But He who, according to Ro 8*, was thus made ' in the likeness of sin's flesh,' according to the second passage (Ro l"*) manifested, in contradis- tinction to all others who appeared in human form, ' a spirit of holiness ' ; and it was in harmony with that ethical uniqueness that a unique glory was assigned to Him, inasmuch as His death was followed by a Resurrection whereby He was de- clared (or installed) by God as ' Son of God with power.' Thenceforward His Messiahship was in- dubitable ; it was demonstrated by the ' power ' which was wielded by the Risen Lord. This pas- sage, like the former one, starts with a possible allusion to the pre-existent Sonship (rov tlov ai;roO), and at least suggests a state of humiliation as antecedent to the state of glory and power. There is at the same time no suggestion of a time at which Jesus became possessed of the 'spirit of holiness,' such as meets us in the Synoptic Gospels. Rather is the spirit referred to as ' the principle of personality in Jesus.' It is the ' spirit of holiness' which binds the earthly existence alike to what went before and to what came after (cf. Feine, Theol. des NT, 1910, p. 260). And the same thought may underlie the phrase in Ro 8^ : ' the law (=principle) of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and deatii.' 6 vbfios here means ' authority ' (so Sanday- Headlam), or in modern speech, the 'governing principle.' Sin and death are contrasted as govern- ing principles with the living (and life-giving) spirit that was in Christ Jesus — the same ' spirit of holiness.'
The passage in Philippians (2'"'^) which is chiefly valued for the light it throws on St. Paul's view of the pre-existent Christ has importance also for
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his view of the historical Jesus. He 'was foimd,' o-X^,"'i" '^^ ^fOpuiTTos, i.e. in outward appearance, in all that presented itself to the senses, ' as a man ' ; and that because He was ' made in the likeness of men ' (iv o/iotw'/xart dvOpdnruv). But the description of the human manifestation opens ■with the phrase fiop(pr]v 8ovXov 'Kapdiv, by which the Apostle indicates something which, while going deeper than the <rx,vP^ or the 6/j.oLw/j.a, yet does not toucii the essen- tial personality. Christ, that is to say, entered upon a real, but not a permanent, servitude. In what sense? It vnU not suffice to say, with Lightfoot {ad loc. ), ' For dydpuTros the stronger word SoOXos is substituted. He who is Master of all becomes the slave of all.' For this gives insufficient distinctness to the two clauses, and in- adequate force to the former one. It is more prob- able that the two clauses, /xopcpriv 5ou\ov Xa^ihv and iv 6/j.oi.ilifiaTi avdpJjirtjyv yevdfievos are parallel in re- verse order to the two clauses in Gal 4^, yevofxevov Ik yvvaLKds and yev6fj.€vov i/irb vo/xov ; and the power to which St. Paul declares that .Jesus submitted Himself as SoOXoj is the Law and the whole dis- pensation of which it was the symbol. He volun- tarily placed Himself under its yoke, made Him- self 'a debtor to keep the whole law.' It was in virtue of this submission that He could undergo its curse, be 'made a curse for us,' and redeem us (Jews) from 'the curse of the law.' This subjec- tion to the Law was thus a special case of Christ's submission to the disabilities of ' the flesh,' through which He could be ' made sin ' for us (2 Co O'^^). The irdp^ which He assumed was truly human flesh ; it was, for such it had come to be histori- cally, ' sin's flesh ' — flesh that was in the grasp of sin. He 'knew no sin' (2 Co 5-^), and yet in His case the a-dp^ was the medium of sin's assault upon Him. It brought Him into relation, a re- lation alwaj's hostile, with the whole series of forces which were opposed to God, the forces which were in control of ' this present world,' the ' princi- palities and powers' (Col 2'*), the 'world' rulers of this darkness (Eph 6^-). And it was in, by means of, this <xdp^ that He ' condemned sin,' that He 'triumphed' over the hostile powers, stripping them off from Himself along with the ffdp^, when on the Cross He died from under the control of 'the spiritual foixes of the world' (Col 2'*-^").
Thus the historical man, Jesus of Nazareth, was a fact of cardinal importance for St. Paul, not only as an authority supreme in the realm of con- duct, but as embodying the conditions by which alone redemption could be accomplished.
C. The pre-exist ent Christ. — The material for ascertaining St. Paul's conception of Christ is now nearly complete. By far the larger part of it refers to the 'post-existent' Christ, the Lord in glory. Another element, smaller in extent, but not for that reason unimportant, has to do with the historic .Jesus. There remains a tliird element consisting of allusions to Christ as having been existent and active before He appeared on earth. That element is certainly present both in the mind and in the language of St. Paul. The difficult and delicate task is to weigh its importance, and to account for its presence in his thinking.