There are some great truths revealed in the New Testament upon which it is most important the believer should be clear, both for assurance of the soul's salvation and also for settled peace of heart.

ATONEMENT.

Except in Heb. 2:17 where "reconciliation" should be "atonement" this word is an entirely Old Testament word (Rom. 5:n should read "reconciliation "), yet the truth it conveys is seen all through the New Testament. Of course by this is meant the expiatory death of the Lord Jesus on the cross at Calvary, and its application Godward and manward. Thus it is said of Him, "He offered Himself without spot to God" (Heb. 9:14), and also, "who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree " (i Pet. 2:24).

Leviticus 16:brings out in illustrative type, what Jesus did actually in His death on the cross. On the great day of atonement Aaron was to take two goats and present them before the Lord. The first, for the people ; the second for the Lord, decision as to which was to be by lot. Then the one "upon which the Lord's lot fell," to be the sin-offering, was killed, the blood sprinkled once upon and seven times before the mercy-seat, and Aaron returning to the altar lay his hands on the live goat's head, confessing the iniquities of the people, and the goat would bear upon him all iniquities so transferred. Read carefully Lev. 16:5-22, noting particularly verses 4, 7-10, 14, 15, 21. The sprinkling of the blood was the basis of the whole service. Once upon the mercy-seat, satisfying the holy righteousness of God ; seven times before it, giving righteous standing to the high-priest. Compare this with Heb. 9:7-12, 22-26; 1-10.

In Leviticus there are more truths connected with the typical or illustrative teaching than these, but the above will help us to see the matter we desire to present. The theory of "atonement," 1:e. that Christ by His death reconciled God and man, is un-scriptural; and not only so, but casts a slight upon the fact revealed in John 3:16 that God "loved the world," even "while we were yet sinners"(Rom. 5:8).No, it is man who needs to be reconciled to God; the carnal mind being "enmity against God" (Rom. 8:7), and so God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself" (2 Cor. 5:19).

SUBSTITUTION.

This means literally one being in the place of an-other; and so it is written to the Thessalonian believers, of Christ, "Who died for us " (i Thess. 5:10). It is never said in the New Testament that Christ bore the sins of the world; in the gospel according to John (chap. 1:19) He is called "the Lamb of God which taketh [beareth] away the sin of the world," that is sufficient for all.

Dying for our sins (i Cor. 15:3) and bearing our sins (1 Peter 2:24) are believers' truths. If Christ bore the sins of the whole world, of necessity the whole world must be saved, or His atoning work would not be a complete one. Such would be the monstrous falsehood of universalism. But while His atoning work is sufficient to save the whole world, and is offered to all, yet it is only available for those who believe on Him. Compare i John 2:2 ; for "propitiation " read "mercy seat," and omit the words, "the sins of," which are not in the original. See also Rom. 3:22, and notice it is "unto all" but only "upon all them that believe." John 3:16; 5:24; 3:36; Acts 13:38, 39, etc.
Substitution, then, is the actual bearing of the sins of believers-sins, guilt, judgment:so then each believer may say, upon the authority of God's word, " He bore my sins in His own body on the cross at Calvary." And the promise is, they will never again be laid to their charge (Heb. 10:17). And this transferring is an act of God. No one can lay his sins on Jesus as is sometimes heard taught. See Is. 53:6, "All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Thus it is an act of God setting to the believer, on. faith, the full value of Christ's death on the cross, which was sin-bearing and atoning.

RECONCILIATION.

Is the result of the death of Christ as applied, both to persons and things, by bringing them back to God. Believers are reconciled from the very moment they make by faith a personal application of the death of Christ (Rom. 5:10, n; 2 Cor. 5:18);-notice," Hath reconciled us to Himself." All things will be reconciled; see Col. 1:20.

The expression, "My God is reconciled," has no scriptural foundation whatever. The thought that God had to be reconciled to us is foreign to the teaching of the word of God. And this work of " reconciling the world unto Himself" is the gracious ministry He is still doing by the gospel (2 Cor. 5:im. 1:16; i Cor. 1:18).

BORN AGAIN.

This is and means just what it says-"born," it to be something entirely different from what existed before-having no connection with the il birth whatever. It is therefore the entire setting aside of the old-nature-life, and the communication of an entirely new life with all that it.

Notice the expression " born again," not born over again, which would be but a repetition of sinful nature with its acts of willfulness, disobedience and .born "from above" as may be seen in the marginal reference in our English bibles. It is the of a new nature, and that a divine nature; See 2 Peter:1:4, "partakers of the divine nature," and is as true and real in the believer as in Christ Himself, see 1 John 2:8, "which thing is true in Him and in you. "As to the mode of new birth, John 3:5 says it is "of water and of the Spirit."

There is nothing here to imply baptism, no matter in what form administered, but i Pet. 1:23 shows it means "by the word of God " administered by the power of the Holy Spirit to the heart and conscience of the sinner. Water, all through Scripture, is a figure of the Word. Eph. 5:25-27; John 15:3, etc. are illustrations of this.

Thus with the reception by faith, 1:e., trustingly believing the word of God as brought to one's con-science and heart by the Holy Spirit, one has given to him an actual, real, and divine nature which ever exists in the believer together with the old Adamic nature, which are never reconciled but continually at variance; see Gal. 5:19-25. At the same time God sets to the believer the full value of all Christ is, and all He has done for him, of which the Holy Ghost then given is the seal, and earnest of the glory to come (Eph. 1:13, 14; 4:30). The Spirit also being the energizer of the new life, enabling the believer to keep in subjection the old nature still in him, and which he is responsible to ever reckon as dead and keep under (Rom. 6:ii ; Col. 3:5-12, etc.).
ADVOCACY.

This is the work of the risen, exalted Christ in the presence of the Father for all believers, 1:e., for their individual failures; "if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (i John 2:i). Thus all the believer's failures are met by the righteous person of Christ, the perfect Man in the presence of the Father, restoring communion when interrupted, and renewing peace of heart when lost.

This is the present work of Christ, and is for the believer as a child, while His High-priesthood has reference to him as a saint. The relation of child can never be broken because it is the result of Christ's work through faith, but the believer's communion may be sadly interrupted by sin or any act of disobedience, and for this latter this work of the risen Christ avails for restoration, upon self-judgment. See Gal. 3:26; John 10:28-30; Eccl. 3:14. For illustration of restoration see Luke 22:31, 32, 54-62; 24:34; John 21:15-17. Thus i Cor. 11:31, 32; i John 1:9.

JUSTIFICATION.

This is being made right, or clean, or perfectly guiltless before God, and is the present and permanent position of every believer. The ground of this, is "the blood of Christ" (Rom. 5:9), while the measure of it is Christ risen and glorified (Rom. 4:25; 2 Cor. 5:21), obtained by faith (Rom. 5:i), and is all of grace (Rom. 3:24). On account of the shedding of His precious blood on the cross, Christ has met fully all the claims of God's holiness, and justice for sin, and also the deepest needs of poor sinful man, so that God in all His holiness can and does righteously pronounce "clean every whit" as a permanent justification before Him each one who appropriates that truth to himself as a lost sinner. From that very moment, no matter how weak the faith, if there be a sense of one's lost, helpless, sinful state, an everlasting justification is conferred by God to one believing Christ's death and resurrection were for him, and were all that were necessary. Such an one stands before God as if he had never committed any act of disobedience against Him. Blessed be His name, such is love, such is grace, such is the value of the blood. B. W. J.

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