Jesus the faith of His followers did not rise above the belief that He was the long-expected Messiah ; and it was this conviction which was expressed in their confessions. Typical at this stage are the words of Andrew, 'We have found the Messiah' (Jn 1^'). It is true that even in this earlier period Jesus is sometimes addressed or spoken of as the 'Son of God' (Jn l**-*, Mt S^\i 14®) ; but it is not probable that in these cases we are to understand the expression otherwise than as a recognized Messianic term (cf. Ps 2"), .so that it does not amount to more than a recognition that Jesus is the Christ. And yet even this was a great thing — to see in the man of Nazareth the Messiah of propJiecy and hope. It marked the dividing line between those who believed in Jesus and those who believed Him not. St. John tells us that the Jews had agreed that if any man should confess Jesus to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue (Jn 9--) ; that they actually cast out, for making such a confession, the blind man whom Jesus had cured (9*^) ; and that through fear of excommunication many of the chief rulers who believed in His Messiahship refrained from the confession of their faith (12^^). It was no small thing to confess that Jesus was the Christ, crude and unspiritual in most cases as the notions of His Messiahship might still be.
But in the minds of the Apostles, though crude ideas were far from vanishing altogether (cf. Mt 202»'-, Mk 10^», Lk 22=^), there had gradually grown up a larger and deeper conception of their Master's person and dignity ; and St. Peter's grand utter- ance at Cresarea Philippi, 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God' (Mt 16'«|| ; cf. Jn e''^), shows a great extension of spiritual content in the confession of Christ, as our_Lord's langua^'e on the occasion
seems to i _
Christ's divinity ; and it formed the high-water mark of Apostolic faith and profession in the pre- Resurrection days.
After the Resurrection had taken place, faith in that transcendent fact, and readiness to Ijear witness to it, were henceforth implied in the con- fession of Christ (Jn 20=s-==', Ro 10»). But while any profession of faith would have as its implicate the acceptance of the great facts of tlie historical tradition, all that was actually demanded of con- verts at first may have been the confession, ' Jesus is Lord' (ICo 12^ cf. Ph 2", 2 Ti 1») : a confes- sion of which an echo perhaps meets us in their being baptized ' into (or in) the name of the Lord ' (el's 7-A fivojita toO Kvpiov 'ItjctoD, Ac 8"" 19* ; in t<^ dvdftaTi ToO Kvpiov, 10**). At a later time the gi-owth of heretical opinions rendered it necessary to formu- late the beliefs of the Church more exactly, and to demand a fuller and more precise confession on
Ijlainly implies. The Apostle's language I enfold, in germ at least, the doctrine of
the part of tliose
be Christ's
disciples. In the Johannine Epistles a confession on the one hand that ' Jesus Christ is come in the flesh' (1 Jn 4--^, 2 Jn '), and on the other that ' Jesus is the Son of God ' (1 Jn 4"), is represented as essential to the evidence of a true and saving Christian faith. With this developed .Johannine type of confession may be compared the later gloss that has been attached to the narrative of the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch (Ac 8", see RVm), which is not improbably the reproduction of a formula of question and answer which had lome to be employed as a bajitismal confession in the early Church.
It may be noticed here that it was out of the confession of personal faith which wasdemanded of the candidate for Itaptisni that the formulated 'Confessions 'of the Church appear to have sprang. There can be little doubt that the so-called Apostles' Creed was originally a baptismal confession. And Hort, Har- nack. and others have shown that what is known as the Nicene t^reed is in reality not tlie original creed of the bishops of
COlfFESSIOJf (OF CHRIST)
CONFESSiOjr (OF CHRIST) 359
Kicsea, but a creed which gradually grew up in the East out of the strugKlea of the Church vvitli varying shapes of heresy, and the nucleus of which is probably to bo sought in the baptismal formula of the Jerusalem Church (Uort, Two Disser- tations, ii. ; Harnaok, Hislnni «/ Dopma, iii. 209; Herzog- Hauck, RealeiicykL, art. ' Konstantinopolitanisches Symbol')-
ii. The importance attached to the con- fession OF Christ.— We see this (1) in the tr.ach- ing of Christ Him.iclf. He showed the value He set upon it not only by tlie deep solemnity of His affirmations upon tlie suljject, but by e.xpressing the truth in a double form, both positively anil negatively, declaring that the highest conceiv- able honour awaits every one who confesses Him before men, and the doom of unspeakable shame all those who are guilty of denying Him (Mt 1032-33, Lk 12H-'-'; cf. Mk 8'S). We see it in the pathos of the warning He gave St. Peter of the approaching denial (Mt 26**; cf. Mk H^", Lk 223^, Jn 1338), in t,|,g \qq\^ jjg ^ast upon him when the crowing of the cock recalled that warn- ing to his mind (Lk 22"'), in the Apostle's bitter tears as he remembered and thought upon the word of the Lord (Mt 26-', Mk 14'=, Lk 22«'-«''), and in the thrice repeated 'Lovest thou me?' (Jn 21"-") recalling the thrpi'b.M iinii>L'r''ssion. But, above all, we see it in tin' nnnN .'nMii'ssed at CfEsarca Philippi to tliis sam: ApM-ilr, who, though afterwards he fell .so l;u- m :\.n liuur of weakness, rose nevertheless on thi.s ojcasioii to the height of a f;lorious confession (Mt 16"-''). The evident emotion of Jesus at St. I'eter's lan- guage, the thrill of glad surprise which seems to have shot through Him and which quivers through the benediction into which He burst, the great benediction itself, — these things show the supreme worth He attached to this confession of His strong Apostle. But especially we see the signihcance of St. Peter's utterance in the everlasting promise which Christ then gave not to him merely, but to all who should hereafter believe on His name and confess Him after a like fashion : ' Upon this rock I will build m;y Church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it' (v.'"). Whetlier the ' rock ' is St. Peter's confession or St. Peter himself is a matter of little moment ; for if the latter is meant, it is undoubtedly as a type of believing confession that the Apostle receives the splendid promise, and it is on the firm foundation of such confession as his tliat Jesus declares that His Church shall be built.