The image of Christ as presented in Scripture : an inquiry concerning the person and work of the Redeemer

Front matter

Ne Bien alg

ES ars me

EE Sees Ba oS

II. The Son Of God And The Creation

‚ THE SON OF GOD AND HUMANITY .

CHRIST IN THE FLESH

I.

II.

Iv.

THE VOLUNTARY INCARNATION.

THE EARTHLY APPEARING OU °

THE BEGINNING OF THE EXALTATION .

THE GOD-MAN IN GLORY :

I, THE GOD-MAN IN HEAVEN iia

III. THE GOD-MAN IN THE HEART . ; k

IV. THE GOD-MAN IN THE FUTURE. . °

Introduction

PAN G the fairest legends of Christian antiquity

may perhaps be reckoned that of St. Christopher. He is said to have been originally a Syrian heathen, distinguished by great strength of body, and resolved to devote himself only to the service of that master who should be proved to excel him in strength. He was directed to a powerful king; but the latter was afraid of the Evil One, and Christopher draws the legitimate deduction that this last must thus be more powerful than the other. He sells himself now into the service of Satan; but Satan flees in his turn so soon as the cross is planted. Who, then, can this Crucified One be, before whose sign even the prince of darkness trembles? Christopher soon learns, and determines to range himself under His banner. In answer to the question, how he may best show his unlimited subjection to this new master, a hermit counsels him to take his place as a ferryman beside a neighbouring stream, and to offer to all who desire it to bear them on his brawny shoulders to the opposite side. In reality the strong man, who will only bow before the stronger, builds for himself a lowly hut upon the bank, and now daily performs gratuixii INTRODUCTION.

tously the pious labour of love. There, on a certain night, he hears the silvery voice of a little boy, who begs he will also carry him over, and the ready servant at once arises. But hardly has he with his light burden set his feet in the waves, when they begin wildly to roar. It is as though the child whom he carries becomes with every moment heavier: as yet scarcely in the middle of the stream, the exhausted bearer seems about to sink. “Who art thou, child?” asks he, astonished and alarmed; “it is as if I were bearing nothing less than the whole world upon my shoulders!” And, “In reality you bear even more than the world,” is the answer he receives; “you bear Him who made heaven and earth; I am Christ the Lord, whom you serve.” Now he is by the hand of the child immersed in the water, baptised in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; and in remembrance of this miracle named Christopher (Christophorus), the Christbearer. In proof that all this was no empty dream he was to plant the staff which he bore on this occasion on the other side, in the sand of the rivers bank, and in one night the dry wood should become verdant and sprout.

It falls not within: the object contemplated by us to investigate the probable origin of this significant legend. But who will be surprised that it presented itself to our: mind as we at last overcame a natural shrinking, and addressed ourselves to the work of sketching the image of Christ in all its extent? The experience, in truth, of the man who ventures on the field of Christology is not unlike that of St. Christopher. As though it were a

INTRODUCTION. XI light burden, youthful zeal undertakes this task. Animated with sacred longing desire to test one’s strength to the highest degree, he hardly considers whether it may not be too heavy for human shoulders. But with every step in advance grows the broad stream which must necessarily be waded through; the burden one has imposed on oneself presses ever more severely the weary shoulder; the consciousness of the rashness of the act expresses itself ever more powerfully than that of the dignity and grandeur of the effort. Unless the Lord Himself reveals Himself to the man, and baptises him with the Holy Ghost, where is the strong man who would not in this path eventually sink down ?

