(d) To base the incarnation solely on the need of redemption, is to make Christ a means and not an end in Himself, or, in more modern language, to reduce the most glorious manifestation of God for the perfecting of humanity to an expedient contingent upon the untoward incident of sin. In Christ alone, as the centre and end, is the highest possible for man reaUzed ; if this were dependent on the Fall, then sin would be a ^felix cttlpa ' in
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head of the body, tlu ( .i ;,. ,;,.i iip ui-tl-au from the dead.' It was God's etiin 1 | ii|. .. ti -mi. u]. ;ill things in Christ,' 'in whom also w . ,, l r. ii;,i In li' iilju' (' t. also Jn !•', Hel2, lCo8S, RevSUit..). l;,.i. jni.tiua i- l„ re presented as somethinsf which forms a harmonions i»art uf a larger plan. Christ is at once the Alpha and the Omega, the medium and the end of creation, the beginning and the consummation of God's eternal purpose.
(ii.) The commonly received view that the Incar- nation is simply a neces.sary part of the work of redemption, is supported by the priiiuc facie teach- ing of Scripture. ' The Son of man came to seek and to save ' (Lk 19'°) ; ' God sent forth his Son . . . that he might redeem' (Gal 4«.). These are examples of innumerable passages which represent the mission of Christ in this light. But to this it may be answered that, though historically and actually the Incarnation has taken this redemptive aspect, and is naturally and properly so presented in the Gospel, another view of it, under different conditions, is not excluded, of which, as we have seen, ^\■e are in fact permitted brief glimpses in a wider field of vision.
(iii.) Both the foregoing \'iews may be united and harmonized in what is really the truest and deepest conception, viz. that God's purimse is an eternal and unchangeable unity, and every part of it, as wrought out in history, must be regarded as having its proper place in relation to the whole. It is by a misunderstanding of the absolute being and counsels of God that we discuss at all questions as to what might have been done under other con- ditions. The view of the question liefore us whidi is most worthy of a true conception of God, and which at the same time agrees with the broad teaching of Scripture, is that in the infinite coun- sels of Him who sees the end from the beginning, KedemptioiL i-^ \vrouL;lit into the very fabric of God's eternal i^iuijio^e, .-ill parts of which — Crea- tion, Redemption, liu.-u nation. Atonement, the Final Consummation, li.mu lo-ether harmoni- ously as integral an.l rem luteal elements in one homogeneous, perfect, and lURhangeable unity. The question as to the relation of the Fall to the Incarnation thus resolves itself into that of the place of the Fall in God's plan of the world ; and we need not hold with hyper-Calvinists that sin was foreordained, in onlei'to believe that the Fall, foreseen and i)ern)itte<l, enters into an intimate and essential relation to the whole of the Divine pl.m. Til tlii^ jilan Incarnation holds a central )ila. o, .111,1 it- 1. ileiiiptive significance is one aspect of a wilier 11 lation to the world, as the means for //., 7- . (■(/,(/ a-- well as for redeeming the Imman rue. This view preserves the place of Redemption I the foreground of God's revealed plan, avoids
le necessity of conceiving any change in the ! 'i\ine purpose contingent upon sin, and at the same time gives the Incarnation that cosmical
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significance worthy of its transcendent character. Thus Christ is central and supreme, and the whole scheme of Redemption is presented in a true per- spective, more in harmony witli the requirements of modern thought.
2. The relation of the Fall to the redemptive work of Christ.- In thr distinitiM'ly soteriological aspects of Christ's wmk, we are hiouglit at once into close relation to the I'all. We have here to consider (i.) tlie reality and general nature of the Fall, as seen in the light of Kedemption ; and (ii.) the main points of detail in which the Fall an<l the redeeming work of Christ explain and illustrate each other.
(i.) The doctrine of the Fall is vital to the Chris- tian system ; the reality and general nature of the Fall, as a great downward and letrourade step in thehistoryofiii.iiikiii.l.Mi.M-onliiiiieihin.lillustniteil hy the redeni]iti-.e «..ik ol Clni-.l. This :is|,r(t of Christ's work, uhirl, ocniiiies iii Srri|iiuie the foiv- niost place, is cvciywheie reiuusuuted as reuUeicd necessary by something grievously abnormal in the condition of the human race. 1 he Scripture doc- trine of sin as ab.solute evil ; man's universal sin- fulness, helplessness, and state of spiritual death, which form the very basis of Bedemption ; the representation of mankind as ' lost,' ' alienated ' from God, and yet capable and worthy of being redeemed and restored ;- all this, as so abundantly presented and ein|iliiir,i/,ed in connexion with the atoning worl; of (lui-f, .lilordsthe strongest con- firmation of tlie cloctiine that man has faflen from a higher condition. Whatever may be said as to the Incarnation (see 1, above), it is clear that the great outstanding fact of the iVtonement, with all the suffering and sacrifice which it involved, can only be accounted for at once by the dignity and the degradation of man, — in other words, by the Fall.