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"God in Christ" (ho Theos en Christo not as in the A.V. "for Christ's sake")
"forgave you" (echarisato humin not as the A.V. "hath forgiven you") (Eph. 4: 32).
"It is the historical fact of Christ once for all putting away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself, which is alluded to, so that we are not to attempt to change the meaning into a
future" ("even as Thou, Lord, for Christ's sake, hath promised to forgive us." "Family
prayers by the Bishop of London", p.43), Alford. In Colossians the case is stated with
similar precision:
"And you hath He quickened together with Him having forgiven you all trespasses"
(Col. 2: 13).
Here again the aorist participle looks back to an act of God wrought once and for all in
Christ. The atmosphere of the Gospel according to Matthew is that associated with a
royal throne and with clemency extended by royal prerogative, whereas, in the great
epistle to the Romans, upon which the present dispensation is erected, the atmosphere is
that of a Court of Law, the one forgiven is not simply discharged as an act of clemency,
he goes out ACQUITTED, he is JUSTIFIED, he has a STANDING before God in Christ,
and these are priceless, fundamental and radical differences which no amount of pleading
can alter, or zeal exonerate.
We remind our readers that we are in the Muniment Room of this great house, and that
Paul, the Janitor is exhibiting to our wonderful eyes, the documents that pertain to our
calling. We have seen the "Will of the Father", we have now seen the "Manumission" of
those of us who by nature were sold under sin, but are here released, acquitted, forgiven
and free. Let us never underestimate the fact that we have been "bought with a price".