5. With regard to the significance of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus as the ultimate condi- tions of the establishment of the Kingdom of God, our Lord treated that doctrine as He did His Messianic claims in respect of His Divine nature. It is represented in the Gospels as the subject of gradual development, as a truth not at the begin- ning clearly made known even to the most favoured disciples, but taught first by suggestions and figures more or less veiled, then by warnings and predic- tions, wliich became clearer as the end drew near, to the ett'ect that Jesus must die. Still it is pre- sent from the first, though only in germ, and though it is noted as that part of their Master's teachiiiL; whicli tlic disciples were most slow to apprelii ihI. rhii-.il is represented as having been suggl■^l'■il -o ,iil\ ;ls in the time of the Baptist, whose «..i.ls, • l;,liold the Lamb of God,' first led John and Andrew to follow Jesus (Jn !="■ '^-SJ). At a later period Jesus declared in express terms that ' the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many' {Xurpov avrl ttoXXwi'), where the death of Jesus as a sacrifice of substitution appears to be distinctly spoken of (Mt 20-^ li Mk 10'=). The doctrine that salvation can come only through the voluntary suft'erings and death of Jesus is so clearly tauglit by our Lord's later utterances as recorded in all the Gospels, and particularly in the Fourth, as, for example, in tlie discourse on the Bread of Life ('the bread wliich I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world,' Jn 6"), in the discourse on the Good Shepherd ('the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep,' 10"- '^ cf. vv."-"), etc., that it is hardly nece.s.sary to enumerate them. One of the .';trongest proofs that the disciples understood Jesus to lay special empliasis upon the necessity of His death as an atoning sacrifice, lies in the fact that so large a portion of the Gospels is devoted to the narrative of the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus ; while the full account which all the Synoptists give of the institution of the Lord's Supper (Mt 26-^-^ \\ Mk 14~-='||Lk 22"-="), and particularly the signi-
ficant words of Jesus recorded by St. Matthew (26=8), 'This is my blood of the [new] covenant, whicli is shed 'for many for the remission of sins,' show that by appointing this ordinance by which to 'show forth liis death,' as St. Paul expresses it (1 Co 11-''), Jesus singled out this part of His work as constituting the central truth of His manifesta- tion to men, and summing up and applying the whole.
Again, like the Apostles in the Acts and the Epistles, all four Evangelists represent the Resur- rection as the necessary seal of Christ's atoning work, confirming His victory over death and him that had the power of death, and as a testimony to the Father's acceptance of the sacrifice. So Jesus, in foretelling His death, conjoined with the prediction the assurance that He should rise again the third day. The Resurrection is the necessary complement of the Atoning Death.
6. Closely connected with these fundamental teachings of the Kingdom of God and the condi- tions of its realization are those which relate (a) to the ffrowth and maintenance of the Kingdom after Christ's Ascension, and (6) to the final con- summation and the judgment of the world.
(a) According to all the Gospels, the specialty of Christ's mission, as that was revealed to John the Baptist, was that He should baptize with the Holy Ghost (Mt 3'i||Mk l«||Lk 3i«; cf. Jn I»). All relate the descent of the Holy Spirit at the Baptism of Jesus (Mt 3"-"||Mk p-"llLk 3'-'-"). John the Baptist testifies (Jn P'- ^) that He upon whom the Spirit descended and abode is He who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. Jesus attributed His power to cast out demons to the Spirit of God (Mt 1228). That the Spirit thus spoken of is a Person, and as such to be distinguished from Christ, is to be inferred from the solemn warning which Jesus addressed to those who attributed His miracles of exorcism to Satanic agency, when He said that blasphemy against the Son of Man should be for- given, but that to blaspheme against the Holy Ghost was an unpardonable sin (Mt 12"- '-'[I Mk S'^"- II Lk 12'"). Jesus taught, how ever, that the prediction of John was to be fulfilled only after the Son of Man was glorified. Tlius we read, with reference to the promise that the Spirit should be in believers a perennial fountain of grace, ' This spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive : for the Holy Ghost Avas not yet given ; because that Jesus was not yet glorified ' (Jn V'^^ And Jesus Himself says (16') to the disciples, 'It is expedient for you that I go away : for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.' I'he office of till- Spirit is to abide with the disciples as the
sour t Ljiace i~'^\. to bring to their remembrance