by virtue of which the sinner may be assured of escaping all the
post-mortem penalties of his transgression. Moreover, they
practically identify this atoning or saving work of Christ with
his death. The problem then comes to be how to interpret the
death of Christ so as to account for such a change in God as
would provide for the possibility of the sinner's pardon and con-
sequent escape from "hell." No doubt the theories would
have been very different, had the problem been, How has the
life of Jesus, which culminated in his crucifixion, been instru-
mental toward such a change in man as brings about atonement
(at-one-ment, reconciliation, unification between God and man
and between man and man) and salvation (divine deliverance
of man from evil, especially from sin)?

Let us first consider the interpretation of the death of Christ
as a sacrifice for the sin of man, offered to propitiate an angry
God. The early history of the idea is instructive. In the early
days of the primitive church, the death of Jesus seems to have
been thought of by the disciples for the most part simply as a
monstrous crime--the crime of the murder of the one whom God
had designed to be the Messiah, the promised deliverer and ruler
of his people. As such, it could not permanently succeed;
the purposes of God could not be more than temporarily de-
feated by the wickedness of men; but unless the people repented,
the crime of the crucifixion would be severely punished on the
return of the risen and exalted Messiah to judge and rule the
world. It began to be felt, however, especially in the light of
Isaiah LIII, interpreted as Messianic prediction, that the suf-
fering of the innocent Servant of the Lord was surely divinely
intended for some good reason, and would surely redound to
the benefit of others. Moreover, incidentally the death of
Christ was the necessary preliminary to the resurrection, of
which the early church was firmly convinced, and which was
regarded as an earnest of greater things to follow. It remained
for Paul to develop the interpretation of the death as definitely
sacrificial.

What Paul was especially concerned to find an explanation
for, in view of the unquestioned doctrine of the overruling
providence of God, was the unexpected fact of a crucified Mes-
siah--a fact which had been to him, as it still was to many

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