BS 241. 
 
 J4F7 
 
4 o 
 
 
 .V fll 
 
 '0»V 
 
 » 0n ^. "Ill 
 
 Ay <$> * © N 
 
 
 \* G *.... V' 1 ! V 
 
 
THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS 
 Edited by }OHN H. KERR, D. D. 
 
 THE TEACHING OF JESUS 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 HIS OWN MISSION 
 
 Frank Hugh Foster, ph. d., d. d. 
 
THE TEACHING OF JESUS 
 
 CONCERNING 
 
 HIS OWN MISSION 
 
 By 
 
 Frank Hugh Foster, Ph. D., D.D. 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 150 NASSAU STREET 
 
 NEW YORK 
 

 
 TH&LllilKAaVOF 
 CONGRESS. 
 
 Two Cepiet Received 
 
 SEP 15 'W3 
 
 Copyright Entry 
 
 :l>S5 jfc. KXc No 
 
 COPY B. 
 
 Copyright, igo^ y by 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 
 
TO THE MEMORY OF 
 
 JOSEPH HENRY THAYER 
 
 GRAMMARIAN, LEXICOGRAPHER 
 
 AND TRANSLATOR 
 
 OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 PAINSTAKING TEACHER 
 
 ACCURATE AND LEARNED EXEGETE 
 
 KNIGHT 
 
 WITHOUT FEAR AND WITHOUT REPROACH 
 
 FAITHFUL FRIEND 
 
PREFACE 
 
 IT is the object of this book to present to the 
 general public, without controversy and in a 
 plain manner, the results of the best scholarship 
 respecting its theme. Learned lumber of every 
 kind has been rigorously excluded. Hence there 
 are no references to books, and no minute discus- 
 sions. But such discussions have not been unex- 
 amined by the writer; and at many a point the 
 argument has taken silent notice of them. The 
 style has been condensed as much as seemed con- 
 sistent with intelligibility. The hope is that Sun- 
 day School classes and private readers may here 
 easily find what they want, and be both stimulated 
 to further study and helped religiously. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. The Method of the Study. . i 
 
 II. The Preparation 16 
 
 III. The Fundamental Utterances 
 
 of Jesus 25 
 
 IV. The Lost World and the 
 
 Kingdom of Heaven. ... 32 
 V. The Salvation of Healing. . 48 
 VI. The Salvation of Knowledge. 59 
 VII. The Salvation of Repentance 
 
 and the New Life. ... 72 
 VIII. The Salvation of Redemption 
 
 and Forgiveness 84 
 
 IX. Salvation at the Last Judg- 
 ment. 118 
 
 X. Summary .122 
 
 Indices. , 127 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 The Method of the Study 
 
 rHE advantages of the Christian 
 student are sometimes his disad- 
 vantages. He lives in the Chris- 
 tian Church, which has been studying 
 truth for two thousand years. All its 
 great scholars and divines are his teachers 
 and fathers. He is naturally inclined, 
 when he wishes to know why Jesus 
 Christ came into the world, to ask these 
 teachers. He can scarcely go wrong, he 
 thinks, if he takes the result of all the 
 ages of Christian study for the true an- 
 swer of his questions. The Church must 
 A 1 
 
2 His Own Mission 
 
 know, and the answer of her scholars is 
 the answer of the Church. 
 
 Direct Knowledge Best 
 
 But this may not be wholly so. When 
 one goes into a cathedral, the light that 
 comes pouring through its windows is 
 the light of the sun ; but it is variously 
 colored and quite different from the white 
 light outside. Every window has its 
 beautiful pictures wrought in colored 
 glass, and the light is modified in a differ- 
 ent way by every bit through which it 
 passes. If one wishes to know what the 
 sunlight is in all its purity and brilliancy, 
 he must go out of the cathedral and stand 
 in the full white light of the sun itself. 
 So every teacher in the Church, taking 
 the truth from the revelation made by 
 Jesus, has colored it more or less, as he 
 has transmitted it through his own per- 
 sonality. Another will not get from him 
 just what he received from Jesus. To 
 know the pure truth of Jesus, it is, there- 
 
The Method of the Study 3 
 
 fore, necessary to step outside of the 
 Church, and stand in the full light which 
 shines from the Sun of Righteousness 
 himself. The Church gives us the 
 knowledge that there is light, she points 
 us to the Sun, she has many a word of 
 helpful interpretation to give. These are 
 advantages. But if they take the place of 
 direct knowledge of Jesus for one's self, 
 they become disadvantages. A more 
 glorious understanding of the mission 
 of Jesus in the world, of every truth he 
 has had to reveal, and of every deed 
 he has had to perform, will be gained if, 
 for a time, not his disciples but himself 
 be heard. 
 
 Jesus' Own Words 
 
 We must go, then, to the Gospels for 
 our answer to the great question of this 
 book : Why did Jesus Christ come into the 
 World ? There he tells us himself : there 
 we stand in the full sunlight of truth. 
 Some have gone even further, and have 
 
4 His Own Mission 
 
 said that we must restrict ourselves to his 
 own recorded words. The disciples, and 
 even the inspired Apostles, were men. 
 They were " colored," and can transmit 
 only colored light. If we want truly 
 the pure sunlight, the light of unmodified 
 truth, we must hear not even what the 
 Apostles say about Jesus' teaching, but 
 the exact words of Jesus only. This is 
 his teaching uncolored by any transmit- 
 ting agency whatever. This alone gives 
 the exact truth. 
 
 If this further distinction is correct, 
 and we may hope to obtain knowledge 
 of Jesus' teachings from his own words 
 exclusively, then certain things must be 
 true about those words. They must be 
 reported with a great degree of fulness 
 and accuracy. We must be able to know, 
 first, that they are Jesus' exact words, and, 
 second, precisely what they mean, with- 
 out the help of anything except com- 
 parison of one teaching with another. 
 Enigmatical phrases, scattered hints on 
 
The Method of the Study 5 
 
 great themes, brief and inadequate re- 
 ports of long and profound discourses, 
 will avail us little. If the Apostles cor- 
 rectly understood him, we must be able 
 to justify them from his words alone : if 
 they, prechance, misunderstood him, or 
 only partially understood, that must be 
 equally evident from the same words. 
 Two things we must have, Fulness, and 
 Precision. 
 
 Dependence on the Apostles 
 
 Now, evidently, neither of these things 
 do we actually have. The reports, first, 
 are not full, for in the fullest examples, as 
 in the Sermon on the Mount, or in the 
 Last Discourse, we may read in a few 
 moments what must have taken a long 
 time to deliver. We have in these cases 
 little more than the heads of the dis- 
 course, and in most cases only a glimpse of 
 the main substance of a discourse. The 
 parables may be complete, each in itself ; 
 but there were many more parables. 
 
6 His Own Mission 
 
 Often we have mere hints, and isolated 
 phrases to go on, as in that most important 
 text for our present study, Matt. xx. 28, 
 where the word " ransom >J starts new 
 questions rather than answers old. If 
 the gospels contained nothing but Jesus 5 
 words, how brief, how inadequate as a 
 report of the teachings of such a man the 
 one hundred and twenty pages which 
 they fill out in a quarto Bible ! No, ful- 
 ness is not to be found in the report of 
 Jesus' words ! 
 
 Neither is verbal precision. When 
 we compare parallel passages in the dif- 
 ferent gospels, how many variations we 
 find ! Where is the verbatim report which 
 the accurate student demands ? Even 
 John's reports are so evidently in the 
 peculiar style determined by his own 
 marked individuality, 1 that no stress can 
 be laid upon their universal verbal pre- 
 
 1 Compare the gospel and the Epistles, where he 
 was not controled by any purpose of reporting. 
 The two styles are the same. Then compare the 
 
The Method of the Study 7 
 
 cision, considered as reports. Even the 
 professed words of Jesus are therefore 
 colored by the writer's understanding 
 and memory of them. In the gospels 
 you are still in the cathedral and see the 
 light through the medium of other men. 
 
 Jesus, the Jesus of the Gospels 
 
 We must, therefore, pause in our 
 search for the true light at that light 
 which shines from the pages of the en- 
 tire four gospels as we now have them. 
 The Jesus whom we know is the Jesus 
 whom the evangelists portray. We can- 
 not know him apart from their concep- 
 tion of him, for they have given not 
 him, but their conception of him. If the 
 two are different and contradictory, then 
 we can never know Jesus. We must 
 go back to the words of Jesus, if we are 
 to gain the best knowledge of his mission 
 into the world ; but these are not his 
 
 style of the first three gospels. It is markedly 
 different. 
 
8 His Own Mission 
 
 words in distinction from their report in the 
 gospels and the evangelists' understand- 
 ing of them, but his words as reported to 
 us. Efforts which separate between 
 these things are foredoomed to failure in 
 attaining the teaching of Jesus. They 
 may gratify the ingenuity of men, but 
 they can never commend themselves to 
 any but those who make them. To 
 success it is essential to assume, as this 
 present study will frankly do, the equal 
 substantial value of all the evangelical rep- 
 resentations of Jesus' teachings, whether 
 they be report, or comment, or applica- 
 tion, or implication. And thus the whole 
 text of all the gospels will be employed 
 as the necessary and indispensable means 
 of interpreting the reproduction found 
 in them of the Saviour's words. 
 
 The Fourth Gospel 
 
 But is not an exception to be made in 
 reference to the Fourth Gospel ? Is not 
 its individuality too marked to allow us 
 
The Method of the Study 9 
 
 to take it as giving even a fairly objective 
 and reliable view of Jesus' teaching ? Is 
 not the Jesus it presents distinctly differ- 
 ent from that Jesus which we find on 
 the pages of the first three gospels ? And 
 must not any discussion that pretends to 
 have value distinguish between the two 
 forms of doctrine, and give the prefer- 
 ence to that of the simple and primitive 
 three ? 
 
 The point of view of the two styles of 
 presenting Jesus is enough different to 
 justify a separation in the treatment of 
 every theme between its synoptic, or 
 earlier form, and its Johannine. Advan- 
 tage will often be found to flow from 
 this separation. But when all is said, the 
 picture given of Christ in the first three, 
 and in the fourth gospel is substantially 
 the same. They can be rendered incon- 
 sistent only by removing, by falsely so- 
 called " critical " processes, elements 
 from the three earlier gospels which are 
 found there and belong where they are 
 
io His Own Mission 
 
 found. If they be separated for argu- 
 ment's sake, the argument finally proves 
 their agreement; and to assume that 
 agreement is to find it constantly con- 
 firmed. The Christ of the four gospels 
 is a single and consistent personality, and 
 his teaching is better understood by con- 
 sidering them all than by divorcing them. 
 
 Environment 
 
 A further principle has an important 
 application to this study. Everything 
 pertaining to this world is known fully 
 only as its environment is known. Ani- 
 mal, plant, a race, an institution, an idea, 
 — none of these can be known by any 
 process which isolates them. This is 
 now accepted and employed as a prin- 
 ciple in the study of almost every impor- 
 tant theme. It will be found to have a 
 direct, but possibly an unexpected appli- 
 cation to our present subject. 
 
 The teachings of Jesus must be under- 
 stood by a consideration of his environ- 
 
The Method of the Study 1 1 
 
 ment, and by the environment of the 
 records which have transmitted them to 
 us. It seems scarcely worth remarking 
 that he could be understood by the peo- 
 ple only as he spoke their language. 
 But their language was not a mere list of 
 words. Words themselves mean this or 
 that to the hearer according to the stock 
 of ideas which he possesses, by which 
 they are interpreted. What does the 
 word " wealth ' mean to the widow 
 whose entire living is two mites, and what 
 to the proud rulers of the Jews ? What 
 does " salvation " mean to the sinner who 
 feels his unutterable guilt, and the Phari- 
 see who has been taught from the begin- 
 ning that he is a favorite of heaven and 
 supposes that he has " kept all the com- 
 mandments from his youth ? " Hence 
 what Jesus' hearers were, what they had 
 been taught and believed, their history and 
 institutions and theology and forms of 
 common life, all entered into their prepa- 
 ration for his teaching and thus deter- 
 
12 His Own Mission 
 
 mined their understanding of it. And 
 thus even his meaning was determined, 
 for he would not, as a wise and sincere 
 teacher, speak so as to be inevitably mis- 
 understood, and he could gain no credit 
 with us if he did. Thus the whole of 
 current Judaism is to be taken into our 
 view as we seek to determine what Jesus 
 meant by this or that word. And many 
 another element of environment there 
 is also. 
 
 The Gospels have an Environment 
 
 This is often forgotten, but it exists, 
 and by it the gospels must be interpreted. 
 
 If we compare the dates at which the 
 different books of the New Testament 
 were written, we discover that the gospels 
 are not the earliest. This place belongs 
 to the Epistles of Paul. The interval of 
 time between epistle and gospel ranges 
 in different cases between the extremes 
 of fifteen and forty years. In the mean- 
 time the Epistles of Paul had been widely 
 
The Method of the Study 13 
 
 circulated. 2 We do not know how 
 widely, but we know that they went from 
 Rome on the west to the heart of Asia 
 Minor on the east, and from Philippi on 
 the north to Colossae on the south, and 
 that they circulated from church to 
 church. 3 It cannot be supposed that 
 the evangelists were ignorant of their 
 contents. They had already themselves 
 learned much from Paul. 4 They wrote 
 for a Church which already had the epis- 
 tles, and they knew that the gospel ac- 
 cording to Paul would powerfully affect 
 the understanding of their own gospel. 
 Hence they must have written with 
 an unconscious if not a conscious — 
 better, with both conscious and often 
 unconscious reference to him. They 
 were in his environment, and he is essen- 
 tial to the understanding of them. Had 
 they not agreed with him, they must 
 
 2 Comp. 2 Pet. iii. 15, 16. 
 
 3 Col. iv. 16. 
 
 4 Gal. ii. I— 21. 
 
14 His Own Mission 
 
 have openly opposed him, as he did Peter 
 while there was still matter of controversy 
 between them. 5 The fact that they do 
 not oppose him argues powerfully for 
 their conscious agreement with him. 
 Continued study of both will confirm 
 their agreement. We must therefore 
 bring Paul in to interpret Matthew and 
 John, as the early church did, and as the 
 church has ever since done. We are 
 thus but recognizing the principle that a 
 form — a form of doctrine as well as any- 
 thing else — is known by its environment. 
 
 Doctrinal Unity of the New Testament 
 
 We thus arrive, by a somewhat new 
 path, at an old principle, upon which this 
 book will be based, the unity of the New 
 Testament. We cannot separate between 
 a " theology of Jesus " and a " theology 
 of Paul," the former of which should 
 teach, for example, free forgiveness 
 without an atonement, the latter the ne- 
 
 5 Gal. ii. ii. 
 
The Method of the Study 1 5 
 
 cessity of an atonement. At least, we 
 cannot do this before examination. If 
 we should find clear proof of such dif- 
 ferences, we should have to accept them ; 
 but to infer them from the fact that one 
 is silent, or indefinite as to some doctrine 
 which the other teaches — that would be 
 to forget the principle of environment. 
 When two explanations of passages can 
 be given, one of which makes them agree 
 and the other makes them differ, the 
 former is to be preferred. Such is the 
 supposition which is demanded by a 
 general survey of the relations of gos- 
 pels and epistles, and such the " working 
 theory " upon which we shall proceed, 
 till full acquaintance with the facts has 
 either refuted the theory or confirmed 
 it beyond the possibility of further rea- 
 sonable questioning. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 The Preparation 
 
 TJyT'HEN Jesus appeared, it was, as 
 ^yr already said, in the environment 
 of the Jewish nation. He was 
 born a Jew. The nation of which he 
 thus became a member had long cher- 
 ished hopes of a Messiah who should 
 fulfill the brilliant prophecies about him 
 with which the Old Testament was 
 crowded. They knew where he was to 
 be born, 1 and that he was to be of the 
 lineage of David. They knew he was 
 to be a king; 2 but they misconceived the 
 
 1 Matt. ii. 5. 
 
 2 Matt. xxii. 42. 
 
 16 
 
The Preparation 17 
 
 nature of his kingdom, fixing their eyes 
 on deliverance from the yoke of Rome 
 and the establishment of an earthly king- 
 dom, 3 and were thereby rendered unpre- 
 pared for his spiritual doctrine. They 
 even had vague ideas as to his eternity, as 
 if he could not die. 4 They had failed to 
 get the meaning of the most significant 
 passages of their ancient Bible, and had 
 hence no true knowledge of him, or of 
 his mission, and had to be instructed and 
 corrected, again and again, at every vital 
 point. Of a suffering Messiah, despite 
 the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, they 
 seem to have had no knowledge what- 
 ever. And thus their view of him only 
 serves to teach us what he was not, except 
 as it serves to render plainer some of his 
 own expressions. 
 
