Christ's doctrine of the atonement - Smeaton - XIV - Chapter 4 commenced

Required reading
Christ's doctrine of the atonement by George Smeaton (Available from Amazon or free here) - Commence Chapter 4 by reading Sections XXV and XXVI.

My summary
This week we start a new chapter on the effects of Christ's death.

Firstly Smeaton tells that the effects are either:
(i) objective and immediate;
(ii) subjective and mediate.

Then Smeaton teaches us what is meant by Christ decsribing himself as a ransom in Matthew 20 28: 'the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.' 

The elements of the statement are:
(i) that of His own free choice He came to give up His soul or His life;
(ii) that He gave it as a ransom, or in order to have redemptive effects;
(iii) that in its true character this surrender of His life was a substitution in the room of others.

What grabbed me
I liked once again how Smeaton drew out the atoning nature of Christ's death: 'The words here used convey the idea, that Christ gave Himself as a substitute ; that He gave His soul in room of others ; and that this surrender of His life for others was further accepted, or regarded as the price or ransom by which the deliverance was effected. It is not enough to say that the death of Christ was for the good of others in some vague, indefinite, indeterminate sense ; for that is not warranted either by the meaning of the preposition used, or by the connection of the sentence. If we would apprehend the Lord's thought without offering violence to language, we must accept it as conveying the idea of a vicarious provision, and allow that the Son of Man underwent the very death that others had incurred ; submitting to the penal infliction which they had deserved, and dying in their room that they might be rescued from the punishment. If it was only for the good of others in a general, indefinite, and abstract sense, the same thing might be said of any apostle or martyr. But if He gave His life vicariously, or surrendered His life in the room of others, what else does this convey but that He offered Himself to give death for death, and that He frees others by taking the punishment upon Himself ? The Son of Man, very God and very man, came to do this in the room of many. '

Jesus was not simply a martyr, he was a ransom.

Next week's reading
Continue Chapter 4 by reading Section XXVII.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.