232 The universality of the Gospel These words then cannot be justly regarded as ambiguous, and St Paul distinctly appeals to the same prophecy in order to shew that there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him (Rom. x. 12, 13). Thus the oldest prophecy and the earliest preaching of the Gospel meet together and coincide in offering a universal promise of a spiritual kingdom as the final message of GOD. The ideal stands out in its full glory from the first. In later times men must go back that they may realise it little by little. For we must go from St Peter to St Paul, from Jerusalem, the centre of the divine election, to Athens, the centre of human exclusiveness, to hear the statement of the universality of the Gospel made together with its essential justification. St Paul says, standing on the Areopagus, God that made the world and all things therein,...made of one (è§ évós not è§ évòs aíμatos) every nation of men...that they should seek the Lord...for in Him we live and move and have our being...The times of ignorance then GOD winked at, but now commandeth men that all everywhere should repent (xvii. 24 ff.). In other words the Apostle declares the universality of the Gospel as corresponding with the original constitution and as taught by St Paul. 233 the actual condition of man. He was made by GOD, and for GOD; and he has missed the true end of his being as man, which is at last plainly set before him. Elsewhere St Paul regards this universality from the opposite point of sight. The faith is universal not only in its destiny but also in its combining power: Ye are all sons of GOD through the faith (or your faith), [sons] in Christ Jesus... There is no place [in Him] for Jew or Greek, there is no place for slave or free, there is no place for male and (kai) female. For ye all are one manone person—in Christ Jesus (Gal. iii. 26 ff.). Historical differences of race and class, and even the natural, fundamental (Gen. i. 27), difference of sex, are lost in a supreme unity and a perfect life. And this unity, as St Paul teaches in a parallel passage (Col. iii. 10 f.), is the realisation of the type of creation. The new life, the new personality, with which men are invested in Christ, is renewed (comp. 2 Cor. iv. 16)—shaped little by little and day by day-unto knowledge according to the image of Him that created him, where there is no place for Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all things and in all things. These three passages studied together present 234 The novelty of the in a few traits a complete vision of Christ's universal work for men as fulfilling the end of Creation. First there is the statement of GOD'S purpose of love, of man's need, of the pledge of the possibility of redemption in man's true nature. Then follows the declaration of the union of believers in one Person (els éoré), by which our thoughts are raised to the contemplation of a vaster life than that which is realised individually, a life in which humanity becomes one, a life which is not an abstraction nor simply a participation in a common nature (ev éστe. Comp. St John x. 30), but (as we apprehend it) personal (comp. Eph. iv. 15 f.). And in the third place the life which has been regarded in its supreme unity in Christ is regarded, so far as this is possible, in its separate parts, 'ye are one man in Christ'; and conversely 'Christ is all things and in all.' The differences between man and man are in the faithful, partial manifestations of Christ. Whatever is, He is. There is but one life. And thus in the personal lives of Christians His image, the archetype of man as originally created, is more and more completely attained. We are perhaps inclined to underrate the importance of this announcement in Christianity of the universal spiritual brotherhood of men. The Christian doctrine of human brotherhood. 235 truth had indeed been set forth in the far East in Buddhism, and it was (and is) the strength of Buddhism. But in the West it was unknown as a doctrine of religion. In Buddhism too the truth was based upon a view of the world diametrically opposed to the Christian view of the world. And the philosophic universalism of the Stoics is pathetic in its hopelessness as compared with the teaching of these systems. The brotherhood of men which the Gospel proclaimed was not deduced from a view of the evils and vanities of existence, or from the recognition of an inevitable necessity. It was combined with the offer of the eternal inheritance of sons. It was set forth as revealing the glory of GOD. interpretation of the divine idea in creation shaped before sin had entered into the world and (as things are) established by the conquest of sin. It was given as an The novelty of the Christian doctrine is seen in this view which the Apostle gives of the correspondence of creation and redemption. The Gospel was addressed to all men, and potentially it availed for all men: as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor. xv. 22). The new creation is, in one sense, presented as coextensive with the old creation. The victory 236 Christianity points to a unity of men of Christ is declared by St Paul to compensate for and to outweigh the fall of Adam; and this truth is affirmed in various ways in each group of the apostolic writings. It must be enough to indicate some representative passages: (1) Synoptic Group. 1 Pet. ii. 9 f. The mixed body a spiritual Israel. The condition of fellowship, faith (v. 6). (2) The Epistles of St Paul. 1 Cor. xv. 22. 1 Cor. xv. 45. Rom. v. 12 ff. ep' for that (2 Cor. v. 4): TáνTAS comp. xi. 32. 14. ὅς ἐστι τύπος τοῦ μέλλοντος. ὁ εἷς οἱ πολλοί. ἐπερίσσευσεν. 15. |