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Christ’s work. Christ is not regarded as a real prophet, a real priest, and a real king. And if any
one of the aspects of the work of Christ is made to stand out as pre-eminent, it is the
prophetical rather than the priestly aspect. The modern spirit is quite averse to the official
Christ, and while it may be greatly in love with the self-denying and self-sacrificing Jesus, it
absolutely refuses to recognize His official priesthood. In view of this it should be emphasized at
the outset that, according to Scripture, Jesus is a real priest. As over against the priests of the
Old Testament, who were merely shadows and types, He may be called the only real priest. He
was revealed among men as the truth, that is, the reality of all the shadows of the Old
Testament, and therefore also of the Old Testament priesthood. The seventh chapter of the
Epistle to the Hebrews stresses the fact that His priesthood is vastly superior to that of Aaron.
Consequently it is a sad mistake to assume that He is priest only in some figurative sense, in the
sense in which devotees of literature and art are sometimes called priests. This is an entirely
unwarranted use of the word “priest”, and one that is entirely foreign to Scripture. When
Jehovah swore, “Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek,” He constituted the
Messiah a real priest.
III. The Cause and Necessity of the Atonement
The great and central part of the priestly work of Christ lies in the atonement, but this, of
course, is not complete without the intercession. His sacrificial work on earth calls for His
service in the heavenly sanctuary. The two are complementary parts of the priestly task of the
Saviour. This and the following three chapters will be devoted to a discussion of the doctrine of
the atonement, which is often called “the heart of the gospel.”
A. THE MOVING CAUSE OF THE ATONEMENT.
This lies:
1. IN THE GOOD PLEASURE OF GOD.
It is sometimes represented as if the moving cause of the
atonement lay in the sympathetic love of Christ for sinners. He was so good and loving that the
very idea that sinners would be hopelessly lost, was abhorrent to Him. Therefore He offered
Himself as a victim in their stead, paid the penalty by laying down His life for transgressors, and
thus pacified an angry God. In some cases this view prompts men to laud Christ for His supreme
self-sacrifice, but at the same time, to blame God for demanding and accepting such a price. In
others it simply causes men to overlook God, and to sing the praises of Christ in unqualified
terms. Such a representation is certainly all wrong, and often gives the opponents of the penal
substitutionary doctrine of the atonement occasion to say that this doctrine presupposes a
schism in the trinitarian life of God. On this view Christ apparently receives His due, but God is
robbed of His honour. According to Scripture the moving cause of the atonement is found in