1

27 690

THE MEANING OF
PAUL FOR TO-DAY

THE
PAUL FOR

BY

C.

HAROLD DODD,
NEW TESTAMENT GREEK AND
AT MANSFIELD COLLEGE. OXFORD

YATJCS PROFESSOR OF

NEW
GEORGE

H.

DH

M.A.
EXXGXSXC

YORK
DORAN COMPANY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

PARENTIBUS
PRIMITIAS

PREFACE
**

THESE

that have turned the world upside

hither also."

down

are

come

So the people of ancient Saionica judged

two men who came proclaiming the Christian

Way

to a

of the two revoand we are in a

Paul of Tarsus, artisan,

society.
By happy fortune, one
lutionaries has survived in his writings,

pagan

position to learn at first-hand

scholar, traveller, leader of

how

men, carried out into that

world
die
that
had transformed his own
imperial
gospel
it
in
and
vivid terms to the mind
life, interpreting
daring
of his time.
so
gospel
deeply personal and so widely

human can
and bear

survive the intellectual vicissitudes of centuries,

re-interpretation for a

new

age without losing

its

vital force.

In this little book I have made some attempt to suggest

the place of Paul in the history of religion ; but I have
been more particularly concerned to bring out what I
conceive to be the permanent significance of the apostle's

thought, in modern terms, and in relation to the general

and problems which occupy the mind of our

interests

I find in Paul a religious philosophy of life

generation.
orientated throughout to the idea of a society or commonSuch a philosophy finds ready contact
wealth of God.

with the dominant concerns of our

The

basis

of

this

study

is

own

the Pauline

day,
epistles.

There

now

a very general agreement among students that in

the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, in both epistles to
is

the Corinthians, and in those to the Galatians,

Romans,

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

we possess
Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Philippians,
the
of
hand
the
authentic letters from
great missionary
himself.

The

they are here named

order in which

probably the order of their composition.

five
**

epistles

Hebrews

(for

") are

no one
still

the dispute here, I

now

may

is

remaining

supposes that Paul wrote

Without entering

in dispute.
state

The

my

into

belief that the balance

of probability is on the side of the genuineness of II ThesThe latter, however, was

salonians and of Ephesians.
least not exclusively
probably not written to Ephesus, or at
It may have been some kind of circular
to Ephesus.
letter, written, as

we must

with Colossians.

Even

suppose, almost simultaneously

could be shown not to be

if it

remain an important
statement of the Pauline philosophy of life in its most
Upon these ten letters I have based my
developed form.
On the other hand, I cannot persuade myself
exposition.

from the hand of Paul,

that the Epistles to

it

would

still

Timothy and Titus

are, at

any

rate

in their present form, authentic letters of Paul, though

I have not used
they no foubt contain Pauline material

them

as sources

for Paul's thought.

The Acts

of the

Apostles., which contain a valuable outline of the Apostle's

missionary journeys from the pen of one of his companions,

nave treated as only a secondary authority where his

life and
thought are concerned.

'nner
I

have given quotations from the

form which

epistles in

an English

my own

attempt to reproduce,
sometimes by way of paraphrase rather than literal translation, the precise meaning of the original.
They may be
represents

compared with any other version that may be accessible.

those who do not read Greek a comparison of a number
of different versions is perhaps the next best

For

thing.

perhaps be permitted a word upon one aspect

of the subject which is at the moment a matter of conI

may

troversy.

The

view here taken of the

religion

from which

PREFACE

is
very different from the picture of firstPharisaism
which has recently been set befox'e
century
us by Dr. Abrahams and Dr. C. G. Montefiore.
I would

Paul reacted

observe that Paul himself leaves us in no doubt as to the

general effect of the type of Judaism he once professed j
and whether or not this type of Judaism was the orthodox

Pharisaism of the time, matters little for our present purIt is a phase of religion which recurs in
many periods,

pose.

and not only within Judaism.

But Paul unequivocally

describes himself in his pre-Christian days as a Pharisee.

Moreover, we have in the gospels an independent descrip-

tion of Pharisaic religion from a different point of view ;

and it appears to me that on this matter the gospels and

Pauline epistles explain and corroborate one another.

The Jewish scholars I have mentioned have selected from

the

the corpus of Rabbinic writings a set of sayings which give

a very attractive picture of Judaism under the Law, and
their method of selection seems more critical and dis-

criminating than

by scholars of a former
Edersheim who out of the

that pursued

Weber, Schiirer,
same corpus produced a far
generation

less

attractive

picture.

In

any case, however, the evidence for the first century seems
to be extracted with difficulty and some uncertainty from
a mass of material committed to writing not earlier than
The gospels and the
the close of the second century.

Pauline

epistles,

on the other hand, are contemporary

first
century a very strict and exclusive
kind of legal puritanism did overshadow the religious life
of a group of pious Jews ; that this group was for the time

evidence that in the

being dominant ; and that this group, if not identical with

the Pharisees, was at least included in that sect, and largely

determined

its

main

religious tendency.

Both the gospels

of a more humane
epistles give us hints
and spiritual tendency within Judaism and even within
Pharisaism ; and this tendency may be represented by

and the Pauline

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

io

the Rabbinic teaching to

Montefiore have introduced

him

correctly, belonged to

which Dr. Abrahams and

Paul, if

us.

"the

Luke

strictest

Dr

has reported

sect"

To

acknowledge my indebtedness to all books and

teachers without whose help this little book could never
have come into existence would be an endless task

nor

But I
part of my purpose to give a bibliography.
cannot refrain from commending to others two books
is

it

from which

learnt

very

much

& Norgate

a Study in Social

&

Heinrich

Man
his Work (E.T. pub.
1906), and Adolf Deissmann's S. Paul:

Weinel's S. Paul: the

Williams

about Paul

and

and

Religious History (E.T. pub.

Hodder

1912).
any whom
book may lead to further study of the apostle would
read those two books.
But above all, let them read the
I

Stoughton

could

wish

that

this

letters

themselves

letter as

a unit in

am

grateful

not lections from the

letters,

but each

the original or in a good

modern translation such as that of Professor Moffatt.
itself -either in

my colleague Dr. Buchanan Gray,

Rev. John R. Coates, and to the Editor of this series
for suggestions and advice while the book was in
proof.
I

to

to the

C.H.D.
MANSFIELD COLLEGE, OXFORD,
July 17, 1920.

CONTENTS
PAGE

PREFACE

J3

CHAPTER
I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.
VI.

VII.

VIII.

FROM

JESUS

TO PAUL

A CITIZEN OF NO MEAN CITY

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

-3

THE QUEST OF THE DIVINE COMMONWEALTH

THE ANCIENT WRONG.'

THE TYRANNY OF AN IDEA

THE SON OF GOD

THE

DECISIVE. BATTLE

IX.

EMANCIPATION

X.

THE LORD THE

SPIRIT

l<)

42

54

.66

.84

94
106

123

XI.

THE DIVINE COMMONWEALTH DISCOVERED^

138

XII.

THE LIFE OF THE DIVINE COMMONWEALTH

146

APPENDIX

A LETTER FROM PAUL THE MISSIONARY TO

THE

SOCIETY OF CHRISTIANS IN

INDEX OF REFERENCES
EPISTLES

ROME

TO THE
.

l6o

PAULINE
.

.169

44

... But the big courage is the cold-blooded kind, the kind
that never lets go even when you're feeling empty inside, and
your blood's thin, and there's no kind of fun or profit to be had,
and the trouble's not over in an hour or two but lasts for months
and years. One of the men here was speaking about that kind,
'
I reckon fortitude's the biggest
and he called it Fortitude.'
a
have
man
can
thing
just to go on enduring when there's no
guts or heart left in you.
Billy had it when he trekked solitary
from Garungoze to the Limpopo with fever and a broken arm
just to show the Portu gooses that he wouldn't be downed by
them. But the head man at the job was the Apostle Paul ..."
"
**
Peter Pienaar
in John Buckayfs MR. STANDFAST.

