(1) As the Ideal Man, Je-sus revealed the possi- bilities and determined the type of perfect man- hood for the race. This was done under special conditions, and at a given moment of time and place, race and environment. He was born in Palestine, during the reign of Herod, ' of the seed of David' (Ro l-*) ; i.e. He was a Jew, conforming to the special conditions and demands of His own times, and limited by the intellectual and social horizon of His day. There was much, therefore, in the outward life of Jesus which was temporary and local in its manifestations. Yet beneath all this we see a true revelation of the Perfect Man, universal in its scope, yet appealing to each indi- vidual man as his exemplar ; Ideal in its purity and holiness, yet throbbing with contagious life ; beyond the reach of literal imitation, yet quicken- ing each of His followers to the realization of his own individual life and personality. Looked at from within, His life is depicted in the NT as one of perfect and joyous obedience to the Father's revealed will (Jn 6''), unbroken communion with Him (10™), and supreme self-forgetfulness in the service of His brethren (2 Co 8"). Whatever transcendent elements may have been hidden (and sometimes patent) in the' s]>iritual consciousness of Jesus, He is !e|iiesi nted as truly temptable (Mt 4' etc.), as dependini; entirely on Divine help and grace for eonipie-i omi temptation (Jn 5'" etc.), and as haviiiL; tiiuniplied absolutely over evil, so that He was ■ wifle.nt sin ' (He i'% The impres- sion left on tliosi- who knew Him best by this life of filial obedience a]id service was that it was of unique beauty and attractiveness (Jn I"), and yet capable of emulation by all, under their own in- dividual conditions of life and service (1 P 2-'). And this NT picture of Jesus as the Ideal Man is one that the noblest minds of Christendom throughout the centuries have accepted. There is no historical character that has ever threatened to divide the sovereignty oi Jesus in the sjiiritual
;iehter my to of' the
I moral ideal incarnated in Him.
' In the fulness of the time.' —From the Evolutionary stand- point the question is often asked, whether such an ideal life Ijnust not necessaril,v have appeared as the <
554 EVOLUTION (CHEIST AiS^D)
EXALTATiOl^
■ fulii
ice,— as the last link in the doubtful application, how- r-canic life ; and as regards 1, it is demonstrably lacking Scripture, appeared in the trecise moment in the order
i(Ga
He V->). The best minds of pre\ioiis ages had been eagerly looking forward to a manifestation of the saving power of God (Mt 13", Lk ■24-», Ac 3'8, 1 P 110 etc.), and, if the actual historical manifestation of the Messiah for whom they waited was not in accordance with their literal expectations, it was the true fulfilment of the spiritual movement of which their ideals and prophecies were a part. In Evolutionary language, the ' embryonic ' Christ of prophecy became in due course the actual Christ of history, or, less figurati\ely, the dimly outlined Ideal Life of aspiration took objective form in the manifested life of the Son of God. <Jr, we may say that the right time for an ideal to be actualized in the life of humanity would be, at that precise moment when the capacity for conceiving and recognizing an ideal had been sufficiently developed to appre- ciate it. Before this, it would be wasted'; later, it would have been belated ; and Jesus came and embodied the Ideal Life just when humanity was capable of profiting by it, and of being stirred by it into higher aspiration and endeavour.
(2) The Redemptive work of Christ finds its place in an Evolutionary scheme of thought on cognate lines. It presupposes that a lapse, or at least a fatal halt, had occurred in the upward spiritual development of the race, and that all further progress was barred by the poisoning of the wells of progress by sin (see Fall). Before humanity could be released from this disability, which had interfered with the free interflow of the Divine and human fellowship, in the unrestricted action of which alone the spiritual life of man can develop, a process of reconciliation and at-one- ment with the source of the .spiritual Life must be initiated. Apart from this, the presentation of an Ideal Life would be a mockery, for its realiza- tion would be impossible. Thus, as already stated, the historical Incarnation took a redemptive form, and it was consummated by an act of supreme sacrifice.
Order^ ch,
world. The so-called cruel Law of Xatural Selection is" but another name for a rudimentary fact which finds its finest and most perfect realization in Ihe Cross of Christ. In nature we *ind three grades or stages of this process. (1) The sacrifice of the weak for the strong, as when those creatures in everv species which are ill-adapted for the propagation of their kind are elbowed out of existence by the vitally strong and efficient, and made ' subservient to another's good ' in the wav of food. (•!) The sacrifice of the strong for the weak, exemplified in the action of the imperious jiarental instinct which is manifested bv every living species above the very lowest, and which graduall"