6. Limits of the NT revelation.—It may be ob- jected, that if the Christian consciousness of Christ has authority even as the testimony of Christ to Himself, why should we limit this authority to the consciousness of St. Peter, St. John, St. Paul, and the other persons whose writings have found a place in the NT? Why should such works as the Imitation of Christ or the Pilgrim’s Progress not be as authoritative as the Gospel of St. John or
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328 REVELATION the Epistles of St. Paul? From the standpoint of this article the traditional answer, that the latter works are inspired and the former not, cannot be given, because the general principle assumed in this discussion is, that the inspiration of any writing in the distinctive sense in which we apply the term to the Holy Scriptures can be inferred only from its position and function in the history of revelation. The answer from this standpoint cannot be given in so few words, but it will be indicated as briefly as possible. irstly, the men whose writings form the NT stood in an immediate historical relation to Christ, such asno men since have done. They were either eye-witnesses, or had received from eye- witnesses what they had declared. St. John had enjoyed intimate fellowship with Christ. St. Paul, though one ‘born out of due time,’ lived in such constant and intense realization of the Risen One that he could declare, ‘to me to live is Christ.’ St. James, although he was not the companion of Jesus during His earthly ministry, yet had known Him according to the flesh, and shared in that vivid and potent consciousness of the exalted Lord which was bestowed on the Church at Jerusalem after Pentecost. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, whoever he was, had connexion with the Church at a time when the Lord’s presence, though withdrawn from sight, yet wrought signs and wonders among believers. As the history of the Canon (see articles CANON in vol. i., and OT Canon, NT CANON in vol. iii.) shows, the Christian consciousness hesitated about the admission of some writings, because they had not such warrant, or at least it was doubtful if they had. The value of the writings varies with the closeness of the contact of the writers with Jesus Christ. Secondly, a comparison of the writ- ings which have been admitted with those which, though seeking admission, have been rejected, justifies the conclusion that the Christian con- sclousness, not as expressed in decrees of councils or the authority of bishops, but in a growing una- nimity of use and esteem in the Churches, was guided by the Spirit of God in what it accepted as kindred with, and what it rejected as alien to, the deposit of truth and grace committed to it by Christ. That judgment has been confirmed by growing Christian experience. While some, be- cause they lack the sympathetic insight, may reject this book or that, yet individual peculiari- ties are corrected by the general Christian con- sciousness. The critical questions which some of the books raise, such as 2 Peter and Jude, are as open as ever to discussion, and may result in the conclusion that these writings should have been excluded, and not included; but that does not affect the conviction that there is a limit to the books which the Christian consciousness will re- cognize as authoritative, because recording the revelation of God in Christ. Thirdly, this con- viction is not without grounds in reason. It is altogether reasonable to conclude that those who were brought into contact with Christ Himself or with the Christian Church, in which He manifested His presence and power in an intensified spiritual life and in varied spiritual gifts, should be qualified by His Spirit authoritatively to interpret His mind and will. It is equally rational to conclude that this unique relation was destined to be, not per- manent but temporary, continued only until the whole content of the unique personality of Christ, so far as was necessary for the practical ends of revelation, should find a place in the minds and win a hold on the wills of men. The introduction of so unique a Personality into the course of his- torical development must necessarily have estab- lished unique relations between Himself and those immediately connected with Him, and commissioned
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to proclaim and diffuse the truth historically ex- hibited in His Person. The varied relations in which men might stand to Him were then dis- played ; the limits to and the lines of the normal development of the Christian life were then indi- cated. Just as the seed, when it falls into fit soil, begins to grow, and has in it already, though undeveloped, the promise and the pattern of the full-grown plant, so the seed of the Divine life, finding its fit soil in the souls of disciples and apostles, displayed what is the type to which Christian life must conform. Not that the con- tent was then fully developed, but that the form of that content and the laws of its development were then given. Fourthly, a note of revelation is originality. Religious life, however varied and intense, which is dependent on a past development and is not originative of a future development, cannot be accepted as a revelation. Hence, while Christianity is progressive, it is also permanent. It develops, but does not augment, ‘the truth as it is in Jesus.’ To suggest that religious works of later times may be equally inspired with the writ- ings of the NT, is to ignore this characteristic of the revelation in the Son of God—a revelation which, as it has been shown, must include not only His own words and works, but also the in- terpretation of His person, which is given in the relations which He formed with, and the trans- formation which He wrought in, those who came into direct historic contact with Him in that manifestation of His presence and power which immediately accompanied His incarnation. We do not need to deny the high spiritual value of subse- quent Christian literature, or doubt that it is the Spirit of God which is still guiding His people into truth. Nay, we should believe that God reveals Himself in the experience of every man whom in Christ He saves and blesses, and that his life in the Spirit is an inspired life; yet the revelation and the inspiration alike are mediated by faith in God’s grace in Christ, and are therefore dependent on the original revelation and inspiration. We do not need to affirm that all the writings of the NT are equally inspired, and that no other books are inspired; but nevertheless we may acquiesce in the judgment of the Christian Church, that the Christian Revelation is presented adequately and effectively in the NT Scriptures.