himself, and all these facts together give the greater significance and propriety to his chosen title of Son of man. He knows himself as having come from heaven, and as being so identified with the highest interests of man, as those interests can only be secured in accordance with obedience to the truth, that he can say, "Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother" (Mark iii, 35).

(1) Assumed in his Fulfilling Law and Prophets. The consciousness of Messianic authority speaks out in those sayings in which he assumes to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, and to show that even the weightiest commandments of the decalogue are not fully obeyed in the mere observance of the letter. He gave to murder and adultery and swearing a profounder definition than any Jew of his time had thought, and he positively set aside the old Mosaic statutes of retaliation, and proclaimed the higher law of "Love your enemies." He assumes to be a preacher and prophet greater than Jonah, and gifted with a wisdom greater than Solomon (Matt. xii, 41, 42). He showed himself greater than Elijah when he rebuked the disciples who would have called down fire from heaven to consume the inhospitable Samaritans (Luke ix, 54, 55). The tone of authority which characterized all his teaching was that of the Messenger of a new covenant, who said, as if expressing a thought that was ever present with him, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand" (John iii, 35).

(2) Directly Acknowledged. The direct expression or acknowledgment of his Messiahship appears in those texts in which he asks his disciples the opinion of the people concerning himself. When Simon Peter confessed him as "the Christ, the Son of the living God," he anwered with no little emotion: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven" (Matt. xvi, 17). He thus declared Simon a partaker of divine revelation on this question, and a living stone or rock on which his Church was to be builded. In Luke's gospel (ix, 20) he is pronounced "the Christ of God," and in a passage of John's gospel (vi, 69), Peter says, "We have believed and know that thou art the Holy One of God." In the same chapter (ver. 27) Jesus speaks of himself as "the Son of man, whom the Father, even God, hath sealed." That is, the Father had confirmed and authenticated his Messianic ministry by the heavenly approval given at his baptism and the many "works of God" which he had performed. This reached a climax when he rode triumphantly into Jerusalem, and the multitude of his disciples saluted him, saying, "Blessed is the King that cometh in the name of the Lord.” The Pharisees would have had him

rebuke such noisy demonstration, but he answered: "If these should hold their peace, the stones would cry out" (Luke xix, 40).

(3) Indicated in his Doctrine of the Kingdom. His doctrine of the kingdom of God led him again and again to indicate his conscious relation to that kingdom as the Messianic ruler and judge. The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are familiar to him, and it is his delight to impart them to the inquiring souls who love the truth. His parables illustrative of the kingdom not only show his own knowledge of the mysteries of God, but deeply confirm his right to be acknowledged as the Messianic King, anointed to preach good tidings to the poor, proclaim the release of captives, restore sight to the blind, set the bruised at liberty, and proclaim the year of Jehovah's grace, the beginning of a new era, even as the prophets had written (Luke iv, 18-21). The eschatological element in his doctrine of the kingdom is especially noteworthy. He spoke of the end or consummation of the age when "the Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity" (Matt. xiii, 41; comp. xxiv, 30, 31; Mark xiii, 26, 27). He said that some of those who stood by him should "in no wise taste of death, till they had seen the kingdom of God come with power" (Mark ix, 1). In the presence of the high priest, where the scribes and elders of the Jews were assembled, he uttered the memorable words: "Henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Matt. xxvi, 63; Mark xiv, 62). He told his disciples that "in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt. xix, 28). What prophetic vision and what majestic consciousness of wisdom and power in his language in Luke x, 18, 19: "I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall in any wise hurt you." The portrayal of the Son of man sitting on the throne of his glory and executing judgment upon all the nations (Matt. xxv, 31-46) accords with the sayings in John's gospel that the Father "has given all judgment unto the Son," and "given him authority to execute judgment, because he is Son of man" (v, 22, 27). In him also is the power of the resurrection, and "all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth" (v, 28). Especially calm and yet of supernatural import are his words in John xiv, 1-3: "Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place

for you. And . . . I come again and receive you unto myself." He speaks with the consciousness of being Lord of both worlds, and as no one can well be conceived as speaking unless, as he said of himself, he had descended out of heaven and was, even on earth, as one who was also in the heaven (John iii, 13). After his own resurrection, according to Matt. xxviii, 18, 19, he associated his name with that of the Father and the Holy Spirit, and said: “All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth."