 John the Baptist 
 
 There was one man in Israel who knew 
 3 Acts i. 6. 
 4 Jn- xii. 34. 
 B 
 
18 His Own Mission 
 
 what the others did not. This was John, 
 the child born of prophecy and miracle, 
 who was trained for his work in the des- 
 ert, and came "preaching the baptism of 
 repentance unto the remission of sins." 5 
 He shared the Messianic hopes of his 
 people, but knew himself to stand in a 
 special relation to the Messiah. He was 
 the Voice sent to make ready for the 
 coming of the expected one. 6 As the 
 Evangelist John expresses it, he was sent 
 " for witness, that he might bear witness 
 of the light, that all might believe through 
 him." 7 And he knew the holy sign, 
 the descending Spirit, by which the 
 Messiah was both to be declared and 
 empowered. 8 
 
 John, too, recognized the kingship of 
 the Messiah, and proclaimed the near ap- 
 
 5 Mk. i. 4. 
 
 6 Jn. i. 23. Comp. Matt. iii. 3; Mk. i. 3; 
 Lk. i. 17. 
 
 7 Jn. i. 7. Comp. vs. 31. 
 
 8 J n -i- 33- 
 
The Preparation 19 
 
 proach of the kingdom. 9 But his idea 
 of the kingdom was a spiritual idea, for 
 its founding was to be the chief work of 
 that greater one who should come after 
 him and should " baptize in the Spirit." IO 
 This view at once shattered the hopes of 
 earthly brilliancy which the Jews at large 
 entertained for the kingdom of the Mes- 
 siah. Such a spiritual mission, among 
 a people sunk so low in vice as Israel 
 was, 11 must be attended with judgment, 12 
 which should have eternal consequences. 
 Thus the Messiah was elevated to the 
 rank of a divine personage, for only God 
 can pronounce eternal judgment. John's 
 Messiah was, therefore, a King, and an 
 eternal King, but he was more. 
 
 The Lamb of God 
 He was more ; for he was the suffering 
 
 9 Matt. iii. 2. 
 
 10 Matt. iii. 11. 
 
 11 Lk. iii. 7, etc. 
 
 12 Lk. iii. 17 ; Matt. iii. 12. 
 
20 His Own Mission 
 
 Redeemer. When Jesus came to be 
 baptized of John in Jordan, he was 
 pointed out by John to those who stood 
 about as " the Lamb of God that taketh 
 away the sin of the world." I3 
 
 The meaning of this slight and brief 
 reference to the work of Jesus might 
 well be regarded as too uncertain to af- 
 ford the basis for any doctrine of religion 
 but for the place and circumstances in 
 which it stands. These are its environ- 
 ment, and determine its meaning. That 
 word "lamb " had as definite a reference 
 to the ear of a Jew trained in the Scrip- 
 tures, as " light " has to the student of 
 the Apostle John. In one place in the 
 Old Testament only is the sacrificial vic- 
 tim called a "lamb/' and that is in the 
 great chapter of Isaiah upon the Servant of 
 Jehovah. 14 Of him it is said that he was 
 "as a lamb that is led to the slaughter/' 
 The Old Testament here- reaches the 
 
 13 J*, i. 29, 36. 
 
 14 Is. liii. 7. 
 
The Preparation 21 
 
 summit of its doctrine of the Messiah. 
 The way of the crown becomes here the 
 way of the cross. It is with this picture 
 that the Baptist identifies Jesus, and he 
 thereby teaches that Jesus' work culmi- 
 nated in his sacrifice, by which he was 
 "wounded for our transgressions/' and 
 Jehovah " laid on him the iniquity of us 
 all." 1S If to some, as generally it has to 
 the Jews both ancient and modern, that 
 prophecy has seemed to refer to the per- 
 sonified people of Israel, John understood 
 it of an individual person, and that per- 
 son was Jesus. 
 
 This distinct interpretation, given by 
 his acknowledged forerunner, 16 forms a 
 large element of the environment of 
 Jesus' teaching as to himself. He was 
 thus introduced to his own disciples, 17 
 and to the public who listened to the 
 
 5 Is. liii. 5, 6. 
 
 16 Matt. xi. 14. 
 
 17 Jn. i. 35>3 6 - 
 
22 His Own Mission 
 
 Baptist. 18 As they reflected on John and 
 his connection with Jesus, these remark- 
 able words must have largely influenced 
 their understanding of what Jesus said. 
 And it is not strange that, years after, 
 when John came to write his gospel, he 
 put this text at the beginning, as a kind 
 of motto for all the christological teach- 
 ing of his story. And in this environ- 
 ment, it is his distinct purpose that Jesus' 
 first recorded utterance as to himself, 19 
 — " the Son of Man must be lifted up " — 
 otherwise enigmatical, shall stand and 
 find interpretation. 
 
 Saviour from Sin 
 
 There was still another element in the 
 environment in which Jesus' teaching 
 was set, a little group of men and women 
 in the midst of the Jewish public who 
 had all been the recipients of special rev- 
 
 18 Jn. i. 29. 
 x 9 Jn. iii. 14. 
 
The Preparation 23 
 
 elation in regard to Jesus, — Joseph and 
 Mary, Elizabeth and Zacchaeus, Simeon 
 and Anna. To them Jesus was no mere 
 child of ordinary birth, but " conceived 
 by the Holy Ghost." 20 His name was 
 no ordinary name, given by caprice or 
 prescribed by family tradition, but be- 
 stowed by an angel 2I expressly to desig- 
 nate his mission as the Saviour of his 
 people "from their sins." They ex- 
 pected for him a most glorious career as 
 King, 22 but waited humbly for the reve- 
 lation of fact as to its nature and course. 23 
 With many a misunderstanding of de- 
 tail, 24 this little group looked confidently 
 for salvation by the Son of divine mercy, 
 and when John called him Lamb of God, 
 that became the more definite expression 
 
 20 Lk. i. 35. 
 
 21 Matt. i. 21. 
 
 22 Lk. ii. 34, 38. 
 
 23 Lk. ii. 19. 
 
 24 Matt. xii. 46, 
 
24 His Own Mission 
 
 of their hope. 25 The work of Jesus 
 found its true meaning to them in salva- 
 tion. 
 
 25 This is implied in the use of Is. liii. made in 
 Matt. viii. 17. This chapter had come to be cur- 
 rently applied to Jesus. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 Summaries of His Mission by Jesus 
 Himself 
 
 71 >^OST men do not know what 
 2 fJi they are in the world for. They 
 find their work with difficulty 
 and pursue it with doubt. They are sat- 
 isfied with having an occupation. It is 
 only by an act of faith, of which few are 
 capable, that their lives assume to them 
 the character of a mission, and they feel 
 that they are sent by God himself to do 
 what they do do. 
 
 In this doubt and perplexity Jesus had 
 no share. As a child of twelve he knew 
 
 25 
 
26 His Own Mission 
 
 what was "his Father's business/' 1 In 
 any deep-going discussion of his life, such 
 words as these, which mark him out as 
 above the ordinary consciousness and lot 
 of men, must be placed at the begin- 
 ning, — such words, repeated many times 
 in various form, as these : 
 
 " I came forth and am come from 
 God ; for neither have I come of my- 
 self, but he sent me." 2 
 
 He was, first of all, sent. 
 
 His Mission learned from his Deeds 
 
 We might employ either of two ways 
 to discover what Jesus' mission was, for 
 we might look at what he did, or at what 
 he said about it himself. If we pursued 
 the former course, we should follow the 
 main events of his life as related in the 
 gospels. We should find him an obscure 
 youth in a provincial village, little unlike 
 other youths, but still giving his mother 
 
 1 Lk. ii. 49. 
 
 2 Jn. viii. 42. 
 
Summaries by Jesus Himself 27 
 
 cause to "ponder things in her heart." 3 
 At about the age of thirty years, he 
 emerges from his obscurity, and engages 
 in various labors. He becomes at once a 
 teacher, whose subject matter is the truth 
 about God and men. Patiently and un- 
 weariedly, in the midst of all sorts of ob- 
 stacles and rebuffs, he continues to in- 
 struct a people that prove themselves 
 slow of ears and still slower of heart. In 
 his solitary chamber, sitting on Jacob's 
 well, by the wayside, in the markets and 
 synagogues, in private houses and in the 
 Temple itself, he proclaims everywhere 
 the gospel of the kingdom, and calls men 
 to God. 
 
 But, as he teaches, he finds other work 
 waiting for him. The ignorance and sin 
 of men have called for instruction. But 
 there are other needs of men. He finds 
 them miserable, suffering, and in want. 
 These needs appeal to him, for they 
 spring from that great fundamental, spirit- 
 
 3 Lk. ii. 19. 
 
28 His Own Mission 
 
 ual need and illustrate it. He heals the 
 sick, cleanses the lepers, casts out devils, 
 feeds the multitudes, rescues his endan- 
 gered disciples. One kind of work is as 
 natural to him as the other. Both are 
 called out by the immediate need. He 
 assumes also the role of Messiah, whom 
 the Jews had long expected. He comes 
 to set up a kingdom, but it is a kingdom 
 of the truth. Membership in it means the 
 assumption of a new spiritual relation, for 
 he refuses to be made king of the multi- 
 tudes when they come to set up an earthly 
 sovereignty. When men repent and 
 exercise faith in him, he pronounces for- 
 giveness of their sins. He creates in his 
 followers a new spiritual life, which he 
 designates as eternal. Thus his days pass 
 in the humble but fundamental work of 
 enlightening men's minds, doing them 
 practical good, awakening their spiritual 
 activities, and conferring on them spirit- 
 ual gifts. 
 
 Gradually about this peaceful work and 
 
Summaries by Jesus Himself 29 
 
 over the scene of so much goodness and 
 helpfulness there spreads a dark shadow. 
 To do good to the suffering is often to 
 oppose and transgress the legal observ- 
 ances of a formal Judaism. Hatred be- 
 gins to rise against him as a reformer and 
 a revolutionist. Jesus begins to speak of 
 a violent death as the end of his career. 
 But he moves composedly on, makes no 
 change in his methods, comes at last to 
 the fatal hour, delivers himself into the 
 hands of the awestruck mob who have 
 come out against him but cannot execute 
 their purpose, and on the cross surrenders 
 his life by his own act. And then he 
 emerges from the tomb to commission 
 his disciples for a world wide work, and 
 to ascend to heaven. He has added death 
 and resurrection to the rest. In these 
 main things is comprised what he did. 
 
 Jesus' Mission expressed by Himself 
 
 But Jesus has himself told us what his 
 mission in the world was. He has not 
 
30 His Own Mission 
 
 expressed it in a single verse of the New 
 Testament, but at several different times, 
 under different circumstances, he told 
 why he had come. None of these ex- 
 pressions is a complete expression of his 
 full mission ; but, taken together, the 
 principal of them contain all that he said, 
 and, we may presume, all there was to 
 say. Seven of them may be selected, as 
 embracing all the rest and briefly con- 
 taining all his teaching as to his work. 
 They follow here, without explanation, 
 in the order of their logical relations. 
 The remainder of this volume will be 
 taken up with their careful discussion in 
 order. They are these : 
 
 i. " The Son of Man came to seek and to 
 save that which was lost" Lk. xix. 10. 
 
 2. " The works which the Father hath 
 given me to accomplish" Jn. v. 36. 
 
 3. " I am come a light into the World, that 
 whosoever believeth on me may not abide in 
 the darkness" Jn. xii. 46. 
 
Summaries by Jesus Himself 31 
 
 4. "I am come to call sinners to repent- 
 ance'' " Lk. v. 32. 
 
 5. "I came that they may have life." 
 Jn. x. 10. 
 
 6. " The Son of Man came to minister and 
 to give his life a ransom for many." Matt. 
 xx. 28. 
 
 7. " For judgment came I into this World." 
 Jn. ix. 39. 
 
 Let us now study these expressions, 
 one after another. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 The Lost World and the Kingdom 
 of Heaven 
 
 " The Son of Man came to seek and to save that 
 which was lost." Lk. xix. 10. 
 
 rHIS saying of Jesus was uttered 
 on a special occasion and in refer- 
 ence to a single man, lost to the 
 commonwealth of Israel as well as to God, 
 Zacchaeus. But here, as in so many 
 cases, the individual case led to the utter- 
 ance of the larger underlying truth. He 
 expressed here what the world was — lost ; 
 and hence what he came for, — to seek 
 and save the lost. Here is a whole theory 
 32 
 
The Lost World 33 
 
 of the world, and a whole theory of sal- 
 vation involved. 
 
 Lost ! What this word meant to a Jew 
 will be understood when we think of the 
 source from which it is taken. The New 
 Testament is full of the language of the 
 Old, and its thought vibrates with the 
 thought of the Old. The word " lost " 
 is one example of this among many others. 
 Jehovah was the " shepherd " " of Israel, 
 who "restored the soul." And Jesus 
 was the " good shepherd." 2 He looked 
 upon the people to whom he came as a 
 shepherd would, and he found them stray- 
 ing from the fold, "lost sheep of the 
 house of Israel." 3 In the tenderness of 
 his loving heart, his first and predominant 
 feeling was that of pity. He had " com- 
 passion for them because they were dis- 
 tressed and scattered, as sheep not having 
 
 1 Ps. xxiii. 1. 
 2 Jn. x. 11. 
 3 Matt. x. 6. 
 C 
 
34 His Own Mission 
 
 a shepherd." 4 This note of tender re- 
 gret over sin never dies completely away 
 in the New Testament. Sin is itself gen- 
 erally designated by a word 5 which orig- 
 inally means a "missing of the mark." 
 In the text set at the head of this chapter, 
 it was because Zacchaeus had separated 
 himself from his people and gone into 
 the ways of the Gentiles, whose business 
 he was doing as a Roman tax gatherer, 
 that he was called "lost." Astray, lost 
 from the way of safety and protection, 
 deprived of pasture and in danger of 
 wild beasts, ignorant, foolish, silly, — the 
 lost sheep was sought by the shepherd 
 with painful solicitude till it was found. 6 
 Like such sheep, men are "lost." 
 
 But this was not all the meaning of the 
 word. Sin was found everywhere, and 
 it was no mere negative failure to find 
 and do the good. It was a positive hos- 
 
 4 Matt. ix. 36. Comp. Ezek. xxxiv. 5. 
 
 5 afJUOLpTLCL. 
 
 6 Ps. xxiii. 3. Lk. xv. 4. 
 
The Lost World 35 
 
 tility to the known good. Sin takes on 
 a deeper meaning as the gospels describe 
 sinners. The "heart" 7 is wrong. The 
 world is filled with violence and evil. 
 Men obey their own lusts and forget 
 the law of God. They even distort and 
 pervert the law itself. 8 Where special 
 sanctity might be expected, among the 
 chosen leaders of the people, there 
 wickedness reaches its height. 9 Com- 
 passion yields to righteous anger when 
 the Scribes and Pharisees are mentioned, 
 men who had opportunity to know their 
 duty and to do it, but who chose the 
 evil. But anger yields to compassion 
 when the young man comes asking 
 what he shall do to inherit eternal life, 
 and in frank simplicity declares that he 
 has kept the commandments from his 
 youth. "Looking upon him" in his 
 young eagerness for something greater 
 7Mk. vii. 21. 
 
 8 Matt. xv. 6. 
 
 9 Matt. chap, xxiii. 
 
36 His Own Mission 
 
 and purer than he had, Jesus "loved 
 him." 10 But he put the probing test, 
 " Go, sell whatsoever thou hast ; " and he 
 closed that story when he said, " How 
 hardly shall they that have riches enter 
 into the kingdom of God ! " The young 
 man "saw and approved the better, but 
 followed the worse." He "missed," 
 but he did not want now to avoid the 
 missing. He was "lost" in a deeper 
 sense than that. 
 
