has been fnllilled, and its contents may be said to be mainly the two divinely bestowed possessions of the Christian Church — the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy (Jhost. The latter is specially spoken of as ' the promise of the Father' (Lk 24'^ Ac 1'); Jesus has received from the Father ' the promise of the Spirit '(Ac 2^), and it is with this in view that St. Feter says, ' the promise is unto you and your children ' (2^'). There is no doubt here a reference to the fact that Jesus had promised to send the Spirit to His disciples ; but the last passage quoted shows how this special promise of Jesus coalesced in the apostle's mind with the great Messianic promises m which the future of Israel was assured. — Wlien we |)ass to St. I'aul we hnd at hrst a general concei)tion of the same character. The promise made to the fathers God has fulfilled in all its import {(KTmr\ripo>K(v, Ac 13^) by raising up Jesus — tlie raising u|i having reference either to the bringing of Jesus on to the stage of history, or to the Resurrection ; in either case it is 'according to promise' that God has ' brought to Israel the Saviour .lesus' (Ac 13'-^). At a mucTi later date, as he stands before Agrippa, St. Paul can represent himself as invohed in such ' troubles ' for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers '(Ac 20", cf. 2.S-" ' for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain '). The hope of Isr.-iel, all that God has promised to do for it, is in these passages regarded as bound up in the Uisen and K.xalled Jesus. What the content of that hope is, it would require an exposition of all the apostle's theology to show ; for Christ and the promise are practically synonymous terms. All that is in Christ is meant by the promise ; all the promises of God are summed up in Christ. Special aspects of this are set in relief by St. Paul as by other NT writers. Thus he speaks of Christians as sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise (Kph 1"), and as receiving tlie promi.se of the Spirit through faith (Gal '6^'). The gift of the Spirit has something of pronii.se in it ; it is the earnest of a heavenly inheritance, an inheritance with the saints in the light (Eph 1", Col 1'^); as the spirit of sonship it is the assurance that we are joint heirs with Christ, and shall j'et be conformed to the image of God's exalted Son (Uo 8'°'"), and have an entrance into that kingdom of God which for St. Paul is always a transcendent and glorious mode of being. In Gal 3 'the promise of the Siiirit,' or the Spirit as the essential blessing of the ]jromise, has its ]ieculiar value in this, that it is the principle of a new life and righteousness to which sinful men could never attain on any other terms. — Other references to the promise in the NT ire more dubious, though Tit 1- Ja 1'- '2' (the crown of life, the kiiigdiiiii which God hath promised to then, that h>ve Him) are in the line of that conception of the ]>romise which was common to St. Paid with all primitive Christians. On the other hand, a distinctively Johannine thonght has availed itself of this mode of expression in 1 Jn 2^.
(2) The second question concerns the heirs of the promise: to whom is it given'.' It was given at first to Abraham, or to Abraham and his seed. Is!i;h' and Jacob were ' heirs with him of the same promise '(He 11"). It might seem as if 'the .seed of Abiaham ' were an expression not capable of two interpretations, and yet the |iroper interpreta- tion of it was the great subject of controver.sy in the iirimitive Church. Even when the promise was seen to be fulhlled in Jesus, it seemed obvious to say that it was fuHilled to Israel— that IsrMcl alone had a part in it. ICven St. I'aul can siiy that Jesus Christ was a minisler of the circumcision, on behalf of the truth of God, to lonhrm the promises of the fathers, i.e. belonging to th« lathers, because made to them (Uo 16"). (n enumer
106
TROMISE
PROPHECY AND PROPHETS