Our Lord clearly sets before us the reward of goodness and the punishment which awaits unrepented sin. The subject is a puzzling one, becanse of the anil>iguities of language. But our thoughts will l.r ., , fr. r fidiii , .iifn^iMii if we consider our Lord's teafhiii - it ;;ifi N. ,i| 1 1 1 trm r^rtain popular miscon- cejJtions. Ii \ : : ■ 1 i li i -aching, the Kingdi
itself I
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tliv Lord'
to livi' for tlie H"..il itsrll. The j.'0«lii. ss or badness of working for rewards depends altogetlier on the nature of the rewards which are sought. To work for selfish ends is always wrong, to
ii. Rkligious ideas.— We have considered the leading ethical ideas of our Lord's teaching. But, as must now be quite apparent, it is impossible to
IDEAS (LEADING)
IDEAS (LEADING)
Though om- Lord Himself advanced from a pre- vailingly ethical stage of instruction to a stage which ^^ as more distinctively religious, yet in His
deals with the underlying principles. For example, when speaking of tlie ordinary work of human life, and giving the great rule, ' Seek tirst the kingdom,' He led His hearers on to the thought of tlie Fatherhood of God as the reason why they should renounce all anxiety and live for the higher ends (Mt 628- »'-^2,_
1. The Fatherhood of God.— This idea stands first among those which belong to the distinctively religious side of our Lord's teaching. He gave it a fundamental position, and conveyed it in every possible way to the minds of His hearers. By word, by manner, by the manifestation of His own spiritual experience, and, aljove all, by being what He was, and at the same time declaring Himself to be a revelation of the mind and will of God (see Mt 1127 253"f-, Jn 5""^- S'^ff- lO-^"'- 12«"'- 14-16), our Lord taught men to think of God as ' the Father,' and to attribute to Him all the benignity and bountifulness of the fatherly character. Here it is impossible to separate the teaching from the life of Christ. It is through the Christ Himself that man learns to know God as the Father. Jesus was intensely conscious of God's presence and relation to Himself. He saw into the heart of God with a clearness of vision unparalleled in human experience. He speaks of God out of a perfect knowledge, and whenever a human soul is able truly to hear, belief follows. The revelation of God made by Him carries conviction with it. It is so great a thing that it cannot but be true. When once man has grasped it, no other account of God can be accepted.
ule. The fulness of now belong to the idea as connected with our relation i are very largely derived from the teaching and influence of our Lord.
In the teaching of our Lord the Fatherhood of God is presented in three ways : (1) Jesus speaks of God as ' My Father.' This name was very dear to Jesus. It sprang from His consciousness of relationship to God. Clearly, it bore a special meaning. He was Son of God in a unique sense. This truth is emphasized by the manner in which the expression ' My Father ' is frequently used (Mt 1032.33 1127^ Lk 2-'» 22=9, jngi7 io=!i.3o 175 20"; see also Mt 7=^' 16" IS'"- "■ ^5 20=», Mk 8™, Lk 24''9, Jn 520.45 Q32S. gi9ff. i4_i6). These passages fully carry out the idea expressed in the announcements at His baptism and on the Mount of Transfiguration (Mk 1" and 9'). (2) Our Lord taught His disciples to think of tliPiiisflvcs as a family, with God above them a-- ilicii 1''.iIImi. 'I'licy were called into a speci:ill\ ■](,,■ iil.ii i..ii-lii|. (11 God, and became in that s|iii Mill -(live Ills cliililrcu. In the Sermon on the Mciiuit, .Ifsus addresses His disciples, and con- tinually speaks to them of God, calling Him ' your Father ' (Mt 5«- «• *» 6'- «• "• is- 32 7U)_ < year not,' He says, ' little flock ; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give \.mi tlir kiimd'.ini ' (T,k 12"-). In the Lord's Pr.-.y.'i ili.- :nMiv- -(lur l-;itli.-i- has reference to tin- Ji-.i|,l..- ■,, il,,. Limily of Cod. Perhaps we dare not limil tlii> ■nin,' but the prayer was given to the disciides for their own use, and the word was surely meant to have the effect of uniting them as a family under the head- ship of their Father in Heaven. (3) Our Lord's
teaching regards God as the Father of all men. Mt 6^=^, Lk 6^ imply this great extension of the Divine Fatherhood. But clearer still are the parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Piece of Silver, and the Prodigal Son (Lk 15). The parable of the Good Samaritan extends the sphere of love beyond the bounds of Judaism, a:id throws light on such passages as Mt 6** and Lk 6*'. Its prin- ciple corresponds, in the human sphere, to that expressed by the words, ' God so loved the world ' (Jn 3'=).
Our Lord, then, teaches us to think of God as the Father, and at the same time as Sovereign over the greatest of all kingdoms. The character- istic attribute of this paternal Sovereignty is love. His love is so wide that it includes the unthankful and evil, those who have turned their backs upon their Father's house and renounced His authority. It is the source from which springs all that is de- scribed as Unlvation. It explains the mission of the Christ (Jn 3i«). It is the inner truth of the life of Him who came to seek and to save the lost. It is that Divine characteristic from which pro- ceed 'joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth ' (Lk 15'). And when this love has won the sinner, it introduces him into a circle in which he is brought more immediately under the Divine Fatherhood. He becomes a member of the family, the Kingdom, that great order of things in which men feel and experience the love of the Great Father. Finally, there is that supreme degree of Divine Fatherhood which belongs to the relation between the Father and Him who is in a unique sense the Son. The life and death of Christ reveal the love of God to man because of this relation. God's love appears because He gave His only- begotten Son. See also art. Father.