A soul-offering.
This prepares us to see that the real sacrifice for sin, which our Redeemer offered, was the full surrender of his will, his self, to God, which found expression, for us to apprehend it, in his bodily sufferings on the cross (see Hosea 9:14).
I. SIN IS A SOUL-THING. It is not an act; it is a man acting.
II. PENALTY IS A SOUL-THING. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."
III. SALVATION IS A SOUL-THING. Christ bore the soul-penalty; Christ brought life for dead souls. The infinite depth of Christ's suffering lay hidden—in behind—in the Redeemer's soul, finding only once what seemed a suitable utterance in human language, and that a cry of immeasurable distress, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"—R.T.