11. If, hoA\ever, Ave are in sympathy Avith this conviction, it may fairly be argued that Ave can preach Clirist Avithout raising any further ques- tions. We must find tlie absolute significance of Jesus in the area Avithin Avhich Jesus presented Himself to men, ' beginning from tlie baptism of John until the day Avhen he Avas taken up' (Ac 1-"-^). This Avas the basis on Avhich the gospel Avas launched into history, faith evoked, and the Church founded. Tliis Avas the gosjiel of the original Apostolic testimony, and it is Avithin its limits that the poAver of Christ must be felt. Once Ave do recognize this power, and its incomparable and unique significance, Ave are prepared to let our minds go further, and to appreciate at its true value Avliat the Apostles and Evangelists tell us of such things as tlie pre-existence of Christ and the condescension of His entrance into the world. But these can ncA^er be the first things in preaching Christ. To put them first is really to put stumbling- blocks in the Avay of faith. Faith is evoked by seeing Jesus and hearing Him, and Ave see and hear Him only Avithin the range indicated above. It is only faith, too, that preaches; preaching is faitli's testimony to Christ. Hence, although faith must amount to a conviction of Christ's absolute signi- ficance, it must find the basis of this conviction in the liistorical Saviour, and it is only by appeal to the historical SaA'iour that it can reproduce itself in others. Accordingly it may exist and may render effective testimony to Christ Avithout rais- ing questions that carry us beyond this area. Hoav Ave ai'e to think of the superliistorical relation to God of the Person Avliose absolute significance Ave recognize in history, Iioav Ave are to tliink of Avhat is usually called His pre-existence, and of the marvel of His entrance into the Avorld of nature and of history : these are questions Avhieh faith's con- viction as to Christ's significance Avill dispose us to face in a certain spirit rather than anotlier, but they are not questions on Avhicli tiie existence of the gospel, or the possibility of faith, or of preach- ing Christ, is dependent. With such faculties as Ave have, and especially such an inability to make clear to ourselves Avhat Ave mean by the relation of the temporal to the eternal, — a relation Avhicli is iuA'olved in all such questions, — it may even be that Ave recognize our inability to grasp truth about them in forms for Avhicli Ave can ciiallenge the assent of others. We can be certain from
PREDICTION
PRE-EMINENCE
403
Christ's life that His very presence in the world is 1 the assurance of an extraordinary condescension and grace in God, even if we are bafHed in trying to think out all that is involved either in His coming forth from the Father or in His entrance into humanity. But if on the basis of an experi- ence evoked by the Apostolic testimony we can call Him Lord and Saviour, recognizing in^im the only-begotten Son through whom alone we are brought to the Father, then we can preach Him, be our ignorance otherwise as deep as it may be.
12. It might have seemed natural, in the discus- sion of such a question, to refer more directly to the various criteria of Christianity which the NT itself suggests, e.g. Ko 10'', 1 Jn 4-^-. But the last of these two passages only emphasizes the historical character of Christianity, the truth of our Lord's manhood, and the first the exaltation of Jesus : and to both of these justice has been done. The combination of the two is indeed required in preaching Christ, and it is all that is required. The reality of Jesus' life on earth as He Himself was conscious of it, the life of One uniquely related to God, and present in our world to make us all His debtors for revelation and redemjjtion ; and the exaltation of such a One to the right hand of God : it is on this that preaching Christ depends. Into this we can put all the convictions by which the NT writers were inspired, and all that we know of the words and deeds of Jesus ; and while we share at the heart the faith of Apostles and Evangelists, we do not feel bound by all the forms in which they cast their thoughts. The faith which stinmlated intelligence so wonderfully in them will have the same efi'ect on all Christians, and they will not disown any who call Jesus Lord, and give Him the name which is above every name.
Literature. — Harnack, Wesen des Christcnttnns \ Seeberg, Grundwahrh.der christl. Rel.; Cremer, Wesen det Christentums; Adams Brown, Essence of Christianity; Wernle, An/dnrje unserer Bel.; Orr, Christian View of God and the World, Lectt. vi. and vii. JAMES DeNNEY.
PREDICTION.— See Prophet.
PRE-EMINENCE (of Christ).— The expression is St. Paul's. We shall take the passage in which it occurs as our starting-point, and work from that.
I. St. Paul's conception. — 1. The statement of it. — The locus classicus is Col 113-20 jjj tJiatand its context St. Paul represents Christ as Head of both creations, the natural and the spiritual, the Cosmos and the Church. Of the former He is Creator, Upholder, and End. Its ground of existence is in Him (ev avru) ; He is before it and over it, even its highest intelligences [irpb ivdvTojv), and shapes it to His purpose (ei's aiTov). Of the second He is dpxv, at once Source and First ; Redeemer, Reconciler, Saviour (v.-"'-); Fountain of Life (3^); Treasury of Wisdom (2^); Hope of Glory (1-'); All in All (3"). He is sole Mediator in both (P«-=»), tiirough whom all streams of creative, providential, redeem- ing light and power go forth, and in whom all lines of creaturely approach to God converge. Of both, therefore, He is rightful Lord, as is implied in irpurroTOKOs (115-18. ^.gg Lightfoot, in loc), ^aaLXeiau Tov viov (1'^), and ec de^ia tov 6eov Kadri/jLeuos (3'), — a plu-ase that everywhere carries with it {a) subordi- nation to the Father, {b) rule over all else. In both He is pre-eminent (V^). And this, not for any arbitrary reason, but because of what He is, whicli explains both the place He occupies and the work He has done. For He is God's Son in a unique sense (F-is — the phrase 'the Father of om- Lord Jesus Christ ' in the former being common in St. Paul and other NT writers) ; He is the image — the visible Revealer — of the invisible God {V^) ; and in Him dwells permanently in a bodily manifestation