CONSCIOUSNESS
CONSCIOUSNESS
ii. The most perplexing of all the psychological problems opened up by our subject is that which is presented by the endeavour to distinguish the Divine and human elements in our Lord's con- sciousness, and to define the mode of their union. What in general the contents of His Divine con- sciousness were, so far as they have been revealed to us, we have seen above. But it is extremely hazardous to draw negative conclusions from these positive results, and every attempt at definition of the two elements involves negative as well as posi- tive statements. Psychologically, we are pre- sented with an insoluble problem. There are no facts, and no laws, known to the science of mind which can help us to understand the consciousness of Jesus. That He knew as man knows there can be no question. All the evidence we possess points to mental growth during the years of His youth ; and though, as we have seen, the facts of His history during the period of His ministry do not warrant us in attributing to Him progressive attainments in the knowledge of Divine things, it is clear that ordinary human knowledge came to Him as it comes to us. It is often said of Him, that He ' came to know ' (yvuvat, Mt 12'= 22'8 26'», Mk 2» 8", Jn 41 5" 6'5 16»» ; see Mason, Conditions of our Lo7-cr s Life on Earth, p. 13011'.). Again, we are told that He was guided by the evidence of His senses : ' When Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation' (Mk 10"); 'He came forth and saw a great multitude, and he had compassion on them ' (Mt 14") ; ' When he drew nigh, he saw the city and wept over it ' (Lk 19^'). Such
men or of events {e.g. Jn 1-"* 4'», Mt 2P, Mk 14", etc.), do not weaken their force. But side by side with this human consciousness we find unmistak- able evidence of a consciousness which knows the heart of God from within, and which therefore sheds an unparalleled illumination over the whole realm of spiritual things. Jesus could say of Himself, ' No one knoweth the Son save the Father ; neither doth any know the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him.' Such an assertion would be folly or worse were it not justified by the contents of His teaching. But the truth is that what Jesus showed mankind about the Father and His Kingdom, His Love and His holiness, and the revelation which Jesus gave of human life as seen in the liglit of this Divine manifestation, have ever remained the highest heights of spiritual vision. And, more wonderful still, this revelation has proved itself, as He fore- told, inseparable from the Person who gave it. The teaching, Divine though it is, has ever been subordinate to the Teacher. It is always Jesus Christ who reveals the Father. Here then are the two elements, a consciousness of God and of Him- self in relation to God difterent in kind from anything known in our experience, and side by side with it ordinary human knowledge based on the evidence of the senses. Harnack puts the problem thus : ' How He came to this conscious- ness of the unique character of His relation to God as a Son, how He came to the consciousness of His power, and to the consciousness of the obligation and the mission which this power carries with it, is His secret, and no psychology will ever fathom iV (What is Christianity ? p. 128).
iii. Knowledge and ignorance. — We cannot enter here upon a general discussion of this question. It must suffice to note that our Lord in one instance pointedly confessed ignorance (Mk 13^=), that He asked questions, evidently to gain information (Mk 52» 6»92', Jn UM), that He showed surprise (Mt 8>", Mk 6«), that He sought for what He could not find (Mt 21'», Mk 11"), and that there is no
trace in the Gospels of His possessing supernatural knowledge of human and secular things beyond what was necessary for His work. These facts may be connected with the following statements made by our Lord Himself : ' The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing' (Jn 5") ; ' I can of myself do nothing ; as I hear, 1 judge : and my judgment is rigliteous ; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of hira that sent me ' (v.3») ; ' My teaching is not mine, but his that sent me ' (7'") ; ' He that sent me is true ; and the things which I heard from him, these speak I unto the world ' (8='') ; ' I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, I speak these things ' (v.-«) ; ' I speak the things which I have seen with my Father' (v.^*) ; 'The Father which sent me, he hath given me a com- mandment, what I should say and what I should speak ' ; ' The things therefore which I speak, even as the Father hath said unto me, so I speak ' (12"'"'); 'The words that I say unto you I speak not from myself ; but the Father abiding in me doeth his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me' (14'°- "; see also 1424.31 1515 177. 8) F'roni these statements it surely follows that our Lord's Divine knowledge was im- parted to Him in His communion with His Father. Apart from this means of knowing. He depended simply upon His human faculties. 'This being the case, we must see that, if anything which could not be known naturally was not made kno\vii to Him by the Father, it would not be known by Him ' (Bishop O'Brien of Ossory, quoted by Cauon Mason, op. cit. p. 192). The psychology of this communion with the Father, as a means of know- ledge, is doubtless beyond us ; but the facts given in all the Gospels agree with the statements of our Lord Himself as recorded by St. John. See, further, Authority of Christ.