VOL. I.— 49
St. Paul, who saw the perfect and ideal man in the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ (Eph 4''), never doubted that the perfection of manhood which was found in Christ was something to be per- sonally striven after. That was the <r/coir6s of the long race. On that the Christian must fix his eyes, towards that he must constantly press, if he would attain to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Ph 3"'-). See also Perfection (of Jesus). iii. The realization of the Ideal through
THE constraining POWER OF CHRIST.— We have seen that Christ in His teaching holds up an ideal, that He embodies this ideal historically in His own person, and sets it before us as an example which we must strive to follow. But to weak and sinful men and women this jiresentation by word and deed of a perfect moral ideal would be little else than a mockery, if Christ did nothing more than otter us an outward standard aftci- which we -ttcre to strive. It is in a far deeper srn^c tli;ui this that He Ls the Christian ideal. In hi> i.liih.us theory of Ideas, Plato conceived of thr lilr:il ( Imul :us an archetypal essence which becomes an cttiticnt cau.se, imparting to individuals a share of its own being, as the sun imparts ' vitality, growth, and nutriment ' to the creatures on which its rays fall {Bcp. vi. 509). And it is in this vital and archetyi)al manner that Jesus becomes the moral ideal of the human race. He gives what He commands, and so lias a right to command what He wills. We have constant illus- trations in the Gospels of this constraining power of the Ideal Goodness as it is presented to men and women in the person of Christ. The sinful woman
in the house of Simon the Pharisee (Lk
Zacchaius, the grasping publican of Jericho (ig'"'"), Matthew, leaving the receipt of custom to become an Apostle (Mt 9"||), may serve as examples. The author of the Fourth Gospel sums up the whole matter for us when he says : 'As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God ' (Jn 1'-). And to St. Paul, who brooded much over this mystery of Christ as it had been revealed to him in a profound personal experience, the secret of spiritual life and growth presented itself as an unfolding of the Christ-nature implanted by the agency of the Holy Spirit in the believer's soiJ. ' Christ in you,' he says, ' the hope of glory ' (Col 1") ; and again, ' I live ; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me' (Gal 2="). And when in another place he describes believers as ' foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren ' (Ko 8="), he suggests a figure which helps us to understand how Christ the ideal is not merely an outward type but an inward archetype. The younger brothers of a house are conformed to the likeness of the firstborn not so much by personal imitation as by the opera- tion of secret and vital forces which spring from the very fact of their birth as members of a partic- ular family, and which lie far deeper than the workings of the individual will. And so it is as between Christ and His people. ' For both he that sanctifieth,' says another NT writer, 'and they that are sanctified are all of one : for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren' (He 2").
art., mention may be made i. chs. i.-vi. ; Martensen, Clir. Ethics, i. 147-343 ; Green, Prole- gomena, bks. iii.-iv. ; Shairj), essay on ' The Moral Motive Power ' in Studies in Poetry and Philosophy.
J. C. Lambert. IDEAS (LEADING).— The leading ideas of our Lord may be divided into two classes. Moral and Religious. This is not an artificial division : it corresponds to two stages in His ]niblic teaching which are very clearly marked in the Gospels. The earlier stage is prevailingly ethical, and finds
IDEAS (LEADING)
IDEAS (LEADING)
r if^.) i:
its most characteristic utterance in the Sermon on the Mount. The later is, in comparison, distinct- ively ieli<nous, and deals with the relation of Ood to man. ^Yet we are not to separate the two ele- ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^, ^ raents, for they inter-penetrate one another. 1 Uej , ^^.^^^ ^^,,^^^ „„ „, are inter-dependent, and form together an organic Saying, and in^a whole.
i. Moral ideas.
1. The Kingdom.
•'. The Pure Heart.
3. The Inanite Value of the 1
4. The Law of Love. 6. The Universality of Love.
6. The Great Example.
7. Self-renunciation, ii. Religious ideas. , . „ ^
1. The Fatherhood of God.
2. The Son.
3. Faith.
i MoE.\L IDEAS.— 1. The Kingdom.— This idea must he placed first on account of its position in our Lord's teaching. ' Repent ye ; for the king- dom of heaven is at hand,' was the message of tlie Baptist and the first public utterance of Jesus ( \lt 4" Mk 1^*). From the beginnmg the idea ot t le Kiiigdom may be traced throughout the Gospels, and everywhere it wUl be found to indicate the supreme "blessing which comes to man from God. InSit it is usually termed the Kingdom of Heaven. Elsewhere the phrase Kingdom of God is uniformly employed.