CHRISTOLOGT
278
CHRISTOLOGY
It is easy also to see that, in point of ikct, all lies in the question whether such a Christ as dwells, if not always in the words, yet ever in the mind of the Chnrch — one in whom the perfect personal union of the divine and human appeared historically — he nec- essary and actnaL For let ns suppose that philosophy could incontrovertibly establish and carry to the con- viction of all thoughtful men that the person of a Christ in the sense above set forth is a self-contradic- tion, and therefore an impossibility, there would be no longer any conflict between Christian theology and philosophy, because with the person of Christ would be abolished the Christian theology, as well as the Christian Church altogether. And, converse!}', were it brought under the recognition of philosophy that the idea of an historical as well as an ideal Christ is necessary, and were a speculative construction of the person of Christ once reached, it is c^ear that philoso- phy and theology, essentially and intrinsically recon- ciled, would thenceforward have a common work, or, rather, properly speaking, would have become one, and philosophy would consequently not have relin- quished her existence, but confirmed it" Care is to be taken, however, not to run into the Bomanist error of substituting the incarnation fbr the death of Christ, and of putting aside the work of the Holy Spirit, which is the special life of the present dispensation of grace. The ** sacramental** system tends to this by its theory that Christ is present in **the body" in his Church, in- stead of in his Holy Spirit See Holt Spirit.
The Christology of the Old Testament will be treat- ed under the axticle Messiah. See also the article Christ. We here dbcuss, briefly, I. The Christolo- gy of the N. T. ; II. The Christology of the Church ; III. The principal Christological heresies.
I. CHRISTOLOGY op the New Testament.-— The older divines generally adduce the passages of the N. T. which treat of the person of Christ under the heads of (1) the Divinity of Christ ; (2) the Humanity of Christ The first class of passages adduced general- ly includes those which assert the pre-existence of Christ ; then follow passages which ascribe divine func- tions and attributes to Christ ; and, thirdly, those which give him divine titles (comp. Watson, Theol. InstittdeSy I, ch. xxv-xxxii ; Hill, DirmUy^ book iii). The recent discussions as to the origin of the Gospels, and as to the so-called development of doctrine in the N. T., have made it more convenient to state the Christology of t^e N. T. under the following heads : (1) Christ's own tes- timony as to his person, with the doctrine taught by his acts, as recorded in the Gospels, (a) the Synoptists ; (6) John; (2) The Christology of the apostles. Pye Smith {Scriphtre Testimony to (he Meitiahj books iii, iv) makes the two heads following : 1. The Person of Christ, as taught in the Gospels and in our Lord's assertions and intimations ; 2. The Person of Christ, as taught by the Apostles.
1. The Synoptical Gotpebytnththe Testimony of Christ as to His Person (see Domer, Person of Christy vol. i, p. 62 sq. ; and SchafiT, Person qf Christ the Miracle of History J p. 115 sq. ; both of whom are used in what follows).— (1.) Christ calls himself vibe Ocou, Son of God, and this in the highest sense, as implying the <U- vinity of his own person (Matt xxvi, 63 ; xvi, 16, 17). ** He is not merely a son of God (as David, the kings of Israel, or the prophets were so styled) ; not merely one of the sons of Qod, but The Son, the only, the well- beloved (Matt iii, 17 ; xvii, 6 ; xxii, 42-46). David's son is David's Lord. The phrase " Son of God" has three meanings in the synoptical Gospels : (1) What may be called the physical meaning (Matt i, 23 ; Luke i, 86), because he has this name by nature, and on ac- count of the mode of liis birth. Of John it is said, '' He shall be filled with the Holy Ghost from his moth- er's womb" (Luke i, 16), where the existence of the person of John precedes the filling with the Holy Ghost But of Jesus it is said that, because he comes