Apparently we siiould interpret the apostolic language {e.ff. He 4'^ ' that we may find grace to help in time of need,' grace for timely suc- cour) as implying that the intercession of Christ is not a continuous unvarj'ing representation to God on behalf of men on the part of the Exalted Clirist, but an intercession which relates itself sympathetically to the varying needs and exi- gencies of the believer's life. This direct personal representation to God on our belialt is not to be conceived as limited to prayer. The verb ivrvy- Xavetv translated 'intercede' means to deal or transact with one person for another, and, when it stands alone without any limiting expressions, ought to be understood in a much wider sense than petition or prayer, viz. as ' including the whole series of transactions in which one person may engage with another on behalf of a third ' (Milligan, The Ascension and Heavenly Priesthood of our Lord, p. 151). Christ's intercession is the whole action or transaction in the presence of God of the Exalted Christ, whereby, on the ground of His atoning work, the full blessings of salvation are niatle over to those ' who come to God through him' (He 7-''; cf. Ko 8«).
2. What it meant for humanity. — In virtue of its being thus the entrance on a new life of exalted power and Lordship in which He exercises His full redemptive activity, the resurrection of Jesus constitutes a new beginning in the life of humanity, ushering in a new creative epoch. The Risen Jesus becomes a new life-principle in men, a 'life-creating Spirit' (1 Co lo''^ irveviM fuoiroioCi') introducing men into a new world of spiritual ex- perience. This epochal significance of the Resur- rection St. Paul represents by saying that in and by His resurrection Christ became the ' second Adam,' the Founder and Head of a new humanity, so that the resurrection of Christ represents as real a crisis in the history of man as his creation (Ro 5'-'-, 1 Co 15«f-). 'The first Adam became a living soul' (1 Co 15*^ i'l'xn ^Oxra, a person possessing a principle of life) — this marks the crisis of man's creation. ' The second Adam be- came a life-creating spirit' (ib.) — this marks the crisis of man's redemption whereby he becomes a 'new creation' (Kaivj] kWctis) and henceforth walks 'in newness of life' (Ro G*, in KaipSrriTi fwijs).
This new life into which believers are introduced through union by faith with the living Lord St. Paul can describe only by saying that he possesses the Spirit (wivna) of Jesus Christ (Ro 9'), that the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of God mediated through the Exalted Christ dwells in him (9") or that Christ lives in him, so that he can say, ' I live ; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me' (Gal 22» ; cf. Ro S'""). The life He now lives as a human being has, as its central determining
firinciple, not himself but Christ. Christ is ' our ife ' (Col 'i*, ri fuJ) TiixCiv). The fu?) of the believer is the very fuTJ of tbe Exalted Christ (cf. Ro 8'", 2 Co 4""-). Christianity for St. Paul is the con- dition of being ' in Christ' (iv Xpiarif). A man 'in Christ ' — that is his definition of a Christian. The new dispensation or epoch inaugurated by the Resurrection is the dispen.sation of the Spirit pre- dicted by Christ Himself (Jn 14'"- » 15-'* lli').
By those who, like I*Heiderer and Beyschlap, trace St. Paul's view ol' Clirist as ' the second Adam,' the man ' from iieaven ' (1 Co 15*17), to the influence of Philo's JewiBh-Hellenic concep- tion of a pre-existent heavenly Man, the Urmeiutch or arche- typal model of man's creation, St. Paul is represented as con- ceiving of Clirist in Ilis pre-incarnate stjite merely as Man in heaven, the prototype of humanity (see J. Weiss, on 1 Co liJ-iT, and Keine, Thi'fiL aes ST, p. ',i5'S). Even if we assume, how- ever, that St. Paul borrowed the contrast in the first place from current Hellenic thouj,'ht, using the schema lyinj,' to his hand, he filled it with a content determined not by tiie specula- tions of Alexandrian philosophy but by his own experience of the Risen Christ. He seems, indeed, expressly to contrast his own point of view with that of Philo, by designating the man ' from heaven ' not the ' First Man ' as in Philo, hut the ' Second Man.' ■ ' That is not first which is spiritual but that which is natural ' (1 Co l.'J-i'J). It is only at His resurrection that Christ is rejiresented by St. Paul as becoming the 'second Adam,' the life-giving head of a new humanity.
For the apostles, accordingly, Christian life and experience in all its forms depends vpon the liesiir- rertion.
(a) Our y?«/i^ca<ion depends upon it. The great passage here is Ro 4^ : ' He was delivered up for our trespasses (6td to. Traparrai^aTa rmutv) and was raised for our justification (otd tt^v oiKaiujcriv tj/xuiv).' The latter clause is sometimes taken to mean that the Resurrection is necessary to our justificati<m in the sen.se of being the great proof that the sacrifice of the Death was Divinely accepted, thus evoking faith in us. ' He was delivered up [to death] because of our trespasses [to make atone- ment for us] : and He was raised because we were justified by His death.' On this interpretation the significance of the Resurrection for our justi- fication becomes reduced to a ' divine declaration that we are accepted with God ' (G. B. Stevens, Pauline Theology, London, 1892, p. 254 ; cf. B. Weiss, Biblical Theolociy of the NT, Eng. tr., Edinburgh, 1882, i. 437). Its purpose is evidential ; it is little more than a certificate or testimonial to the validity of the Death. That the Resurrection has this evidential significance we have seen. But this is only a partial statement of the apostolic view. If this were all, no inner or essential con- nexion is to be traced between the Resurrection and our justification, but one which is purely external and temporary ; and the Resurrection would be a matter which can be dispensed with as soon as faith is gained, or is unnecessary if faith is gained in some other way (see, e.g., Pfleiderer, Paulinism, Eng. tr., London, 1877, i. 119).