The Meaning of

Paul for

To-day
CHAPTER

FROM
THE

TO PAUL

JESUS

story of the Gospels

an unfinished drama.

is

Its

pivoted upon the conflict between the new

liberating message of the Kingdom and the religious system
In the narrative of Mark
represented by the Pharisees.
historic interest

we watch

is

Chal-

the forces gather for the inevitable clash.

lenged on one issue after another with a challenge not

forced upon a reluctant situation but growing out of the
the supporters of the old

nature of irreconcilable ideals

order gradually rally for a battle royal on the whole front

of man's religious destiny.

More and more

it

becomes

no accommodation is possible. There is a clear

issue : on the one hand the Way of the Nazarene, with His
on the other hand all that
startling assertions and denials
the piety of the time prized as the essentials of a revealed
The plot thickens, until in the dim morning light
religion.
clear that

a
fatal Passover the antagonists stand face to face
nation on one side, the rejected Prophet on the other. The
clash comes, and when the earthquake and the eclipse are

of the

past, the Established

Order remains supreme.

13

The

gospel

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

of emancipation has been added to the limbo of shattered

illusions, and Pharisaism is triumphant.

That

the crisis of the

is

movement.

The

situation

the elements of real tragedy : a conflict of passionate

human interests in which ancient good, become uncouth,
overcomes the better that might be, and the stirrings of the

holds

all

human
But

freedom are baffled by historic necessity.

The whole
evident that the plot is not finished.

spirit after

it is

development has pointed forward, to this situation cerAnd indeed the gospels
this as conclusion.
tainly, but not to
themselves obscure the tragedy in a sudden blaze of superIn the intoxicating joy of Easter morning
natural light.

the defeat
stage.

is

forgotten,

But the

faith

and the divine Victor holds the

of the Resurrection
it is

is

so far a matter

not, as yet, history.

of

As

personal religious experience

a denouement of the tangled plot it is scarcely even relevant.
It is the supreme appearance of the Deus ex machina.
The
:

risen Christ

is

Victor indeed over Death

Victor over the Pharisees.

For

but

He

is

not

the raptures of the

disciples, the great system of Pharisaic Judaism stands, as
all

imposing, as self-sufficient, as ever.

is not yet resolved.

The

tragic conflict

Various hands have essayed the construction of a con"

"
realist
school the illusion
vincing Last Act. For the

of the Resurrection is but the deepest note in a final and

irredeemable catastrophe. The President of the Immortals
has finished His sport with the Nazarene. This is, however, to abandon the data of the plot
cast not for disaster but for j oy

for the drama is

;
For the school of romantic

melodrama there must be a vindication of poetic justice ;

and the Risen Christ takes His sword of vengeance and sees
His desire upon His enemies. It matters here little whether
the

mse

en scene

is

Michelangelesque

Last Day, or

whether^ the venue being removed to solid earth, Christ is

shown triumphing over die ruins of Jerusalem in the fatal

FROM

JESUS

TO PAUL

15

Such a denouement is a denial of

year of Titus's victory.*
the central motive of the drama.
The character of the

Hero must be

consistent with itself

and the triumph of

a vengeful Messiah is not the triumph of the Victim of

It is therefore no resolution of the tragic
Calvary.
knot.

For a convincing denouement the Hero of the drama

the Speaker of the Sermon on the Mount, the Prisoner of
the Sanhedrin, the Bearer of the curse of the Law on

Golgotha, must emerge, He and no other, as the conqueror, the conqueror by His own weapons and by no other,
of that unchanged Pharisaism, so noble in its stuff, so
pernicious in the final issue of

its

spirit,

which had by an

inner necessity of its being destroyed Him.

the Cross must have its indispensable

In His victory
part, and the

Resurrection must be shown to be not only an imaginative

truth of the supernal world, where the baffled spirit takes
refuge from intractable facts, but an active force in real

Then, and not

life.

till

then, shall

we

rest satisfied that

the whole dramatic situation has been adequately dealt with

and the tragic conflict reconciled.

This

is

the denouement

which

The

History has written.

beginning of it can be told in a few words

Hebrew of Hebrews, in regard to the Law a Pharisee

"

hold of by Christ Jesus ... I am crucified with

not I, but Christ is alive in
and
Christ,
yet I am alive
3
ever
more
Was
me."
complete ? Imagine this
revenge
I

was

man

laid

(as

at least)

we may well
among

imagine him, for he was there in

those fanatical

spirit

Jews who would not enter

stood without
they should be defiled," yet
clamouring for the death of the Carpenter- Prophet who had
And then
dared affront the majesty of their hoary Law.
"
*
Did Christ not
:
Forsyth, Christian Ethic of War, p. 87
Pilate's hall "lest

summon then, the legions it did not suit Him to ask for to avert
"
a Phil. Hi.
the Cross ?
5-H, Gal; ii. 19-20.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

him

see

is

real

utterly to the spell

yielding

which he or

of the Cross upon

had fastened the Rejected. That

It is the method of the Christian

like

his

conquest.

Revolution.

New

Here we

The

Testament.
the unity of the
get the clue to
the
to
often
are
Gospels as though
opposed
Epistles
"

If in the story of the

of
Christ's
the
heart
message, where,
Prodigal Son we have
it is asked, is this message to be found amid the maze of

they contained

rival philosophies."

the
speculation about Law, Sin, and Sacrifice which fills
who
Those
ask that question have
?
the
of
Epistles
pages
failed to notice that the real
is

the churlish elder brother.

not go in

he

is left

"

and

when

in spite

problem of that immortal tale

"
He was angry and would

of the father's pleadings, there

the tale ends.

Good

Jesus told the tale the elder brothers

reason for this

were

when

fiercely refusing

His invitations to renew fellowship with those despised

**
came to seek and to save." The
prodigals whom Jesus
epistles

of Paul show us the elder brother broken down by

the Father's love and leaving home and its secure delights
to go into far countries and seek out those brothers who still
If the language
lingered among the swine and the husks.
in which he tells us how it came about is tortuous and difficult,

we may
had

find in

it

a sign of the contortions of the spirit

which

to be straightened out before the elder brother could

put away
mind.
In

his pride

all this

we

and prejudice and learn

his Father's

are thinking of Paul not as an individual

merely, but as the one mind through which we can read

from the inside what Christ's victorious assault on Phari-

saism meant.

Paul's letters reflect his experience ; and

was an epitome of the revolution which Christ
There was in Jewish religion a rich
religion.

his experience

wrought

in

through centuries of a history

world can show. But the treasure

spiritual treasure, gathered

as ?tiange as

any

this

FROM
was not
denied

"

it

available

17

mankind, and the process which

for

to the world

TO PAUL

JESUS

made it useless or worse to its possessors.

"

You

have taken away the key of

Pharisees," said Jesus,
knowledge ; you have not entered in yourselves, and you hin-

who were trying to enter in." The task which

Himself was not simply to teach new truth and leave

dered those

He

set

at that.
He embraced the destiny of Messiahship. That
meant a harder task. It meant gathering up the threads
of the past and weaving them into the new design. He
In particular
came, "not to destroy, but to fulfil"
it meant that He undertook the task of
liberating the
it

spiritual treasure

of

Israel's faith for

humanity.

