2. Unity of mediation. — The explanation of the dualism we are conscious of in experience is not found, as in Gnosticism, in the transition from the transcendent God to the created universe. The unity of tiie Divine self-existence is not lost when related to other being ; its fullness is not portioned out in successive separate emanations. There is one God, and one Mediator (1 Co 8«, 1 Ti 25)— He who became in human history the ' man Christ Jesus.' In Him, as the Image and Only-begotten of the Father, the undivided fullness of the Godhead dwells (Jn l'^ Col •2») ; and He is not only, by His Incarnation, the one Mediator to mankind of all Divine life, truth, and saving grace, but the Divine agent in all creation (Jn P, Col 1'"), and the principle of its unity (Col 1"). See Fulness ; Mediation.
3. The unity of man (a) The generic unity,
physical and moral, of mankind (already seen in the OT and in Stoicism) is a presupposition of Christian soteriology ; human nature has every- where the same spiritual capacities, needs the same salvation, and is capable of appropriating it by the same means (Ro 1'", etc.). This unity is categori- cally affirmed (Ac 17°") ; historically it has its soui'ce in descent from one common primal ancestor (Ro 5"-'^ 1 Co 15='-'-'"), but ultimately in the fact that man as man is the image and offspring of God (Ac \7^-^).
(b) Hence there is unity as regards responsibility. Apart from special revelation, man possesses a rational and moral nature, made for the knowledge and love of God, with capacities for discerning the self-manifestations of God in His creative and providential activities (Ac 14", Ro 1"-='); and especially does conscience bear witness to the sovereign imperative of His righteousness (2'''-'').
(c) But, actually, unity in responsibility has become unity in sin. Human character has become corrupt at its hereditary source (Ro 5'-- "■'', 4 Ezr. iii. 216, Apoc. Bar. liv. 15, 19) ; human life uni- versally characterized by wilful sin (Ro S"'-"), involving guilt (v.'*) and that separation from God (Eph 4'», Col r-M which is death (Ro 6", Eph 2••^ Col 2").
U^ITY
UNKNOWN GUU
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4. Unity of redemption. — (a) For tlie common liuinan need one coinmun redemption is nro\i(ied (Ac 4'-', I!o KM'-, 1 ,In -2=), to he received by the same means (Ho 4"-'>', (Jal 2'", 1 Jn l'""), workinj; to tlie same issues of for-iiveness (Ro 8', Rev 1°), reconciliation to (!oil (Ro 5'-'°, 2 Coo""''), endue- ment witli the Sjiirit (Ro S'"'"), eternal life (5"-', 1 Jn 5"'" -"'). Possessinj; such fellowship with God in Christ, as the source of their common life and object of their common faitli. Chris- tians also possess a unii)ue spiritual allinity and fellowship with each other. And, in the Apos- tolic Aye, the consciousness of unity reaches its intensest point in the conception of this fellow- ship, alike Divine and human, as embodied in the Church. In this, racial and social distinctions — .Jew and Gentile, bond and free — serve onlj' to emphasize and enhance the fact that those who are united in Christ, however difi'erenl in all else, have immeasurably more in common than those who are separated by Clirist, however alike in every other respect (1 Co 7™, Gal 3-«, Eph 2"--'-'). So, also, di.stinclions of custom and even of convicticm do not disappear (Ro 14'') ; yet even such diverse inter- pretations of truth and duty oui;lit only to evoke a fuller realization of sn])reme truth and duty, the faith "and love in which all are one. Unity is emphasized as apainst mere uniformity (1 Co 12). In the spiritual body, as in the physical, a rich diversity of gift and function is necessary to the complete e.\pression of the organic life-principle (vv. ''■''). It is only in its complex collective unity that renewed humanity can reach its Divine ideal (Eph 4"-'»).
{/)) r>ut in the Pauline Epistles it is seen that, Christ being what He is, universal Mediator and Lord, He is destined to become by His reconciling work the centre of a unity that embraces all exist- ence, and that is essential even for the full redemp- tion of man. Christ must be Head over all things to His liody, which is the Church (Ejili 1--) ; hostile elemental forces must be siibdued (1 Co 1,')-', Eph 1'-') ; all things, whether on earth or in heaven, must come under His reconciling sway (Col 1-"), and the whole creation be emancipated into the liberty that belongs to the glorified state of God's children (Ro 8"'), that God may be all in all (1 Co 1. -)-»).
5. The final unity. — As has been said, the NT attem]}ts no solution of the problem how duality has arisen out of an original unity, and the same is largelj' true of the converse problem, how the existent duality is to be linally overcome, resolved into the eternal unity of Divine truth and love. One thing only is seen as a certainty for Christian faith : of .such unity Christ is the sole cause and ever-living centre. He must reign: it is unto Him that all things must be subdued : it is as the fruit of His sacrifice that God will reconcile all things unto Himself; it is in His name that every knee shall bow. Him that every tongue must confess as Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Hut in apostolic thought (which here virtually means Fauline) tlie age to come seems to be viewed in diHeient perspectives. In the one the curtain falls upon an unresolved or, at any rate, imperfectly resolved dualism. Christ's enemies are made His footstool ; yet their .subjection, if not merely physical, is not compl'itely moral. Evil is still evil, though in chains and, to this extent, subject to the righteousness of (iod. This is the vision which arises when the final issue is viewed from the side of human freedom and responsibility. If absolute finality is not ascribed to the spiritual choices of the present, the future of those who in this present world reject the life-giving Spirit is left in unrelieved gloom. From another point of view, the necessary consummation of Christ's