The vmage of Christ as presented in Scripture, thie then, is the task which awaits us. Scarcely have we placed this inscription above the following pages, when it becomes self-evident how almost impossible it is to enter upon a more sublime, but at the same time a more difficult, subject. The difficulties already experienced in the preparation of the Life of Jesus return here, but augmented with many new ones. Not years, but ages, here extend themselves before the eye of him who would investigate the subject; not through earth alone must his imagination roam, to heaven must his spirit soar ; not only of the past and the present, also of the mysteries of the future must he testify, under the leading of — the Spirit of truth. All the rays of the glory of the. Christ must he, so far as possible, collect into one focus, and not merely present a series of sacred and profane . testimonies about the God-man, but, illuminated and xiv INTRODUCTION.

guided by God’s own testimony, must display Him Himself, in His peerless lustre, before the eyes of many. Even though the most accomplished pen had become a pencil in the most cautious hand, who would venture to project so much as the first lines of this magnificent painting without the question once more rising to his lips, “ Who is sufficient for these things ?”

But, notwithstanding all the difficulty of the undertaking, there is not a little which tends at once to banish the dread of its absolute impossibility. It is, indeed, no philosophic Christ, but a purely historic one, whom we are to attempt to depict; no creation of one’s own excited imagination, but the centre of God’s highest and last revelation, to which we now direct our attention. For every one who with us still regards Holy Scripture as the pure source and infallible standard of Christian truth—and the number of these will increase in proportion as unbelief more unblushingly and _ superficially assails the Divinity of the Gospel—the answer is thus already in principle given to the all-important question, “What think ye of the Christ?” We have shown! that the testimonies of Prophet and Apostle concerning Him, far indeed from being in open contradiction with each other, display the fairest harmony, as well one with another as with the words of the Lord Himself. Thus, then, all the stones lie at hand, which, well compacted, „must form that Christologic structure, of which the majestic outline already stands before our mind in the

" Christologie, i., ii.

INTRODUCTION, XV examination of the separate utterances of the Old and the New Testament. What we now have to do is in this way nothing less, but also nothing more, than to rear the superstructure upon the foundation thus laid; in other words, to draw the likeness of the Son of God and Son of Man, as, according to the unaminous testimony of Scripture, which cannot be broken, He displays Himself to us. Endless would the task be, if we would make any other conception of the Lord’s person and work, which might assert itself beside or in opposition to ours, the object of a formal and extended criticism. But that which belongs only to the schools of theology, without possessing any value for Christians who will know in whom they believe, is with reason set aside. It is no _ abstract dogma that we seek to develop, but a living * image which we attempt to sketch; no controversy with persons, which we desire to open, but a calm contemplation of things, into which we wish to enter; no running criticism, in a word, which we propose to give of systems about Christ, but a visible picture of the Christ Himself, as He has in some measure obtained a form in us. We are permitted, in doing so, to attach ourselves to the testimony of His believing Church of all ages, and to make an independent use of the ‘light shed by the most distinguished men of earlier and later times upon the dignity of His person and the glory of the Redemption given usin Him. We are in some respects in the position of the artist who would make the canvas and marble speak to the honour of the Holy One, and—acquainted with the efforts already put forth by meritorious prede-

XV1 INTRODUCTION.

cessors— now also essays his own, and however high his ideal remains above his powers, yet does not lose courage, because above his outspread frame has hovered the breath of a devout prayer. Of one of the most renowned Italian maestros, Angelico de Fiesole, it is related that he was wont to paint the head of Christ and of the Holy Virgin only on his knees: why should the Christian theologian need to despair, who has no other design than in his domain in spirit to do the same ?

It will be unnecessary in this place at large to indicate or to justify the method we wish to pursue. Already’ have we pointed out in broad outline the form designed for an investigation which, while fruit and crown of an earlier labour, may yet be regarded as a wholly independent one. If we had now to begin with the question, who Christ was, and what He has done, it would indeed be most natural to begin with His earthly manifestation, thence to rise, on the one hand, to His pre-existent state, and, on the other, to that which He has become, after passing through suffering into glory. But since our presentation is to embrace as far as possible all that has been revealed to us in the. Gospel concerning Christ, it is unquestionably best conducive to the end in view that we make choice of the historic sequence, and begin with penetrating as we are able into the past, in order finally to direct our glance to the yet hidden development of - the future. If it is at all allowable to transfer the idea of time to a domain which in part belongs to eternity, ee ee ee ee eee SES ey

* Christologie des N. V., pp. 24, 25.

