2. PRIESTHOOD.

"Propitiation we have seen, then, to be the immediate effect of the work here; the work itself was the propitiation. It would be certainly impossible, according to Scripture, to separate from the work any presentation of it as making this. Quite as impossible to separate it from substitution, save as a different aspect only. The whole work was a substitution-Jesus standing in the sinner's place. The whole work was a propitiation-what satisfied God as to sin. Faith, in either case, is needed in order that it shall avail. If we be believers, Christ is a substitute for such. If there is not faith, there is no real propitiation. Christ, says the apostle (Rom. 3:25), is "a propitiation through faith." That is the necessary condition either way, and there is no real difficulty in the matter. Substitution is as broad as propitiation ; or, if you will, propitiation as narrow as substitution. Otherwise, if upon the "gospel basis" of propitiation one sinner should come to God for whom there had been no substitution, could he be saved? If he could, substitution were unneeded; if he could not, then propitiation is no more real basis of appeal to all than substitution.

There is no scripture for this separation of Christ's work into two different works for different classes. There is no work for unbelievers at all, but one equal precious work for all upon condition of faith. There is no propitiation for all or any apart from the value of a substitutionary work. There is no inefficacious work which does not avail for those for whom it is offered. The work is for believers, and all men are most truly invited and responsible to believe.

Propitiation and atonement are absolutely one. A substitutionary work is what atones or propitiates. Christ offered for men is the propitiation. The blood offered is the blood shed; and its sprinkling here or there is but propitiation applied to this or to that; not a part of the work, but an application of it, a propitiation for this or for that.

It is the priest's part to make propitiation. Christ became " a merciful and faithful high-priest to make propitiation for the sins of the people." When, then, did this high-priesthood of Christ begin?

If Aaron be the typical high-priest, then, it is certain that he made propitiation not merely in the holiest. Upon one occasion only he did this:the regular offering of the blood was upon the altar. " For the life of the flesh is in the blood :and I have given it you upon the altar to make atonement (or propitiation) for your souls" (Lev. 17:11). If the type, then, thus emphasized as it is for us, is to speak to us in the matter, it would seem to say that propitiation,-and priestly work-might be done outside the holiest. And certainly the priest was that outside.

But it may be argued that in these things the law " was not the very image " of the things it spoke of. Then, I ask, when the darkness over the cross passed, and the Lord said " Father," was propitiation, satisfaction, thus far accomplished? Was the wrath gone? and how? If we take the truth affirmed in propitiation, when did the wrath pass? Will any one say, Only when He entered heaven,-that in fact He entered it with God yet unsatisfied, to satisfy Him there? Surely, none could believe that!

So the epistle to the Hebrews speaks of His entering by His blood, as we have seen; and, as to His priesthood, of "a great High-priest that is passed into"-or through-"the heavens" (chap, 4:14), and of a " High-priest made higher than the heavens" (7:26):words which naturally speak of the exaltation of One who was high-priest before.

But it is urged that chap. 8:4 distinctly states that our Lord was not a priest on earth:"For if He were on earth, He should not be a priest." Let us, then, for a moment, suppose that He was not, and follow this out to its consequences.

When, then, did He become a priest?

He must have been a priest to make propitiation, clearly ; of course, before this,-before propitiation had been made. But that means, in the mind of some, while atonement was being made, and before acceptance! This is, however, in complete contradiction to what we have seen as to the time of His entrance-that He entered upon ascension. But it is a contradiction also to what is urged from chap. 5:7-9, that not till after He was perfected He was saluted of God a high-priest. Then that perfecting was acknowledged, was it not? So that it would be, not He was saluted high-priest and made propitiation, but in the reverse order:He made propitiation, and was saluted high-priest. Every way, we stumble over Scripture.

It should be plain that if His high-priesthood be based upon His work, He could not obtain this till His work was acknowledged:which would mean, according to the general thought, till propitiation were made. This would set aside absolutely His being high-priest to make it. On the other hand, if He be high-priest to make it, then His priesthood must be based on something else than His work.

But does the passage produced say that Christ was not a high-priest upon earth? The answer must be, it does not. The apostle is not looking back, but looking up. "We have such a High-priest," he says, " who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man." Now, then, "If He were upon earth"-if He were now there,-"He would not be a priest." And why ? " Seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law." He does not speak even of sacrifices now. The sacrifice is offered, and the Priest is in the sanctuary:for such a Priest there could be no room on earth, for the earthly sanctuary is in the hands of the priests ordained by law!

