In his First Epistle St. Peter represents the same point of view in slightly fuller and more developed
form. The Spirit of God is definitely spoken of as ' the Si>irit of Christ' (1") ; and although the title 'Son of God' is not um|iloyed, we find the ex- pression ' the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ' (!■'), with an undeniable im|>lication of Christ's special Sonship. Christians are called to ' sanctify in their hearts Christ as Lord ' (3'°) in words which in the UT are a|iplieil to Jahweh and His sanctilication by Israel (Is 8"). He is pro- ilaimed to be Lord not only of the spiritual world but of the material as related to and subserving the spiritual, ' angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him '(IP 3"). It is a disputed question whether 1" and 1'" do or do not imply the real pre-e.xistence of Christ. While the language of the former seems satisfied if we take it to mean simply that the Divine Spirit, now so hound up with Christ that it can be called His Spirit, moved also in the prophets of old, the latter passage is more significant. ' While the word " foreknown " (irpoeyfoiu/j.^fov) in noway involves the pre-existence of Christ, since it is used even of Christians in Y\ yet the unusual combination of " foreknown " with " manifested " may justly be considered as placing the matter beyond doubt. Only that can be mani- fested which was in being before manifestation ' (H. R. Mackintosh, The Person of Jesus Christ, Edinburgh, 1912, p. 45 f.). With the sermons of St. Peter in Acts and his First Epistle as represent- ing the gener.al conception of Christ current in the earliest Apostolic Age may be coupled the Epistle of St. James, where Jesus is extolled as ' the Lord of glory' (2') and ranked with God in honour and dignity (1'); and the brief Epistle of Jude, who describes Jesus as ' our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ '(v.'), whose ' slave ' (ooOXos) he is (v.'). As representing the more developed apostolic doctrine, we have not only the Epistles of St. Paul but the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Johannine writings. In Hebrews the central thought is that of the Divine Sonship of Christ, in virtue of which He is the Mediator of the new and better covenant ( 12=^ 9'^ 8"). He is announced as a ' Son ' ( 1=), tran- scendently related to God, the etlulgence of the Father's glory and the very image of His substance (P), creator, upholder, and heir of all things (1- '"), who, though thus eternal and Divine, because the children were partakers of flesh and blood. Himself likewise partook of the same and is now through His sutt'ering and sacrifice exalted at the right hand of the majesty on high (1^ 8' 10'). In the Fourth Gospel the emphasis on the Divine Sonship, marked throughout, so that even such a critic as J. Weiss admits that in this Gospel Christ is God in the fullest sense, possessing ' those qualities which con- stitute the nature of the Deity ' (Christ : The Begin, nings of Dogma, Eng. tr., London, 1911, p. 148 ii.). The view of the writer is summed up in the Pro- logue in terms of the rebaptized Logos conception of which he predicates His eternity (' existed in the very beginning,' v.' [Moflatt]), His eternal personal relation to God (' was with [^piis] God,' v.' ; ' was with God in the very beginning,' v.^), His agency in creation ('through him all existence came into being, no existence came into being apart from him," V.'), giver of life and light to the whole race of mankind, the medium alike of creation and of revelation ('in him life lay, and this life was the Light for men,' v."" ; ' the real Light which lightens every man,' v.'). In 1 Jn. such a unity between God and the Son is recognized that he «ho confesses the Son hath the Father also (5="). In the Apoca- lypse Christ is represented as He whom all creation unites to worship as it worships God Almighty (P; cf. 7'-). God and the Lamb receive united adoration (5'* V). He is the ' First and the Last,' the ' Beginning and the End ' (1^ 218 22"), the Lord of the churches, who holds their stars or guardian
KESURRECTION OF CliKIST
RESUKRECTION OF CHRIST 351
anijels in His lianil (l'"--"), who is llnler of tlie nations ami Kin;; of kinijs, thoall-wiseaiiJalnii^lity Judge of the nations (7" lo^).
2, Evidential with regard to His work, especially His death. — Thf Itc'^uiiection was not only thi^ lonliiinatioii of ('liri»t's claim to .Sorishi|i and Messiahship ; it was throu^'h tliis the Divine justilioation of Jesus' rlaini as to llie redemptive character of His life anil work as culminating in His death, and the puhlic declaration of its accept- ance. The Messiah was looked for as coming in outward glory, but .Jesus came in a way that was the very opposite of this, llis life on earth had been one of humiliation and suH'ering, of self- denying service .ind sacrilice for others, until at last the culminating point of His sacrilice was reached in His death. All were 'oliended' in Him. He needed to be justified, and tlie Resurrection was His Divine justilication or vindication. In the Epistle to the Philippians His resurrection (and exaltation) is connected witli His 'making himself of no reputation ' and taking upon Him the form of a servant (2*'"). In Romans (I'') it is in contrast with His having been made of the seed of David according to the flesh that He is said to have been declared Son of God with power. Above all. His death needed justiMcation. Jesus had Himself while on earth proclaimed the necessity of His suH'ering and death. But this was so contrary to Jewish conceptions of the Messiah that the lirst disciples had difliculty in attaining to it. ' The idea of the Messianic suHerings and death is one that wakes no echo in tlie heart of any Jewish contemporary of our Lord, not excepting even His disciples' (L. A. Muirhead, Esrhatolugy of Jesus, London, 1904, p. 206), and the Death on the Cross when it came was fatal, in Jewish eyes, to Messianic claims. This was the great aKivSakov. It was His resurrection, and the fact that by it He had been ' declared ' the Son of God with power, that showed the peculiarity and importance of His death. So St. Paul represents the case. If Jesus was indeed both Lord and Christ, as through his experience on the Damascus road he had come to know, the death which He died could not be what it seemed to be, a curse, the death of a malefactor and blas])hemer, but a Divine appointment for the salvation of men. There must be in it a Divine virtue. ' God was in Christ,' even Christ the crucified, reconciling the world unto Himself (2 Co S^" ; cf. 1 Co 15", llo 4-'^ &'''). It was a vicarious death ; He was delivered up for our transgressions (Ro 4^), and the Resur- rection was the assurance that God had accepted Christ's atoning work, and that the foundation of perfect reconciliation between God and man had been laid. In the light of the revelation of the Resurrection, the Death on the Cross lost its shame and became a spring of blessing, the central ' com- mendation' or proof of Divine love (Ro 5*).