||_ | /gr tie fonntting cf a. Cotttgt in tftts CploityV

Gift of
Professor George Park Fisher
1907

BY THE EDITORS OF
W§t anfcotoer Kebteto.

PROGRESSIVE ORTHODOXY. A Contribution
to the Christian Interpretation of Christian Doc
trines. By the Editors of the Andover Re
view, Professors in Andover Theological Semi
nary. i6mo, $1.00.
THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST. An Ex
position of the Belief of the Christian Church in
its Origin and Reasonableness. By the Authors
of "Progressive Orthodoxy." i6mo, £1,00.
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN &^CO.
Boston and New York.

THE DIVINITY OF
JESUS CHRIST

AN EXPOSITION OF THE ORIGIN AND
REASONABLENESS OF THE BELIEF
OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

BY THE AUTHORS OF
'PROGRESSIVE ORTHODOXY"
PROFESSORS IN ANDOVER THEOLOGICAL
SEMINARY

And the Life was manifested, and we ha-i>e
seen and bear witness, and declare unto you the
Life, the Eternal Life, which was with the Fa
ther, and was manifested unto us. — i John i. 2

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
Cbe fiitoerpibe f&re&, Cambridge
1S93

Copyright, 1893,
By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
All rights reserved.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge , Mass., U. S. A.
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.

AD VER TISEMENT.
The papers collected i?i this volume appeared
recently as editorial contributions to " The An
dover Review" a religious and theological peri
odical conducted by Egbert C. Smyth, William
fewett Tucker, J. W. Churchill, George Harris,
and Edward Y. Hincks, Professors in Andover
Theological Seminary . They are republished sub
stantially as first issued. Some account of the rea
sons for presenting them is given in the introductory
chapter.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION. PAGE
Reasons for discussion of the subject at the present time.
New method of dealing with Scripture. Better know
ledge of the historical sources. Feeling that theologi
cal dogma conceals the real Jesus. Dissatisfaction with
the theological conception. Restoration of the hu
manity of Christ. The need of reinvestigation and
restatement  s  . i
CHAPTER II.
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
Did the primitive church believe Jesus Christ to be a
divine being ? Belief and teaching of Paul. The
preexistence of Christ. Not a created being. Chris
tian monotheism as including the divinity of Christ.
His relation to the human race. The ultimate sub
jection of the Son. Terms "God" and "Christ"
not equivalent. Writings of the other apostles. - The
Fourth Gospel. Jesus as the incarnate Word. The
Word a personal principle. Belief in divinity em
bedded in the religious consciousness of the primitive
church   10

vi CONTENTS
CHAPTER III.
THE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS.
Did Jesus believe himself to be a divine being ? Fre
quent expression of his inner life not to be expected.
His claim to a place in the human heart which man
cannot have. He acted as Messiah. His spiritual
sway. His authority and supremacy. Father and Son
knowing each other. His use of miracles. The king
dom of God. The Son of man coming to judgment.
Confirmation in the Fourth Gospel. Consciousness of
preexistence ...  ¦ • • 37
CHAPTER IV.
THE EARLY CHURCH.
Statements of the earlier Christian teachers and docu
ments. Letter from the church in Rome to the church
in Corinth. Its occasion. God revealed in the sacri
ficial love of Christ, who is above angels. His death
is in universal relations. His preexistence is implied.
Trinitarian allusions in an early tract. Testimony of
Ignatius. The journey of Hegesippus. The testimony
of a bishop in Asia Minor. The polemic of Celsus
against the common belief. Testimony of Irenaeus
and of Origen. The first dissent from the common
tradition on historical grounds, and the condemnation
of it   63
CHAPTER V.
THE EARLY CHURCH (continued).
The Christian life of the early time. It is distinctive.
A new ideal of virtue. Union with God makes life

CONTENTS VU

divine. Christ the author of the new life. Observance
of the Lord's Day. Baptism in the name of Christ.
Christian hymns. Doxologies. Preaching. The
Lord's Supper. The apostolic benediction. Martyr
dom. The Christian society a new social order.
Christ the Head of the organism. The source of this
faith the continuous life of the church. No marks of
later deification by a theological evolution. Wide diffu
sion of the belief. Paul not the author of the doctrine.
The origin of the Christian life explained only by the
belief. The doctrine lives in perpetuated experience . 93
CHAPTER VI.
REVELATION AND REDEMPTION.
Is belief in the divinity of Christ reasonable ? He brings
in a revelation of God as Father. This is a revelation
in life more than in teaching. He produces a new type
of character. The Christian is a creation of Christ.
The new life the result of the revelation. The society
of the redeemed, or the kingdom of God. The spir
itual authority of Christ. Inadequate theories of his
person ; a great religious genius, an inspired man, a
superhuman but created being. A divine work implies
a divine person  133
CHAPTER VII.
THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY.
An ascending order of revelation in nature, in humanity,
in Christ. All revelation in embodiment. Moral and
spiritual revelation in a personal life. The affinity of
man for God. The revelation of God is through finite
media. The fitness of personality to express love.
The power of Jesus to work miracles. Two truths

Vlll CONTENTS

which pertain to the divinity of Christ : the revealing
Word or Logos, and the Eternal Sonship. The ener
gizing of the Spirit conditioned on the personality and
work of Christ. The revelation of God as Father,
Son, and Spirit. The preexistence of Christ. The
presence of Christ since his exaltation. The develop
ment of Jesus. The continued self-revelation of God
in Jesus Christ  160
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SATISFACTION OF HUMANITY IN JESUS CHRIST.
Satisfaction of the human heart the secret and the mea
sure of the power of Christ. He satisfies the desire to
know God. The Christian conception of God. The
communicating impulse of this knowledge. Relief
under the consciousness of sin. He approaches sin
through his own sinlessness. The new liberty impel
ling men to save the world and producing the new
society. The true and essential Sonship of Christ the
pledge of the Fatherhood of God. The method of
Jesus sacrificial. He reversed the course of sacrifice.
His sacrifice not from man to God, but from God to
man. His sacrifice voluntary. His identification with
humanity. He uplifts humanity because he is above it.
He comes from the divine into the human. His con
sciousness of himself and his work as reflected in one
of his recorded meditations  208

THE
DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
Many thoughtful persons at the present
time are unusually attracted to questions con
cerning the Divinity of Christ. In some in
stances this interest connects directly and
consciously with a strenuous endeavor to
obtain settled and satisfactory personal con
victions respecting religious truth and duty.
In others it has arisen more quietly and un
consciously. They find themselves inquiring,
questioning, perhaps doubting, and increas
ingly perplexed.
There are many causes for this unrest. A
new method of dealing with Sacred Scripture
has come into vogue. Its several books are
studied in their historical origin and character.

2 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
Attention is turned to the limitations of rev
elation in its successive stages, limitations
implicit in the fact always recognized that this
revelation has been progressive, but never be
fore so sharply defined and strongly empha
sized. The doctrinal significance, still more
the evidential cogency, of many familiar proof-
texts is seen to be greatly modified, if not
destroyed. Scientific methods are now pri
marily inductive, theological construction
hitherto has been predominantly deductive.
The dogmas of the coessentiality of the Son
with the Father, and of the two natures in one
person, arose, it is maintained, through a com
mingling of philosophies now superseded with
an imperfect historical knowledge of the
Scriptures. At the least, the forms of thought
they employ are believed to be outworn, and
they certainly are not those which now would
most naturally arise, and most aptly and spon
taneously express men's thoughts of God and
of Christ. A strong, sometimes an almost
painful, longing is manifested for more simple,
real, living apprehensions of the Jesus to whom

INTROD UCTION

his disciples brought their difficulties and their
joys, and from whom they learned of the
Father. There is more than a vague suspi
cion, there is in many quarters a quite pro
nounced accusation, that the ordinary dogmas
conceal rather than make perspicuous the truth
about Christ. So far as our observation goes,
this discontent does not signify any conscious
tendency to the Unitarian position. The
divinity of Christ is acknowledged, even when
phrases in which this truth has been long
enshrined are discarded. The difference be
tween most of those we have in mind and
their religious predecessors for many a genera
tion is in general this : the latter had a definite
and assured conception of what Christ's di
vinity means, the former have not. Some
regard such a conception and conviction as
wholly unattainable. We know Christ with
certainty, it is said, only in experiences which
we can verify as historical, not merely as to
the fact of their occurrence, but in their con
tents and character. We know nothing in
this way respecting his preexistent state, and

4 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
cannot control anything told us about it by
any available tests. We can learn something
of his earthly life and of his character, and we
can be taught by him how to live worthily.
There is evidence that he survived death. No
other earthly life has seemed to be so asso
ciated with the divine, to teach so much of
God, but of its present activities and personal
relation to our lives we cannot make positive
affirmations. With others this somewhat
negative, or at least indeterminate, conclusion
as to Christ's divinity springs from critical
difficulties respecting the sources of evidence.
Contemporary testimony, it is claimed, is pre
served almost entirely in the Synoptical
Gospels, and there is found to be mingled
with later additions. These Gospels fail, it
is thought, to make clear that Jesus ever
himself claimed to be truly divine, and they
show in various ways that his disciples did
not so regard him. The usual proofs derived
from other books of the New Testament are
likewise deemed inconclusive, either exegeti-
cally or for lack of authority. Even if Paul

INTRODUCTION

or John, in canonical writings attributed to
them, recognize the divinity of Christ, and
it is generally admitted that they do, there
are still to be met two uncertainties respect
ing this testimony, — its genuineness and its
divine assurance. We are not sure, for in
stance, that Paul wrote Colossians, and if he
did, we are not certain that he gives us more
than the result of his own reasoning upon
facts otherwise known to us, and upon which
we can reflect for ourselves. Large allowance,
it is further suggested, must be made for
tendencies in an uncritical and unscientific
age to give a supernatural explanation of re
markable phenomena, to deify heroes, to put
mystical and speculative interpretations upon
ancient Scriptures.
Others are embarrassed by the baffling
mystery presented in the theological con
ception of Christ. The church has never yet
pronounced upon the unity of Christ's person,
beyond affirming the fact, though some hints
have been dropped as it were incidentally. It
has, however, affirmed that there are two

6 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
complete and perfect natures, even to the
coexistence of two wills, the divine and the
human. The modern psychology finds in
such a premise the conclusion that there are
two persons, which the church and theology
and Scripture deny. It is reasonable to
accept a mystery upon evidence ; it is im
possible to believe in a contradiction. We
do not concede that the ordinary doctrine
contains a contradiction, but only that it is
imperfect, yet its ancient form naturally does
suggest to those trained under present modes
of thinking something difficult of apprehen
sion even as a mystery.
More important still is the influence of the
modern appreciation of Christ in his true and
real humanity. This has always been main
tained as a part of the church doctrine of
Christ. But the ancient and medieval Chris-
tology, as it developed into dogma, tended to
make the personality of the Redeemer wholly
divine, and the humanity unreal. A reaction
from this appears in a modern tendency to
make the personality human and the divinity

INTRODUCTION

shadowy. Is it not possible to gain a com
pleter view of the person of our Lord ? Do
not the facts require a statement more com
prehensive and at the same time more appre
hensible and practical ? Many are asking this
question, many who are deeply impressed
with the historical evidence of Christ's true
humanity, and yet are not ready to credit even
such humanity with strictly divine perfections,
nor to claim that it adequately accounts for
the life-giving power of his person. In such
minds the question is definitely reached, What
are we to think of Christ as respects his real
personality ? and the approach to this question
is thought to be through his humanity, or at
least the attested facts of his earthly life,
rather than by the way of inference from later
statements respecting his preexistence and
eternal Sonship.
There seems to be occasion in these and
other signs of the times for a new considera
tion of the subject of the true divinity of
Christ in the light of recent critical studies.
In the faith of the church it is a fundamen-

8 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
tal article, — something without which Chris
tianity ceases to be what it purports to be,
something apart from which its fruits cannot
long be gathered. Reinvestigated it may be,
for no generation can take up fully into its
thought any vital truth in a merely traditional
way. Set in new relations and seen in new
lights it may well be, for the work of the
church goes on under ever-changing con
ditions. Disputes may be settled, contro
versies closed, particular inquiries concluded,
dogmas reached which mark boundaries and
attest what has been gained, but man's concep
tion either of God or of himself is never a
fixed quantity, nor perfect in quality, and the
central mystery of our faith combines in itself
all the treasures and all the perplexities of
divinity and humanity in their distinctness
and their union. Their treasures incite to
thought, their perplexities admonish to hu
mility. We have left, however, almost or
quite unnoticed theoretic or speculative ques
tions that arise in the endeavor to construct a
theological dogma respecting the person of

INTRODUCTION

Christ. Our object is more primary and prac
tical. We desire, if we may, to help those
who, from the causes we have noticed, are
more or less embarrassed, or troubled in their
Christian faith. Nearly eight years ago we
found a similar practical call for an application
of a great principle of Christianity, that of its
universality, to various doctrinal and mission
ary problems of the day. The papers thus
elicited were afterwards gathered together in
a little volume entitled " Progressive Ortho
doxy." In it the opinion was expressed that
the question which " lies nearest the heart of
all modern Christian thought and life is, . . .
' Is the Jesus whose life we know on its human
side the Christ in whom religious faith finds
its appropriate and permanently satisfying ob
ject?'" and we added as expressive of our
own conviction, " The Jesus of history is the
Christ of faith ; the Christ of faith is God
revealed and known." The chapters which
follow will deal especially with the question
thus proposed.

CHAPTER II.
THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH.
Did the primitive church believe Jesus
Christ to be a divine being ? Inquiry as to
his divinity naturally begins with this ques
tion. The first Christians were personally
associated with Jesus ; some of them lived in
intimacy with him. Their impressions of him,
therefore, are an historical source of knowledge
of him second only to his assertions about
himself. Moreover, their belief about Christ,
obviously a very important article of their re
ligious faith, is a means of finding out whether
the church doctrine that Christ is divine is
a part of Christianity, and is entitled to the
respectful consideration which Christianity
has earned by its influence on men. If at
the very beginning of its life the church held
Jesus Christ to be divine, and considered the
doctrine of his divineness to be a part of the

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH II
gift of truth it had received from God and
accredited by its religious experience, the doc
trine holds presumptive truth for those who
believe that the Christian life is rooted in
God. If it were proved that the primitive church
did not hold that Christ was divine, that this
belief came into the mind of Christendom,
say, in the third century, then it might be
urged that the doctrine did not belong to the
essence of Christianity, inasmuch as Chris
tianity had existed in its full strength without
having it. At any rate, whatever other claims
it might bring, it could not present this one,
of having always belonged to the faith which
overcame the world, of having belonged to
that faith in its beginning, when it was dis
tinctly conscious of the elements constituting
its life. But if the contrary be proved, those
who would set aside the doctrine must face
the question, Flow could a gross delusion bear
fruit in such living as that of the apostolic
church ?
Did the primitive church believe Jesus

12 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
Christ to be a divine being ? We seek an
answer to the question in the writings of the
apostles. They were the voice of the church.
Its faith and life found clearest and fullest ex
pression through them. Their letters, written
to instruct and guide it, put the truth in which
and by which it lived into simple form, adapted
to immediate spiritual need. The artlessness
and the practical nature of these writings
make them more adequate evidence of the
contents of the religious consciousness of
their writers and readers than elaborate trea
tises would be.
We begin with the letters of the Apostle
Paul, because they were earliest in time and
of fullest content. Does any one object to
counting this apostle among the witnesses to
the belief of primitive Christianity on the
ground that he was not one of the disciples
of Jesus, and was not converted until several
years after the church was established ? Is it
suggested that as he received his first ideas
of Christianity in a special way, they may have
been peculiar ideas ? It is said in confirma-

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 13
tion of this suggestion that we find some evi
dence in the oldest of church histories that
Paul did not agree with the estimate of the
original apostles as to what constitutes Chris
tianity. The answer is, Paul worked in fel
lowship with the original apostles ; he ac
knowledged their tradition of Jesus to be
true and authoritative, and lent his own au
thority to it ; he incorporated much of that
tradition into his teaching ; he spoke of the
original apostles with honor, not only as wit
nesses of Christ's resurrection, but as Chris
tian laborers ; x he did not in any of his letters
criticise their teaching in any point, and the
Acts does not contain evidence that he even
differed from them about the requirements
proper to be imposed on Gentile converts. It
is altogether unlikely, therefore, that he held
a different view of the common Master ; that
he gave Jesus an honor which those who had
lived with him, and treasured up his words,
and seen him, as they believed, after he rose
from the dead, could not concede. Moreover,
1 I Cor. ix. 5 ; xii. 28 ; xv. 7.

14 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
the writings of the earlier apostles show, as
we shall presently see, that their thought of
Jesus agreed with that of the apostle to the
Gentiles. Paul believed that a true religious faith, one
that brought men into right relations to God,
and produced good character, had Jesus Christ
as its central object. The gospel which he
carried to men, and commended to them with
agony of earnestness, was the gospel of Christ,
that is, about Christ. " Him we preach," he
said, describing his life-work. That work was
a personal one. Paul carried his gospel to
every man he could reach, because he believed
that every man's welfare depended absolutely
on his having and using it. Only by believing
on Jesus Christ could any man come into right
relation to God and possess true manhood.
All this is commonplace to those who are
familiar with the Pauline letters. It is equally
obvious to them that the supreme significance
which Paul believed Jesus Christ to possess
belonged to him in his present invisible and
heavenly life. It was not because Christ in

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 15
his earthly life had revealed certain sublime
truths, but because in his risen life, unseen by
men, yet in living intercourse with them, he
was all-important, that believing on him was
the one way to true well-being.
Faith in him united to him. To Paul, the
believer is ipso facto Christ's servant. He lives
unto Christ. He also lives with his Master.
He is, as it were, encompassed by this invisi
ble person, to whom he is wedded by a union
closer than that which joins husband and wife ;
he is " in Christ."
The appreciation of Jesus Christ, which to
Paul is all-essential, means more than appreci
ating the quality of his earthly life ; it means
knowing the significance of his being, the na
ture he bears, the position he holds in the
universe. This is evident from the reason
alleged for the importance of appreciating
the event in his career in which his character
most plainly appears, — the crucifixion. Christ
crucified is the power of God and the wisdom
of God. The death of Jesus reveals God as
does no other event in history, because it is, a

1 6 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
power to reconcile man to him. He whose
death has this value is separate from all
others. " Herein God commendeth his love
toward us, in that while we were yet sinners
Christ died for us." The significance of the
death rests upon the value of the life offered
in sacrifice. This, too, lies on the surface of
the letters of Paul.
Whom did the apostle believe this person
whom he preached to be? — this person who
after death had immediate relations with men ;
this person, into living union with whom all
men might enter, to have union with whom
was to be united to God and to have holy
character ? Paul believed that CJhrist's -exist
ence did not begin jwith_his_ejarthly_Life. -He
told the Philippians1 that Christ's earthly, life
expressed his condescending love, inasmuch as
her-when existing in the divine form, emptied
himself, taking upon him the form of a slave,
and being: found in fashion as a man. The
Philippian letter was written several years
after Paul's more elaborate doctrinal epistles ;
1 Phil. ii. 5-8.

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH \"J
but this fact gives no reason for suspecting
that his belief in the preexistence of Jesus
grew up in his mind after the latter were
written. For he said to the Corinthians:1
"The second man is of -heaven." It seems
only just to give these words the interpreta
tion suggested by the Philippian passage, and
to make them teach that Christ lived in
heaven before he lived on earth. This is,
indeed, their obvious meaning, and the mean
ing which the apostle's thought requires.
"The new mankind has as its prototype, not
the man of earthly but the man of heavenly
origin." If Jesus had a heavenly origin,
he came here from heaven ; that is, left a
heavenly for an earthly life. Paul says what
is equivalent to this in telling the Corinthi
ans : 2 " For ye know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that, although he was rich, yet
on your account he became poor, that ye
through his poverty might become rich."
Jesus never had earthly riches. The words
are naturally interpreted only when under-
1 I Cor. xv. 47. 2 2 Cor. viii. 9.

1 8 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
stood as referring to an act of self-renoun
cing love preceding and coextensive with his
earthly life. Paul wrote to the Galatians : 1
"When the fulness of the time came, God
sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born
under the law, that he might redeem those
under the law," etc. We believe that pre
existence is here ascribed to Christ. The
sending forth spoken of seems to be sending
into the world from heaven. This is sug
gested by the words "born of a woman."
This affirmation made about any other man
would be meaningless. The words,2 " God in
sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh,"
also seems to affirm by implication the pre
existence of Christ.
What kind of a being did Paul believe the
preexistent Christ to be ? Did he think him
to be an angel ? We find no evidence of such
a belief in the apostle's letters. True, he
believed in the existence of angels ; but they
seem to have had an inconspicuous place in
1 Gal. iv. 4. 2 Rom. viii. 3.

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 1 9
his theology. He does not often allude* to
them. They never are mentioned when he is
showing how men's great religious needs may
be met. There is nothing in Paul's letters
suggesting that he thought any angel could
render men such service as he attributes to
Jesus Christ. Indeed, his theology gives rea
son for believing that he could not have at
tributed an angelic nature to Christ. For he
says that Jesus was the second man ; the
founder of a new mankind ; and believes his
significance for man to be clue to the fact
that he is the one man in whom our race
finds its natural head and representative.
But would an angelic nature, one of another
created order, have fitted him to be the repre
sentative man, the most human of all men,
the one who perfectly expresses God's idea of
man ?
The presumption drawn from Paul's theology
is confirmed by the language which he uses of
the preexistent Christ. He seems to imply
that he was a being other than angelic, one
not included among created beings, a divine

20 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
being. Paul taught this in telling the Phi-
lippians, in the passage which we have already
quoted, that Jesus Christ was in the form of
God before he wore the form of a slave, being
found in fashion as a man ; that he did not
deem equality with God a prize to be clutched
at, but emptied himself to enter upon the
earthly condition. The slave form was the
humanity in its outward seeming. He had
the seeming because he had the thing. Men
¦saw in him, not the "counterfeit presentment"
of manhood, but manhood itself. The form
of God was God appearing. He was not an
angel who had put on the semblance of God.
He was divine in his being, and so had the
form belonging to God. The equality to God
to which he might have aspired was not a prize
to be clutched at, but was renounced in con
descending, self-sacrificing love. Because of
this act of love " God highly exalted him ;
and gave him the name above every name, so
that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow of those in heaven and in earth, and
under the earth, and every tongue confess that

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 21
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father." x
The exalted Christ receives the homage of
the created universe. Then he does not be
long to the creation ; creatures do not worship
creatures. Is it said that Jesus receives exal
tation to supremacy as a gift from God the
Father ? He does ; and the gift, is not arbi
trarily bestowed, but expresses the fitness of
Jesus to be so honored ; a fitness in virtue of
his being, his character, and his work. One
.who has given up the divine form of existence
for the human form, and in that human form
has surrendered himself to a violent death,
and has through this act of love founded a
spiritual kingdom among the men whose na
ture and lot he has assumed, should be adored
by men and angels. Both see the divine love
in him, and should worship it. If it is urged
that Paul's declaration, that the confession of
Christ's supreme Lordship is " to the glory
of God the Father," shows that he did not
believe Jesus to be divine, it is enough to an-
1 Phil. ii. 9-1 1.

22 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
swer that this assumes that he could not have
believed personal distinctions to have existed
in the divine nature, an assumption proved by
this very passage to be unwarranted. If he
ascribes to Christ the possession of a divine
being and the reception of divine honors,
and also speaks of a divine Father to whom
these honors ultimately flow, we must let
these words present to us his thought of
the divine nature. We may not explain away
a part of his language because it does not
accord with the notion of deity which we
assume him to have.
Paul told the Corinthian Church that Chris
tian monotheism included, along with the rec
ognition of God as the source and goal of the
universe and of the Christian life, the recogni
tion of Jesus Christ as the mediator through
whom the universe came into being, and
through whom the Christian life began.1 "An
idol is nothing, and there is no God but one.
For although there are many alleged gods,
whether in heaven or in earth, just as there
1 I Cor. viii. 4, 5, 6.

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 23
are [according to heathen systems of worship]
gods many and lords many, yet to us there
is but one God the Father, ,of whom are all
things, and for whom we are, and one Lord
Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and
through whom are we." As against the im
aginary many gods of polytheism, the Chris
tian has one God the Father, one Lord Jesus
Christ. Is it said that a lower place is as
signed to Jesus Christ than to the Father ?
His relation to the Father is explained in the
following words : " Through whom are all
things ; and we through him." By his agency
the universe comes into being. The universe
has its ultimate source in the will and mind
of God the Father ; its mediate source in the
activity of Jesus. Creative activity is divine
activity. He who exercises it is not a part of
the creation. In saying, therefore^as he_ vir
tually does, that Christian nLonotLeiam...in-
cludes~r£CDgiii±icji_jQf. Jesus Chrisi Jthmugh.
whom God creates the universej-i^aiiLasjcribes
divineness to him. We find here, as in the
Philippian passage, evidence that he thought

24 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
of the one divine nature as having in itself
personal distinctions, by virtue of which Jesus
Christ, as well as the Father, could be called
divine. In the Colossian letter1 Paul separates
Christ from the creation, calling him " first
born as regards every creature," and saying
that all things were created through him and
for him, and that all things stand together in
him, as though he not only put forth the
activity bringing the universe into being, but
was the principle, as it were, uniting it and
preserving it. This we believe he could not
have said of a creature.
In these assertions about the preexistent
Christ, Paul seems to have ascribed to him a
divine nature. A confirmation of our inter
pretation may be found in his view of the
relation which the incarnate Christ sustains
towards the human race. He is to Paul, as
we have already said, its head, the member
of it whose life is of supreme significance
to every person in it. This he is not only
1 Col. i. 15, 16.

