Category Archives: Atonement

Christ’s Eternal Existence (Manton) Sermon 1.3

24 Friday Mar 2023

Posted by in Atonement, Thomas Manton

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The prior post on this sermon may be found here.

II.        Secondly, The nature of redemption.

What is redemption by the blood of Christ?

[He gives the overview to follow]

In opening it to you, I shall prove six things:—

A. A captivity or bondage.

B. That from thence we are freed by a ransom, or price paid.

C. That none but Christ was fit to give this ransom.

D. That nothing performed by Christ was sufficient till he laid down his life.

E. That thence there is a liberty resulting to us.

F. That we do not actually partake of the benefit of this ransom till we be in Christ.

A.        Our being redeemed supposeth a captivity and bondage.

1.         All men in their unrenewed estate are slaves to sin and Satan, and subject to the wrath of God.  Titus 3:3, John 8:23

a.         [But isn’t doing what you want freedom?] Men imagine a life spent in vanity and pleasure to be a very good life; it were so, if liberty were to be determined by doing what we list [desire/wish] rather than what we ought.

b.         [Even when they desire to leave these things, they care still held captive. The language of “addiction” is not used by Manton, but the inability to stop is described.]

c.         [Satan has power in this] Now as they are under sin, so they are under Satan, ‘who worketh in the children of disobedience,’ Eph. 2:2; 2 Tim. 2:26

d.         [Such people are both prey for Satan, the roaring lion; and will suffer the wrath of God. Eph. 2:3]

2.         [We would suffer the same]if grace had not opened a way for us to escape, what should we have done?

B.        To recover us, there was a price to be paid by way of ransom to God.

1.         [We are not rescued by our begging, God’s mercy without justice, or any such thing] but by the payment of a sufficient price, and just satisfaction to provoked justice.

2.         [The ransom was not paid to Satan.]

a.         [We sinned against God.]

b.         [Satan has no power when God justifies us.]

c.         That redemption implieth the paying of a price is clear, because the word importeth it. [This is a logical implication from the language of redemption. The words translated “redemption” was used to describe the process of buying back a slave or captive of war”

“ἀπολύτρωσις, εως, ἡ orig. ‘buying back’ a slave or captive, i.e. ‘making free’ by payment of a ransom (λύτρον, q.v.; prisoners of war could ordinarily face slavery).”Arndt, William, et al. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., University of Chicago Press, 2000, p. 117.] Matt. 20:28; 1 Tim 2:6

d.         God could have saved men by the grace of confirmation, but he chose rather by the grace of redemption. [I assume by “confirmation” God could have kept us from sinning.]

e.         This recovery was not by a forcible rescue, but by a ransom.  

f.          [With us, Christ is a lamb. With his enemies, he is a lion.]

3.         But why was a ransom necessary? Because God had made a former covenant, which was not to be quit and wholly made void but upon valuable consideration, lest his justice, wisdom, holiness, veracity, authority should fall to the ground. [God told Adam that by violating the law, he would die. If God were to merely forgive without fulfilling the demands of the law, God would fail in several respects]

a.         [God’s justice would suffer].  The honour of his governing justice was to be secured and freed from any blemish, that the awe of God might be kept up in the world [Rom. 3, 5, 6, 25, 26; Gen. 18:25. This is an interesting argument: upholding God’s justice was necessary to secure God’s honor.

b.         [God’s wisdom would suffer. If God gave a law to Adam, and Moses, and then simply ignored his own law, that would mean God did not understand what he was doing.]

The law was not given by God in jest, but in the greatest earnest that ever law was given. Now, if the law should be recalled without any more ado, the lawgiver would run the hazard of levity, mutability, and imprudence in constituting so solemn a transaction to no purpose.

c.         [God by nature cannot ignore sin.] His holy nature would not permit it. There needed some way to be found out, to signify his purest holiness, his hatred and detestation of sin, and that it should not be pardoned without some marks of his displeasure. His soul hates the wicked, and the righteous God loveth righteousness, Ps. 11:6.

d.         [God’s authority would suffer.]  It would be a derogation from the authority of his law, if it might be broken, and there be no more ado about it.

e.         [God’s truth would suffer. If he declared death and then changed his mind, he had not told the truth.]. We look upon the threatenings of the law as a vain scarecrow; therefore, for the terror and warning of sinners for the future, God would not release his wrath, nor release us from the power of sin and Satan, which was the consequent of it, without a price and valuable compensation.