 These are the forms in which the first 
 three gospels present the matter after 
 their practical and concrete fashion. 
 But the picture of the world which we 
 find when we pass to the more reflective 
 and philosophical fourth gospel, is not 
 essentially different. The "world" is 
 now viewed in the mass. It has a like 
 character and destiny. God loves it, 
 and gives his Son that it may not perish 
 but have life— be saved — through him. 11 
 
 10 Mk. x. 21. 
 
 11 Jn. iii. 16. 
 
The Lost World 37 
 
 The world is "lost," therefore, because 
 it is not " saved." " Men love darkness 
 rather than light because their works are 
 evil ; " I2 and they are already in a state of 
 judgment (condemnation), 13 out of which 
 they can come, if they will believe, but in 
 which remaining, as they will do if they 
 do not exercise themselves to escape, they 
 have the " wrath of God abiding on 
 them." I4 Darkness, sin, judgment, death 
 — the most terrible words in the Bible 
 — these are the words which describe the 
 world as it is before Jesus brings his sal- 
 vation into it. And more ! This world 
 is under a Prince of its own/ 5 against 
 whom Jesus was set in opposition, 16 and 
 whom he "judged," 17 who was the 
 " Father " of the wicked Jews, and was 
 
 12 Jn. iii. 19. 
 J 3 Jn. iii. 18. 
 
 14 Jn. iii. 36. 
 
 15 Jn. xii. 31. 
 
 16 Jn. xiv. 30. 
 
 17 Jn. xii. 31. 
 
38 His Own Mission 
 
 the Devil. 18 Thus it is in itself a king- 
 dom of evil organized against the king- 
 dom of God, fortified and established in 
 itself. The apostle who wrote the gos- 
 pel, expressing in his own language the 
 thought he had derived from his Master, 
 said, " The whole world lieth in the evil 
 one" [A. V. "in wickedness/'] 19 It 
 was not strange that such a world " re- 
 ceived him not." 2 ° 
 
 Thus the world is now estranged from 
 God and dominated by evil. Now ! 
 But it has a future to which the word 
 "lost" is also applied. In comparison 
 with the fate of lost men in the world to 
 come, the evils of this world were noth- 
 ing. Men were not to be "afraid of 
 them that kill the body," but it was wis- 
 dom to " fear him who is able to destroy 
 both soul and body in hell." 21 This is 
 
 18 Jn. viii. 41, 44. 
 x 9 1 Jn. v. 19. 
 
 20 Jn. i. 11. 
 
 21 Matt, x. 28. 
 
The Lost World 39 
 
 the place of " fire prepared for the devil 
 and his angels/' 22 an "eternal fire/' 23 
 "unquenchable/' 24 and "where their 
 worm dieth not/' 25 and anguish is their 
 lot. 26 As the Fourth Gospel prefers to 
 phrase it, it is the realm of " death/' 2? in 
 which a man is till he believes in God, 
 and in which he remains, if he fails to 
 exercise this faith. 28 " Eternal life " is 
 the knowledge of God/ 9 and eternal 
 death is that state of final estrangement 
 from God which is the highest misery of 
 the soul, for which any expressions of 
 pain and loss are but the feeble sugges- 
 tions of what is, after all, beyond human 
 conception. 
 
 22 Matt, xxv, 41, 
 
 23 Comp. Matt, xviii. 8. 
 2 < Mk. ix. 43, 48. 
 
 2 s Ibid. vs. 48. 
 
 26 Matt. viii. 12. 
 
 27 Jn. v. 24. 
 
 28 Comp. 1 Jn. iii. 14. 
 
 29 Jn. xviu 3. 
 
40 His Own Mission 
 
 The modern church tends to empha- 
 size the present life and to neglect the fu- 
 ture. The mediaeval magnified the future 
 and despised the present. But Jesus, 
 while placing the eternal life above the 
 fleeting period of human existence, and 
 the spiritual interests far above the ma- 
 terial, never failed to insist on the unity 
 of both lives and the importance of daily 
 doing our duty in our present estate. 
 "Life," whether now or bye-and-bye, 
 the knowledge and the love of God, is 
 the great thing ; and, once gained, it is 
 eternal in consequence of its essential 
 nature. 
 
 This lost world — lost now and lost for- 
 ever — constituted the object of Jesus' 
 coming. He came to save it. 3 ° He 
 came preaching the " kingdom of 
 heaven " 3I as John had before him ; and 
 what he sought to do was to put the one 
 in the place of the other, — to make the 
 
 3° Jn. iii. 17. 
 31 Matt. iv. 1 7 
 
The Kingdom of Heaven 41 
 
 lost world into a saved world, to replace 
 the kingdom of the " Prince of the 
 Power of the Air " 32 by the kingdom of 
 God. 
 
 The Kingdom of Heaven 
 
 Jesus came, therefore, preaching the 
 near approach 33 of the kingdom of 
 heaven. It was no new term to Jewish 
 ears. The Old Testament is full of the 
 idea that God is King. The ancient gov- 
 ernment of Israel before the days of Saul, 
 the first human king, had been a govern- 
 ment which professed to be nothing but 
 the means by which the authority of God 
 was exercised. 34 When the ideal should 
 be restored, the ancient kingdom of God 
 would be set up again, and its king would 
 be the Anointed One, the Messiah, 
 whom God would "set upon his holy 
 hill of Zion." 35 Jesus never professes to 
 
 32 Eph. ii. 2. Comp. 2 Cor. iv. 4. 
 
 33 Matt. iv. 17. 
 
 34 1 Sam. viii. 7. 
 3 * Ps. ii. 6 
 
42 His Own Mission 
 
 improve on the Old Testament ideal of 
 this kingdom. He did not share the 
 misunderstandings common among the 
 people. He was thus led to teach various 
 things about the kingdom by way of cor- 
 recting them at different points. But 
 this kingdom was always the ancient idea 
 of the prophets, cleared of the errors of 
 later ages. When he proclaimed it, this 
 was itself a claim to be the expected 
 Messiah, and it was so understood. 36 In 
 fact, the only new thing about Jesus' 
 preaching of the kingdom was the an- 
 nouncement that it was " at hand." 
 
 It will be of advantage, however, to 
 trace the idea of the kingdom in Jesus' 
 own words, independently of all its con- 
 nection with the prophecies and intima- 
 tions of the past. 
 
 Its name points out its character and 
 object. It is the kingdom " of heaven " 
 because its speaks of heaven, would make 
 earth a heaven, and brings the divine, the 
 
 3 6 Acts i. 6. 
 
The Kingdom of Heaven 43 
 
 heavenly forces down into this world to 
 save it. It would produce such a state 
 of things that the will of God may be 
 " done in earth as it is in heaven." 37 
 Again, it is the kingdom "of God" 38 
 because he creates it by the sending of 
 his Son. 39 Christ is its king. 40 It has no 
 outward pomp and circumstance/ 1 since 
 it is not "of this world." 42 Its members 
 are distinguished by the possession of a 
 certain spirit, which manifests itself in 
 forms greatly unlike those assumed by 
 the world, humility, meekness, mercy, 
 purity, — which do not fit in with the 
 order of things in this world very well, and 
 lead to " persecution," which, however, is 
 a source of blessing ! 43 In this present 
 
 37 Matt. vi. 10. 
 
 38 e. g. in Jn. iii. 3. 
 
 3 9 Ibid, 13, 17. 
 
 40 Matt, xxvii. 11. 
 
 41 Jn. xviii. 37 ; Lk. xvii. 20. 
 
 42 Jn. xviii. 36. 
 
 43 Matt. v. 3-12. Cf. Lk. xviii. 17. 
 
44 His Own Mission 
 
 age of the world the kingdom is only 
 " coming/' for it is here only imperfectly 
 realized/ 4 and its king is to depart into 
 " another country ; " 45 but he will come 
 again, and then the kingdom shall be es- 
 tablished in its glory. 46 Then shall be in- 
 troduced the perfect reign of love. 
 
 To save the lost world, then, Jesus be- 
 gan the work of introducing the king- 
 dom of God. He gathered about him- 
 self a little group of men to whom he 
 taught constantly these principles of the 
 kingdom. They were the " disciples/' 
 or the "twelve." They received his 
 message very slowly and with many mis- 
 understandings. They clung to the com- 
 mon Jewish idea of an external kingdom 
 to the very hour of the ascension. But 
 they were, nevertheless, in some measure 
 the embodied kingdom. They surren- 
 dered themselves wholly to the service 
 
 44 Matt. xiii. 24 ff. 
 
 45 Matt. xxv. 14. 
 
 46 Matt. xxv. 31 ff. 
 
The Kingdom of Heaven 45 
 
 of God by following his messenger. The 
 spirit of divine love, of meekness, of loy- 
 alty, and of peace came upon them. 
 When they were thus called out of the 
 sinful world, the work of saving the world 
 was already begun. Some had been 
 saved. In this fact was the promise of 
 the salvation of "many." And when 
 his teaching was fully completed, when 
 they had seen him die, rise again, and as- 
 cend to the Father, when the facts upon 
 which their faith was founded and was 
 to be engaged were all before them, and 
 the Holy Spirit, the interpreter of truth, 
 could now explain to them the meaning 
 of all, then they began to present in a 
 fuller and a more winning manner, by 
 actual exemplification, what the King- 
 dom was. But meantime there was else- 
 where an exemplification. 
 
 Christ Himself the Kingdom 
 
 One aspect of this kingdom is little 
 dwelt upon in the New Testament, but 
 
46 His Own Mission 
 
 it is no less important for that. It is pre- 
 sented to us by the simple facts, narrated 
 in the gospels but not explained or en- 
 larged upon. Jesus did not come to lay 
 the first foundation of the kingdom. 
 That had been done when Abraham was 
 called out of Haran. He came to estab- 
 lish it in a larger and more perfect way, 
 to introduce those new forces which were 
 to give it a greater universality and per- 
 fection, and to furnish it in his own per- 
 son with a perfect exemplification of 
 what it was to be. What was a life dom- 
 inated by perfect love, and flowing on in 
 perfect communion with God ? The 
 life of Jesus answered the question. He 
 was fully a member of the kingdom in 
 its purest form and under its loftiest ideal. 
 He illustrated it. He was for a time the 
 whole existing kingdom, both king and sub- 
 jects, standard of its life and sole embodi- 
 ment of that standard. This was the first 
 great department of his works as Saviour. 
 He came to save this lost world. He 
 
The Kingdom of Heaven 47 
 
 did it in the first instance by himself com- 
 ing as a man, as one man who was already 
 in the kingdom of heaven, already exer- 
 cising perfect love and having perfect fel- 
 lowship 47 with the Father, as the pattern 
 of what all saved men were to be, the 
 pledge and earnest of the coming salva- 
 tion for all the rest. We do not need to 
 resort to mysticism and mere figure to 
 say that the world with Jesus in it was a 
 saved world. It was saved because sal- 
 vation had begun in it ; because in one 
 person it was already fully realized; be- 
 cause the powers of salvation were already 
 at work in it, and men were already be- 
 ing drawn into the kingdom of heaven. 
 J esus preached the kingdom. More, he 
 was the kingdom. 
 
 47 Jn. x. 30. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 The Salvation of Healing 
 
 " The Father hath given me works to accomplish." 
 Jn. v. 36. 
 
 rHE prominence of Jesus' works 
 of healing in the gospel story 
 was forcibly brought to our 
 attention in the review of his " deeds " 
 which was taken in Chapter III. It is 
 the more remarkable that he says so little 
 about them as he does himself. In the 
 Gospel of John, as we shall see, they are 
 often spoken of, but in one accessory 
 aspect only, for the most part. In the 
 other three gospels, they are generally 
 48 
 
The Salvation of Healing 49 
 
 left to tell their own story. The evan- 
 gelists, when speaking in their own per- 
 sons, are less reticent. Matthew reckons 
 them among the essential labors which 
 Jesus came to perform, and applies to 
 them a portion of Isaiah's great chapter, 
 "Himself took our infirmities and bare 
 our diseases." x By implication, at least, 
 Jesus made them a distinct part of his 
 official work, when at Nazareth he ap- 
 plied to himself that other great passage 
 from Isaiah, "He hath sent me to pro- 
 claim release to the captives, and recover- 
 ing of sight to the blind, to set at liberty 
 them that are bruised. ' ' 2 This prevailing 
 silence he broke, however, in the dis- 
 course occasioned by the miracle of 
 healing at Bethesda, after having joined 
 this work of his with the eternal work of 
 God, — " My Father worketh even until 
 now, and I work." 3 He appealed to 
 
 1 Matt. viii. 17, 
 
 2 Lk. iv. 18. 
 
 3 Jn. v. 17. 
 
 D 
 
50 His Own Mission 
 
 this and like works as the great witness 
 which he had, greater than that of John 
 who was the commissioned witness come 
 from God. 4 He does not say, however, 
 that the works were given him as a wit- 
 ness. Being given, they serve as witness. 
 But they were " given him to accomplish" 
 evidently because worthy of doing in 
 themselves, " given " him, and hence an 
 essential element in his mission. 
 
 The Motive of the Miracles 
 
 This is nowhere expressly declared in 
 the New Testament ; but it is, after all, 
 not difficult to find it. Follow Jesus 
 about any day, as he goes up and down 
 the land, see him by the sea, in the streets 
 of the villages, journeying from town to 
 town, coming into the synagogues and 
 into the temples, and a sympathetic eye 
 has no difficulty in discovering why he 
 did what he did. His "beginning of 
 
 < Jn. i. 6. 
 
The Salvation of Healing 51 
 
 miracles/' done at Cana, was performed 
 at a wedding. A needful provision for 
 the harmless festivity had failed, and 
 friendly kindness led to its supply by him 
 who had the power. 5 And then Jesus 
 "went about in all Galilee/' 6 " teach- 
 ing/' "preaching the good tidings of 
 the kingdom/' and "healing" The 
 kingdom and healing naturally went to- 
 gether. That kingdom was to be the 
 place where there should be no sin. How 
 could sickness and suffering maintain 
 their reign in such a kingdom? And 
 how could one who came to banish the 
 evil, greater in reality though often 
 thought the less, fail to relieve that which 
 was the less, when it seemed to men's 
 feeble moral apprehension so much 
 greater ? He healed the leper who came 
 falling down before him, 7 because it was 
 natural, infinitely natural to such a one, to 
 
 s Jn. chap. ii. 
 
 6 Matt. iv. 23. 
 
 7 Matt. viii. 2. 
 
52 His Own Mission 
 
 answer the piteous supplication of a wast- 
 ing and dying man. When the multi- 
 tude thronged him/ as they continually 
 did, what else could he do, in the midst 
 of this misery, accumulated and heaped 
 up, but heal, if indeed he had compas- 
 sionate love for men ? If he had not had 
 the /ove, he could not have been the 
 Messiah. If he loved, he must heal. 
 And, on the other hand, no one but the 
 Messiah could manifest the full mastery 
 over all misery which he exercised. 9 
 
 We thus get the impression that the 
 miracles are the natural outflow of Jesus' 
 goodness, and a fulfilling of a part of his 
 mission. The impression receives con- 
 firmation from every examination of the 
 records. Sometimes his compassion is 
 expressly referred to as the reason for 
 the miracle. Examples of this are the 
 story of the first feeding of the multi- 
 
 8 Matt. iv. 24 ; Lk. viii. 42 
 
 9 Matt. xi. 4-6. 
 
The Salvation of Healing 53 
 
 tude, 10 and of the second also ; " and the 
 striking account when, in his going about 
 Galilee, " he saw the multitudes " and 
 "was moved with compassion for them, 
 because they were distressed." IZ But where 
 no mention is made of our Lord's com- 
 passion, the circumstances of the case 
 often make it evident. The details of 
 the accounts, emphasizing, as they do, 
 the misery and earnestness of the suf- 
 ferers, convey the idea. The centurion 
 come in behalf of his son " beseeches " 
 Jesus. 13 On the Sea of Galilee, it is the 
 danger of perishing and the frightened 
 cry of the disciples that move him to still 
 the waters. 14 The pictures given of the 
 "possessed," their misery, senselessness, 
 and physical sufferings/ 5 show what the 
 
 10 Matt. xiv. 14 ff. 
 
 11 Matt. xv. 32. 
 
 12 Matt. ix. 36 ff. 
 
 13 Matt. viii. 5. 
 
 14 Matt. viii. 24, 25. 
 
 15 Matt. viii. 29. Comp. Mk. v. 15. 
 
54 His Own Mission 
 
 things were which the bearing of Jesus, 
 his glance, the expression of his face, the 
 tones of his voice, impressed on his dis- 
 ciples as producing the greatest effect on 
 his sensitive heart. The pathetic cries of 
 the blind, 16 the fatherly anguish of 
 Jairus, 17 the brief vision of the boat dis- 
 tressed in the midst of the sea, all tell the 
 same story. And when we turn to the 
 Gospel of John, we find the same things, 
 the same eagerness on the part of the 
 nobleman for his son, 18 the same com- 
 passion for the "great" hungry multi- 
 tude, 19 the same simplicity 20 of address 
 and act, the same overflowing human 
 sympathy. 21 
 
 It is true, there is another element in 
 John. Our text goes on : " The very 
 
 16 Matt. ix. 27. Comp. xx. 31 ff. Mk. x. 47-9. 
 '7 " My little daughter," Mk. v. 23. 
 18 Jn. iv. 46-49- 
 x 9jn. vi. 5. 
 