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 25
ideally, by virtue of having carried humanity
to perfection in his own life, but actually, by
virtue of power to draw its members into
union with himself and participation of his
perfection. " The last Adam became a life-
giving spirit." 1 He gives life to his brother-
men. So he draws them to him one by one,
transforming them as they become united to
him, until at last all the race (substantially all,
at any rate) share his life, his character, and
his divine sonship. And how does this man
draw other men to himself ? What makes
him "life-giving spirit"? Why are all possi
bilities for mankind in him ? Because he has
the Spirit of God, because the Spirit of God
is his Spirit, so that that Spirit may be
thought of as Christ in activity. What does
this mean but that the humanity of Christ is
divine ; that the Son of God has become this
man, and is in him the fountain of a new life
for mankind ? From Jesus Christ, God's
Spirit goes out into mankind, because Jesus
Christ has God's Spirit as the outgoing of his
1 1 Cor. xv. 45.

26 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
divine life. So the Apostle Paul can speak of
the Spirit of God as also the Spirit of Christ,
and can say that the indwelling of this Spirit
in a man is equivalent to the indwelling of
Christ in him.
If we believe that Paul saw in Christ a hu
man life to which the divine Son had so given
himself as to make it divine, we can see why he
ascribes such powers to the exalted Redeemer,
and why he recognizes in him the first fruits
of a redeemed humanity. Without this belief,
his doctrine of a divine life-giving man is an
enigma to us. And can we think that he
would have called the Spirit of God the
"Spirit of Christ" unless he had believed
Christ to be divine ?
It may be objected that, if Paul had held
the view of Christ's person which we ascribe
to him, he could not have said that, after all
things shall have been subdued to the Son, he
will be subjected to God, in order that God
may be all in all.1 If this passage taught that
Christ would at some time take the place of
1 I Cor. xv. 28.

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 2"]
a creature, we should find in it an affirmation
contradictory to the passages we have cited
as teaching that he is not a created being.
We do not find such teaching in it. The
reign ascribed to the Son in the passage is
the activity growing out of the presence of sin
in the world. The divine-human Redeemer
is at the head of a redemptive economy. All
divine forces available for the recovery of men
from sin go from him. In him, men coming
out of sin touch God. For them to know
God is to know him revealed in Christ, recon
ciling the world unto himself. Their con
ceptions of God are chiefly thoughts of a re
deeming Saviour. Their service of God is
essentially service of the redeeming Christ.
When all the enemies shall have been put
down, it will be otherwise. That which God
is in himself will come more clearly into view.
Men will not simply possess his redeeming
love in Christ, they will possess the exhaust-
less wealth of his being. The divine human
ity will abide, but will be seen as the mani
festation of the glory of God. This is what

28 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
we believe Paul to have meant by the ultimate
subjection of the Son, in order that God may
be all in all. He cannot have meant that God
would remove from his throne a creature
whom he had temporarily placed there.
But, it may still be objected, Paul does not
apply the term " God " (i9e6s) to Christ. He
does not, because he does not think that God
and Christ are exact equivalents. He did not
hold, as the Christian church has never held,
that the Deity is nothing more nor less than
Jesus Christ. But this does not imply his
not holding that Jesus Christ was divine, was
in the being of God. If the revelation he
received from Christ did, indeed, lead Paul
to ascribe divine attributes to his Master, and
so modify his conception of the divine Being,
would not this change in his theology be
naturally expressed by language such as we
find him using, " To us there is one God the
Father, of whom are all things, and we to
him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are
all things, and we by him " ?
We pass on to the writings of the other

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 29
apostles. Here, we need hardly say, Christ
has the same prominence as in the Pauline
letters. The gospel which they convey is the
good tidings about him. They say that the
spiritual relation with him which faith estab
lishes is the one condition of living in fellow
ship with God and securing a holy character.
At one with Paul here, his fellow-apostles
were presumably at one with him in his con
ception of Christ. Is there evidence that
they, too, believed Jesus to be divine ? We
think that there is. The Apocalypse pictures
the Lamb slain as receiving the worship of
the created universe : 1 "And every creature in
heaven, and on earth, and under the earth,
and in the sea, and all things in them, heard I
saying, To the one sitting upon the throne,
and to the Lamb, be blessing, and honor, and
glory, and power, for ever and ever." It rep
resents Jesus as saying of himself, in words
almost exactly reproducing those which the
Hebrew prophet ascribes to Jehovah : " I am
the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and
1 Rev. v. 13. <

30 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
the end."1 To the seer his being seemed to
lie outside of and to include the universe.
This is not creaturely being. In an earlier
passage of the Apocalypse the same language
is applied to the Almighty God.2 If this
teaching seems contradicted by the title given
to Jesus elsewhere, — " beginning of the cre
ation of God,"3 — it is only just to say that
apxrj means "principle" or "source" as- well
as " beginning " (Weizsacker renders it here
Urgrund), and that we may only ascribe self-
contradictory affirmations to a writer when
forced to do so by linguistic necessity. The
First Epistle of Peter speaks of Christ in lan
guage which Isaiah uses of Jehovah : i " Fear
ye not their fear, neither be terrified. But
sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts." The
prophet says : " Neither fear ye their fear, nor
be in dread thereof. The Lord of hosts, him
shall ye sanctify." 6 Must not the writer have
felt that Christ was to his people what Jeho
vah was to the children of Israel ?
1 Rev. xxi. 6. 2 Rev. i. 8. 8 Rev. iii. 14.
4 1 Pet. iii. 14, 15. 6 Is. viii. 12, 13.

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 3 1
We come to the Fourth Gospel. This we
believe to have been written by the Apostle
John. Many hold it to be a production of the
second century. They will probably demur
to our using it as a source of knowledge as to
the religious belief of primitive Christianity.
Yet it is proper to remind them that the lead
ing critics of their school suppose that the
author used a tradition coming through the
Apostle John, and to ask them whether, if
this were the case, the author of the Gospel
and the apostle did not probably agree in
their conception of Christ.
The Gospel presents Jesus as the incarnate
Word. And what does the writer mean by
the "Word " ? Evidently a personal principle
in the divine Being. " The Word was in the
beginning with God. All things were made by
him " (the personal pronoun is used). " Life
was in him, and the life was the light of men."
John the Baptist came to testify to the light
which the life in the Word was. This light,
the true light, was coming into the world.
"The Word was made flesh and tabernacled

32 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
among us, full of grace and truth, and we saw
his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of
the Father." x A personal and a divine life
are attributed to this Word which became
incarnate. If Paul ascribed personality to the
Lord Jesus Christ in his preexistent state,
when he said that all things were through
him, John, it would seem, ascribed personality
to the preexistent Word in making the same
affirmation of him. Dr. Wendt, of Heidelberg,
has lately advanced a different interpretation,
namely, that the " Word " is revelation per
sonified.2 John would declare, he says, that
as the creation was a divine "Word," i. e. a
self-expression of God, and as the impartation
of religious life to men was also such a
"Word," so Christ was in a yet fuller sense
" the Word." We do not find an adequate
explanation of the writer's language in this
interpretation. He speaks in plain, didactic
phrase, just such as is employed in the
rest of the Gospel. One naturally believes
that he is writing prose, not poetry. His
1 John i. 1-14. 2 Die Lehre Jesu, 308.

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 33
repetitions suggest that he is making state
ments of transcendent truth which challenge
belief. The progress of his thought belongs
to theology, not poetry ; and the several state
ments imply that the "Word" is a personal
principle in God, not a personified divine
activity. "This one was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him, and
apart from him was not anything made that
was made. In him was life, and the life was
the light of men." "And the Word became
flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace
and truth, and we beheld his glory, the glory
as of the only-begotten of the Father."
Could all this be said, by such a writer as
the author of the Fourth Gospel, of a personi
fied work or attribute of God ? How, for
example, could it be said that in this work or
attribute was life, and the life was the light
of men ? If we conclude that the prologue
presents Jesus Christ as the personal Word in
carnate, we shall find abundant confirmation of
this conclusion in the narrative. He appears
in it expressing the belief that he had a divine

34 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
life before his earthly life began. " Before
Abraham was, I am," 1 he said to the Jews
when they asked him whether he, a man not
yet forty, had seen Abraham. " Glorify thou
me, 0 Father," he said in his high-priestly
prayer, " with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was." 2 Is further proof
needed to justify the statement that the Christ
of the Fourth Gospel was as truly divine
as human, true God as well as true man ?
A word may be said of such New Testa
ment books as were not written by apostles.
These give us important secondary evidence
as to the apostolic belief about the person
of Christ ; for they were written when the
apostles' recollection of Jesus was vivid, and
were addressed to communities containing
some Christians who had had personal in
tercourse with at least one of the twelve. If,
then, we should find in any of these writings
a different conception of Christ's person from
that given in such New Testament compo
sitions as were composed by apostles, we
1 John viii. 58. 2 John xvii. 5.

THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 35
might suspect that this differing opinion was
held by some of the twelve. If, on the other
hand, we find that they all express the same
belief about the Master with that appearing
in the Apostolic Scriptures, then we cannot
hesitate in concluding that the twelve, as to
this central matter of belief, were of one
mind. Turning to the books in question, we find
that they all represent Christ to have been
divine. The Epistle of James, in calling him
"The Lord of Glory,"1 ascribes divinity to
'him. The First Gospel does so in represent
ing him as saying after his resurrection, "All
power is given to me in heaven and in earth,"
and as associating himself with the Father in
the formula of baptism.2 The Epistle to the
Hebrews ascribes divinity to Christ in saying
that he was the effulgence of God's glory,
and the very image of his substance ; that
"when he had made purification of sins, he
sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
high."3 1 James ii. 1. 2 Matt, xxviii. 18. 8 Hebrews i. 3.

36 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
There is no discordant note in the New
Testament literature. This fact would justify
us in believing that all the apostles held Jesus
to be divine, even though the proofs that the
Epistles of Peter and the Johannean writings
were written by apostles were as weak as
some hold them to be.
Our conclusion is, that the apostolic writ
ings show that the doctrine of the divinity
of Christ was imbedded in the religious con
sciousness of the primitive church.
The earliest Christian faith and devotion
were inspired by the conviction that Jesus,
Messiah, was divine.

CHAPTER III.
THE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS.
Did Jesus believe himself to be a Divine
Being ? This question has, of course, a para
mount place in the inquiry about his divinity.
It is impossible to think that he could have
been such a person as the apostles believed
him to have been, without having had some
consciousness of the fact. We say " some
consciousness," for we do not think that the
precise form which this consciousness would
assume can be confidently affirmed on a priori
grounds. Paul says that Jesus Christ was
" fojm-dJn_fasliioji-.as^a man. " x John says that
" the Word became flesh." 2 To both these
apostles, and to all the apostolic church, Jesus
was really a man, and lived as human a life as
has ever been lived in this world.
This implied his having a man's mind, a
mind having a human knowledge of itself and
1 Phil. ii. 7. 2 John i. 14.

38 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
of things other than itself. As a recent writer
has said, " If in any one thing the man Christ
Jesus knew as God, knew because he was God,
knew after the t*op(f>rj or mode of the divine
and not human knowledge, in that thing his
humanity was violated, ceased to be humanity,
and became or was changed into divinity. A
human mind can only know in accordance with
the laws and conditions of the human mind
and of human knowledge.- When it knows
outside of these, it is not a human mind." 1
This is as true when the thing known is
the knowing mind itself as when it is some
thing else. Hence Jesus Christ's being the
person whom the apostles believed him to be
does not imply that his self-consciousness
fully comprehended an infinite nature, — how
ever really it reached into and vitally reflected
the Divine Life, — but the contrary. For the
self-consciousness which comprehends the in
finite is the activity of a divine, not of a
human mind.
1 Du Bose : The Soteriology of the New Testament,
p. 147.

THE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS 39

Some say that, if Jesus Christ were truly
divine, his self-consciousness must have been
that of the absolute God, and that therefore
such a person as the apostles believed him to
have been cannot have existed. This assump
tion we believe an arbitrary one, based on
wrong conceptions of the nature of God and
that of man, and their mutual affinities and
relations. Why could not the Infinite Being
have so united himself to the life of a crea
ture made in his image as to have that life in
its limitations as one of the forms of his own
life ?
The dogmatic affirmation that he could not
do this, and that the church, in believing that
he has done so, believes that something took
place which cannot possibly have taken place,
ought to have little weight with thoughtful
minds. What form Jesus' divineness — assuming
him to have been divine — took on in his self-
consciousness, we cannot affirm a priori. But
we can and must affirm that in some form it
was present in his thought of himself. The

40 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
union with God which the apostles ascribed to
him implied a position as regards men which
must have been known in order to be worthily
filled. If there were an Incarnate Son, he
had a work to do for mankind. He could not
do this work unless he knew the significance
his life had for all men. He must have been,
then, if he were indeed the Christ whom the
primitive church adored, aware that he was in
the life of God in a way in which no other
man can be, and that homage belongs to him
due to no one who is merely man.
Do the expressions, of Jesus' thought of
himself which have come down to us show
that he seemed to himself to be thus uniquely
related to God and exalted above men ? Those
expressions, so far as they by general consent
bear the stamp of Jesus' mind, and of his
only, are found in the apostolic tradition pre
served in the first three Gospels. How far
may the words of Jesus contained in that tra
dition be presumed to convey his thought of
himself ?
The oldest of our Gospels was written about

THE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS 41
the year 70. The earlier one, now lost, a great
part of which is preserved in Luke and Mat
thew, was probably written a very few years
earlier. For more than thirty years the sayings and
acts of Jesus were preserved in the memory
of his original disciples and their converts.
They did not lie idle there, but were con
stantly used in teaching. Paul's citation of
the words of Jesus spoken at the institution
of the Lord's Supper,1 and of his teaching
about divorce,2 shows this.
These sayings, kept for religious uses, were
a part of the religion of those who held them.
They touched and quickened the religious
life of the disciples when they were spoken.
Their religious power prevented them from
perishing in the moment of utterance; their
felt religious value caused their constant use
in the following years. They lived in the
hearts of those who first heard them, and
therefore ultimately found a place, a supreme
place, in literature. Evidently the biographi-
1 1 Cor. xi. 23. 2 1 Cor. vii. 10.

42 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
cal motive, the desire to gratify curiosity, had
little place in the minds of those who trans
mitted the words of Jesus to the following
generation. They told their recollections of
him in order that men might believe in him
as the divine Messiah. The earliest written
account of him begins: " TJie-Jae^mriing-_oi
the gospel of J_esjis,CiiriaL.tlie-Sorixif,G-OilIl1
Mark wrote because he believed that Jesus'
life was, a message of grace which men needed
to hear. In the same belief, and for the same
reason, the apostles had recited for a genera
tion the facts which he gathered into his Gos
pel. It may be presumed that the motive
which caused the words of Jesus to be pre
served by frequent repetition did not apply
with equal force to all of them. Those were
repeated which were most clearly and em
phatically expressed, both because the memory
grasped them firmly and because they could
be advantageously used in teaching. Words
in which self-expression predominated over
teaching, the familiar utterance of intimate
1 Mark i. i.

THE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS 43
friendship, the suggestive but half-understood
personal revelation, would, if they were im
printed in memory, gradually pass out of the
common recollection, because they were not
available for preaching use. We find a very
few such words in our Gospels. Presumably a
far greater number perished. We learn in the
Gospel narratives of occasions on which Jesus
had familiar conversation with his disciples,
such as the little resting time spent on the
east shore of Lake Gennesaret, before the
multitude was taught and fed, but not a syl
lable of what he said on those occasions has
been preserved. Probably many of those lost
utterances were kept awhile in the memory of
the twelve. The Fourth Gospel gives reason
for believing that some of them were the life
long possession of at least one apostle. The
process of oral repetition, whose results are so
plainly seen in the first three Gospels, gradu
ally eliminated most of them from the tra
dition. For that process selected for use such
sayings as were most easy of recollection by
reason of their completeness of thought and

44 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
sharpness of expression. Among these lost
sayings, it may be believed, were some which
opened vistas into the religious consciousness
of Jesus, — companion words to the saying
which stands alone in the earliest written
record of his teaching : " No one knoweth the
Son save the Father ; neither doth any know
the Father save the Son, and he to whomso
ever the Son willeth to reveal him." 1
We may not expect, then, to find in Jesus'
words a direct expression other than meagre
of his inner religious life. If he had uttered
words conveying his consciousness of possess
ing a divine nature, it is quite possible that
they would not have reached us. If his teach
ing, preserved by the apostles, gives evidence
that he felt that he was divine, it must do so
indirectly by showing that he felt himself to
be to men what a divine person alone can be.
Indirect evidence as to this matter may, it
hardly need be said, be as convincing as direct
proof. If Jesus said that he was to have the
place in the human heart which man cannot
1 Matt. xi. 27.

THE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS 45
have, which belongs only to deity, then he be
lieved himself to be divine.
What did he say about his place among
them and his relation to them ? He said that
he was the Messiah. The kingdom of God so
long expected by Israel, the consummation of
the Hebrew religion, had come, — for he was
in the world. He was the expected one, in
and by whom the religious hope of the nation
was to be realized. To Peter calling him
"the Christ, the Son of the Living God,"
he answered, " Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-
Jonah : for flesh and blood hath not revealed
it unto thee, but my Father which is in
heaven."1 To the high priest demanding if
he were the Christ, the Son of the Blessed,
he replied, " I am." 2
It is true that Jesus did not at the begin
ning of his ministry formally present himself
to. his people as their Messiah. By doing so
he would have created an excitement preju
dicial to the religious influence which he
desired to gain, and almost sure to call out
repressive measures from the civil authority.
1 Matt. xvi. 16, 17. 2 Mark xiv. 61, 62.

46 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
But he acted as Messiah from the first. We
mean by this that he did the work and as
serted the claim which belonged to Messiah-
ship as it was understood by him. He began
to make disciples as soon as he began to
teach. These disciples were not merely
pupils, like the disciples of the rabbis or of
the Baptist. They were united to Jesus in a
deeper relationship, one unique among the ties
which bind men together. They were to live
in absolute spiritual dependence upon him.
His religious conceptions were to mould
theirs. His "I say unto you" was to have
with them an authority paramount to that of
the Old Testament.1 His thought of God, of
life, of duty, of destiny, was to be theirs.
They were to accept his application of spirit
ual truth to their life. Every earthly interest,
even life itself, must be put at his disposal.
" Whosoever he be of you that renounceth
not all that he hath, he cannot be my dis
ciple."2 "He that loveth father or mother,
. . . son or daughter, more than me is not
1 Matt. v. 21 ff. 2 Luke xiv. 33.

THE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS 47
worthy of me."1 "There is no man that
hath left ' house, or brethren, or sisters, or
mother, or father, or children, or lands, for my
sake and for the gospel's sake, but he shall
receive a hundredfold now in this time,"2 etc.
Jesus asked all the people to enter into this
relationship with him. From those who con
sented he chose twelve to be his companions,
and to give him special assistance in his work.
Their discipleship was not a tie of a different
kind from that which joined the other dis
ciples to him. The relationship was in all
cases essentially the same, for it implied in
all cases absolute spiritual dependence. Those
who gave up their occupations to follow Jesus
only showed more plainly in the form of their
life the supreme devotion which had to be
given to him by those who would be his fol
lowers. The rich young man, in refusing to
sell his property and give it to the poor, at his
command, and then to follow Jesus, excluded
himself from discipleship by the refusal. Only
by this sacrifice could he gain the disciple's
place. 1 Matt. a. 37. 2 Mark x. 29. 30.

48 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
Jesus' spiritual sway over his disciples — a
dominion which he desired to extend over all
his people and over all men — was what Mes-
siahship meant to him. The kingdom of God
which he heralded was a spiritual kingdom,
God's reign in human hearts. His historic
work in establishing that kingdom was to win
men's hearts to God and to righteousness.
The forces which he used in doing this work
were spiritual forces. He set aside in the
wilderness, after his baptism, the thought of
establishing a government. He would have
no power over men which did not have its
seat in the spiritual nature. He refused, for
this reason, to act as referee in a family dis
pute about property.1 He deprecated paying
honor to his mother and his brothers on his
account, lest Messiahship should seem to in
volve social distinction.2 At Cassarea Philippi,
after receiving and commending Peter's ac
knowledgment that he was the Messiah, Jesus
went on to predict his rejection by the Jewish
authorities, and his execution at their hands.3
1 Luke xii. 14. 2 Mark iii. 33. 3 Mark viii. 31.

THE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS 49
Then he added that his followers must be
prepared to share his fate.1 Willingness to
give up all for his sake and the gospel's be
longed to the subjects of this King. For he
was a spiritual King ; his claim to rule was
the claim of the truth in him. As the earthly
head of a spiritual kingdom he could only ask
for spiritual subjection. If his disciples did
what he told them to do, it was because they
could by their obedience show devotion to the
spiritual principles which lived in him and
asserted themselves through him. When, for
example, they prepared the paschal supper,
they obeyed religiously. They felt that in
doing their Master's bidding they were not
rendering blind obedience to a masterful will,
but that they were owning the supremacy of
God and of righteousness.
Hence discipleship meant to Jesus and to
the disciples a genial sway. The claim made
was always felt to be the claim of the moral
and spiritual principles embodied in the Mas
ter. " Go your way, and tell John the things
1 Mark viii. 34, ff.

50 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
which ye do hear and see : the blind receive
their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, and the deaf hear, . . . and
the poor have good tidings preached unto
them, and blessed is he whosoever shall find
none occasion of stumbling in me." J To lay
down life for Jesus' sake is to lay it down
likewise for the gospel's sake. His yoke is
an easy yoke, his burden a light burden,
because they are the yoke and the burden of
the truth which man was made to obey. Jesus
asked no other authority over the mind or con
science than that which goes with love, the
deepest, most reverential love possible to man.
This authority he did seek. The truth
which he gave men was the truth of his life.
Its supremacy was his supremacy. Here we
are obliged to differ from some careful and
reverent students of Jesus' life. They believe
that he claims a supremacy for his teach
ing which he does not claim for himself. He
seems to them only a prophet, who brings a
message which he knows to have a divine
1 Matt. ii. 4, ff.

THE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS 5 I
sanction and an unequaled value. He wields
authority, but it is that of his message only.
He has spiritual power ; it is the power of
the teacher, who uses the truth which he has
found to draw men to the God whom he
loves. We believe this interpretation of Jesus'
thought of himself to be inadequate. It does
not explain his identifying his person with
the message he brought, as he did when he
asked men to sacrifice their earthly interests
for his sake and the gospel's. To give up all
for the truth was to give up all for him ; to
give up all for him was to renounce it for the
truth. What can this mean, except that such
supremacy and value as belong to the high
est truth, the truth of God's life, belongs to
Jesus ? Think of Paul's urging his converts
to give up all for his sake and the gospel's !
The manner of Jesus' teaching shows, we
believe, that he did not exalt his message
above himself. He spake " as one having
authority." When he corrected the teaching
of the law with his " I say unto you," he
seemed to imply that a better revelation of

52 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
God dwelt in him than that which the Hebrew
people had received. Could one merely a
prophet, albeit the greatest of the prophets,
have spoken so ? A prophet brings a message
disclosing God's mind for his people in some
single juncture of their life ; a message repro
ducing a vision of truth fitting that special
circumstance ; a fragment of truth, although
a vital and imperishable fragment. But here
is one who brings, not a message, but a reve
lation ; who carries the truth of the kingdom
of God so long hoped for ; the word of the
kingdom which has the promise of the king
dom in itself ; the truth of God's being, of
man's need, of God's provision for that need.
Is he to be numbered among the prophets ?
Or does his word belong to him as the pro
phet's did not ? Does it express the secret of
a life united to God as no other human life
can be ? We seem to have Jesus' answer to
this question in that saying which claims a
unique knowledge under the limitations of
humanity, and suggests a self-consciousness
including a divine nature : " But of that day

THE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS 53
or that hour knoweth no one, not even the
angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the
Father." 1 We seem to have a more distinct
answer to the question in the deep utterance :
" AH thing's hqyp been delivered unto mfijof
my Father : and no one knoweth-lhe-Son-save
the Father ; neither doth-any .knoJflLthe Fa
ther save, .the Son, an.d_Jie_±o„ whomsoever
th-e-Scm _willelh_Jjx.j^^eaLJiini. " 2 He has a
personal knowledge of the Father all his own,
corresponding to God's knowledge of him.
By virtue of this knowledge he can show
God to men. He is the teacher because he
is the revealer ; he is the revealer because
he is the Son who knows the Father with a
knowledge exclusively his own. The great
ness of the truth given is, in the last analysis,
only the greatness of the person giving it.
The use which Jesus made of his miracles
furnishes additional evidence that the theory
which we are considering is without foun
dation. He treated them as elements of
a self -revelation. They were object-lessons,
1 Mark xiii. 32. 2 Matt. xi. 27.

54 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
making it plain what he was to his people.
The cure of the .paralyzed man showed, that
he had power on earth tn forgive 'i"' 1 His
casting out demons by the finger of God
showed that the kingdom of God had come
unto his people, — had come, that is, in the
person of his Son. For the context proves
that this is what he meant : " You Pharisees
say that I cast out demons by collusion with
Satan, their prince. No ; Satan's house is not
thus divided against itself. My casting out
of demons is due, not to Satanic but to anti-
Satanic power, the power of God. And if I
by his power cast them out, his kingdom has
come unto you " 2 (i. e. in me). To John's
disciples, asking if he were indeed the Mes
siah, Jesus answered, " Go and tell John of
my works. And blessed is he whosoever shall
not find cause of stumbling in me." 3
These are not the words of one whose single
claim to attention was the truth he brought,
but of one who felt that he had the truth in
himself, and was therefore the earthly head
of the kingdom of the truth.
1 Mark ii. 10. - Matt. xii. 28. 8 Matt. xi. 4, ff.

THE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS 55
We have a test of the correctness of our
interpretation of Jesus' thought of his Mes-
siahship in his representation of the kingdom
of God as it is to exist in its ideal complete
ness in heaven. To this perfected kingdom
he taught his disciples to look, as fully em
bodying the principles of God's reign over
men. The petition of the disciples' prayer,
"Thy kingdom come," shows that he wished
them to have it often in their minds. Of that
kingdom he is to be the head. " Ye shall
see the Son of man sitting at the right hand
of power, and coming with the clouds of
heaven."1 "And then shall he send forth
the angels, and shall gather together his elect
from the four winds."2 "When the Son of
man shall come in his glory, and all the
angels with him, then shall he sit upon the
throne of his glory ; and before him shall be
gathered all the nations ; and he shall sepa
rate them one from another, as the shepherd
separateth the sheep from the goats." 3
1 Mark xiv. 62. 2 Mark xiii. 27.
8 Matt. xxv. 31, 32.

