As recognised oy St. Paul, but more conspicu- ously, Christ claims in Mt 7"*- 13"'- 16" 25»'-", and in the parallel passages, that in the great day He will sit upon a throne and pronounce judgment on all men ; while the angels do His blading as His servants. This teachmg raises Christ as much above the rest of mankind as the judge who sits in dignity on the bench is above the criminal who stands at the bar.
3. Another marked type of NT teaching is found in the Fourth Gospel, which a unanimous tradi- tion, reaching back to the 2nd cent., and supported by powerful internal evidence, attributes to the beloved Apostle John. In it we have teaching of Christ given, apparently, not as in the Synoptic Gospels to the many, but to a favoured few, and of the utmost value.
Christ is here represented as making for Him- self claims practically the same as those recorded in the Synoptic Gospels. In Jn ?"• ** He bids all the thirsty to come to Him and drink ; and de- clares that they who believe in Him shall them- selves become fountains of living water. He calls Himself in 8" 9» ' the light of the world ' : and in ion. n • t),g jrood Shepherd ' of the ' one floci<.' In 10" He asserts, 'I and the Father are one.' In 11" He calls Himself 'the Resurrection and the Life ' ; and in 14" claims to he the only way through which men can come to God.
In close harmony with the Epistles of St. Paul and the .SjTioptic Gospels, Christ speaks of Himself in Jn 5»» 9»» \\* as the Son of God. The same title Is in ch. !"• " given to Him by the Baptist and by Nathanael. In ch. 3"' " Christ claims to be the oniybegotten Son. The same tens is found in 1 Jn 4*, and a similar one in Jn !"• "■.
In Jn 5" Christ asserts that 'the Father ha« given all the judgment to the Son, in order that all men may honour the Son according as they honour the Father ' ; and that an ' hour cometh when all that are in the graves will hear his voice and will go forth, they who have done the good things to a resurrection of life, and they who have done the bad things to a resurrection of judgment.'
In Jn IC 5'" the enemies of Christ assert that by speaking of God as His 'own Father,' Christ was making Himself God, or equal to God. This equality is involved in 5" ' whatever things he does, these also the Son does in like manner ' ; in 14* ' he that hath seen me hath seen the Father,' and in ch. 16" ' all things, so many as the F'ather hath, are mine.'
In close harmony with Col 1", we read in Jn 1' ' all things througn his agency came into being, and apart from him came into being nothing whicli hath come into being.' This careful repetition of a word denoting to begin to be is a marked contrast to v.' ' in the beginning was tlie Word.' So v." ' the world through his agency came into being.'
In Jn 20*, in view of the pierced hands and side of the Risen One, Thomas accosts Him as ' my Lord and my God.' This supreme honour Christ accepts. It is given to Him, in express words, by the evangelist in Jn 1', where we road ' the Word was God.' The assertion immediately following, that through His agency all things were made, compels us to accept this term as involving the infinite attributes of deity.
Similar honour is paid to Christ in the Book of Revelation. In Rev 5° we see Him in the midst of the throne as a slain lamb, an object of worship and lofty praise to those nearest tlie throne, and to every creature in heaven and earth and sea. Yet the interpreter angel twice (19'" 22') refuses worship from John, saying, ' worship God.'
ii. It is now evident that throughout the various documents and types of thought contained in NT we have one harmonious picture of the dignity of Christ. In the Epistles of St. Paul we noticed the profound reverence with which he bowed before Christ as in the presence of One far greater than himself or the greatest of men, and we found a complete counterpart to this reverence in the lofty claims which in each of the four Gospels He is recorded to have made for Himself. In all these documents the title Son of God is claimed by Christ, or is given to Him, as a title of unique dignity, and as noting a unique relation to God. The meaning of this title is determined by the Parable of the Vineyard recorded in each of the Synoptic Gospels, by the term only-begotten Son in the Fourth Gosiiel and in the Ist Ep. of St. John, by St. Paul's appeal to the love of God manifested in the gift or His own Son to save men, and by the contrast in the Epistle to the Hebrews between Moses, a faithful servant, and Christ the Son of God. This agreement, in writers so various, leaves no room to doubt that, as matter of historical fact, this title, and in this sense, was actually given to Christ by His earliest followers. It is equally clear that they looked uimn Him as the designated Judge of the world. We have also seen that the two greatest writers of NT looked upon Christ as earlier than the universe, and as the Agent through whom it was created. One writer