 20 Jn. v. 5, 6. Comp. vi. 20. 
 
 21 Lazarus' grave, Jn. xi. 33, 35. 
 
The Salvation of Healing 55 
 
 works that I do bear witness of me that 
 the Father hath sent me." 22 Though 
 the works were " given to accomplish/' 
 they did serve, being given, for a sign. 
 This use, made of them throughout the 
 gospel, accords with its confessed pur- 
 pose, which was "that ye may believe 
 that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of 
 God." 23 Miracles have a proving value. 
 They are generally called " signs." They 
 "manifest Christ's glory." They are to 
 be believed when words are disbelieved, 
 because they are outward, tangible, and 
 undeniable. 24 But this all belongs to the 
 writer of the Gospel in his character as a 
 preacher. What he preaches is true : 
 the miracles were signs. But what he 
 records in his character as an historian is 
 also true, the simplicity with which Jesus 
 responded, out of the fulness of his di- 
 vine power, to the evident need of 
 
 22 Jn. v. 36. 
 
 J Jn. xx. 31. 
 
 2 *Jn. x. 38. 
 
56 His Own Mission 
 
 wretched men. Coming to do good, he 
 did this first, most evident, and most 
 eagerly demanded good, as an essential 
 element of his work. 
 
 Relation of Healing to the Rest of Jesus' 
 Work 
 
 On such a foundation Jesus built the 
 rest of his work. The foundation of a 
 building is often of a humble sort, com- 
 posed of shapeless stones laid deep in the 
 earth, and buried out of sight. It may 
 seem a small thing to some that the Son 
 of God should heal the sick, give sight 
 to the blind, cast out devils. To some it 
 may seem to be against "law." But it 
 was Mary Magdalene, out of whom 
 seven devils had been cast, who stood at 
 his cross and came Sunday morning to 
 his tomb with her last gifts ; and it was 
 the blind man who had been healed, who 
 " believed " when Jesus revealed himself 
 to him. In that moral approach to men 
 by which they learned to " like the friend 
 
The Salvation of Healing 57 
 
 before they loved the Saviour/' the heal- 
 ings formed an essential portion. 
 
 A Permanent Portion ? 
 
 Miracles of healing were for a time 
 performed in the church after Jesus had 
 ascended. Jesus had commissioned his 
 first messengers chosen from his disciples 
 to "heal the sick/' 25 and the Acts is 
 full of accounts of such healings. In a 
 sense that activity of Jesus remains in the 
 church to-day. The miracles have 
 ceased. \ But Jesus still produces moral 
 changes in men by his varied ministry, 
 direct and personal, or through his min- 
 istering disciples ; and wherever that 
 saving moral change is wrought, a new 
 impulse of health is given even to the 
 body. 26 Drunkards have lost their appe- 
 tite for liquor ; every disease arising from 
 despondency, or other morbid mental 
 condition, has received a powerful check 
 
 2 s Matt. x. 8. 
 
 26 Ro. viii, 11. 
 
58 His Own Mission 
 
 at conversion ; and thus purity of heart 
 has given, on a very large scale, health 
 to men. The coming of Jesus to men 
 still means the healing of their bodies 
 from many an ill. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Salvation of Knowledge 
 
 " I am come a Light into the World, that whoso- 
 ever believeth on me may not abide in the darkness." 
 Jn. xii. 46. 
 
 rHIS text is often thought to mean 
 that Jesus' mission in the world 
 was to "enlighten" men, or to 
 give them knowledge. Does not the 
 very word " light ' ' indicate this at once ? 
 Then, when we turn to consider what he 
 did, and find him spending his time in 
 teaching men, accepting the title of 
 teacher, and, indeed, seeming to make 
 this his chief business, the impression is 
 
 59 
 
60 His Own Mission 
 
 strengthened. Knowledge would seem 
 to be relied on as the saving element. 
 Again, other words are used which in- 
 dicate the same thing, as when the 
 "darkness/' that is, the sinful world, is 
 said not to " apprehend " ' the light, that 
 is, not receive it. Light is used for 
 "life," 2 and life itself is defined 3 as 
 knowledge. And hence some have gone 
 so far as to summarize Jesus' whole mis- 
 sion under the word Teacher. 
 
 What is "Knowledge?" 
 
 But we must take ground here cau- 
 tiously and deliberately. If light is made 
 correlative with "knowledge/' and is ex- 
 plained by it, it will become necessary to 
 know what "knowledge" itself means. 
 One can scarcely say that John spoke a 
 technical language, for he is no philo- 
 sophical scholar, but "speaks right on ' 
 
 1 A. V., " comprehend." 
 *Jn. i. 4. 
 3 Jn. xvii. 3. 
 
The Salvation of Knowledge 61 
 
 as thoughts come to him, and in a popu- 
 lar way. But it is, nevertheless, true 
 that his language is peculiar, that his 
 figures and terms have a meaning of their 
 own, and that this meaning is to be 
 learned from the indications found in his 
 own writings, and not by any philosophy, 
 ancient or modern. Jesus was a teacher. 
 What did he teach ? And what, when 
 he speaks of himself as a " Light," did he 
 mean ? We begin our answer by consid- 
 ering that text which we have selected as 
 the most distinct and comprehensive, 
 and have therefore placed at the head of 
 this chapter. 
 
 " I am come a Light into the World," 
 says Jesus, " that whosoever helieveth on 
 me may not abide in the darkness." 
 Light leads to believing. One may " hear 
 and not keep." He then "remains in 
 darkness." Light, then, is more than 
 teaching ; it is teaching that is received. 
 If not received, it does not enlighten any 
 man. It is, for him, not even light. 
 
62 His Own Mission 
 
 This is a somewhat paradoxical result. 
 But look at the parallel passages. In Jn. i. 
 4 and 5, light is defined as " life." Light 
 shined in the darkness ; but what was 
 this light ? Life. Now " life " in John 
 has a very distinct and clear meaning. It 
 is that state of moral union with God, 
 produced by " faith/' and expressing it- 
 self in conscious fellowship with him, 
 which is essentially eternal in its nature, 
 and is therefore to last forever. When 
 light comes, this comes. When it is " ap- 
 prehended " 4 or " received " 5 there comes 
 from it a " right," viz., the right to be- 
 come, take place and make claim as, the 
 children of God, and this because such 
 have already been "born" of God. 
 The coming of the light is, therefore, 
 the working of a change in men which 
 is elsewhere ascribed to the Holy Spirit. 6 
 The coming of the light is the coming 
 
 < Vs. 5. 
 
 *Vs. 12. 
 
 * Jn. iii. 5. 
 
The Salvation of Knowledge 63 
 
 of a divine influence, proceeding from 
 and exercised by Jesus, which transforms 
 the man and makes him a child of God. 
 If " teaching," then it is a dynamic teach- 
 ing. 
 
 " Light " is thus used in various senses 
 in the Gospel of John. It is that which 
 brings salvation. Then, by a sudden 
 change of application, it is no longer the 
 means used to develop "life," but it is 
 that life itself. Thus it is the same as 
 " salvation," the rescue from sin and its 
 corruption. It is the opposite of sin. 
 And it is again used as the opposite of 
 the condition of the lost. It denotes the 
 ethical quality of the new life as holiness, 7 
 but is chiefly used to describe it as salva- 
 tion from " darkness." 
 
 The Teachings of Jesus 
 This dynamic teaching of Jesus ad- 
 dresses the intellect in some of its aspects. 
 Hence Jesus may be said to have come 
 7 Comp. 1 Jn. i. 5 and 7. 
 
64 His Own Mission 
 
 to give knowledge in the more ordinary 
 senses of that word. He taught, for 
 example, that " God is a Spirit," 8 — which 
 conveys doctrinal knowledge, and states 
 a truth not previously reached by any 
 religious teacher. Yet even this truth 
 was not taught for the mere gratification 
 of the intellect. Jesus adds immediately : 
 " And they that worship him must wor- 
 ship him in spirit." Intellectual aspects 
 his teachings have : in fact he may be 
 said to have stirred the human intellect 
 more than any or all other teachers. 
 But intellectual purposes give way to the 
 moral. He teaches that he may save. 
 
 With this thought clearly in mind, we 
 may note several distinct heads under 
 which the teaching of Jesus, as the Light, 
 falls. 
 
 1. The doctrine of God. " He that 
 beholdeth me, beholdeth him that sent 
 me/' 9 he says; and, "He that hath seen 
 
 8 Jn. iv. 24. 
 
 9 Jn. xii. 45. 
 
The Salvation of Knowledge 65 
 
 me, hath seen the Father/' 10 He re- 
 veals God by being himself. Now, this 
 revelation of God comes from Jesus only. 
 Not only is it a fact that the intellectual 
 conception of God which has sprung 
 from Jesus' teachings was never known 
 before, nor, independently of him, since ; 
 but no one ever presented God in human 
 form as Jesus did." "No man hath 
 seen God at any time ; the only begotten 
 Son . . . hath declared him." I2 
 
 We thus see at once the difference be- 
 tween the teaching of Jesus and that of 
 the prophets, who could only tell men 
 about God, but never bring home to the 
 vision and the heart the being of God. 
 We see, too, the difference between the 
 teaching of Jesus and of the church 
 theologians (Augustine, Calvin, etc.), 
 who have added to the prophet's office 
 the task of forming a "doctrine" of 
 
 10 Jn. xiv. 9. 
 
 11 Comp. 2 Cor. iv. 6. 
 
 12 Jn. i. 18. 
 
 E 
 
66 His Own Mission 
 
 God, viz., a statement in logical form of 
 his attributes, and a proof of his existence. 
 Jesus brings men into direct contact with 
 God, because they gain direct contact 
 with himself. They can refuse the con- 
 tact and turn away ; but, if they remain, 
 they continue to be with God, and thus 
 they know him. 
 
 This knowledge, one springing from 
 direct communion with God, and this 
 only, is the knowledge which the teach- 
 ing of Jesus is designed to produce. 
 Any other knowledge, such, for example, 
 as the theologian draws from Jesus' ut- 
 terances, is incidental and auxiliary. The 
 " salvation of knowledge " is the salvation 
 of personal communion with God. 
 
 2. The doctrine of holiness. " Light " 
 sometimes means holiness, as has already 
 been explained. The coming of the 
 Light was the coming of One " full of 
 grace and truth." 13 He became the 
 revelation of holiness by being what he 
 
 J 3 Jn. i. 14. 
 
The Salvation of Knowledge 67 
 
 was, holy and pure. 14 At this point, 
 however, his teaching was also largely in 
 the realm of what our theologians call 
 doctrine. He explains the ancient Law, 
 — of murder, of adultery, of oathtaking, 
 of vengeance, of love, 15 — and carries its 
 prohibitions down from mere outward 
 acts to the very thoughts of the heart. 
 He enlarges on the duties of men in 
 practical life, — on prayer, and fasting, and 
 the use of money, and charitable judg- 
 ment. 16 He even interprets anew, and 
 against the letter of the ancient law, cer- 
 tain things, as, for example, the law of 
 divorce. 17 All this may be called the 
 system of duties, ethics, or a moral phi- 
 losophy. But he who heard must do; 
 otherwise the end of the teaching was 
 not gained. 18 
 
 14 Comp. 1 Jn. iii. 3. 
 
 15 See Matt. v. 21-48. Comp. xxii. 37-40. 
 
 16 Comp. Matt, chaps, vi. and vii. 
 J 7 Matt. v. 32. 
 
 18 Matt. vii. 26, 27. 
 
68 His Own Mission 
 
 3. The doctrine of sin (comp. chap- 
 ter IV). 
 
 4. The doctrine that he himself is Sav- 
 iour. That doctrine is contained by im- 
 plication in many of his words, such as 
 those we are here successively consider- 
 ing, but not by implication alone. It was 
 made repeatedly the object of express 
 declaration, as we need not take time here 
 to elaborate. 19 It is, therefore, not Jesus' 
 doctrine that saves, hut he himself. Salva- 
 tion is personal contact with a saving 
 person. Were this contact simply that 
 personal contact which secures like- 
 mindedness in those between whom the 
 contact is formed, it would be indistin- 
 guishable from the influence of Jesus' 
 doctrine ; for this is designed to produce 
 a knowledge of the truth and likeminded- 
 ness with God. But Jesus constantly 
 represents himself as doing something for 
 
 19 e. g., Matt. v. 1 7, " I came," etc. ; ix. 6, " Son 
 of Man ; " xi. 28 ; Jn. iii. 14-17, etc., etc., etc. 
 
The Salvation of Knowledge 69 
 
 our salvation, such as being " lifted up ; " 
 and he makes faith a trustful surrender 
 to him, — a distinct person, — not merely 
 to truth which is abstract and impersonal. 
 Here then, we find the anticipation of 
 what is to follow in the development of 
 Jesus' mission, for the question must 
 arise why he, as a person, should have 
 this importance. Not alone, evidently, 
 because in seeing him man sees God ; 
 for in these distant centuries we see him 
 no more ; but because he is something, 
 and does something not contained in his 
 own teachings, or in the teachings of 
 others about him. 
 
 The meaning of Jesus in describing 
 himself as the " Light/' may possibly be 
 better conveyed to this time by the an- 
 swer of a question often agitated in past 
 periods of the church's life, but daily pre- 
 sented in one form or another in this 
 period. Is a man saved by his ortho- 
 doxy ? Is another man lost because of 
 his heterodoxy ? The reply cannot be 
 
70 His Own Mission 
 
 doubtful. Not "knowledge," but 
 knowledge accepted and obeyed, is the 
 way of salvation. And, conversely, not 
 ignorance, but wilful ignorance, which 
 rejects the truth, " cometh not to the 
 light lest its works should be reproved/' 2 ° 
 — this condemns. Not a given amount of 
 knowledge, but " faith," holy attitude of 
 heart even if coupled with few advantages 
 for intellectual acquaintance with truth, 
 saves. 21 Even the attitude towards Jesus 
 may be an unconscious one, but it is sal- 
 vation if it be the right attitude. 22 We 
 have, thus, the same emphasis laid by 
 Jesus on the inner ethical relations, on 
 the will in distinction from the mere 
 intellect, as led Paul to mention the 
 heathen as sometimes " doing by nature 
 the things of the law/' "being the law 
 unto themselves/' 23 for Jesus says: "If 
 
 20 Jn. iii. 20. 
 
 21 Matt. viii. 10-12. 
 
 22 Matt. xxv. 37-40. 
 
 2 3 Ro. ii. 14. 
 
The Salvation of Knowledge 7 1 
 
 any man willeth to do His will, he shall 
 know ; " 24 and again : " If ye abide in my 
 word ... ye shall know the truth, 
 and the truth shall make you free." 25 
 
 Salvation does not exclude the matter 
 of knowledge, and perfected salvation 
 involves much knowledge ; but salvation 
 is essentially a matter of "light," of the 
 reception of what knowledge a man may 
 have. 
 
 24 Jn. vii. 17. 
 
 2 s Jn, viii. 31,32. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Salvation of Repentance and a 
 New Life 
 
 "I am come to call sinners to repentance." Lk. 
 v. 32. 
 
 " I came that they may have life." Jn. x. 10. 
 
 JOHN expresses the object of Jesus' 
 coming by the word " light." 
 This is the salvation of knowledge. 
 It designates the internal, the state of the 
 heart and mind, and brings us into 
 spheres where saints have spoken of 
 " beatific visions." It is among the high 
 things of Christian doctrine. And it is 
 almost peculiar to the Fourth Gospel. 
 72 
 
Repentance and a New Life 73 
 
 The other gospels are of a simpler and 
 more matter-of-fact character. They 
 have their simpler ways of expressing 
 Jesus' message to men. We are to con- 
 sider one of them under the present 
 head. There are differences which 
 strike us at once, which may seem to 
 create a dissonance between John and 
 the Three. Possibly a harmony of 
 meaning may ultimately be found, and 
 if so, the supposition of the unity of New 
 Testament teaching, with which we 
 started out, will receive an important con- 
 firmation. 
 
 John Baptist's Preaching 
 John " came preaching, Repent ye, 
 for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." l 
 The word "repent" which he used, 
 meant a "change of mind," a funda- 
 mental reversal of purposes and modes of 
 thought, but especially a corresponding 
 change of life. His preaching justified 
 
 1 Matt. iii. I, 2. 
 
74 His Own Mission 
 
 his employment of such a word. The 
 reports of his sermons which have come 
 down to us are very brief, but there is 
 enough to indicate their substance. He 
 was sharp in his denunciation of sin/ 
 and clear in his assertion of the peril at- 
 tending it. 3 No racial advantages would 
 be enough to secure a man's salvation/ 
 but "fruits " worthy of repentance must 
 be produced, and these were charity, 
 justice, mildness, truth, and contented- 
 ness. His preaching was, therefore, 
 faithful and radical, demanding that 
 thorough change of heart and deeds 
 which alone can make saints out of sin- 
 ners. 
 