INTRODUCTION. XVll we desire to contemplate the Son of God and Son of Man in the various periods of His existence and activity. As whilom John, we have to place ourselves at the standpoint of believing contemplation, and to speak successively of : |

THE Son OF GOD BEFORE HIS INCARNATION; THE CHRIST IN THE FLESH; THE GOD-MAN IN GLORY.

It will scarcely be necessary to indicate the principles which will guide us in the carrying out of this work. The sacred witnesses of the Lord are for us extraordinary ambassadors of God, before whose high authority we bow, and His own word concerning Himself the end of all controversy, even where we have not yet succeeded, or have only partially succeeded, in independently and clearly penetrating the truth thereof. And yet, while we regard it as folly not to be willing to believe anything which one has not previously comprehended, we regard it as indolence not to wish to comprehend what, and on what grounds, we believe. Where thus the word of truth opens up a depth for our eye, we cast therein a resolute, although ever reverential, glance; and while we begin with sitting down as children at the feet of Supreme Wisdom, we nevertheless continue mindful of our vocation, as men to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, and to understand the things which in Christ are freely given to us of God. And, while all our knowing and prophesying in this childhood state necessarily continues limited, we adhere

Xv1il INTRODUCTION.

as closely as possible to God's own testimony contained in the Sacred Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament—a testimony of whose infallible certainty we are fully assured, not only because it rests upon facts, often assailed indeed, but never refuted, but also, and especially, because the Holy Ghost testifies in our hearts that the word of the Lord is truth. Rather do we esteem it possible that all men should be seen to be liars than that one jot or tittle of tha®which the God of truth has spoken, and caused to be written in accordance with His will, should fall to the ground. The decisive “It is written” remains thus for us the highest word in this particular domain, no less than others. That which Scripture leaves undecided, we leave likewise an open question ; what Scripture testifies of Christ, “we accept always and in all places, with all thankfulness,” but at the same time seek, so far as in us lies, to sound its meaning. Proceeding under the guidance of that infallible light, we desire to leave no single side of His adorable nature and His redeeming work wholly beyond our examination. We seek to bring His heavenly form as closely as possible within the vision of all who desire with unveiled face to behold the glory of the Lord. And while we are thus conscious of giving an unequivocal testimony to the honour of the truth, we at the same time labour for the advancement of that real peace which is effected, not by the concealing, but only by the revealing of the truth. “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost!” Seldom was anything of importance spoken or done in former times, in any province,

INTRODUCTION. XIX without an invocation of this thrice holy Name, in which—according to the old legend—also Christopher was baptised. What word can better be our last one, where we now without delay wend our steps into the Holy of Holies, than an earnest and solemn, “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ” ?

{ ‘i rd)

THE IMAGE OF CHRIST. aa PART. I.

THE SON OF GOD BEFORE HIS INCARNATION.

EN on the first glance at the person of our Lord there is seen to be an immense difference between

_ Him and all who are born of woman. We men begin to live, only when we receive an existence from God through the medium of our earthly parents; a few months before, we existed only in the thoughts of God, not in reality.

_ It was not our act, but our appointed lot, to belong to the human race; independently of our own willing and choosing, we have beheld the light of life Our Lord, on the contrary, has, as well according to His own utterances as according to those of His inspired witnesses, existed in heaven with the Father, many centuries before

1 It is true the doctrine of the pre-existence of all human souls has found renewed advocacy within the most recent times, among others, on the part of the renowned theologian, Julius Miiller, who seeks in this way to explain the origin of sin; but the erroneous character of this philosophising has been displayed i in a convincing manner on various sides.

