The remarkable thing in all this is that in the gospel, the aim of which is to reveal eternal life, the Prince of Life is always offered to us as dying upon the cross. _Death in order to life!_ What can be the meaning and the bearing of a death which God has placed in so exalted a position? We can only get our answer from Scripture; and we can only get it from Scripture as we read in the simple, unsophisticated humility of mind and heart of which Christ Himself and His apostles give us the example. "_Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins._" We have sinned against God, and our sins have been so many _offences_ to Him; offences which must be dealt with. Christ averts the penalty from us by taking it to Himself. The Holy One consents to suffer for the sake of the guilty. The apostle who styles Christ as the "Propitiation" has said, in a sentence immediately preceding: "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." Almost numberless passages teach the same doctrine. If we were engaged in an exercise of Biblical criticism, we should have to discuss each of these passages minutely in its turn. But the general idea we gather from them is definite and clear. A ransom paid, our sins borne, the wrath of God appeased, an offered sacrifice--all these contain one idea: Jesus Christ freeing us from the desert of our sin by Himself satisfying Divine Justice on our behalf. Hence the two great facts of our religious history. We were under the condemnation of a holy law. He who was "the Life," _for our sake_ endured death that we who deserved death might have life _for His sake_. And God is "faithful and just to forgive us our sins." To a simple-hearted Christian all this is clear. Men may be scandalised at the exchange (as they term it) between justice and sin, between life and death; but Paul knows how to state the matter: "God hath made Him (Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Men may be indignant (as they often profess to be) at the thought of the innocent suffering for the guilty; but Peter does not hesitate to say: "Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God."