fractice in many cases largely determines its form, n the first place, let us observe that there are, in the NT writers, certain moral premises or assump- tions which are inherited from the OT, and have been accentuated by the teaching of Christ. The end of man is union or intercourse with God, and sin impedes it. Men are in a position of enmity — sin dwells in them — the wrath of God at present abides upon them— they have not passed from death to life. And they have no power of their own to break loose from this position ; the old lamentations of the Psalmist over their moral in- capacity are taken up and confirmed by the authority of the apostolic writers. However great and sincere man's desire may be to attain to virtue
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anJ to holiness, there is an impediment. Tlie law did little to improve the position ; it killeil instead of reviving ; it displayed the real nature of sin, so far as man was capable of appreciating it, but it {rave him no power to express his knowledge in his life. The sacrilices and other ceremonies, which were part of the legal dispensation, could never take away sin. They only symbolized a purification whicii they could never convey.
In all this the apostolic writers are using partly ideas which are inlierited, partly ideas which are original in them. The sense of failure and ruin appears, as we have said, in the OT, but in the Epistles it is more precise in itself, and its causes and range are more clearly known. The dis- abilities thus described are removed by the work of Christ. And it is in consequence of this that the dogmatic basis of the Christian practice is so firmly and carefully fixed. The views of man's condition, with which the apostles start, are such that the first thing to be done in order to attain morality is to remove the impediment which at present bars the way. To describe the advantages or the beauties of moral life — to develop a system of new and attractive moral ideas, is secondary to this ; to have made it the first interest would have been to leave mankind in the position of the law. It was power they wanted, more even than know- ledge. Christ in His teaching had concentrated attention increasingly upon Himself ; the central feature of the discourses recorded by St. Jolm had been the presentation of Himself as satisfying in various ways the desires and tlie needs of man. Thus the apostles had general guidance as to the way in which they were to deal with life, as well as particular instructions for certain occasions. Christ had not, so far as we can gather from His recorded teaching, entered into any detailed and precise account of the ellect of His work in the moral world. It is this that the apostolic writers undertake.
In this respect it is possible to observe develop- ment and the presence of individual tendencies of thought. At first, the sum of their preaching; seems to be contained in the phrase, Jesus is Lord. The resurrection, of whicli all are witnesses, is the proof of this ; and the elFect is that men have repentance and remission of their sins. The Holy Spirit has been poured out upon them, and they have thus gained various moral and spiritual powers. They are not left, as before, to struggle vainly ; a new spring of new lift has entered into the world, arising from the person of the risen and ascended Lord. St. Paul develops this position with great fulness in his Epistles. ' If Christ be not nsen,' he says (1 Co 15"), 'ye are yet in your sins.' And this position is elsewhere described as the state ' under law,' the condition of inability and partial knowledge which prevailed in the earlier dispensation (tjal 4'"'-). 'There is no ques- tion that to St. Paul's mind the possibility of moral achievement dc|>ends absolutely on the person and work of the Son of (iod. And we can go further than this. The death of Christ, whicli was the means of removing the barrier of separa- tion between us and God, was of the nature of a sacrifice — a sacrifice of propitiation (IXauT-ripioi', cf. Ro .3^). Thus the ancient ellorts at reconciliation were made efi'ectual. In similar fashion St. John represents Jesus Clirist the righteous as a pro|)itia- tion (l\ac)xit) for our sins atict for the sins of the whole world (1 Jn 2'-). The author of the Kp. to the Hebrews dwells at length upon the unique import- ance of the priesthood of Clirist, and emphasizes the effect of it upon man's relations with God. St. John, the cast of whose mind is more contempla- tive than argumentative, sets forth as the essential condition of real Oiristian life, the confession that VOL. I. — w
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh (2Jn', cf. 1 Jn5'). His characteristic interest is in the truth of the incarnation considered as a fact in liistory ; his treatment of all the other points arises out of this. The others, not less certain than St. John iis to the nature of Christ, have given more sjiace to the discussion of the redemptive acts of Christ. But, in spite of difl'erences in the nature and order of the presentation, one salient fact appears on the very surface of the NT, namely, tliat moral life depends upon the acts and the nature of Christ , in other words, that the true basis for morality is theological. 'The controversy over the princiiilei of faith and works, which occupies so large a ]ilace in St. Paul, has no meaning apart from this ; it arises, and is of practical importance, just because it affects the relations of God and man. In like manner, as has been already implied in oui remarks upon St. John's Gospel, the controlling will of God in history becomes an element in man's moral life ; and in this connexion we have, of course, the Pauline doctrine of predestination. Here, again, we are dealing, not with a mere philosophical speculation, but with a series of facts which must be taken into consideration in any valid account of actual practical life.