2 Co 3'^ Gal 2=», etc.) ; (3) as the Spirit oi power, to enable men to be effective witnesses in word and life to the Risen Christ (Ac 1« 3'- 4', etc.).
The function of the Spirit was thus to realize a new kind of fellowship between Christ and His followers
VOL. II. — 23
— a spiritual fellowship with a living, everywhere
firesent Lord — in und through which they were ed into new truth iind holiness and liower. The* coining of the Spirit, therefore, is not lo be looked upon as a coinpen.sation or substitute for an absent Christ ; it is the higher mode of Christ's own presence, to which He pointed forward when He said, 'I will be with you all the time, to the very end of the world ' (Mt 28™). On Christ's own life, the promise 'the Comforter will conu^ ' is inter- changeable with ' I will come to you ' (.In 14" 15-'"). St. Paul in more than one passage expressly identifies the Risen Christ with the H<dy Spirit (c.r/. 2 Co 3", ' the Lord is the Spirit,' and v."*, ' we are changed into the .same image hy the Lord the Spirit '). And on this ground it is sometimes argueil that for St. Paul the Risen Exalted ('hrist and the Holy S|>irit are really one and the .same (c.ff. von Dobschiitz, Ostcrn und I'fiiii/sten, p. 34). 'I'o identify the Risen Lord and the Spirit, however, without (|ualification in the f.'ice of the threefohl benediction in the same Epistle (13''') is unwar- ranted. What St. Paul meant was that between the Spirit and the power of the Risen Christ no experimental distinction could be made. 'The truth of the pass.age is the same as that of RoS'"'- : " If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His. And if Christ is in you," etc. Here, so far as the practical experience of Christians goes, no distinction is made between the Spirit of Christ and Christ Himself ; Christ dwells in Chris, tians through His Spirit' (Denney, Expositor's Bible, 'The Second Epistle to the Corinthians,' London, 1894, p. 134). 'What the Apostle means by his form of verbal identification ["the Lord is the Spirit"] is rather the religious certainty that Jesus Christ, in whom God redeems men, and the Spirit, in whom He communicates Himself to men, aresoindissolubly bottnd up in one, act so absolutely for the same end and tlirough the same means, that from the standpoint of the practical issue they are seen as merged in each other. They are one as the fountain and the stream are one. "Christ in you, or the S])irit of Christ in you; these are not ditl'erent realities ; but the one is the method of the other" (Moberly)' (H. R. Mackintosh in i>DB, p. 708'' : cf. the same writer's Ihe Person oj Jesus Christ, p. 374).
(6) While thus through the Spirit the Exalted Christ carries on His work on earth, by His inter- cession at the Father's right hanti He Himself carries on His work in heaven. This aspect of the Risen Christ's activity is specially emphasized in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where it is represented as the culmination of His high-priestly functions, the entering 'through his own blood,' i.e. with the virtue of His atoning sacrifice in Him, into the holiest of all ' to appear in the presence of God for us' (He O'-''), and the guarantee of the full effective- ness of His redemptive work, ' wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever livetli to make intercession (4vTt.>yxa.vei.ii) for them ' (7'-"). But in the other apostolic writings, both Pauline and Johannine, His intercession at God's right hand is equally represented as the culminating aspect of Christ's work, and 'with a kind of adoring awe which is quite peculiar even in the New Test.ament' (Denney, Studies in Theoloriy, London, 1894, p. 162). ' It is Christ Jesus IJiat died, yea rather, that w<as raised from the de;id, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketli intercession {ivrvYxava.) for tis ' (Ro 8**, 'who actually pleads for us ' [Moflatt]). ' These things write I unto you that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteims' (1 Jn '2').
It would no doubt be misleading to represent
354 RESUKRKCTION OF CHRIST
RESURRECTION OF CHRIST
His heiivenlv intercession as oral or vocal, as takiiij; place in wiinis or sjioken entreaty. ' Words imply distance aiul duality of a kind incongruous with tilt' i4l('iitity of life subsisting between Christ and tbe I'alber. Theirs is a unity that needs no language ' ( Mackintosh, The Person of Jesus Christ, |>. :i7T). Wlien the apostles speak of Ills 'making intercession for us, they are not speaking of 'specilic acts done or words spoken bj' Christ in His glory. His glorified presence is an eternal lueseiilation ; He jjleads by what He is' (R. C. Aloberly, Mitiistert'il Priesthood, London, 1897, p. '24G). On the other hand, it would seem to be doing less than justice to the aiJOStolic thought to represent His intercession as nothing more than His appearance and constant presence before God for us, with the virtue of His atoning life and death in Him, (lod being tlius continually reminded, as it were, at once of the eflicacy of Christ's atoning work and of the needs of humanity.