 Jesus 9 Preaching 
 Jesus began his ministry with the same 
 preaching, expressed in the same words. 5 
 
 2 " Offspring of vipers," Lk. iii. 7. 
 3 " Cast into the fire," ib. 9. 
 *Ibid. 8. 
 s Matt. iv. 17. 
 
Repentance and a New Life 75 
 
 The meaning also was the same ; and the 
 full development of his idea, which grad- 
 ually appeared in direct exposition, in 
 illustration, by implication in other things, 
 leaves one impressed with the radical 
 nature and far-reaching effects of the 
 " change of mind " which repentance is. 
 With both John and his Master, repent- 
 ance was " unto remission of sins." 6 
 The condition of forgiveness was some- 
 times given as " faith " ; 7 but turning 
 away from sin (repentance) and turning 
 towards God (faith) are the same, undi- 
 vided act of the soul. He who does 
 the one, must, therefore, do the other. 
 It makes no difference under which of 
 the two names the act falls ; it is still the 
 same. Repentance is said to save from 
 "perishing" 8 and to produce "joy in 
 heaven." 9 And its expression in the new 
 
 6 Mk. i. 4. 
 
 7 e. g. incidentally, Matt. ix. 2. 
 
 8 Lk. xiii. 3, 5. 
 
 9 Lk. xv. 7, 10. 
 
76 His Own Mission 
 
 life of the follower of Jesus was the 
 theme of most of his discourses. 
 
 Repentance and the resulting new life 
 were, thus, salvation, the coming of the 
 kingdom within IO the repentant soul, 
 or, to change the figure, his entrance into 
 that kingdom. Or, to put it in another 
 way, the new life may be said to consist 
 of three things, a new heart, a new view 
 of God and the world, and a new way of 
 acting, new good deeds done. 
 
 It was towards the production of such 
 a new life that Jesus directed his preach- 
 ing, and in this he performed a portion 
 of his mission as Saviour. He " saved " 
 men when he actually brought them out 
 of sin into the fellowship of God, for a 
 man who has this fellowship is saved. 
 To effect this, he preached a holy life, 
 and most of his discourses, such as the 
 Sermon on the Mount in particular, were 
 occupied in setting forth in the most con- 
 
 10 Lk. vii. 21. 
 
Repentance and a New Life 77 
 
 crete way what a good life is. In that 
 sermon, the holy virtues of the heart are 
 placed first, — poverty of spirit, meekness, 
 mercy, purity, peacefulness, righteous- 
 ness, etc., XI but control of self by absti- 
 nence from anger I2 and by purity of both 
 act and thought, 13 charity I4 and love, 15 
 and all the virtues that are born of simplic- 
 ity, piety, trust, and obedience, follow 
 and complete the list. The new life was 
 to be the old life transformed by an in- 
 ward new spirit, lived in the same world, 
 but by utterly different and new methods. 
 In the Gospel of John we have these 
 fundamental thoughts presented after a 
 new fashion, but without essential dif- 
 ference. We are here taught that a man 
 must be " born anew " l6 to enter the king- 
 
 11 Matt. v. 3-12. 
 
 12 Ibid. vs. 22. 
 ■3 Vs. 28. 
 
 14 Vs. 40. 
 
 15 Vs. 44, extending even to one's enemies. 
 
 16 Jn. iii. 2. 
 
78 His Own Mission 
 
 dom of God, and this by the "Spirit." 1? 
 Thus repentance appears for the first 
 time as a divinely wrought change in a 
 man, as radical as is the entrance on his 
 original life by birth. It may seem that 
 all this is utterly unlike that active 
 change, the exertion of a man's powers 
 in forming a new purpose and beginning 
 a new life, of which the other gospels 
 are full. But the passive change of 
 "birth" is nothing if it does not event- 
 ually lead to " believing," l8 and believing 
 is an act of the soul as truly as repentance, 
 in fact is the same act, as has already been 
 shown. It is the act by which a man 
 "passes out of death into life." 19 And 
 this "life" is "eternal life," or, heaven 
 already begun on earth. 20 As a life de- 
 pending, as all life does, on due nourish- 
 
 J 7j n . i. 13; iii. 5. 
 18 Jn. iii. 15. 
 '9 Jn. v. 24. 
 20 See chap. VI. 
 
Repentance and a New Life 79 
 
 ment, its food is the "bread of life" 21 
 which Jesus comes to give, and which 
 is himself. 
 
 The " new birth " is the work of God 
 through his Spirit. It is mysterious 22 
 but not altogether inexplicable in its na- 
 ture. The Spirit is to "convince" the 
 world of sin/ 3 and conviction depends on 
 the use of means, of reasons which shall 
 carry conviction. Hence, in this gospel 
 as in the others, Jesus himself makes use 
 of means, and thus fulfills this part of his 
 mission. He preaches everywhere, by 
 the well, as well as in the temple. One 
 of his methods was to recognize the holy 
 forces already moving men to repentance 
 and having their existence in the society 
 about him. Neither John nor he came 
 to a people altogether without means of 
 grace, for they came to the Jews, who 
 were God's chosen people and had " the 
 
 21 Jn. chap. vi. 
 
 22 Jn. iii. 8. 
 
 23 Jn. xvi. 8, 9. 
 
80 His Own Mission 
 
 adoption, and the glory, and the cove- 
 nants, and the giving of the law, and the 
 service of God, and the promises," and 
 the " fathers." 24 Hence a certain sort of 
 preaching was never thought necessary 
 by either. They never laboriously 
 proved the truth, as something altogether 
 new. They built on truth already known 
 and acknowledged. When Jesus saw 
 the " faith" of the men who brought 
 the paralytic to him and of the paralytic 
 himself, he recognized it and gave at once 
 the greatest of all divine gifts, forgive- 
 ness, to the waiting soul ; and then — then 
 only — healing to the suffering body. 25 
 
 Another means employed was the 
 preaching of sin, its nature and its results. 
 Here again he connected with the Old 
 Testament, for the penalty of sin is 
 " death " 26 or " darkness," 27 and is heaped 
 
 24 Ro. ix. 4, 5. 
 
 2 5 Matt. ix. 2 ff. 
 
 26 Ezek. xviii. 4. Comp. Matt. xxi. 41. 
 
 27 Matt. xxii. 13 ; Jn. iii. 19. 
 
Repentance and a New Life 8 1 
 
 with figures designed to intensify dread 
 of it. 
 
 But Jesus does not seek simply to de- 
 ter from sin. He attracts to the good, 
 and that principally by what he is him- 
 self. 28 He reveals God ; and God as re- 
 vealed in Jesus is infinitely lovely. 
 Holiness, when understood in the light 
 of the one holy life, the life of Jesus, 
 never fails to attract. Indeed, in the 
 day of its temporal revelation it did at- 
 tract men, for, as the Jews complained, 
 the world went after him. 29 
 
 And, finally, Jesus laid down his life 
 for the world, and thus exercised the 
 highest attractive power to lead men to 
 repentance, as well as proved beyond 
 doubt his own unselfish love. 30 This 
 was his preaching, and it fulfilled his 
 mission to bring men unto salvation, the 
 salvation of a new life. 
 
 28 Comp. the discussion in Chapter VI. 
 
 29 Jn. xii. 19. 
 
 3°Jn x. 15; xv. 13, 14. 
 F 
 
82 His Own Mission 
 
 But did Jesus teach that a man is 
 saved because he does good deeds ? Can 
 a man begin a virtuous life, and expect, 
 in accordance with the teachings of 
 Jesus, to be saved — forgiven for the 
 past, blessed in the present with God's 
 favor, and received for all the future be- 
 yond this life into heaven — simply on the 
 basis of what he is and does, regardless 
 of any grace of God bringing him to re- 
 pentance, and of any ground, laid by 
 sacrifice or otherwise, for forgiveness? 
 So some have thought, and have pointed 
 to the fact that in all the first three gos- 
 pels the condition of forgiveness is simply 
 repentance. It has even been said, re- 
 gardless of that word " faith," so common 
 in these gospels, that Jesus never pre- 
 sents himself there as an object of reliance. 
 It is said that God is always presented as 
 ready to receive the repentant sinner. 
 The parable of the prodigal son is the 
 perfect illustration of the way of salva- 
 tion. Nothing is said of any condition 
 
Repentance and a New Life 83 
 
 on God's part which must be met before 
 there can be forgiveness. This is be- 
 lieved to be a proof that there is no 
 obstacle to forgiveness needing to be put 
 aside by the offering of himself by Jesus. 
 Over against John Baptist's theology 31 
 and the propitiatory theology of Paul, 
 they set this as the " theology of Jesus ? " 
 Are they right ? The question brings us 
 immediately to the following division of 
 Christ's work. 
 31 See Chapter II. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 The Salvation of Redemption and 
 Forgiveness 
 
 " The Son of Man came to minister, and to give 
 his life a ransom for many." Matt. xx. 28. 
 
 ¥ "jT/^E have now arrived at the most 
 pif important department of our 
 subject. The space which is 
 given to the passion of Jesus in the gos- 
 pels, nearly one fifth of their entire vol- 
 ume, would be enough to indicate it; 
 and the prominence in the New Testa- 
 ment, as well as in the later usage of the 
 church, of the " cross of Christ " repeats 
 the indication. Among the favorite 
 84 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 85 
 
 names of the Master in the church has 
 ever stood foremost that of " Redeemer." 
 The text placed at the head of this 
 chapter stands quite isolated from its con- 
 text. The mother of James and John 
 has been asking for them that they may 
 occupy the chief places of honor in 
 Christ's kingdom. Jesus is explaining 
 in reply that true greatness consists not 
 in empty honors but in service. Even 
 the Son of Man, the King, came to serve. 
 Then he adds, not as a mere additional 
 particular, though the thought takes that 
 grammatical form, but as an explanation 
 of the meaning of his service by the men- 
 tion of its chief element, " And to give 
 his life a ransom for many." His service 
 consisted preeminently in giving his life 
 a ransom. 1 The statement is positive 
 and comprehensive ; but what is meant 
 by the peculiar phrase employed, " give 
 a ransom," is indicated by no explanatory 
 
 1 Comp. Jn. iii. 14-16 ; x. 18. 
 
86 His Own Mission 
 
 remark whatever. Like so many of 
 Jesus' sayings, it is left to the future to 
 interpret. Except as the word " ran- 
 som " itself might serve to convey a def- 
 inite idea to the hearers to whom it was 
 addressed, the utterance must have re- 
 mained quite enigmatical. 
 
 We are left, then, to this source, to 
 the meaning of the word in the language 
 and amid the customs of Israel, and to 
 what further light can be gained from 
 the New Testament at large, for its inter- 
 pretation. 
 
 Old Testament Use 
 
 The Greek word here rendered " ran- 
 som " 2 and its etymological equivalents, 
 are employed in the Greek translation of 
 the Old Testament in the sense of the 
 price paid for the release of a prisoner. 
 Used in the plural, it is employed to des- 
 ignate the ransom of a female slave, 3 of 
 
 2 Xvrpov. 
 
 3 Lev. xix. 20. 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 87 
 
 the first born, 4 of one's own life forfeited 
 before the law, 5 of one's self from slavery, 6 
 and of a whole people from captivity. 7 
 It has been employed in these cases for 
 a variety of Hebrew words. 8 But in one 
 of the passages 9 it is employed also to 
 translate another word that has a peculiar 
 meaning, the word " covering." IO The 
 same Hebrew is found in Ex. xxx. 12, 
 Num. xxxv. 31, 32, Prov. vi. 35. Now, 
 " to cover " is the word used in the ritual 
 of Leviticus of the atoning efficacy of 
 the sacrifices. 11 Sin is " covered over" 
 by legal rites ordained by God, or God 
 himself may cover over sin, i. e., view the 
 
 4 Num. xviii. 15. 
 
 5 Ex. xxi. 30. 
 
 6 Lev. xxv. 51, 53. 
 
 7 Is. xlv. 13. 
 
 8 jthb, ma, Tro, ntea. 
 
 9 Ex. xxi. 30. 
 
 11 Comp. particularly Lev. xvi. 6, 10, 11, 16, 17. 
 
88 His Own Mission 
 
 sinner favorably. 12 It lay very near the 
 Hebrew usage, therefore, to employ 
 "covering" in the sense of "propitia- 
 tion," and hence its translation, "ran- 
 som," might have taken that meaning. 
 In this sense our text would have to be 
 translated, " give his life a propitiation for 
 many." But in the Old Testament 
 neither the Hebrew word nor its Greek 
 equivalent in the translation known as 
 the "Septuagint" is ever used in this 
 sense. It is the payment of money that 
 always occasions the introduction of the 
 word " ransom " there. So far as the in- 
 fluence of the Old Testament goes, it is 
 therefore against the rendering of the 
 term by "propitiation." But in profane 
 Greek, — in iEschylus, Sophocles, Euripi- 
 des, Plato, and Lucian, — the word and 
 its cognates are freely used in the sense 
 of "propitiation." I3 
 
 12 Comp. Deut. xxi. 8. 
 
 13 The importance of this point leads me to add 
 a translation of the remarks of Cremer, in his Bibl- 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 89 
 
 New Testament Use 
 
 We come, then, to the study of the 
 New Testament use of the word " ran- 
 som " with the result that it may mean 
 either " price paid for liberation' 5 or 
 "propitiation," with the weight of Old 
 Testament usage in favor of the former. 
 
 theol. Worterbuch d. Nt. Gracitat, under the word 
 Xvrpov. He says : — 
 
 u The use of Xvrpov in profane Greek in the 
 sense of propitiation may be seen in the following 
 examples : iEschylus (Choeph. 48) Xvrpov cu/xaros, 
 in connection with Xvav, employed of propitiatory 
 rites, e. g. cf>6vov cf>6vw Xvav Sophocles (O. R. 100) ; 
 Euripides (Or. 510); ^Eschylus, (Choeph. 803 
 [79 1 1) ^y cre ? T ^ v TaAai 7re7rpay fJL€vu)v Xvo-ao-O' al/xa 
 7r/oo(T<^aTots 8t/cat9, c the bloodguiltiness of the old 
 deeds atone with new punishment ' ; Plato (Repub. 
 2, 364, E) Awcis Se kolI KaOapfxoi d8i/07/xaTa>v ? of pro- 
 pitiation by ritual and in divine service ; Sopho- 
 cles (El. 447) XvTiqpia rov <}>6vov, means of propitia- 
 tion ; Lucian (Dial. Deor. 4, 2) ei Se €7ravafeis fie, 
 
 VTncrxyovfJLOLL vol koll aiXXov Kpibv rv0rjo~earOai Xvrpa virep 
 
 » « »> 
 
 €fJLOV. 
 
go His Own Mission 
 
 Which of these two does it mean? 
 We decide for the second, and for the 
 following reasons : — 
 
 Words are understood according to 
 the connection in which they stand. 
 The word " ever-lasting/' for example, 
 may mean much as it is used of God, or 
 very little, as it is used of a sleepless 
 night. The connection, the context, 
 is largely decisive in determining such a 
 question as this. The immediate con- 
 text, as already shown, gives us no help 
 as to the meaning of " ransom/' Is there 
 a wider context, is there anything else in 
 the utterances of Jesus, as they have 
 come down to us, which bears on the 
 question and gives us the means of de- 
 ciding ? 
 
 The passage, Matt. xxvi. 28, 15 — "This 
 is my blood of the covenant which is 
 poured out for many unto remission of 
 
 *s Parallels are Mk. x. 45 ; Lk. xxii. 20 ; 1 Cor. 
 xi. 24, 25. 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 91 
 
 sins/' — forms such a context. Jesus is 
 here speaking of the cup which he gives 
 to the disciples in the Last Supper. 
 Taken as it here stands, and especially 
 under the circumstances in which it is 
 uttered, this text is the plainest assertion 
 possible that the blood of Christ is a pro- 
 pitiation, a covering of sins because a 
 sacrifice for them. "Blood" "blood of 
 the covenant" "shed unto remission of 
 sins, ' ■ — these are the pivotal words, and 
 they point immediately back to the seal- 
 ing of the covenant by Moses at Sinai. 
 A Jew, familiar with the Scriptures, or 
 even accustomed to note the ritual of 
 sacrifices still practised in that day in the 
 Temple, could scarcely understand them 
 in any other way. So we should sup- 
 pose. But we have more than supposi- 
 tion to go on, for we have a whole New 
 Testament book to show how one Jew 
 actually did understand them, — the writer 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews. In the 
 central chapter of his book, the ninth, he 
 
92 His Own Mission 
 
 has been drawing out the analogy be- 
 tween Christ's offering and that of the 
 great day of Atonement/ 6 and then has 
 recalled at length the sanctification of the 
 covenant by Moses ; 1? and he concludes 
 thus : " Apart from shedding of blood 
 there is no remission [under the Mosaic 
 law]. . . . Now hath (Christ) been man- 
 ifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of 
 himself." 18 Hence we have "boldness 
 to enter into the holy place by the blood 
 of Jesus." 19 Thus to every hearer 
 trained under the system of Israel as it 
 existed in the days when Jesus spoke of 
 his blood as the " blood of the cove- 
 nant/' these words had one meaning and 
 but one, the meaning of the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews, that the blood of Jesus 
 was the propitiation for our sins. 
 