9. Significance of This Consciousness. The significance of all these varied expressions of the self-consciousness of our Lord is their witness to his transcendent personality. No other man ever spoke like this, for no other ever possessed such consciousness of immediate fellowship with God and of superhuman relationship to the mysteries of earth and heaven. One might conceive a superior philosopher and poet, gifted with deep religious instinct and with a bold imagination, constructing such ideals of a personal life out of many possible sources; but these self-expressions of the consciousness of Jesus Christ have an unmistakable historic background. They all center in a divine-human personality from which there is no getting away. That the first disciples of Jesus, or those who succeeded them for two or three generations, created such a character out of their own extravagant ideals of what the Christ should be, is a hypothesis utterly inadequate to meet all the facts of the life of Jesus and all these diversified expressions of his Messianic consciousness. In fair view of all the facts such a hypothesis is unthinkable. The only solution which fully accounts for such a marvelous self-revelation of the most influential person that ever appeared in this world is that which the Christian faith of the centuries has acknowledged both in creed and in song. Such words, such thoughts, such calm consciousness of being at home alike in the heavens and in the earth, such sense of subordination as to be able to do nothing without the Father, yet united with a power and authority to lay down his life and to take it again-these and like expressions of transcendent being find rational explanation only in the faith that Jesus Christ was the veritable incarnation of the mystery of God (1 Tim. iii, 16). The earliest confessions and worship of the Christians recognized in that mystery an adorable Personality,

Who was manifest in the flesh,

Was justified in the spirit,

Was seen of angels,

Was preached among the nations,

Was believed on in the world,

Was received up in glory.

CHAPTER V

CHRISTOLOGY OF THE FIRST APOSTLES AND OF THE

GENERAL EPISTLES

1. Sources of Information. Thus far our study of the person of Christ has been directed mainly to the facts of his life and to his self-expression as recorded in the gospels, especially the synoptic gospels. Our next step will be to inquire after the earliest apostolic teaching, and our sources of information are a few passages in the Acts of the apostles and in the epistles of James, Peter, and Jude. The date of these writings is a very open question, and most of them are doubtless later than the principal Pauline epistles; but, so far as they present a doctrine of the person of Jesus Christ, they appear to reflect the popular conceptions of the apostolic age. They are, accordingly, a class of witnesses which may be best examined before we proceed to the more elaborate teaching found in other New Testament writings.

2. The Preaching of Peter. The first recorded example of apostolic preaching is Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts ii, 14-40). The speaker regards himself and his hearers as living "in the last days," about which Joel had prophesied, and he represents "Jesus the Nazarene" as "a man approved of God by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him." The close agreement of this description of Jesus with that made by the same apostle in Acts x, 38, is noteworthy: "Jesus of Nazareth whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him." It is also worthy of our attention that the gospel according to Mark, which early tradition ascribes largely to Peter, is in striking harmony with this simple but comprehensive statement. When this apostle healed the lame man at the door of the temple, he did it "in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene" (Acts iii, 6); and also when he exhorted his convicted hearers to repent and be baptized he assumed and said that it must be done "in the name of Jesus Christ" (ii, 38). It is to be noticed, further, that Peter proclaims this Jesus of Nazareth as crucified, raised up from the dead, and exalted by the right hand of God (ii, 23, 32, 33). Thus he affirms and confirms the great facts attested in the gospels, and makes

them fundamental in his preaching. He affirms "that God hath made this Jesus both Lord and Christ" (ii, 36), and he calls him God's glorified Servant (or Child, raida) Jesus, "the Holy and Righteous One," "the Prince (or Author ȧoxnyós) of life” (iii, 13-15). It was impossible, he says, that this Christ of God should be permanently held fast in the bonds of death (ii, 24). But God raised him up, "and exalted him at his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins" (v, 30, 31). He furthermore declares that the exalted Christ had received of the Father the promised Holy Spirit, and had poured forth that marvelous affusion of heavenly power, whose effects they had themselves witnessed, and which was of a nature to make that day of Pentecost forever memorable in Christian history (ii, 33). He teaches also that the delivering up of Jesus to his enemies and the crucifixion, although accomplished by the hands of lawless men, were in accordance with "the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" (ii, 23). It was part and parcel of the divine purpose and mystery of the ages, of which Jesus himself had often spoken. We should observe how this accords with what is written in Luke xxiv, 26, 46-49, that "the Christ must suffer, must rise, must enter into his glory, and send forth the promise of the Father." That all this is part of the great purpose of ages and generations is furthermore declared in Acts iii, 21, where we are told that the heaven must receive this Christ Jesus "until the times of restoration of all things, whereof God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets that have been from of old." In Acts x, 42, Peter makes the further statement that he and his fellow apostles were "charged to preach unto the people and to testify that this risen Christ is he who is ordained of God to be the Judge of the living and the dead." These various sayings of Peter, as they are reported in the Acts, seem very fragmentary, but it is remarkable how full a presentation they give of the person of Jesus Christ. The Christ whom this apostle preached is identical with the Christ of the gospel of Mark. He is the Messiah in whom God declares himself well pleased. His life is made famous by the wonders and mighty works which he performed. He went about doing good. He was crucified, raised up, and exalted to the right hand of the Father, and made the Prince of life. "In none other is there salvation; for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved" (Acts iv, 12). He is the King and Disposer of the ages, accomplishing the eternal purposes of God, the righteous and holy Judge of the living and the dead. This preaching of Peter, so simple, direct, and comprehensive, amounts to nothing