sgressors." 1 Pet. 2:24, 25;
Acts 8:32-35; Mark 15:28; Luke 22:37. He "hath once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God" (1 Pet. 3:18);
He has redeemed us to God by his blood (Rev. 5:9); has "loved us and
washed us from our sins in his own blood" (Rev. 1:5); and his redeemed
"have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb"
(Rev. 7:14).

To recite all the declarations of the apostle Paul on this great theme
would be a superfluous work. It is not through Christ's example or
teachings, but _through his blood_ that we have "redemption, the
forgiveness of sins." Ephes. 1:7. "Christ hath redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13), words which
teach as explicitly as human language can, that Christ has delivered us
from the penalty of the divine law, which is its curse, by bearing the
curse in our behalf. This he did when he was hanged on the tree. His
death on the cross was, then, _vicarious_, a death in our stead; and
_propitiatory_, for in view of it God releases us from the curse of the
law. This is what is meant by a _propitiatory_ sacrifice. Finally, as if
to cut off all ground for the assertion that the efficacy of Christ's
death lies wholly in its moral influence upon the human heart--its
humbling, softening, and winning power--the apostle teaches that God has
set forth Christ Jesus as a propitiation through faith in his blood for
a manifestation of his righteousness, "_that he might be just, and the
justifier of him that believeth in Jesus_." Rom. 3:25, 26.

Every word of this weighty passage deserves serious
consideration. We give by the side of the English version
another translation, intended to be somewhat more literal:

Whom God hath set forth _to Whom God hath set forth, a
be_ a propitiation, through propitiation, through faith,
faith in his blood, to declare in his blood, for the
his righteousness for the manifestation of his
passing over [marginal righteousness in respect to
rendering] of sins that are the overlooking of sins that
past, through the forbearance are past, through the
of God. To declare, _I say_, forbearance of God--a
at this time, his manifestation of his
righteousness; that he might righteousness at the present
be just, and the justifier of time; in order that he may be
him which