Because

He was
In

faithful to that destiny He died on a Roman Across. 3

Paul and in the work of his mission we see the task

In Paul the devout passion for conbeing accomplished.

duct which distinguished the Jewish religion is seen liberated,
enlightened, made spiritual and personal, by what Paul
found in Christ; and then impressed upon the life and
thought of the wide world in terms which belong to that

mind where the mystical East

met tne Roman West through the humanizing medium of

strangely composite state of

the great Hellenic tradition.

Because of this Paul is a great figure in the history of
Yet his thought has more than a merely historic
religion.
interest.
Religion is one of the determining factors in

Too

all

history.
become in the

gress of

man.

often

organization becomes, as

its

it

had

rime of Christ, an obstacle to the free proFor this reason the reformer and the revolu-

and set
tionary are very ready to lose patience with religion
Yet the dynamic of religion remains, for good or
it aside.
of all human motives. Part of the
ill, the strongest

work of

Christ was that

the saving; of men.

3

On

this

matter see

It
J.

He
is

redeemed religion

this

side of His

itself

for

work which

R. Coates, The Christ of Revolution,

in this series.

i8

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

so powerfully affected Paul that he remains the classic

exponent of the idea of freedom and universality in religion.

While

religion remains the problem, the peril, but also the

one hope of human progress,

porary

interest.

his

work

has a contem-

CHAPTER

II

A CITIZEN OF NO MEAN CITY

IN the first century of our era Western civilization was
coterminous with the Roman Empire. Augustus had set
forward with some differences and with greater success the
He put an end
far-reaching policy of his brilliant uncle.
to the evil political system, or want of system, which had

made the Roman Republic

civilization.

The

in

constitution

its

later phases

which he

a menace to

established

worked

in the direction of public order and peace.

tendency set in to make the provinces co-operative parts of a
great commonwealth instead of the plunder of a narrow
at

least

circle

of aristocratic families.

Throughout the eastern provinces of the Empire Rome

was the inheritor, and in a great measure the upholder, of
an earlier system. From the time of Alexander the Great
the countries bordering the Levant had come strongly
within the circle of Greek civilization. The Greek language was current in most of the towns, even if native
languages subsisted alongside them, as they did more
The towns which
especially in the country districts.
had been founded, or transformed, by Greek monarchsin the period after Alexander possessed, and retained
under Roman rule, a limited local autonomy which was
the shadow of the proud independence of the old Greek
city-state,

though

the

encroachments

authority slowly sapped their

vitality.

of the central

In our period^

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

20

however,

and on

this disintegrating process was not far advanced ;

the other hand the frequent elevation of these

municipal rank, carrying with it the

a
citizenship for the municipal aristocracy, gave
within
the
the
to
secure
En-pire.
position
city-state
very
In these municipal communities the old keen intellectual life

towns

to

full

Roman

of Greece,

fertilized

by

its

thought,

flourished

Antioch,

and many other

new

association with Oriental

Alexandria,

exceedingly.

had

cities,

their

Ephesus,
of

schools

philosophy ; but not only so : philosophy had come out of

the schools, and was rapidly becoming a concern of the man
an the street,

who

listened with at least that

measure of

"

preaching friars" of
His understanding of them
the Cynic or Stoic doctrines.
might be exceedingly superficial, and he might listen only to

interest

which fashion decreed to the

find subjects for after-dinner talk

but at

least

he was not

when he heard a

philosophic term used in

a
conversation. There was
large reading public, and books
of a sort were plentiful and fairly cheap. Not philosophy
hopelessly at sea

was becoming a popular

the
rituals of the various
public
Alongside
stately
were the more or less private and independent religious

alone, however, but religion too?

concern.
cities

brotherhoods which tried to provide a religious atmosphere

more fervent and moresatisfying to the feelings of the ordinary

man

than those antiquated and formal

rites

could supply.

There was one very widelyspread religion which combined

the splendour of antiquity, the
a national faith,
tenacity of
direct personal appeal of a religion of heart and life

and the

the religion of the Jews.

becoming cosmopolitan.

This strange people was already

Few towns of any size throughout

the Eastern provinces of the Empire were without their

Jewish colonies. In some of the greatest the Ghetto* was
an element of extreme significance in the corporate life of

the place*
The Jews had already embarked on that career
for which they seem so singularly endowed by nature
the

A CITIZEN OF NO MEAN CITY

Their eminence

career of finance. 1

in this

walk of

21
life,

together with their fanatical nationalism and their queer

Yet the
religious customs, made them far from popular.
attraction of

Judaism was strongly felt, especially in those

where men could not find satisfaction with the

circles

The

Jewish communities, or synagogues

brotherhoods
religious
enjoying much liberty
of self-government were almost everywhere a nucleus
"
for a more or less
God-fearers,"
loosely knit group of
State religions.

and

civil

to use the Jewish term, who adopted many of the beliefs

and practices of their Hebrew neighbours without actually

becoming Jews.

The

ancient city of Tarsus in Cilicia is a favourable

example of the municipal city-state ; Oriental in the

background of its life and traditions, markedly Greek

in its culture, and enjoying a secure position in the general
It had its school of
order of the Empire.
in
philosophy,

which a succession of able teachers had given a pre-eminence

the Stoic sect.

to

Its

commerce

prospered.

Doubtless

important Jewish colony was intimately associated

with this side of the city's life. Among them was at least
the

one family possessed of the Roman citizenship, which

implies, probably, membership of the order from which
the local magistrates were drawn, and at any rate some social
It is with a son of this family that
standing in the town.

we

have to do. 3

famous

Sha'ul,
Israel,

whose

The

boy had the old Hebrew name of

name of the first King of

in history as the

tribe, that

of Benjamin, was also that of these

Perhaps the earliest allusion to Jewish money-lenders occurs

papyrus of the year 41 of our era. The papyrus is a letter
to a man in money difficulties, and contains the salutary advice
'
*
See Milligan : Greek Papyri, No. 15.
Beware of the Jews
1

in a

Ac.

xzii.

25-28,

The

fact that

of tent-making, does not necessarily

'said

of his family's social position.

Paul learned a trade, that

with what is here

conflict

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

22

Tarsian Jews.

To

That, however, was only

his

home-name.

synagogue he was Paulus.

He must, of course, have possessed a Roman family name
and first name we may think of him as Gaius Julius
to fit
Paulus, or Gnaeus Pompeius Paulus, if we wish
birth.
of
in
his
the
environment
natural
him into his
city
his fellow-citizens outside the

He

learned to speak

and

write

Greek with

He

ease.

could quote Greek poets, and use the popular philosophical

language of the time easily and naturally. With all this,

His family belonged

however, he was by no means a Greek.
nationalist in outlook, strict in
to the Puritans of Judaism
religious observance.

They

spoke Aramaic at home, even

though they used Greek at market or in the City Councilchamber.3 The boy was, in fact, sent to Jerusalem, the
national capital, in order th&t his education should be strong

He made great strides

Jewish side.
and was probably preparing for the career of
a Rabbi, when events occurred which disturbed the tenor
of his life.4
on the

distinctively

in his studies,

new sect had appeared within Judaism. It was composed of the followers of a Galilsean craftsman, who without any apparent authority had set up for a Rabbi, and had
scandalized the religious leaders by his bold appeal to the
people and his intensely critical attitude to the

common

Law
and

and the Temple.

they had secured

of the

He

Roman Governor on

the throne of Judaea

to

"

fallen into their hands,

at

the hands

the charge of being a claimant

nevertheless seemed to have

had

condemnation

his

preposterous charge

some foundation

The

which

in his well-

attested claim to

be the

not

purpose to any considerable extent

fulfilled

its

Tliis assumes that

Messiah/'

in

execution had
;

for

Phil- iii. 5 has

E/3pa7oc
something
of meaning as in Ac. vi. i. In any case Paul
spoke Aramaic, Ac. zxii. 2, and Aramaic was the language of
his inner life: cf. xxvi, 14.
4 Ac, xxii.
3, Gal. i. 14.

of the same

sliade

A CITIZEN OF NO MEAN CITY

23

the followers of the Galilaean asserted that he was still alive,

and apparently got people to believe this extraordinary
statement 5
for the sect was growing with alarming

The young

rapidity.

manded
of the

Paul saw here a vocation which com-

his ardent devotion.

