6. Another side of Jesus' self-revelation as to the condition of dependence in which His spiritual life on earth was lived, is to l>e found in His doc- trine of our dependence upon Him. Just as He can do nothing ' of himself,' but traces the source of His manifold aeti\-ities to the mutual indwell- ing of the Father and Himself, so He tells His disciples they are powerless for good if they are ' apart from ' Him (x^P^^ 4^ov ov &vvaff6e -kouiv ovd4v, Jn 15=^). He is the derived source of their vital energj' in the .same sense that the tree is the source of the fruit-bearing life of its branch. It is significant that this writer uses the same verb and preposition {iieiteiv ev) to express the nature of the union of the Father and Jesus, and that of Jesus and those who believe in Him (cf. 14'" 15* etc.). The words of St. Paul to the Athenians, ' In him we live and move and have our being' (Ac 17^), are as true of Jesus as they are of all the children of men, ' for both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one ' (f J ckSs, He 2"). It is this very likeness {ifj-oia/xa, Ph 2', cf. He 2") of nature which makes interdependence, in the sphere of active work, between Christ and believers a pro- minent feature in all sound Christologies (cf. Mk 16=", 1 Co 3», 2 Co 6'). The well-known Pauline €- XpL<rrf (cf. 2 Co 5", 1 Co 1.5--, Col 1=» etc.) is balanced by the no less Patiline Xpio-Tos 4v v/J-'tv (llo 8'", Co l*, cf. Eph 3'", Gal 2-").
DEPENDENCE
DERELICTION
447
Life in Christ is the normal condition of re- deemed laimanity (1 Co 15--). As the head is the seat of the vital functions in the human body, and without the head the body is lielpless and lifeless, so Christ is the source of the Church's life and energy (Eph 4'='', Col 1'* 2'" etc.). Her capacity for development springs directly from Him, con- sidered in relation to His place in )ier constitution (Eph 2""-), and it is impossilile even to concei\'e of the Church apart from this rclnticnshi]! (1 Co 3")- 'The Head,"tlie cliicf cuinci ->t,.uc,' 'tlie founda- tion,' are the jirincijial ruiiliiie f<.rmul:i- used by tlie Apostle to picture the inystcrinus nature of a union upon which the very existence of the Church depends. The symbol of the marriage relation- ship, with all the consequences involved, is not only found in the Johannine idealism (Rev 19' 2P- "), but discovers itself underlying St. Paul's ideas as to the nature of the tie which binds the Church to Christ, in its aspect both of loving equality (Eph 5^*'-) and of dependent subordination (Eph 5-*' '^}.
Relative to what we lla^■e been sayiiif;, it may not be amiss to recall the difficult words of St. Paul, which eniphasize this side of a mysterious truth— 'Now I ... fill up on my part that which is lackini^ of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the Church ' (Col V^\ cf. the strange trans- lation of this sentence in Moffatt's The Historical Jfietv Testa- ment-). It is as if the Apostle said that Christ is still, in a certain sense, subject to His Father's disciplinary control (cf. Ac 9i, Jn 15"), where the Father, as the husbandman, prunes the branches, and consequently the tree out of whicli the branches grow. The tribulations and disappointments whicli the Church experiences from age to age are nia?iifestatioiis of the same spirit of unbelief and o]»iiositi(in eTirouiitcrtd by Jesus during His work on eanh fTn ifi^-'i i"'-* "■>. Nu- r.u');' we to be surprised if we ohv. I . 1 1,;^ i :,i u.i. -I ili-n],, ri
hostility in one form or anntji, I I i Mmh :
that it would be so, and that II.
He said that the world wouM h J. i , ,
influence of that body which pi ul.^,^,^ 1.. .1 r : ,i '' ui in from His Life (cf. Lk tJ22 2in. jil HP- -1 ', r
The other side of the same truth is n. '
who taught that the conscious recoKiiii I'll '■<• > ■
the lives of His followers, and the coTisLi|ii. 11' i. : ^ .! j i,m[i
towards the latter, will not escape His nuLnt-iri. iv cicwarj o-ri X/j.<rT«D io-Ti, Mk O-ll, and ik ittna. /*«0«-r5i;, Mt lllJ-). Kee also Mt 25-"*- *-■', where, in His solenm portraiture of the Judgment Day, Jesus emjihasizes the great truth of His self-identification with all who have their lives grounded in Him (ef. -mvim ri.
7. AVe must not close our consideration of tlii subject without referring to a feature of the Chri.- tian life whicli is supiilementary to and dependeni upon the foregoing. Tlie life of tlie believer is not bounded by his own immediate interests, althouf;li as an individual that life is immeasurably enrichcil and ennobled by its personal contact with, and share in, the Incarnate Life of Jesus Christ. In the parables of the Vine and the Good Shepherd He leads to the conclusion (hat all His discijiles stand in a relationship to eaih otiirr of the closest kind. There is an interdciicndi'iir,. l.rl«crn them which springs out of thcii loniiiion iil;il ionsliip to Christ tlieir Head. Thisliuth is csp.Mially dwelt on by St. Paul in his reasoiiiiij; on the variety of ^vork but unity of jjurpose w'liich characterizes the lives of professing Christians considered in their corporate capacity, and as constituent parts of a great whole. No individual life can be considered as self-centred in the sense of its being indepen- dent of the lives of its fellows. However uncon- scious one may be of the fact, it nevertheless remains true tliat no single member of ' the body of Christ' {aCina. XptjTov) is unatiected by the fortunes of its brethren. Various as are the func- tions of the parts, vital as is the dependence of each on Him in whom their common life has its roots, it is still the truth that the fulness of the life of every individual is aHected by the joy or the .sorrow, the strength or the weakness, of every other (c't. I Co Iji-:", Oal 3="-, Col 3", Eph S'^'-j. The reco'jnil loll oi ihis common share in the one higher liic is ncd-sary as aiibrding scope for