56 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
Some critics do not believe that Jesus
spoke these words. They are found in the
earliest written accounts of his teaching ;
there is no ground, except such as their con
tents may furnish, for questioning their au
thenticity. They present Jesus as the head
of the perfected kingdom, a Divine Being,
exalted above the creation. The divineness
in heaven which his prediction ascribed to
him was that which he consciously possessed
during his earthly life. For then he was
Messiah, asking and receiving such homage
from men as could be given to a man only by
those lost to self-respect.
One of the ablest of living Unitarians in
sists that Jesus did not claim Messiahship.
He thinks that he sees evidence that the
passages of the Gospels in which he appears to
present himself as Messiah are so colored by
the disciples' later thought as to misrepresent
the Master. The criticism by which this con
clusion is supported deals with the Gospels
after a summary fashion, as will appear from
the following specimen of it. Mark appends

THE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS 57
to the account of Peter's confession of Jesus'
Messiahship, on the day of Csesarea Philippi,
the words, " And he charged them that they
should tell no man of him."1 These words
are changed by the criticism of the writer in
question to the following : " Silence ! to not a
creature are you to say such a thing again !"
that is, a disclaimer of the Messiahship.2 Such
striving with the narrative to remove out of
it what even Strauss admits to be a feature of
Jesus' life, suggests a wish to escape from a
theological difficulty. The clear mind of the
writer in question sees that, once he admits
that Jesus claims Messiahship, he is con
fronted with the old dilemma, " Aut Deus,
aut homo non bonus."3 He justly says that
" between soul and soul, even the greatest
and the least, there can be in the things of
righteousness and love no lordship and ser-
1 Mark viii. 30.
2 James Martineau's The Seat of Authority in
Religion, p. 349.
8 See Gove's The Incarnation of the Son of God, p.
258.

58 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
vitude, but the sublime sympathy of a joint
worship on the several steps of a never-
ending ascent." 1 One who believes this and
cannot believe that Jesus is divine may well
add that " in professions of belief, in defini
tions of doctrine, in forms of prayer, the
Messianic language has settled with the most
tenacious hold, and, unless it be loosened
thence, our religion will perish in its grasp." 2
Those whose hearts move them to call Jesus
" Master and Lord " gladly agree with this
clear thinker in believing that to admit his
Messiahship is to put him above mankind, and
they rejoice in the assurance that the apos
tolic record of his Messianic claim will never
be impeached by an unbiased criticism.
Can one who felt himself to be divine, it is
asked, have said, as did Jesus to the rich
young man, "Why callest thou me good?
None is good save one, even God " ? 3 Yes, one
who had divineness in a human nature which
1 James Martineau's -The Seat of Authority in
Religion, p. 356.
2 Martineau, opus cit. p. 357. 8 Mark x. 18.

THE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS 59
was working out goodness under the stress of
temptation could say this. The objection is
only another form of the dogmatic assumption
which we examined at the beginning of this
discussion, — the assumption that God cannot
so unite himself to a human soul as to make
it divine. And what man could rightly lay on
another a specific command like that which
Jesus laid on the rich young man, making
obedience to it a condition of admission to
the kingdom of God ?
It is sometimes said, if Jesus were con
scious of being divine, why did he not make
this consciousness prominent in his teaching ?
The objection, we believe, will not count for
much, when the aim of his intercourse with
the people is remembered. It was that of
giving a knowledge of God through the me
dium of his life and words. This aim led him
to try to come near men, to show them his
heart in the revelations of friendship. Only
by doing this could he show them what his
character was, and how it revealed God. Dis
closure of his divineness (assuming him to

60 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
have been divine) would have kept the people
from knowing Jesus in this way. They would
have been so dazzled and excited by his
divinity as to be unable to appreciate his
character. Therefore those who hold Jesus
to have been divine see nothing demanding
explanation in his reticence as to that which
made him other than man.
We close our discussion with a word as to
the light which the Fourth Gospel throws
upon the self-consciousness of Jesus. It pre
sents to us the Incarnate Word. It rep
resents him as saying to the Jews, " Before
Abraham was, I am," 1 and as saying to the
Father, on the eve of the Passion, " Glorify
thnu mft-wit-h thine own self, with, trip gl£ir_y
wr±ich__I  hacL_with.. thee . before the- world
was."2 It attributes to Jesus the conscious
ness of a Sonship which lay within the divine
life. Believing that this Gospel was written
by the Apostle John, we find in its portrayal
of Jesus important information as to his self-
consciousness. We are not disposed to insist
1 John viii. 58. 2 John xvii. 5.

THE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS OF JESUS 6l
that all the words which it attributes to the
Master are exact reports of what he said. We
think we see in them evidence of a teach
ing of the Spirit given to the apostle after
Jesus had left the earth. This teaching took
up the Master's words stored in memory
into a fuller revelation. How far this later
gift of Christ is embodied in the Fourth
Gospel is a question to which, we believe,
criticism can never give a precise answer.
Such an answer is not necessary for a right
use of the Gospel in finding the self-conscious
ness of Jesus. The testimony of the writer
underlying the whole representation is the
main thing. If an apostle, one of the three
most with Jesus, portrays him as living and
laboring in the conscious possession of a
divine Sonship, and in the belief that he
had a preexistent divine life, we cannot but
believe that Jesus showed himself to his dis
ciples as other than man. For, leaving the
question of inspiration entirely out of con
sideration, we revere the apostle's words as
those of a holy man, and a man whose moral

62 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
intuitions were peculiarly clear. The picture
of the Jesus of history drawn from memory
by such a man may have imperfection, but
cannot be essentially false. It is the picture
of the Christ conscious of divineness, who
felt that to see him was to see the Father,1
and who felt and owned that he had succeeded
in making his disciples fully know him when
the most unbelieving of them had made the
confession, " My Lord and my God." 2
1 John xiv. 9. 2 John xx. 28.

CHAPTER IV.
THE EARLY CHURCH.
Evidence has been adduced, in preceding
chapters, to show that the first disciples recog
nized the divinity of their Master and Lord,
and that he knew himself to be divine. We
now inquire whether these conclusions are
affected by later testimonies. If it should
appear that the generations immediately fol
lowing the age of the apostles regarded Jesus
as merely a man, however distinguished and
exalted, we might claim that they had failed to
appreciate the original teaching, but we could
not question that our own understanding of it
was confronted with a serious difficulty. On
the other hand, if their testimony favors the
interpretation which has been put upon the
primitive teaching, we are supplied with a cor
roborative argument of no little value, and this
just in proportion as we are able to assure our-

64 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
selves that we are dealing with a general and
inherited Christian belief, and a living perpetu
ation of an impression which had been received
from Jesus' own personality.
It is obvious that within the limits of this
chapter we cannot aim at completeness of
representation, although we may at compre
hensiveness. We shall endeavor to point out
the main sources of evidence, and indicate its
variety, quality, and significance.1
We begin with the statements of the earlier
and more representative Christian teachers
and documents. Near the close of the apos
tolic age, a letter was sent from the church
in Rome to the church in Corinth. It was
intrusted to messengers, members of the Ro
man church, who are commended as " faithful
and sober-minded men that have walked from
youth to old age unblamably amongst us."
These men, as Bishop Lightfoot has noticed,
1 For a more full presentation, at many points, see
Dorner, History of the Development of the Doctrine of
the Person of Christ, Div. I. vol. i. pp. 92-184, English
translation.

THE EARLY CHURCH 65
would have been " close upon thirty years of
age when St. Paul first visited Rome," and
they must have had an intimate knowledge of
the beliefs and history of the church which
sent them as its representatives. Thejiccasion
for such_a delegation -and letter. j«as— the-- peril
the Corinthian-cliurch was incurring,- and the
reproach it was bringing on the Christian name
hyjts unjust d^po^ition-of- certain. worthy pres
byters, and its exhibition of a spirit, of faction
ancLsedition. No doctrinal question, so far as
appears, was in issue. The burden of the
Roman letter is the duty and excellence of
submission to rightful authority, of humility
and brotherly love, of harmony and order.
The motives which are oftenest appealed to,
or most fully exhibited, are the evils of envy
and jealousy ; the ordinances, commandments,
and will of God ; the noble examples of godly
men who had hearkened to the divine oracles,
and had been faithful, humble, and obedient ;
the fear of the Lord, which is good and sweet
and saving, and is confirmed by " the faith
which is in Christ ;" the call and election by

66 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
God. Paul's doctrine of justification by faith
without works is introduced under the general
conception of the supremacy of the divine will,
and good works are urged from this same
point of view. Although the object of the
letter makes such a method natural and suit
able, it would seem to be also congenial to the
writer's spirit, and to indicate his point of
view. Whether he was of Jewish or Gentile
extraction cannot be determined, but it is
probable that he was, or had been, a member
of the emperor's household. In the strong
emphasis which he lays upon the will and
authority of the Almighty Ruler of the world
(6 Seo-7r6Vr7s), in the stress put upon order and
obedience, we may suspect an influence from
his Roman training. He commends conform
ity to the heavenly ordinances, and the duty
of subordination in the church, by the exam
ple "of the soldiers that are enlisted under
our rulers," and the gradations of office in
the empire.1 Beyond question is the impress
from the Old Testament teachings and piety.
1 Ch. xxxvii.

THE EARLY CHURCH 67
So strong are these influences, — the imme
diate purpose of the letter to commend submis-
siveness to precepts, ordinances, and rulers ;
the Roman training of the writer, or the in
fluence of the palace ; his familiarity with the
ancient Scriptures, and love for its conceptions
of God and of the religious life, — that they
throw somewhat into the background the dis
tinctively Christian conceptions of the letter.
These are, however, in some respects all the
more impressive when we take into account
the conditions under which they appear. We
discover them springing up, as by some con
stantly present and active power, in the midst
of those directly derived from other sources.
They lend a coloring and a distinction to other
elements with which they are associated or
blended. We are reminded not only of an
ideal of virtue, but of its exemplification
perfectly in One in whom men are saved, 1
and in impressive measures in others whose
standard is " that which becometh Christ." 2
We come upon a higher conception of God,
1 Ch. xxxviii. 2 Ch. iii.

68 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
an open and known way of access to him, a
new name appropriated in religious trust and
hope. The centre and life of these new con
ceptions and motives is the divinity of our
Lord. As already observed, the letter is pervaded
by a profound sense of the divine sovereignty.
A favorite title of the Most High is 6 Sco-tto'ti;;,
which Bishop Lightfoot translates by the words,
The Master,1 suggesting thus an antithesis to
a servant or slave, yet softening, perhaps, to a
modern ear, through the Christian association
of this title, the force of the expression it is
employed to represent. The letter uses it
with a full appreciation of its note of suprem
acy. " The Sovereign (5 Seo-Trer?^) of the uni
verse, brethren, hath need of nothing at all."2
At the same time this sovereignty is set forth
in a way which shows how Christianity was
influencing men's conceptions of God. Not
merely are his moral perfections associated
with it, his care for his creatures, " the might-
1 Sometimes, Lord and Master.
2 Ch. Hi. Cp. what is said of the Creator in ch. xxvii.

THE EARLY CHURCH 69
iness of the Sovereign's providence," x his
mercy and benevolence ; 2 all this and more
is derived in this letter directly from the ancient
Scriptures. Nor even may we suspect more
than a heightened appreciation of what is re
vealed in these Scriptures,. when the letter calls
the Creator of the universe "our gentle and
compassionate Father who made us an elect
portion unto himself." 3 Nor, indeed, is it in
any mere phrases about God that the change
lies, but in the apprehensibleness of these
moral perfections of divinity, in their concrete-
ness and palpability, in their power as motives,
and in the supremacy accorded to love as the
summit and crown of all perfection, human or
divine. " In love were all the elect of God
made perfect ; without love nothing is well-
pleasing to God ; in love the Sovereign (o
cWttotijs) took us unto himself ; for the love
which he had toward us, Jesus Christ our
Lord hath given his blood for us, by the will
of God, and his flesh for our flesh, and his life
1 Ch. xxiv., i] ix*ya.\£i6jtis Tijs Trpovolas too 5eaTr6rov.
2 Chs. viii., ix., xx. 3 Ch. xxix.

70 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
for our lives." * The sacrificial quality of love,
its concrete revelation in Jesus Christ our
Lord, its association with the Sovereign Ruler
of the world who takes men into union with
himself, are here presented in a genuinely
Christian way. The separation of God from
men, either by the absoluteness of his nature
or by his moral opposition, which the highest
thought of the ancient world could not over
come, is transcended. Elsewhere the majesty
of God is affirmed to be represented by him
who came, not in the pomp which he might
have worn, but in lowliness of mind.2 He is
our pattern.3 And this revelation of God in
service and sacrifice, through Jesus Christ our
example, this letter testifies had taken effect.
His sufferings, it says in a passage where the
pronoun, according to the preferable reading,
refers to God, were before the eyes of the
Corinthian Christians in the days prior to the
sedition which had broken out. They were
filled with " an insatiable desire of doing
1 Ch. xlix. 2 Ch. xvi.
8 Ibid., viroypannis ; comp. I Pet. ii. 21.

THE EARLY CHURCH 71
good ; " they contended " day and night for
all the brotherhood ; " they " murmured over
the transgressions " of their "neighbors " and
"judged their shortcomings to be your [their]
own." Noble examples of sacrifice had, in
deed, been set by others than Christians.1
But now it was seen that such a spirit is
from God; that it joins men to God ; that it
should be the ideal of human life ; that it
is attainable in its perfection. Something of
its triumph is attested in this letter. Memo
ries were fresh of the terrible persecution
under Nero. The church realized that it still
was "in the same lists."2 Yet it prays for
those who had been, and might soon be again
its persecutors.3 Evidently a new power or
energy of motive had come into the lives of
these Roman Christians which they believed
to be from God.* They had learned that sacri
ficial love is the highest ideal of human life,
1 Ch. lv. 2 Ch. vii.
8 See Lightfoot's comments, The Epistle of S. Clem
ent, pp. 266-269.
4 Ch. 1.

72 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
and that it is of ineffable beauty and majesty.1
And they were assured of this, and were
brought under its divine sway, through him
who had brought them "under the yoke of his
grace," 2 and by the will of God had given his
life for theirs. How could he have gained
this power over them save as they saw in him
a true reflection and image of God, and knew
him in some real sense to be divine ?
There is direct evidence that they so
esteemed him. Christians are called and
saved " in Christ Jesus." He is the Elect
One through whom all others are chosen ; in
him is " that gate which is in righteousness
. . . whereby all are blessed that have entered
in;" through him, the beloved Son (7r<uSo's),
men love God, and are instructed, sanctified,
and honored.3 " This is the way, dearly be
loved, wherein we found our salvation, even
Jesus Christ the high-priest of our offerings,
the Guardian and Helper of our weakness.
Through him let us look steadfastly unto the
1 Ch. xlix., 1. 2 Ch. xvi.
3 Chs. xxxii., xxxviii., xlvi., xlviii., xlix., 1., lix., lxiv.

THE EARLY CHURCH 73
heights of the heavens ; through him the eyes
of our hearts were opened ; through him our
foolish and darkened mind leaves out afresh
unto the light ; through him the Sovereign
(6 oWttot-ijs) willed that we should taste of the
immortal knowledge ; ' who being the bright
ness of his majesty is so much greater than
angels, as he hath inherited a more excellent
name.' For so it is written: 'Who maketh
his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of
fire, but of his son the Sovereign (6 Seo-7r6V??s)
said thus : "Thou art my Son, I this day have
begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will give
thee the Gentiles for thine inheritance, and
the ends of the earth for thy possession." " a
Flis death is put in universal relations.
" Through the blood of the Lord there shall
be redemption unto all them that believe and
hope on God." 2 " Let us fix our eyes on the
blood of Christ and understand how precious
it is unto his Father, because being shed for
our salvation it won for the whole world the
grace of repentance."3 He is "the sceptre
1 Ch. xxxvi. ; comp. ch. lix. 2 Ch. xii. s Ch. vii.

74 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
of the majesty of God."1 He came into this
world, where he might have appeared in
glory, in humility. " He is with them that
are lowly of mind."2 His preexistence is
implied.3 Through him the worship of the
church is offered to God, " from the ages and
to the ages forever." Two doxologies appear
to be directly addressed to him.4 In one pas
sage, beyond reasonable dispute, he is asso
ciated with God and the Holy Spirit as "the
faith and the hope of the elect," and with
them is invoked.5
1 Ch. xvi. 2 Ibid.
8 Chs. xxii., xvi. ; cp. xxxii., xlii., lxv. * Chs. xx., 1.
6 Ch. lviii. ; cp. ch. xlvi., and ch. ii., if the reading rod
xpitrrov should be confirmed; the presumption is now
against it. On the passage in ch. lviii. Bishop Lightfoot
remarks : " First, for the common adjuration in the Old
Testament, ' as the Lord (i. e. Jehovah) liveth,' we find
here substituted a form which recognizes the Holy Trin
ity. Secondly, this Trinity is declared to be the object or
the foundation of the Christian's faith and hope.'' Op. cit.
p. 272. Dr. Harnack comments thus : " Tres personas
divinas hie numeravit Clemens, ut 2, 1 so., 46, 6. Hoc
ideo grave videtur, quod disertis verbis tres illas personas

THE EARLY CHURCH 75
While Clement was writing this stately
letter, or not far from this date, there was
probably in circulation in Egypt, or, as some
scholars suppose, first of all in Syria, a little
tract, containing precepts respecting the way
of life and the way of death, directions re
specting church officers and rites, and an ear
nest exhortation to watchfulness. It belongs,
if we consider simply its contents, to a very
early stage of the church, and reflects its
Jewish Christian beginnings. The more note
worthy for these reasons are its doctrinal al
lusions. Those who have been suitably in
structed, it says, are to be baptized into the
name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Ghost. This threefoldness of the
revealed name of God is further emphasized
by the mode of affusion which is prescribed,
fidem et spem electorum esse scriptor confitetur." Pair.
Apost. Op. ed. 2, p. 96. Clement's words are : Cv yap 6
©eta Kal ^y 6 Kvpios 3\t}ffovs Xptcrrbs Kal rb Trvevpa rb &yloi/, H\
tc irforis «al r\ 4\ir\s rS>v iicXtKTuv : " For as God liveth, and
the Lord Jesus Christ liveth, and the Holy Spirit, who
are the faith and the hope of the elect."

76 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
" pour thrice upon the head." 1 In the tenth
chapter occurs the phrase : " Hosannah to
the God of David." The writer apparently is
applying our Lord's argument recorded in the
First Gospel.2 David's Lord is to him David's
God. In chapter xvi. it is said of the world-
deceiver that he will appear " as Son of God,"
that is, as though he were Son of God ; and
the coming of him who, it is implied, is the
true Son, the Lord, is described by a literal
quotation of words of Zechariah which are
applied to Jehovah.
The thought of Christ expressed or implied
in these references, so far as this little prac
tical manual is in point, must have belonged
to the simplest elements of the early Chris
tian teaching.
We turn from the conditions of thought
and life implied in this rudimentary manual
to those which were far more developed and
complicated, perhaps to a time at least one or
two decades later. The head of the church
1 Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, ch. vii.
2 Matt. xxii. 42-46.

THE EARLY CHURCH J J
in Antioch, then the political capital of the
East, had been arrested and condemned, and
was on his way to Rome to be " ground
by the teeth of wild beasts " in the amphi
theatre, and to be " an imitator of the passion
of my [his] God." On his way he had per
sonal intercourse with pastors and other repre
sentatives of leading churches with which the
church of Antioch would naturally be in more
or less intimate association, and wrote a num
ber of letters which it is an inestimable ser
vice of recent criticism to have recovered to
historical use.1 Before this vindication the
insight of Frederick Denison Maurice had
given a point of view which relieved the pres
sure of the weightiest objections to their
genuineness. He seized upon the essential
personal characteristics of their author, and
his central and ardent purpose. Ignatius is
distinctively a great pastor, eager to save the
1 Even if the authorship of these letters be ques
tioned, they are a part of the representative Christian
literature of the first half of the second century, and so
are availabh for our purpose.

78 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
flock from preying wolves.1 In the regions
through which he passed, the churches were in
peril from false teachers and partisan leaders.
Doctrinally the exposure was especially great
to a Jewish type of Docetism, a denial of the
reality of Jesus' true humanity. That such a
heresy could gain so great influence is a strik
ing indication of the general belief in his
superhuman origin and nature. Ignatius'
most earnest doctrinal contention is, that he
was truly born, truly ate, drank, suffered, died,
— that he was a true man. While bent upon
this purpose he testifies explicitly to his own
faith, and by implication to that of some of
the leading churches of his time, in the true
divinity of our Lord. He is " God humanly
manifested." 2 He " was with the Father be
fore the worlds and appeared at the end of
time " (iv Te'Act icpavn).3 " There is one God,
who manifested himself by Jesus Christ his
Son, who is his Word, that proceeded from
silence, who in all things was well-pleasing
unto him that sent him." i " Stand thou firm,"
1 Phil. ii. 2 Eph. xix. 3 Magn. vi. 4 Magn. viii.

THE EARLY CHURCH JQ
he writes to Polycarp, " as an anvil when it is
smitten. It is the part of a great athlete
to receive blows and be victorious. But
especially must we for God's sake endure all
things, that he also may endure us. . Mark
the seasons. Await him that is above every
season, the Eternal, the Invisible, who became
visible for our sake, the Impalpable, the Im
passible, who suffered for our sake, who en
dured in all ways for our sake." J In the
letter to the Romans there are some expres
sions of special interest : " For our God, Jesus
Christ, being in the Father, is more brought
into sight." We have here a striking indica
tion of the effect of Jesus' resurrection, and of
the inclusion within the church's vision of the
glorified Christ. He became more plainly dis
cernible in his true nature than he was in the
days of his humiliation. This expression is
followed immediately by another equally note
worthy, " Christianity is of greatness." 2 His
standard and rule of conduct were, " to live
1 Polyc. iii.
2 t/ltye8ovs iffrlv 6 xp'<rna>'i<r/uos, Rom. iii.

80 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
according to Christianity."1 Men were to
suffer, die, live nobly and victoriously, because
Christ was their "inseparable life."2 They
were men recovered "in love which is the
blood of Jesus Christ," 3 who is at once " per
fect man "4 and " our God."3
We have selected three types of the early
Christian belief concerning Christ : the cool,
dispassionate Roman ; the practical Jewish
Christian ; the fervid Oriental. Even if the
"Didache" originated in Syria, it was early
known in Egypt. We have therefore rounded
a circle from Rome through Egypt and Syria
and Asia Minor and Macedonia, and, by Igna
tius' letter to the Romans, back to that church
with which Irenseus tells us other churches
were in necessary agreement. At no point is
this agreement, natural and necessary in view
of its origin and inner law, more marked than
as respects the faith which rested in Christ.6
1 Mayn. x. 2 Eph. iii.
3 Trail, viii.; Smyrn. i. 4 Ibid. iv.
6 Polyc. viii. ; Eph. inscr. See Lightfoot's note in
loco. 6 From other works belonging to the Christian litera-

THE EARLY CHURCH 8 1
A valuable testimony to this agreement is
preserved by Eusebius. Hegesippus, a Fle-
brew convert, he tells us, left a record of a
journey which he took from the East to Rome.
He met on the way " a great many bishops,"
and " received the same doctrine from all."
He refers to the steadfastness in the faith of
the church of Corinth, where he tarried "many
days." " In every succession [of bishops] and
ture of the sub-Apostolic period, or prior to about the
middle of the second century, similar testimonies to
those selected above can easily be derived. Jesus Christ
is our Lord and God, Polyc. ad Phil. xii. ; our eternal
High Priest, ib.j to him every living thing doeth ser
vice, ib. ii. ; our hope, the earnest of our righteousness,
our Judge, ib., vi., viii. ; his name sustains the whole
creation, and is essential to salvation, Hermas, S. ix.
12, 14, 16. With him the Father conversed at the
creation, ib. ix. 12, Barnab. v. He is Lord of the
whole world, ib., comp. xv., xxi. ; Ep. ad Diog. vii. ;
" not . a subaltern, or angel, or ruler, . . . but the
very Artificer and Creator of the universe himself, by
whom he made the heavens. . . . Him he sent unto
them,'' ib. " Brethren, we ought so to think of Jesus
Christ as of God, as of the Judge of quick and dead,"
2 Clem. 1.

82 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
in every city that is held which is preached by
the law and the prophets and the Lord." We
know by other testimonies what belief he must
have met with at various points. His account
extends our knowledge of its prevalence. Re
ligious trust in Christ as Saviour and Lord,
belief in his divinity, was the common Chris
tian faith.
A recent discovery makes available a similar
testimony from a bishop in Asia Minor, which
may have been written either before Hegesip-
pus composed his " Memoirs," or not long
after. Its author records that he is " a dis
ciple of the pure Shepherd who feeds the
flock of his sheep on mountains and plains,
who has great eyes, observing all things ; "
that he had journeyed across Syria and the
Euphrates as far as to Nisibis ; he visited
Rome, also, " the royal city ; " and " everywhere
I [he] found comrades, [I] having Paul. Faith
everywhere led the way and proffered nourish
ment." , In symbolical language he refers to
the miraculous birth of our Lord ; to the name
of Jesus Christ, Son of God ; and to the sacra-

THE EARLY CHURCH 83
ments. " The miraculous Incarnation," says
Bishop Lightfoot, " and the omniscient, omni
present energy of Christ, the Scriptural writ
ings, the two sacraments, the extension and
catholicity of the church, — all stand out in
definite outline and vivid colors, the more
striking because this is no systematic exposi
tion of the theologian, but the chance expres
sion of a devout Christian soul. . . He visits
the far West and the far East, and everywhere
he finds not only the same church and the
same sacraments, but also, as we may infer
from his language, the same or substantially
the same theology." :
With these early witnesses may be associ
ated, for reasons which will be stated, three
others of later date.
One of them is Celsus, who produced an
elaborate work against Christianity about A. D.
177. The range of his learning is perhaps
sometimes overestimated, yet he gathered his
objections and reproaches from many sources,
and used apparently every argument he could
1 See Andover Review, ii. pp. 499-501, 518, 519.