God of his

He would

fathers in putting

be the instrument

down

this pestilent

and

blasphemous heresy. After some very effective work to

this end in the
city and its neighbourhood, he obtained a commission from the religious authorities to extend the good
He set out for Damascus with instructions to the

work.
local

synagogue there to accept his direction in rooting out

the Galilaeans.5

On

the way something happened.

Paul arrived at the
of
in
Damascus
city
sorry plight nervously shaken and
half blind.
As he recovered, instead of carrying out his

commission he commenced a vigorous campaign on behalf

of the faith he had set out to destroy. 6 From this time on his

was given to the propagation of Christianity

His activities were by no means always pleasing to the older
Christians, and especially to their leaders, but after a time
he succeeded in establishing some sort of a concordat with
whole

life

the principal

men

him a

which

left

of the

Roman

of the Christian community at Jerusalem,

hand

in his mission to the populations

outside
provinces
Judaea, including the nonin
elements
those
populations.? Indeed,as time went
Jewish
in the Christian communities
elements
the
non-Jewish
on,

free

he founded greatly preponderated over the Jewish, and the

them was of a
type of Christianity which prevailed among
broader,

type than that of the original

It was above all a religion of emancipation.

more cosmopolitan

community.
" For
the watchword of Paul's
liberty you were called," is
rested upon a personal
This
liberty
great controversy.
'

5
6
7

Ac. viii. 1-3, be. 1-2, Gal. i. 13, I Cor. zv. 9.

Ac. ir. 3-30, zxii. 3-21, xrvi. 4-23, Gal. i. 15-17*
Ac. iv. 1-35, Gal. ii. i-io.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

24

and inward relation to Christ, replacing allegiance to laws

and traditional institutions. The person of Christ was thus
not

less,

but possibly more, central to the new Christians

and Paul's
first preachers of the faith 5

than even to the

mission was an assertion of the completeness and indepenfaith.

It meant that the new religion

dence of the Christian

had broken through the narrow limits of a mere Jewish

Paul, Roman citizen
sect, and set out to claim the world.
a wild
conceived
the idea
as he was, would seem to have
idea

it

may

well

have

In pursuit of

Christ.'*

up and down the

appeared
it

Roman

of "the Empire for

he spent years in travelling

ways which had linked up

the world of that age in so wonderful a fashion, and

in navigating the Eastern Mediterranean in storm and
shine.
It

bers

was an adventurous

still

Minor

life

he led

and a

perilous.

Rob-

haunted, in spite of Rome, the inland regions of Asia

which had swept the Levant of pirates

could not control the Levantine storms, which at least four
times brought the intrepid traveller to shipwreck, and once
tossed

and the

fleet

him

arrived.

for
twenty-four hours in open sea before rescue
In addition there were the perils to which the

propagator of unpopular doctrines exposes himself, even

an age so tolerant on the whole as the first century. It

in

was no doubt something of a joke among Paul's friends that

he had once outwitted his enemies by escaping from Damascus
in a basket let down from a window, but it was no
joke that
he was three times scourged by local magistrates (in spite
of his Roman citizenship), and no less than five times received
"
"
the savage maximum penalty of
forty stripes save one
from the Jewish synagogue authorities.
This penalty, it
said, was usually commuted or reduced on grounds of
mere humanity, and the fact that Paul underwent it five
times gives us a hint of the great
physical strength which
he must have possessed, in spite of his insignificant appear*
is

A CITIZEN OF NO MEAN CITY

25

ance and his recurrent attacks of a complaint which

have been malarial. 8

Of

his earlier

meagre accounts.

may

preaching tours we have only the most

Later the record, partly in the form of

a diary made at the time, which is

generally attributed to his
medical attendant Luke, is much more complete.
can

We

He would settle down in some central

strategy.
a
Roman
conventus or assize town, such as
spot, preferably
trace his

Ephesus, Philippi, or Corinth.

Very often he found
favourable starting-point in the local synagogue ; and

a
if

the doors of the synagogue were closed to him when it

was discovered how revolutionary his teaching really was,
at least he had by that time made good his footing among the
"
God-fearers."
Sometimes he spoke quite publicly, like
the Cynic preachers, in the market-places.
At Ephesus
he hired a philosophers lecture-hall after the morning session

was over, and gave instruction there daily from 1 1 to 4.9

Meanwhile he supported himself by his trade of tentmaking.

At Corinth

his trade

was the means of winning

him a footing among the Jews of the place, and of gaining

He found
for him one of his most permanent friendships.
work with a Jew from the Black Sea and his wife, who
apparently were in a somewhat large way in the tent-manufacturing business, and travelled between Rome and Ephesus.
Prisca and Aquila (the lady is almost always mentioned first)

became

his

trusted coadjutors

in the

mission

and the

incident may suggest to us how the very mobile conditions

of international trade and industry in that period lent themselves to the spread

of new

ideas. 10

After preaching came the organization

8

II Cor.

xi.

23-28,

I Cor. iv.

9-13, Gal.

iv.

of the

new

13, II Cor. xii.

7-9.
9

Ac.
10

This piece of information is given only

it
probably embodies a good
9, but

m.

Ac.

rviii.

2-3, 18-20, I Cor. xvi. 19.

in certain
tradition.

MSS.

of

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

26

Christians into communities, formed partly on the

model of

the Jewish synagogue with its traditions of self-government,

and partly on the lines of the guilds and brotherhoods, which

were so popular among the middle and lower classes of the

Empire. The actual amount of organization was kept

minimum, and free co-operation was the central idea.

The members of these communities were mainly obscure
persons, many of them poor persons, slaves or freedmen,
some of them in business, or holding positions under the
to a

or even in the imperial Civil Service.

few, but not many, persons of wealth ; a few, but
not many, highly educated persons, might be found in close
municipalities,

fellowship with their poorer neighbours in the brotherhood

of the Christian Church. 11

With

these scattered communities Paul kept in constant

touch, partly through his

travels,

own and

his friends' continual

and partly by correspondence, of which

we

possess

some valuable specimens. These letters are for the most

part called forth by circumstances.
They do not set out
to be

"

literature,"

but to meet the occasion.

One of them

a brief note to a personal friend, about a slave who had

run away. Most of the others discuss matters of interest
is

to the particular churches addressed.

the

Romans and

to the Ephesians,

Two

only, those to
at a

make any attempt

systematic and comprehensive statement of a line of thought.

It is from these fragmentary materials that we have to
reconstruct Paul's ideas.

It

is

obvious that

we cannot hope

in such circumstances to attain great completeness or

pre-

But while there are disadvantages

in
possessing our
materials in this casual form, there are advantages which
cision.

more than compensate.

11

I Cor*

L 26, Rom.

(master and skve)

The
xvi.

the persons

letters

of Paul are intensely

23, Phil. v. 22,

are mentioned as

who

Phm. 8-16
entertaining

the local congregation in their house must have been

relatively
wdl-to-do : see Rom. xvi. 5, 23, 1 Cor. xvi. 19, Col. iv. 1
5, Phm. 2

A CITIZEN OF NO MEAN CITY

27

few documents are alive which have come

from so remote antiquity. The7 give us, not a
mere scheme of thought, but a living man.
We have
the same intimate knowledge of Paul that we have, also
alive

down

alive as

to us

through his

letters,

of Cicero, and of scarcely anyone

else in those times.

