typified Christ. It was sprinkled with the reconciling blood. In like manner with the antitype. Christ, says the Apostle, is a propitiation through faith in His blood. It does not say that He is a propitiation through His blood, as if His death in itself was a propitiation for sin; but through faith in His blood, that is, through the effect of His blood or death unto sin, in its moral relation to the individual, or its effect on his heart, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.' Therefore the Apostle compares the blood of bulls and goats, in its ceremonial sanctification of the flesh, to the real and mighty power of the blood or death of Christ, to purge the conscience from dead works to serve the living God,' or to reconcile the sinner to God by delivering him from the power of * See Section iii., Chapter i., 'Spiritual Life: Its Nature,' where it is shown that life, or holiness, and therefore deliverance from sin, is always accompanied by the death of the 'natural' or 'psychical man.' 6 that evil or perverted conscience which can only produce works of spiritual death. For as the Apostle John says, and as will be shown hereafter, The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth' (the believer) from all sin.' He is sprinkled with the blood, i.e., he has become a partaker of the spirit of Christ's death unto sin. 6 For if the effect of the blood of Christ is on the heart and conscience, it follows that there must be a spiritual union, or moral agreement between the believer and Christ, a spiritual participation in His death unto sin; and this also is clearly shadowed forth in the types. In the first place, none of the sacrifices affected the outside world. They were only for the people of God-i.e., for Israel-who, as a nation, was the type of the true people of God in every age, who, whatever their sins, and whatever their punishments in this world on account of them, will never be finally cast away, because united to Christ. Compare Ps. lxxxix. 30-34; Jer. xxxi. 35-37. There is thus a condition implied in, and foreshown by, the typical sacrifices, and that condition is the spiritual relation of men to God. They must be the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.' This condition is still more clearly set forth by the actions of the individual who brought the sin offering. He had to place his hand on the victim's head, an action signifying dependence on, and union and identity with the slain animal, foreshadowing thereby the very offence of the Cross, or the difficulty which men have ever experienced in trusting and depending on-not the forgiveness of sin, which they are ready to believe on the slenderest grounds but on Christ Himself, apparently the helpless victim of man. The dying thief knew nothing about expiation. His fellow-sufferer, like himself, was dying a victim to the wrath of man, but weak and helpless as He appeared to be to all human apprehension, yet at that |