Jesus accejDted the idea of life as it had come to Him through the OT. To Him also life is primarily the physical existence (cf. Mt 6^^ ' Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat and drink,' etc.), and He advances on this conception along ethical and religious lines, in the same inanner as the Psalmists and Projihets. (1) He distinguishes between the essential 'life' and the outward subsidiary things with which it is so easily confused. 'The life is more than meat'
* The various terma used, and the many English equivalents, will be found fully treated in Hastings' DB, artt. 'Free,' ' Freedom,' etc.
(Lk 12-^). 'A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth ' (v.^^). ' What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his life?' (Mk S^"). (2) Thus He arrives at the idea of something central and in- alienable which constitutes the reality of life. This He discovers in the moral activity. The body with its manifold faculties is only the organ by which man accomplishes his true task of obedi- ence to God. Meat, raiment, and all the rest are necessary, ' but .seek iirst the kingdom of God and his righteousness.' (3) In this way He is led to the conception of a higher, spiritual life, gained through the sacrifice of the lower. ' If a man hate not his OAvn life, he cannot be my disciple ' (Lk 14^"'). ' He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it' (Mt 10^9 1625).
Here, however, we become aware of the difficulty Avhich meets us under different forms throughout our Lord's teaching. In His account of the supreme blessing for Avhich lower things must be sacrificed. He seems to pass abruptly from ethical to eschato- logical ideas. ' Life ' is a reward laid up for the righteous in the world to come. It is regarded sometimes as a new state of being (Mt 25'*''), some times as a sort of prize that can be bestowed in the same manner as houses and goods and lands (Mk 1()^"). The precise meaning to be attached to ' the world to come' in which this 'life' will be im- parted, depends on our interpretation of the general conception of the Kingdom of God. Our Lord would appear to waver between the idea of a world beyond death and that of a Messianic age or aeon, apocalyptically revealed on earth. In either case, however, He thinks of 'life' as_ of something still in the future, the peculiar blessing of the realized Kingdom of God.
This future possession is defined more particularly in several passages as 'eternal life,' and the epithet might appear at first sight to imply a distinction. We find, however, on closer examination that 'the term 'life' itself usually involves the emphatic meaning. 'This do and thou shalt live ' (Lk 10'2'>) is our Lord's reply to the inquiry concerning 'eternal life.' So when He says, 'It is better to "enter into life halt or maimed' (Mt 188, Ilk 9^3), or ' Narrow is the way that leadeth unto life ' (Mt 7i-»), it is evidently the future blessing that is in His mind. There is good ground for the conjecture that Jesus Himself never used the expression ' eternal life.'
Since the ethical and eschatological ideas are denoted by the same word, we are justified in assuming that in the mind of Jesus they were bound up with one another. The 'life' which is projected into the future and described figuratively as a gift bestowed from without, is in the last resort the life of moral activity. This becomes more apparent when we take account of certain further elements in our Lord's teaching.
(«) The condition on which the future reward is given is faithful performance of the moral task in the present. Those shall ' live ' who keep the com- mandments. The narrow way that leads to life is the way of obedience and sacrifice. By voluntary loss of earthly things in the cause of Christ, the disciples will gain ' life ' (Mk lO^'*). The apocalyptic imagery does not conceal from us the essential thought of Jesus, that the promised ' life ' is nothing but the outcome and fulfilment of a moral obedience begun on earth.
(b) Life is not only a future fulfilment, but has a real beginning in the present. Thus in the saying, ' Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead ' (Mt 8^2 = Lk 9™), Jesus implies that the disciples even now enter into possession of a new and higher life. They are the 'living' as opposed to the children of this world, who are spiritually dead. The same thought appears in the parable of the Prodigal Son : 'he was dead and is alive again ' (Lk 15=^2). Life in its full reality is the blessing of the world to come, l-i'' it- v'ill be different in
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degree, not in kind, from the present life of true discipleship.
(c) One element is common to the two types of 'life," and marks their ultimate identitj-. The future consummation, described by Jesus in vivid pictorial language, is in its substance a closer fellowship with God. In the Kingdom wliich He anticipateil, tlie pure in heart were to see God (Mt o*") ; those who hungered and thirsted after righteousness were to be satisfied with God's presence (v."). This perfect communion AN-ith God is the supreme re^\■ard laid up for tlie believer. It constitutes the inner meaning and content of the future Life. In like manner the present life of moral obedience is in its essence a life of fellowship with God. The aim of Jesus is to bring His dis- ciples even now into such a harmony with the Divine will that they may be children of their Father who is in heaven, resembling Him and holding real communion with Him. The eschato- logical idea of life thus resolves itself at its centre into the purely ethical and religious. The King- dom is already come when God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven.