The true force of 1 Peter 2:2424Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24) has been called in question by those who seek not only to make Christ's life vicarious, but His sufferings during the time of His active service penal. The thought that all the sufferings of that Blessed One have infinite value, and that they were all for us, every Christian heart would close in with adoringly. There may be obscurity of mind connected with it; but the heart is right. But when intellectual proofs are attempted to be given to sustain unsound doctrine on this point, so as to undermine the true character and value of atonement, and to cast a cloud on divine righteousness, it is desirable then to maintain the truth.
I do not hesitate to say that those who speak of the appropriation of Christ's living righteousness to us for righteousness, and hold the sufferings of His active service to have been penal and vicarious, have, in no case, a full, clear, and scriptural gospel. I am sure many who, from the teaching they have had, hold it, are as far as my own heart could desire from the wish to weaken the truth of atonement and the value of Christ's blood-shedding, without which is no remission. They have not seen the deep evil lying at the root of a doctrine which speaks of vicarious sufferings, and bearing of sins to which no remission is attached. 1 am quite ready to believe that the most violent accusers of the doctrine which looks to the sufferings of Christ upon the cross as the alone atonement and propitiation for sin do not wish to enfeeble its value. But we may inquire into the justness of all views which we do not judge to be scriptural, and press too with confidence what we find in scripture.
I do not believe in the penal and vicarious character of Christ's sufferings during His active service; nor do I believe in the appropriation of His legal righteousness to me as failing in legal righteousness myself. I am satisfied that those who hold it have not a full, true, scriptural gospel. By some it is used for the maintenance of what is horribly derogatory to Christ. I have known many valued and beloved saints who hold that Christ, ender the law, satisfied, by His active fulfillment of it, for our daily failure under it. I believe this to be a very serious mistake, though I may value them as His beloved people still. I believe in His obedience to the law; I believe that all His moral perfectness, completed in death, was available to me as that in which He was personally agreeable to God, and a Lamb without spot and blemish. But these are not the appropriation to me of legal righteousness. Yet I am not now purposing to go over all this ground, but merely maintain the ground on which 1 stand, and the doctrine which I hold as scriptural, and as of immense importance to the church just now. I would do it meekly, patiently, that souls may be delivered from error and bondage into the liberty of the truth of God, which is the only real power of godliness; but I would do it firmly and constantly.
In the attempt to maintain the doctrine of Christ's bearing sins all His life, the translation of the text referred to has been called in question. I am satisfied that it is perfectly correct. As an element in this question, I would now examine it. The English version is, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” A simple person would surely, in reading Peter, refer to His sufferings in death. Thus, in chapter iii., I read: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins; the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” No one denies that Christ suffered, during His life, sufferings which found their perfection in His death, besides the wrath-bearing character of it; for He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
But the question is, “Was there sin-bearing during His active service, or was He kept up as the Lamb to bear sin?” It turns on the word “bare,” ἀνήνεγκε. It is alleged that if it meant “bare,” it must be ὑπήνεγκε or ἐβάστασε or ἔλαβε. All this is a Mistake. A sacrificial word is, I do not doubt, purposely used; but ἀναφέρειν means “to bear, or undergo,” probably because sacrificial victims, which were offered up, were supposed to bear sins: at any rate, it does mean “to-bear, undergo, sustain.” The truth is, determining the meaning of a word by etymology, in a cultivated language, is the most absurd thing possible. It is interesting as philological research; but as determining the usus loquendi, it is ridiculous. I might say “hell-fire” must mean “covering sins” (for it is the same word as “to heal,” used also provincially for roofing)—for the same reason, hence, that the fire of hell was purgatorial or remissory! It did originally mean a covered place, hades, and hence, gradually everlasting punishment. Ἀναφέρω does mean to offer in sacrifice; it means “to recreate oneself, to remember, to cough up, to return, to cast the sin on another, to weigh or consider,” &c. The question is, Does it mean to bear, to undergo the pain and burden of? and, when used sacrificially, Can it be separated from the altar of sacrifice? I say it does mean “to bear, to undergo the pain and burden of anything;” and when used in connection with sacrifice, it cannot be separated from actual offering up to God.
