the way in which one man may give his life for the benefit of other men. None of the passages thus far reviewed. yield the elements of any theory concerning the saving import of Christ's death. In but two passages in the writings under review do we meet with any of the technical terms by which the New Testament expresses the ideas of atonement, reconciliation, or propitiation. These passages are: "He is the propitiation (ixaoμós) for our sins,” etc. (I. ii. 2); and: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation (iλaoμós) for our sins” (I. iv. 10). No explanation of the sense in which Christ is a propitiation is given, and the language of our sources where other terms are used, furnishes us but little aid in determining the meaning of the word iλaouós. Referring to the Septuagint we find that idoneola is most frequently used to translate, to cover, that is, atone for, sin. God is represented as graciously covering over or expiating the sins of men; but God himself is not said to be propitiated. God and sinful men are reconciled upon terms and by means which God himself appoints and provides. Sacrifice does not render God favorable or propitious in the sense of transforming him from an avenging into a merciful God or of making him disposed to forgive, as if he had not been so before. Expiation rather expresses the terms and conditions of forgiveness and sets forth the truth that the divine forgiveness is conditioned upon a manifestation of the inviolable holiness of God and an assertion of the ill desert of sin. It thus represents the divine self-consistency in forgiveness. God forgives in ways which express his judgment upon sin. Expiations are a testimony to the hatefulness of sin in God's sight and are expressions of his just displeasure against it. They are propitiations in the sense that they express the conditions on which his grace must operate in the salvation of sinners. We are to see some such conception in the word xaopós as used by John. Christ fully reprefsented and embodied in his work for men all the truths which the Old Testament sacrifices had partially and pic [torially expressed. He had perfectly shown what God is land how his holy love secures man's salvation. He had (paid supreme homage to the righteousness of God and to his just condemnation of sin. He had perfectly understood the relations of the holy God to sinful men and the terms on which men may find peace and pardon. Christ was the Mediator who brought God and man together. [He showed men the way in which God becomes favorable to the sinner, namely, by making sin appear hateful and contrary to his law and his love, in the very process of (cancelling it and cleansing it away. The apostle probably carried over from the Old Testament some such idea of the import of sacrifice as I have mentioned. Sacrifice expressed the sinfulness of sin, as well as man's thankful devotion to God; it portrayed his righteousness as well as his grace. All this Christ has done yet more perfectly. Our author is more explicit in his statements of the way in which salvation is realized in the believer than he is in his teaching concerning the method of God in providing for man's salvation through Christ. He is fond of describing the realization of salvation by the figure of a divine begetting, the impartation of a spiritual life from God. "Every one that doeth righteousness hath been begotten of him" (I. ii. 29); "Every one that hath been begotten of God. . . cannot sin (lead the sinful life) because he is begotten of God" (I. iii. 9). The phrase yevvηoñvai ék Oeoû uniformly means, to be begotten of God. Our older English version rendered it, to be born, in all cases except two (I. v. 1, 18). The Revised Version has corrected this rendering in all the passages except i. 13.2 The first Epistle dwells at length upon the nature and results of this divine begetting. It means a new life for the soul. He who receives this spiritual life becomes a child of God and is transformed into an increasing like 1 See W. Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites (1894), pp. 393, 394, 416-419. 2 In Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus (iii. 3-8), however, the context shows that the kindred phrase yevvŋ@îvai dræber means, to be born from above, or anew. ness to God. The proofs and tests of his having received the new life are such as the doing of righteousness (I. ii. 29), loving the brethren (I. iv. 7), confessing Jesus as the Christ (I. v. 1), overcoming the world (I. v. 4), and forsaking the life of sin for the life of holiness (I. v. 18). The import of all these various expressions is essentially the same. He who has become a child of God by the fimpartation of spiritual life from God has been transformed into likeness to God. The character and action of God are now the ideals of his character and action. His life becomes a life of holy love because God is love. This is the apostle's favorite way of putting his doctrine: Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God; and