Page:Jesus and the Gospel.djvu/50

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
30
JESUS AND THE GOSPEL

what we find in Paul when his theology is at its simplest, and where the Christology of his later epistles gives no indication of its presence.

(2) The impression made upon us is not altered when we pass to that more developed mode of conceiving Christ which is characteristic of the second group of the apostle's writings — the controversial epistles of the third missionary journey, Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans. Of course the non-theological way of presenting Christ is also to be found in these, as in all Paul's letters; he could not but think of Him often simply as the historical person whom God had exalted to be Lord of all. But along with this there is the conception of Christ as a representative, typical, or universal person, who has for a new Christian humanity the same kind of significance which Adam had for the old. Sometimes it is the nature of this Person on which stress is laid; he is a spiritual man, and belongs to heaven, as opposed to Adam, who was a natural (psychical) man, and of the earth earthen (I Cor. 1545 ff). Sometimes the stress is laid not on his nature, but on his action^ it can be characterised by the one word obedience, as opposed to the disobedience or transgression of Adam; and like the disobedience of the first man, the obedience of the second is of universal and absolute significance. It is the salvation of the world (Rom. 512 ff). This is the conception which lends itself most readily to what are usually called 'mystical' interpretations of Christ's life and work. What is most important in it is the truth which it embodies of the kinship of Christ with all mankind, and the progressive verification of that truth which comes with the universal preaching of the gospel. Paul was convinced of the representative character of Christ and of all His acts; the death that He died for all has somehow the significance that the death of all would itself