16 Cf. Paul Feine, Jesus Christus und Paulus, 1902, pp. 165 seq.: " If Jesus undertook to perform the redemptive acts which were in the O. T. hoped for from God's action, so in Paul, in correspondence with the advance of the redemptive work which lay in Christ's death and resurrection, there emerges even more strongly the idea of the divine activity of Christ. Paul applies to Christ words which in the O. T. refer to God,— 2 Thess i^.^ seq., 12 j Cor i^i 2^^ 10^2, 2 Cor 3I6 8^1 iqIt, Rom 10I6, Phil 2^0 seq.^ Eph 48. i Thess 46 is doubtful. One of the most commonly employed designations of Christ on the part of the Apostle is 6 xupio<i^ the name in which the Lxx. prevailingly rep- resents the unpronounced n"in\ It is not merely in the letters to the Thessalonians uncertain in many passages whether God or Christ is intended by xupio<;' even in i Cor we still meet with a multi- form vacillation in the reference of xuptog to Christ and to God. Divine honors are given to Christ in 2 Thess i^ seq.^ Rom lo^^, Phil 2^**. In 2 Tim 4^^ a doxology such as elsewhere is given to God is given to Him. One of the designations of Christians is ' those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ' (i Cor i-; similarly Rom lo^-eeq.^ 2 Tim 2--). Christ, after He has ascended above all the heavens (Eph 4^"), sits at the right hand of God as sharer in the divine disposition of grace to believers (Rom g^^seq.)^ and has the
The Corroboration of Paul 233
I Th 5^ Tit 3®) . The term ' Lord ' as applied to Jesus, therefore, although ascribing a certain divinity to Him, appears to fall short of attributing deity to Him in its full sense. It is the appropriate designation of a sort of secondary divinity, a middle being standing in some sense between man and God. Accordingly we read that while " the head of every man is Christ," "the head of Christ is God" (i Cor 11^), and that " if we are Christ's," so " Christ is God's " ( i Cor f^) . The whole redemptive work of Christ is represented as the working of God through Christ, as terminating ul- timately on God, and as redounding specifically to His glory (Rom 3^^ s^^ 8^ 2 Cor s'^ Eph 16.12,1449 ^19^ Col i^^, etc.). When, then, the redemptive work is completed the * Lordship ' which has been conferred upon Christ ceases also, so that His very sovereignty appears as a derived sovereignty delegated for a pur- pose (i Cor 15-^'^^). God is appropriately spoken of therefore distinctly as the " God of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Eph i", cf. Rom 15^, 2 Cor i^ ii^ Eph
power to subject all things to Himself (Phil 3-^). Every knee shall bow to Him in the realms of the heavenly and the earthly and the underearthly (Phil 2^^). He is Lord over every lordship and power and might and dominion and every name that is named (Eph isoseq.^ Col 2^^). The O. T. day of the Lord, the day of Judgment, has be- come His day (i Thess 5-, 2 Thess i'^'^ 2-, i Cor i8seq.)_ Christ is to carry out the world-judgment when He appears accompanied by His holy angels (i Thess 3!^, 2 Thess i^'i°). All must appear before His throne (2 Cor 5^°). . . . The Apostle passes back and forth with references to God and Christ. Is 45'^, which in accord with its original meaning is referred to God in Rom 14^^, is applied to Christ in Phil 2^°. In Rom 146-12 the Apostle begins with the words ' Who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God,' etc. (cf. i Cor lo^^). Then comes the beautiful declaration that we belong to the Lord in life and death ; on which, however, he grounds the warning to judges that we must all stand before the judgment seat of God."
234 The Designations of Our Lord
i^), a locution which, while intimating that the relation
subsisting between Him and Jesus is peculiarly close,
yet equally clearly intimates that it is not a relation of
equality but of the nature of divine master and subject
servant."
That a problem is raised by the passages of this class
is obvious enough. But it is equally obvious that this
problem cannot be solved by the attribu- Its Impossibility • r j. • j j* • v ^
'th P 1 '^ ° ^ certam secondary divmity to
Christ, and much less by supposing that He has merely a sort of divinity communicated to Him quoad nos, while in His essential nature only a creature. The strict and strongly asseverated monotheism of Paul forbids the former assumption : his definite ascription to Jesus of an eternal divine form of existence ante- cedent to His earthly career excludes the latter. Noth- ing could exceed the clearness and emphasis of Paul's