He was a person of extraordinary versatility and variety

He was an enthusiast and a mystic, with powers of rapt
He was also one who
contemplation beyond the common.
could apply the cold criticism of reason to his own dreams,
and assess soberly the true value of the more abnormal

phenomena of

religion.

This combination of enthusiasm

with sanity is one of his most eminent marks of greatness.

His thought is strong and soaring, adventurous rather than

He

had a hospitable mind, and a faculty for

assimilating and using the ideas of others which is a great
asset to anyone who has a new message to propagate
he
In it all he was
could think in other people's terms.
systematic.

dominated by a white-hot zeal for the truth of which he

was convinced as he was convinced of his own existence ;

and more, by a personal devotion to "the Lord Jesus,"

as he habitually called the divine Person who, as he believed,
had spoken to him first on the road to Damascus and never
again

left his side.

That devotion was

his religion,

and

it

With this went a

controlled his thought and his life.
strong humanity, and a longing that others should enter
into the free

and j oyous life that he had found.

This longing

was not the mere fervour of the religious bigot for his own
It was the passion of a man who loved men and
creed.
had a genius for friendship. His was a warmly emotional
nature, passionate in affection, passionate also in opposition
when his hostility was aroused. He said and wrote things

he was sorry for, when he wrote or spoke in heat ; but it

was always a generous heat, kindled by no selfish feelings.
The most difficult lesson he had to learn from his Lord

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

28

We

can see him again

charity.
in his letters pulling the rein upon his passion

was that of tolerance and

and again
lest it

get out of control.

It

was perhaps partly a sense

of the need to cultivate tolerance, partly a sense of strategy,

which led him at times into ways of accommodation

which were

easily

misunderstood, not only, perhaps, by

have made mistakes in this direction,

He may

opponents.

we car hardly respect too highly the efforts of this

"
"
become all things to all men
naturally intolerant man to
to go to the very verge of compromise, and to risk misunderstanding, that he might assert the central and essential
but

principle

over against

That he was

relatively

able to do so

unimportant accidents.
result of a sympathy

was the

sufficiently rare in strong, self-confident natures

which

could see very clearly the other man's point of view. This
faculty sometimes makes difficulties for Paul's interpreters
!

To
it,

these qualities

that this

man

it is

hardly necessary to add, so patent

displayed

an

is

inflexible determination, a

persistence that nothing could weary, and a courage that

constitutional audacity, but a steady fortitude prepared for anything except retreat. 12

was not a mere

He

fell

a victim to the malice of his old associates,

who

could not forgive him for becoming the leader in a movement

which had shaken their position to its foundations. On a

Jerusalem he was set upon by a mob, and rescued

by the Roman officer in command of the garrison. The
visit to

Jewish authorities preferred charges against him which he

offered to answer, as
tribunal.

The

was

result

his privilege, before the

Emperor's
of the appeal was that he attained,

Ia The
personal traits of the man come out most vividly in
the Second Epistle to the Corinthians and in those to the Galatians
and Philippians. To read these letters rapidly through, either

in the original or in a

moment

good modern

translation, neglecting for

the details of the argument,

cover the Apostle as a real man.

the

is

the best

way

to dis-

A CITIZEN OF NO MEAN CITY

in strange fashion, his lifelong ambition of
visiting

29

Rome. T 3

During a long imprisonment he continued his activities,

both by intercourse with a wide circle in the City, and by a
lively correspondence, which contains some of the most
fruits of his
Towards the end, however,
thought.
he found himself almost forsaken, and it was a lonely man
whom we see dimly through the mists of tradition led to the

mature

Three Fountains by

the Ostian

stroke which was his

tomb

is

last

Way

to receive the sword-

prerogative as a

Roman.

beneath "St. Paul's without the Walls"

His

and in

of the mighty impression he made in his own day, in

spite of the veneration of his name, for the bulk of the
Christian Church this passionate champion of a religion

spite

free, personal,

and

ethical remains

for those

who

can never

It

is

"

satisfy

outside the walls.'*

J4

themselves with insti-

tutional or legal religion that he has in every age a message.

Z

pians,

Ac.

ixi.*-xiviii.

Colossians,

The

imprisonment.
J4
I cannot remember to

Mura.

epistles

to

the Ephesians, Philip-

and Philemon probably belong to the Roman

whom

There seems no

owe

this allusion to

San

Polo

reason to reject the tradition

that this noble building marks the actual burial-place of the Apostle.

fuori le

CHAPTER

III

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

How

did the first great Christian missionary look upon

Paul
the world he lived in, its condition and destiny ?
has been regarded as a pessimist, and if optimism means the
belief that this world as

it

stands

the best of

is

all possible

He
worlds, then it is difficult to clear him of the charge.
found the world deeply marked with failure and imperfection
it

but he never dreamed that

could ultimately remain so, 1

it

need remain so, or that

The whole

universe, he

groaning and

It is full of suffertravailing in pain.

says,
"
to
it is a slave to
and
That
subject
decay
vanity.**
ing
refrain
of
the
haunting
word, echoing
Ecclesiastes, the
is

classic

of pessimism, accurately calls up those suggestions

which the world of nature with its
futility

of tiresome

round of change and decay brought to the mind of

Paul as of many other observers, especially in the East. Man

ceaseless

too

is

part of nature, and shares its heritage of pain and

"
endeavour.
They were born ; they were

thwarted

wretched

they died."

So in an Eastern tale the Wise

sums up the course of human

history.

Man

So far the outlook

of Paul does agree with the typical Oriental pessimism.

But for him that is not the whole story.
Beside
the groaning and travailing there

The whole

is

in

the

world

an

universe, with head

"eager expectation."
outstretched and intense gaze, is waiting for something
very
glorious which shall finally deliver it from slavery to futility
and give a meaning to all its pangs. It is a sorry world, but
1

What

follows

is

mainly based on
30

Rom.

viii*

18 2C.

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

31

an expectant world, subject to

vanity but saved in hope;
travailing now, but destined to glory. It is a world, above
all, with a real history ; and that is what Oriental pessimism
never allows.
But the conception of a universe in which
there

is

real

genial to the

very

much

at

movement and real development is very conmodern mind. Indeed, we feel ourselves here
one with Paul

in his

view of the world.

We,

him, dare not deny the miserable facts of pain and failure,
in nature and in man as
part of nature ; but we would fain

like

believe that the change and flux have a

tendency,

and that

tendency an upward one. That the upward tendency is

automatic and inevitable we are perhaps less sure than our
fathers.

Perhaps

we

feel, like

Paul, that the universe

or

And perhaps,
waiting for something.
in
that
the
to
its
right
thinking
key
destiny

at least this earth

is

too, Paul was

was in the hand of man.
For us, even more definitely than for him, man

is

In man the energy of the material

the instinct of animal life, rises precariously

part of nature.

world,

and incompletely, but

sciousness and of will.
impulse

In

him

the sphere of conthe apparently blind

we
greater perfection working, as
the universe, attains a measure of freedom

towards

believe, in

and

into

really

self-direction.

In him also

instinct,

become

rational,

can turn back upon the material world out of which he has
partly

emerged and actually control

its

changes, aid

its

his

its

advance, intercept
Directly upon
body,
decay.
the
indirectly upon, other parts of the physical universe,
thought of man, and the action which is the outcome of

works beneficently or destructively according

For the most part his action upon the world
seems blundering and of doubtful value. The immense
his thought,

to his choice.

control of matter

"
progress

is

that

man

has gained

our so-called

of very uncertain benefit to the universe

concieved as a system aiming at perfection in every part after

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

32

But if man himself could be different ; if his

were altered by the attainment of right relations
with God and with his fellow-man, his role in the world in
which he lives might be a more beneficent one than we
kind.

its

own

life

can well imagine.