 Now, the inherent and logical relation 
 
 ,6 Heb. ix. 11-14. 
 
 17 Verses 18-22. 
 
 18 Verses 22, 26. 
 J 9 Heb. x. 19. 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 93 
 
 of these ideas, "ransom " and " propitia- 
 tion/ ' gives us the meaning of our text, 
 "give his life a ransom." If the giving 
 is a price paid only, it need not be a pro- 
 pitiation. But if it is a propitiation, it 
 must be a ransom, since it must set the 
 many free. In the plainer passage it is 
 manifestly a propitiation. This is its 
 central and controlling idea. And hence 
 it is a ransom because a propitiation. The 
 word " ransom " is used here at any rate 
 as equivalent to propitiation ; and, there- 
 fore, since it can bear that meaning di- 
 rectly (as shown above from the profane 
 Greek), we prefer to say it does, and give 
 it the meaning of propitiation. 
 
 Critcal Objections 
 
 Attention has been called to the fact 
 that the words, " unto remission of sins/' 
 are not found in the parallel passages de- 
 scribing the institution of the Lord's Sup- 
 per. The inference has been drawn that 
 they are not a genuine portion of the 
 
94 His Own Mission 
 
 earliest tradition, but were added by the 
 writer of Matthew in the interest of ritua- 
 listic ideas. Jesus, it is also said, never 
 manifests any interest in the ritualistic 
 and institutional elements of religion, and 
 so never could have given utterance to 
 these additional words. 
 
 The fact that the words in question are 
 found in but one of the evangelists counts 
 but little against them. If Matthew may 
 be said to have added them, it is equally 
 easy to say that the others may have omit- 
 ted them, for they add nothing essential to 
 the idea conveyed by the phrase " blood 
 of the covenant," which was always pro- 
 pitiatory. It is equally easy to say either, 
 and equally useless. The words stand as 
 an undisputed portion of the text, and 
 can be removed only by the arbitrary 
 methods of a subjective criticism, which 
 has only such value as its originator feels 
 inclined to assign it, and then only for 
 himself. The added argument that Jesus 
 could not have said it, is equally valueless. 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 95 
 
 " Jesus never speaks of institutions and 
 ritual/' they say. " But here is a case/' 
 it is replied, and other cases are to be 
 found when he speaks of the " church " 2 ° 
 and of " baptism." 2I " The text is cor- 
 rupt in all these cases because it would 
 overthrow our proposition," is the re- 
 joinder. In other words, the criticism as- 
 sumes such a knowledge of Jesus apart from 
 the records, that it can dispute the records on 
 the basis of that knowledge. But one ounce 
 of fact, such as is given by this text, is 
 worth a ton of conjecture. If the criti- 
 cism is to be allowed any value, it will 
 put itself in better condition before itself 
 and before the world, if it frankly admits 
 that it believes we know nothing indis- 
 putably certain about the teaching of 
 Jesus. But then serious men will not 
 continue to busy themselves with the 
 study of so unknown a teacher. 
 
 20 Matt, xvi. 18. 
 
 21 Matt, xxviiu 19. 
 
96 His Own Mission 
 
 It may be confidently affirmed, and 
 will meet with no objection from any 
 competent critic of the present day, that 
 on the basis of the Old Testament as 
 we have it, the writer of the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews was right in his under- 
 standing of the meaning of Jesus' blood. 
 The account of the ratification of the 
 covenant of God with Israel is recorded 
 in Ex. xxiv. 4-8. Moses is then re- 
 ported to have taken blood and sprinkled 
 it upon the altar and then upon the peo- 
 ple. Why it was put upon the altar is 
 clear. It was the blood of " burnt-offer- 
 ings " and " peace-offerings " which had 
 just been offered. 22 Now, the blood of 
 such offerings, though not primarily pro- 
 pitiatory, was such secondarily. If a man 
 was to rejoice before Jehovah, he needed 
 first the forgiveness of his sins, and there- 
 fore a propitiatory sacrifice. Hence in 
 Leviticus 23 the ritual act of the transfer 
 
 22 Vs. 5. 
 23 Lev. i. 4. 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 97 
 
 of guilt to the victim by the laying on of 
 hands is prescribed in the case of burnt- 
 offerings, and it is verbally added that 
 the offering is "to make atonement ," 24 
 The same is indicated in reference to 
 the peace-offerings. 25 There was no 
 covenant made except with those who 
 by sacrificial atonement had received 
 the divine forgiveness, and thus been 
 brought into fellowship relations with 
 God. This is the fundamental Jewish 
 conception of the whole matter. 
 
 The Higher Criticism of the Old Tes- 
 tament has been used by some to invali- 
 date this argument. It has been said 
 that the sacrifices of primitive Israel were 
 not propitiatory in their character; that 
 the propitiatory character, and the use of 
 the word " cover," are late, in fact, post- 
 exilic, additions ; and hence, if the blood 
 of Jesus is the blood of the covenant, it 
 
 24 "ISD. 
 
 25 Lev. iii. 2, 7, 13. 
 
 G 
 
98 His Own Mission 
 
 need have no propitiatory character what- 
 ever. You must not distort the plain 
 meaning of the early book, Exodus, by 
 interpretations brought from the far later 
 one, Leviticus ! 
 
 Upon the correctness of the conclusion 
 as to the original meaning of sacrifices 
 among the Israelites and the relative age 
 of the various parts of the Old Testa- 
 ment, we shall here enter no opinion. 
 This is not the place for profound critical 
 questions. But as to the conclusion 
 drawn from the premises to invalidate 
 the text under our present discussion, it 
 is utterly erroneous. Whatever may 
 have been the true historical course of 
 Israel's ritualistic development, it is evi- 
 dent that the compilers of our present 
 Old Testament and the Jews of our 
 Lord's time who read it, interpreted the 
 earlier forms by the later, and saw in 
 them all one fundamental significance, 
 and that was the significance of a pro- 
 pitiatory sacrifice. However it had come 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 99 
 
 to the goal, this was the goal of the 
 Israelitish development. That is the 
 impression which the Old Testament, 
 taken as one consistent whole, giving one 
 designed impression, and not taken as 
 the mere materials out of which the 
 " true " (and a different) impression is to 
 be laboriously constructed, made on its 
 readers at the beginning of the Christian 
 era, and makes on us to-day. Now, that 
 impression constitutes the environment of our 
 text 26 in accordance with which it must 
 be understood. Speaking to Jews hav- 
 ing such an understanding of the cove- 
 nant, and its blood of propitiation and 
 sealing, the evangelist Matthew must have 
 expected his text, xxvi. 28, to be under- 
 stood in that sense. In fact, he must 
 have understood it so himself. What he 
 understood by it and what others under- 
 stood by it, is to be taken as its meaning, 
 intended by Jesus. Any other interpre- 
 tation is impossible and incapable of being 
 26 Comp. chapter I. 
 
 LefC. 
 
ioo His Own Mission 
 
 sustained, because it makes Jesus talk a 
 language he knew would and must be 
 misunderstood. 
 
 The argument from the environment 
 of our text is not yet done. That environ- 
 ment is not simply the Old Testament. 
 It is also, as already explained, the por- 
 tions of the New Testament in existence 
 when the gospel appeared/ 7 particularly 
 the Epistles of Paul. Now, no one doubts 
 that Paul held the death of Christ to be 
 a propitiatory sacrifice. He calls Jesus a 
 " propitiation " 28 and a " sin-offering," 2g 
 and a " curse." 3 ° These expressions are 
 plain enough ; but they are most indubi- 
 tably confirmed by what one of his school, 
 the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 says at so great length when he makes 
 Christ priest and victim, by whose blood, 
 
 2 7See chapter I. 
 
 28 Ro. iii. 25. 
 
 29 Ro, viii. 3, though possibly doubtful ; not doubt- 
 ful in 2 Cor. v. 21. 
 
 3° Gal. iii. 13. 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 101 
 
 as the antitype of the sacrifice of the great 
 day of Atonement, we obtain the remis- 
 sion of our sins. Peter but took up the 
 one voice of the rest of the New Testa- 
 ment when he appropriated the words of 
 Isaiah and wrote of Christ's bearing " our 
 sins in his body on the tree .... by 
 whose stripes ye were healed." 3I 
 
 One more passage only remains to be 
 cited, as throwing light on the meaning 
 both of Matt. xx. 28 and of Matt. xxvi. 28, 
 but it is a most important and significant 
 passage. In our Lord's last hours with 
 his disciples, just before he began that 
 great final discourse, " let not your heart 
 be troubled," he said, as related by 
 Luke : 32 " For I say unto you that this 
 which is written must be fulfilled in me, 
 And he was reckoned with the trangress- 
 ors : for that which concerneth me hath 
 fulfillment. ' ' This is a q uotation by J esus 
 
 31 I Pet. ii. 24. 
 
 32 Lk. xxii. 37. 
 
io2 His Own Mission 
 
 himself from the fifty-third chapter of 
 Isaiah, identifying himself with the " Serv- 
 ant of Jehovah " there described, and 
 his own work with that Servant's work. 
 In Isaiah the servant is " reckoned with 
 the transgressors " because he is treated 
 as a transgressor, for " Jehovah laid on 
 him the iniquity of us all/ 5 and " he bore 
 the sin of many." Jesus, who knew the 
 meaning of the Old Testament, must have 
 had all this in mind as he identified him- 
 self with Isaiah's " Servant ; " and he has 
 thus himself again declared plainly that his 
 work was that of bearing our sins, or of 
 being a propitiatory sacrifice. 
 
 Thus at the end of Jesus' life, and by 
 himself, we find the same identification 
 of Jesus with the sacrificial lamb of God 
 as John made at the beginning. This is 
 in the "synoptic" Luke. If John Bap- 
 tist, or the writer of the Fourth Gospel, 
 puts the fifty-third of Isaiah, as a kind of 
 motto, over the beginning of Christ's 
 life, Jesus himself writes it over the 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 103 
 
 close, as a summary and epitaph. It 
 stamps conclusively the interpretation of 
 the other passages at which we have ar- 
 rived without its help, as correct. Its 
 final authority can only be removed by 
 the same arbitrary and subjective critical 
 processes which must be employed with 
 Matt. xxvi. 28. We have seen how in- 
 conclusive they are. They are the more 
 inconclusive because there can be no 
 doubt that Jesus claimed to be the prom- 
 ised Messiah of the Old Testament. 
 The "Messiah" and the "Servant of 
 Jehovah " were one and the same. 
 Every time he claimed to be Messiah 
 he taught the propitiatory character of his 
 death. A "Messiah" could never be a 
 mere teacher, because Isaiah fifty-three 
 could never be dissociated from the com- 
 plete Old Testament picture of him, 
 however the Jews might ignore it. 
 
 Thus we close our view of the first 
 three gospels. Upon the basis of all this 
 discussion, its several lines of argument 
 
104 His Own Mission 
 
 leading to the same result, we conclude 
 that the word " ransom " in Matt. xx. 28 
 is to be understood of a propitiatory sac- 
 rifice which, because it was propitiatory, 
 redeemed the many from death, the pen- 
 alty of the law. 
 
 Did not Jesus omit the Doctrine of Atone- 
 ment ? 
 
 The studies which we have been mak- 
 ing in the first three gospels to this point 
 have been largely verbal studies, matters 
 of the interpretation of words. We 
 must return now briefly to the objection 
 raised at the close of the last chapter in 
 the interest of a deeper view of Jesus' 
 mission. A certain impatience with 
 verbal arguments is sometimes mani- 
 fested. Let us not quibble with words, 
 it is said, let us rise to a larger view of 
 the great methods and the profound 
 meaning of Jesus. When he forgives, 
 he does it freely. He never insists upon 
 any atonement or upon any other condi- 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 105 
 
 tion. He simply calls to repentance. 
 His doctrine is, " Repent and you shall 
 be forgiven." The Publican who cried, 
 " God be merciful to me a sinner/' and 
 the Prodigal Son who exclaimed, " Father 
 I have sinned/' and whose father did not 
 permit him even to close his petition, but 
 called for the best robe and the ring, — 
 these are the examples of Jesus' teaching 
 which show he was far above the petty 
 doctrine of an atonement. So, in sub- 
 stance, it is often said. 
 
 But a "large" treatment of a subject 
 can never be successful if it neglects the 
 first elements of interpretation. One of 
 these is that a speaker is not compelled 
 to say everything pertaining to a subject 
 every time he touches it. Is the doctrine 
 of forgiveness upon condition of repent- 
 ance true ? Then Jesus may teach it, 
 without necessarily discussing its ground. 
 Another principle of interpretation is that 
 a parable can be held to teach only the 
 truth designed to be taught, and that it 
 
106 His Own Mission 
 
 cannot be quoted in favor of all the pos- 
 sible inferences from its mere language 
 aside from its main intent. Thus, from 
 the parable of the vineyard you cannot 
 infer that the divinely intended business 
 of the Jews was exclusively viticulture ! 
 or from the parable of the mustard seed 
 (a pungent tasting seedlet) that repentance 
 is always a bitter thing ! 
 
 Now, as to the parable of the Prodigal 
 Son, one thing is intended by Jesus, and 
 but one, viz., to enforce the position that 
 the gospel was provided for "sinners," 
 and that God had a new joy over a re- 
 pentant soul simply because he had been 
 lost. The joy of the father is the point : 
 all the rest is accessory. Of course, cer- 
 tain other doctrines could not fail to be 
 taught, for they contribute to the main 
 effect of the story, or are essential to it. 
 Thus the fact and misery of sin ; the 
 motives to repentance ; its nature and 
 thorough-going character ; find illustra- 
 tion in the parable : but the readiness of 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 107 
 
 the father to receive the sinner, and his 
 equal position in the favor and love of 
 the father with any who may not have 
 gone so grievously astray, is the main 
 thing, and nothing not essential to this 
 can be demanded of the teacher as a 
 necessary portion of his story. Until 
 modern preachers, who believe in the 
 atonement, can be held to mention it 
 every time they speak of forgiveness 
 (and what rhetorician could be as foolish 
 as this?), Jesus cannot be said to have 
 been ignorant of the doctrine or to have 
 rejected it because he did not insert it in 
 such instances as this parable. 
 
 If anything more were needed to 
 complete the refutation of the "larger " 
 argument, it would be the distinct addi- 
 tion, by this very Luke, of the reference 
 to the propitiatory work of Christ in 
 xxii. 37 already discussed. Not a synop- 
 tic but has some reference to this work, 
 though the scope of his book prevents 
 him from enlarging upon it ! 
 
108 His Own Mission 
 
 The Gospel of John 
 
 The detailed and careful examination 
 of the texts made above has been neces- 
 sary because the teaching of Jesus him- 
 self as to his death has been thought by 
 many in recent days to be confined to 
 the first three gospels, and to omit en- 
 tirely the element of sacrifice as a por- 
 tion, much more as the chief portion, of 
 its significance. It has been shown, we 
 trust, that the first three gospels do not 
 make this omission. We now turn to 
 the Fourth Gospel. It has been gen- 
 erally acknowledged that this gospel 
 gives the central place in Christ's work 
 to his death as a propitiatory sacrifice. 
 We may despatch this portion of our 
 work, therefore, more briefly; but we 
 need to know the grounds which have 
 led to this general admission. 
 
 The teachings of Jesus himself in the 
 Gospel of John are not to be sharply 
 separated from the teachings of the evan- 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 109 
 
 gelist, as has already been explained. 33 
 Therefore the significant utterance of 
 John the Baptist, recorded in John i. 29, 
 that Jesus was " the Lamb of God that 
 taketh away the sin of the world," 34 
 belongs here. Standing, as it does, at 
 the very opening of this gospel, it is as if 
 the Apostle John had put it as the text 
 of all his subsequent teaching as to Jesus' 
 work, as the key by which his later ex- 
 pressions were to be understood. Cer- 
 tain it is that, if the idea of propitiation 
 here presented be taken as a guide, all 
 the subsequent teaching becomes imme- 
 diately clear. We shall, however, relin- 
 quish the advantage given by this use of 
 the text, for the purpose of gaining the 
 independent contribution of other texts 
 to our theme. 
 