Jt

His appearing upon earth, and even before the beginning of all things. It has indeed been sought to explain the unequivocal expressions, which we meet with especially in the writings of Paul and John, with regard to this His pre-existence, in such wise that they lose even all appearance of demonstrative force in relation to this mystery; but the arbitrary character of the measures resorted to is self-evident, and is already condemned, not before the tribunal of faith alone, but also before that of genuine science. It is only by doing violence to Scripture itself that any can efface from it the conception of a personal pre-existence of the Lord; he who will not read it there, deserves to be placed on the same level with those who can look upon white as black, or square as round.” To make a writer say exactly the opposite of that which he manifestly intends to say is not allowed to any expositor. If, under the influence of philosophic doubt, any one will reject the distinct testimony of the Gospel, this at least is intelligible; but let no one continue ~ so partial and superficial as to assert that the truth in question is not presented in the Gospel.

If then we come to the Lord, as did the Jews on one occasion,’ for an answer to the question, “Who art Thou?” He Himself gives to us the emphatic hint that we are to, seek the key to the enigmas of His.earthly appearing, above all things in His earlier, heavenly life. In order to

* Observe, for instance, how John, the greatest of the prophets, regards the ‘‘ heavenly” as separated from him, the “earthly,” by a wide gulf (John iii. 31, 32 ; comp. John i. 1—18; viii. 58; xvii. 5; Phil. ii. 6—8 ; Col. i. 16, 17).

* John vii. 25.

THE SON OF GOD BEFORE HIS INCARNATION, 3 understand the Son of man even to some extent, we must as far as possible learn to know Him as the only begotten Son of God; in order rightly to appreciate the exalted rank of the Son, we must view Him not merely in relation to the Father, but in relation to the whole Divine Nature, whose interpreter and visible manifestation He may be called. Yet even at this we cannot possibly stop short. The question now naturally arises, in what rela- | tion.the Son of God, in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, stands to the whole Creation existing outside Himself, whether visible or invisible. And if, again, so far as we know this creation, man is its crown and adornment, and if the assumed, relationship of the Lord to our race can be sufficiently explained only from an earlier, originally existing relationship; the relation of the Son of God to Humanity, even before His incarnation, affords us a fresh object of reverent examination. Since, finally, there existed again in this humanity a nation, which, according to the testimony of irrefragable history, was century after century the bearer of God's special revelations, and in the midst of which preparation was more directly and expressly made for the appearing of the Word in flesh; then finally the question engages our attention, whether (éven before the fulness of the time) the Son of God stood in any nearer relation to this chosen people, and if so, in what relation. When this too has been duly examined, we may and must immediately pass over to the contemplation of the Incarnation of the Logos, with which our second main division begins. In this first division there are thus four circles of investigation laid down before us, of which the first is absolutely infinite, and each succeeding circle narrower than that which precedes. It is evident from the nature of the case, as well that the one section will occupy us : much longer than the other, as that not all are equally attractive or easy to treat of. No single one is, however, we think, to be entirely passed over in silence; and just as little must we combine that which, perhaps, may be much better understood, if regarded as an entirely separate head. We therefore treat of our subject in four distinct sections, the order of which will be sufficiently justified

by what has been said above. |

The Son of God and the Divine Nature. The Son of God and the Creation.

The Son of God and Humanity.

The Son of God and the People of Israel.

E THE SON OF GOD AND THE DIVINE NATURE.

O know God is everlasting life; but all true know-

ledge of God proceeds only from revelation. As the sun is seen only by its own light, so is the Infinite contemplated only in the light which He Himself sheds for the eye of him who seeks Him. And in reality He has not left Himself without witness to man, created after His own image. Nature is the clear mirror which displays to us His adorable Being ; reason and conscience are the revelation of God in our heart; the history of the ages shows to us not only that there is a God, but also how He, the Almighty One, with adorable wisdom, righteousness, and love, guides the course of events, and makes them subservient to the fulfilment of His high decrees. Thus He gave to our race a general revelation, even to those upon whom the light of the Gospel does not shine. And when sin, having come into the world, exerted its baneful influence, and called forth the need for redemption, it pleased Him to give another revelation, and to open up the way of deliverance, which sinful | man, left to his own light, could not possibly have dis-

Testament we have the original documents of this nearer, particular revelation. Its history is thus admirably set forth by an Apostolie writer: “God, having spoken at sundry times and in divers manners in time past to the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by the Son.””