every one that loveth hath been begotten of God, and knoweth God" (I. iv. 7); "Whosoever loveth him that begat (that is, God), loveth him also that hath been begotten of him" (I. v. 1). Love to God, the source of spiritual life, carries with it love to those whom he has begotten all the children of his fatherly love. 66 Closely kindred to the phrases just noticed is the description of believers as children of God. The locus classicus is the oft-quoted passage from the prologue: "As many as received him, to them gave he the privilege of becoming children of God, even to them that believe on his name; who were begotten, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (i. 12, 13). To be begotten of God is to become a child of God, and the condition, on man's part, of realizing this sonship is faith. Thus we find here, expressed in terms peculiar to the apostle John, the same doctrine which meets us everywhere in the apostolic writings, that salvation has its procuring cause in the gracious love of God and that faith is the condition of its appropriation.1 The most noticeable peculiarity of John's language at this point is his employment, already noted, of the word tékvov, instead of υἱός. By means of that word he is able to carry out more perfectly his figure of a divine imparta 1 On the Johannine conception of faith see my Johannine Theology, ch. ix, entitled, The Appropriation of Salvation. tion of life; since the term emphasizes, not so much the legal position of a son as the intimate, personal relation, the close and growing fellowship of him who is begotten. of God with his spiritual Father. Childship to God is a relation of obedience and love to God, and necessarily involves mutual love among all who share this relation. The child of God must love his fellow-believers; not to do so would be a contradiction of the very nature of the Christian life (I. iii. 10). Other marks of the new spiritual life are: abiding in Christ, imitating him, and partaking of his Spirit. He who professes to abide in Christ ought also to walk even as he walked" (I. ii. 6). The consciousness of fellowship with Christ is imparted to the believer by the Spirit (I. iii. 6) whose bestowment is likened to an anointing (xpio ua), consecrating the believer to God's service (I. ii. 27). We have in this teaching a view of salvation which is at once practical and profound. The duties and demands of the Christian life are most strongly urged, but the motives by which they are enforced are the highest possible. Likeness to God is the sum of them. Men are to do righteousness and to walk in love, because it is Godlike so to do. Christ has perfectly interpreted God to men, and revealed and vindicated his nature. It is the duty and privilege of men to accept this interpretation and to live and work in the light and joy of it. "God is love," "God is light," is the burden of this gospel. The divine love has offered itself to men and has poured out its treasures for men's free possession and enjoyment. In Christ God has called men into the fellowship of his own blessed life and made them partakers of his own perfection. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God: and such we are" (I. iii. 1).1 1 The incidental allusions to the parousia (ii. 28; iii. 2(?)) and judgment (iv. 17) in 1 Jn. present only ideas which have come into consideration elsewhere (cf. pp. 234-242). BIBLIOGRAPHY I. THE THEOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AS A WHOLE F. C. BAUR, Vorlesungen über neutestamentliche Theologie. Leipzig, 1864. E. REUSS, History of Christian Theology in the Apostolic Age. 2 vols. London, 1872. Original in French. 2 vols. Strassburg and Paris, 1864. B. WEISS, Biblical Theology of the New Testament. Third edition. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1882-83. Original German in the sixth edition. Berlin, 1895. W. BEYSCHLAG, New Testament Theology. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1895. Original in German. 2 vols. Halle, 1891-92. 2te Aufl. 1896. J. BovoN, Théologie du Nouveau Testament. 2 vols. Lausanne, 1893 and 1894. H. J. HOLTZMANN, Lehrbuch der neutestamentlichen Theologie. 2 vols. A. TITIUS, Die neutestamentliche Lehre von der Seligkeit, u.s.w. W. F. ADENEY, The Theology of the New Testament. 1894. 4 parts. New York, E. P. GOULD, The Biblical Theology of the New Testament. New York and London, 1900. D. F. ESTES, An Outline of New Testament Theology. New York and Boston, 1900. P. WERNLE, Die Anfänge unserer Religion. Tübingen and Leipzig, 1901. The following treatises on the Apostolic Age treat at considerable length of New Testament Theology: — A. NEANDER, History of the Planting and Training of the Christian Church, etc. London (Bohn ed.), 1880, and New York, 1869. Original in German. 5te Aufl. 1862. G. V. LECHLER, The Apostolic and the Post-Apostolic Age. Edinburgh, 1886. Original in German. Leipzig, 1885. C. WEIZSÄCKER, The Apostolic Age of the Christian Church. Edin |