 The first discourse of Jesus recorded 
 in this gospel opens the discussion. Be- 
 
 33 See chapter I, 
 
 34 See chapter II. 
 
1 10 His Own Mission 
 
 ginning with the necessity of regenera- 
 tion, 35 and affirming the competence of 
 the teacher, 36 it proceeds to explain the 
 way of entrance to the "kingdom of 
 God " by " believing," and sets forth the 
 object of faith, the crucified Son of Man. 37 
 The verses fourteen, fifteen and sixteen, 
 give an epitome of the entire gospel. 
 God " gave " his Son. This word is ex- 
 plained by x. 18, when " to lay down his 
 life " is said to be the " commandment " 
 of the Father. 38 The " giving " thus in- 
 volves death, and this is the death of " lift- 
 ing up/' 39 or death upon the cross ; and 
 this death constitutes Jesus as an object 
 of faith, so that men are to believe in him, 40 
 that is, entrust themselves to him in con- 
 
 35 Jn. iii. 3. 
 
 36 Verses 11-13. 
 
 3 7 Verses 14, 15. 
 
 3 8 Comp. Phil. ii. 8, " obedient unto death." 
 
 39 See vs. 14, and comp. xii. 32, 33. 
 
 40 Vs. 15, or if this be otherwise construed, 
 then 16. 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 1 1 1 
 
 sequence of what he has become by be- 
 ing lifted up. No closer explanation of 
 the meaning is given except by the ref- 
 erence to the serpent, and the point of 
 analogy seems to be merely the element 
 of trust contained in both. 41 Twice later 
 in the gospel the same figure is employed 
 to describe Jesus' death. 42 In connection 
 with the first, the voluntary character of 
 the death is emphasized by the phrase 
 "I go away/' 43 of which the phrase 
 " lifted up the Son of Man " is but the 
 argumentative parallel. He went (vol- 
 untarily) away, but it was by means of 
 betrayal and crucifixion. In the second, 
 the context, which is the remarkable pas- 
 sage where the coming of the Greeks 
 suggests the world wide character of his 
 mission, brings forward the thought that 
 only when he was lifted up, could his 
 universal work be done. Then, and then 
 
 41 See Num. xxi. 9. 
 
 42 Jn. viii. 28, and xii. 32, 34. 
 
 43 Verse 21. 
 
1 1 2 His Own Mission 
 
 only, could he " draw all men unto him- 
 self/ ' Like iii. 16, it thus teaches that 
 his death constituted him the Saviour. 
 
 The voluntary character of Jesus' 
 death, and its central position in his work, 
 are made the theme of certain passages 
 in the discourse of the Good Shepherd. 44 
 He comes that men may have life, and 
 they obtain it by the surrender of his own 
 life, which no man takes from him, but 
 which he lays down of himself, 45 because 
 of the Father's commandment, and that 
 he may take it again. 
 
 This might seem, possibly, to make 
 him nothing but a hero, like the soldier 
 who takes his life in his hand for his 
 country, or, to use Jesus' own figure, like 
 the shepherd who loses his life for his 
 sheep. This impression cannot, how- 
 ever, stand before a closer consideration 
 of the passage, for the central thought is 
 that of voluntary surrender. The human 
 
 44 Jn. x. io, ii, 17, 18. 
 
 4S Vs. 18. Comp. xv, 13. 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 1 13 
 
 shepherd yields to a violence which he 
 cannot overcome, and has in no sense 
 " power to lay his life down, and power 
 to take it again." Not so Jesus. 
 
 But if such an idea were obtainable 
 from the discourse of the Good Shep- 
 herd, the discourse of the Bread of Life 46 
 would contradict it. Beginning with the 
 figure of bread derived from the illustra- 
 tion of the manna given to Israel in the 
 desert, 47 Jesus calls himself the true bread. 
 He must be eaten, if a man is to have eter- 
 nal life/ 8 that is, he is himself the object 
 of faith, and a man must trust on what 
 he is and what he does, if he is to be saved. 
 It is the old doctrine of iii. 14-16. To 
 make this perfectly plain, the figure of 
 bread is soon abandoned, and the 
 " bread " is declared to be his " flesh ; " 
 and, if this is not enough, " flesh " is ex- 
 
 46 Jn. chap. vi. 
 
 47 Vs. 31-33. 
 
 48 VS. 53. 
 
 H 
 
1 14 His Own Mission 
 
 panded to "flesh and blood/' 49 This 
 language is itself sacrificial, and plain 
 enough to us at this day. But to a Jew, 
 accustomed to the sacrificial ritual, and 
 acquainted with the use of the flesh of 
 the victim as food, 50 the allusion was even 
 plainer. It might yet cause stumbling to 
 the enemies of Jesus, and they might ask, 
 " How can this man give us his flesh to 
 eat?" 51 But those who still listened 
 heard a hint of resurrection after death 52 
 confirming the meaning of the figure of 
 flesh and blood as referring to a violent 
 death. 
 
 What other objective and unprejudiced 
 interpretation these passages would ad- 
 mit than that of a sacrificial and propi- 
 tiatory death, I do not know. But if 
 there were any doubt, the setting of this 
 element of Jesus' teaching in the gospels 
 
 49 Vs. 53, 56. 
 
 s° See Lev. vii. 15, 1 Sam. i. 4. 
 
 s 1 Vs. 52. 
 
 s 2 Vs. 62. 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 1 1 5 
 
 at large would make it perfectly evident. 
 When we remember that his death was 
 accompanied by the effusion of his 
 blood, 53 when we recall the institution of 
 the Lord's Supper and its two elements, 
 bread and wine for body and blood, and 
 remember that the death was prophesied 
 at the beginning of the ministry by Jesus, 
 the " offering of the body of Jesus " for 
 the "putting away of the sin" of the 
 world 54 becomes the one natural mean- 
 ing of the text. This was certainly the 
 meaning which John gained from it 
 himself, for in his first Epistle he lays re- 
 peated emphasis on the hlood^ of Christ, 
 which "cleanseth us from sin;'" and 
 bases the fact of Christ's eternal inter- 
 cession and advocacy for us on the fact 
 that "he is the propitiation for our 
 sins." 5<s It is but a repetition of the pas- 
 
 53 Jn. xix. 34. 
 
 54 Heb. x. 10 ; ix. 26. 
 
 55 See i. 7 ; v. 6. 
 s 6 1 Jn. ii. 2. 
 
1 1 6 His Own Mission 
 
 sage in the gospel, iii. 16, when we read 
 in the epistle, iv. 10, God " loved us, 
 and sent his Son to be the propitiation 
 for our sins." 
 
 It is, then, plain from these texts, in 
 themselves and in their setting, that 
 Jesus taught, according to John's testi- 
 mony, the propitiatory character of his 
 death. When, now, employing the 
 motto-text of the Gospel as our guide, 
 we view Jesus from the beginning as the 
 sacrificial " Lamb of God," every possi- 
 ble hesitation must be swept away. In 
 fact, it has been swept away, for the 
 method which modern objectors to a 
 propitiatory sacrifice have with one con- 
 sent adopted to invalidate the biblical 
 character of the doctrine, is the critical 
 method, which subjects the first three 
 gospels to an arbitrary and subjective 
 analysis, and denies altogether the au- 
 thenticity and genuineness of the fourth. 
 In the light of that motto-text, it is as 
 this " Lamb " that Jesus is " lifted up," 
 
Redemption and Forgiveness 1 1 7 
 
 and laid on the cross as upon an altar ; as 
 " Lamb " he sheds his blood ; 57 as a sacri- 
 fice he gives his life ; as a sacrifice his 
 flesh and blood become food for the soul 
 as the flesh of the ancient sacrifices was 
 the food of the sacrificers. 
 
 Result 
 The four gospels, then, perfectly agree 
 in presenting the teaching of Jesus as 
 this, that his death was a propitiatory 
 sacrifice. Jesus made, it is true, but brief 
 allusions to this great fact, for the time 
 had not yet come to make it perfectly 
 clear. Even to the disciples the thought 
 of a suffering Messiah would have been 
 a stumbling block, 58 as it always remained 
 to the Jews. But in view of the fact, 
 the teaching becomes clearer to us than 
 it could have been to those who heard it ; 
 and they j when they had seen the teach- 
 ing illuminated by the events of Calvary 
 and Olivet, had no further hesitation. 
 
 57 Comp. 1 Pet. i. 19, 20. 
 
 58 Comp. Jn. vi. 66. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Salvation at the Last yudgment 
 
 " For judgment came I into this world." Jn. ix. 39. 
 
 rHE idea of Jesus as judge moves 
 amid verbal paradoxes in the gos- 
 pels. In Jn. iii. 17, we read that 
 " God sent not his son into the world to 
 judge the world/' Here we read that 
 he "came for judgment." In viii. 15, "I 
 judge no man ; " in v. 22 and 27, "the 
 Father hath given all judgment unto 
 the Son," " and he gave him authority to 
 execute judgment because he is the Son 
 of man." 
 118 
 
Salvation at the Last Judgment 1 1 9 
 
 Yet there is no essential difficulty, or 
 real contradiction in the gospel. Jesus 
 does not come to judge the world but to 
 save it. "Judge" here means condemn, 
 pronounce unfavorable judgment upon. 
 This has been already done for the sinful 
 world, which lies, in the omniscience of 
 God, in known guilt and recognized 
 condemnation. 1 In the text prefixed to 
 this chapter, the meaning is still another. 
 Jesus comes to present truth, as the 
 light, 2 and the actual result of this will 
 be judgment, the making manifest of 
 the fact that those who in their own 
 opinion see, are really blind ; and others 
 who know they have no spiritual vision, 
 gain such a vision. But he shall come 
 finally to execute judgment in the full 
 and proper sense of that word, 3 when 
 he raises the dead, and they come forth, 
 
 1 This presentation agrees with the use of the 
 word " lost." See chapter IV. 
 
 2 Vs. 5. 
 
 3 Jn. v. 22 ff, 
 
120 His Own Mission 
 
 some to life, others to a judgment that is 
 a condemnation. 
 
 The Gospel of John, with its constant 
 emphasis on the internal, ethical mean- 
 ing of the message of Jesus, preferably 
 puts the decisive point in the destiny of 
 every man at the hour of believing or 
 rejecting the good news. Then he 
 " passes into life " 4 and has no judgment 
 hour before him, or he remains in the 
 state of the judged (and condemned), 
 and "the wrath of God abideth on 
 him." 5 Were it not for the indications 
 of v. 22 ff (" the Father hath given all 
 judgment unto the Son"), and xii. 48 
 (" the word that I spake shall judge him 
 in the last day "), it might seem that 
 John did not teach the doctrine of a 
 general judgment. But he is put by 
 these passages in full agreement with the 
 first three gospels, which everywhere 
 
 * Jn. v. 24. 
 sjn. iii. 18, 36. 
 
Salvation at the Last Judgment 1 2 1 
 
 teach a final judgment, of which Jesus 
 Christ is the Judge. 6 
 
 Now, at this judgment Jesus appears 
 for the last time and in the fullest sense 
 as Saviour. Here he pronounces the 
 sentence, separates between the evil and 
 the good, 7 and receives his true fol- 
 lowers, even when they would scarcely 
 arrogate to themselves the title, 8 into 
 heaven. Thus he completes the work 
 which he began by announcing that the 
 kingdom of heaven was near, by receiv- 
 ing his followers into it and giving them 
 " eternal life." 
 
 6 Matt. xvi. 27 ; xxv. 31 ff. Mk. viii. 38 ; ix. 
 I ; xiii. 26, 27. Lk. xxi. 27, 36. 
 
 7 Matt. xiii. 30. Mk. iv. 29. 
 
 8 Matt. xxv. 37. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Summary 
 
 TTf^ are now prepared, in the 
 JrlS briefest manner possible, to re- 
 view our course and gather to- 
 gether in a single expression the result 
 of our studies. 
 
 The mission of our Lord in the world 
 is expressed in one word. He is our 
 Saviour. He came into this world be- 
 cause it was lying in sin and lost ; and he 
 came to save it. That expresses the 
 whole. Whatever he should find neces- 
 sary to saving the world he would do. 
 122 
 
Summary 1 23 
 
 And the ideal which he set before him- 
 self as the goal to be attained was nothing 
 less than a saved world, a world where 
 the great governing law of heaven should 
 prevail, a world that was the kingdom of 
 heaven. 
 
 In seeking this end he met the various 
 problems as they arose, and solved them 
 one by one. He found the world miser- 
 able, sick with physical disease, plagued 
 with death ; and he healed it, curing the 
 sick, raising the dead, casting out demons. 
 This was his work at the lowest point of 
 the distress of the world, — its physical dis- 
 tress. So far forth his healings saved it, 
 put into it something of the triumph over 
 suffering which perfect holiness will 
 finally make perfect. 
 
 But beneath suffering lay sin, its cause. 
 He came to dispel the darkness of sin, 
 because it was ignorance, wilful ignorance 
 of truth, and painful ignorance of God, 
 what he is and what his friendship is. 
 As Light, Jesus sought to bring the 
 
124 His Own Mission 
 
 knowledge of God to men in such a way 
 as should lead them to love him and sur- 
 render themselves to him, and thus, for 
 the first time, know him. The gift of 
 this knowledge was the gift of eternal 
 life. 
 
 But men do not all move on such a 
 plane that they long, at first, for the 
 knowledge of God. They know, how- 
 ever, that they commit sins, and they may 
 be led to see this and to amend their 
 lives. Thus they will in fact draw near 
 God, and thus the knowledge of per- 
 sonal communion with him will begin. 
 Jesus, accordingly, sought often to gain 
 men through repentance and the begin- 
 ning of a new life ; and to this effort he 
 brought the most painstaking and un- 
 wearied effort. He preached the evil of 
 sin and the beauty of holiness, and began 
 the actual winning of the world to the 
 new life of the kingdom of God. He 
 saved men by winning them to a holy 
 life. 
 
Summary 1 25 
 
 But there was a further task. All this 
 could be done by living : now he had to 
 do something which demanded dying. 
 God made him the sacrificial Lamb, who 
 was to bear the sins of the world, on whom 
 was to be laid our iniquities, and by whose 
 stripes we were to be healed. Why this 
 was so, the four gospels give no hint. 
 But God gave him the commandment 
 that he should lay down his life ; and he 
 laid it down of himself. He gave his 
 flesh and blood to the world for its food. 
 He thereby made himself the object of 
 faith. Man needed something more 
 than repentance : he needed forgiveness. 
 He could repent himself : he could not 
 "bear his own sins," or provide for his 
 forgiveness. He needed a Saviour to 
 do this for him, as totally beyond his 
 powers. And Jesus made himself this 
 needed Saviour, when he ascended the 
 cross and bore its solitary burden. When 
 he cried, " My God ! My God ! Why 
 hast thou forsaken me?" then he was 
 
126 His Own Mission 
 
 bruised and smitten by Jehovah, and 
 when he cried, "It is finished/ ' then 
 he had made atonement for sins and 
 purchased to himself forever by his 
 blood his church, and thus become 
 the Saviour. 
 
 And he who saves, shall finally judge — 
 a judgment which shall open the king- 
 dom of heaven to believers, and shall 
 remand those who love darkness rather 
 than light to the outer darkness which 
 they love — and inexpressibly hate and 
 fear. 
 
 In a word then Jesus is Saviour, be- 
 cause he is and does everything neces- 
 sary to our salvation, provides it for us, 
 and leads us unto it. 
 
 THE END. 
 
INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 
 
 A 
 Anger, of God against sin, 35. 
 Atonement, 97. 
 
 B 
 Birth, the New, 77. 
 
 Blood, of the Covenant, 90 ; of Christ, 115. 
 Bread of life, discourse on, 113. 
 
 C 
 
 Compassion for the sinner, 34. 
 Covenant, 9 1 . 
 
 D 
 
 Darkness, the correlative of light, 61. 
 
 E 
 
 Environment, of the Gospels, 10 ; of the text, 
 Matt. xxvi. 28, 99. 
 
 G 
 
 Germ of the u Kingdom," the disciples, 44 ; 
 
 Jesus, 46. 
 God, Jesus' doctrine of, 64. 
 Gospels agree in the picture of Jesus, 9. 
 
 127 
 
128 Index of Subjects 
 
 H 
 
 Healing, the salvation of, 48 ; relation to the rest 
 of Jesus' work, 56; permanency, 57. 
 
 I 
 
 Isaiah, fifty-third, quoted in the N. T., 20 ; cited 
 by Jesus of himself, 101. 
 
 j 
 
 Jesus is the Jesus of the gospels, 7 ; as a teacher, 
 27; as Messiah, 28; as a victim, 29; picture 
 of in the gospels, 9. 
 
