If we compare St. John's view of the mediatorial work of Christ with that of St. Paul, we note many points of similarity. To both Christ comes into the world from a pre -existent heavenly life. To both He is the power through whom sin if
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overcome, and the redeemed introduced into the spiritual Kini^iom of righteousness, of peace, and of joy. In both, Ilia mediatorial work is universal in iVi e.\tent (cf. Ju 1^ 'all thlnuii were made through him"; 18'tlio lik'ht which Hghteth every man ' ; 10'« ' other sheep . . . not of tliis fold ' ; 12^ ' I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto myself ' ; i*^' Saviour of the world*). And yet there iB a difference of emphasis. St. I»aul lays chief stress upon the death of Christ, The earthly life is passed over li^,'htly. Attention is focussed upon the preat tnniedy of the cross, from which the conquering Saviour issues victorious in the resurrection. To St. John, the death is onl.v an incident in tlie saving work. It is the incarnation oa such which is redemptive. Christ enters into the world as iiifht, and His mere ai>pearance carries with it redeeming or condemning power. To as many as received Ilim, to them gave He the right to become children of Go<i (1'2). Those, on the other hand, who believe not, are condemned already by the mere fact of their unbelief (a"*). St. Paul, (or all his stress upon present salvation, is a man of historic sense, quick to apprehend, and apt to state, the contra.st between the present
Kriod of attliction and the glories still to be revealed at the rousio. To the mystic intuition of St. John, time relations fade away, and we face two contrasted eternities— the world of light and of darknes.-i, of righteousness and of sin, of love and of hate. Against this background of absolute realities there is no longer any place for the apprehension of relative values. Who- soever is begotten of Goa siimeth not (1 Jn 5*8, cf. a**). They that reject Christ are children of the devil, who from the beginning was a liar and murderer even as they (8*3-H). Here the Pauline dualism is carried to the extremest point. The progress, the variety, the shatiing by which the latter is relieved, are here blotted out in the clear white light of eternity. Yet the very sharpne.'is of the presentation is the means of reviving forgotten Irnllis. In the rarefied atmosphere of the Johannine Gospel, all traces of Jev^-ish nationalism and materialism vanish. Salvation is indeed conceived as a tran- Bcer.dent good, but, as in the case of Jesus Himself, the tran- scendence is that of a higher spiritual order. One does not need to wait for the future to enjo.v it. Here and now men may become partakers of light and life, of righteousness and love, of peace and joy. The Parousia is conceived less as a single event than as a continuous process (cf. PAROrsiA). Resurrection and judgment are present experiences. Even while in the world, Uie disciples may enter upon a life which is not of the world. The prayer of the Master is not that they mav he taken out of the worl^, but that they may be kept from the evil {1-1»X
We have thus completed onr historicnl survey of the Biblical doctrine of salvation. We have seen how through the centuries the conception h.as been deepened and enriched, as the more e.xtern.al and material elements have more and more given place to those which are moral and spiritual. We liave noted the transformation wrou^dit by the life and teachin" of Jesus, and seen the central pl.ace assigned to His person and work in the thought and experience of Hisdiscijjles. Amid all varieties of statement — in spite of many survivals of earlier and less spiritual ideas — we have marked the persistence of certain permanent features which warrant us in speaking of a Itiblical idea of 8,alva- lion. It remains to gather these together, and to exhibit them in their relations both to one another and to those which are more transient. This will be the aim of our concluding section.
iv. Systematic STATEMENT.— In presenting the Hiblical conception of salvation as a whole we liave to connider (1) its nature, (2) its conditions, (3) its extent.
1. Suture of salvation. — AVe have seen that in every cise the fundamental idea in salvation is deliverance. Our opening statement is aa true of the profound utterances of a St. Paul or a St. John as of the simplest pa.ssages in the OT, that ' in every c.nso some danger or evil is presupposed, in rescue from which salvation consists.' If, then, wc would understand the Biblical conception as a wholi;, we must recognize clearly what is the great evil from which, according to its teaching, man needs to be delivered. Tliat evil is death. No other term is comprehensive enough to unite the various elements in the Biblical teaching. From the Hrst lines of the UT to the la-st chapter of the NT, salvation stands for that Divine activity by which God preserves or enriches the life of His children, by delivering them from the niuUiforiii dangers and evils which threaten its destnietion. The content of the conception varies indeed with vou IV. — 24