ii. Implications of His teaching and the impres- sion He produced. — When we come to consider how this consciousness is implied in His teachin" generally and in His eft'ect upon mankind, we find ourselves face to face with a mass of materials so great that selection becomes very difficult. It must suffice to point out certain classes of facts —
1. His mode of thinking and speaking about God. God is, for Him, ' the Father.' Sometimes, with clear reference to His own unique relation- ship, our Lord calls God 'my Father' (Mt 7'-' 103:. au 1127 1617 i8ii..35_ jiic 83« 13»--, Lk 10=2 22=", Jn 5" 6^= 8'^ and throughout clis. 14-17, etc.). But it is perhaps even more remarkable that when Christ is teaching His disciples to think about God as their Father in heaven, and speaking of Him as ' the Father' or ' your Father,' He always adopts the manner of one who knows this trutli from within.
CONSCIOUSNESS
CONSCIOUSNESS
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It is nob a doctrine which He has learned from Scripture, or i>roved by reason, or even gained by vision or revelation. It is spontaneous, a trutli Avelling up from tlie depths of His being, and as essential and natural to His thouj'ht as breathing to His bodily life. To Him God, His Father, was an ever-present reality, the greatest and most inti- mate of all realities. He knew God as none else knew Him (Mt IP'). He abode in His Father's love (Jn 15"). These e.xpressions describe in the simplest possible way the spirit which is mani- fested in all our Lord's utterances. Take, as an example, the Sermon on the Mount, the most dis- tinctively ethical part of His teaching. Here, if anywhere, we should expect this purely religious apprehension of God to become dormant. In the introduction (Mt .5-'""), the promises all reveal a deep insight into the purposes and nature of God : they view the world with its many kinds of people from the Divine point of view (see also o'"- -"• ■**• ^
gl. 4. 6. 8. 9. 14. 15. 18. 20. 24. 26ff. 7II. 21)_ ^11 thrOUgh,
human things are viewed in the light of God's character. Jesus knew all these things about human life because He first knew God. Instances of this underlying consciousness might be multi- plied indefinitely.
2. His self-assertion. It has often been pointed out (especially by Liddon in his Divinity of our Lord, Lect. IV.) that qualities whicli are incom- patible in any other character combine freely and harmoniously in the character of Jesus. The most remarkable instance is the union of self-assertion with the most jierfect humility. To those who believe in the Deity of Christ, the reason, the ' why,' of this fact is not far to seek. But the 'how' remains a difficulty. How is it that all seems natural and inevitable in the portrait as we find it in the Gospels? The answer must surely be that the self-assertion is the necessary expres- sion of a real consciousness. It is well to be re- minded how tremendous the self-assertion is. The following passages are a selection : Mt 5"- --• ""■ '"■ 39. 44 721. 22. &. 29 (the fomier verses show this 'au-
thority' which astonished the multitude) 8"-
-.32.33.37.38.39 J p7. 28.29 (;„ y,ese passages w have the self-assertion and the humility side by
IQis.
side: 'I am meek and lowly in heart' follows the illimitable claim of vv."--") 126-8-«« 16-«- 2045 253iff-, Mk 2=8 8"f- 10=" 12" 13=', Lk 9='-=8 U^"- 21'2ff-, and throughout St. John's Gospel (see especially 5"' "'t- S'^f- 10™ 14™- etc.). In these passages our Lord declares Himself greater than Abraham, David, Solomon ; greater than the Temple, the Sabbath, tlie Law ; He claims for Himself all the homage and devotion of which the hearts of men are capable ; He calls Himself ' the King,' and describes Himself as the Judge of all the nations ; He demands as His right that honour Avhich belongs to God alone (Jn 5"=^). Yet He is among men ' as he that serveth ' (Lk 22").
3. The effect of this consciousness upon those who were l)rought under His infiuence is very evident. The impression which Jesus produced upon the minds and hearts of men was quite unique. He not only preached Himself, He re- vealed Himself. This revelation carried conviction with it. It is plain that He designed His ministry to be suuli a revelation. It was not His usual luethod to say exactly who He was, but rather to lead His hearers on until they were able to make that discovery for themselves (Mt 16'-'-="). We speak of our Lord 'claiming' such and such things ; but whenever He made an assertion aljout Himself, it was becau.se it was necessary that His hearers should know the truth on account of its essential importance for themselves. His object was to lead them to give Him the whole faith and love of their hearts, because in so doing they attained their
highest good. A notable instance of the etfect of our Lord's self-revelation occurs in the case of St. Peter (Lk 5'), 'Depart from me : for I am a sinful man, O Lord.' Here the depth of the impression is show n by the moral ett'ect (cf . ilob 42^- '' and Is 6''). It is clear that St. Peter was impressed not merely by the miracle, but by the moral glory of Christ. 'The miracle was but the occasion when there came to him a sudden insight into the char- acter of Jesus. The intense faith which our Lord aw^akened in the hearts of those who responded to Him testifies to His self-revelation. He looked for a faith which rested in Himself as its object. Such faith always called forth His highest approbation. Almost every page of the Gospels witnesses to the truth of this. The case of the Centurion (Mt S^-", Lk 7''^°), though perhaps the most striking instance, is yet only typical. The principle involved in it may be found everywhere ; see Mt 8=- ^- -■ O--- =" 10=-