Surely this is no question of what He was on earth. But what of Heb. 5:7-9? Could He be priest before He was made perfect? Was it not as being made perfect He was " called (or saluted) of God a high-priest after the order of Melchisedek " ?

Yes, that is plain. Only let us observe that the word "called" here is never used for calling to an office; whereas the word for that is used at the beginning of this chapter:"And no man taketh this honor unto himself but He that is called of God as was Aaron."

Mark, then:"So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made a high-priest, but He that said unto Him, ' Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee.'"

Is this, however, the actual call, or only the Person by whom He is called? No doubt we might understand at first sight the latter. We have exactly the same form of speech, however, in the seventh chapter:"But this with an oath by Him that said unto Him, The Lord sware, and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever." Now here it is not only the majesty of the Speaker that is affirmed:we find the oath in what is quoted as His saying.

Not only so. For if His priesthood were not founded upon His work, upon what, then, is it founded? Upon His person, surely. This is the glory of His person, then, which the epistle to the Hebrews dwells upon in its first chapter:"Unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee?" Here is affirmed a personal glory higher than that of angels, yet of a Man, begotten upon earth in time.

Is it not just this wondrous manhood of His whereby indeed He becomes the high-priest of His people ? able to take a place in their behalf in things pertaining to God, the Mediator by His twofold nature? The priest is the very fullest type of mediation, and in this Son of God in perfect manhood we have assuredly, then, the Priest.

But it is not even His blessed person that constitutes Him priest. He must be called, for His path is the path of obedience; and He must be anointed, for the high-priest has for his designation " The Anointed Priest." And if, again, through the Eternal Spirit He offer Himself without spot to God, here are three marks by which, if we find them together, we may find a threefold divine testimony to Him as consecrated by God for His propitiatory work.

The type of the passover-lamb will here assist us much. We may remember that it was taken on the tenth day of the first month, and kept up till the fourteenth day of the month at even. Then it was sacrificed.

Now 10 is the number of responsibility as seen in the ten commandments, and this time is allowed to pass, the lamb of sacrifice not yet being marked out as such. There was clearly such a period in the Lord's life-a time of private life, as we may say; of which Scripture says little therefore, while the apocryphal gospels (one expressly called "The Gospel of the Infancy") fill it up with fabulous narrations. Thirty years of the Lord's life pass thus, in which He lives as a private person; then He comes forward for His appointed work. It was the age at which the Levites in the wilderness took office, and the priests, it is believed, similarly. This 30 has, again, the number 10 in it, and it evidently characterizes the Lord's time of retirement as that in which He is fulfilling as man in His own personal responsibility. Then He comes out publicly before the eye of God, and is owned of Him as the unblemished One-the Lamb designated for the sacrifice.

Notice, then, how it is He comes forth.

John has been calling the multitude to his baptism of repentance, baptizing them in Jordan for the remission of sins. Jordan is death, as we all know well; and John's baptism is a baptism to death (Rom. 6:4). They (and we) have merited death:it is appointed unto men once to die:the wages of sin is death. They come out to him owning this place as theirs; they are all baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.

Then the Lord comes also:having no personal need, as a baptism of repentance it has necessarily no significance for Him; but if death is the due of these sinners, and yet they are to have remission of sins, He must come into death for them, Jordan for Him the type of that greater baptism with which He was to be baptized. He offers Himself without spot to God.

And without spot is He owned. It is there the Father's voice breaks out in the words which at once own the relationship of the Man Christ Jesus (which is, according to Heb. 5:, the call to priesthood), and the Lamb without blemish for the sacrifice, "Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased."

Here is the Priest, then, to make propitiation, and at the same moment, with the call to the priesthood, the heavenly anointing comes upon Him for it:"the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him." It is the anointing without blood which is the special sign of the high-priest in Lev. 8:12, an anointing which is not found again in the Lord's case until, gone up on high (ascended), He receives from the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:33).

Here are the three signs, and they meet nowhere else. He is now the Lamb kept up, and the Priest to make propitiation; not yet, indeed, as it seems to me, after the order of Melchisedek, or in the power of an endless life. He gives up this life. There is a cloud for awhile over all, until perfected by suffering, and risen from the dead, He is greeted of God as priest after the order of Melchisedek, priest upon the throne. His priesthood is re-affirmed and exalted; by the oath of God He is " consecrated for evermore," and the Holy Ghost afresh anoints Him.

There He abides, and as such, blessed be God, we know Him, ever living to make intercession forus. Well may we, "seeing that we have a Great High-priest who is passed into the heavens, Jesus,the Son of God, …. come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find graceto help in every time of need."