sphere of God's fatherly love and rule in heart* truthfully submitted to Him through His Son : o( His gracious, unbounded self-communication for the blessing and enricliment of His people. This doctrine of Jesus as to the divine Fatherhood, how- ever, is not oft'hand to be identified, as it so often is, with the doctrine of the paternal love of God to all men, which has for its correlate the doctrine of a universal natural sonship of man. It is surpris- in;^ how little ba.sis is found for this doctrine of a universal Fatherhood and sonship in the recorded sayings of Jesus. It is doubtful if it is to be found anywhere, except by implication in the jiarable of the Prodigal (Lk 15"-"). That Christ recognizes a natural kinship of every human soul with God (cf. Gn 1"- ■^), and a calling and destination of every indiriduul to be a son of God in His king- dom, is indeed most true; but Fatherhood and sonsliip in His ordinary speech is a relation icithin His kingdom, not a relation of mere nature, but (so tlirougliout the whole NT) the result of a divine act of grace placing man in this relation (the Pauline vloStaia ; cf. Jn 1'^- "), and of a supernatural ini- partation of a new nature and life (Jn ',V'). In comparison with this higher, divine relation, the natural sinks, as it were, into the backjp-ound. We gain, indeed, the right point of view for understanding this doctrine of Jesus on the di^-ine Fatherhood, only when we ob.servethat it takes its origin, not from the general relation of God to the world, or even from the relation of God to believers in His kingdom, but primarily from the relation of the Father to Himself. It does not begin at the circumference — the general relation of God to man- kind, but at the centre — the special, unique, in- comparable relation of the Father to the Son. It is in the relation to the Son that we have, so to sjieak, the spring of Fatherhood in the heart of ( Jod. This relation, which in its fulness none other can share, is then in its measure extended to those who are the members of His kingdom ; and, finally, extends itself even as a ble.ssed possibility to all mankind, in harmony with mans original destination (parable of Prodigal).
5. With tlie help of this clue afforded us by the personal consciousness of Jesus, we are able to advance to some nearer determination on the sub- ject of His kingdom. If Jesus was indeed sure of Himself from the first as the Son of God,— if He had this perfect filial consciousness from the beginning, — there falls away every ground for assuming that His views fluctuated and varied reganling this kingdom He came to found, or that He did not clearly gra.sp it from the outset in its cs-sential nature, laws, and conditions of success. The Gospels give us no warrant for supposing that such fluctuation took place; the only point which can with plausibility be raised being that discussed below : whether from the first He aiiprehended the nece.ssitj- of His death. If the essential feature in His kingdom was the admission of men through grace into a relation of sonship akin to His own. Ho could not have varied in His conception of it, of its righteousness, or of the general conditions of entrance into it, unless His own self-coiisrioiisncss had varied. A second weighty result we re.iili is, tliut if Jesus was fully conscious of Himself as Son of Go<l, and Founder of this kingdom, fioiii the first, tliis kingdom in His view could not have been a merely future thing, but must have been con ccived of OS already cxistiny. This, again, is a point on whidi iiiuch discussion has been raisini ; whether, namely, the kingdom of Gol, in the teaching of Jesus, has only an cschatological Hii;nilicanee (thus Kaftan, Schnioller, etc.!, or wnetlier it denotes an already existing renlitj (Kitschl, Wendt, etc.). The true %-iew, surely, ii that it ij not either exclusively. It 0<th has a
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KINGDOM OF GOD
present being[ upon earth, and has a perfect, glorified form in eternity. Tlie existence of tlie kin^;- dom aa a present, developing reality is implied in the parables of gro-vvth (mustard seed, leaven, seed growing secretly, Mt 13, Mk 4«-'») ; in the repre- sentations of it, in its earthly form, as a mixture of good and bad (wheat and tares, the net of fislies, Mt 13); in the description of the righteousness of the kingdom (Sermon on the Mount) which is to be realized in the ordinary human relations ; as well as in many special sayings (e.g. Mt 12=*, Lk 16" 17^, whether ' within ' or ' among ' makes no differ- ence). But, apart from specific declarations, the truth is implied in the simple fact that Jesus Ilim- «c//"was present in the full consciousness of His Son- ship and calling to be the Founder of the kingdom, gatnering disciples to Himself as the nucleus of a future society. We have formerly observed that in the Person of Jeans, even had there been no other, the kingdom of God was already present in humanity. In Him lay the vital germ of that kingdom ; He was the Dearer and representative of its principle of Sonship ; in Him its powers and grace were made manifest (Mt 12^). When, as the result of His activity, a band of disciples were drawTi around Him, the members of which were introduced by Him into a new fellowship with God, and in whose hearts the principle of a divine rule •was manifestly established, it was more than ever evident that thekingdomof God had begun onearth.