84 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
think of, and this characteristic of his method
makes his testimony significant for a time
earlier than his own. He attacks the Chris
tians protractedly and repeatedly for their
belief that Jesus Christ is the son of God and
God. It is opposed from the side of Judaism
and of paganism, of religion and skepticism
and philosophy and common sense, by argu
ment, and by slander, mockery, and ridicule.
Yet he nowhere charges that the Christians,
as a body at least, had departed from their
original faith, although he knows of divisions
among them. It would have been a matter of
much consequence to him if he could have
shown, or even plausibly claimed, that their
deification of Christ was an afterthought. He
accredits their faith in his divinity with a
rooted tenacity. Pressing the objection that
the homage paid by Christians to Christ as
Lord " divides the kingdom of God and raises
a sedition therein," he says: "If you should
tell them [the Christians] that Jesus is not
the Son of God, but that God is the Father
of all, and that he alone ought to be truly

THE EARLY CHURCH 85
worshiped, they would not consent to discon
tinue their worship of him who is their leader
in the sedition. And they call him Son of
God, not because they exceedingly reverence
God, but because they exceedingly extol him "
[that is, the Son].1
Irenasus claims attention on many grounds.
He was a pupil of Poly carp, the friend of
Ignatius, and disciple of the Apostle John.
Educated in the East, he visited Rome, and be
came a presbyter, and subsequently a bishop,
in Gaul. No one had better opportunities
to understand the Christian thought " of his
century, or was more thoroughly in sympathy
with the highest life and purest traditions of
the churches. Of his own undoubting trust
in Jesus Christ as a divine Saviour he has
left complete assurance, nor has he any doubt
of what, on this point, is the common and
original Christian faith. "The church," he
says, " though scattered through the whole
world, even to the ends of the earth, has re
ceived from the apostles and their disciples
1 Cont. Cel., viii. 14.

86 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
the faith in one God, the Father Almighty,
who made the heaven and the earth, and the
seas and all that in them is ; and in one
Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became
flesh for our salvation ; and in the Holy Spirit,
who through the prophets proclaimed . . .
the bodily (IwapKov) ascension into heaven
of the beloved Christ Jesus our Lord, and
his coming from heaven in the glory of
the Father ' to gather all things in one,'
and to raise up anew all flesh of all man
kind, in order that to Christ Jesus our Lord
and God and Saviour and King, according
to the good pleasure of the invisible Father,
1 every knee should bow,' . . . and that he
should execute righteous judgment towards
all." In the following context he draws a distinc
tion between this fundamental and continu
ous faith of the church and its theological ex
position. Irenasus's own opinions show that
tradition may be misleading, as he himself
recognizes, and requires to be tested. In the
passage we have cited he is delivering an

THE EARLY CHURCH 87
open, public, common, easily tested tradition.
Changes had taken place within the churches
since their apostolic institution, some of which
he may not have duly appreciated. But an
alteration of the fundamental creed of the
church, a transition from a faith in a human
leader to a faith in a demi-god, and then to one
in a being truly divine, was not only wholly
beyond his knowledge, but beyond what it is
reasonable to suppose could have occurred
without his cognizance of it. A revolution so
great and gradually accomplished would have
occurred too near the time of which he had
personal information, or which was controlled
for him by a secure tradition, and it would
have affected too seriously what was vital to
him in the gospel not to have been discern
ible by him and known by him. He knows of
nothing of the sort.
Prior to Eusebius the most learned man in
the Christian church was Origen, who wrote
about a. d. 230 a work on "First Principles."
It is a highly speculative treatise, but contains,
as an introduction, a statement of what was

88 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
esteemed in the churches as of apostolic teach
ing. Following the same order which appears
in the statement just quoted from Irenseus,
Origen gives, as the second article of the com
mon faith, the following : " That Jesus Christ
himself, who came, was born of the Father
before all creatures, and when, in the for
mation of all things, he had ministered to the
Father, 'for by him all things were made,' in
the last times, emptying himself, he became
man, and was incarnate although God, and
made man remained, as he was, God. He
assumed a body like to our body, differing in
this respect only, that it was born of a virgin
and of the Holy Spirit. And since this Jesus
Christ was born and suffered in truth, and not
in appearance, he endured the death common
[to man] and truly died ; for he truly rose
from the dead, and after his resurrection he
conversed with his disciples and was taken up
[into heaven]."
Before we pass to a distinct class of evi
dence, it is pertinent to consider whether
there was in the church a different tradition

THE EARLY CHURCH 89
from the one which we have been following ;
and, further, if there was such a tradition,
what importance is to be attached to it as an
indication of the primitive belief in Christ, and
of the impression he had made.
A humanitarian interpretation of Christ's
personality was advocated at Rome, by certain
teachers of whom we know almost nothing,
near the close of the second century and in
the beginning of the third. They were ex
communicated from the church, and their
views were deemed novel as well as blasphe
mous. They were the first, so far as we know,
to dissent from the common tradition on his
torical grounds. They were met by an appeal
to the Scriptures, and also to leading wit
nesses of what had been the Christian faith,
going back to the Clement whose testimony
we have adduced. In all their works, it is
alleged, " Christ is spoken of as God." Euse
bius, who quotes these words, and who just
before has referred to his own acquaintance
with numerous writings of " ancient " men un
known to us even by name, expresses no dissent

90 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
from this refutation of "a late innovation."
It is sustained by the evidence which 'has
come down to us. That there was the preci
sion of statement which afterwards appears is
not claimed. This was the result of a distinc
tively theological movement, which, whatever
else we may think of it, must be recognized as
mainly originated and prosecuted out of regard
for the traditional faith, and which is inexpli
cable without it. Neither can it be questioned
that in the early time there was a larger free
dom of belief than remained after the lines
of a religious faith were made more nearly
coincident with those of theology. Nor is it
disputed that there were individuals and com
munities that did not join in the common
faith. All that we insist upon, as founded in
indisputable testimony and capable of being
clearly brought to evidence, is that such dis
sent does not invalidate the claim of those
who united in the worship of Christ, and con
fessed his divinity, to be the bearers of a
tradition which associated them with the apos
tles and with Christ himself, and along which

THE EARLY CHURCH 91
flowed the original impulse and power of the
gospel.1 1 The history of Ebionism, in each of its forms, shows
that something essential to the Christian life was lacking
in it. Gnosticism changed Christianity from a religious
faith to a theosophy. Its secret traditions contrast with
the open, public, verifiable tradition to which Irenasus
appeals with entire confidence. Some recent historical
scholars have found in The Shepherd of Hernias a type
of Christology, called by them " Adoptionism," which
regarded Christ as a man in whom dwelt the Spirit of
God, and who was exalted, on account of his preeminent
virtue, to sonship and lordship. This does not seem to
us to be a correct statement of Hermas's Christology.
The flesh, that is, the humanity, of our Lord, in Hermas's
theory, is made a partner with the indwelling divine
Spirit, who is identified with the preexisting Son, — the
word "Spirit " being used as by Paul in 2 Cor. iii. 17.
There are many exegetical objections to an adoptionistic
interpretation of The Shepherd. [See Bibliotheca Sacra,
April, 1892, pp. 259-268.] It is contrary also to what
must have been the ancient understanding of the book;
for even if Clement of Alexandria and Origen, in the
breadth of their tolerance, might not have been offended
with such a theory, it is not credible that Irenaeus and
Athanasius could have esteemed The Shepherd as they
did, if this was its teaching. In any case, however, it

92 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
recognizes Christ as exalted to Lordship, as the only
Saviour of men, as the Son of God whose name "is
great and incomprehensible and sustaineth the whole
creation." It may be of service to refer to Bishop
Lightfoot's translation [The Apostolic Fathers, pp. 405-
483], which brings out much more distinctly than the
one in the Ante-Nicene Library (T. & T. Clark) the use
of the phrase rb Svopa, an important matter for a right
understanding of the position assigned to Christ by the
author. Bishop Lightfoot's translations, so far as avail
able, are mainly followed in this chapter and the next.

CHAPTER V.
the early church {continued).
In presenting the foregoing testimonies,
especially that given towards the close of
the first century by the Roman Church, we
have already opened a distinct source of evi
dence which deserves special attention. We
have been scanning the records that have come
down to us for expressions of belief. We
now examine them for what they may disclose
of the Christian life of this early time, in
order to ascertain its character and what it
can tell us of its origin.
We are impressed at the outset of our in
quiry by the fact that those who were living
this life regarded it as something distinctive
and new. They had come to it through va
rious processes, and out of many schools
of thought and religious belief. Christianity
stood forth to them in its uniqueness, defi-

94 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
nite and almost as palpable as Mount Zion.
They could walk about it and tell its towers.
The writer of the "Epistle to Diognetus,"
at the beginning of his response to an in
quirer, whom some scholars have conjectured
to be the tutor of Marcus Aurelius, character
izes "the religion of the Christians" as "this
new kind or way which has entered into men's
lives now and not before." x The " Epistle of
Barnabas" describes Christians as "a new
type " (aXkov tvttov) of men.2
If we endeavor to make distinct to our
selves what this new creation was, we see
that it consists, in no small degree, in a re-
invigoration of conscience, and in a juster
observance of what the ancient world quite
generally recognized as right and good. The
Decalogue is now written on the heart, the
Nicomachaean ethics is reduced to practice,
the law is loved.3 So ancient and inherited
religious doctrine becomes a fresh motive to
1 Kaivbv tovto yevos % eiriT^Seujuo el(T?i\6ev (Is rbv $iov vvv Kal
ov irpSrepoif.
2 Barnabas, vi. 8 Ibid.

THE EARLY CHURCH 95
piety ; the truth concerning God already known
or knowable before Christ came is brought
into intimate connection with conduct.
There is also a higher standard of piety, a
new ideal of virtue. It appears in Ignatius'
exhortation, " Let us learn to live according
to Christianity," and in his characterization
of Christianity as a thing " of greatness ; " in
Clement's rebuke of the Corinthians for not
living "according to that which becometh
Christ ; " in a method of ethical and religious
knowledge by which, if we may apply to it a
later phrase, " we cast ourselves into the
greatness of Christ ; " a and in the noble teach
ing that a man who has learned to know the
Father through the Son " can be an imitator
of God." 2
We notice also, as suggested by the words
just cited, a belief that perfect virtue can be
attained. There is a consciousness of the
beginnings of such excellence, an expectation
of its progress, a confidence in its realization,
1 Clem. Alex., Strom, v. 1 1 ; comp. v. 12, ad fin.
2 Ep. ad Diog. ch. x.

96 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
which is at least new in its diffusion and buoy
ant hopefulness. Virtue was not only an ob
ligation, but an inspiration and an enthusi
asm ; no longer merely a surpassing ideal, but
something that could be achieved. Ignatius
praises the Ephesians for " being imitators of
God," and says that " faith is the beginning
and love is the end" of life, and that where
these two are there is God, and " all things
else follow in their train unto [a realization
of] the beautiful and good (eh KaAo/ca-ya&W)."1
Particular stress is laid upon adherence to
the truth, upon purity, upon love to men,
emphasized in manifold relations and particu
larized in many special services ; upon patience
and endurance, upon love to God and Christ,
and gratitude for redemption and salvation ;
upon a confession of Christ in blameless lives,
and in deeds of compassion and kindness.
Morality is taken up into religion ; religion is
carried into every relation and duty of life.
There is a unity of life, an anticipated and
partially realized completeness and fulfillment
1 Eph. i., xiv.

THE EARLY CHURCH 97
of it. Perhaps we may best describe what
appears in many forms by saying that there
is a new and very definite and practical sense
of a union of God with man in all his needs
and capacities, — his need of forgiveness and
recovery from sin, of truth and spiritual life,
and his capacity to receive divine gifts, the
highest of which is a knowledge of God that
explains his own life and makes it divine.
The question now arises, Who is recognized
as the author and source of this new and
divine life ? The inquiry is , answered on the
pages of this literature with noteworthy dis
tinctness and a remarkable freedom and vari
ety of expression. The definite newness of
Christianity, its " singular preeminence," is
found, not primarily and mainly in its reli
gious truths and ethical precepts, many of
which it inherited from Judaism and pagan
ism, but " in the advent of the Saviour, even
our Lord Jesus Christ, and his passion and
resurrection," " in the gospel in which the
passion has been manifested to us and the
resurrection fully accomplished," and which is

98 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
"the completion of immortality," the full reve
lation of eternal life and of the way in which
it may be gained. " From that time forward
every sorcery and every spell was dissolved,
the ignorance of wickedness vanished away,
the ancient kingdom was pulled down, when
God appeared in the likeness of man unto
newness of everlasting life ; and that which
had been perfected in the counsels of God
began to take effect." 2 We are reminded of
Irenasus's words respecting Christ's coming :
" He brought all .[possible] newness bringing
himself."2 Faith in Christ confirms previous
revelations, for it is " he himself through the
Holy Spirit" that speaks in them.3 Every
religious duty and moral obligation discovered
by human reason or enforced by previous
divine revelations gains through him a new
claim to observance. Men should be humble
in view of his condescension, and because
"Christ is with them that are lowly of mind;"
peaceful and orderly, because they are mem-
1 Ign. Phil. ix. ; Smyrn. vii. ; Eph. xix.
2 Adv. Haer. iv. 34, 1. 8 1 Clem. xxii.

THE EARLY CHURCH 99
bers of his body ; temperate, pure, merciful,
kindly, because this is a fitting confession of
his Name ; patient and brave, and not " afraid
to depart out of this world," because of his
example and promises ; possess a steadfast
spirit, for this " is Jesus Christ."1 He is the
pattern we are to copy,2 the sphere of con
duct, the source and reality and object of life.3
Men are called and saved " in Jesus Christ."4
Christians " live in him," find in him their
"true," "inseparable," "never-failing" life.
Through him the Father imparts " life and
knowledge," "spiritual food and drink and
eternal life." 5 His blood " won for the whole
world the grace of repentance." Manifested
in the flesh and dwelling in men, he fulfills
1 I Clem, xvi., xlvi. ; 2 Clem, iv., v. ; Mart. Polyc. i.,
xix. ; Ign. Magn. xv.
2 I Clem. xvi. ; Ign. Eph. x. ; Phil. vii. ; Polyc. Phil.
viii., x.
3 I Clem, i., xlvii. ; Ign. Eph. iii., viii. ; Magn. i. ;
Trail, ii. ; Smyrn. iv. ; Rom. v., vi.'; Phil. xi.
4 I Clem, xxxii., xxxviii., xlvi.
6 Teaching, ix., x.

IOO THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
the promise that the stony heart would be
taken out of them and a heart of flesh put
within them, and through him is the remission
of sins in which is created the " new type " of
men who " have the soul of children." J
What has been said may suffice to show
that the life of the early church, as this is
revealed in its literature, makes the same im
pression, as respects its relation to Christ,
that is produced by its direct testimony. In
both he appears as the object of religious
trust and hope and love. What in the one
representation he is affirmed to be, in the
other he is received as being in a fellowship
marked by sincerity, vitality, moral and spirit
ual fruitfulness.
We have yet other expressions of this same
relationship to Christ. The church comes
forth from the days of the apostles with
usages and rights and sacraments which ex
press its judgment and conviction of the true
character of him whose name it bore. It had
a day of worship which it called " the Lord's,"
1 Barnabas, v.-vii.

THE EARLY CHURCH IOI
in joyful memory of his resurrection, and in
homage to him who in the natural creation
separated light from darkness, and in the new
creation brought forth life from death. Igna-
tius's words concerning it are very suggestive
as to its import. He says : " If, then, those
who had walked in ancient practices attained
unto newness of hope, no longer observing
sabbaths, but fashioning their lives after the
Lord's day, on which our life also arose
through him and his death, ... a mystery
whereby we attained unto belief, . . . how
shall we be able to live apart from him ? "
To live " according to the Lord's Day " («ara
KvpuxKr)v) was to live in vital union with him
who died and rose again. The day is thus a
testimony to Christ's religious significance to
the early Christians.1
Admission to the church was by baptism.
Where there had been previous training,
through Judaism, in the fundamental faith
that there is one God, the Maker and Ruler
1 Ign. Magn. comp. Barnabas, xv. ; Justin Martyr,
Apol. i. 67.

102 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
of the universe, baptism may at first have
been administered simply in the name of
Christ, attesting thus what was immediately
distinctive and specific in the Christian con
fession. Very early, however, the formula
which is given in the " Teaching " probably
became customary. In it the Son is asso
ciated with the Father and the Spirit.
With the rite of baptism was connected
either implicitly or explicitly from the begin
ning of the church's history a confession of
faith in Jesus as the risen Saviour and Lord.
Implicit acknowledgment of this trust appears
repeatedly in the earliest record.1 Probably
an explicit baptismal confession is referred to
in the first epistle to Timothy : " Thou . . .
didst confess the good confession before many
witnesses." 2 However this may be, the cus-
1 See Acts ii. 38, 41 ; x. 48 ; xviii. 8 ; xviii. 24 -
xix. 7.
2 1 Tim. vi. 12. The allusion is to some event of per
sonal rather than official importance to Timothy. This
may have been some occasion of special trial, but of
this we have no knowledge. It seems to stand imme-

THE EARLY CHURCH 103
torn of a response to the Name into which the
believer was baptized appears to have gained
general currency before the middle of the
second century, and to have received as re
spects its contents some degree of growth.
The old Roman Creed was a baptismal symbol,
and it contains the greater part of what is
commonly known as "The Apostles' Creed."
Since Caspari's investigations, this Roman
Creed is supposed to have been in use at Rome
at least as early as the middle of the second
century, and probably somewhat earlier. It
presents as the object of religious trust and
hope one God the Father Almighty, and Jesus
Christ his only begotten Son our Lord, and
the Holy Spirit.
The epistles to the Ephesians and Colos-
sians J refer to Christian hymns, and there
is probably a quotation from one of these
hymns in the context preceding the allusion
diately connected with the call to eternal life and obedi
ence to it. See Huther, in loco, Meyer's Com. Auf-
lage 3.
1 Eph. v. 19; Col. iii. 16.

IO4 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
to them in Ephesians, and another in the first
epistle to Timothy.1 Pliny, in a letter to the
Emperor Trajan, says that the Christians of
Bithynia " were wont to meet on a stated day
before it was light, and sing alternately be
tween themselves to Christ as if to a god." 2
A writer in the first or second quarter of the
third century, after referring to authors whose
works in some instances are preserved and en
able us to verify his statements, adds : " and
how many (oo-oi) psalms and songs written
from the beginning by faithful brethren hymn
Christ the Word of God, speaking of his divin
ity." 3
Doxologies appear early. In one form
Christ's mediation is emphasized, as in this
prayer from the letter of the Roman Church :
" O thou, who alone art able to do these
things and things far more exceeding good
than these for us, we praise thee, High Priest
1 i Tim. iii. 16.
2 " Carmenque Christo quasi deo dicere secum invi-
cem." 3 Euseb. H. E. v. 28.

THE EARLY CHURCH IO5
and Guardian of our souls, Jesus Christ,
through whom be the glory and the majesty
unto thee both now and for all generations
and for ever and ever. Amen." Elsewhere
in the same letter we find this form : " All
these things the great Creator and Sovereign
of the universe ordered to be in peace and
concord, doing good unto all things, but far
beyond the rest unto us who have taken
refuge in his compassionate mercies through
our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory
and the majesty for ever and ever. Amen."
It is possible that the remoter antecedent
is carried over in thought by the writer, so
that the doxology refers to it, and that the
same carelessness of construction is elsewhere
repeated. In the prayer of Polycarp there is
no such uncertainty : " I praise thee, I bless
thee, I glorify thee through the eternal and
heavenly High-Priest, Jesus Christ, thy be
loved Son, through whom to thee with him and
the Holy Spirit be glory both now and unto
the coming ages." Whether Polycarp used
these exact words or not is immaterial to our

106 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
purpose. They are given in a letter sent by
the church of which he was the bishop, and
could not have been deemed foreign to his
thought, or that of those who revered his mem
ory. Nor is there evidence of interpolation or
corruption of the text such as, of course, is
peculiarly liable to occur in connection with
liturgical forms. It is, however, sufficient for
our purpose to adduce, as indisputably in very
early use, doxologies in which Jesus Christ is
associated mediatorially with God. Yet there
would seem to be no doctrinal reason why
those who could employ such forms might not
have employed the other type also, and it is
probable that they did so. In both passages
in the Roman letter, where worship seems
to be thus directly addressed to Christ, it is
noticeable that the thought of the writer has
turned from the general goodness of God to
his forgiving and electing love, to his " com
passionate mercies," and to the blessedness
of those whose sins are covered, so that an
ascription of praise to him who manifested
this redeeming love and shed his blood for

THE EARLY CHURCH \QJ
the salvation of men and gave his life for
theirs is especially appropriate.1
The preaching in the Christian assemblies
in the time before us was, doubtless, uncon
ventional and missionary. Its ventures of
thought, beyond the lines of the common
tradition of evangelical fact and " the words of
the Lord Jesus," were mainly in the line of an
allegorical interpretation of the Old Testament
whose main design was to glorify the nearest
object of the Christian faith, the suffering
and glorified Christ.2 Happily, by a recent
discovery, the completion of an ancient hom
ily is recovered, so that its true character is
put beyond dispute. Its opening words are
these : —
" Brethren, we ought so to think of Jesus Christ
as of God, as of the Judge of quick and dead. And
we ought not to think mean things (/AiKpa) of our
salvation ; for when we think mean things of him,
we expect also to receive mean things. . . . And
how many mercies 8 do we owe to him. For he
1 I Clem, xxi., 1., vii. 2 See Barnabas, ix., and passim.
3 "Oaia, " Messianic blessings."

108 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
bestowed the light upon us ; he spake to us as a
father to his sons ; he saved us when we were perish
ing. What praise, then, shall we give to him ? . . .
we who were maimed in our understanding, and
worshiped stocks and stones and gold and silver
and bronze, the works of man ; and our whole
life was nothing else but death. While, then, we
were thus wrapped in darkness and oppressed
(yifjLovTe's) with this thick mist in our vision, we re
covered our sight, putting off by his will the cloud
wherein we were wrapped. For he had mercy on
us, and in his compassion saved us, having beheld
in us much error and perdition, even when we had
no hope of salvation, save that [which came] from
him. For he called us when we were not, and from
not being he willed us to be." 1
The culmination of the Christian worship
was at the Lord's Supper, and in its observ
ance. It is impossible to explain the extrava
gant and even materialistic theories of this
sacrament, which afterwards became" current,
without the recognition of an intense faith, at
the beginning of the history, in the presence
1 2 Clem, i

THE EARLY CHURCH 1 09
of Christ with his disciples when they partici
pated in it. A symbolic theory of the bread
and the wine long prevailed, but the sac
rament itself was not a mere symbol. The
divine blessing, even the heavenly good real
ized in- communion with the Father through
the Son by the Spirit, the eternal life in
Christ, was imparted by him to all his breth
ren who partook together and in faith of the
bread and the wine.1
The apostolic benediction, imploring and
declaring the favor of God in Christ, " the
grace of Christ," was in continued and fre
quent use.
With these testimonies to the place Christ
held in the life- and worship of the church
should be combined that of martyrdom. The
confession of the martyr was : " I am a Chris
tian." It was a testimony to the Name, —
a name which was invested by him with divine
perfections. It was a testimony unto death,
1 Ign. Eph. xx. ; Phil. iv. ; Smyrn. vi. ; Justin Martyr,
Apol. I. lxv., lxvi. ; Dial. c. Tryph. lxx. ; Didache, ix.,

IIO THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
an act of homage, loyalty, worship. Its re
ligious import, as related to Christ, appears
distinctly in the martyr's trust in him as able
to keep that which was committed to him,
and in his conviction that in his sufferings
he was strengthened for endurance, and this
not merely through remembrance of his Sa
viour's passion and through hope of future
good, but by an actual impartation of power
from a present Christ.
The words, " The Lord stood by me and
strengthened me," 1 are commonly accepted as
Paul's own testimony to what he experienced
when on trial for his life. At the least they
are an expression of what was believed to
have been realized in his case, and show the
faith of those who accepted them as his. The
church of Smyrna, in its letter narrating the
martyrdom of its bishop, Polycarp, and those
of others of its fellowship, says that they
" reached such a pitch of bravery that none
of them uttered a cry or a groan, thus show
ing to us all that at that hour the martyrs of
1 2 Tim. iv. 17.

THE EARLY CHURCH III
Christ being tortured were absent from the
flesh, or rather that the Lord was standing
by and conversing with them." x Whatever
we may think of the explanation, the concep
tion of Christ implied in it is unmistakable.
The churches of Lyons and Vienne, in a cir
cular letter to the churches in Asia and
Phrygia, bear similar testimony. "Tyrannical
tortures were made of none effect through the
patience of the blessed." Blandina, scourged,
tortured, inclosed in a net and tossed by a
bull, felt " none of the things which were
happening to her, on account of her hope
and firm hold upon what had been intrusted
to her, and her communion with Christ."
Those who died were witnesses whom Christ
"deemed worthy to be taken up in their con
fession ; " their death, and the release of
others who were liberated though steadfast
in their loyalty, being determined, it was be
lieved, by Christ's appointment.2 The author
of the " Epistle to Diognetus " says that
1 Mart. Polyc. ii.
2 Eusebius, H. E. v. i. 35, 56 ; ii. 3.