Having Made a Purification of Sins

21 Thursday May 2015

Posted by in Atonement, Hebrews, Preaching, Sermons

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Hebrews 1:1–4 (ESV)

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

The Peaceful Gates of Heav’nly Bliss

27 Friday Feb 2015

Posted by in Atonement, Christology, Isaac Watts

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Hymn 108

Come, let us lift our joyful eyes
Up to the courts above,
And smile to see our Father there
Upon a throne of love.

Once ’twas a seat of dreadful wrath,
And shot devouring flame
Our God appeared “consuming fire,”
And Vengeance was his name.

Rich were the drops of Jesus’ blood
That calmed his frowning face,
That sprinkled o’er the burning throne,
And turned the wrath to grace.

Now we may bow before his feet,
And venture near the Lord;
No fiery cherub guards his seat,
Nor double-flaming sword.

The peaceful gates of heav’nly bliss
Are opened by the Son;
High let us raise our notes of praise,
And reach th’ almighty throne.

To thee ten thousand thanks we bring,
Great Advocate on high;
And glory to th’ eternal King,
That lays his fury by.

Isaac Watts, The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts

Was it for crimes that I had done

14 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by in Atonement, Christology, Confession, Desire, Humility, Isaac Watts, Joy, Literature, Music

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Alas! and did my Savior bleed?
And did my Sovereign die?
Would he devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?

Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, thine,
And bathed in its own blood,
While all exposed to wrath divine
The glorious Suff’rer stood!

Was it for crimes that I had done
He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!

Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut his glories in,
When God, the mighty Maker, died
For man, the creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face,
While his dear cross appears;
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,
And melt my eyes to tears.

But drops of grief can ne’er repay
The debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away;
’Tis all that I can do.

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
-2 Corinthians 5:16-21

John Owen: Of Communion With the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Digression 2b (Knowledge of Sin Displayed in Christ)

01 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Anthropology, Atonement, Biblical Counseling, Christology, God the Father, Hamartiology, John Owen, Mortification, Preaching, Resurrection, Righteousness, Romans

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The prior post in this series may be found here: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/of-communion-with-the-father-son-and-holy-spirit-digression-2a/

Owen’s second digression concerns three elements of wisdom:

The sum of all true wisdom and knowledge may be reduced to these three heads: —
1. The knowledge of God, his nature and his properties.
2. The knowledge of ourselves in reference to the will of God concerning us.
3. Skill to walk in communion with God: —

The knowledge of God being addressed in the previous post, we most to the knowledge of ourselves, which Owen breaks down into three elements which he takes form John 16:8: Our Savior sends his Spirit to convince the world of, — even “sin, righteousness, and judgement,” John 16:8.

Knowledge of Sin

Scripture affirms that all human beings have some sense of law (Romans 2:14-15, “15. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.”). All cultures show some sense of divine sanction and law.

This understanding of sin may be improved by teaching of God’s law. Yet, however, much training one may receive, such training alone will never be sufficient to give sufficient understanding of sin.

In Christ we see two things plainly (1) the true nature of sin, and (2) salvation from the judgment due for sin.

How Christ Shows the True Nature of Sin:

First, Christ shows what sin deserves. We see this first in who was punished for sin. That the justice of God could be propitiated by nothing than the death of Christ demonstrates the extraordinary guilt and evil of sin. Christ’s death also demonstrates the sinfulness of sin in the punishment suffered by sin:

Would you, then, see the true demerit of sin? — take the measure of it from the mediation of Christ, especially his cross. It brought him who was the Son of God, equal unto God, God blessed for ever, into the form of a (Philippians 2:8) servant, who had not where to lay his head. It pursued him all his life with afflictions and persecutions; and lastly brought him under the rod of God; there bruised him and brake him, — (1 Corinthians 2:7) slew the Lord of life. Hence is deep humiliation for it, upon the account of him whom we (Zechariah 12:10.) have pierced. And this is the first spiritual view of sin we have in Christ.

