^ Soon after he had announced to his family his decision to take orders, he wrote to a cousin : —
" ' What are the little things we fight for,' says Archbishop Leighton, ' compared with the great things of God ? ' There is so much to do in the Church about which no one could doubt, that it little matters differing on points which concern no man's relation to his Maker. There is no point I feel stronger on than the divinity of Christ, being convinced that with it Christianity must live or perish. If the Saviour of men were not identical
io8 THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS
with their Creator, I see no help in the Cross for the suffering millions of the world. The doctrine of doctrines that men need to learn and take to heart is this— that the only thing that alienates them from God is sin — that each man among us has a right, by his brotherhood with Christ, to claim his position as a child of God — and that there is nothing but his own disobedience that keeps him from his true position." ^
II.
"Justified in the spirit."
"Spirit" in the phrase "justified in the spirit," does not mean the Holy Spirit, as the Authorized Version would lead us to suppose. " In spirit " in this clause is in obvious contrast to "in flesh" in the previous clause. And if "flesh" means the material part of Christ's nature, " spirit " means the immaterial part of His nature, and the higher portion of it. His flesh was the sphere of His manifestation : His spirit was the sphere of His justification. Thus much seems to be clear. But what are we to understand by His justification ? And how did it take place in His spirit ? These are questions to which a great variety of answers have been given ; and it would be rash to assert of any one of them that it is so satisfactory as to be conclusive. Christ's human nature consisted, as ours does, of three elements — body, soul, and spirit. The body is the flesh spoken of in the first clause. The soul as distinct from the spirit is the seat of the natural affections and desires. The spirit is the seat of the religious emotions; it is the highest, innermost part of man's nature ; the sanctuary of the temple. It was in His spirit that Christ was affected when the presence of moral evil distressed Him. This spiritual part of His nature, which was the sphere of His most intense suffering, was also the sphere of His most intense joy and satisfaction. As moral evil distressed His spirit, so moral innocence delighted it. In a way that none of us can measure, Jesus Christ knew the joy of a good conscience. The challenge which He made to the Jews, "Which of you convicteth me of sin ? " was one which He could make to His own conscience. ^ Edith Sichel, The Life wnd Letters of Alfred Ainger, 78.
I TIMOTHY III. i6 109
It had nothing against Him and could never accuse Him. He was justified when it spoke, and clear when it judged. Perfect Man though He was, and manifested in weak and suffering flesh, He was nevertheless "justified in the spirit."
That is, confessedly, a unique fact, for flesh and spirit in man have not kept pace. The more nobly a man conceives of the uses of life the farther is he from self-approval. The savage who has brought down a deer, and lies at night beside his fire with appetite extinguished, has little more to ask for, because his inner life has scarcely begun. There are men amongst ourselves whose mind is like a shut-up house ; they never go into themselves, but live out of doors, and are content if their companions are pleased. But when a man is alive, and the world is great about him, and the sense of God is deep, he gets such views of what life was meant to be that all he attains looks paltry. He sees how every common task might grow to be a true Divine service, how speech might be a means of grace and cheer; but when thought is turned to fact the glamour has all gone. Thus it is that, judging by any worthy standard, no man was ever able to justify himself in spirit ; for that would mean that he had answered in every par- ticular to God's thought of him; that, without diminution, he had conveyed the very influence he was meant to convey ; that no sloth of his nature, no negligence, no shadow of inconsistency or pretence had hindered the just effect of his life. So we are bound to pause with reverent amazement before the great fact which this clause expresses. In the depth of Christ's spirit, where He realized the reason of His being in the world and all that hung upon Him, He was justified. He had no superficial standards, yet with the fullest apprehension of all He had to do, He declared that He had done it ; in clear sight of all the Christ must be, He professed that He was the Christ of God. The flesh which, in other men, has lagged behind the swift sights and desires of the spirit was in Him a fitting ally.