The Means of Salvation: Saved by the Blood—i. e., The Life of the Christ: "Vicarious sacrifice is not an episode. It is the universal law of life. Life comes only from life. This is the first proposition. Lifegiving costs the life-giver something. That is the second proposition. Pain is travail-pain, birth-pain; and it is a part of the divine order—that is, of the order of nature—that the birth of a higher life should always be through the pain of another.
"This is the law of God,—that is, the nature of God. For the laws of God are not edicts promulgated; they are the expressions of Himself; and the law that life comes only by the pouring out of life through suffering is an expression of the divine nature. This is the meaning of Paul's teaching in the eighth chapter of Romans: first, that it is the universal law that all life is by impartation of life; and, secondly, that this is universal because it is divine; that God Himself is the great Life-giver, and gives by His own suffering His life to the children of men.
"This, too, is what is meant by that statement so dear to some and so shocking to others,—that we are saved by the blood of Christ. Let us try for a moment to disabuse our minds of traditional opinions and see what that phrase means looked at in the light of history. Is 'the blood of Christ' the blood which flowed from Him at the crucifixion? His was almost a bloodless death; a few drops of blood only trickled from the pierced hands and feet; for the blood and water that came from the side when the spear pierced it came after death, when the suffering was all over. Blood, the Bible itself declares, is life; we are saved by the blood of Christ when we are saved by the life of Christ, by Christ's own life imparted to us, by Christ's life transmitted; and by Christ's life transmitted, as life alone can be transmitted, through the gateway of pain and suffering. The suffering of Jesus Christ was not a single episode,—one short hour, one short three years: the suffering of Jesus Christ was the revelation of the eternal fact that God is from eternity the Life-giver, and that giving life costs God something as it costs us something."
Meaning of Revelation and the Struggle for Righteousness: "Knowledge of the truth, clearness of apprehension and tenacity of grasp upon it, are developed by struggle with error. Revelation is not a divine contrivance for saving men from struggle, but a divine incitement to and encouragement in struggle! Virtue is developed by struggle with temptation. Grace is not an easy bestowment of virtue on an unstruggling creature, but such aid as is necessary to inspire the courage of hope and give assurance of victory. But struggle is for others as well as for self: the struggle of love as well as of self-interest; the struggle of parents for their offspring, of reformers for the state, of martyrs for the church. And these struggles all point to and are prophetic for the service and the sacrifice of the Son of God. For this struggle of love is divine. It belongs not to the infirmity of humanity, but is an essential element in that process of evolution which is God's way of doing things.
"It is only by human experiences that we can interpret the Divine. * * * * We shall never enter into the mystery of redemption unless we enter in some measure into these two experiences of wrath and pity, and into the mystery of their reconciliation. We must realize that God has an infinite and eternal loathing of sin. If the impure and the unjust, the drunkard and the licentious, are loathsome to us, what must be the infinite loathing of an infinitely pure Spirit for those who are worldly and selfish, licentious and cruel, ambitious and animal! But with this great loathing is a great pity. And the pity conquers the loathing, appeases it, satisfies it, is reconciled with it, only as it redeems the sinner from his loathsomeness, lifts him up from his degradation, brings him to truth and purity, to love and righteousness; for only thus is he or can he be brought to God. The Old Theology has, it seems to me, grievously erred in personifying these two experiences; in imputing all the hate and wrath to the Father and all the pity and compassion to the Son. But the New Theology will still more grievously err if it leaves either the wrath or the pity out of its estimate of the divine nature, or fails to see and teach that reconciliation is the reconciliation of a great pity with a great wrath, the issue of which is a great mercy and a great redemption. * * * * *
"There are many in the Church of Christ who think of God as a just and punitive God, who must be satisfied either by penalty laid on the guilty, or by an equivalent for the penalty. That is one form of paganism. There are many who, reacting against that conception, think of God, as an indifferent, careless God, who does not care much about iniquity, does not trouble Himself about it, is not disturbed by it! That is another form of paganism. And there are many who try to solve the problem by thinking of two Gods, a just God and a merciful God, and imagining that the merciful God by the sacrifice of Himself appeases the wrath of the just God. That also is a modified form of paganism. The one transcendent truth which distinguishes Christianity from all forms of paganism is that it represents God as appeasing His own wrath or satisfying His own justice by the forth-putting of His own love. But He saves men from their sins by an experience which we can interpret to ourselves only by calling it a struggle between the sentiments of justice and pity."