1 D. C. A. Agnew, The Theology of Consolation, 62.
GAL. II. 20 359
to Him ! The heart sickens when one thinks how far one comes short, but then we are dead to sin and self, i.e. as regards guilt and freedom from condemnation. And we are commanded to "reckon" ourselves so, and "alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord," i.e. through Christ living in us. Thus Christ is made unto us sanctification as well as wisdom and righteousness and redemption ; and we are complete in Him.^
^ Paul's real claim to be enrolled in the list of mystics is found in his normal experience. Over against a single experience of being " caught up into Paradise " in ecstasy, in the first stages of his Christian period, we can put the steady experience of living in heavenly places in Christ Jesus which characterized his mature Christian period. Over against the inrushing of a foreign power, which made his lips utter words which did not come from himself, we can put the calm but mighty transfiguration of personality which was slowly wrought in him during the fourteen years following his ecstasy: "With unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image, from glory to glory {i.e. gradually) by the Spirit of the Lord." We must be very modest in making assertions about Paul's " central idea." But it is well on safe ground to say that his " Gospel " cannot be understood if one loses sight of this truth ■ The Christian must re-live Christ's life, by having Him formed within, as the source and power of the new life. The autobio- graphical passages give the best illustration which we have of this normal mystical life. The earliest passage which we have comes out of the great contest with legalism. His opponents say that this salvation comes through obedience to a divinely mediated and time-honoured " system " of rites and ordinances. He says : " Christ lives in me " ; "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus " ; " God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba, Father." *
* Memorials of Rev. F, Paynter, 65.
• Rufus M. Jones, Studies in Mystical Religion, 12.
The Mission of the Son.
Literature.
Alford (H.), Quebec Chapel Sermons, vi. 88.
Barry (A.), Some Lights of Science on the Faith, 87.
Body (G.), The Life of Justification, 31.
Butcher (C. H.), The Sound of a Voice that is Still, 69
Church (R. W.), Village Sermons, 2nd Ser., 29.
Conn (J.), The Fulness of Time, 38.
Cunningham (W.), Sermons, 393.
Eyton (R.), Tlie Apostles' Creed, 52.
Hadden (R. H.), Sermons and Memmr, 22.
Hall (C. R.), Advent to Whitsunday, 39.
„ (R.), Worhs, vi. 302. Holland (H. S.), On Behalf of Belief, 187. Lamb (R.), School Sermons, ii. 400. La Touche (E. D.), Christian Certitude, 45. Lawlor (H. J.), Thoughts on Belief and Life, 13. Liddon (H. P.), Christmastide in St. Paul's, 74.
„ „ Advent in St. Paul's, 115.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions of Holy Scripture : 2 Corinthians, Galatians,
etc., 126. Nixon (W.), Christ All and in All, 175. Palmer (E. R.), The Development of Revelation, 267. Pearse (M. G.), The Gospel for the Day, 222. Potts (A. W.), School Sermons, 94. Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, vii. 329.
Salmon (G.), Sermons Preached in Trinity College Chapel, Dublin, 17. Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxx. (1884), No. 1815. Trench (R. C), Westminster and Other Sermons, 1. Waddell (R.), Behold the Lamb of God I 95. Waggett (P. N.), Our Profession, 95. Walker (W. L.), The True Christ, 49. Watkinson (W. L.), The Ashes of Roses, 268. Watson (J.), The Life of the Master, 2. Christian World Pulpit, viii. II (G. Hester) ; xvii. 150 (Q. Bain ton) ;
ixv. 56 (J. Monro Gibson) j Ixxix. 120 (E. Griffith Jonea). Clergyman's Magazine, 3rd. Ser., xiv. 339 (W. Burrows). Expositor, 2nd. Ser., ii. 292 (G. Matheson). Preacher's Magazine, xix. 536 (J. T. L. Maggs).
36»
The Mission of the Son.
When the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem them which were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. — Gal. iv. 4, 5.
1. It is not wonderful that God should love us and care for us. for, though we are so far from Him and so unworthy, He made us : and we know that " God is love." But though it is natural that God should love the world that He made — though we might be quite sure that He would love it — the manner in which He showed His love to us, and the length to which He carried His love, is indeed past wonder. It is not merely His love, but the way in which His love took the world by surprise, that makes us rejoice.
This is the great wonder of the love of God — not that He loved mankind, but that He loved them beyond this world ; not that He redeemed them, but that He came Himself to redeem them by becoming one of them. This was the awful surprise which burst upon the world when first it was told among men that their God and Maker had come down to earth, and had been born of a woman, and had lived a poor man's life, and had died the death of a slave. No wonder that it startled Jew and Gentile, Greek and barbarian — startled some to love and adoration, startled others to unbelief and mockery. Some were drawn to repentance and a holy life, while others were driven away in shuddering fear at so awful a surprise, at so near a God, No wonder that those who did not receive it counted it as foolishness. It must be so unless one sees in it the inconceivable and infinite love of God. It must be a stumbling-block to every one who thinks what it is, that God should be made Man to give everlasting life to men, unless it is to him the spring and source of all that is deepest in his thankful- ness, most serious in his faith, most transporting in his joy.