FOR nineteen hundred years the chief point of controversy between faith and unbelief has been on the doctrine of the atonement. Lying as it does at the very foundation of the Christian religion it has been assailed from every direction and at every point of history, but like the sun over Gibeon and the moon over Ajalon, it stands still. Upon the finished work of Christ's atonement the entire structure of Christianity rests. He who is in error as to this foundation truth is always in error as to the superstructure.

1. Christ Jesus took man's place of guilt under the law and, in his stead and as his substitute, suffered the full penalty due his sins.

From Genesis to Revelation, in type and figure and precept, the substitutional atonement of Christ is taught. The first suggestion of the sacrifice of life for sin was in Eden, when God gave to Adam and Eve coats of skin. Death was the penalty of sin and death alone could atone for it. Abel's sacrifice was acceptable to God because he recognized in it the necessity for an atonement for his sins. Cain's was rejected because he failed to recognize such necessity.

Both were religious and had enjoyed the same training, but they differed as to the kind of religion they possessed. Abel recognized that death alone could satisfy the claims of a broken law and therefore offered a lamb as his substitute to die in his stead. Cain failed to recognize the need of an atonement for his sins and so brought a bloodless sacrifice. The difference was not in the two sons, for both were sinners, but in their sacrifices.

''By faith Abel offered a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain.'' The trial of Abraham's faith is possibly the clearest object lesson on substitutional atonement in the Old Testament. God commanded him to offer up his only son Isaac. His obedience was prompt and unquestioning. With his son he ascended Mount Moriah, built an altar, bound Isaac upon it, and raised his knife to slay him, when God staid his hand and pointed him to a ram near by which he offered as a substitute for his son and God accepted it as though Isaac himself had been offered. ''By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac,. and he that had received the promise, offered up his only begotten son" (Heb. 11:17)

God's direction to the sinning Israelites was to bring to the door of the tabernacle a ram or a bullock and put his hand on its head to identify it as his substitute and it was "accepted to make atonement for him," then in his stead it was slain (Lev. /i:4-5) "If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering. And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock's head and kill the bullock before the Lord" (Lev. 4:3, 4).

Most clearly does this set forth atonement by substitution. All of this, however, is only a figure of Christ's great sacrifice on our behalf for "He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray: we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us air (Isa. 53:5, 6).

If this does not teach that Christ endured the full penalty of sin in our stead, then it cannot be taught in human language.

The Lord Jesus himself said, ''The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:27).

"I lay down My life for the sheep" (Jno. 10:15). This was not simply to show His love for the sheep, but to save them from the death which He died and the penalty which He suffered.

The releasing of Barabbas and the crucifixior of Christ in his stead furnish a most impressive object lesson on substitutional atonement.

Barabbas, with his two partners in crime, had been condemned to die the death of the cross. He was guilty and the sentence was just. Three crosses were made, one for Barabbas, and one for each of the other condemned men. At this same time Christ was under arrest. The same court which pronounced Barabbas guilty, declared Christ innocent. There was no fault found in Him. But in compliance with the demands of the populace, Pilate released Barabbas, the guilty one, and crucified Christ, the innocent one. Christ was crucified on Barabbas' cross and in Barabbas' stead, who went free (Matt. 27:15-26). Christ died for me and in my stead and thereby set me free from the law of sin and death.

It is not Christ's life which saves, as some think but the surrendering of it as a propitiation for our sins.

"For when we were yet without strength Christ died for the ungodly . . . God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners Ch^i-t died for us" (Rom. 5:6-8). Christ did not die to show His love for us but on account of His love He died for us to satisfy in our behalf the demands of a broken la v. The law says, ''the wages of sin is death." Either the sinner, or an acceptable substitute, must die to pay this penalty, for the law is righteous and the penalty is just and ought to be paid.

''Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us" (I Cor. 5:7). The avenging angel passes over the believer because Christ has been slain in his stead. "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures" (I Cor. 15:3). When he took the sinner's place under law God dealt with Him just as He would have dealt with the sinner, "for He spared not His own Son but freely delivered Him up for us all."

"He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:21). He exchanged places with us, He taking upon Himself our sins and we His righteousness so that God views the believing sinner as though he were without fault.

They who argue that our Lord did not endure the penalty due our sins, because He did not die the second death, forget that the penalty is what the law says must be paid, and this He paid to the fullest extent. Spiritual death is the separation of the soul from God. If the sins which Christ bore for us on the cross did not separate Him from God, then what is the meaning of that awful cry: "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?"

Whatever curse should have fallen upon the believer on account of his sins fell with its full weight upon Christ, "for He hath redeemed us from the curse of tl.e law, being made a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13).

"Once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many'' (Heb. 9:25, 28).

"Who 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" (i Peter 2:24). "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" (I Pet, 3:18).

Let us reverently praise God for Christ Jesus who died that we might live.