112 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
Christians are the soul of the world ; to them
is committed the sacred office of loving it and
holding it together. This trust has been re
ceived by them from one who was sent by the
Invisible God, and who was no subaltern nor
angel, but "the very Artificer and Creator of
the universe," who came " as [a man] unto
men." And this, he seems to think, is evident
from the martyrdoms the church was offering
in testimony of her faith. " Dost thou not
see them," he asks, "thrown to wild beasts,
that so they may deny the Lord, and yet not
overcome ? Dost thou not see that the more
of them are punished the greater becomes the
number of the rest ? These things do not
seem to be the works of man ; these things
are the power of God : they are proofs of his
presence." Carpus, in the midst of the flames,
prayed : " Blessed art thou, Lord Jesus Christ,
Son of God, because thou didst think me, the
sinner, worthy to have this part with thee."
And Agathonike, who was standing by and
saw the same vision opened to his faith, sur
rendered herself to the same death, and when

THE EARLY CHURCH 113
the fire touched her, cried out : " Lord, Lord,
Lord, succor me, for to thee have I fled for
refuge." 1
In connection with these indications and
proofs that worship was offered to Christ, it is
important to notice that it is explicitly dis
claimed for any other than a divine being.2
Distinct from all the sources of evidence we
have thus far enumerated, yet combining them
all, is the fact of the Christian society. It was
a unique creation. Nothing of the kind had
before existed which could produce it, or can
account for it. It could bring to perfection
other agencies and institutions, — it could not
be reduced to them. It had a spirit, a law,
a method of its own, and lost its prerogative
just in proportion as it parted with its distinc-
1 Die Akten des Karpus, des Papylus, und der Aga
thonike. Eine Urkuude aus der Zeit Marc Aurels.
Untersucht von Adolf Harnack. Leipzig, 1888. [Texte
und Untersuchungen, III. Band, Heft 3 u. 4, pp. 451,
453-] 2 Mart. Polyc. xvii. ; Justin M. Apol. I. xvi., xvii.;
comp. 1 Clem. lix. ; 2 Clem. xx. ; Hermas, Mand. i.

1 14 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
tive excellence. Its spirit was the inspiration
which came from Christ, from his teaching
and life, from his humiliation and cross and
resurrection, from a love in him for men
which was believed to be a manifestation and
guaranty of the philanthropy of God ; its law
was his perfection ; its method the imitation
of his life, — obedience, service, sacrifice like
his own. What impresses us is the power,
the virtue, that went out from him. There
was a new social order, imperfectly realized,
yet begun and secure. All religions tend
more or less powerfully to association. Other
religious founders have been followed, and
have pointed out ways of life and salvation.
Other leaders of men have been great re
formers, and have kindled enthusiasm. Others
have been self-denying and benevolent. Jesus
Christ, it was believed, though he was Lord of
all, died for all. The influence of the death was
dependent on the faith in the person. He put
his own life into other lives, because his life,
while human, was no less divine, so that he was
the life of many, because he could be the life of

THE EARLY CHURCH I 15
all ; and the life which was derived from him
was so beyond the strength and virtue of
those who received it that they attributed it
to him, and knew that they could not live
without him. To lose personal contact with
him and influence from him was to fall to a
lower plane of existence, to lose motive and
ideal and achievement. And, imperfect as
was the church, it was a true beginning of a
universal and ideal society. No power could
crush it. Its members stood not only the
test of martyrdom, but the test of character.
The vicious became pure, the weak strong ;
the principle of saving the world by loving
and blessing it, by praying for it and minis
tering to it ; the idea of a humanity which is
an organism having a head, the archetype of
its perfection and capable of bringing it to
complete fulfillment, — an organism in which
he cares for every member, and the interest
of each member is the desire of the whole
body, and the whole is the blessing of each ;
the power of a faith, a hope, an expectancy
reaching on into eternal ages, and sure of an im-

Il6 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
mortal good ; the beginnings of a love mightier
than all that separates and divides, and seen
to be regnant in the heart of God, — all this
was introduced into that confused, perplexed,
distracted ancient world in promise and some
measure of realization, and it had one and only
one conscious source. It was Christ's life put
by him, as it was believed, into the lives of men
for whom he died, and to whom he opened ac
cess to God and the Kingdom of God, and gave
the Spirit of God. " The Kingdom of Jesus
is on the cross," x men said, and believed it.
"All the generations from Adam unto this day
have passed away," writes Clement, "but they
that by God's grace were perfected in love
dwell in the abode of the pious ; and they shall
be made manifest in the visitation of the King
dom of God." 2 " He that hath love," Poly
carp declares, referring to " love toward God
and Christ and toward our neighbor," " is
far from all sin." 3 The dispassionate Clemens
Romanus becomes almost fervid in speaking of
love : " Let him that hath love in Christ fulfill
1 Barnabas, viii. 2 Ep. 1. 8 Ep. iii.

THE EARLY CHURCH \\J
the commandments of Christ. Who can de
clare the bond of the love of God ? Who
is sufficient to tell the majesty of its beauty?
The height whereunto love exalteth is un
speakable. Love joineth us unto God ; love
covereth a multitude of sins ; love endureth all
things, is long-suffering in all things. There
is nothing coarse, nothing arrogant, in love.
Love hath no divisions ; love maketh no sedi
tions ; love doeth all things in concord. In love
were all the elect of God made perfect ; with
out love nothing is well pleasing to God ; in
love the Sovereign took us unto himself ; for
the love which he hath toward us, Jesus Christ
our Lord hath given his blood for us by the
will of God, and his flesh for our flesh, and his
life for our lives.- Ye see, dearly beloved, how
great and marvelous a thing is love, and there
is no declaring its perfection." 1 Ignatius, on
his way to Rome and to martyrdom, felt that
he was not " a mere wayfarer," because the
churches received him " in the name of Jesus
Christ." 2 " How,'' he asks, " shall we be able
1 Ep. xlix., 1. 2 Rom. ix.

Il8 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
to live apart from him?"1 He is "the door
of the Father through which Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob enter in, and the prophets
and the apostles and the whole church ; all
these things combine in the unity of God." 2
Love " is the blood of Jesus Christ." 3 " Even
the heavenly beings and the glory of the an
gels and the rulers visible and invisible, if
they believe not in the blood of Christ, . . .
judgment awaiteth them also." 4 " The faith
ful in love " bear "the stamp of God the Fa
ther through Jesus Christ." 6 " It behooves
(8a) to save them that are perishing. For
this indeed is a great and marvelous work, to
establish, not those things which stand, but
those which are falling. So also Christ willed
to save the things which are perishing." 6 "I
know that the Lord journeyed with me on the
way of righteousness, and am wholly con
strained also myself to this, to love you more
than my own soul, for great faith and love
dwelleth in you through the hope of the life
1 Magn. ix. 2 Phil. ix.
8 Trail, viii., Rom. vii. 4 Smyrn. vi.
6 Magn. v. 6 2 Clem. ii.

THE EARLY CHURCH 119
which is his."1 The prayer of Polycarp, be
fore his martyrdom, it is narrated, remembered
" all who at any time had come in his way,
small and great, high and low, and all the uni
versal church throughout the world." 2 " And
pray ye without ceasing," writes another of
the martyrs, " for the rest of mankind . . ¦
that they may find God. Therefore permit
them to take lessons at least from your works.
Against their outbursts of wrath be ye meek ;
against their proud words be ye humble ;
against their errors be ye steadfast in the
faith ; against their fierceness be ye gentle.
And be not zealous to imitate them by re
quital. Let us show ourselves their brothers
by our forbearance ; but let us be zealous to be
imitators of the Lord." 3 Participation in the
eucharist, it was prescribed, should be preceded
by reconciliation if there had been estrange
ment.4 In the earliest known manual of
church polity, the church is not identified with
the Kingdom of God, but appears as " a train-
1 Barnabas, i. 2 Mart. Polyc. viii.
8 Ign. Eph. x. 4 Didache, xiv.

120 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
ing school for the Kingdom of God."1 In the
earliest recorded prayers, its unity is specially
supplicated. It is to be perfected in God's
love. All things are made for his name's sake.
The prayer which our Lord taught his dis
ciples is a pattern and form for the Christian's
thrice-repeated daily devotions. 2 With all
imperfection in its interpretation, the petition
that God's will should be done on earth as
in heaven was in the heart and upon the lips
of a society united by a tie that proved to be
the strongest social bond that history reveals.
And this prayer was offered to the Father re
vealed in the Son, and in the name of Christ.
In its essence the Christian church was a real
ization of fellowship through Jesus Christ, and,
on the basis of his redemption, of men with
God and with each other. It was the begin
ning and pledge of the eternal Kingdom of
God. Was it a mere man that brought in this
kingdom, or even a man sent as " a subaltern,
or angel, or ruler, or one of those that direct
} Dr. Schaff, note on Didache, ix. 4.
2 Didache, viii., ix., x.

THE EARLY CHURCH 121
the affairs of earth, or one of those who have
been intrusted with the dispensations in
heaven?"1 The writer whose words we have
used answers the question by saying that He
was the Artificer and Creator of the universe,
and will be its judge ; and in so replying ut
tered the universal conviction of those who
were carrying the cross to its triumph, and
who believed themselves to have received in
truth and integrity the words of the Lord
Jesus and the testimony of his apostles.
It may be objected to the conclusion we
have reached that the early Christian litera
ture often represents Christ as distinct from
God and subordinate to him. Such statements,
we may suggest in reply, are not inconsistent
with the fact of the Incarnation, but naturally
arise from it. If the divine nature and life
were really expressed through the man Christ
Jesus, they must appear under the form and
conditions of our humanity. Distinction and
subordination are necessary aspects of the
revelation which the faith of the early church
1 Diognetus, vii.

122 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
accepted as true and real. How it adjusted
its belief in Christ to its strict monotheism,
this early epistolary literature gives us no
suggestion. The question is not raised. It
came up afterwards in the writings of the
Apologists, and as the church in opposition to
Gnosticism developed from its faith and the
current philosophies its own gnosis or theo
logy. It came up because of the antecedent
and continued faith, and in the labor and
struggle of thought. The problem is ulti
mately not one of faith, but of metaphysics.
It comes into the sphere of faith only as it
affects the sincerity, purity, and truth of its
trust. Faith cannot be distracted, — cannot
rest in what is foreign to God, and not of his
being and life. The heart of the early church
rested in Christ, because there it believed that
it met and found the very heart of God, met
it and found it as nowhere else, and in a full
ness adequate to all human need, and forever
inexhaustible. The question now arises, From what source
did the early church derive its faith in Christ
as God ?

THE EARLY CHURCH 1 23
It accepted the Jewish Scriptures as a
divine revelation, and used them freely in
support of its beliefs. Yet it is plain that
there was a motive to this searching of these
ancient writings which came from another
source. The church went to the Scriptures
from Christ and because of Christ, as well as
to him because of the Scriptures and from
them. Besides this source of religious know
ledge it had, some time before the middle of
the second century, more or less generally
in use the substance of our New Testament.
When, later still, the Gnostics set up their pri
vate traditions, the leaders of the church pre
scribed tests of tradition, distinguished its
written from its oral tradition, and increas
ingly emphasized the former in proving what
our Lord and his apostles had taught and en
joined. But for long, tradition was emphati
cally the continuous history of the church, its
life-blood circulating through its membership,
and transmitted from generation to genera
tion. Irena2us speaks of Clement as one who
had "the preaching of the apostles ringing

124 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
in his ears, and their tradition before his
eyes." J Whatever of fact may be covered
by this rhetorical phraseology, it fittingly de
scribes the relationship of the early Christian
literature to its principal source of religious
truth. This appears strikingly in Ignatius'
method of meeting some opposers : " I have
faith in the grace of Jesus Christ, who shall
strike off every fetter from you. . . For I
heard certain persons saying, ' If I find it not in
the charters [the Old Testament Scriptures],
I believe it not in the gospel.' And when I
said to them, ' It is written,' they answered
me, ' That is the question.' But as for me,
my charter is Jesus Christ ; the inviolable
charter is his cross and his death and his
resurrection, and faith through him ; wherein
I desire to be justified through your prayers." 2
The gospel which was known and accepted
was the apostolic preaching, the great facts
and events in the life of Jesus Christ, his per
son and cross, his resurrection, and the life
1 Irenasus, Adv. Haer., III. iii.
2 Phil. viii.

THE EARLY CHURCH 1 25
which had come into men's thoughts and affec
tions and hopes by the "faith through him."
"Through him," — this is the key to the
faith and the hope of the early church.
There are two relations of the faith of the
early church in Christ, as this appears in its
literature, life, worship, sacrifices, social influ
ence and aim, which need to be emphasized
with reference to current discussions : —
1. This faith was a fellowship which in
cluded all the apostles of Christ, and knew of
no disagreement between them as to his per
son and history.
2. It bears no marks of being the product
of a theological evolution, or we should more
exactly say revolution, by which a being first
known to the churches as only a man was
afterwards deified by them.
It is distinctly not a theology, but a life.
It holds its truths, not as dogmas, but as
motives. It rests in a person, not in propo
sitions. It is not concerned with philosoph
ical questions, but with questions of character
and conduct, with men and with God, with

126 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
life here and hereafter. So far as in self-de
fense and in removing obstacles to its progress
it is doctrinally polemic, it is in asserting the
reality of Christ's humanity.
What most impresses us in the literature
which it created is the way in which the truth
of Christ's divinity appears not only as im
pressed upon and involved in the life of the
churches, but as a part of their settled tradi
tion. It is used, not defended ; presented by
implication as the ground of trust, hope, cour
age, service, devotion to the highest ends, as
something involved in being a Christian and
in Christian experience. And there is no
knowledge of any other Christianity which
had come down from the apostles and from
Christ. The writings to which we have mainly re
ferred were composed before the death of
Polycarp. Some of them were probably cur
rent before, or within a decade of, the death of
the Apostle John ; all of them not long after.
The tradition which they bear and represent
goes back far into the apostolic age. The

THE EARLY CHURCH 12J
belief which they reveal in Christ as divine is
extensively diffused. It is a part of the estab
lished faith in widely separated countries, —
in Syria, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece,
Egypt, Rome. It is the faith of the churches
which the apostles planted, and over which
they watched. It could not be a new and
revolutionary opinion. We are carried back
for its origin to the days of the apostles and
to their testimonies, which were held to be
authoritative. We are brought into connec
tion not only with Paul and John, but with a
fellowship of Christians running back to the
beginnings of Christianity. If the later litera
ture were itself the expression of a new theo
logical movement, it would reveal this fact. It
bears no such stamp, but something wholly
different and irreconcilable, — the stamp of a
life rooted in an established and inherited
faith. We may go still further. This literature
shows no sign of inheriting a tradition born of
any merely theological endeavor The church
was not a party bearing the name of some

128 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
theological leader. There was no church of
Paul or of John. What deserves here special
attention is, that what is now called the theo
logy of Paul and the theology of Peter and
the theology of John does not appear in this
literature in any distinctness or completeness.
So far, that is, as there are doctrinal types in
the apostolic writings which may be distin
guished, these types are not reflected with
any clearness and perfectness in the writings ,
before us. What we find is the common
Christianity of the apostles, the central and
fundamental facts and truths rather than the
specific differences. Enough of these appear
to show some degree of contact and literary
dependence, but no such impress of any one
apostle as shows that his mind was dominant.
This is true even of the individual writers. It
is still more marked and manifest in the liter
ature as a whole. Now, if Paul changed the
faith of the churches from that taught by the
older apostles, then, as against them, he domi
nated the Christian world as represented in
this literature. If he had power to impress

THE EARLY CHURCH 129
his peculiar type of belief in this one particu
lar, and this so remarkable a feature, why
should not his theology as a whole have shaped
the thought and life of the churches ? But
this it did not do. Paulinism as a distinct
theology, as a type of belief separable from
the faith of the other apostles, was not the
faith nor the theology of the churches in the
beginning of the second century, nor at any
time later in it. Still less was that of John.
The churches, therefore, did not derive their
faith in Christ from a theological movement
begun by Paul or by John, and distinct from
and revolutionary of the primitive faith. Their
faith struck its roots into the common apos
tolic teaching about Christ ; not into John's
doctrine of the Logos distinctively, — no allu
sion to this is found in the earlier writings,
and but one in the seven Ignatian letters, —
not into Paul's doctrine of the preexistent
heavenly Man, but into the historic facts of
Christ's life and death and resurrection and
sending of the Spirit, as these had been be
lieved in from the beginnings of the gospel in
the brotherhoods of believers.

130 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
A strenuous endeavor is now making to ex
plain the rise of the belief in Christ's divinity
by a reflective and theological process which
sprung up after his death. His disciples, in
order to idealize him, invented or credulously
reported stories respecting his miraculous
birth. Paul inferred his preexistence. John,
or his disciples, philosophized respecting his
being with the Father before the world was
created. So the Man of Nazareth became the
divine being whom the church worshiped and
adored, and made the centre of its religious
experience and life. It were nearer the truth
to say that out of its life came its belief in
Christ's divinity. But neither is this the
exact truth. It lived because he was divine,
and in its life his divinity manifested itself.
Suppose it to be true that John theologized
Christ, as before him Paul had done, and
with him or before him all the other apostles
and the circles of Christians in which sur
vived the traditions of eye-witnesses of Jesus'
earthly life, — for the construction of the his
tory which we are for the moment considering

THE EARLY CHURCH 13 1
supposes that the theological movement pro
ceeded upon these three independent lines,
the origination in certain circles of stories of
the miraculous birth, the theological reflec
tions and inferences of the apostle of the
Gentiles, who knew nothing of a miraculous
conception, and the Alexandrianism of John
and his school, — suppose, now, that all this
be credited. What then ? The question
comes up with new power, What was there
in Jesus of Nazareth that should dispose dis
ciples of so various types, on so many lines,
yet with one accord, thus to glorify him ?
And how are we to explain the origin of the
Christian life which found in him its source
and ideal, its indispensable support and its un
failing strength ? How, in this atmosphere
of illusion, was it sustained from generation
to generation, and under the severest tests ?
How was there created the "new type" of
man and the new order of human society ?
Nor is this all. This faith, held in the begin
ning, is attended with many difficulties to
thought. It has faced these difficulties. It

132 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
has made ever-repeated efforts, by this theory
and by that, to remove or relieve them. And
not wholly without success. Yet again and
again the result has shown that the new
theory would change the faith, that the faith
could not be held in its integrity if thus
explained. When such a result has become
evident, the theories one by one have disap
peared, not the faith. The life of the church
is from the life of Christ. It believes, and
has always believed, that in him is the Eternal
Life, and that he can and does give this life
to all who hunger and thirst for righteousness
and for God. The divinity of Christ as a doc
trine lives not only by apostolic testimony, but
in this perpetuated experience.

CHAPTER VI.
REVELATION AND REDEMPTION.
In the preceding chapters it has been
shown that the divinity of Christ was gener
ally believed in by the early church, and that
divinity of nature was implicit in the con
sciousness of Jesus himself. The attempt is
no longer seriously made to interpret that
early belief into lower terms, but it is ad
mitted that the apostles, and the church as
a whole, exalted Christ to a place of divine
honor, worshiping him as Lord over all, and
trusting him as a Divine Redeemer. It has
also, as we think, been conclusively shown
that Jesus Christ believed himself to be the
Son of God, and thus to be the revealer in his
own person of the Father to the world. And
as to the common faith of the church through
the Christian centuries, there can be no differ
ence of opinion, for it has been so tenacious

134 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
of the divinity of Christ as to ignore, at times,
his true humanity, and to make no real dis
tinction between Deity absolute and Deity
incarnate. To-day the crucial question is not
as to the belief of the church as a whole,
through the ages ; not as to the belief of the
apostolic church ; not even, perhaps, as to the
consciousness of Jesus himself. It is a ques
tion concerning the reasonableness of belief
in the divinity of Christ. Was the moral and
religious power, which Jesus undoubtedly had,
anything more than a human power, a power
which might reside in a great religious
genius ? Does the fact that his disciples con
sidered this power supernatural require us to
account for it in the same way ? Would the
opinion which Jesus himself may have had,
although honestly held, be of necessity a cor
rect opinion ? Might he not have had the
power, but have been mistaken as to its na
ture and source ? And does the belief of the
Christian centuries concerning the person of
Jesus Christ, a belief which was easier under
partial ignorance of natural law than under

REVELATION AND REDEMPTION 135
present knowledge of the universal reign of
law, make it necessary that we should explain
the power of Jesus by a doctrine of super
natural personality ? The question is put in
these forms because there is a tendency now
to separate the teaching and influence of
Jesus from any speculative doctrine of his
person, because contradictions are said to be
involved in the traditional theories of the
union of God and man in the historical Jesus,
and because, underneath all, is a disposition
to discredit the extraordinary, the superna
tural, the miraculous, in the revelations God
makes of himself to men. The purpose of
this and of the following chapter is to show
that the work and teaching of Jesus, accord
ing to the best apprehension of them to-day,
have their value and significance in his divine-
human personality, which is the medium, or
rather the embodiment, of the light, life, and
love of God under human conditions and limi
tations, and to show that, under changing con
ceptions of law, miracle, the personality of
God, and the personality of man, Jesus may

136 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
be known as transmitting, through his person
and character, moral power from God to man,
and so may be regarded, according to the
Scriptural phrase, as the wisdom of God and
the power of God unto salvation to every one
that believeth. If less importance is attached
now than formerly to the visible, external
manifestations of his power by miracle, that
may not hinder, but perhaps rather promote a
profounder thought of his truth, his character,
his person, as the revelation of the mind and
heart of God. For, if bis very life and truth
do not carry us beyond the human, we need
not concern ourselves about miraculous signs
and wonders, although, indeed, if his very life
and truth do carry us beyond the human, then
the health-power which went forth from him
in healing, and even a power over nature and
a power over death, a power of resuscitation
and resurrection, might seem to be only what
should be expected. In any case, however,
we do well to adopt the order of importance
assigned by Jesus to his person and his mira
cles, and therefore to rank his truth and life
above signs and wonders.

REVELATION AND REDEMPTION 1 37
We must, therefore, consider first the influ
ences or powers which proceeded from Jesus
Christ. We may stand in three points of view
from which we see the principal results he has
accomplished. He may first be considered as bringing in a
revelation of God. It is the fact, however
explained, that he changed the human concep
tion of God. He did not set aside all existing
conceptions, for part of the truth men had
spelt out from the volumes of nature and of
human life, but he revealed the complete
truth, he opened the wholeness of the truth.
This he did, not by inference of philosophy,
nor by a broadview of history. Beliefs gained
in that way could be challenged on the same
grounds. The currents of history do not all
run in one direction. There are suffering,
cruelty, caprice, as well as prosperity and hap
piness. If the word Father crossed the lips
of some prophet, the mysterious facts of life
and the conflicting movements of history de
stroyed the incipient hope thus trying to find
voice. Jesus revealed the Fatherhood of God.

138 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
It has been said that the revelation of God for
which the world had been waiting, when it
came, proved to be the second word a child
learns to speak. That was the revelation. It
was at once received within the circle of his
disciples, and from them it went forth into
the world. Turn from the Old to the New
Testament, to the writings of men who had
been familiar with the conceptions of the
righteousness and majesty of God, and ob
serve the frequency with which the desig
nation of God as Father appears. Conspicu
ously absent from the old, it is on almost
every page of the new Scriptures. It per
meates the new faith through and through.
Now, only one answer can be given to the
question how the belief in God's Fatherhood
was created. It came from Jesus, and it was
from the life of Jesus rather than from his
words. His words were but the expression of
his very being as the Son of God. There was
the mystery, and also the beauty, there was the
attractive, almost the compelling power of the
life. His words, his trust, his vision, his judg-

REVELATION AND REDEMPTION I 39
ments upon wrong, his sympathy, his character,
his whole life, bis very self, were proclamatory
of the life of God in him. Those who knew
him saw that he was ever coming forth from
God. Nobody else knew God as he did. He
could say with truth that " no man knoweth
the Father save the Son, and he to whomso
ever the Son willeth to reveal him." That
word of his, " He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father," was a word of reality. So was
that other word, "I and the Father are one."
There was the very life of God in him. His
consciousness of God was his deepest, his
abiding consciousness. All that came to the
surface in expression, words spoken, deeds
done, endurance of indignities, braving of
ignominious death, all welled up out of his
consciousness of God the Father living in
him, speaking and working through him, shin
ing out in the relation of Fatherhood and Son-
ship. The Son, he said, can do nothing of
himself, but what he seeth the Father doing ;
for what things soever he doeth, these the Son
also doeth in like manner. This is how the

I40 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
realization of God's Fatherhood came to the
world. For even now it is almost lost when
Jesus is ignored. Witness popular philosoph
ical speculations, the last word of which is
agnosticism or avowed pessimism. Nature
and history, apart from Christ, leave men in
doubt whether there is a God at all, or even
lead them to believe in a cruel fate or in
chance, under one or other of which things
grow from worse to worse. From Jesus came
the belief in Fatherhood. He vitalized it, just
by being in the world and living out that life
of unbroken union with the Father. Looking
abroad, we are confused. There are cross
lights, cross currents. Looking at him, we see
God in the character of love. Looking at the
life of others which is reflected from the life
of Jesus, we see the Fatherhood of God.
Why is it not enough to accept this truth
which Christ gave the world without reference
to his life and person, as the truth given by
any religious teacher is accepted apart from
the person who gave it ? But how long would
the Fatherhood of God hold its own as a living

REVELATION AND REDEMPTION 1 41
faith in this great perplexing world, if it stood
merely as a word spoken by somebody, or any
body, centuries ago ? It is the sacred life
which makes real the sacred truth. Because
the life yielded up its secret and disclosed the
source of its power, the faith is real, vital,
enduring. The first great fact, then, is that
God made a new revelation of himself in the
historical Jesus. The Fatherhood of God,
with all it involves, with the faith and hope it
inspires, was given to the beliefs of men as a
transforming power in that personality which
was rooted in God, and whose life of teaching,
service, suffering, and triumph expressed that
mysterious relation to the Father which could
not be hidden from his friends.
The second point of view is in respect to
the influence of Jesus on humanity. He is
found to be the producer of a new type, it may
almost be said of a new humanity. His work
in personal character amounts to a creation.
The writings of Paul are largely occupied with
a delineation of the new character. Some
thing revolutionary is described. Freedom

142 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
has taken the place of bondage to law. Faith
has taken the place of servility in a round of
observances. Filial trust has taken the place
of fear. Peace rules in the heart which is
now free from condemnation. The Christian
man is in harmony with God, with himself,
and with his fellow-men. Paul never loses
the joy of the new life of faith and freedom,
nor does he seem ever to lose the surprise of
it. The great discovery was then and still is
a perpetual wonder, ever renewed as the life
of faith springs up again and again among
those who receive the gospel. Thus there is
the Christian character, which is a distinct
type, in whatever conditions or nationalities it
appears, as crystals may be large or small,
burnished or incrusted, but all cleave at the
same angles and respond to the same tests.
It is a type superior to all others, and not to
be superseded by any other, since it combines
elements of absolute worth. In any individ
ual the character may be only imperfectly
realized, but the ideal which is perceived and
embraced is the perfect ideal. In kind, in

REVELATION AND REDEMPTION 1 43
type, in principle, the Christian character is
perfect and complete. This has been the ver
dict of every age, and it is the verdict of our
own age. Disputes over doctrine, creed,
theory, do not disturb the judgment of the
world respecting the Christian character. It
stands in contrast with the various forms of
selfishness which successive periods have pro
duced. It is an ideal commanding admiration
in modern as in ancient times, and finding
new embodiments in living men and women of
faith, of independence, and of self-sacrificing
love in every generation." We cannot take
space to characterize fully the new type. Our
object now is only to designate the work of
Christ in the personal life. Whether it ap
pears under Christian nurture, gradually dis
engaging itself from what is foreign to it, or
bursts out with suddenness, almost with vio
lence, throwing off chains of bondage, it is
the new, the living, the supreme and perfect
type of character. Paul's epistles are by some
considered to be doctrinal. They are really
ethical. He is absorbed with the thought of

144 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
the new type of life, and is doctrinal only to
explain how it is produced, what it is, and
into what it should develop. His writings
retain their hold, not because he is thought to
be inspired, nor because he was the first and
greatest of the apostles, but because he held
up the ideal of renewed character with a vivid
ness, a reality, a sense of never-ending won
der, which are always needed to express the
feelings appropriate to the faith struggling up
in every age towards that same ideal to em
brace and possess it. What produces this life ?
How is it to be accounted for ? There is but
one answer. It is inspired by Christ. It is
created by Christ. If any man be in Christ
Jesus, he is a new creation ; old things are
passed away, behold, all things are become
new. So it was at the outset. He was the
source of the new life. There were various
explanations then. It was faith ; it was obedi
ence ; it was imitation ; it was discipleship ;
it was sympathy ; it was surrender ; it was
consecration : but, no matter how described,
it was some sort of vital relation with Christ.