 John Baptist's view of Christ, 17. 
 
 Judgment of the World, 119. 
 
 K 
 
 Kingdom of Heaven, 40 ; O. T. idea of, 41 ; 
 
 Jesus' teaching as to, 42. 
 Knowledge, the salvation of, 59 ; meaning of, 60 ; 
 
 intellectual aspects of, 64. 
 
 L 
 
 Lamb of God, 19, 116. 
 
 Life, 40 ; defined, 62 ; virtues of, 77. 
 
 Light, meaning of, 61, 63 ; i. q. holiness, 63, 66. 
 
 Lost, meaning of, 33, 38 ; lost World, 32. 
 
 M 
 Messiah, Jews' view of, 16; Jesus as, 28. 
 
Index of Subjects 129 
 
 Method of this study, i. 
 
 Miracles, motive of, 50 ; the natural consequence 
 of what Jesus was, 52 ; signs, 54, 
 
 N 
 New Life, the, 72. 
 
 P 
 Preparation for Christ, 16. 
 Prince of this World, 37. 
 
 Propitiation, in O. T., and in profane Greek, 
 88, 100. 
 
 R 
 
 Ransom, meaning of, 85. 
 
 Repentance, 72 ; John Baptist, 73 ; Jesus, 74 ; 
 contrasted with faith, 75 ; a divinely wrought 
 change, 77 ; produced by preaching the truth, 
 
 79- 
 
 S 
 Salvation, having life, 36 ; the coming of the 
 u Kingdom," 46 ; healing, 48 ; of knowledge, 
 59 ; light, 63 ; by " orthodoxy," 69 ; of repent- 
 ance, 72; fellowship with God, 76 ; redemption 
 and forgiveness, 84; at the Judgment, 118. 
 Saviour from sin, 22, 68, no, 113, 122, 
 Sin calls forth compassion, 34; anger, 35. 
 
 I 
 
130 Index of Subjects 
 
 Sources of our knowledge of Jesus, the apostles, 5. 
 Subject of this work, 3. 
 
 U 
 
 Unity of N. T. in doctrine, 14. 
 
 V 
 
 Virtues of the Christian, 77. 
 
 W 
 
 Words of Jesus, in what sense we have them, 4. 
 World, as lost, 32, 36. 
 
INDEX OF TEXTS. 
 
 Matthew i. 21 
 
 23 
 
 Matthew vii. 1- 
 
 -29 67 
 
 ii. 5 
 
 16 
 
 
 26, 27 
 
 67 
 
 iii. i 
 
 73 
 
 viii. 
 
 2 
 
 51 
 
 2 
 
 !9>73 
 
 
 5 
 
 53 
 
 3 
 
 17 
 
 
 10-12 
 
 70 
 
 ii 
 
 19 
 
 
 12 
 
 39 
 
 12 
 
 19 
 
 
 17 
 
 24,49 
 
 iv. 17 40, 
 
 4i» 74 
 
 
 24 
 
 53 
 
 23 
 
 5i 
 
 
 25 
 
 53 
 
 24 
 
 52 
 
 
 29 
 
 53 
 
 v. 3-12 
 
 43^77 
 
 ix. 
 
 2ff 
 
 80 
 
 17 
 
 68 
 
 
 2 
 
 75 
 
 21-48 
 
 67 
 
 
 6 
 
 68 
 
 22 
 
 77 
 
 
 27 
 
 54 
 
 28 
 
 77 
 
 
 36 ff 
 
 53 
 
 3 2 
 
 67 
 
 
 36 
 
 34 
 
 40 
 
 77 
 
 X. 
 
 6 
 
 33 
 
 44 
 
 77 
 
 
 8 
 
 55 
 
 vi. 1-34 
 
 67 
 
 
 28 
 
 38 
 
 10 
 
 43 
 
 xi. 
 
 4-6 
 131 
 
 52 
 
132 
 
 Index of Texts 
 
 
 Matthew xi. 
 
 14 
 
 21 
 
 Matthew xxvii. 
 
 46 125 
 
 28 
 
 
 68 
 
 xxviii.19 
 
 95 
 
 xii. 46 
 
 
 23 
 
 
 
 xiii. 24 
 
 
 44 
 
 Mark i. 3 
 
 78 
 
 3° 
 
 
 121 
 
 4 
 
 18,75 
 
 xiv. 14 ff 
 
 
 53 
 
 iv. 29 
 
 121 
 
 xv. 6 
 
 
 35 
 
 v. 13 
 
 53 
 
 32 
 
 
 53 
 
 23 
 
 54 
 
 xvi. 18 
 
 
 95 
 
 vii. 21 
 
 35 
 
 27 
 
 
 121 
 
 viii. 38 
 
 121 
 
 xviii. 8 
 
 
 39 
 
 ix. 1 
 
 121 
 
 xx. 28 3 
 
 1,84, 
 
 IOI, 
 
 43 
 
 39 
 
 ] 
 
 [04 
 
 
 48 
 
 39 
 
 31 ff 
 
 
 54 
 
 x. 21 
 
 36 
 
 xxi. 41 
 
 
 80 
 
 45 
 
 90 
 
 xxii. 13 
 
 
 80 
 
 47-9 
 
 54 
 
 37-40 
 
 
 67 
 
 xiii. 26 
 
 121 
 
 42 
 
 
 16 
 
 27 
 
 121 
 
 xxiii. 1—39 
 
 
 35 
 
 
 
 xxv. 14 
 
 
 44 
 
 Luke i. 17 
 
 18 
 
 3 i ff 
 
 44) 
 
 121 
 
 35 
 
 23 
 
 37 
 
 
 121 
 
 ii. 19 
 
 23,27 
 
 37-40 
 
 
 70 
 
 34 
 
 23 
 
 41 
 
 
 39 
 
 38 
 
 23 
 
 xxvi. 28 90, 101, 
 
 103 
 
 49 
 
 26 
 
 xxvii.11 
 
 
 43 
 
 iii. 7 
 
 19) 74 
 
Index of Texts 
 
 133 
 
 Luke iii. 8 
 
 74 
 
 John 
 
 i. ii 
 
 j 
 
 65 
 
 9 
 
 74 
 
 
 29 
 
 
 20, 22 
 
 17 
 
 !9 
 
 
 3 1 
 
 
 18 
 
 iv. 18 
 
 49 
 
 
 33 
 
 
 18 
 
 v. 32 
 
 3 X > 72 
 
 
 35 
 
 
 21 
 
 vii. 21 
 
 76 
 
 
 36 
 
 
 20, 21 
 
 viii. 42 
 
 52 
 
 ii. 
 
 7, 
 
 8 
 
 5i 
 
 xiii. 3, 5 
 
 75 
 
 iii. 
 
 2 
 
 
 77 
 
 xv. 4 
 
 34 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 43> II0 
 
 7, 10 
 
 75 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 62,78 
 
 xvii. 20 
 
 43 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 79 
 
 xviii. 17 
 
 43 
 
 
 11- 
 
 !3 
 
 no 
 
 xix. 10 
 
 3°>32 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 22 
 
 xxi. 27 
 
 121 
 
 
 14, 
 
 15 
 
 no 
 
 36 
 
 121 
 
 
 14- 
 
 16 
 
 85 
 
 xxii. 20 
 
 90 
 
 
 14- 
 
 •17 
 
 68 
 
 37 
 
 101 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 78 
 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 36, 
 
 110,112, 
 
 John i. 4 
 
 60 
 
 
 
 116 
 
 5 
 
 62 
 
 
 J 7 
 
 40 
 
 »43> II8 
 
 6 
 
 5° 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 37, 120 
 
 7 
 
 18 
 
 
 19 
 
 
 37>8o 
 
 11 
 
 38 
 
 
 20 
 
 
 70 
 
 12 
 
 62 
 
 
 36 
 
 
 37, 120 
 
 !3 
 
 78 
 
 iv. 
 
 24 
 
 
 64 
 
 H 
 
 66 
 
 
 46- 
 
 9 
 
 54 
 
134 
 
 Index of Texts 
 
 John v. 5 
 
 ,6 
 
 
 54 
 
 John x. 18 85, 
 
 no, 112 
 
 l 7 
 
 
 
 47 
 
 30 
 
 47 
 
 22 
 
 
 
 118, 119 
 
 38 
 
 55 
 
 22 
 
 ff 
 
 
 120 
 
 xi- 33, 35 
 
 54 
 
 24 
 
 
 39 
 
 , 78, 120 
 
 xii. 19 
 
 81 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 118 
 
 3 1 
 
 37 
 
 36 
 
 
 3« 
 
 3, 48, 55 
 
 32 
 
 no, in 
 
 vi. 1- 
 
 7 1 
 
 
 79, "3 
 
 33 
 
 no 
 
 
 
 
 114 
 
 34 
 
 17, in 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 54 
 
 45 
 
 64 
 
 20 
 
 
 
 54 
 
 46 
 
 30 
 
 66 
 
 
 
 117 
 
 xiv, 9 
 
 65 
 
 vii. 17 
 
 
 
 7i 
 
 3° 
 
 37 
 
 viii. 15 
 
 
 
 118 
 
 xv. 13 
 
 81, 112 
 
 21 
 
 
 
 in 
 
 14 
 
 81 
 
 28 
 
 
 
 in 
 
 xvi. 8, 9 
 
 79 
 
 3 1 , 
 
 32 
 
 
 7 1 
 
 xvii. 3 
 
 39, 6o 
 
 4i 
 
 
 
 38 
 
 xviii. 36, 37 
 
 43 
 
 42 
 
 
 
 26 
 
 xix. 30 
 
 126 
 
 44 
 
 
 
 38 
 
 34 
 
 "5 
 
 ix. 5 
 
 
 
 119 
 
 xx. 31 
 
 55 
 
 39 
 
 
 
 31, 118 
 
 
 
 x. 10 
 
 
 3 1 , 
 
 72, 112 
 
 Acts i. 6 
 
 17,42 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 33, II2 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 81 
 
 Romans ii. 14 
 
 70 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 112 
 
 iii. 25 
 
 100 
 
Index of Texts 
 
 135 
 
 Romans viii. 
 
 3 
 
 100 
 
 1 Peter i. 20 
 
 
 117 
 
 11 
 
 
 55 
 
 ii. 24 
 
 
 101 
 
 ix. 4, 5 
 
 
 80 
 
 2 Peter iii. 15, 
 
 16 
 
 n 
 
 1 Cor. xi. 24 
 
 1 25 
 
 90 
 
 1 Jn. i. 5 
 
 
 63 
 
 2 Cor. iv. 4 
 
 
 4i 
 
 7 
 
 63, 
 
 115 
 
 6 
 V, 21 
 
 
 65 
 
 100 
 
 ii. 2 
 iii. 3 
 
 14 
 
 
 "5 
 
 67 
 
 39 
 
 Galatians ii. ] 
 
 [-21 
 
 x 3 
 
 iv. 10 
 
 
 116 
 
 11 
 
 
 14 
 
 v. 6 
 
 
 "5 
 
 iii. 13 
 
 
 100 
 
 19 
 
 
 38 
 
 Ephesians ii. 2 
 
 4 1 
 
 Exodus xxi. 30 
 xxiv. 4-8 
 
 
 87 
 96 
 
 Philippians ii. 
 
 8 
 
 no 
 
 Leviticus i. 4 
 
 
 96 
 
 Colossians iv. 
 
 16 
 
 !3 
 
 iii. 2, 7, 13 
 vii. 15 
 
 
 97 
 114 
 
 Hebrews ix. 11-14 
 
 92 
 
 xvi. 6, 10, 1 1 
 
 16, 
 
 17. 
 
 18-22 
 
 
 92 
 
 
 
 87 
 
 26 
 
 92, 
 
 "5 
 
 xix. 20 
 
 
 86 
 
 10 
 
 
 "5 
 
 xxv. 51, 53 
 
 
 87 
 
 x. 19 
 
 
 92 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Numbers xviii. 
 
 !5 
 
 87 
 
 I Peter i. 19 
 
 
 117 
 
 xi. 9 
 
 
 III 
 
136 
 
 Index of Texts 
 
 Deuteronomy 
 
 1 Samuel i. 4 
 viii. 7 
 
 xxi. 
 
 8 
 
 88 
 
 114 
 4 1 
 
 Isaiah xlv. 13 
 liii. 5, 6 
 
 7 
 
 87 
 21 
 
 20 
 
 Psalms ii. 6 
 
 
 
 41 
 
 Ezekiel xxxiv. 4 
 
 80 
 
 xxiii. 1 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 5 
 
 34 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 General Works on the Biblical Theology of the New Tes- 
 tament : — 
 
 Weiss, Prof. Bernhard, Lehrbuch d. biblischen Theologie d. 
 JV. T, §§ 20, 21, 22, 23, 146, 147, 148. — The same, translated 
 from the third German edition, Clark's " Library," Bib. Tkeol. 
 of the N. T, same sections. [Conservative.] 
 
 Holtzmann, Prof. Heinrich Julius, Lehrbuch der neuiest. 
 Theologie, 1897, Vol. I, pp. 234-304, Vol. II, pp. 473-483. 
 [Standpoint, the critical.] 
 
 Beyschlag, Prof. Willibald, Neutestamentliche Theologie, 
 1 89 1, Vol. I, pp. 126-155, 261-277. — The same, translated, 
 Clark's "Library," Vol. I, pp. 130-159, 266-281. [Radical.] 
 
 Bo von, Prof. Jules, Theologie du Nouveau Testament, 1893, 
 Vol. I, pp. 4o8ff, 5oiff. [Radical.] 
 
 Stevens, Prof. George B., The Theology of the New Testa- 
 ment, 1899, pp. 1 19ft, 224ff. [Conservative.] — Also the mono- 
 graph by the same author, on The Teachings of fesus. 
 
 The following special treatises have suggestive chapters : — 
 
 Wendt, Prof. H. H., Die Lehre Jesu, 1890, Vol. II, pp. 477- 
 541. The same, translated (Scribners), Vol. II, pp. 184-264. 
 [Radical.] 
 
 Grau, Prof. Rudolph F., Das Selbstbewusstsein Jesu, pp. 219ft. 
 
 Seeberg, Prof. Alfred, Der Tod Chrisii in seiner Bedeulung 
 fur die Erldsung, 1895. [This book is unique in basing the 
 interpretation of the Synoptics on a foregoing discussion of 
 the remaining New Testament, beginning with the Epistle to 
 the Hebrews.] 
 
 Stalker, Rev. James, The Christology of Jesus, 1899, pp. 17 iff. 
 [Conservative.] 
 
 Denney, Prof. James, The Death of Christ, 1902, pp. 11-60. 
 [Conservative.] 
 
 Lidgett, John S., The Spiritual Principle of the Atonement, 
 1898, pp. 77-88. [Conservative.] 
 
 Walker, W. L., The Crdss and the Kingdom, pp. 85, 196. 
 
 Briggs, Prof. C. A., The Messiah of the Gospels, 1894. 
 
 From recent Reviews the following may be consulted : 
 
 Fairbairn, Principal, A. M., Chrisfs Attitude as to his own 
 Death, Expositor, Jan., Feb., 1897. The Cross and Passion, 
 Quiver, July, Aug., 1901. 
 
 Pfleiderer, Prof. Otto, Jesus* Foreknowledge of hts Sufferings 
 and Death, New World, Sept., 1899. 
 
 Pope, R. M., Recent Studies in the Life and Teachings of 
 Jesus, London Quarterly Rev., July, 1900. 
 
 Samtleben, G., Hat Christus schon vo?i seiner Erl'osungsthat 
 geredel? Kirchliche Monatsschrift,i896, pp. 712-17. 
 
' 
 
 - ■■ 
 
»°^ 
 
 
 •*-0" 
 
 </k 
 
 
 
 «5°^ 
 
 "life • ^ ^ * 
 
 
 <* 
 
 
 
 "^tf 
 
 «4°* 
 
 *bV 
 
 
 
 
 Deacidified using the Bookkeeper pro 
 Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
 Treatment Date: June 2005 
 
 t< PreservatioiiTechnologi 
 
 A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVA1 
 
 111 Thomson Park Drive 
 Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
 (724)779-2111 
 
v v » •; 'JL'+ 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 *^ 
 
 ^0* 
 
 L r 
 
 i0v. 
 
 >* 
 
 * 
 
 5° A 
 
 
 V ' / 
 
 *°o 
 
 'o. * - A 
 
 
 FEB 82^ /7JS§Nf. ^ 
 
 ST. AUGUSTINE ^<-^ V vP V 
 
 _j^% FLA. ^^ *W^W* A V "^ 
 
 ^§^32084 <K ',f^.* » * 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 397 008 5 m I