The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 85

Ver. 2.-The subject of the Pauline minilftry. The power of preachers is very various. Some depend on the rhetorical form in which they present their message. Their appeal is rather to feeling than to intellcct,and they are stronger in the persuasive than in the instructivo faculties. Very important spheres open to such men, though their work always needs careful and wise following up and supplementing. Others depe1Hl almost wholly upon the value of their subfect-matter, and even fail to win the acceptance they might in consequence of their so entirely neglecting to culture rhetorical and persuasive forms of speech. In over-civilized people, such as were found at Corinth, there usually grows up a great passion for the merely rhetorical, a~ pleasing to the ear and to the artistic feeling. The Apostle Pan!, in his zeal an, l intensity, despises all mere arts of rhetoric, and relies wholly on the grnn<leur of hi; theme, aud the spiritual power with which its announcement is to be accompanie,l. His subject was- I. A PERSON. "Jesus Christ." The first work of the apustles was to declare th, Christian/acts, which are the basis of the Christian system. Those facts concern thu life, teaching, miracles, sufferings, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of all these things the apostles had precise and accurate knowledge, and concerning them they could render personal testimony. Of all these things they took care that adequate and satisfactory records should be preserved (2 Pet. i. 15, 16). But their interest did not lie in the mere facts, but in those facts as throwing light upon the person, the mission, and the Divine saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation, they declared, comes by personal trust in Christ; and that he may be trusted he must be known, fully known. Therefore the apostle went everywhere preaching Cbrist, setting forth Cbrist, glorifying Christ, bi<lding men bow to him, confess tu him, an,t receive forgiveness and eternal life from him. It is still true for us that the preachin~ of the Christian facts must set forth before men Christ, the person, and the unloldin;.; of the Christian doctrines must glorify the" living Christ," who has all power to save. II. 'l'HAT PERSON'S HISTORY. In view of the tendency to form myths and legen,ls in those days, and to explain everything by theories of myth and legend in our days, it is important that we press the Mstorical value of the records we have concerning Christ. It may be effectively urged that, apart from the question of the miracles, which demand a separate treatment, there is no feature of our Lord's life that is in any way unnatural, or likely to offend the historical faculty. No hero of the historic 1iage can be received as real if a like acceptance be not given to the story of Christ; for the records we have of him will stand as well as any others the severest historical tests. In our day it is necessary to lay firmly again the old foundations of a real human life and human relations. \Ve must begin with the ".Man Christ Jesus." It may further be urged that, apart from higher considerations, the humau history of the Lord Jesus Christ presents features of supreme and rascinating interest, as the records of a child, a man, a teacher, a physician, aml a sufferer. III. THAT PERSON'S WHOLE HISTORY. ".And him crucifie<l.." The apostle might have been tempted to withhold portions of our Lord's story. His own intense Jewish feeling would make him revolt from having to preach salvation by One crucified. "We can scarcely realize now the stumbling-block which the preaching of a crucified Christ must have been to Jews and Greeks, the enormous temptation to keep the cross in tha background, which the early teachers would naturally have felt, aml the sublime an,l confident faith which must have nerved St. Paul to make it the central fact of all his teaching.'' He must have had a rel'clation of the glory of the mystery of the Crucithiou.  86 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TllE CORINTHIANS. [cH. n. 1-16.