Second, the atonement of Christ demonstrates our inability to save ourselves.

No sacrifice could suffice to make atonement:

Romans 3:24-26, by setting forth his only Son “to be a propitiation,” he leaves no doubt upon the spirits of men that in themselves they could make no atonement; for “if righteousness were by the law, then were Christ dead in vain.” To what purpose should he be made a propitiation, were not we ourselves weak and without strength to any such purpose? So the apostle argues, Romans 5:6, when we had no power, then did he by death make an atonement; as verses 8, 9.

An implication of Owen’s argument was raised in a recent essay on the Gospel Coalition website:

If Islam, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and all the other world religions are true paths to God, then why did God kill his Son, Jesus, in order to make a way for men to come to him? The very notion is absurd and insulting to God. It paints a portrait of a God who is just plain cruel. He sent Jesus into the world to live a miserable life of scorn, rejection, poverty, betrayal, humiliation, sorrow, and ultimately, torture and death, in order to create a path whereby men can come to know him. Yet all the while he knew that following the Five Pillars of Islam or the Noble Eight-fold Path could accomplish the same thing. What a waste! Jesus’ life—God’s plan of salvation— is completely in vain, for the same result could be achieved by simply adhering to the tenets of any world religion. God is not only cruel but also incompetent for putting into effect the worst salvation plan possible.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2014/03/25/if-all-religions-are-true-then-god-is-cruel/

It also demonstrates our inability to render the obedience due God under the law:

Our disability to answer the mind and will of God, in all or any of the obedience that he requireth, is in him only to be discovered. This, indeed, is a thing that many will not be acquainted with to this day. To teach a man that he cannot do what he ought to do, and for which he condemns himself if he do it not, is no easy task.

Since teaching human beings their inability to render obedience sufficient to satisfy God is no easy thing, we must look to the cross to see this truth:

The law can bring forth no righteousness, no obedience; it is weak to any such purpose, by reason of the flesh, and that corruption that is come on us. These two things are done in Christ, and by him: — First, Sin is condemned as to its guilt, and we set free from that; the righteousness of the law by his obedience is fulfilled in us, who could never do it ourselves. And, secondly, That obedience which is required of us, his Spirit works it in us. So that that perfection of obedience which we have in him is imputed to us; and the sincerity that we have in obedience is from his Spirit bestowed on us. And this is the most excellent glass, wherein we see our impotency; for what need we his perfect obedience to be made ours, but that we have not, can not attain any? what need we his Spirit of life to quicken us, but that we are dead in trespasses and sins?

Third, Christ’s cross also demonstrates the death of sin. Owen notes that one can see the killing effects of sin without the need of seeing Christ’s death on the cross. But it is only by means of Christ’s cross that one can learn dying to sin:

Sin is a thing that of itself is not apt to die or to decay, but to get ground, and strength, and life, in the subject wherein it is, to eternity; prevent all its actual eruptions, yet its original enmity against God will still grow. In believers it is still dying and decaying, until it be utterly abolished. The opening of this treasury [mystery] you have, Romans 6:3-6, etc.

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

This is the design of the apostle in the beginning of that chapter, not only to manifest whence is the principle and rise of our mortification and the death of sin, even from the death and blood of Christ; but also the manner of sin’s continuance and dying in us, from the manner of Christ’s dying for sin. He was crucified for us, and thereby sin was crucified in us; he died for us, and the body of sin is destroyed, that we should not serve sin; and as he was raised from the dead, that death should not have dominion over him, so also are we raised from sin, that it should not have dominion over us. This wisdom is hid in Christ only

Fourth, There is a glorious end whereunto sin is appointed and ordained, and discovered in Christ. Sin itself tends only to the destruction of human beings, their condemnation, death and hell. Yet, in Christ, something new is seen. The law can only condemn. But in Christ, God manifests forgiveness and mercy:

In the Lord Jesus there is the manifestation of another and more glorious end; to wit, the praise of God’s glorious (Ephesians 1:6.) grace in the pardon and forgiveness of it; — God having taken order in Christ that that thing which tended merely to his dishonor should be managed to his infinite glory, and that which of all things he desireth to exalt, — even that he may be known and believed to be a (Hebrews 8:6-13.) “God pardoning iniquity, transgression and sin.”

