; any traces on correspond- cter. If such he impression 1 it their true rnatural functions and gifts ; for mankind apart from
den
li;i-
He>l
and slions ( lial il lia-; lie. untouelieil Ipy the ilorliina know had jjiueeded its ea suggests, moreover, that tin struction tiiat can be put on t no more tlian tlie trutli. If, i lii"hest that is said of Him,
:si's.--\t is Hote- ls I he constitution <ii the definitions
rile. This is an of llir narrative,
woiiileiinl degree lo|inicnt w Inch we wiilirn n.iin. It
ely lii'jllest. COH-
wonK i<i ( 'lirist is rnlh, .loMis te the > I. |iie.-i-,.ly the I'-i- I o .lisdose
I.elM-,. lie would
iv-anlniv it, but through the total
i. Ills c'l, MMs. A- oo,i .-vs we return to the pint rail, we an' impressed by the extraordinary claims w l,n;li Je.sus nniUes on His own behalf. He is ]"ifect in humility; and 3'et, combined -vvith till' nliuo~l gentleness, the mo.st winning loveline.ss, there is an .assertion of His o•^^^l supreme import- ance, A\ hich is at once profound and sublime. These claims are sometimes stated explicitly ; more fre- quently they are implied in what He says and does. In aii\- ease, they are inseparalile from what He belie\cs Ilini.self to be. They enter into the very li'xt niv , .f the narrative. They are wrought of the \ ery fibre of the personality of Him who makes Llieni. Whatever qtiality of lieing is required to make them valid, we must inipnle to Ilim who deliberately advances them. Wiihoni |, resuming to make a complete enumeration, we noie Ihe fol- lowing among the offices and functions which Jesus avowedly claims to hold and fulfil.
1. Teacher.— In Jesus' discharge of this oftice, certain features at once attract attention.— (1) The solitariness of the office. There were in Jesus' day many teachers of religion, and the title of Rabbi, commonly given to them. He accepted (Mk 14", Jn 13"- "). These others, however, were prepared to be followed by successors who might wear their title and inherit their honours. But Jesus claimed to be a teacher in a sense in which He could not Ije followed by any of His ilisciples, however learned and pious (Mt 23"). He did not aim at raising up men who should succeed Him in this office. His office of teacher is His alone. No doubt there came to be in the Church certain men ujion whom the Spirit of God c..nlcrre,l a special uift of knowledge, who were accord iiej I V re.-ovnizeil .-is ■ i,-arlicr, ' (1 Co 1228). But teachers a ficr llie iialicin oi Cliiist were not to be instituted, and were not needed in the new Society (1 Tli ^\ 1 Jn 2='). This solitari- ness of His office is a remarkable fact. He was, then, the bearer of a message which could not be
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INCARNATION
INCARNATION
pronounced by other lips than His, wliich ori^nated in the depths of His consciousness, and owed all its significance and value to the personality of Him who declared it.
(2) The note of authority. — This could not he missed, and, in one who had not received the special training of a school Rabbi, it was pro- foundly impressive. When the people heard His first sermon in Capernaum, ' they were astonished at his teacliinu : for he tauj;ht them as having authority, a 11.1 n,.t ;i- tli.' Myites' (Mk 1~). The source of thi- :iiilliurity lies in the quality of His mind, which iliirrtly Vcu- things Divine. His teaching is nut the i.^.Mie uf a dialectic process ; it is of the nature of a report, and implies that the Teacher lives in a habitual intercourse with God, such as no other man ever enjoyed (Jn 3"). His authority, therefore, is His own absolutely. He quotes no otlier Kabbi, leans on no human opinion, however sound and wise. More amazing still, He does not use the formula wliich marks the super- natural authority of a projjhet, 'Thus saith the Lord.' For this He substitutes the simpler, more astounding phrase, ' I say unto you.' ' He speaks at all times with the same absolute conWction and consciousness of His Di\-ine right. There is majesty in His least utterance, and it is nowhere more easily recognized than in the unvarnished record of the Gospel according to St. Mark' (Swete, atiidirs in the Teaehinq of our Lord, p. 64). jNIany men have been into.xica'ted by theii- own conceit : but the .swelling vanity of their tone has easily been detected. When Jesus emploj's the note of authority. He is simply being tnie to His own inner consciousness, which, to its inmost core, is clear, genuine, and reliable.
(3) The originality of the teaching.— \t would be a mistake to attribute to Jesus the independence of a mind which excluded all possible sources of in- formation or instruction, and operated only in a medium of its own imaginations or conceptions. Kelations may be traced between the teaching of Jesus and ideas which found lodgment in other minds than His ; yet His originality is not thereby infringed. Thus, for instance, His teaching was couched in the terminology and in the forms of thought common to the religious teaching of His day. A parallel might easily be drawn to illus- trate this (cf. Shailer Mathews, The Messianic Hope in the NT, p. 71ft'.). This, however, in no way lowers tlie value of the teaching of Jesus. Ideas are not necessarily valueless, because found in Rabbinical theology. By taking them up into His larger and loftier thought, Jesus has placed upon them the stamp of His authority. The central idea of the teachin", moreover, is not borrowed from contemporary thought. The spirituality of tlie Kingdom of God is Jesus' special contribution to tlie religious life of His day. This conception is all Hi.s own, and is the organizing power of all His teachin". Attempts to set aside certain parts of His teaching as derived from external sources, and as being, therefore, of no permanent value, wreck them.selves upon the fact that He was cer- tainly no eclectic, and that His teaching lias none of tlie features of a patchwork. His originality consists in the sjmthetic, transforming power of His mind. Again, His teacliin" is not independent of, rather is it rooted in, the OT. He Himself re- pudiated the idea that He was breaking wifli the religion of Israel. He does claim, however, to ' fulfil ' the Law and the Prophets (Mt 5").