Not a great deal, comparatively, is said in the Synoptic Gospels of the work of the Spirit in im- parting these spiritual blessings. But the Spirit's presence and agency are nevertheless constantly assumed. Jesus was ' full of the Holy Spirit ' after His baptism (Lk 41), and it was the Spirit of the Lord upon Him who fitted Him for His saving work (v. 18). < The spirit of the Father ' speaks in the disciples (Mt IO2*). He is, in Lk., the supreme gift of the Father (11^^). Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the last and highest crime (Mt. 12^2 ||). The Baptist announced Jesus as the One who should baptize with the Spirit (3^111), and the promise of the Spirit is Christ's final word to His disciples (Lk24*-*). In the Synoptics, as in Jn., it is assumed that the Spirit was not yet given in His fulness, because Jesus was not yet glorified (Jn 739).
The Johannine teaching on salvation is once more, in all essential features, identical with that of the Synoptics. The change of mind insisted on by the latter is, in St. John's Gospel, directly traced to a regenerating work of the Spirit (33-5), and the doctrine of the Spirit altogether is more developed (142e I.528 16™-) ; the condition of salva- tion is expressed generally by the term ' believing ' (which includes in it the idea of 'obeying,' cf. 31S. 3(;)j sonship, as the fruit of regeueration, is viewed as a special supernatural gift, the preroga-
tive of believers (1^2) ■ salvation is connected with Christ's being lifted up (3i*-'^ 1232- 3-3) ; ' eternal life ' is regarded as already begun in the experience of the believer (S^s 41* G^^ 173 etc.). But the necessity of union with Christ (cf. 15i-**), the salvation from wratli through Him (81<^i8-3G 524)^ the dispositions to be laid aside in entering the Kingdom of heaven (5**), and the essentials of character to be acquired by its members (humility, love, self-sacrifice, etc., 13*-'^ 1512 1225 etc.), the hope of the resurrection (^528.29 640 1124-26)^ aud the prospect of ultimately sharing Christ's glory in the Father's house (142-3 172*), are outstanding features in St. John's teach- ing as they are in that of the earlier Gospels.
(3) The question now recurs as to the connexion of Christ's own Person, and especially His sufferings and death, toith this redemption, the message of which constitutes His gospel. Certain obvious aspects of that connexion have already been indi- cated. Christ's ministry of teaching and healing was itself a means of redemption — of bringing men to the knowledge of it, of awakening in them the desire for it, of drawing them to the acceptance of it, of putting them in possession of part of its blessing. But in its substance also, as we have seen, Christ and His gospel could not be separated. He alone could reveal the Father, and give the world assurance of His grace ; He already, as the Son of Man, exhibited in its perfect form what Divine sonship in the Kingdom of God meant ; it was by coming to Him, and learning of Him, that men were initiated into His mind and spirit, which itself was salvation. His purity, conjoined with His sympathy and grace, acted as mighty moral motives in breaking down the enmity of the heart to God and in winning sinners to repentance. These also are the aspects of Christ's connexion with redemption, — these, and not declarations about atonement, — which meet us on the surface of the Gospels. Christ is the Good Shepherd, seeking and finding the lost sheep (Mt 10^ I52* 1812-1*, Lk 153-^). All-compassionating, forgiving love is the power He relies on to draw out love (Lk 8*'-50). The very majesty of His claims and the manifest authority with which He spoke gave an added power to His gentleness and grace (]\Jt
11 27-30 ■)_
We have still to ask, however, Is this the whole ? Is this the only way in which redemption depends on Christ? If it is, what remains as the founda- tion of the Apostolic gospel, which undeniably connects redemption in a peculiar way, not with Christ's life and teaching, but with His sacrificial sufferings and death ? The question is further pressed upon us by particular utterances of Jesus, which likewise appear to point to such connexion. Is this aspect of redemption, as some think, to be excluded from Christ's gospel ? To find an answer we are driven back upon the wider question of how Jesus Himself viewed His sufferings and death. On this topic, it was remarked above that it is a very misleading method to confine ourselves to the exposition of isolated texts, without taking into account the whole context of Christ's thought, and ihe ideas of OT revelation in which His thought was grounded. It will be necessary to begin in order at this point to reach a satisfactory conclusion.
A sure dntnni to start with here is the indubit- able consciousness of Jesus — attested by the two names ' Son of God ' and ' Son of Man '—of His Messianic vocation, and consequently of the con nexion of the Messianic salvation with His Person. It was He, as the whole Jewish hope implied, who was to bring in that ' redemption ' for which Israel waited (Lk 23»). That Jesus knew Himself to be the Chri^t, at least from the time of the Baptism, is implied in all the Gospels, though it was only to