This persistence of familiar categories of thought in the presence of new experiences is seen especially in references to the Holy Spirit. He ' falls upon ' the disciples ; he gives them to speak with ' other tongues' (cf. also 18* 20-^); but from the Acts alone it is impossible to saj^ how far this is regarded as permanent ; we must go to the Epistles for descriptions of the power of the Spirit in renewed lives, quickened hopes, and abiding impulses of joy ; and although the choicest graces of the Chris- tian life are set down as the fruit of the Spirit (as opposed to the works of the flesh, Gal 5'"- --), yet they are all subjects of exhortation as well [e.g. Ro '1218, Ph 2i«).
3. St. Paul's view of the problem. — But Avhen we turn to St. Paul, we find a deiinite recognition and discussion of the problem of freedom. Yet it is not the freedom of the will or even of the self. It appears in two forms, each arising from St. Paul's own experience or observation, and each approached only when necessitated by some un- avoidable antagonism. First, the actual experi- ence of slavery to sin, or (what to St. Paul himself was involved in this) to the Law. Second, the apparent inability of an individual or groups of individuals (Esau, Pharaoh, Israel) to will what is right because of some dealing of God with tliem. A tliird aspect is also suggested, though St. Paul seems to oiler a formula for its solution without recognizing its difliculty. What is the relation of the redeemed soul to God's indwelling and inwork- ing? Yet a fourth form of the problem appears, which is predominantly ethical. What actions am I as a Christian man at liberty to perform ? What
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FEEEDOM OF THE WILL 42]
restraints, if any, am I bound to observe? This, however, springs naturally out of the first form of the problem. It will be advisable to consider these in order.
(1) The problem of freedom from sin and from the Law. — To St. Paul, as a Hebrew sprung from Hebrews, the great end of man is righteousness. It was to him more than an end : it was a passion. But lie felt it to be unattainable : a mountain height which he had no strength to scale. His life was one long fruitless struggle towards it. He could only describe that life as a bondage, as if he had been sold like a slave to a master who would always prevent him from following his own wishes (Ro 7^*), or as if he were actually tied to a weight Avhich kept him from moving— the weight of a dead body (v.^^). This master was sin ; but as in a fevered dream the patient sometimes imagines his own pain to be external to himself and tortur- ing him, so St. Paul speaks of sin as something external, exercising an alien and hateful tyrannj- over him which can only end in death (5^'). It is not that his will is not free ; it is not that he can- not will in a particular way ; it is that he cannot act as he wills. The compulsion is external. And this tj'ranny further makes a tyrant of what should have been a guide, namely, the Law. The term ' law,' it must be remembered, is used by St. Paul in at least three ways : for the Law of Moses, for the natural law, written ' on the heart ' of the Gentiles, and for the Law of Moses considered as a system of law in general. Now the Law, either as known to the Gentiles, or revealed more fully to the Jews, with its lists of forbidden acts, should have helped man to righteousness ; but, enslaved as he was, it only pointed out in detail what he had no power to do, thus making his tyrant doubly hateful, and himself doubly a slave (2''* 3-").
Now, it will be observed that there is no meta- physics here, and no psychology, though it may be thatSt. Paul is giving us data for both. He is simply stating his own experience — an experience which in his case was happily only temporary, and which, as he believed, was intended to be only temporary for others. No conclusions could be drawn from it as to the will in general. For what happened ? In this hopeless extremity a solution Avas fovmd in Christ. St. Paul could not free himself ; but Christ, as the Son of God, was free ; and through His reconciliation the spirit of freedom, of sonship, of life, was sent foi'th (8'^- ^', Gal 4'^). To exercise faith in Christ was to be placed, so to speak, where Christ was, i.e. in the position of one to whom complete righteousness was possible and actual. We cannot consider here the rationale of St. Paul's conceptionof the Atonement (see art. ATONEMENT) ; but just as his active and untiring mind worked out into a Divine drama what to most of his con- temporaries was the simple experience of the con- sciousness of forgiveness of sins through Christ, so, to him, ability to do right was imaged forth as the change from being the slave of a tyrant to being a son in the house of his father. He is no longer kept from doing what he longs to do ; he does it as if he had been born to do it. And this is Avhat has happened : he has been born anew, he is a new creature.