The

world as

artist uses the material

means to the expression of that love of beauty which is

one aspect of the love of God, and thereby transfigures
the material delivers it, as Paul might say, from the bondage
of decay into the liberty of glory. If we could all become
over the whole of life, using our whole environment

artists

to express the highest spiritual relations within our reach,

is it not possible that the influence of
humanity upon
its whole
Paul at least
aspect ?
in
some
that
the
universe
was
thought
way
waiting for man
"
to attain right relations in the spiritual sphere
waiting

the world might change

for the revealing of the sons of

A
which

recent

poem

addresses

"

God,"
"

Everyman

beautifully suggests a thought akin to

"

in

language

Paul's. 3

All things search until they find

through the gateway of thy mind.

God

Highest star and humblest clod

Turn home through

When

thee to God.

thou rejoicest in the rose

from earth to heaven she goes

Blissful

Upon thy bosom summer seas

Escape from their captivities j
Within thy sleep the

Of
*

sightless eyes

night revisage Paradise

Quoted from the poem To Everyman, by Edith Anne Stewart,

published in the Nation^

November 1918.

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

In thy

To

soft

awe yon mountain high

his creator

This lonely

draweth nigh

thus in thee the circuit vast

And

To

How

rounded and complete

Is

tarn, reflecting thee.

Returned) to eternity

And

33

at last,

at last, through thee revealed

God, what time and space concealed."

Paul

conceived

world

we

"

the

cannot

"
emancipation

of

the

physical
Many contemporary
thinkers imagined a miraculous change of the very substance of things
a new heaven and a new earth in
strict literalness.

Paul

tell.

may have

shared the

belief*

But

the important point seems to be that he conceived such

a change as no accident, but directly connected with
In attacking what
the working out of human relations.

was wrong with men he firmly believed that he was

Shall we put it in
attacking the problem of the universe.
this way, that the problem of reality is at bottom a problem
of personal relations ? 3 No purely physical speculations will
ever solve for us the problem of this tangled universe.
and the solution is personal and
Personality holds the clue ;

The

practical

followed, let

only hint

We

we

us

spiritual aspirations of man, faithfully

into the secret of evolution and give the

can get of

its purposes.
the
Apostle's philosophy of the world
turn, then, from

We

to his philosophy of human history.

find it based upon a gloomy estimate of

shall expect to

human

saved from pessimism by a tremendous

He saw the world of men in

life as it is,

what it may
two opposing

faith in

become.
3

This

is

a dominant idea,

as I

understand

it,

of Mr. Fearon

and Reality.
Halliday's book in this series, Reconciliation

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

34

groups his own nation and pagan society, i.e. practically

His interest in that
the pagan Graeco-Roman Empire.

Empire,

its

ethical

and

It dated, doubtless, not

and problems, was intense.

social life

from

his conversion to Christianity,

Only the character of

but from his youth at Tarsus.

that

was changed from condemnation and despair to

hope when he looked afresh with the eyes of Christ. The
Empire indeed, as he saw it, was rotten with vice and injusinterest

His picture of pagan morals in the opening chapter

the Epistle to the Romans is lurid, but most of it could

tice.

>f

His judgment,
corroborated from pagan sources.
however, was not undiscriminating or blind. Even in the
pigan he recognized a natural knowledge of God, a con-

bs

science bearing witness to a

"law

written

on the heart,"

knowledge of right and wrong.4 Its political

he
confessed, aimed at the vindication of right and
system,
the suppression of wrong, and in its measure succeeded. 5
Its imperial law restrained the threatened outbreak of

ai

instinctive

undiluted and anarchic

evil.

perversion of the whole.

And

yet he

mass of humanity, the offtaken a wrong turn so decisive

spring of God, had somehow

that at every step it was farther from God.

had become darkness

was in

it

own

its

It

is

saw a monstrous

and

The light

God had

given

unrestrained passions.
in this strain that Paul
inveighs in his letter to

it

that

over

Rome

against the corruption of the Pagan world ; and so far, we

can imagine an audience of Pharisaic Jews
with
listening

applause.
Suddenly Paul turns upon them and drives home
the charge that they have known better but not done better.

"

You

call yourself a
boast of your God. . .

Jew, and
.

rely

upon your law, and

You set up for a guide of the blind,

a light to the benighted, a trainer of the

ignorant, a teac er of
infants. , . . You teach
but
do
not teach yourself.
others,
4

Rom.

i.

19,

ii.

14-15.
* II
Thess.

5
ii.

6-7

R m.

xiii.

1-6.

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

You

preach
*

preach
adulterer

Do
!

Do

not

You

steal,'

commit

not

and you are a thief

YOIL
are
and
an
adultery,*
you
!

'

abominate

35-

idols,'

but

you

plunder

You, who boast about your law, by breaklaw dishonour God " 7 They are strong words

their temples

ing the
for a Jew to use to Jews.
can surely overhear in them
the indignant shame of a high-minded Israelite who found
that in the great cities of the pagans men of his own race
!

We

had made the name of Jew

to stink

by their hypocrisy and

baseness.

We

must not

forget that the darkness of this picture

is

"

by a pagan here and there who did by nature the

"
of
the Law and by at least a faithful remnant among
things
But Paul found nowhere, neither in therenegade Israel.
relieved

pagan world nor yet among his own people, the moral power
and stability which his sense of the divine holiness demanded

sons of God."
Out of the mass of weakness and corruption the universe awaited their revealing : where could they
the inquiring mind, all history comes to be
be found ?

of

To

God, the Divine Commonwealth

and
man
which
alone
the world can attain emancithrough
This
Commonwealth
of the sons of God can only
pation.
be of God's own creation. Thus from the divine point of
view history shows God seeking His sons among sinful
humanity. Paul had inherited from his Pharisaic training
a search for the family of

a belief in divine predestination, though the Pharisees, we

are told, somehow managed to preserve alongside of thisdoctrine a belief in

human

free will.

The

use,

however,

which Paul makes of the doctrine is most instructive. It isfor him the means of asserting and maintaining the freedomand originality of God's personal dealings with men.
The Pharisaic God was for practical purposes an Absentee.
He had created the world at a few points in the remote
in the future He would
past He had definitely intervened ;
;

Rom.

ii.

i-ii.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

36

in Judgment ; but in the present age

the history of man was the mechanical working-out of an
inexorable Law. The pagan mind, on the other hand, was

once more intervene

In that age philosophy tended to

"haunted by fatalism.
with
its
support
authority the ancient popular superstition

You were
a man's fete was controlled by his stars.
that
and
a
certain horoscope,
born with
by
your fete was

.that

That the dominion of the "worldirrevocably fixed.

8
rulers," the "elemental spirits," was broken was a part of
the message of primitive Christianity which scarcely appeals
to us ; but it came with the sense of a tremendous relief
the spirit-ridden

-to

to

in

many

cal rule of

mind of the

China and India.

first

century, as it still comes

against the mechani-

Over

law and the domination of the

fetal star alike,

God

always and in every age is free to

He called Abraham to be His
deal personally with men. 9
son, but He did not then leave natural heredity to produce
His Divine Commonwealth. He chose Isaac ; He chose

Paul maintains that

Jacob

He called

seven thousand in Elijah's day, who stood

He chose the faithful
;

firm against the idolatry of their time

remnant on

whom

the saving salt of a

ordained as His Son Jesus the
"
son of David according to the flesh," and through Him
"
brought a multitude out of all nations into adoptive son10

At every

ship."

