3. The 7ucessity of Christ's hvmrinify.—'Vo one wlio sees no Divinity in Christ, the question of the necessity of His humanity is meaningless, not to say impertinent. Of course, He must be human, says such a one, since this is the only path to leadership. God has committed His work for men in the w'orld to men. Apart from those mysterious communications of revelation which selected teachers of men have had, the only possible teacher of men is a man who can approach them with messages which they can understand, in words appropriate to their nature. However true these general principles are, the standpoint here assumed is not that of the Gospels. To them, Christ ' came ' to the earth (see Divinity of Christ) ; and the question arises wliv tlii> is so. why He took upon HimselfhununiiyA.nl -I.Tai,..- llesh' (.Jn 1"). Did this question aii-.- in tlic minds of the Aijostles? and is there trarr ot s|ic(ulaliiin, or of interest as to it, in the Gospels? Tliere are indisputable traces of both in the Epistles, especially m that to the Hebrews. It is represented in this Epistle that the object of Christ's coming in the flesh was particularly to offer His body a sacrifice (lO*-'", cf. 2"- ") ; but not merely this, for the jxissession of humanity itself afibrds Him a spiritual qualifica- tion for His priestly work, in that He shares the lot of men, and learns thereby how to symjiathize with them in their temptations and their failures (217- IS 415. 16 52) There is also the suggestion of an idea which is brought out more clearly in the Fourth Gospel, — the same as that suggested above, — that the humanity was the necessary medium of the revelation of God, since it is through Jesus that God '.speaks' (Jn 1' 3"). This form of presentation covers the point why the humanity was a necessity when once God had determined to enter ujjon the stage of human history as Redeemer. But St. John pushes the matter a little farther back. He begins with the eternal 'Word,' which was in the beginning with God and was God, and sets forth His appearing in the world under the figure of light shining into darkness (1' 3" 8'-), and needed because of the darkness. The ground of the Incarnation is found in this need, in the existence of sin, and the neces- sity of salvation through faith (V). It is to pro- duce 'children of God' (l'=) that Christ comes. The coming is the manifestation of the glory of God (l'<), but that glory is the moral glory of 'grace and truth.' The culmination of the whole work of redemption is, however, the cross (3" lO"- 18 1513^ cf. He W- "), and it is the human body and soul of Christ that suffered there (19=*). This is the central idea of the Fourth Gosi>ei ; but other elements are not lacking, as the necessity of the humanity to the work of instruction, which was a main element of Jesus' work (3"- ''• "• ^-), and which culminated in the revelation of the Father, which needed humanity as the medium of communication to human beings (14" 12« 16"). Union with the Father was also essential to Christ's work (14" etc. ), because this consisted in the manifestation of God's name (17*). The necessary spiritual sustenance, finally, was gained through the body and blood of Christ (6«-»-"), that i-, tlnunJh what His humanity alone was capalilr ot doin- tor man.
4. Unique elements </ "<■■: /i",,i<r,fifii. — The humanity of Christ, in order tu satisfy the con- ditions now before us, must be a reality. No ' phantom,' or merely phenomenal body, could perform the offices required in these Scripture passages of the humanity. But other elements
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HUMILIATION OF CHRIST 755
also appear which give a new aspect to the human nature. Among tliese need not be reckoned the origin of tlie body of Jesus by miraculous conception, as related in the First and Third Gospels ; for however the process of development from the first cell might be initiated, the resulting development must be in any case that of a human body. Side by side with evident human limitations, such as ignorance (as of the day and hour of His OAvn return to the earth, Mt 24?'^), there exist phenomena of a like nature altogether transcend- ing humanity, such as the knowledge by which He not only 'knew what was in man' (Jn 2^), read the thoughts of men often as an open book (Mt g* 12=5, Lk 68 Q"), but, above all, knew per- fectly the will of the Father and the mysteries of Divine truth. He walked laboriously from Judaea to Galilee (Jn 4*), but He could suddenly appear upon the surface of the sea in the storm, walking upon the water (Mt 14== ||). These and other such considerations (see Divinity of Christ) raise the question how these things could consist in Him, that is, the question of the nature of the Person of Christ, a question belonging to dogmatics, and thus lying outside of the scope of this article. But — this is the main point — whatever more than humanity there was in Christ, the evidence alreadjr cited is decisive as to the reality of His humanity.
S. The unity of Jesus' consciousness. — Christ was, then, a man. Does this word comprehens- ively express the Gospel teaching as to His per- son 1 He had a personality as men are persons. He had a consciousness which expressed itself by the pronoun ' I.' Was this a human consciousness, so that when asked as to Himself Jesus would have replied : ' / am a man ' ? There are two elements in the answer to this question. («) Jesus' consciousness was a unity. He passes easily from the consideration of earthly to heavenly things, from walking upon the water to sitting quietly in the boat, as if both of these things belonged to Him e(^ually. The impression made upon the un- sophisticated reader or the Gospels is that of a single consciousness. In fact, in order to be ex- plicable at all, the Gospels must convey such an impression. But pivotal passages, even those which have seemed to give a basis for the idea that He spoke now ' as God ' and now ' as man,' do not justify such an inference when carefully considered. He did not mean in Mt 4^" 'Thou (Satan) shalt worship the Lord thy God (me),' and not I thee. He meant that the law of worship for any one, and for Him as bound to fulfil all right- eousness (Mt 3'=), was the worship of the Lord only. In Mt 8^"" and parallels He was not in one capacity asleep in the boat and in another watching over the disciples in that storm, but He was totally asleep as He appeared. He did not chide them for lack of faith in such a waking providence of His own, of which they had no knowledge, but for their lack of faith in God (cf. Mk 4''"), whose messenger Christ was, and who would care for both Him and them. In Mk 5*" and parallels it is not Jesus in one personality healing the woman and in another inquiring what had happened, that is brought before us ; but God the Father made use of Him to answer the petition, unknown to Him but known to God, and He became conscious in this use of Himself that He was so used ('having come to perceive that the power which [often, on other occasions] went forth from him had [on this occasion] gone forth,' cf. KV).