REVELATION AND REDEMPTION 1 45
He was the original source of the life. He
was the vine ; believers, the branches. He
was the head ; believers, the members of his
body.. No external relation satisfied the con
ditions of the case. Nor could mere compli
ance with precepts or unaided imitation of
example exhaust the meaning of this relation.
Only one word could express the one great
fact. That word was life, — the commonest,
the greatest, the most significant word of
Christianity. The life was in Christ. He
was the true life. He brought it into the
world. He derived it from no other man,
from no prophet or teacher. As he said, he
had life in himself. And this life reappeared
in others. It had that most mysterious but
unfailing characteristic of life, reproduction.
To this day, the explanation is the same. The
Christian is a creation of Christ. The phrase
of explanation matters not. Call it teaching,
influence, or example ; call it sacrifice, re
demption, or intercession ; enough that the
effect, which is unique, and in kind absolute
in worth and perfection, can be accounted for

146 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
by but one cause. There is a new creation,
and the creator, the producer, is Jesus Christ.
And whence came that life to which the new
life of centuries must be traced ? Whence
but from God ? The new life is the result of
the revelation. The new life is the life of
sonship with God. And, as we have seen,
the revelation was the person. It was Christ's
own life in God which revealed God to the
world. Some doubt whether a voice was
actually heard saying, " This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased," but such a
tradition could never have become current if
the whole impression made by Jesus had not
been of one who was in the very secrets of
God, and who made God real in his every word
and act. God was in Christ, revealing himself
in such ways that the life of sonship, with its
freedom, its faith, its hope, and its love, re
placing the old life, old because full of the
elements of decay, by the new life, new be
cause ever fresh and strong, was capable of
production and reproduction forever.
The third point of view carries us directly

REVELATION AND REDEMPTION 147
from the individual, renewed and brought into
sonship, to the society of the redeemed, or
the kingdom of Christ. This kingdom is the
natural result of the type of personal charac
ter created by Christ. The sons of God are
brethren. Christians constitute a great fam
ily, or, to use the figure frequently employed
by Jesus, a great kingdom. This kingdom,
considered as the visible organization of be
lievers, is the Christian church. Considered
as the company of all true followers of Christ,
it is the society of persons who are bound to
gether in a spiritual unity of love to each other
and of service to the world. Considered still
more broadly, it is all Christian thought and
life which purifies society through literature,
art, laws, customs, and education, and which
constitutes Christian civilization. It is not
necessary to make an analysis of the Christian
society or kingdom. If we should trace the
principles of liberty, law, and service by which
the kingdom of Christ is distinguished from
kingdoms or societies resting on superior
might and in which the weak are made to serve

148 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
the strong, we should be led back to the prin
ciples enunciated by Christ in the remarkable
passage in the twentieth chapter of Matthew
concerning true greatness, and we should see
that those principles made their great way in
the world, not by mere utterance, but by the
life of him who realized them among men, and
who could explain them by pointing to his
own example, when he said: "Even as the
Son of Man came not to be ministered unto
but to minister, and to give his life a ransom
for many." In this kingdom Christ is king.
He claimed kingship. It was accorded him
by his disciples while he lived, and by the
church ever since. His kingship is acknow
ledged in the Epistles by the designation of
Christ as Lord, which occurs on almost every
page. By that term his spiritual authority
was recognized. His word is law. His com
mands are final. He is to be obeyed and
honored. The claims made by Jesus himself
are startling. He admitted no conflicting, no
superior claim, not even the claim of filial and
fraternal affection. Not father nor mother,

REVELATION AND REDEMPTION 1 49
nor brother nor sister, is to have a precedent
allegiance. Christ's kingship or spiritual au
thority rests on his revelation of God as Fa
ther, and on his power to create the new life
of sonship. The kingdom of Christ, carrying
with it his kingship, is acknowledged by those
who do not accept traditional doctrines of his
person. Albert Ritschl, for example, singles
out Luther's acknowledgment of the Lord
ship as expressed in the phrase, Er ist mcin
Herr, as that which embodies all it is neces
sary to believe concerning Christ. " He is,"
says Luther, " my Master, my Lord." 2 Thus
Jesus Christ claims and exercises a spiritual
authority which is supreme, because his teach
ing had the authority of absolute truth and
right, because his life embodied the truth
1 Ritschl quotes from Luther thus : " Ich glaube
nicht allein, dass Jesus Christus wahrhaftiger einiger
Gottes Sohn ist, in einer ewigen gottlichen Natur und
Wesen von Ewigkeit immergeboren, sondern auch, dass
ihm vom Vater alle Dinge unterworfen sind, und er
auch nach der Menschheit mein und aller Dinge ein
Herr gesetst sei, die er mit dem Vater nach der Gottheit
seschaffen hat."

150 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
and right, and because he is the source of it in
all those who accept him as Master and Lord.
Other points of view might have been taken.
The perfection of the character of Jesus, that
is, his sinlessness, might have been dwelt
on, as being wholly exceptional in humanity.
But we have chosen rather to consider what
the world has received from him as a perma
nent possession, and, in view of that, to arrive
at a belief concerning his person. Although
three results have been indicated, they all are
one. The revelation of God as Father, the
new life of sonship, and the kingdom of those
who are the sons of God, are inseparable.
The one great fact is, that God and man are'
brought together in harmony through the
power of a life which came directly forth
from God and produces the new life in men.
However stated, — - and we have understated
rather than overstated the significance and
power of Christianity in the world, — the real
ity of a life through which God has revealed
himself to men, so that they are transformed
and restored to their ideal as sons of God,

RE I 'EL A TION AND REDEMPTION 1 5 I
stands before us as a spiritual magnitude not
to be reduced to any small measures, and, as
we believe, not to any merely human measures.
Having recognized the kind of work Jesus
has done, in revelation, in redemption, and in
his kingdom, brief mention may be made of
certain theories which are quite inadequate to
account for him.
May it not be held that Jesus was a great
religious genius, the greatest religious genius
history has produced ? There have appeared,
at various times, men who had what amounted
to a passion for religion. They have been
men of spiritual insight, of moral purity, and
of enthusiasm for truth and for men. Their
power of religious conviction has seemed to be
less the result of training than an endowment
of nature, less the result of study than the
directness of intuition, less the product of the
times in which they have lived than something
innate. They have had a positive genius for
religion, as others have a genius for art, or
music, or affairs, or the government of men.
The names of Paul, Augustine, Luther, Cal-

152 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
vin, Savonarola, Wesley, of Moses, Buddha,
Mahomet, may be mentioned as examples of
religious genius. Such religious characters
do help us, in part, to understand Christ.
They show that there is a basis in the nature
of the person for the peculiar power which has
been developed. They are unique by consti
tution. They are organs, created, as it were,
to express and impress religious truth. So
we are prepared to believe that distinctive in
sight and power reside in distinctive persons,
and that there is a correspondence, in an
approximate accuracy of proportion, between
the power exerted and the personality exerting
it. What does such correspondence indicate
as to the personality of Jesus Christ ? In the
comparison of other names with his, there is
the obvious contrast between derived and orig
inal power. The great names in religion are
Christian names. Paul, Augustine, Luther,
Calvin, Savonarola, Wesley, have merely inter
preted Christ. He was the acknowledged
source of their faith. Those who knew him
best were aware that they knew him only in

REVELATION AND REDEMPTION I 53
part. If the apostles of Christ in the succes
sive ages were unique by endowment of nature,
surely the Master through whom the truth was
given and in whom it was embodied cannot be
ranked among them, or even as the greatest
of them, but stands apart, superior, supreme,
unlike all others. Before the time of Christ,
and independent of Christ, no religious genius
has proclaimed truth which can compare with
the revelation of Fatherhood, nor introduced
a life which creates new character and a new
humanity. Moses, even if he established the
entire ethical and legal code of the Jewish re
ligion, was a teacher and lawgiver whose sys
tem was in part superseded by the gospel and
in the other part preparatory to it. No con
trast in religions could be more vivid than
that expressed in the words, " for the law was
given by Moses ; grace and truth came by
Jesus Christ." Within Judaism and Chris
tianity, Jesus stands apart from all others, as
the reality of his revelation is greater than
the anticipations of it, the originator greater
than the interpreter. And as to other reli-

154 rjIE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
gions, if the account we have given of the gos
pel is correct, it is evident that the religious
teachers of India and China gave to the world
nothing comparable with that gospel. On
the contrary, by rules of asceticism, by re
quirements of self-mortification, by represen
tations of the vanity and emptiness of life, by
the teaching that personal extinction is better
than perpetual existence, they deepened the
sense of a need which Christ supplies. The
Oriental religions are as truly preparatory for
Christianity as Judaism was. The resemblances
between the history of Jesus and of Buddha,
or between their teachings, are accidental
or incidental. The differences are radical.
And so, when it is said that Jesus was a great
religious genius, there need be no denial. But
as every religious genius is endowed with gifts
corresponding to his influence, it is natural to
infer that he who brought in through his very
life the wisdom of God and the power of God
to create a new humanity, is of a nature corre
sponding, and is not to be reduced into any
class which at the best consists only of his
prophets and interpreters.

REVELATION AND REDEMPTION I 55
A certain phrase has been employed which,
while professing to explain Jesus, fails to ex
plain him. It is said Jesus was an inspired
man, that the spirit was given to him without
measure, that he was inspired as no other
man has been. But that is to say, only, that
he had religious insight and power which are
unparalleled, and that he had them by direct
inspiration from God. If he was inspired to
give such a revelation as has been described,
he was a human being exerting a divine power,
which is another way of saying that God was
in him, or that he was divine. If he was an
organ perfectly adapted to reveal God, it must
be asked who and what is the organ through
which God can reveal his true character, and
in such way that he is himself the life which
can be reproduced in others to create a new
humanity. The man is not one thing, and the
inspiration another thing added to the man,
and which might again be subtracted from him.
The theory that Jesus was a superhuman
but a created being, intermediate between
God and man, presents more difficulties than

156 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
it removes. It has all the disadvantage which
pertains to a belief in the supernatural and
miraculous ; it presents an incomprehensible
being, half angel, half man ; and it does not
correspond with the truth and life brought
into the world by Jesus. God in Christ re
conciling men to himself is the substance of
the gospel. If credulity can go so far as to
believe in a superhuman being, and can thus
transcend the observed law of nature and hu
manity, it may as easily believe that Christ
was the eternal Son of God. It is much more
reasonable to believe that the very life and
love of God are revealed in Christ's person
than to believe that God sent down some cre
ated being other than himself, and inferior to
himself, to live among men in human form so
as to reveal the Fatherhood of God and to
restore men to sonship.
We have now reached the parting of the
ways. With those who fail to find in the truth
Jesus taught and the work he did anything
more than human nature is capable of, who
fail to find in him a revelation from God such

REVELATION AND REDEMPTION 1 57
as we have attempted to describe, who not
only disbelieve miracle and resurrection, but
also any divine revelation or redemption in the
truth and life embodied in Jesus, we enter
into no debate. If our view of the nature of
Christ's teaching and work is not adopted, no
occasion exists for a doctrine of his person as
divine. " For it is on the opinion held concern
ing his work in the world that the opinion
concerning his person must depend. If his
work is merely a human work, he is merely a
human person. If his work is a divine work,
he is more than a human person. Our in
quiry has followed the direction taken in the
New Testament. Christ is first known as the
revealer of the Father, as the redeemer and
restorer of men to sonship, and as the founder
of that kingdom which is a new humanity ;
and therefore it is believed that he is the eter
nal Son of the Father, that he is Lord and
Master over all things for the believer and for
the church, and that he is to be adored as
divine. First the redemption, then a doctrine
of the redeemer. It would be profitless to
contend for his divinity with those who do not

158 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
so understand his work. Nor can we present
additional arguments, to those who may not be
convinced, to show that his work is such a
work of revelation and moral creation. The
appeal is to experience and to history. If
experience does not imply that work, if history
is not read in that light, and if the faith of the
church from the outset is thought to be one
grand mistake, we can make no other appeal.
Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. But
with those who estimate the work of Christ
substantially as we have regarded it, we would
confer still further with respect to the person
who has brought the revelation and realized
the redemption. We hold the divinity of
Christ to be a reasonable doctrine. We hold it
to be a necessary doctrine, — necessary, that
is, not to salvation, but as alone corresponding
to all the facts of personal experience, of his
tory, of the faith of the church, and of the
very consciousness -of Jesus. In what follows
we shall adduce some considerations which
confirm the reasonableness of the doctrine,
we shall attempt to show that it involves no
contradictions or absurdities, and we shall try

REVELATION AND REDEMPTION 1 59
to indicate how far it is possible to go, as well
as where it is necessary to desist, in statement
and definition of the doctrine. No reader will
suppose for a moment that we consider it
necessary to a living faith in Christ that any
particular theory or doctrine of his person
should be accepted. The disciple of Jesus
may trust him as Redeemer, and adore him
as Lord, without affirming, or being able to
affirm, anything more than that he is Lord
and Master. Enough to say with Luther, " Er
ist mein Herr;" enough with the apostles to
receive Jesus as Lord. Yet many who have
such a trust cannot stop with that, but must
inquire farther ; and some are shaken in their
trust because the doctrines of the divinity of
Christ and of the Trinity seem perplexing and
contradictory ; and others do not know how to
meet the attacks which are made on their own
faith and on the faith of the church at those
points. It is for the sake of such thoughtful
inquiry that we shall go on in another chapter
to consider the doctrine of the divinity of
Christ as corresponding to his work in revela
tion and redemption.

CHAPTER VII.
THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY.
From the revelation of Fatherhood, the
redemption into sonship, and the kingdom of
God, thought proceeds to the person who
reveals, redeems, and rules. The revelation
is the Fatherhood of God. The redemption
is into sonship with God. The kingdom is the
kingdom of heaven, or of God. The work of
Christ is a divine work. Is he divine? Is
belief in the divinity of Christ a reasonable
belief ? Is it a necessary inference from the
truth he has revealed and the life he has
produced ?
The facts to which attention may first be
directed are the reality of revelation in nature
and in humanity, and the ascending order of
the revelations. The argument from these
facts is, that the culmination is reached in
Christ, who completes the partial and pro-

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY l6l
phetic revelations embodied in the universe
and in history.
Nature is a revelation of God. Phenomena
are the manifestation of energy or force. The
last and most satisfying word concerning force
is that it is from the will of God. Otherwise
it is wholly mysterious and unexplained. The
thought which is expressed in nature, in its
laws, its mathematical order, its progressive
evolution, is the outshining of reason, that is,
of the thought of God. Nature embodies the
divine power and wisdom. Assuming this to
be the correct interpretation of nature, it is
seen that nature and God are not separated.
Mechanical analogies are no longer considered
appropriate. The universe is not a machine
with self-acting powers, created long ago by
God, but now external to Him. The analogies
of organism are more satisfactory, — God is in
his world as its power, its life, its idea. Pan
theism, which confounds God and nature, is
not so far from the truth as Deism, which re
gards God and nature as mutually exclusive.
Nature, then, Considered as revealing God, is

1 62 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
seen to be a revelation in concrete embodi
ment. It is a reality for the indwelling of
God. It is, indeed, a reality at all only be
cause it is the indwelling of God. In Him it
lives and moves and has its being. These are
the commonly accepted conclusions of all who
believe that a God exists. And further, nature,
including vegetable and animal life, is an as
cending order. There has been repetition and
even retrogression. But, on the whole, the
movement has been so distinctly progressive
that the process is recognized and character
ized as evolution. It is impossible not to
classify mineralogical, botanical, and zoologi
cal phenomena as lower and higher. The uni
verse as a whole has never come around to its
starting place, nor ever will. The wheels of
nature do, it is true, repeat their revolutions in
days and seasons ; but like the wheels of a car
riage, turning around and around, yet bearing
one onward to his destination, the wheels of
the universe go ever forward. The movement
might be likened to that of an ascending
spiral.

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 163
Humanity is a revelation of God. The in
tellectual and moral powers of man reveal as
well as recognize absolute truth and right.
Society, as it advances along the path of civi
lization, realizes a purpose which is not of its
own origination, but which is the ideal corre
sponding to its inherent constitution. Indeed,
the belief in God rests on the reason and con
science of man and on the history of the race
even more closely than on the design and
order of the physical universe. The mode of
revelation in humanity is also an embodiment.
Not what is superimposed upon humanity as
that which is additional to it, but humanity
itself, is the revelation. Truth and right
could not be made known to man unless truth
and right were in man. The pattern is not
painted on the cloth, but is woven into it. To
destroy the pattern is to destroy the fabric.
The revelation is in and through humanity.
It is higher, also, than the embodiment of God
in nature. The ascending order is unmistak
able. In the past, the succession through
nature to man has been from lower to higher.

1 64 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
In the scale of importance, as the world is at
present, man is superior, standing highest
among all contemporaneous orders. If it is
believed that God is revealed in nature and in
humanity, it is evident that the method is by
concrete embodiment and by an ascending
order. Is humanity, as it is and has been, the cul
mination ? By analogy, it is quite conceiv
able that there should be a further advance.
There is no necessary reason for supposing
that man is the crown of creation. There
might be, perhaps, a new species organically
related to man, as man is organically related
to some orders below himself. In fact, it
is most reasonable to expect some advance on
the existing order. Humanity is incomplete
and imperfect. There is a consciousness
within of limitations. The ideal is not real
ized. It may even be said that the whole
physical creation groaneth and travaileth in
pain together until now, waiting for man's
complete knowledge and utilization of its
powers which as yet he has discovered only

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 1 65
in part, waiting for the revealing of the sons
of God. Institutions of family and govern
ment, which are divine creations, at present
only foreshadow those perfect forms which
are to come. What more probable, then,
than that God should make some higher rev
elation, which, like the others, is in concrete
form, and through which powers will come in
to bring to completion that which otherwise
remains imperfect ? Why may He not reveal
himself in a personality who is at the same
time the ideal of humanity and the power
within it by which it may be brought to its
perfection ? There might be an organ of
revelation, vitally related to the humanity
which is to be perfected, yet not merely the
consummate flower of a natural evolution,
such as others also may become, but an organ
through which God comes to men in grace
and love, a new moral power introduced to
bring humanity to its completion. No one in
advance would be able to foresee what the
higher revelation would be, as no one, know
ing only the lower orders of animals, could

166 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
have foreseen what would follow in man,
although, looking backward after man has
appeared, certain resemblances and antici
pations can be recognized. But the incom
pleteness of humanity was known and felt
before Christ came. How the need would be
satisfied, only the actual revelation of truth
and love could show. The writer of the
Epistle to the Hebrews followed this line of
thought. He referred to the promise that all
things should be put in subjection to man, and
admitted that mankind does not have univer
sal dominion. Then he declared that in Jesus
humanity will realize the supremacy for which
it is intended. Through the law of sacrifice
Jesus himself gained a supreme power and
endows men with power. Looking on man as
he is, we see not yet all things put in sub
jection under him, but we behold him, who
hath been made a little lower than the angels,
even Jesus, because of the suffering of death
crowned with glory and honor, that by the
grace of God he should taste death for every
man. It is the fact that in Christ a higher

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 167
power came into humanity for its renovation
and perfection. It may be, then, that he was
above mankind in his mode of existence, yet
organically related to the humanity which he
transcends, and that in him the revelation of
God completes that which in nature and hu
man life remained incomplete.
It is assumed in the entire discussion that
there has been that, which is unusual, excep
tional, extraordinary in Christianity, that it is
a new and higher revelation of God. On this
assumption, which was established in the pre
ceding chapter, we are attempting to under
stand, in some measure, the historical person
through whom this revelation and new life
have been given to the world. Jesus Christ
may be best understood as revealing the ethi
cal qualities of God, as an "embodiment of
the character of God. It was his declared
object to make known the divine grace,
mercy, righteousness, and love. The revela
tion was moral and spiritual rather than meta
physical. If God would make known his true
character to men, it might be expected that,

1 68 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
like all his revelations, this also would be in
some embodiment, in some concrete reality,
and therefore in a personality, in a life. No
other way is conceivable to us in which char
acter can be known but in a personal life.
Therefore the mode in which God can reveal
his character to us would seem, of necessity,
to be under some of the conditions and limita
tions of human nature. . It may be that there
is no other way in which his character could
even be made intelligible to us except in a
human embodiment. Some one may ask why
it could not be spelled out on the sky in letters
of light that God is love, or God is our Father,
so that there could be no mistake. But that
might be impossible, for an arrangement of
the planets 'or stars which would spell out
words to one observer on this side of the earth
would appear differently to another observer
on the other side of the earth, even if one lan
guage were universally understood. And even
if it were possible for all men to read sen
tences on the face of the heavens, how could
the meaning of the words be known ? There

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 1 69
must first have been the experience of love in
human relations. There must have been the
revelation of fatherhood, the actual life of
parent and child, of friend and friend, in order
that the words should declare anything plainly
concerning God. Then the affections of hu
man life are so imperfect at the best, they are
so vitiated by selfishness, that words on the
sky would have a meaning in correspondence
with the actual experience of earthly loves.
Such words could have the meaning we really
do find- in them by reason of the life of Jesus
more than from any other cause. That life of
sonship was the revelation to the world of the
very heart of God as the eternal Father. Now
that it has been lived, words on the sky, or in
a book, or on the lips, can be understood. So
it would seem, after all, not even to be a ques
tion which is the better way, whether God
should declare himself in some external way
in words not to be mistaken, or in Jesus
Christ. It may rather be questioned whether
He can reveal his character of love and right
in any way but in a life which embodies his

170 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
character. Nature has perhaps revealed all
of which it is capable. The revelation of
love cannot be made in visible physical na
ture. And the disclosures it does make are
better than mere words. The beauty, order,
and grandeur of nature show the glory of
God in such a manner that we can conceive
no statement which would be anything more
than a feeble reminder of that which the eyes
have rested on. So humanity, through the
constitution of persons and through the his
tory of men, could perhaps reveal God only in
a limited degree. The reality of the char
acter of God as grace and love gains no suf
ficient expression in human life, because that
life must be interpreted as it is, with all the
doubts it awakens concerning the goodness of
God, and with all its selfishness. No state
ment of prophet or sage, whatever .authority
he might claim, could give an understanding
of the character of God, so long as there was
only poor, incomplete, aspiring, disturbed hu
man life to illustrate the words. Therefore
it may be believed that the real character of

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 171
God can be known to us only by some em
bodiment which is the complete, unconfused
expression of his love, such an embodiment
as the person, example, and sacrifice of Jesus
Christ, the eternal Son of the Father. After
such a revelation is made, no proclamation in
words, no startling manifestations in nature,
could compare for a moment in meaning or in
power with such incarnation of the character
of God.
When also it is perceived that God and man
are akin in respect to reason, to righteousness,
and to affection, that every man is made in
the image of God, it is credible and even
probable that God should reveal his true
character in a human personality. Man, as
the saying of Luther and other reformers
ran, is capable of God ; capax Dei. He is
able to apprehend God as the absolute reason
and power, although his knowledge is mingled
with error. In other ways God is real to man.
There is no reason to suppose that any other
living beings on the earth have the power to
perceive God. Man alone has affinity for God.

