4. The Place of Fatherhood in the teaching of Jesus.— In accordance with the fact that the sole subject on which Jesus claimed to possess unique knowledge was the character of God, or, as we may now say, the Fatherhood of God, we find that this truth is central and determinative in all His teaching. His conception of the Kingdom of heaven was dependent on His conception of the cliaracter of God. The Kingdom which He wished to see come on earth was the Kingdom of the Father (Mt 6^), a Kingdom in which the will of the Father should be done. Therefore the conception of the Kingdom of heaven is not the fundamental tliought of Jesus. Nor was His teaching determined by
II is sense of the imperfections of the Law. These imperfections He saw clearly, but not because of a ( ritiial analysis of the Law such as a philosophical student of history might make. He considered the Law from above, as one who iiossusscil in Him- .self a higher standard, a more ["iIimI kii..\vledge of the Divine wilh His work w,,s, i,,,!,.,.!. lu fulhl the Law, and to establish tlic Kin;^il(ini of God on earth ; but the inspiring and ruling thought in all His work was tlie truth of God's Fatheriiood. What He teaches of man's relation to God is deter- mined by this truth. It is gathered up in the thought of sonship. The lost son is to return to the Father. His life is to be one of filial service in the Father's presence. And it is the goodness of the I'ather that draws him back.
The Fatherhood of God requires that the spirit of the religious life shall be love, out of which will be born perfect trust. It invites and draws man to communion with God, and determines the char- acter of his devotion. What Jesus teaches of man's relation to man is al.so determined by His consciousness of the character of God. His morality is purely religious. The ethical life of His dis- ciples is to be controlled by the fact of their son- ship to God. The standard of that life is the very quality which constitutes the perfection of God (Mt 5*). It is one and the same quality that makes Him the Father and makes man His son. Thus the entire teaching of Jesus is but the interpreta- tion of the fact of God's Fatherhood. This is the sun in His heaven which lights and warms the broad field of human life.
S. Jesus' conception of God compared with that of the OT, and with views of His contemporaries. — The new revelation which Jesus gave of the char- acter of God was put into a term which had long been applied to Him in Israel. The first of the great prerogatives of the Jewish people which are enumerated by St. Paul is the adoption (Ho 9*), that is, the appointment of Israel to be in a peculiar sense God's son. This thought was derived from the OT. God's message to Pharaoh by Moses in- volved a paternal relation to Israel, for Moses was to say in God's name, ' Israel is my son, my first- born' (Ex 4=2). Again, Deuteronomy represents Moses as saying to the people, 'Asa man chasteneth his son, so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee' (Dt 8^ 32'^) ; and the Lord says in Hosea that when Israel was a child He loved him and callwl His son out of Egypt (Hos 11' 1'"). In thi's,. passaLTs, and in a few more, God is thou,i;ht (.1 as a I'aihrr to the people of Israel as a wlidc: aial ilr is the Father of Israel because He made tla'ni a nation and established them by His mighty power (Dt 32"). So far His Fatherhood is wholly national. There are, however, other passages in which we have an individualizing of the thought of Fatherhood. Thus the Lord says of the theocratic descendant of David, ' I will be his father, and he shall be my son ' (2 S 7") ; and the Messianic king puts the decree of Jehovah concerning himself m these words, 'Thou art my son; this day have I be- gotten thee ' (Ps 2'). There is also an individual- izing of God's Fatherhood with reference to other persons, for the Psalter calls Him the Father of the fatherless; and His pity for those who fear Him is like the pity of a father for his children (Ps es'^ 103'^). Yef; in all these passages we see only the relation of God to His chosen people, or to a particular class among them, or to His chosen king. ' Father ' is a word of relation, not yet a description of God's very character. It marks an advance upon that conception of Fatherhood which is derived from the fact of creation, but it is still I far removed from the view of Jesus. The OT gave to Jesus the name ' Father ' for God, but He I filled it with a new content.
582
FATHERS
FATHER'S HOUSE
When .ve come clown from the OT to the tune of Jesv^s\ve find among the Jews a conception of God that is far more widely unlike that o^ the gospel, and which by contrast serves to bring out theWtof Jesusintostron|re^ief^ T^^^^^^^
LTr7re\Tti:n of'the^La: not on the spiritual teachin Tth,. Pr.rliets. God wius PUt further andfunh.r ..ay : tie conception of Hun became incrca~in Jy ali~ua.t and transcendental.