* St. Paul did not quote Ps llS'Sf- as Clement of Rome did (xh'iii. 2-4), to show that ' of the numerous (;ates which are opened, this in righteousness is the gat* in Christ, wherehy hlessed are all the}' that enter and make straight their paths in holiness and righteousness." In view of fJal & it is literally, but no more than literally, correct to say (witli I.ightfoot on ko 621) that St. Paul ' never uses Kapird? of the results of evil-doing, but always substitutes epya-' Still he does tend to confine this organic metaphor to the new life in the spirit ; he avoids speaking of
Kaprros ^ixatotrvn)? (ef. Pr ll-'O. l.XX) except in Ph 111.
t It is argued by E. Knhl in licc/ilh-itniinuj au/Gnmd Giaub- ens und Qcricht nach den M'erkcn bt-i J'auiua, Konigsberg, 1904.
392
RIGHTEOUSNESS
RIGHTEOUSKESS
Paul's language in order to explain all tlie facts. Others point out that the equivalence of reward and service is not mechanical or juridical, and tliat the deeds which come up for scrutiny at tlie end are the ' fruit of the Spirit.' In any case, St. Paul never re^^irded justifying faith as either morally indifferent or guaranteeinj^ mechanically a good life. He retains judgment on the works of the Christian* as a justified nian, on account of his strong sense of etiiical responsibility. There may be a formal contradiction, out the signilicant thing is that both in 2 Co 5^'* (' I am eager to satisfy him, whether in the body or away from it ; for we have all to aiipear before the tribunal of Christ, each to be requited for what he has done with his body, well or ilT) and in Ph 3^'*, where the possession of the Divine righteousness at the end does not exclude personal etlbrt in the present,! the Apostle's religi- ous experience is larger than the logical inferences of the strict righteousness-doctrine. To be justi- fied by faith was God's gift. But it was more than a gift; it was a vocation, a career — Aufgabe as well as Gahe. Because it was the gift of a new relationship, the recipient had to work from it or with it scrupulously : ' Work strenuously at your salvation, for it is God who in his goodwill enables you to will this and to achieve it' (Ph 2^^). My aim, he adds, is *to see if I too can attain the resurrection from the dead' (Ph 3"), that being part and parcel of the Divine righteousness which depended on faith. Baur takes this last clause and writes opposite it, * If there be anything that our apostle could not possibly have written it is that dubious etTrais /caraiTTjo'w e/s tt)v ^^avdffraa lv tt}v €K v€Kpwv, where his whole fellowship with Christ is put in question.' St. Paul could not have written it, unless he had been more than a Paulinist — a Paulinist of Baur's type. But he was a great Christian. He could conceive it possible that even he might be a reprobate, and he wished his churches to feel tlie same wholesome fear of themselves. He knew tliere was such a thing as receiving the grace of God in vain. Nothing would have been more out of keeping with his doctrine of assurance than a Christianized Pharisaism which counted lightly on final acceptance, t It is not a proof of the unauthenticity of Philippians that he introduces this remarkable allusion to the subjective aspect of righteousness. On paper the collocation of this with the assurance of acquittal on the score of faith may seem heterogeneous, just as the cognate association of justihcation by faith with judgment to be passed on the conduct of Christians may appear an antinomy. But, while we learn to know St. Paul first on paper, the clue to the real St. Paul lies in the spiritual and ethical attitude towards the realities of God and human life, which can and must hold together in the Christian consciousness things which logically amount to a paradox.
The judgment on works, i.e. on the behaviour of Christians as justified men as well as on outsiders, implies the recompense of good conduct andsenice as w^ell as the retribution upon evil. The good life is crowned, at the end (2 Ti 4^). This was some- times expressed by St. Paul as receiving God's ' praise,' e.g. in 1 Co 4^ (almost in the sense of approval), where each faithful servant gets his proportionate meed of praise from God, when
* It is impossible (in face of Eo 26f. and 2 Co 510) to hold that he kept it for outsiders.
t Titius (Der PauUnismtts, pp. 203-205) traces in Ph 39r. a weakening of the definitive character of justification, although he interprets Gal 217 of the constant task which falls to the Christian — the task of maintaining his position as a justified man. Gal 2i7 ig a difficult link in a difficult chain of argument, but it probably means that even Jews who sought righteousness on Christ's terms had to confess they were sinners ; they could not bring forward any racial privilege which would exempt them from the verdict that 'all have sinned*(Ro 3'-^).
X Cf. Pascal's saying : 'au lieu de dire, *' s'il n'j' avait point en Dieu de mis^ricorde, d faudrait faire toutes sortes d'efforts pour la vertu," il faut dire, au contraire, que cest parce qu'il y a en Dieu de la mistricorde, qu'il faut faire toutes sortes d'efforts' {Penates, ed. E. Havet, Paris, 1866, vol. u. p. 103).