Next we will look to the second aspect of knowledge of ourselves brought by the Spirit and mentioned in John 16:8:

7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

Edward Taylor, Raptures of Love.3

06 Friday Dec 2013

Posted by in Atonement, Edward Taylor, Meditation, Praise

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The previous post in this series is found here: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/edward-taylor-raptures-of-love-2/

Yea, beauteous he in all his glory stands,
Tendering himself to God, and man where he
Doth Justice thus bespeake, hold out thy hands:
Come take my pensworth now for mine of me.
I’ll pay the fine that thou seest meet to set
Upon their heads: I’ll die to clear their debts.

Line 1:
The accent falls on the first syllable followed by another accented syllable “beaut-” which creates a rush over the third syllable “-e-” as one moves toward the “he”. By rushing the third syllable one scans the first half of the line ”-‘. One then ends with ten syllables for the line (the second half is perfectly regular -‘-‘-‘) but one too many accents. The introductory “Yea” (note the common use of the “yea” in the Psalms. See, e.g., Psalm 19:10: “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”) draws attention to the line: Yes it is true see this! The accent as well as the comma pause slow the movement of the poem slightly, which then leads to the rush toward “he”.

Line 2:
“Tendering himself to God”. Again the line begins with an accent which leaves accents on Ten-, him-, God. The scene described, Christ offering himself as the penal substitution for human sin (the doctrine is known as “penal substitutionary atonement”) comes from several passages in the Bible.

Isaiah 53:10:
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

John 11:50:
Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.”

2 Corinthians 5:18-21:
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 Peter 2:21-25:
21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.
22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Yet, the passage most likely in mind for Taylor is Hebrews 10:
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'”
8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law),
9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second.
10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Line 3:
Christ is speaking to Justice, not Justice to Christ. The Justice of God is here personified.

It has been called (by Mark Dever, I believe) the riddle of the Bible. How can God both forgive and refuse to acquit sin?
5 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” Exodus 32:5-7.

The offering of Jesus in sacrifice fulfills the demands of justice and thus makes a way for God to forgive sin. Without the death of Christ, God’s forgiveness would be unjust or impossible.

Line 4: I can’t determine what is meant by “pensworth”. The word seems to mean a small amount in that a “pen” may refer to a “pin”. The other meaning for the word at time of Taylor would be “pen” as in a quill. However, small amount does not make sense in this instance. The death of Christ is of infinite value.

“for mine of me”: The offering of Christ is on behalf of “mine” that is those Christ will save; and “of me”, that is, from Christ.

Lines 5-6: Jesus willingly pays the entire penalty and owed for sin on behalf of those saved by Christ. The cost of sin is death:
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person-though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Romans 5:6-11.

Where are your sins?

17 Sunday Nov 2013

Posted by in Atonement, Leviticus, Preaching

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The eager offerer puts his hand upon the victim’s head. Leviticus 1.4. [“He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.”] Do any ask the meaning of this rite? It graphically shows a transfer….

Here is again the happy work of faith. It brings all guilt and heaps it on the Savior’s head. One sin retained is misery now and hell at last. All must be pardoned and brought to Chirst. And He is waiting to receive. His office is to be this burden bearer. His love constrains, and He cannot draw back.

Do any read this, who have never dealt thus with Christ? Sirs, where are your sins? They adhere tighter than your very skin. They have millstone either. They press to misery’s unfathomable depth. But flee to Jesus. He can remove them all, and He alone.

Believer, where are your sins? On Jesus they are placed, and you are free. I ask again, Where are your sins? You answer, “As far as the the east is from the weset, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” Ps. 103:12. You may rejoice and sing aloud, Christ is accepted for me. I shall not be condemned. Thus, with one hand faith casts away all misery and with the other grasps all joy.