172 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
There is no better thought of man's perfec
tion than that he acts in conscious harmony
with the will of God. The organ of God's
best manifestation of his love might therefore
be found in humanity itself. The point of
contact, of sympathetic union, is presented
there, and, so far as can be seen, in respect of
character, is presented nowhere else. If na
ture reveals God, affording conditions favor
able to the expression of his greatness and
wisdom, so far forth there is a kinship be
tween God and nature. It is not separate
from Him, nor exclusive of Him, but is open
at every point, in every atom, to his indwelling.
Nature could not be understood at all, nor
conceived as existing, apart from God, as in
some respects God could not be understood
apart from visible nature. With humanity He
is more closely akin. Man is not merely made
in the image of God ; he can think and know
only because the absolute truth gives law and
relation to all reality ; he can know and love
the right only because he is in a moral sys
tem patterned after an ideal of absolute right

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 1 73
which has absolute authority. Such kinship
between man and God constitutes human na
ture the most fitting organ for the embodi
ment, the incarnation, of the divine grace and
love which are necessary to make men the
children of God. If God does reveal himself
at all, if divinity appears in nature and history,
if, indeed, it is believed that God exists, what
more probable than that He should make
known his character through a personality
which is human, real, visible, organically re
lated with man, and yet the semi-transparent
medium which reveals the divine compassion
and love, while it partly conceals the mystery
of his absolute life.
The real difficulty lies farther back than the
manifestation of God in Christ. It lies at the
point of knowing God at all. How can God
be known ? How can the finite mind know
the infinite and absolute reason ? How is it
possible to conceive the perfect wisdom, the
infinite power, the omniscience, the omnipres
ence, the eternity, the self-existence, the per
sonality of God ? But when the belief in God

174 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
exists, when He is seen in all law, in all beauty,
in all the necessities of reasoning, in every
mandate of conscience, and in the progress of
history, when it is believed that at every mo
ment we' live and move and have our being in
the absolute God, it is then no strain put upon
faith, nor indeed upon reason, to believe that
in the fullness of time one appeared who, in a
special manner, brought the life of God into
the life of man for the purification and perfec
tion of humanity.
Thus far the ascending order of existence
and the nearness of humanity to God have
been considered as making probable the per
fection of that which is incomplete, and the
manifestation of the character of God in its
fullness of love through a human incarnation.
In general, the movement of thought has been
from below upward, from lower to higher.
The attempt may now be made to begin with
the thought of God, as He is moved with love
for men, and to inquire how He can come down
to them, or how He can reveal himself to them
so that they shall know Him in his real charac-

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 1 75
ter of love. The fact that such a supposition
can be made of course implies that He has al
ready made himself known in some measure.
The question how God can reveal himself could
not even be asked unless He had already done
so, for it would not be known that there is a
God to be revealed. But with the knowledge
that Pie is absolute how may we suppose that
He will reveal himself in his moral disposi
tion and purpose ? Certainly, under some con
ditions and limitations which are called finite.
On the whole, a human personality has the
fewest limitations, for, as we have already
seen, it is most nearly akin to God. It also
has a power of self-direction or of freedom not
found in other beings. God will reveal him
self in a human person. Then some man
will say, How can the absolute God reveal
himself in a finite man ? how can two opposites
be united ? how can God, who is unlimited and
unconditioned, become man, who is limited
and conditioned ? is not such a union a self-
contradiction ? Yet it is through media which
are called finite that He makes all his revela-

176 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
tions. As compared with God nature is finite ;
yet God is in nature, and is known as God
through such concrete embodiment. As com
pared with God, the human species is finite ;
yet it is in the constitution of mankind and
in its history that God reveals himself. God
does come down into that which is called
finite, and through it transmits the knowledge
of himself, so that He is known as absolute,
and is distinguished from the finite and tem
poral which catches and reflects his image.
It is by finite minds that God is known. If
the distinction between finite and infinite
means anything, and if the infinite is revealed
through the finite and to the finite in nature
and in man, the revelation of God in Jesus
Christ, a human personality, or the union of
God with him, is only like all God's reve
lations, the infinite manifested through the
finite, the absolute through the human and
historical. It is needless to set up these con
trasts, for nothing that we measure off by
itself and call finite is really separate from
God, but is derived from Him, is dependent on

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 1 77
Him, is an expression of Him. And somehow,
through these living connections, the mind of
man has knowledge of the source of all the
truth he sees, and of all the life he touches,
as absolute and underived. How God comes
down, as it is termed, into the finite, cannot
be known, but Pie does in some way, through
his works, give the knowledge of his absolute
being to men. And if God lives in nature so
that He can be known there, if He reveals
himself in and to the reason and conscience
of man, much more, it is easy to believe, could
He reveal himself through, or unite himself to,
or live in, that person who is confessed to be
the best, the holiest, the most akin to God of
all the men who have ever lived. The belief
concerning Jesus is not that God in all his
absoluteness, omniscience, and omnipotence
took on the form of a man and walked about
among men in Galilee, so that Jesus knew all
occurrences on earth and through the universe,
and was conscious that he created the stars,
and knew more not only than the ancients,
but more than the moderns, of science and

178 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
philosophy, but it is the belief that God was
in Christ, so far as God can manifest his life
in a human personality at a given period in
history, and for the purpose of bringing in his
grace and love for the renewal and perfection
of men. Such an embodiment of God, like
every revelation of Him, leaves very much
mysterious as to mode and limitations, the
broader light giving more depth and extent to
the all-surrounding darkness. But the revela
tion of God in Christ pertains less to his abso
luteness than to his character. It is the love
of God which is made known in Jesus Christ.
The fitness of personality to express love is un
questioned. The capability of a man to realize
sonship is undoubted. That which is highest
1 in the possibilities of human nature is the
ethical. In respect to character, there is an
affinity between God and man, so that God
might be able in no other way so well to
reveal his own character at all, and certainly
not in such way that it should be understood
by man, as in a pure and perfect personality.
These considerations respecting the revela-

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 1 79
tion of the absolute to and in the finite show
at least the possibility of a divine revelation
in the person of Jesus Christ. There cer
tainly is no absurdity or contradiction in the
belief, since, if God would reveal his charac
ter at all, no other mode can be conceived
except some finite and historical manifesta
tion. The possibility easily passes into the
probability that God was in Christ as a revela
tion or incarnation, in view of the human need
of knowing God's Fatherhood, and in view of
the significance of the truth and the power of
the life Jesus actually gave to the world. The
admission that such a revelation would be ex
ceptional and extraordinary is matched by the.
fact that the truth and motive power which
actually came from Christ are exceptional and
extraordinary, so exceptional that, as we ob
served in the preceding article, the explana
tion of Jesus as a religious genius or an in
spired man is inadequate to account for him.
In keeping with the divine-human person
ality of Jesus is his power to work miracles.
These were not mere wonders, but deeds of

180 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
beneficence. His power of instantaneous heal
ing seems to have been inherent. It has been
aptly called bis health-power. The healing
influence of a healthy person over a diseased
person has had many illustrations, and at the
present time is recognized, as it never has
been before, as the exercise of a real power
which is but little understood. Such a power
Jesus had to the fullest degree. That which
is vaguely suggested by modern mind cure,
faith cure, or even, possibly, by hypnotic and
mesmeric influence, was complete in Jesus. It
is much more probable that he had such a
health-power over bodies and minds than that
the narrative of his healings is a pure fabri
cation, or an unfounded tradition. It was a
real power he had to restore those who were
supposed to be under demoniacal possession,
whatever form of mental disease and hallucina
tion or of moral insanity that may have been.
Even his resurrection and ascension, although
the visible form of his glorified person may not
be understood, and certainly is not important,
are the credible and indeed natural consum-

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY l8l
mation of his life and work. If one has over
come the difficulty of belief in personal immor
tality, and holds it as true that the individual
survives death, why should it be incredible
that Jesus survived death, and gave some
crowning proof of the victory in keeping with
the divine life which preceded his crucifixion ?
The process of restoration from death, or
rather of transition through death into the
deathless life, might, in the case of a person
so unique, so free from the debasements of
sin, so divine, be more rapid than it is in
others. In view of the purpose of the whole
revelation in him to redeem from sin and to
bestow the gift of eternal life, such manifesta
tion of the glorified person might be necessary.
The emphasis lies not so much on the resur
rection as a proof of the divinity, but rather
on the divinity, on the unique person, and on
his unique work, as a proof of the resurrec
tion, while the marvelous results of belief in
the resurrection go far to prove both the fact
itself, and also the divineness of the person
who thus overcame the power of death. Here

1 82 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
also the question could be asked, how, if God
would convince men of the reality of life be
yond death, he could do it more surely than
through that resurrection which abolished
death. The power of Jesus over physical na
ture, as shown in the stilling of the tempest,
the multiplying of the loaves, the draught of
fishes, is not as intelligible to us, especially
the creation of loaves of bread. If these
miracles stood alone, we might be incredulous.
But he who had such power over men, over
mind and body, even after death, may have
been aware at times of a control ov,er nature
which was unusual. If he was more than
human, if he embodied the character of God
so as to bring in a new revelation, it would be
hazardous to mark a line beyond which his
power could not be exercised, and especially
to make such boundary coincide with the
limits of facts which can be made clearly
intelligible to us. The nature-miracles are
very few, and are not important to an ade
quate knowledge of his person, his teachings,
and his kingdom. And as to all the mira-

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 1 83
cles, the remark made in the preceding chap
ter may be repeated, that they are secondary
in importance to the life and teachings of the
divine person, even as he himself insisted, and
are to be understood, not chiefly as proofs
that he is divine, but as exercises of a benefi
cence in keeping with his whole redeeming
work. The doubts which might arise, if such
powers were ascribed to any one, disappear
when it is remembered that they belonged to
one who in his very person and life actually
gave a new revelation of God, produced a new
type of character, and created a new humanity.
As to any more definite theory of the per
son of Christ, of the mode of the union of
divine and human in him, it is not to be con
sidered of essential importance. So long as a
special revelation or embodiment of God in
him is seen to involve no contradiction or
absurdity, but to be in accordance with the
other revelations of God, all of which are
through finite media, and so long as he is
regarded as Redeemer and King, it is not
necessary to adopt any particular theory, or

184 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
what might be called psychology, of the divine-
human person. Suspicion would be thrown
on any theory which leaves nothing unex
plained. To reduce all to definitions would
be, not to perceive the absolute by means of
the finite, but to do away with the absolute by
substituting for it a somewhat enlarged finite.
There are, however, two truths which have
the most important bearing on the divinity
of Christ, both of which find frequent expres
sion in the New Testament. One is, the truth
that God reveals himself. The absolute has, as
a characteristic, a power, a mode of being, this,
that He communicates and reveals himself to
finite intelligences. This revealing principle
or power is called the Word, which, as John
says, was from the beginning with God, and
was God. It is the doctrine of the Logos. It
was the Word or the Logos through which the
worlds were created, those revelations of God
which have no speech nor language, whose
voice is not heard, but whose sound has gone
forth into all the world, and their lines to the
ends of the earth, declaring in, their silent

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 185
revolutions the glory of God, and in their
obedience to law showing his handiwork.
Christ is the highest revelation of God, bring
ing in the absolute love and goodness. In
him the revealing principle finds its best, and,
it may be, its complete expression. With him
the Word or the Logos is especially identified.
All the lower revelations were foreshadowings
of the highest, pointing to it, and preparing
the way for it, and were expressions of the
revealing Word, all disclosing one purpose
and emanating from one mind. The same
Word or Logos which made possible the ex
istence of the worlds, and which was con
cerned in the history of the chosen people and
of all peoples, was manifested in Jesus Christ,
in whom the Word became flesh. The reve
lation is one ; the purpose is one ; the higher
includes the lower. This view of the progres
sive revelation of God from power to righteous
ness, and from righteousness to love, is in
agreement with what has already been indi
cated of the ascending order of revelation in
nature, in history, in Christ. It is a view

1 86 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
comprehensive of that increasing purpose
which through the ages runs. It is a view
raising thought above any narrow outlook on
the material world, on the separate nations,
or on Jesus of Nazareth, into a broad survey
of the sublime scope of the divine purpose.
Several books of the New Testament begin
with this truth of revelation advancing from
the creation of the world to the incarnation.
Paul in the Epistle to the Colossians, John in
the Fourth Gospel, and the writer of the
Epistle to the Hebrews associate the very
existence of the universe with redemption
through Christ, boldly declaring that the
world was created in and through and unto
the Word or the Son, and subsists, is held
together, in him who, as realizing its ends, is
vitally related to its very existence. If, now,
some one propounds curious, puzzling ques
tions, as to how the Logos could be in Jesus
Christ as an infant at Bethlehem, or as a man
in Capernaum, and at the same time sustain
the worlds, or how the Logos, in whom all
things consist, could be reduced to the limi-

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 187
tations of the Jesus of history, it might not be
easy to answer, nor perhaps worth while to
answer. It is the old question, how the abso
lute can be in the finite and still be the ab
solute, how there can be any before and after,
or any here and there, with God. But as an
inspiring thought of God's disposition and
power to be known, of the ascending scale of
those revelations which are an unbroken unity,
and of the consummation and perfection of
them all in Jesus Christ who shows the Father
to the world in his character of love, it opens
not only the possibility but the reality of a
union in Jesus Christ of divine with human,
so that in him is the complete embodiment of
the character of God.
The other truth, which everywhere per
vades and distinguishes the New Testament
writings, is that this revelation consists in
the Sonship of Jesus Christ. It is his very
character, or, it might be said, his very nature,
to be the Son of the Eternal Father. Men
were impressed, and the world has been im
pressed, with the perfect harmony with God

1 88 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
of one whose life was the life of sonship.
That life was perfect because it revealed in
every act and word the relation of sonship. He
did not struggle up into this by self-denials
and repentings, but he was in the complete
ness of sonship from the beginning. Those
who came under the influence of Jesus saw
before very long that the sonship was not a
fleeting condition of a few years in a sorrow
ful human life, but that it was of an eternal
quality. Putting all things together, the his
tory, the revelation, the redemption, the king
dom, it was seen that the thing revealed on
earth was a thing of the heavens, a thing
which had always been and would ever be,
that sonship and fatherhood are of the very
being of God, that God is best known as the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it was
eternal sonship which had found a way to be
embodied in human life where it could be
mirrored in visible form. The thought was
not of before and after, but of that which is
eternal, of what God is in his very character
and heart. Sonship is human, but also son-

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 1 89
ship is divine. The revelation was fatherhood,
and was made in the person of him who was
the Son of God. This disclosure of God satis
fies both the heart and the intellect. It sat
isfies the heart, because it reveals the heart of
God as by his very being eternally sustaining
the relation of fatherhood and sonship. His
is not an isolated, unrelated, unloving exist
ence. The Son is ever in the bosom of the
Father. It satisfies the intellect, helping in
the understanding of incarnation. The ethi
cal value of the relation of Father and Son in
God is absolute, and yet it implies a certain
dependence and even limitation, a subjection
in obedience and trust, a power of surrender
even through sacrifice, in order to fulfill the
purpose of God in redemption. The Sonship
is eternal. Earthly fatherhood and sonship
are a transcript of the divine pattern. Every
family or fatherhood in heaven and earth is
named after Him who was the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And yet it is a relation
which could be realized in human historical
conditions.

1 90 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
Such revelation of fatherhood and sonship
as eternal discloses in a measure the divine
nature. God is not one individual of a
species, nor one solitary individual consti
tuting a species which has no other members,
nor a simple unity which is a single object
perfectly defined and understood. The depths
of Absolute Being which cannot by any sound
ings of finite minds be fathomed, but on
whose bosom all other existences are borne
up, are most truly made known to us, not in
terms of logic, but in terms of life and mo
tive. And the life which is manifested is the
life of fatherhood and sonship which is eter
nal. What was revealed in the human earthly
life of Jesus Christ corresponds to a relation
in the very nature of God. And now God is
conceived by us as having a life in relation, in
a kind of contrast, and in affection. Thought
is not lost in the undefined, the illimitable,
the infinite, but fastens on that which is real
as a related and various life in God himself.
That which can be symbolized in a human life,
so as to make God warm to our feelings, is the

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 191
reality of his being. God exists eternally in
the mutual life of Father and Son.
The Son of God was an historical person,
representative of God in an earthly life which
began and ended. The energizing of God
within us, to purify from evil and to make us
harmoniously responsive to his will in all our
life, is requisite, that the revelation in Christ
may have its full power. The act, or, it may
rather be said, the action of God is symbol
ized or represented to us by an image of that
which is internal and invisible, the very qual
ity of life, the breath or spirit. Under the ad
vantage of the truth about God which Christ
embodied, the divine Spirit vitalizes the rela
tion between God and man. His influence is
moral and spiritual. He energizes in intimate
correspondence with the reality of fatherhood
and sonship as revealed in Christ. Thus the
revelation is not merely that which has oc
curred, and may now in part be remembered
or known by the record of it. It is continu
ous. It is fruitful. Christ revealing, redeem
ing, ruling, is ever present. The energy of

192 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
the Spirit is so closely conditioned on the per
sonality and work of Christ that the Son and
the Spirit are spoken of interchangeably as to
their presence, their indwelling, their renew
ing and sanctifying power. The promise of
the Spirit was a characteristic of Christ's
teaching. It was awaited by his disciples.
The new life springing up with freshness was
believed to be the fulfillment of the promise.
Only the invisible energy of God, the very life
of God within, could produce such newness of
life in sinful men. The association of the
work of the Spirit with the work of Christ
signified essential relation, eternal relation.
Christ procures the Spirit which proceeds
from the Father. He procures it, not by ask
ing as in a prayer, but by attaching himself in
his sonship, by means of sympathies and com
passions, with humanity, thus opening a way
congenial to the influence of the renewing
and sanctifying Spirit of God. The coopera
tion in human redemption and perfection of
Father, Son, and Spirit signifies a life in God
himself answering to the work. The God,

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 1 93
who as the absolute would be shrouded in im
penetrable mystery, is known in a relation
which may be likened to our own dearest
affections, and is thus perceived to be the God
of personal life and love from all eternity.
The value of this knowledge of God is not
in what it signifies metaphysically of the
mode of his being, but in what it conveys of
the character of God in fatherhood and son-
ship, and in his disposition of love energizing
actively through his Spirit to bring his love
to full effect, so that God need no longer
be thought of as a mysterious somewhat on
whom the universe depends, yet baffling all
attempts to know Him, but as the God of feel
ing, of warmth and glow, of self-communica
tion, of love. Yet, as throwing light on the
mode of his being, the revelation of Father,
Son, and Spirit may be held to remove rather
than to create difficulties. For, apart from
such knowledge of God, it is by no means
easy to comprehend Him as personality at all.
The absolute is reason, yet can have no pro
cesses of reasoning like ours, since all truth

194 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
must be immediate to Him. The absolute is
will, since energy goes forth constantly from
Him, yet can have no freedom of choosing, for
there can be but one universal, all-inclusive
exercise of force. God becomes merely a
name for the Power which energizes in all
phenomena, or for the Unknowable, or indeed
just for the universe itself, and so personality
is lost. Or, if personality is affirmed of the
absolute, and yet He is thought to be free
from all distinctions and relations, there is
either a mere juggling with words, or the
personality is a finite conception, a magnified
man, supposed to be infinite. But the three-
ness may help thought in conceiving the per
sonality of God. For, whatever kinship of
reason, affection, and will there may be be
tween human and divine, there is forevermore
the difference between derived and original,
finite and infinite, so that personality in us
cannot be the measure of personality in the
absolute. There must be more in that per
sonality than an enlarged copy of the person
ality of one individual of the human species.

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 1 95
Furthermore, our personality is not complete
in an individual, but includes the social rela
tion. The individual is what he is as a person
by virtue of the organism from which he origi
nated, on which he is constantly dependent,
to which he is vitally related. The corporate
life of men has a personal character, the nation
being looked on as a great moral personal
ity with personal powers and obligations. To
the divine personality some inner eternal rela
tionship might be considered essential. Such
relationship is at least suggested by the know
ledge of Fatherhood and Sonship made real
and eternal by that same Spirit who is an in
dwelling power in men to make them sons of
God by conformity to the image of his dear
Son. There is mystery remaining, as in
every conception of the absolute. But, if all ,
mystery were cleared up, we should be think
ing of something other than the absolute
God. The knowledge of God as Father, Son,
and Spirit, who are not three separate con
sciousnesses, wills, or individualities, but who
together constitute by eternal coworking and

196 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
interrelation the one indivisible unity of
God, enables us to think of God as having
the conscious life of personal affection, of
which our related life as individuals of the
human organism may be considered an imper
fect analogy. Lotze remarks that the person
ality of man is to be regarded as only a pale
copy of the personality of God, meaning that
the related multiform life of God is richer
than that of man. Certain writers who have
scant sympathy with Christianity conclude
that, if a God exists, He must be a being who
transcends the personality of man. May not
the conception of Christianity be nearer the
truth than speculations which lose the person
ality altogether, or regard it as essentially like
our human personality with its limitations ?
The unity of God, as meaning that there is
only one absolute and eternal God, is a pri
mary truth ; but the belief that the personality
of the one God is realized as Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit is quite as reasonable as the belief
that his personality is realized without any
distinctions which are made known to us in

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 197
terms of relationship and coordination. It is
not our purpose to consider the doctrine of
the Trinity. It has been referred to only to
indicate that the person of Christ considered
as the incarnation of the eternal Word, and as
the revelation of eternal Sonship, is in no con
flict with belief in the unity and personality
of God, but on the contrary may promote and
even preserve such belief.
There is a limit to the understanding of the
person of Christ. If he is truly divine, it
could not be otherwise. The limit is on the
side of speculative or metaphysical ideas of
the mode of absolute being and manifestation.
Nearly all confusion and perplexity concern
ing the person of Christ have been due to at
tempts to transcend the limits of understand
ing on that side. On the ethical side Jesus
stands clearly revealed. The true law of life,
the divine purity, righteousness, and love, the
trust and obedience of sonship, the revelation
of the fatherhood of God, are clear, warm,
aglow with beauty and glory. We know it is
the life of God which was manifested in

I98 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
Christ, as we know it is the heaving of the
ocean in all its fullness which rocks the frail
barks resting on its surface. The attempt,
reverently made, to penetrate the mystery of
that life, as to the mode of its union with
God, need not be discouraged, may even prove
fruitful, especially as promoting a deeper rev
erence. But the life which was the light of
men in its reality, its blessing, its life-giving
power, is the gift of God for our good, and
may be received as the gift of God to eternal
life, whatever philosophical theory of the per
son is held, or indeed if no definite theory is
held. Some of the ancient symbols are felt
to be over-precise in statement as to essence,
substance, nature, and equality. The meta
physics of the symbols is in part superseded by
modern modes of thought, and in part also is
needlessly minute. Their value is in the dec
laration that God was in Christ. They guarded
the divineness of the revelation against doubts
or denials of it. The Nicene Creed, in such
phrases as " Light of Light," " very God of
very God," means that it is God's own

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 199

truth and light which have come into this
dark world in Jesus Christ. In him God
seeks man, reversing the age-long weariness
in which man was ever painfully seeking God.
The discussion, in the form it has thus far
taken, would, however, by some, be considered
incomplete without reference to the preexist
ence of Jesus. Doubt on this point is re
garded by some as fatal to belief in the di
vinity, while others who hold strongly to the
divine nature of Christ, to his resurrection,
and to his exaltation in heaven forever, cannot
bring themselves to believe in his preexist
ence, in the sense that when he was on earth
he remembered a former life in heaven. That
the identical being who was the historical
Jesus was transferred unchanged from one
world to another no one would think of be
lieving. His body was a new existence by
means of reproduction in the human species.
He lived under limitations belonging not
merely to the human, but also to the earthly
life. Some transformation occurred when the
Word became flesh, when the Son of God was

200 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
born of a woman, born under the law. If the
successions of time can be applied to that
which is eternal, to the being and life of God,
so that a before and an after can be conceived,
then it would have to be granted that, in the
time of Abraham or of Moses, Jesus Christ,
as he was known to the people of Galilee, did
not exist. But he came forth from God. His
very existence and being were divine. Under
human conditions, and at a given time, he em
bodied the reality of a sonship which is eter
nal in the divine nature. That sonship, as we
conceive, did not begin with the birth of the
historical Jesus. The life of God is, it is true,
above time. He is not confined to the suc
cession of events, as if He lived now only in
this period or day, and later will live only in
that which follows. And if one insists on such
carefulness of statement, it might be admit
ted that preexistence, — or for the matter of
that, post-existence, — should not be applied
to the realities of the absolute, and even that
it is enough to see in Jesus Christ the mani
festation of the heart of God. In the same

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 201
way it might be admitted that Jesus did not
come from some other place to the earth.
For the heaven from which he came is not at
a distance. It is the centre of the spiritual
universe. It is at the sources of the divine
life. Its light and heat need no time to travel
to all the existences which have their being in
God. To say that he came down from heaven
merely means that he came from God, who is
as truly and constantly on earth as in any
other part of the universe. Yet the uni
verse, which exists in space and is measured
by distances, and which, as a universe, may
have beginning and end, is a reality. And
the history of men through the successive
ages is a reality. God no doubt conceives
them as we do not. But they are not illu
sions either to Him or to us, for they re
veal Him to us. Jesus actually lived under
these conditions of place and of time. To
him there was before and after, here and
there, as there is to us ; and the question is
whether to him when he was on earth, under
human and historical conditions, there had

202 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
been a previous existence* which he remem
bered, and of which his earthly life was in
any real sense a continuation. If he was the
Word incarnate, if the revealing principle in
God and that which is eternal sonship in God
were the sources of the human life which re
vealed them, then that which characterized
him, and which shone through all his life,
being of eternal and divine nature, preexisted,.
so far as there can be any preexistence. If
Jesus revealed the very being of God as in
the relation of fatherhood and sonship, then
it would be absurd to suppose that the reality
which Jesus revealed, and which made him
what he was under human conditions, did not
exist in the time of Moses and Abraham.
The consciousness or recollection of Jesus in
respect to the eternal conditions of sonship
is another matter. But it may be observed
that he was aware of a humiliation, a depri
vation, a condescension, a contrast in his life
among men, that he was aware of a life in the
Father's love which in a sense he had relin
quished, and to which he would return. He

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 2O3
knew that he came from a higher to a lower
sphere, not, indeed, as one contrasts places,
but rather as one contrasts states or con
ditions. To read this strain out of his say
ings, as reported in the Fourth Gospel, and
even in the other Gospels, is to remove an
essential characteristic. This, in fact, has
always given its power to the gospel, that
Christ came from heaven to earth, from glory
to dishonor, for us men and for our salvation,
and that he was aware of his humiliation.
The contrast implies a surprising difference
of condition, and yet a real identity of per
sonality. At the same time, as a human
being pouring his life into his work for men,
he was absorbed in the present rather than in
the past. He was not dwelling in the past, nor
living in it. And yet he was not oblivious of
what may be called his past. Those strange,
unaccountable impressions which arise at times
in all minds, and which are called reminis
cences, so weird and fugitive that they are
by some referred to a preexistent state, may
suggest to us the reminiscences Christ may

204 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
have had of the higher, more glorious state
from which he came. It is also to be re
marked that there was a development of his
knowledge, and that in the earlier years his
consciousness of the glory of his eternal life
may have been less clear than in later years,
or even that in all his earthly life he was under
limitations which may have kept his own mind
from knowing all that was involved in his
sonship with God. The chapter on the self-
consciousness of Jesus may be referred to
as confirming the opinion just presented.
Another question might be asked concern
ing the omnipresence of Christ since his ex
altation. The presence of Christ in the world,
in the church, in the heart, is a spiritual rather
than a spatial presence. He rules over men
in love and truth, not by physical contiguity,
but by spiritual affinity. What was objecti
fied in his earthly life is eternal in the relation
of sonship, and is realized by the Spirit of
God in all those spiritual aspirations which go
forth towards Christ. All this is in the realm
of character, the character of God revealed in

THE DIVINE+HUMAN PERSONALITY 205
Christ touching and vitalizing the human spirit
on the side of character through the energiz
ing of. the Spirit of God. That Spirit is the
Holy Spirit. His agency is not a physical
agency, but he takes the things of Christ and
shows them unto us. In this sense Christ is
omnipresent, but it is rather the omnipresence
of affinity than of space. The physical world
and the bodies of men are but the temporary
conditions in which the spirit is localized while
it responds to the spiritual forces which know
nothing of distance, but flash from life to life
instantly, as the lowly plant responds to the
cosmic forces of light and heat and magnet
ism which pervade the universe.
We might go on to consider the develop
ment of Jesus, but it is not necessary. There
was a real development, for he lived a real
human life. It was the development of one
personality throughout, a divine-human person
ality, not divine one day and human another,
not divine when working a miracle, and human
when wearied he sat on the well, but divine-
human from first to last. As time passed he
had a clearer recognition of his mission as

206 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
world-wide, and a deeper consciousness of his
nature as the Son of God forever in the bosom
of the Father, till with his resurrection and
ascension he returned to the glory which he
had with the Father from the foundation of
the world. The narratives of the virgin birth
are consonant with the preexistence of the
Logos and the development of a divine-buman
personality, though it is on his developed per
sonality rather than on a miraculous origin
that belief in his divinity depends.
In this discussion technical terms of the
ology and philosophy have been avoided, that
the great spiritual truths of Fatherhood, Son-
ship, and redemption might stand out unen
cumbered as carrying self-evidence of the
divinity of Christ. There are those who, in
view of all the facts of nature and history,
doubt, or even deny, the existence of any
power or person other than the universe.
But those opinions leave so much unex
plained that agnosticism and materialism
seem more childish than profound. To those
who believe in a personal God and in the im
mortality of the human spirit, the revelation

THE DIVINE-HUMAN PERSONALITY 207
of God's very nature as Father, Son, and
Spirit, manifested to us in personal redemp
tion and in the kingdom of Christ, which is
a new humanity, is most reasonable. It re
veals God, who otherwise might be known
only as power rather than personality, as the
God of love, eternally existing in the warmth
of affection, and known to us in tenderness,
in sympathy, in sacrifice, through which we
learn to love God because He first loved us.
The belief in the divinity of Christ is as
reasonable and as necessary now as it ever has
been. The ideal of humanity is still far from
being realized. The powers of evil are great.
The law and the spirit of Christ are still the
hope of the world. God in history and in
humanity is not a God of the past, but of the
present and the future, ever revealing himself
in Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday
and to-day and forever. The entire truth is
summed up in the phrase : " For the Life
was manifested, and we have seen the Life,
and bear witness, and declare unto you the
Eternal Life which was with the Father, and
was manifested unto us."

CHAPTER VIII.
THE SATISFACTION OF HUMANITY IN JESUS
CHRIST.
If we put beside the life of Paul the life of
any one of his great contemporaries in the
pagan world, we note a striking difference in
our estimate of them. We naturally think df
his contemporaries simply in their own per
sonality ; we cannot think of Paul without
thinking more of Christ. The life of Seneca,
for example, cannot be referred in any consid
erable degree to another person, only to the
general civilization of which he was a part.
The life of Paul is distinctly referable to Jesus
Christ. No philosopher, or moralist, or reli
gious devotee of Paul's time could have said,
after the analogy of his memorable utterance,
"That life which I now live in the flesh I live
in faith, the faith which is in (One) who loved
me and gave himself up for me." There was

THE SATISFACTION OF HUMANITY 209
no sense in which it was true that the life of
such a man was shared with or possessed by
the life of another. But within Christianity
the utterance of Paul became the familiar
language" of the growing fellowship, and at
length one of the commonplaces of human ex
perience. A constantly increasing proportion
of the human race acknowledges, gratefully
and joyfully, the fact that its life is not alto
gether its own, but that, like Paul's, it is dis
tinctly referable in its new spiritual capacity
to the indwelling life of Christ.
Jesus Christ has not imposed or enforced his
life upon men. This fact is quite as signifi
cant as the fact of his possession of humanity.
He has possessed no heart which he did not
first satisfy. He continues to possess only
because he satisfies. Satisfaction is the secret,
as it is the measure, of the power of Jesus
over the human heart. He renders satisfac
tion at points in respect to which it is other
wise impossible to obtain it, and that which
he renders is absolute and complete.
Manifestly such a fact must have a bearing

2IO THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
upon our conception of the person of Christ.
We must interpret Christ in part through that
humanity of which he is so great a present
factor, and in which he lives according to the
conscious experience of so large a portion
of the race. It would be as unscientific as
it would be unnatural to ignore the fact in
our interpretation of his person. We will
try to apprehend with some definiteness the
satisfaction of humanity in Jesus Christ, be
fore we attempt to apply the fact to the pres
ent discussion of his divinity.
Jesus Christ has satisfied humanity in its
desire to know God. Through him, and
through him alone, we know that we know
God. The certainty of our knowledge, in
things spiritual as in things natural, is
always worth more to us than the complete
ness of that knowledge. There is a sense in
which the revelation of God in Jesus Christ
is not complete, but we feel that it is sure,
which is but saying that it is morally com
plete. Other disclosures concerning God
await our entrance upon the larger realities of

THE SATISFACTION OF HUMANITY 211
our being, when once we take our place more
intelligently in the universe, but of what God
is to us here and now, and of what He must
always be to us morally, we can no longer
have a doubt. The revelation of God in
Christ matches the whole ethical nature of
man. One evidence of this assertion, and at times
a very impressive evidence, is the fact that
the Christian revelation of God has put down
that protesting element in human nature
which always attends the false conception of
God. The God whom we know through
Jesus Christ commends himself to bad men as
well as to good men. No man is able, under
that revelation, to rise up in his sin and wicked
ness, and say, in any kind of self-justification,
or with any consent whatever of his moral
nature, I protest against God. God rules in
the revelation of Jesus Christ with an abso
lute supremacy, because He rules there, not
by the authority of might, but by the author
ity of a merciful righteousness.
Another evidence, not as impressive but

212 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
specially appreciable by our time, is the fact
that the revelation of God in Christ is rectify
ing all other and minor beliefs, and bringing
them into harmony with this which is central
and supreme ; revising those which went be
fore, and revising with no less freedom those
which have followed after. Perhaps no age
of the church has been made more conscious
of this rectifying power of the Christian reve
lation of God than our own age, certainly not
because we are further in spirit from that rev
elation, but because, we think it may be fairly
said, we are more sensitive to it. It is the
Christian conception of God which is taking
high precedence in all the religious thought of
our time, which is informing its religious con
sciousness, which is reconstructing our sys
tems of belief, which is compelling a larger
and a more Christian interpretation of the
doctrine of sacred Scripture. No one can
altogether escape the power of this concep
tion, not even those who persistently refuse
its application to mooted points of Christian
doctrine. It has, at least, brought about this

THE SATISFACTION OF HUMANITY 21 3
singular result in the case of those who are
unwilling to thoroughly Christianize theology,
that it has forced them for the most part to
take refuge in the vagueness of extra-Chris
tian conjectures or beliefs.
But the certainty that we know God
through Christ has its more directly spiritual
uses. It is the chief stimulus to faith. The
desire to know God is not purely an intellec
tual desire. It is more than " the passionate
curiosity which we feel before the mystery of
the universe." It has in it the longing for
companionship, the craving for communion.
It belongs to the demand of the spiritual
nature for life, for life in continuance and in
fullness. So the soul instinctively turns to
God, "whom to know is life eternal." It is
knowledge in this sense which gives the com
municating impulse to the thought of God.
Whoever knows Him in the way of fellowship
must strive to bring others into that relation
ship to Him. The intellectual knowledge of
God may be held as a personal possession, but
the spiritual knowledge of Him, the knowledge

214 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
which admits the daily intercourse, the free
dom of communion, the walk with God, has
in it the " woe is me if I preach not the
gospel." It is this communicating impulse
which runs with such gladness and urgency
through the first Epistle of John. The whole
epistle is conceived in the spirit of the open
ing words. " That which was from the be
ginning, that which we have heard, that
which we have seen with our eyes, that which
we beheld and our hands handled concerning
the word of life (and the life was manifested,
and we have seen and bear witness, and de
clare unto you the life, the eternal life, which
was with the Father and was manifested unto
us), that which we have seen and heard, de
clare we unto you also, that ye also may have
fellowship with us : yea, and our fellowship
is with the Father and with his Son Jesus
Christ ; and these things we write that your
joy may be fulfilled." Such is the satisfac
tion which Jesus Christ has brought into the
world, and made possible to all men, and pro
foundly real to many, through his revelation
of God.

THE SATISFACTION OF HUMANITY 21 5
But there is another form of satisfaction
which he has rendered which is even deeper
and- more intense than this. Jesus Christ has
satisfied humanity in the relief which he has
brought to it under the consciousness of sin.
There is really no experience which can com
pare in intensity with the experience of sin.
The reality of sin is not to be confused with
the experience of it. The reality is universal,
the experience is unequal. Some know what
sin is by its bitter fruits in their own souls
and bodies, or in the souls and bodies of those
yet dearer to them than their own ; others
know what sin is only in principle, through
the selfishness which has some lodgment in
every heart. Now, as the experience of sin
is unequal, so the satisfaction which Christ
brings to sinning men is unequal. And no
one may argue from any knowledge which he
may have of sin, short of the experience of it,
how great that satisfaction is which Christ
can render. For he who would satisfy hu
manity under the consciousness of sin must be
able to meet it in its lowest conditions and in

2l6 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
its extreme possibilities. But the fact which
bears its constant witness to the power of
Christ is, that when the lowest conditions are
reached, and the most extreme possibilities
are realized, then the satisfaction is most com
plete. The saying of Paul is verified a thou
sand times with every day, " Where sin
abounded grace did abound more exceed
ingly." It is not to our present purpose to say how
this result is brought about. If it were, it
might not be possible. No theory is as wide
as the fact. No philosophy of the atonement
can altogether explain the process by which
the sacrifice of Christ finds its sure result in
purity and inward peace at the heart of a peni
tent and believing sinner. All that we can do
is to watch the phenomena which attend the
method of Jesus. We know that his approach
•to sin is through his own sinlessness. We can
see -that his purity wins its way where any
thing short of that would falter and fail. We
know something of the power of his passion
for sinners, — how irresistible at times it is,

THE SATISFACTION OF HUMANITY 217
working against the love of sin by "the ex
pulsive power of a new affection." And we
know that the method of Jesus is always sacri
ficial, in its deepest sense vicariously sacrifi
cial, life for life, the cross the standard and
the measure of the satisfaction which he im
parts to a sinner. So much of the process
we can see — and then the result.
There are two ways in which we can mea
sure the impression which Christ has made
upon the world as to his power over sin in the
human heart. One is that which we have just
been considering, in the case of those con
sciously delivered by him from its bondage,
and consciously changed in the disposition
and temper of their minds. The other appears
as the painful opposite to this experience, in
that false sense of security which the marvel
ous power of Christ has begotten in many
minds, against which Christianity is obliged
to put forth its constant and most serious
warnings. The power of Christ seems so
great and is so accessible that many presume
upon it. Their presumption is their acknow-

2l8 THE DIVINITY DF JESUS CHRIST
ledgment of it. The false sense of security,
which is the counterfeit of the true satisfac
tion of the soul in the actual relief from sin, is
one proof of the genuineness of that satisfac
tion. If the saving power of Jesus Christ
was not so evident, if it was not so constantly
evidenced, some men at least would not dare
to sin.
These are the two great matters of spiritual
concern about which the heart of man de
mands satisfaction, — the sure knowledge of
God, the conscious relief from sin. Jesus
Christ has given at these points a satisfaction
which is true and full.
But here comes in a new fact, which is of
the greater significance because it is not pre
cisely like those upon which we have been
dwelling. As long as the human heart was
unsatisfied, uncertain about God, unrelieved of
the sense of sin, what could it do but expend
all its energies in trying to gain some kind of
satisfaction ? What could the man do, who
would know God, but " feel after him, if haply
he might find him " ? What could the man

THE SATISFACTION OF HUMANITY 219
do, oppressed with the sin of sin, but strive by
penance and sacrifice to purge the guilt of his
soul ? As long as these great necessitous de
sires were unsatisfied, all other spiritual desires
were held back and repressed, until at times it
seemed as if they had no existence, as if the
individual man cared only for a personal and
selfish salvation. But when Christ satisfied
these imperious desires, then all other spirit
ual desires were set free and sprang forth into
newness of life. Nothing is more inspiring
than to note the growth of those new desires
which Christ called forth, and of which he
took the leadership. Christianity meant at
once, in idea, not simply the knowledge of
God and the relief from the sense of sin, but
a new society, new laws and customs, a new
literature and life, another and a better world.
The meaning of the new liberty was exempli
fied in Paul. Here was a man of essential
greatness of nature, but dwarfed in his powers,
and in danger of perishing in his narrowness.
Christ met him and set him free, and in
stantly the freed and enlarged powers of his

220 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
nature went out to the saving of the world.
It was the manifest intent of Christ that it
should always be thus with his followers. He
never intended that freedom should be an end
in itself. He never intended that any soul
should rest in the satisfaction which he had
brought to it. The Christian was to be a new
man, conscious of new and larger desires, and
set to new and larger tasks.
Jesus Christ thus declares himself in re
spect to man by the twofold sign of power, —
able to satisfy his deepest longings, and able
also to lead forth into wide activity those
latent desires of his spiritual nature which
he has set at liberty. And it is evident that
humanity responds to the spiritual leadership
of Christ, as it acknowledges the satisfaction
which it has found in him. One by one the
great leaders of humanity have been taken
up in the progress of the race, and absorbed
in the volume of its better life. Jesus Christ
has not been taken up and absorbed. His
leadership is the constant and undiminished
factor in human progress. The race gains

THE SATISFACTION OF HUMANITY 221
upon itself, but it makes no gain upon him.
It has been sententiously said that "Christian
ity is always the best thing in the world."
That may mean much or little. Christ does
not share the varying fortune of Christianity.
He is, as we know, " the same yesterday and
to-day," and as we believe, "yea and forever."
We have thus far been considering a most
singular and unique fact, which is inseparably
connected in all its parts with a person. Here
is one through whom men know God, and
know that they know Him ; through whom
they are relieved of the burden of sin, and to
whom they turn in the gratitude of their de
liverance ; and through whom they are able
to rise in their freed powers into the new joy
of sonship and go about the Father's business
on earth. The fact is the most unique as it is
the most glorious in human experience, and
offers itself as an essential aid in our attempt
to interpret the person of Jesus Christ. Hap
pily for our generation, the chief approach
to his person is not by the way of controver
sial or even speculative interest, but rather

222 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
by the way of interpretation. His personality
comes before us, not as a metaphysical prob
lem to be solved, but as an acknowledged
reality to be apprehended and interpreted.
The question which one serious-minded man
puts to another is not, How do you explain
Christ ? but, How do you understand him ?
What does he mean to you ? How do you
place him in your own life and in the life of
the world ? The interpretation of a person,
not the solution of a problem, represents the
attitude of the religious mind toward Christ,
and determines the method of our approach
to his personality.
The fact before us, which must be consid
ered as one of the sources of interpretation,
necessitates some conclusion in regard to the
person of Christ. To begin with the revela
tion which we have of God through him, —
that revelation is so peculiar that it implies
a peculiar relation on his part to God.
Christ's revelation of God was that of a new
relationship in the divine nature, namely,
fatherhood. What guarantees to us that re-

THE SATISFACTION OF HUMANITY 223
lationship ? How do we know* that it is any
thing more than an idea, an analogy taken up
out of earthly relations and carried back into
the nature of God ? To our mind, the guar
anty of the absolute and essential fatherhood
of God is the absolute and essential sonship
of Jesus Christ. In this way the assurance is
given, not in word, but in fact. When we
say that men are the sons of God, we pro
claim a comforting truth, but we do not there
by gain a better knowledge of what God is.
We do not reach through the assumption of
this relationship a sure and satisfying know
ledge of God. To get a true idea of father
hood we must have a true idea of sonship.
That idea completely and perfectly realized,
we know at once that there must be a cor
responding idea of a complete and perfect
fatherhood. The order of thought in the
statement of John seems to us natural and
rational, — "The only begotten which is in
the bosom of the Father he hath declared
him ; " a statement which accords exactly
with the utterance of Christ : " No man

224 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
knoweth the Father save the Son and he to
whom the Son willeth to reveal him." The
revealer of God the Father is naturally God
the Son/ The revelation must hold the qual
ity and substance of the life revealed. The
Nicene Creed was not written in the lan
guage of the nineteenth century, but we be
lieve that it still utters a reasonable faith :
" Light of Light, Very God of God." When
a spiritual relationship has been established
and has become familiar, we are apt to think
that it is self-evident or easily discoverable.
This thought finds constant exemplification
in the conception of the divine fatherhood.
We cannot think of God apart from it. But
until the sonship of Christ made it evident,
the world had never caught sight of it in
any clear or sufficient sense. Earthly rela
tions did not establish it, however much they
may now appear to us to suggest it. And
we are not at all sure that the conception
would abide as a fixed reality if its original
support should be withdrawn. Take away
the fact of the absolute and essential sonship

THE SATISFACTION OF HUMANITY 225
of Christ, and, though we may not deny that
fatherhood is inherent in the divine nature,
yet we do not know how we can justify the
belief to our certain consciousness. The son-
ship of Christ is the pledge of the fatherhood
of God. It is difficult to see how we can
accept the relationship, and refuse the guar
anty which Christ offers in himself. Father
hood and sonship have their abiding reality in
the spiritual world because of the eternal cor
respondence revealed in the Father and the
Son. Passing now to the relation of Jesus Christ
to the sin of the world, we find much in this
relation which points to the same general esti
mate of his person. The method of Jesus, as
we have seen, was sacrificial, ethical indeed,
but not to the exclusion or subordination of
the sacrificial. But when we begin to study
the method of Jesus, we are startled to find
that he reversed the whole course and current
of sacrifice. The great volume of sacrifice
had been pouring through innumerable chan
nels from the heart of man into the heart of

226 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
God. Christ met and overwhelmed the sacri
fices of men with the sacrifice of God. It
was the inflowing tide of the ocean staying
and returning the waters which were seeking
its bosom. The act of Jesus was an act of
sublime daring. We instinctively ask, Who
is it that dares to make this reversal ? Who
is it that bids men cease their propitiatory
rites ? Who is it that puts out the fires on
sacrificial altars, and stanches the blood of
sacrificial victims ? Who is it that carries out
the change in and through his own person,
and offers himself "the lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the world " ?
If the change wrought out through the
method of Jesus- had been from the sacri
ficial to the ethical, it would not have been
so astounding. If he had abolished not only
the system, but the principle of sacrifice, we
might say that his act represented a new
stage in the divine administration of the
world. But no, the principle was not abol
ished, it was rather acknowledged, accepted,
and obeyed. It was ratified in suffering and
death.

THE SATISFACTION OF HUMANITY 22"J
That the method of Jesus was sacrificial
seems to us to be beyond dispute, the only
question about it being this, Was it simply a
part of the pain and suffering under which
the whole creation groaneth and travaileth, or
was it more distinctly God's part in the work
of redemption ? And this is really asking in
respect to Jesus, Was his sacrifice voluntary
or involuntary ? What did he mean when he
said of his life, " I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again. This com
mandment have I received of my Father " ?
Here again it seems to us natural and rational
to interpret the sacrifice of Christ through his
relation to the nature of God, and to think
that in that relation lies the security of the
Christian conception of sacrifice. Nothing
less than the absolute assurance that the act
of Jesus Christ in reversing the course of sac
rifice was a divine act can avail to prevent a
return of the race to the old course. No eth
ical provision can satisfy men in their sins.
The correlative of sin is sacrifice. It is the
sacrificial element which makes the ethics of

228 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
Jesus permanent and universal. Confucius
may have anticipated some of the sayings of
Jesus, but the words of Jesus have gone
abroad in their saving power into all the
earth. " Whatsoever ye would that men
should do unto you, even so do ye also unto
them," is another saying when interpreted
in the light of the cross. The sacrifice of
Jesus has transfigured all human duty. "The
love of Christ constraineth us ; because we
thus judge that one died for all, therefore
all died ; and he died for all, that they which
live should no longer live unto themselves,
but unto him who for their sakes died and
rose again."
The conclusion which we reach concerning
the person of Christ, through the study of his
sacrificial method, is sustained by the further
inquiry into the ground of the assurance we
have in his unfailing development of the race.
Without doubt the trend of modern thought
and faith is toward the more perfect identi
fication of Christ with humanity. We cannot
overestimate the advantage to Christianity of

THE SATISFACTION OF HUMANITY 229
this tendency. The world must know and
feel the " hu-manity" of Jesus. But it makes
the greatest difference in result whether the
ground of the common humanity is in him or
in us. To borrow the expressive language
of Paul, was he "created" in us? or are we
"created" in him? Grant the right of the
affirmation that "there is no difference in
kind between the divine and the human ; "
allow the interchange of terms, so that one
may speak of " the humanity of God and the
divinity of man ; " appropriate the motive
which lies in these attempts to bring God and
man together, and thus to explain the person
ality of Jesus Christ, — it is still a matter of
infinite concern to us whether his home is in
the higher or lower regions of divinity. After
all, very little is gained by the transfer of
terms. Humanity is in no way satisfied with
its degree of divinity. We are still as anxious
as ever to rise above ourselves. And in this
anxiety we want to know concerning our great
helper whether he has in himself anything
more than the possible increase of a common

23O THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
humanity. What is his power to lift, and how
long may it last ? Shall we ever reach his
level, attain to his measure, become as divine
as he, or does he have part in the absolute
and infinite ? This question may seem remote
in result, but it is everything in principle.
The immanence of Christ has its present
meaning and value because of his transcen
dence. " Our fortunes — shall I say it ? " —
we borrow the words of Dr. Dale in his " Lec
tures on the Ephesians," — " were identified
with the fortunes of Christ. In the divine
thought and purpose we were inseparable
from him. Had we been true and loyal to
the divine idea, the energy of Christ's right
eousness would have drawn us upward to
height after height of goodness and joy, until
we ascended from this earthly life to the
larger powers and loftier services and richer
delights of other and diviner worlds ; and still,
through one golden age of intellectual and
ethical and spiritual growth after another, we
should have continued to rise towards Christ's
transcendent and infinite perfection. But we

THE SATISFACTION OF HUMANITY 23 1
sinned ; and as the union between Christ and
us could not be broken without the final and
irrevocable defeat of the divine purpose, as
separation from Christ meant for us eternal
death, Christ was drawn down from the serene
heavens to the shame and sorrow of the con
fused and troubled life of our race, to pain, to
temptation, to anguish, to the cross, and to the
grave, and so the mystery of his atonement
for our sin was consummated." Such an
identification of the race with Jesus Christ
not only declares the meaning of the Incarna
tion and the Atonement, but sets forth the
ground of that hope for the race, which is
cherished by the Christian heart, that human
ity will yet find its full perfection in the human
— because the divine — Christ.
In concluding this discussion of the satisfac
tion of humanity in Jesus Christ, the question
reverts for the moment to his own conscious
ness in respect to himself and his work. Did
he anticipate such a result ? Was he con
scious of that within himself which must have
its correspondence in the return of the human

232 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST
heart to him in confidence and trust ? The
answer to this question is found in the re
corded meditation of Jesus, among the most
unquestioned of his words, in which, as he
contemplates his union with the Father, he
contemplates also the meaning of it to the
wearied and troubled soul of man. The spirit
of prayer passes into that of invitation as
he communes with his own heart, and he an
ticipates in his own soul the utterance of
that compassion which was to break from his
lips. "At that time Jesus answered and said, I
thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and hast revealed them
unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight.
" All things are delivered unto me of my
Father ; and no man knoweth the Son but the
Father, neither knoweth any man the Father
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son
willeth to reveal him.
" Come unto me, all ye that labor and are

THE SATISFACTION OF HUMANITY 233
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn of me ; for I am
meek and lowly in heart ; and ye shall find
rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy
and my burden is light."