On the other hand. He gives new and deeper applications to the laws of Moses, as in the case of the law of murder (Mt 5-^^-). He does not hesitate to add new restrictions to it, as in the case of the laws of adultery, false swearing, and retaliation (vv.-^- ^- ^*) ; and He definitely abrogates a law of Moses when He declares all meats clean (Mk7^-"»).
In connexion with the question of Christ's rela- tion to the Law, there is one passage which calls for special mention— Mt 3^^ where, in answer to the Baptist's protest against baptizing Him, He says : ' Suffer it now : for thus it becometli us to fulfil all righteousness.' We are sometimes told that hiKaioavvt] is here equivalent to the ceremonial law ; but this cannot be so, inasmuch as there was no ceremonial law about baptism. Nor did baptism mean the same to Him as to most who underwent it. To them the ceremony selected by John brought assurance of forgiveness of sins, but no conscious outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Ac 19-' ^) ; to Him it brought no forgiveness of sins, but a visible descent of the Spirit. For He never, all His life through, raised Himself above the ordinary human dependence on outward act and form, as His use of symbolic action and the institution of the two Sacraments show us. By dcKatocrvvrj, then, in this passage. He clearly means the general use of outward religious ritual current at His time, and He makes this the occa- sion of receiving spiritual power.
(c) The communication of Christ's righteousness to His follovxrs. — It would be going beyond the limits of this article to discuss the method of Justification and Sanctification (see sep. artt. ), as represented in the Synoptic writers ; it only re- mains to show the place they give to the facts which these words represent (even though it is impossible entirely to separate Tuethod and fact). We have seen that Christ claimed a unique know- ledge of the Father and a unique power of reveal- ing Him to man (Mt 11'-' [1), — a revelation which He consistently represented as possible only througli love. Nor was this power to fail at His death. As their risen Lord He would always be Avitli His disciples, to pour upon them power from on high (28'8-i;o^ j^]^ 24-'8- •*•'). He was now to fulfil the Baptist's jn-ophecy that He should baptize them with tlie Holy Spirit (Ac !•»• •^' 2i-'«). The Holy Spirit, represeiiting the risen Christ (Mt 28-"), was to give them tlie righteousness which should, by God's love, fit them for the Kingdom of heaven, — righteousness growing with their growing love and faith, which were to be its essence. Christ dis-
* This passage has caused such difficulties to the commen- tators that some of them have declared it inconsistent with Christ's teachinsr, and ha\ c hold that He never said these words (cf. Hastinsrs' Dti, Ext. Vol. p. 24 f.). But that v.i» really applies to the principles of the Law, and not its letter, is surely proved by the addition of v. 20, where the scribes and Pharisees are de- nounced as having broken it while seeniin;,' to ' liedi^e it round.'
532 KIGHTEOUS, RIGHTE0U8:NESS
KIGHTEOUS, RIGHTEOUSNESS
tinctly took His stand on the appeal to morality. Work's were to be the necessary outcome of true love (Sit 7^^ etc. ). When He says, ' Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness : for they shall be filled' (5*^), He does not mean in the next world only, but in this also. Indeed, throughout His teaching, the life to come is treated as an orderly development of this life. He speaks, on the one hand, of the Kingdom of heaven as already come in some measure, — 'the kingdom of God is within you' (Lk 1V\ cf. e^o ll^"), and it is to come with more marked power still within the lifetime of some of His disciples (INIk 9^ ||). Yet, on the other hand, its consummation is not for this life, but for the life to come (Mt 2o^\ Mk 14-5 = Lk 22i« = Mt26-«). So Christ taugiit His disciples to pray, 'Thy kingdom come,' i.e. in ever more and more fulness until the end (a-uvTeXeia). Meanwhile (as is everywhere implied, and nowhere stated) God sees each member of the Kingdom not as he is, but as he is becoming ' in Christ,' and treats him as a son for his faith and love.
2. St. John. — When we turn to the Johannine writings, we ])ass into a new atmosphere. We are no longer dealing so much with the outer activities of Christ's life in its earthly setting. St. John had pondered tlirough long years and with deep reverence over the inner meaning of that life. To him Christ was primarily the \6yos, the revelation of the eternal nature of the Fatlier, though it had been given them to touch and see Him in earthly form. Consequently we have a series of sayings unlike anything in the first three Gospels : ' God is Spirit' (4-^), 'God is Light' (IJn P), 'God is Love' (1 Jn 4^- 1**), 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life' (Jn 14«). So the thought of right- eousness as a Divine attribute is peculiarlj^ de- veloped in St. John. It is parallel to his favourite use of dXrideia, which he treats almost as a synonj-m for ayiu)(Tuv7}, representing the less active side of righteousness (cf. woie'iv t7)v dXrjdeiav in Jn 3-^ and 1 Jn 1^ with ifoteiv TTjv 5iKaLoavvy)v in 1 Jn 3"). So in Jn S^-"^* ' the truth shall make you free . . . but he that doeth sin is a slave.' Again, the concep- tion of the Kingdom becomes in St. John the thought of life eternal; and the latter in Jn., as the former in the Synoptists, is .spoken of, now as a present possession (3^"), now as that which shall be fully bestowed only in the next life (12-').