Isaiah set his hope

Last of

lost people.

all

He

point a free, personal act of God.

The doctrine

of absolute and arbitrary divine sovereignty

which accompanies this view of history seems to us
destructive

of human freedom in any

in the early preaching of the Gospel

8

it

real

but

Gal. iv. 3, 9,
ii. 8, 20, are not the
CpL
dements of which the world is made, but the * phantom

intelligences/ as Mr. Thomas Hardy might call

to animate and control the visible universe.
Cf.
x

The <mux*a of
c
*

material

sense

served a purpose of

Rom.
Rom.

ir.,
i.

xi.

1-12.

3-4, Gal.

iii.

16-17,

9> **

4~5

them, supposed

Eph.

vi.

12.

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

37

the highest value.

If you could believe that your
destiny
was not decided by the working of mechanical law, or
determined by a ruthless fate, but that the divine vocation

of which you were conscious in your own soul was an act of

sovereign power on the part of a God present here and now

would surely give a new sense of assurance

in
the face of all hostile forces.
It is with
stability
that intent that Paul always makes use of the argument
to save you,

it

and

"

from predestination,
Those whom He foreknew He
also predestined
and those whom He predestined He also
;

"
be for us, who can be against us ?
And any philosophy which admits a divine government of
the universe must leave a place for something like this

...

called.

If

God

'

Pauline theory of a "selective purpose." I2 As Paul meant

it is not a doctrine of
determinism, but rather a protest
it,
against the prevalent determinism of his time by the"
"
is
fresh start
assertion that a real
possible at any time-

where God comes

into fresh touch with

man.

much for history viewed from the divine end. From

human end it is the story of the progressive response of

So
the

sons of

God

to the calling of their Father, and the resultant

constitution

of the

simple trust

in

The

"
:

than oncers

On

of God.

gives play
instance of such

inevitable

Abraham

People

God

the

to

trust

man's

divine

the

in

part,,

purpose.
past

was

God," Paul quotes more

So soon as a man was found to take that

Abraham

trusted

God, the People of God, or the Divine CommonIt was

wealth, was already in existence, if only in germ.
the
same
maintained and increased, Paul argued, by exactly

attitude to

means, by the successive perspnal response of

" Rom.
13

tar'

the terms

viii.

28-39, Eph.

ktcXoyriv

would

irpititnc,

give us

3-14,

Rom.

iz.

cf.

Gal.

II.

i.

in each

15.
transposition

of

purposive selection/ as distinct from

merely natural "selection.'

X 3 Gal. iii.
6-18, Rom.

i.

men

iv.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

38

.-generation to the calling

the

crucial

the scholastic

all

Romans and

arguments of the Epistles to the

lies

Behind

of God. z 4

the Galatians

question whether religion

is

matter

of national inheritance and external

tradition, or a matter
of ever-fresh personal response to the gracious dealing of
God. In form, the nation founded by Abraham was the

God

People of
choose,"

as

but

"

was shown

the majority of them God did not

by the fact that in spite of their

"
Covenant they were
nation possessed the outward forms of a

participation in the ordinances of the

The

unfaithful."^

Divine Commonwealth or
cracy," but

it

of the

.hold

Remnant

Kingdom of God

'was only a minority in the heart

Seven Thousand,

Elijah's

reality.

these

were

"Theo-

or

of it that kept
Isaiah's

representatives of the

the

true

People of God, the faithful Divine Commonwealth hidden

16
Not that even they could
in the bosom of apostate Israel.
k

be said to have attained perfect obedience to the precepts

of the divine Will, or to be able to claim God's favour on

the

basis

of their

own

achievement, but their

faith

"

in

God

kept them true, amid doubts, uncertainties, failures,

and imperfections, as they waited confidently for the next

For the time being, this Divine

"bondage." Like an heir in his
"
under
tutors
and guardians," it led a kind of
minority
under
existence
the shadow of the Law, unable
provisional
to win freedom of action or to become a power of salvation
stage of His dealing.
Commonwealth was in

to the world. 17
X4

Rom.

ix.

I Cor* x.

6-29,
i-io,

ii.
cf.

4-7, Gal.

Rom.

iii.

iii.

7-9.
1-20.

The word

cvfow-Iv

does not mean approval following upon conduct, but a free selfdetermination on the part of God; cf* Gal. i. 15, I Cor. i. 21,
Col.
16

i.

19,

Rom.

Eph.
xi.

i.

5,

4, ix.

9, Phil.

ii.

13.

27-29,
** Gal. iii.
23-24, iv. 1-3 : note that these statements are
made not about any particular individuals, but about the
People
of God considered as an historical entity.

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

39

The upshot of past history, as Paul saw it,

put in these terms : in the pagan world, a few

may

be

isolated

doing, in some measure, the will of God

revealed in their consciences, but unable to form a

individuals
as

18
in Israel, a
community;
Theocracy in form, but
so bound and hedged about as to be unable to effect

real

anything for God in the world at large. The prophets

had always foreseen that this age must be succeeded
by
another, in which the free life of the Spirit should create
a world-wide society or Kingdom of God.
Now with the
Resurrection of Christ, Paul held, this new age began. The

come of age the dim light of an ever-deferred hope

had given place to the clear dawning of the u The Day.' Iu
Out of Israel and out of the pagan world alike God was
heir had

calling His sons into a real community-life through

"
the world should be saved. This is the

which

mystery kept

silent

through agelong periods, but

now

revealed."

20

Greek
meant a dramatic
"mystery"
spectacle which conveyed to those who had the key deep
to

Paul's

readers

"

"

truths of the unseen world unsuspected by the

profane
mind, and not to be expressed in language. Even so the
historic

drama of Christ's death and

resurrection had brought

into clear light the hidden purposes of God, by uniting

faithful men, out of all nations and classes, in one firm

commonwealth

Thus

the

and powerful to do the will of God.

Age had begun. That is a fundamental

free

New

belief of all early Christians.

They
of History.
at the crisis
at a crisis

of

The Day

"

knew

they were living

They were

"

children

the day of God's self-revelation

they

the judgment also of the author of IV Ezra : see

men of note ndeed Thou mayst find to have
36,
"
nations Thou shalt not find
; but
(c. A.D. 100).
Thy
precepts
kept
X9
I Thess. v. 4-8, II Thess. i. 10, ii. 2, I Cor. i. 8 iii. 13,.
*8

iii.

This
"

is

Individual

v. 5, II Cor. i. 14, vi. 2, Rom.

*
Rom. xri. 25-26, Col. i.

xiii. 12-13, Phil. i. 6, 10, ii. 16.

25-29, and espec. Eph. iii. 1-12*

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

40

were inhabitants of a new world. 21

They were

quite sure

powers had entered into them, and that the

divine purpose was forcing its way through their efforts
that fresh

And though they knew also that

must bring sufferings which they must
22
share, of which indeed they must bear the brunt, yet they
were upheld and animated by a vivid hope to which nothing
into the world at large.

the time of

crisis

That hope

to be true.

seemed too good

clothed itself in

Paul, in his earlier letters,

strange apocalyptic imagery.
and no doubt in his earlier preaching, made free use of this

imagery, though
preting

At

it.

it is

first

at all events in his lifetime

and
evil

*3

that

He would

reign over a

it,

all

Kingdom which would

who

in the course

of the

out by the way, and, we may

those pagans also who had hitherto remained un-

selective purpose

take

the time re-inter-

Christ would visibly return

to include those Israelites

"

all

an aggressive campaign against

lead His people in

come
"

he was

clear that

he certainly expected that before long

had

fallen

repentant, until the whole race should be gathered into

one. 3 4 At the End of All, having put down all hostile or
rival

would

authority and power in heaven and on earth, He

offer us all to God, and God would be all and

in all.5
ai

I Thess. v. 5, I Cor. x. 1 1.

words, as does

Paul never says in so

many

follower the author to the Hebrews, that

'
the power* of the coming age (Heb. vi.
5) ;

his

Christians possess

'

but something of the kind is implied both in his constant antithesis

'
of Christianity to this age (Rom. xii. 2, I Cor. ii. 6-8, II Cor.
iv. 4, Gal. i. 4,
ii. 2,
etc.), and in his use of eschatological
Eph,
language in the present or perfect tense instead of the future
'

(Rom.

i.

