" CI. Lightfoot, Biblical Euayt, pp. 145-158. t Cf. Domer, Person of Chritt, Div. L voL L p. 4.
IXCAKXATIOX, TUE
IXCAKXATION, THE
■1G5
tlie birth of a uninue man, but as a iiionientous event in the eternal life of God : a nmnilVslation, a fortlicornin^', a mission, a redemjitive movement, a visitation, a great descent. In the I. the self- same Person wiio had pre-existed in the form of God, who had created and sustained in being the universe of things visible and invisible, ' descended ' from heaven (Lph 4'°), and submitted Himself to a fresh series of experiences in the sphere of human life and history, without ceasing to be in essence what He ever had been, the Son or Word of the Father. He and none other lay in the cradle, grew in wisdom and stature, was tempted and troubled, suflered, died and lay in the grave, rose again, and a-scended to the riglit hand of God. He is 'the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever' (He 13'). It follows that in virtue of this unity of Person, sub- sisting in two dili'crent states, heavenly and earthly, both human and divine attributes are ascribed to Christ, and may be rightly interchanged. An instance of this ' cross and circulatory ' mode of speech (technically called communicatiu ic/ioiiuiliim) niuv be found in 1 Co 2", and possibly also in Jn3".
The belief of the first Christians as to the real nature of the I. may, in fact, be gathered rather from the sirinifirance aitaclied to Christ's irorlc than from express statements in Scripture a rout Ills person. All the NT writers are at on." in ascril)ing to the appearance and work of Jesus Christ an element ol Jinality. St. I'etcr and St. James rellect to some extent the current Messianic belief in the nearness of Christ's return to judgment (1 P 4'-", Ja O""). The 'revelation' of Christ is tlie goal of human hope and expectation (1 P 1"). St. Paul teaches that Christ is the supreme object of faith ; religion consists ultimately in a right relation of the soul to Him (Ro 'A'-" etc.). Christ is a Being in whom souls are mystically incorporated by baptism. They sliare sacramentally the acts, experiences, and suHerings of His earthly life (Ro &"■, Gal 2-'», Col 2'-, Eph 2»- « S**). They are ' in Christ' (Ko 8' 12», Gal I-- 3-«-^, Eph 1' 2''», Pli 1' etc.) 'and Christ in them' (Ro 8'", Gal 2-'" etc.); their souls and bodies are His temple (2 Co 1,'i').
The writer of Hebrews regards Christianity mainly under one a.spect — as the linal religion. Christ as 'Son' of God brings to man a linal authoritative message from God. The religion which is based on His revelation and finished work has the characteristic of 'perfection' (rtXtluffij). It establishes that unimpeded fellowship between God and man which was imi>ossible under the Levitical system (7"). Christianity is ' the better hope whereby we draw near to God ' (7"). In this verse we have the ' dogmatic centre ' of the Epistle. To St. John Christianity is the absolute religion — the linal disclosure of (iod, revealing the possibility- of perfect fellowship between God and man. It is final because it rests on the fact of a real I. of (iod. 1 Jn 'is probably the linal interpretation of the whole series of divine revelations. ... It declares that in the presence of Christ there has Iwen given and there will be given that knowledge of (!od for which man was made, issuing in fellowship which is realized here in the Christian society, and which reaches to the source of all life." The collective testimony of the apostles, viewed as a whole, irresistibly proves the power of the impression which Christ's life and i>ersonality had made. No doubt they varied in their power of analyzing that inipre.Hsion. IJut the doctrine of the true Deity of Christ is the neci'ssary inference from all that thev ascribed to Him, ami taught concerning Ilim.
The august dignity and glory of the event corre- sponds to the im|)ortanco of the purj>o9e it was designed to serxo : the consummation of the • Wtrtcott, Tht EpUOeto/St. John, r "111. vol.. II.— 30
universe, the disclosure of God, the resloialicm of humanity.
1. The cosmic significance of the I., and the view that it was eternally purposed iiide]ieii(lcntly of the fact of human sin, seems indeed to he imjilied in such passages as Eph l'"'", and possiblj- He 2'" — pa.-.sages which seem to suggest that the I. of the Son was an event predestined before the foundation of the world. Tm universe may well, so far a( human reason can ;adge, have been framed with a view to the I. of its Creator. When, however, the
Question is rai.sed whether this event was pre- estined in view of man's foreseen fall, scriptural testimony faUs us, and we are left to the considera- tion whether it is a priori probable that God would have made His highest gift to His creatures contingent on human transgres.sion. On the other hand, the evolutionary movement, whether in jiliysical nature or in human history, which tends towards a 'fulness of time' (Gal 4', cf. Eph l'*"), seems unaccountably to fail unless crowned by the appearance of One who Ls the tlower of human kind, and whose coming marks a climax in revelation. But here, again, we have to fall back on a priori reasonin''.