First, it means “to bear or undergo.” I must turn to the dictionaries for this, and the passages in which it is used. They leave no sort of question. It is only systematizing, and not the facts in the Greek language, which can lead any one to deny it. I turn to Stephanus. I find ἀναφέρειν, ferri, perferre, pati, ut Christus dicitur, ἀνενεγκεῖν peccata nostra. (1 Peter 2:2424Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (1 Peter 2:24); Heb. 9:2828So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:28).) Citatur e Thucydide ἀναφέρειν quod durum sit reddere, Ferre pericula: potiusque verti debeat, Subire pericula (better “to undergo,” that is, than “to bear”). The general sense of “undergoing the burden and pain of” is evident; and that is our point here. There is a reference in the beginning of the article to Aristides (I suppose, ֶlit's Aristides, the rhetorician), which I cannot verify. So Pape, auf sick nehmen, ertragen, “to take on oneself; “to bear” κινδύνους, Thucydides; φθόνους καὶ διαβόλους καὶ πόλεμον, that is, “envy, calumny, war,” Polybius and Dionysius of Halicarnassns. He adds New Testament. Liddell and Scott give “to uphold, to take on one,” Latin sustinere (quoting ֶschylus (ἄχθος) and Thucydides). It is thus perfectly certain that the word means “to bear the burden of anything, to undergo.” The etymological sense of “to bring up or back” is a mere absurdity here.
We have now to examine the scriptural use of it in connection with sacrifice, and in particular the passage in Peter. Ἀνήνεγκε is a sacrificial word. It is used here (if we are to take it as it usually is taken, as referring to Isa. 53:1212Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12)) for Hebrew nasa, which means “to lift up, to bear, to forgive,” and here confessedly “to bear.” It is alleged—for I have considered diligently what is alleged against it—that it cannot mean “to bear passively with” (al), a s would be the case with ἀνήνεγκε ἐπὶ τό. This is a mistake. Aaron was to bear the names of the children upon (al) his heart (Ex. 28:2929And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually. (Exodus 28:29)). So with the judgment, in verse 30.
It is said that Isa. 53:44Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. (Isaiah 53:4), is translated ἔλαβε by divine inspiration, and hence it could not be ἄνήνεγκε; in verse 12. But this proves, if anything (for the word may be translated differently in different places according to the sense, but if it be the Spirit's purpose to make the difference here, it proves this), that He would not use a sacrificial vicarious word in verse 4, but would in verse 12 (that is, that the “bearing,” in verse 4, was not sacrificial, but is in verse 12); for Heb. 9:2828So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:28), that Christ was once offered εἰς τὸ πολλῶν ἀνενεγκεῖν ἁμαρτίας, are the very words of Isa. 53:1212Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12). So that, if this is of any value, it is not an inference, that it cannot be used in one place because it is not in another; and that Peter, if he had quoted it, would have used another word for “nasa” in verse 12, because Matthew did in verse 4 (an argument, when said to be from inspiration, which I decline characterizing). It is a direct proof that inspiration will not use a vicarious sacrificial word as to Christ's living sympathies and sorrows; but that it will and does use it when it speaks of bearing sins when offered up to God.
And now, leaving argument, which I am glad to do, what is the scriptural use of ἀναφέρω, in connection with sins and sacrifices, with or without ἐπὶ τό? The following instances will show: Num. 14:3434After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise. (Numbers 14:34), καὶ ἀνοίσουσι τὴν πορνείαν ὑμῶν. The use of it in this passage is the more noticeable: save in Lev. 20:1919And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, nor of thy father's sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity. (Leviticus 20:19), the word always used for bearing the consequence of our own or a father's sin (and under the old covenant this is the same thing) is λαμβάσονω in the Septuagint. In Lev. 20:1919And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother's sister, nor of thy father's sister: for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity. (Leviticus 20:19), it is ἀποίσονται. In Ex. 28:2929And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually. (Exodus 28:29), λήφεται τὰ ὀνόματα ἐπὶ τὸ λομεῖον, and for the same words in verse 30 it is καὶ οἴσει τὰς κρίσεισ.. ἐπὶ τοῦ. Indeed, the argument as to λαμβάνω may justly be carried much farther; For λαμβάνω is regularly used for bearing the fruit of one's sin, bringing sin on oneself in its consequences. It is not bearing it vicariously, but as a consequence on oneself. The only apparent exceptions that I am aware of, and they are only apparent, are Lev. 16:2222And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. (Leviticus 16:22), the scapegoat; and Ezek. 4:4, 5, 64Lie thou also upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon it thou shalt bear their iniquity. 5For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days: so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year. (Ezekiel 4:4‑6). But the first is λήφεται εἰς γῆν ἄβατον, “He shall carry them into a land not inhabited;” and in the case of Ezekiel, it was clearly not (nasa) vicarious, but representative (saval) and the same as the ordinary case. In a word ἁμαρτίαν λαμβάνειν, is not used for vicarious bearing, but bearing the consequence of one's own fault, coming under the effect of it oneself, poenas luere.
(To be continued ... )