forbearance are past, through the of God.  To declare, I say, forbearance of God—­a at this time, his manifestation of his righteousness; that he might righteousness at the present be just, and the justifier of time; in order that he may be him which believeth in Jesus. just, and the justifier of him
                                 that believeth in Jesus.

From these words we learn:  (1.) That God has publicly set forth Christ as a propitiatory sacrifice.  The following paraphrase gives the probable connection of the words of the first clause:  Whom God, by means of his blood, hath set forth as a propitiation through faith.  But if we take the connection as given in our version, the propitiation is still through Christ’s blood, and is thus a propitiatory or expiatory sacrifice. (2.) That the appropriation to individual sinners of this propitiation is conditioned on personal faith.  Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice does not, in and of itself, justify any man; but it provides a ground whereby all may be justified, if they will believe in Jesus. (3.) That through Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice God makes a public manifestation of his righteousness in showing mercy to sinners.  The phrase, “the righteousness of God,” may mean, in the usage of Paul, the righteousness—­justification—­which he gives through faith.  But in connection with the words that follow, “that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus,” it can only mean righteousness as an attribute of God, his public justice, namely, as the lawgiver and governor of the world. (4.) That Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice was necessary in order that God might show mercy to sinners consistently with the demands of his justice.  For when the apostle says “that God might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus,” the words necessarily imply that, without this sacrifice, he could not have been just in justifying sinners.  Christ’s propitiation was not needed to make God more merciful in his nature; for in this respect he is unchangeably “the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.”  But it opens a way by which he may show mercy consistently with his justice and the sanctity of his law.  When we raise inquiries concerning the interior nature of the atonement, we meet with deep mysteries, some of which are, perhaps, above the comprehension of finite human understanding.  But we can comprehend, and believe upon God’s testimony, the great central fact of the gospel, that Christ offered himself to the Father to bear in human nature the curse of the divine law in behalf of sinners; and that God accepted this propitiatory offering as a satisfaction to his justice in such a sense that he can pardon all who believe in Christ without dishonor to himself or injury to his moral government.

13.  We have considered Christ as the great Antitype of the Levitical priests and sacrifices.  Let us now go back and consider the characteristics belonging to the types themselves, beginning with the priesthood.