This deeper conception of the Sonship is borne out by the frequent and spontaneous use of the name 'Father' for God. The full name for God in the Church of the NT is ' the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ' (e.g. Ro 15^ 2 Co IP', Eph P 3", Col P, 1 P p). And as such He is described absolutely as 6 Tranjp, and known experi- mentally by those who have in their hearts the Spirit 'whereby we cry Abba, Father' (Ro 8^^). All this circle of ideas testifies to the recognition of a Sonship not only in the sense in which it was equivalent to Messiahship, but in the sense of a relationship which is intrinsic and unique.
It is quite unnecessary to go far afield to find the source from which St. Paul derived this con-
ception of Christ's Sonship. It is attested by the Synoptic Gospels as an element in the self-con- sciousness of Jesus. There is nothing to suggest that it was a discovery or a conclusion due to St. Paul. As J. Weiss says :
' Paul shows no trace of uneasiness nor gives any hint of a tradition as to how the relation of sonship arose or what its actual significance was. When in Col lis he speaks of Christ as the first-born of all creatures, we must not by any means con- clude that Paul had in mind a begetting or birth, or any special creative act. But neither is there in a single syllable any sug- gestion of an emanation in the sense of the later Gnosticism, or an election. It is significant that Paul does not feel the least need to account for the existence of this Son of God by any story of creation or birth, i.e. by what the Science of Religion calls "Myth " ' (Christ, p. 69 f.).
This means that neither intellectual construction nor speculation gave rise to the conception. It came from Jesus. And as the Resurrection put the seal of Divine authentication on His Messianic consciousness, so did it put the seal of Divine ac- knowledgment upon that filial consciousness which had been the deepest thing in His personality.
Conversely, of course, this prompt and spon- taneous recognition of the filial relationship between Jesus and God provides confirmation of the gospel record so far as it reflects this element in His consciousness. On the broad foundation of the Lordship of Christ and the Sonship of Christ — the one a fact of religious experience, the other a factor in the consciousness of Jesus — St. Paul builds his specific Christology. And he postulates for Christ tliree different relationships : he sets Him in a relationship amounting to identity with tlie Spirit of God ; he presents Him as Head of a new race of men, the second Adam ; and he claims for Him a creative relation to the world of intelligent being.
(iS) The Lord the Spirit. — The evidence for this identification is partly direct and partly indirect. In 2 Co 3" the Apostle makes the categorical state- ment, ' The Lord is the Spirit,' and the same idea is probably echoed in the following verse, ' even as from the Lord the Spirit ' (the genitive irveijfiaTos be- ing probably in apposition to Kvpiov — so Schmiedel, Lietzmann). But the same idea also underlies the Apostle's habit of using irvevfxa [QeoO], irveviia XpttrroO and Xpicrrds as practically interchangeable. Christ is 'a life-giving Spirit' (1 Co 15''°), but the Spirit also gives life (2 Co 3® ; cf. Gal 5'^). And in Ro §9. 10. 11 st;_ Paul passes indifferently from the one to the other, referring to the Divine Spirit in one verse the effect which in the next he refers to Christ. For him ' Christ ' and ' the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus ' are practically synonymous.
The basis for the identification which St. Paul asserts is not any idea of metaphysical unity, but an observed harmony of ethical and spiritual in- fluence. St. Paul had no doctrine of the Trinity. The Spirit of God, or Holy Spirit, was for him (apart from the identification with the Risen Clirist) the energy of the Divine nature, universal in its operation, influencing the will and the intelligence of men, the source of the sevenfold gifts described in Is 11^, and specially the creator of 'life' in the new sense in which it was a j^rerogative of the Messianic age, and practically synonymous with 'salvation.' The identification of this Sjjirit with the Risen Christ followed on the combination of the experience of Easter with that of Pentecost. Together they formed the source and the basis of new life for the believers. This was for them the meaning of salvation, and the proof that they were being saved. The subjective certainty was given in new moral power to follow new ideals. Both the power and the ideals were traced to the Spirit (Gal 5^-) ; but they came to each individual after and in consequence of his faith in Christ as Risen Lord. So this life-giving energy of God which by the primitive community had been explained as
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' shed abroad ' by the Exalted Christ, is by St. Paul identified with Him. What would further con- tribute to this conclusion would be the necessity of attributing to Christ existence in a super- physical or 'spiritual' form, and the further necessity of accounting for the universality of His presence, with each and with all of the believers everywhere.