III. Jesus is above all other prophets. —But while Jesus fulfils every prophetic characteristic perfectly, and is thus the world's Supreme Prophet, it is also evident, from this very perfection, that He is essentially distinct from all others who bore the title. For not only is there found in Him a man called of God to receive communications from heaven and to give them forth, when re- ceived, to his fellow-men, but in Him we have God revealing Himself directly to His creatures. As >,the personal, uttered ' Word of God ' (X670S TTpocpopiKoi), He manifests Himself (that is, He manifests GoD) to mankind. And if the essence of tlie prophetic office consists in revealing the Almighty to His children, then, clearly, He alone is the one perfect Prophet, who from His very nature must have (1) constantly, (2) completely, (3) infallibly, and (4) finally revealed all that man- kind may know of their Creator.
1. His revelation was constant. OT prophets, receiving their revelation only at such times as Jehovah desired to reveal His will, could exercise their functions only intermittently ; whereas Jesus, living in uninterrupted communion with His Father, was in receipt of a constant revelation of the purposes and will of God. Indeed, even in His hours of silence. He must be thought of as fulfilling His prophetic office. His every act was a message, and His miracles, not less than His parables, were revelations to teach men of His Father. His spontaneous lovingkindness, as ex- hibited to the sinful and the suffering, revealed even more powerfully than His words the fact that ' God is Love ' ; the beauty of His sinless life, not less than the depth of His matchless utterances, ever taught men this, the central truth of His message. Jesus, simply by being what He \ms, constantly delivered His prophetic message to the world.
2. His revelation was complete. The OT prophets could be recipients of only a partial revelation. As their writings are studied, it is seen how gradually God revealed His truth through them. Their knowledge of God is seen to develop, through jiro- gressive stages, from little to fuller light ; prophet after prophet being sent to add his quota of truth, each being granted that amount of illumination necessary to enable him to advance the hopes and knowledge of Israel beyond the stage already reached. With Jesus it was far otherwise. He came to raise the spiritual wisdom and knoMledge of men, once and for all, to the highest point attain- able by them on earth. And if we find Him, at any time during His ministry, withholding truth which He might have revealed, Ave know that the cause of such reserve is to be found, not in His inability to declare, but in His hearers' inability to receive (Jn 16^^).
3. His revelation was infallible. Great as Avas the usefulness of the propiiets to God's chosen people, yet it is clear that in them they had no infallible guides. They had to distinguish betAveen ' the false prophets ' and those Avho truly repi'e- sented Jehovah. For succeeding generations it may have been comparatively easy to separate them, for time Avould demonstrate, by events, the correctness or incorrectness of prophetic utterances ; but not so for contemporaries. The false prophets Avere not as a class mere impostors trading on the religious feelings of the people, but rather they Avere men Avho, prophets by profession, lacked the spiritual discernment to interpret the mind of Jehovah. Their messages therefore rose no higher than current spiritual ideas. The people of Israel thus had constant need of spiritual discernment on their part to select the true and to reject the untrue in messages proffered to them, Avhich claimed to come from Jehovah. But Avhen experi- ence had marked out to them a prophet as a true revealer of Jehovah's Avill, they Avere not even then certain of receiving infallible guidance. The true prophet might at times confuse his OAvn natural judgment Avitli the voice of God. Thus Samuel at first mistook Eliab for the Lord's anointed (1 S 16^); and Nathan too hastily sanctioned the project of David to build a temple (2 S V-^-).
But the revelation of Jesus comes to us Avith infallible certainty. He does not, indeed, reveal everything ; for on earth He Avas not omniscient. He distinctly told His disciples that there Avas at all events one thing He did not knoAv (Mk 13^-). Thus He Avillingly limited His knoAvledge Avhile on earth ; and it is Avell for us to remember that He Himself Avas aAvare of the limitation, for He kneAv that He did not knoAv. But this self-limitation in no Avay Aveakened His claim to infallibility in all He taught. Ignorance is one thing, error quite another. And being the Son of God, and so the perfect recipient of all that the Fatlier Avilled to teach Him during His state of humiliation. He kneii} perfectly all Re knew. Similarly, if He did not foresee everything, yet Avhat He did foresee, that He foresaAv perfectly. Very remarkable is the calm certainty of conviction Avith Avhich He claims infallibility. The tone of authority in His utter- ances, the repeated ' I say unto you ' astounded the multitude (Mt 7-") ; Avhile tiie claim itself could not have been more strongly put forth than in His Avords, ' Heaven and earth shall pass aAvay ; but my Avords shall not pass aAvay ' (Mk 1.3^^).