by the closeness of the relation Indicated: It Is because it was His own Son whom He gave that the love of God to us was so splendidly manifested In the gift of Jesus, who, we are further told, was for this gift " sent forth from " Himself (Gal 4^, i^aTriffrsdev) . This closeness of relation, amounting really to Identity, is somewhat oddly suggested by the argument in Rom 5^"^°. Here we are told that scarcely for a righteous man would one die : but God commends His love to us — or as It Is strengthenlngly put. His own love to us — ■ by dying for us while we were yet sinners? No, — by Christ's dying for us while we were sinners! But how does God commend His oivn love for us — by someone else's dying for us? Obviously the relation between Christ and God Is thought of as so intimate that Christ's dying Is equivalent to God Himself dy- ing. And so, we read further that this Christ Is God's Son (v. 10) and His dying for us Is to such an extent the pledge of God's love that It carries with It the promise and potency of all good things (vv. 10, 11). With this emphasis on the Sonship of Christ and its high significance It Is a little strange that the correla- tive Fatherhood of God is brought so 'the Father' httle Into Immediate connection with it. The explanation Is doubtless again that Paul prefers the title ' Lord ' to express our Lord's Trinitarian relations. The Fatherhood of God Is In any event not very frequently adverted to by Paul, and Is very seldom brought Into Immediate relation with Jesus. Indeed God Is expressly called the Father of Jesus Christ only In those few passages in which He is spoken of as " the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom I5^ 2 Cor i^ ii^^ Eph i^ [Col
The Corroboration of Paid 253
i^]). In a number of other passages in which God is called ' the Father ' the Trinitarian relation seems in mind (Rom 6^ i Cor 8^ 15^ Gal I^ Eph 2^« 6-^ i Thess i\ 2 Thess 1^,1 Tim i^, 2 Tim i", Titus i*). In the other instances of the application of the name of Father to God the reference is rather to His relation to us (Rom i^ [8^^], I Cor I^ Gal i* [4^], Eph i2 46, Phil i2 2" 4-0, Col i2, I Thess i^ 3"-^ 2 Thess i^ [2var. lec] ^iQ^ Phikm 3, cf. 2 Cor I^ Eph i^^ 3^* 5"^ Col i^" 3^'^). In only three passages are the correlatives ' Son ' and ' Father ' brought together (i Cor 15-^ Gal 4^"^ Col i^^), and in no one of these Instances is it clear that the term ' Father ' is employed in sole reference to Jesus, the unique ' Son.' In one of them we are told that the Father has delivered us out of the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of 'the Son of His love' (Col i^^), where there seems certainly a reference to God's Fatherly relation not only to Jesus ' the Son of His love ' but also to us who are by His grace introduced into a similar relation to God with Christ's own. So, in another, we are told that because we are sons God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father (Gal 4^) — where it is quite clear that ' Father ' has relation to us, too, as the brethren of Christ. Even in the remaining instance, where we are told that at the end Christ shall deliver up the King- dom to God even the Father, and even ' the Son ' Him- self shall be subjected to Him, that God may be all In all (i Cor 15^^), it is by no means obvious that the term Father may not again embrace with Christ all those who have been brought by Christ into the King- dom. We may see in all three instances that the
254 The Designations of Our Lord
peculiar relation of the ' Father ' and * Son ' lies at the basis of the thought: but this peculiar relation does not in any of them absorb the whole thought. It seems to be treated by Paul as a matter too well under- stood to require particular insistence upon. He could count on his readers, when he spoke of Jesus as ' the Son of God,' understanding without further elucidation that he was thereby attributing to Him a unique re- lation, including proper deity along with the Father, while our co-sonship was to be realized only in and through Him.
Another method employed by Paul to Indicate the relation of Jesus to God is the presentation of Him
as the * image of God' (2 Cor 4*, Col Christ All 1,. TT • .u • en A
that God Is ^ )• ^^ '^ ^^^ image of God, we are