In receiving this memorial of the special revelation of God into our hands, we have, without doubt, taken an important step in advance, upon the way to the sanctuary of the knowledge of God. Questions, the solution of which earth had attempted in vain, have been answered for us with indisputable authority from heaven itself: that with regard to which the voice of nature had been silent, is proclaimed to us by the word of grace. Yet we have no right to expect that such nearer revelation of God will explain to us all the enigmas of His adorable Being. Rather is it to be expected, from the nature of the case, that every unravelled mystery will awaken in us the supposition of the existence of additional mysteries, which it is not given us perfectly to fathom. With every veil of mist which the sun dispels from before its face, the brighter becomes the lustre which it sheds, but the more too does it dazzle our eyes. Holy Scripture accordingly never comes to us with the promise ~ of explaining to us the deepest mysteries of the nature of God. On the contrary, it everywhere places in the foreground the incomprehensibleness of God for the finite intellect; the knowledge of God attained to by

“web Aad, the light of the Bible may indeed be a pure one, but never a complete one. How then can we be surprised to learn from the Bible things in relation to the nature of God, of which we should never have had the faintest conception without a nearer revelation, and which, even after they are made known to us, display a dark and mysterious side? Much more would it call forth reasonable surprise, and awaken a well-grounded distrust, if we should here learn nothing but what the mind of man could easily have itself discovered by prolonged reflection. It is true, we might reasonably expect of a special revelation of God, that 1t would contain nothing which is in irreconcilable conflict with the general revelation, in reason and conscience, in nature and history. The true. and unchangeable One cannot possibly be in conflict with Himself; the one revelation may complete the other, but not contradict or annul it. But certainly the special revelation may proclaim things which surpass the power of our limited understanding to comprehend, and in connection with which we accept the fact on Divine testimony, without the manner in which it is so becoming perfectly clear to us. It is the province and duty of reason to examine the basis, the sense, the connection of an extraordinary revelation, and its harmony with the character of God; and it will do this so much the better, in proportion as it is enlightened by the Holy Spirit. But to reject the irrefutable contents of the Biblical revelation, merely because this contains depths as yet unfathomed, and perhaps unfathomable, may be designated as not merely unchristian, but also as unreasonable and immoral. It is impossible conscientiously to regard the nature and limits of the human capacity for knowledge in the supersensuous domain, without coming to the conviction that Rationalism, as well in its newer as in its more‘ ancient form, is nothing but vain assumption, in part sprung from boundless pride, and not seldom allied to the greatest superficiality, under the guise of a profoundly scientific ‚spirit. Conscientious heathen and philosophic thinkers or poets have often spoken with greater modesty of the mysteries of the Godhead,*® than Christian Theologians, who, with lofty tone, decide d priori what in its nature and operation were possible or impossible, and could, perhaps, prove everything, except their own competency.

Tt will surely not be asked, why we begin our investigation by reminding of that which is perhaps doubted by none, and yet is forgotten by so many? We could not address ourselves to the task of presenting the image of the Son of God in His relation to the whole Divine Nature, without first of all placing ourselves at the standpoint from which this thrice hallowed mystery must be regarded and treated of. He who knows no,

* Think of the striking account, with regard to Simonides, which is found in Cicero, De Nat. Deorwm I., c. 22. In a similar sense a French poet of the last century, Sylvain Marechal, replied to a prize question, proposed as to the nature of God, with the verse :

other God than the God of nature and reason alone, will at once meet with a stumbling-block in the conception of a Son of God, as existing in distinction from the Father. He who reverences the Revelation of the Bible, but only so far as he can grasp it-with his finite intellect, must be offended with all which the Gospel proclaims to him of this Son of God, in His original, pre-mundane relation to the Father. Only he who has learnt to distrust all his own knowledge of, and acquaintance with, Divine things, so far as this does not rest upon the testimony of God _ Himself, is in a condition to prize the light which the Gospel sheds upon the nature of the Son, not less than upon the work of the Father.

“Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord.” * This word contains the fundamental truth, not only of the Mosaic Religion, but also of the Christian, and even of that of Islam. The Biblical Revelation inexorably excludes the doctrine of Polytheism, not less than that of Pantheism. The God who here speaks by His divinely enlightened messengers, is a personal, sovereign, living God, definitely distinct from all that exists through Him and outside Himself; no power, but a Being; no something, but a person, a God who can be personally worshipped, loved, and obeyed. Existing from all eternity in and of Himself, He unites all perfections in Himself, in the most perfect manner; but although these perfections are, for our clouded eye, separated, even apparently in conflict with each other, yet He who pos-

4 Deut, vi. 4.

sesses them is unchangeably one and the same. He is that He was, He remains that He is; and as His nature is perfectly unlimited and infinite, so also it remains absolutely indivisible, because it is purely spiritual. Yet this oneness of the Divine nature is no abstract, uniform, mere numerical unity, no unity of the intellectual conception, but of life; which so far from excluding an inner diversity and fulness of existence, rather presupposes and requires it. As we observe in one and the same man a clearly defined diversity of spirit, soul, and body, by which the higher unity of his nature is by no means destroyed, but rather preserved and expressed, so do we meet with a manifold life, in perfect consistency with the oneness of His Nature, in the God who here reveals Himself. And this we might expect, for He is the highest Love, and the highest Love can just as little exist as be thought of without an object adequate to it. This object cannot be the finite, imperfect world, which is dependent on God. He must possess this object, if it is to be fully worthy of Him, not out of, but in Himself. It was this conviction which has led even heathen philosophy of earlier and later centuries, either to suppose an eternal existence of creation, as the object of the love and delight of God, or to ascribe to the One True God a plurality of existence, by which alone He could be perfectly self-sufficient. Holy Scripture knows no other than a finite creation, which has arisen, not as the result of the blind impulse of an unconditional necessity in the nature of the Creator Himself, but only at the fiat of His omnipotence, and by the free will of His love. But the same Scripture also assures us that the highest love ‘had no need of a world external to Himself, in order to be perfectly happy and blessed in Himself. The Father. loveth the Son, and the Son is one with the Father. He who, as no other, can utter the words “I, the Lord,” has in Himself another I, inseparably united to Him by the bond of the most intimate, but at the same time the most independent, love.

Already do our eyes begin to grow dim, and yet we are at present only at the threshold of the sanctuary. The same Scripture which teaches us to distinguish the Son from, the Father—though always without affecting the unity of the Divine Nature—testifies also of the Holy Spirit, in such wise that it is absolutely impossible to confuse or identify Him, either with the Father or the Son. Not less to this Spirit than to the Father Himself, does it regard the Son of God as standing in a very definite relationship. Only in the sacred Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, does it reveal to us the whole fulness. and glory of the one and unchangeable Divine Being. The conception of God in Holy Scripture, especially of the New Testament, is by no means Unitarian, but definitely Trinitarian. Tt lies not within the scope of our argument to entér into proofs for the soundness of this proposition, with regard to which we are fully convinced, both that it is indubitably certain, and that it is indispensable to the right understanding of the Gospel of Redemption. Not the doctrine of the Trinity, but Christology, is the subject of our investigation. All that has been said, however, imposes on us the weighty obligation of seeking, under the guidance of the sacred writers, an answer to the three following questions :—