Christ is All, Leviticus, p. 3
Archdeacon Law
1861

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The Continuity of our Way of Thinking and Striving has been Interrupted by it

09 Saturday Nov 2013

Posted by in Atonement, Christology, James Denney, Repentance, Thomas F. Torrance

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Denney and Torrance make the point too easily based over in the presentation of the Gospel: one cannot both receive the atonement of Christ and be the same person afterward. To receive the work of Christ’s atonement requires death and life (Galatians 2:20).

The Atonement is a reality of such a sort that it can make no compromise. The man who fights it knows that he is fighting for his life, and puts all his strength into the battle. To surrender is literally to give up himself, to cease to be the man he is, and to become another man. For the modern mind, therefore, as for the ancient, the attraction and the repulsion of Christianity are concentrated at the same point; the cross of Christ is man’s only glory, or it is his final stumbling-block.

James Denney, The Atonement and the Modern Mind, 3. Thus, we cannot even begin to know what we mean of the atonement unless and until we receive Christ’s work of atonement:

the truth that there is forgiveness with God, and that this forgiveness comes to us only through Christ, and signally or specifically through His death. Unless it becomes true to us that Christ died for our sins we cannot appreciate forgiveness at its specifically Christian value. It cannot be for us that kind of reality, it cannot have for us that kind of inspiration, which it unquestionably is and has in the New Testament (17).

Torrance likewise explains that the atonement interrupts everything of our lives. We cannot simply add forgiveness of sin to our existing life. Rather, to receive the forgiveness of sins means that we have become something new:

Here we must recall that in the death of Jesus Christ we have a deed of divine intervention which sets our life on a wholly new basis…This reversal means we cannot think our way into the death of Christ because the continuity of our way of thinking and striving has been interrupted by it, but we may think our way from it if we follow the new and living way opeened up to us in the crucifixion. Here is a deed of unearthly magnitude before which we can only bow in utter humility–far from being able to fit the death of Jesus into our life and our own preconceptions or notions we face the demand that we should be conformed to his death. We can understand the cross only by metanoia, repentance and change of mind, which is correlative on our part to the ‘wonderful exchange’ or mirifica commutatio on Christ’s part when he who was rich was made poor for our sakes that we might become rich ….

T.F. Torrance, Atonement, 3. A child cannot be both adopted into a new home part of another family. A groom cannot be married and yet a bachelor. To join the Marines will transform a life. To come ot know the atoning work of Christ necessarily transforms the human being. When I think of it like that, I begin to wonder: How rare a thing is this? It is not merely moral renovation; it is ontological, psychological, noetic, moral — it is to be someone else.

The Attempt Must be Made to Liberate the Mind

08 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in Apologetics, Atonement, James Denney

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James Denney in The Atonement and The Modern Mind, raises the issue of how does one present the doctrine of the atonement to men and women who cannot conceive of sin as a real category and who cannot see how the life, death and resurrection of Jesus can affect their life in this present time. His explanation for how to proceed is interesting, coming as it does before the apologetic split between evidentialists and presuppositionalists. From this passage he seems to be taking up both sides: Use evidence and argument to demonstrate the instability and irrationality of opponent’s presuppositions (philosophy). Such an argument does not bring anyone to a saving faith. However, it does create space in which to present the Gospel (in making this argument, he sounds a note very similar to Francis Schaeffer). If anything, he seems to be articulating a presuppositionalist apologetic before Van Till:

We have to take men as we find them; we have to preach the gospel to the mind which is around us; and if that mind is rooted in a view of the world which leaves no room for Christ and His work as Christian experience has realised them, then that view of the world must be appreciated by the evangelist, it must be undermined at its weak places, its inadequacy to interpret all that is present even in the mind which has accepted it—in other words, its inherent inconsistency—must be demonstrated; the attempt must be made to liberate the mind, so that it may be open to the impression of realities which under the conditions supposed it could only encounter with instinctive antipathy. (Page 20)