seem implicitly to deny. The life in him wai above all new ; and it was of Divine initiation or grace. But that did not mean tliat there was no psj'cliological continuity between tlie old Saul and tiis faculties, and tlie new Paul and liis : nor did it exclude the responsible co-operation of his own volition througliout. The affirmations are experi- mental and unembarrassed by reflective considera- tions of verbal consistencj'. We may see, more- over, from other passages that what is here in the background was not overlooked by St. Paul, but entered into the body of his tliought, coming out in turn as occasion arose. Thus when he speaks of ' a new creature ' (Gal 6", 2 Co 5"), or says, ' the old things are passed away ; behold, they are become new, he simply means that his experience had utterly changed in colour and perspective. No factors had been eliminated : but the resultant was new ; and this by the operation of a new factor determining all afresh and in a new syn- thesis. The new factor was the quickening grace of God in the Christ, the Spirit of Christ, the (Holy) Spirit, or most fully ' the law of the Spirit of life ill Christ Jesus.' Tliis, by overcoming ' the law of sin and death,' naturally at work, had pro- duced a new spiritual life in him, and so made him a ' new man ' in Christ Jesus. The way by which this had come about is laid bare in Ko 7, a chapter of deep psychological and also autobiographic sig- nificance. From it w-e gather that even in his un- regenerate state, while the law of sin operative in ' the flesh ' — the sensuous and self-willed side of his nature — actually swayed his will, he was already conscious of another and deeper element in his being, protesting against the flesh and sympathizing witli the claims of God's law. This 'mner man' (6 (au dfOpuiros, 7-^ = 6 vovs, 7^-^ = t4 TTi-eC/ia Tov di/dpuTTov, 1 Co 2" ; cf. Ro 8'°), however, has only a latent or potential existence so long as it is overridden by ' the flesh ' — ' the law of the mind,' by the law or principle active in the fleshly members (7^). The spirit is as good as dead in the man Saul as a moral personality, being outside the centre of volition as long as ' the flesh ' is there enthroned in power ; and so it is generally ignored in St. Paul's references to ' the natural man,' who is called summarily ' dead in trespasses and sins,' because morally 'alienated from the life of God' (Eph 2'- ° 4'*). But when the life of God succeeds in quickening this half-inanimate spiritual faculty with a kindred passion for the righteousness of God, then it springs to life (Ro 8'") and gains control of the will : a new personality arises from the new union of the will and the higher element dependent on and akin to the Divine : the man lives anew with a fresh type of moral life— that being dominant which before was subject, and vice versa. With tliis psychological reversal may be comjiared the earlier change from the rudimentary ' life ' of irresponsible innocence to the ' death ' of a divided heart, wherein the lower elements hold sway (Ro 7*'")- Now, however, the man is con- scious of the issues at stake and the forces of both kinds at work in and upon him : and the whole deliverance has a vividness and finality propor- tionate to his prior sense of the death in bondage to sin (7").
As this experience of renovation came to St. Paul under the forms of the life, death, and resur- rection of Jesus tlie (^lirist, so regeneration is set forth in terms of the same. The ' new man ' or ' new creature ' is so * in Christ'; and Christ is in him. Hence ' the Spirit of God ' or ' Holy Spirit,' the quickener of the new life (1 Co 6" 12^), can also bo called 'the Spirit of Christ' (Ro 8'-') or 'the Spirit of his Son ' (Gal 4"). Hence also the specific condition of the ' new man,' in contrast to the ' old ' (Col S"-, Eph 42>-»'), is that of sonship and instal'a
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tion into sonship {iloffeala, Ro 8""'^) after the like- nfss ot Christ's.
StUJ this regenerate or filial life is not comjilete at the tiiue when it is given, coinciJently witli the eelfconuiiittal of faith. It has a course of growth to go throuijh, analogoiis to that of natural life. It begins with spiritual immaturity and proceeds to maturity of will and insight. The 'babe' (viirios) in Christ is one who perceives only the broadest outlines of the Father's waj's ana will, and may still be confused by the films of his old Heshly blindness ; whereas the full-grown or ' per- fect ' man (WXcios) is one to whom experience lias brought enlightenment and discrimination of con- science (Ph l"' 3'-""") : he is actually and not only potentially ' spiritual ' [Trpev/iaTiKis). And each stage has its own spiritual nutriment, its 'milk' or its ' solid food ' (1 Co S'-*).