having been brought up in the remembrance of the worship of God through animal sacrifice tried to interpret the work of Christ wholly in the spirit of such worship. Paul especially dedicates himself to the task of explaining the work of Jesus in the language of mysticism, of Hebrew mysticism, based on the significance of the sacrificial system, which was, as we have shown, not the real basis of Old Testament religion, but a system permitted by the Lord because of the external nature of the people. And yet Paul caught the true idea when he said: "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." That being true God did not have to be propitiated. It was men who had to be reconciled to God.
