But thatw-as only the beginning of the mightiest work of all with which the power of God in Christ is associated, and which is only coming slowly to manifestation in the moral progress of humanity. Christ in the power of His Spirit is in the moral life of mankind. He is morally re-creating the life of the human race. The moral order of the world is being evolved by means of His moral power as the Mediator between God and men. By means of His moral power in man's life and his- tory, He is conducting humanity onwards in the path that will bring it to a perfect moral destiny in the kingdom of God. This is the greatest, mightiest of all His miracles ; and whosoever imderstands the momentousness of the moral task it implies will not stumble at any of the miglity works on record in the Gospels.
Literature.— On iist;»^;« and «i.«iur see the Lexicons of Cremer and Grimm-Thayer, s.vv. On Christ's miraculous power see art. ' Miracles ' in Hastings' DB ; Mozley, Bampton Lectures, esp. Lect. vi. W. D. ThOMSOX.
FORERUNNER.— See John the Baptist.
FORESIGHT.— The interest of the student of the Gospels, and of the life of Jesus which forms their substance, in the topic of this article, is two- fold. Jesus is represented in the Gospels as at once the object and the subject of the most de- tailed foresight. The work which He came to do was a work ordained in the counsels of eternity, and in all its items prepared f..r brf.iri-li;uiil with the most perfect prevision. In .iiMr.-^-inu lliin-ilf to the accoraplisliment of thi> wm k .1. ~n^ pro- ceeded from the beginning in tht- fullr-t know- ledge of the end, and with the most absolute adjustment of every step to its attainment. It is from this double view -point that each of the Evan^jelists depicts the course of our Lord's life on earth. They consentiently represent Him as having come to perform a specific task, all the elements of which were not only determined be- forehand in the plan of God, but adumbrated, if somewhat sporadically, yet with sufficient ful- ness for the end in view, in the prophecies of the OT. And they represent Him as coming to perform this task with a clear consciousness of Its nature and a competent control of all the means for its discharge, so that His whole life v.as a conscientious fulfilment of a programme, and moved straight to its mark. The conception
of foresight thus dominates the whole Evangelical narrative.
It is not necessary to dwell at length upon the Evangelists' conception of our Lord's life and work as the fulfilment of a plan Divinely pre- determined for Him. It lies on the face of their narratives that the authors of the Gospels had no reservation with respect to the all-embracing pre- destination of God (cf. Hastings' DD iv. 54-56) ; and least of all could they exclude from it this life and work which was to them the hinge upon which all history turns. To them accordingly our Lord is by way of eminence ' the man of destiny,' and His whole life (Lk -2^ 4«) was governed bj ' the 5el of the Divine counsel.' Every step of His pathway was a ' necessity ' to Him, in the fulfil- ment of the mission for which He had ' come forth ' (Mk 1=8, cf. Swete), or as St. Luke (4«) in quite Johannine wise (o-'^- '"■ *>• ^- ^ G-"-'- >»• ^- ■•" et passim) expresses it, 'was sent' (cf. Mt 10", Mk 9=7, Lk 9^8 10'» ; Jit 15-^ 21", Mk 12", Lk 201^, cf. Swete on jMk 9"). Especially was all that con- cerned His departure, the accomplishment of which (Lk 9^S cf. v.^'i) was His particular task, under the government of this ' Divine necessity ' (Mt 16-' 26", Mk 8^1, Lk 9- 17-^ 22^-- ^ 24'- «, Jn 3» 20', cf. Ac 2=3 318 428^ ana We.stcott on Jn 20»). His final journey to Jerusalem (Mt 16='), His rejection by the rulers (Mk 8", Lk 9~ IT"-*), His betrayal (Lk 24'), arrest (Mt 26--'), suflerings (Mt 26", Mk 8^', Lk 9== 17^), and death (Mt IG'-', Mk 8»', Lk 9~) by crucifixion (Lk 24', Jn 3'^), His rising again (Jn 209) on the third day (Mt 16=', Mk 8^', Lk 9== 24"- ^') — each item alike is declared to have been ' a matter of neces.sity in pursuance of the Divine purpose ' (Meyer, Mt 24"), ' a necessary part of the destiny assigned our Lord ' ( Meyer, Mt 26=«). ' The death of our Lord ' thus appears ' not as the acci- dental work of hostile caprice, but (cf. Ac 2== 3'*) the necessary result of the Divine predestination (Lk 22-), to which Divine Stt (Lk 24-'«) the per- sonal free action of man had to serve as an instru- ment' (Meyer, Ac 4=").
How far the several events which entered into this life had been prophetically announced is obvi- ously, in this view of it, a mere matter of detail. All of them lay open before the eyes of God ; and the only limit to pre-announcemeiit was the extent to which God had chosen to reveal what was to come to pass, through His servants the prophets. In some instances, however, the prophetic an- nouncement is particularly adduced as tne gi'ound on which recognition of the necessity of occurrence rests. The fulfilment of Scripture thus becomes regulative for the life of Jesus. 'Whatever stoo<l written of Him in the Law or the Prophets or the Psalms (Lk 24") must needs (Set) be accomplished (Mt 26", Lk 22" 24'=«, Jn 2(>'). Or, in another form of statement, particularly frequent in Mt. , yii i.«i'- -'3 414 817 i-w 1335 oii OQX) and Jn. (12^ IS'" I.'k"' 17'= xy-*-^), but found also in the other Evan- gelists (Mk U'", Lk 4='), the several occurrences of His life fell out as they did, ' in order that what was spoken by the Lord ' through the prophets or in Scripture, ' might be fulfilled ' (cf. Mt 2" 26" 27^ Lk 24" ; in Jn IS^- '=, Lk 24" declarations of Jesus are treated precisely similarly). That is to say, ' what was done stood ... in the connexion of the Divine necessity, as an actual fact, by which prophec}^ was destined to be fulfilled. The Divine decree expressed in the latter mvst be accom- plished, and til that rnd this . . . enmc to pass, and that, nceordinq tn the vhole of its contents' (Meyer, Mt 1-'=). The meaning is, not that there lies in the OT Scriptures a complete predictive account of all the details of the life of Jesus, which those skilled in the interpretation of .Scripture might read oft' from its pages at will. This pro-