SELF-SUEREXDER
SENAAII
435
introduced ; but the prenous sentence about tlie cross, an instrument of capital punishment, should make it clear tliat it is not the soul, especially as we now understand the word 'soul,' but the life, that is here referred to. The Gr. word is used in the same sense in Mk lO'", where Jesus speaks of Living His ifvx'^, i.e. His life, in the sense of giving Himself up to die. The piussage, then, means that whoever is willing to face martjTdom for his Christian faith shall save his life— i.e. live on in spite of being killed, by entering into the eternal life; while he who makes it his aim to escape martyrdom will really die, because he will miss the eternal life. Here the self -surrender, even to the e.\tent of suffering a martyr's death, i.e. the surrender which will face that extremity if neces- sary, is what Christ requires, not in every case the actual endurance of the martyrdom, — for the sen- tence is hypothetical. But this self-surrender is not tlie end, it is the means through which we are to enter into life. In a larger application of the essential principle it may be said that we must re- nounce ourselves in order to realize ourselves. The end then, as we saw above in another connexion, IS not self-abnegation, much less is it extinction of being, or loss of personality and conscious existence, Buddhist iVirrana, or Hindu absorption in Brahm, but the very opposite — the full, enduring, conscious activity known as eternal life.
(c) In St. Paul's Epistles this principle comes out with regard to the mystical union of the Christian with Christ. He die's with Christ (Col 2«') ; he is crucified with Christ (Gal 2™) ; through the cross of Christ the world has been crucified to him, and he to the world (6") ; the old man is crucified with Christ (Ilo 6"). The last of these phrases throws light on the others. St. Paul is thinking of the pre-Christian condition, the life of sin and the world. This is so completely put away in Christ that it is said to be killed, crucified. The apostle means more than repentance ; he is thinking of an actual end of tlie old thoughts, aflectiims, desires, habits. But the peculiarity of his teach- ing is that this result is brought auout by union willi Cliiist, and especially by an inward, spiritual assimilation to His death. 'Thus, on our part, the cause is self -surrender to Jesus Clirist, for Him to be the supreme commanding influence over the soul. Then this same surrender to Christ, result- ing in union with Him and assimilation to His experience, carries the soul on to a resurrection. Accordingly, St. Paul writes of Christians as being 'raised together witli Christ' (Col 3')- Writing of his own experience, the apostle declares that it is no longer he that lives, but Christ who lives in him (Gal 2-*). This, which may be called the mystical element in St. Paul's thought, links itself to his ralibinical and legal view of redemption as an act of justification by God which we rccc^ive through faith. The bond of union between the two parts of the apostle's teaching may be found in his ideas on faith. It is faith that secures the grace of for- giveness, and so places the guilty person in a state of justification. Now, faith with St. Paul is not merely intellectual a.ssent to dogma; it is personal trust in and adhesion to Christ. But such a con- dition of soul is the very surrender which secures the mystical union with Christ. Thus the two experiences — the .subjective dying and rising, and the objective forgiveness and justification — spring out of the same act on our part, the faith that implies self-surrender. Further, out of this an<l its results arise moral obligations to continual self- renunciation for the service of Christ and the l>enefit of mankind. Tlie Christian is not his own, because he has lieen bought with a price (1 Co 0'»- »). There- fore a special obligation is on him to spend his life in unselfish service. For the same reason he must
avoid unchastity, since his bod 3- is a temple if the Holy Ghost Christians are exhorted to present their boclies to Goil as a living sacrifice, an act w hich the apostle calls ' reasonable service ' (XoytKiiv XaTptlaf), perhaps meaning 'spiritual service' in contrast to the external service of Judaism (Ko 12').
((/) The Epistle to the Hebrews, treating cliieHy of Christ and His work, does not devote much attention to the subjective side of religion. Still it exalts faith as the secret of spiritual power and heroism, and this faith involves the renunciation of self in accepting the help of God to do His will. Thus one instance is that of Moses, who gave up the treasures of Egypt, enduring ' as seeing him who is invisible' (He 11").
(e) St. Peter describes Christians as persons who were going astray but are now returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls (1 P 2^) ; and this return involves surrender to obedience, since the sheep of the flock follow their shepherd.
(/) In the Johannine writings the act of self- renunciation does not come fonvard so prominently on its own account as elsewhere in the NT ; but it is even more completely involved in the require- ments that correspond to the Divine side of religion than in the other apostolic writings. The new- birth of which Jesus speaks to Nicodemus (Jn 3'"') requires the surrender of self in the abandonment of pride and self-sulliciency, in order that it may be experienced. To drink of the water of life, to eat the bread of life, to follow the Light of the World, are actions that require the abandonment of all claims to self-sufficiency. Then St. John demands faith as the great condition on our part for the reception of eternal life (1 Jn 5"). At the same time, in the prominence which he gives to this gift of eternal life as a present possession, it is plain that he does not teach any doctrine of the abandonment of the human personalitj' for absorption in the Divine. W. F. Adeney.