112 THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS
voluntary manifestation of the person to whom it refers. " Shewed Himself to angels " would not be a correct translation, but would be a true paraphrase of the meaning of the words.
Fresh light now begins to shine on these familiar words. They tell us not merely that during the earthly life of Jesus He was "seen of angels," but that the manifestation of the Son of God in the flesh was a revelation to angels as well as to men. The " mystery of godliness," great as it is, becomes even greater and more wonderful if we regard the incarnation as not only the unveiling of the Son of God to man, but also as the revealing of Him to the angelic world. It may, perhaps, be that when that Divine Babe lay in Mary's lap at Bethlehem, when that perfect child lived as a boy at Nazareth, when He reached His holy and spotless manhood, and spent His days in going about " doing good," it may be that in all the scenes and events of that wondrous life, in the unutterable loveliness of His character, in the words such as " never man spake," in those miracles of love and pity and power that He wrought, in His bitter anguish and sorrow in Gethsemane, in the awful shame and ignominy of His cross, in His glorious resurrection from the dead, angels as well as men for the first time beheld the face of their Creator and Lord, and that a thrill of wonder and of adoration ran through all the courts of heaven as the Mystery of all mysteries was " manifested in the flesh," and was " seen of angels."
Had the angels ever seen God before ? " To stand within God's searching sight and shrink not, but with calm delight, to live, and look on Him ! " Had the angels ever done this ? Do we not read of the seraphim, with their six wings, covering their faces therewith, abashed at the presence of Deity ? To see God ! May not this have been the lawful ambition of the angels ? May not this account for the tremendous interest which the incarna- tion seems to have caused in their ranks, which makes another Apostle say, " Which things the angels desire to look into," and which also leads St. Paul here to record, as one of the great parts of the incarnation mystery, that " he was seen of angels " ?
^ The stainless sons of light, the high intelligences, the swift ministers of the will of God, had some new message borne in upon them by the Incarnation. If we think in the forms of the New Testament, we may boldly say that the angels could not know the
I TIMOTHY III. i6 113
glory of being humbled, or the new power that would be gained by laying power aside. When the Son of God emptied Himself and became a servant, what a mystery there was ! and when He returned as a Captain of salvation, bringing with Him the first of a new world of ransomed men, how that mystery was justified ! ^
IV.
"Preached among: the nations."
1. The revelation of God that was made to angels by seeing Christ is made to the world by the preaching of Christ. What they learnt by the eye "the nations" learn by the ear, by the hearing of faith. Indeed, there was no other way of making Christ known to the nations of the world at the time St. Paul wrote these words than by preaching Him. When this First Epistle to Timothy was written, the New Testament, as we possess it, was not in existence ; a few only of the earlier Epistles, and possibly one or two of the Gospels, had been written, and were in circulation within a limited area in the Christian Church, but these were all. The great mass of the Gentile world knew noth- ing of either Gospels or Epistles, and in the absence of any written record of the revelation God had made of Himself in His Son, there remained only the spoken word as the messenger of the incarnation and the cross. This accounts, in part at all events, for the high place preaching held in the primitive Church and among the Apostles of Jesus Christ. They set supreme value on their work as preachers, that is, on their proclaiming — for this is what the word " preaching " really means — Christ as His heralds, going before Him and announcing everywhere His cross and His coming Kingdom.
2. But stress is laid upon the universal reference of the preach- ing. Christ was preached, not to one nation, but among the nations (Jews included), without distinction. This was being realized as historical fact. He was being proclaimed without respect to national distinction, without respect to social condition, without respect to culture, with respect simply to the fact that all were sinners and in need of salvation. Following upon His
1 W. M. Macgregor, Jesus Christ the Son of God, 235, I THESS.-HEB. — 8
114 THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS
having taken the common nature, and His having wrought out the common salvation, the message of salvation was being conveyed with the utmost impartiality. This was part of the mystery which was then being disclosed, and which the unprejudiced agreed in calling great. It was impressive to the early Church to witness the proclamation of a world-wide salvation.