A further application of this freedom, inherent in the absolute and inward character of the Chris- tian revelation, occurs in the debate (cf. Peyton, Memorabilia of Jesus, p. 446 f.) between Jesus and the Jews in 8^'*- — a passage which rejjroduces the great Pauline ideas of Gal 3^-5^^, although redemp- tion as usual is included under the aspect of revela- tion, rather than vice versa. The eft'ects of truth, when received l)y men, are here described summarily &,s freedom (S'^-'-). The argument is this. As the Father seeks true worshippers, whose note is spirituality, so the Son seeks true disciples, whose characteristic is loyal adherence to His teaching, i.e. to Himself (cf. 8^- ^^) as the revelation of the Father. Adherence or obedience of this kind yields a knowledge of God's real nature ; it initi- ates men into the true purpose and mind of the Father, and invests them with the Divine nature itself (17^). Their knowledge, that is to say, is not a process of abstract learning. There is no intel- lectualism about it. It is not a mastery of theo- sophic principles or subtle theories, but participa- tion in a personal Life. And contact with this brings a verve and independence into life, a sim- plicity and a reality, a freedom from bondage and legalism, which can be attained only by a nature whose capacities are set free to realize themselves fully. In another aspect, freedom may be con- sidered as deliverance from sin ; although such a reference is not excluded even in 8^-, it is definitely suggested in 17^^, where participation in the Divine life is made to involve personal purification, through the death of Christ. ' What men needed was to be sanctified, that is, to be consecrated to God. It was not in their power — surely no reason can be conceived for this, but that which lies in their sin — to consecrate themselves, and what they were not able to do for themselves Christ did for them
in His own person. He consecrated Himself to God in His death ' (Denney, The Death of Christ, p. 269).
A third aspect of this inward and absolute know- ledge of God in Christ is presented in the conception of the Spirit or Paraclete throughout the closing chapters (14-17). Considered under the category of a liberating power, these references to the func- tion of the Spirit of Truth (which, it is curious to recollect, were applied to Mohammed by Moham- medan divines) may be defined as a presentation of the liberating ehect of the truth, as opposed to traditional and antiquarian views of Jesus which, even within the Church, might restrict the full appreciation of His Person. The author had to meet a twofold danger, and he chose to state his new conception of Christ and Christianity in the form of a Gospel, not of a treatise or an Epistle. One reason for this, as he suggests in the sayings repro- duced in 15-^ and 16^^ is his heartfelt conviction that the Person of Christ is the sum and substance of the Divine revelation, and that no fresh state- ments or progressive views, such as those pro- mulgated by Cerinthus and other Gnostics, are authoritative unless they represent elements already present by implication in the words and works of the incarnate Logos. The deeper interpretation of Christ, with which he came forward to meet the requirement of a later age, is none other than a fresh discovery of latent trutlis in Christ. The influence of the Sjjirit on the consciousness of the Church is not directed to the manufacture of inde- pendent oracles or to the task of striking out original additions to the revelation of Christ, which would render the latter, in any sense, superfluous or in- ferior. The test of all such new interpretations is their loyalty to the historic manifestation of the Logos. The Spirit of Truth, bestowed by Christ upon His Church {li^'^^-), recalls to the mind of all true disciples the bearing and meaning of Christ's own teachings ; ' he shall bear witness of me . . . he shall guide you into all the truth (for a different reading in Jerome, etc., cf. N estle's Einfiihrung'^, p. 98), for he shall not speak from himself ... he shall glorify me, for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you ' (cf. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, pp. 376 f., 418 f.). This great definition of the right and limitations of true freedom of move- ment within the Christian consciousness, safeguards it alike against the abuses of Gnostic speculation and the disinclination to advance beyond the Jewish- Christian, or rigidly Messianic, interpretation of Christ's Person which had been promulgated by the first generation of the disciples. To knoiv Christ after the flesh was far from exhausting the signifi- cance of His Person. His Spirit, i.e. His living pres- ence in the Christian Church and consciousness, had still more to unfold of truth and grace. Hence one privilege of being in contact with this ' Truth,' as embodied in Christ, is that disciples, no longer in touch with the earthly Jesus, are fitted to adapt it to varying conditions, to see it in ever fresh bearings, and to apply it with inexhaustible power, Avhile at the same time they preserve its essential meaning. Their training in it, so far from involv- ing any disloyalty to it, is a part of their fidelity to its principles.