Crucifixion and Resurrection

The counterpart to this kingdom in which God was to rule un challenged was the kingdom in which evil forces held sway, those spirit-forces of evil which found their summation and impersona tion in Satan or Beelzebub. Some measure of control over human affairs and destiny was understood to have passed, temporarily at least, to these evil forces. "God," as Stephen put it, "handed them over to serve the host of heaven," "spirit-forces in the unseen," "the prince of this world." And Jesus claimed that the first stage in His redeeming function was already achieved. His power over the demons, the rank and file of Satan's forces, was proof that He had already engaged the "strong man" in a deter mined struggle, and had worsted him ; a proof of the fall of this kingdom of evil was found by Him in the success of the disciples whom He sent forth to preach and heal, and was expressed in similar terms. But Jesus also connected Himself with other as pects of redemption. "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for the sake of many." The language belongs to the same field of thought as the prophecies about the Sufferiag Servant, whose soul was made "a sin-offering," "by whose stripes we are healed." The picture is that of an ideal Israel suffering for the sins of actual Israel and by that suffering redeeming their fellow-men. In that picture Jesus saw a foreshadowing of Himself, and in the results of the Servant's suffering a promise of the results of His own.

Yet another field of thought in the Old Testament provided another formulation for this factor in His self-consciousness. When on the occasion of the Last Supper He took the cup and said "This cup is my blood of the new covenant," He brought Himself significantly into connection with the "new covenant" which according to Jeremiah God would one day establish between Himself and His people (the Zadokite Document of Schechter shows that this expectation was still cherished in some quarters). His words suggested that the new covenant was about to be sealed with His blood as with the blood of sacrifice.

The Impression Jesus Made.

Jesus' words and deeds (and it must be remembered that only a fraction of them have been handed down in the Gospels), together with all the subtle play of His personality upon those whom He had chosen to be "with Him," produced a profound impression on His followers. It was indeed an impression of such a kind that even in His life time they entered upon a personal relation to Jesus which may be rightly described as "believing on Him" (Joh. Weiss). In analyzing this impression probably the first thing to recognize, as it was first and most widely felt, was His "grace." Luke, describ ing the natural growth of the boy, records that "he increased in wisdom and stature, and in grace before God and man." And the Synoptic Gospels provide many illustrations of that attractive ness which is the by-product of "grace." Negatively, there was nothing about Him of superiority, of aloofness, of self-conscious ness or of indifference to the common life of common men. Posi tively, there was a ready sympathy, an understanding tenderness, a way of meeting men, as if each one, even the degraded and the outcast, had already a place in His interest. We see the effect 01 this in the way in which men and women "sway to His orbit as He moves." It bespeaks a deep-seated characteristic, a radiant adequacy which is not for itself alone, but continuously bestows itself in unconscious enriching and enheartening of others. Grace

is in fact the atmosphere which love creates around itself. And the fourth Gospel, which so often concentrates to the glittering pin-point of a star what we have seen shimmering like a nebula in the Synoptic Gospels, sums up the impression produced by a thou sand contacts, "We beheld his glory . . . full of grace and real ity"; John thus witnessing to the discovery that the Divine glory was no longer to be sought in material splendour but in qualities of character.

His Authority and Power.—A second factor in the impres sion made by Jesus which was felt from the beginning and in creasingly to the end was power, power greater in intensity and wider in scope than had been felt before, and yet wholly inde pendent of force, prestige, social or ecclesiastical position or any of the ordinary sanctions of authority. This power was felt in Him—witness the testimony that "He spake with authority and not as the scribes." The scribes claimed and exercised authority of a certain kind, coercive authority, to an unusual degree. What men recognized in Jesus was authority of a different kind, per suasive authority, the authority of truth pressed home by a unique personality. Further, men observed Him exercising power over the unseen world, over demons and so over disease, and by an extension of the scope of such power easier for them to accept than for us, power over forces of nature, regarded as not wholly impersonal. They saw in Him many different forms "the suprem acy of the spiritual forces of the world to an extraordinarily marked degree over the material." They felt His power, they observed it, and they also heard Him claim it, authority to inter pret (and to interpret so as to transcend) the sacred Law of Moses, authority to forgive sins, authority to fix the destiny of men in accordance with the attitude which they took up towards Himself. Men must have seen in him such spiritual power and such consciousness of authority•that they could without amaze ment hear him say, "All things have been delivered unto me of my Father." His Moral Supremacy.--A factor in the impression which would he at first only surmised as moral superiority but afterwards realized with startling clearness was the moral supremacy of Jesus. If in all else men who knew Him felt Him to be one with themselves, they early began to feel the difference between them selves and Him in the sphere of character, and must have been led to reflect on the reason for it in His relation to God. We see its effects in the reluctance of John to baptise Jesus; "I have need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me?" Himself a stern ascetic he recognized in Jesus one before whose moral character he himself must bow. The like conviction due to the same cause finds expression in the words of Peter : "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord." What was the measure of the difference? Can it be fully described as moral superiority? Or did it amount to moral perfection, without stain of sin? If we accept the witness of the New Testament as a whole, we shall have no hesitation in saying that it was the latter. That alone accounts wholly for the impression which Jesus made, and that alone is consistent with what we can discover of His own consciousness.