17-18,

aTronaXv-rrrerai, I Cor.

i.

1 8,

II Cor.

ii.

cru^6fjLyoL 9 cnroXXvfjLeyQL, I Thess. ii. 1 6 <tfa<7' rj opyrj etc.).

I Thess. iii. 3, Col. i. 24, Rom. v.
cf. II Cor. xii,

"

Phil.

3-5,

iii.

10.

*3

*4

Rom.

*5

Thess.
zi.

iv.

I3~v. ii, II Thess.

11-33.
I Cor. iv. 20-28.

ii.

r-io.

15,

10,

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD

41

Putting aside so far as we can what is (for us at least)

merely figurative in this sketch of the future, we can at
least see how for Paul the time in which he lived was
the turning-point of history ; before Christ, the disintegration of humanity, and the gradual selection of a small
remnant to carry on God's purpose ; from the coming of
Christ, the re-integration of the race, the inclusion, step
"
by step, of the rejected," and the attainment of final unity
for

that

all

is,

in the perfected Sovereignty or

Kingdom of

As he grew

God.

older, the apocalyptic imagery of the

earlier days tended to disappear at least from the foreground
of his thought, and more and more his mind came to dwell

upon the gradual growth and upbuilding of the Divine

Commonwealth. He saw the Church going out into the

"
world to save the world, ready to
fill
up what was lacking
"
of the sufferings of Christ for the sake of mankind, and
restlessly

Father.

seeking out the sons of God in the name of their

He saw it impelled ever further and further in

the quest, constrained by the love of Christ, reconciling,

liberating,

including in

its

Jew and

universal fellowship

freeman, and

so

Greek, barbarian, Scythian, slave,

working
"
sum up all things in Christ." 26
out the divine purpose to
If this is an idealized picture of what the Church has been
even at

its

best, it gives the standard

of what

it

might be,

a perpetual rebuke and challenge to a Church which has

fallen
*

from

Col.

10-11.

i.

its ideal.

17-29,

ii,

19,

iii.

10-11,

EpL

i.

3-ii. 23, cf. Phil. ii.

CHAPTER IV

THE QUEST OF THE DIVINE

COMMONWEALTH
AN attempt has been made in the preceding chapter to
sketch the philosophy of history which can be discovered
In its main outlines it is set forth
in the writings of Paul.
in his letter to the Christians of

Rome.

That

fact

is

not

without significance. The Epistle to the Romans is the

manifesto of Paul's missionary programme written at the
very height of his activity, in the near prospect of a visit to
For the Romans, as for
the imperial centre of the world.
us, it was necessary to have some understanding of his
philosophy of history if they were to appreciate what were
his aims and principles in preaching the Christian Gospel
throughout the Roman world. The hope of the world,

as

he saw

"

revelation of the sons of

lay in the
realization of the Divine Commonwealth.

the

it,

God "
In

his

Christ he held the key to the "mystery" of

He knew the secret of its
that Divine Commonwealth.
faith

in

Hence he \vas a missionary.

which Paul was brought up there was a
definite theory about the Divine Commonwealth.

realization.

In the
perfectly

He

circles in

was a Jew, and the Jews believed themselves to be

in

the most absolute sense God's chosen people.

The divine
blessing was an estate entailed upon the historic nation
derived,
intact

as

was

believed,

from Abraham, and preserved

through the centuries by

its

observance

of the

QUEST OF DIVINE COMMONWEALTH

institutions

summed up

reverence and
institutions

That they
was held

with which

were

regarded
represented the

certain.

It

was

almost

are
eternal

that

said

The

Mosaic Code.

the

in

enthusiasm

archaic

these

inconceivable.

laws of
the

43

all

Law

reality

was the

ng to which the world had

and
that the Deity spent eternity in its
created,
1
The purport of such apparently hyperbolic exstudy.
pre-existent

plan accord

been

pressions

was

clearly to identify the particular set of rules

and thought contained in the Pentateuch with

absolute truth and absolute right.
With such a belief
for life

it is

no wonder

that those

who

took

it

seriously had

an out-

look upon the world which bears the appearance of national

arrogance run to an almost insane extreme. Strangely, and
yet intelligibly enough, even the

and conduct had

Jew whose

personal life

resemblance to the high ethical ideals

felt
an exaltation of spirit as he thought
of the Old Testament
little

that his nation alone of

all peoples of the earth

possessed
The rest of mankind was there
the inmost secret of things.
to serve Israel or to chastise Israel as
for Israel's sake 3

might be Jehovah's inscrutable purpose, but

to be subjugated or blotted out in the end,

For passages from Rabbinic

ideas, see

tradition

in

any

case

when God should

setting

forth

these

Weber, System Jer

altsynagogalcn p&lastinischen Theologie

Much of this material is certainly late,

(1880), pp. 14-18.

but it doubtless represents earlier views. The earliest definite
statement I can recall is the saying of R. Akiba, quoted p. 69.
" Thou hast
a See
especially IV Ezra (II Esdras) vi. 55-56:
But as for
said that for our sakes thou hast created this world.
the other nations which are descended from

Adam, thou

hast

said that they are nothing, and that they are like unto spittle, and
thou hast likened the abundance of them to a drop on a bucket.*

This portion of IV Ezra is dated by internal evidence to A.D. 100.

The proud self-consciousness of Israel in contrast to the idolatrous
Gentiles is finely expressed in Wisdom xv. which offers an instructive comparison with Rom, Hi.

44

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

His judgment.
Divine Commonwealth.

finally declare

The

Jewish people was the

The

Pharisaic party which cherished these views with

was by no means indifferent to the fate of
conviction
deepest
It is even probable that this sect
the non-Jewish world.
was prominent in the vigorous Jewish propaganda which

was going forward throughout the Mediterranean area at the

But in the nature of
time when Christianity appeared.
things such propaganda could only be a kind of spiritual
imperialism.

It rested

on the assumption of the inherent

and eternal superiority of one nation and one form of culture

Individuals of other nations could be incorover all others.
porated in the chosen people, but

it

was only

aliens that they could take their place.

at arm's length, admitted
to the spiritual privileges

as naturalized

They were

held

only grudgingly and by degrees

of Israel, and they could only be

members of the community by adopting all the peculiar,

and in part barbarous, rites and observances of the Jewish
full

religion,

including the rite of circumcision,

which was

counted by Greeks and Romans a degradation.

It was
no wonder that the civilized world of the time looked with
scorn upon these pretensions, so opposed to the broad
humanism of the Stoics with their gospel of Cosmopolis, the

For all that, Judaism had somewhere within

City of Zeus.
a moral passion and power of regeneration before which

it

even Stoicism was impotent.

Many an earnest soul was
to
even
bow
to
the
willing
arrogant pretensions of the Jew
for the sake of the ethical reality

he stood

for, so strangely

high and pure in spite of the meanness of

its

earthly

vessels.

In such a position of

affairs

we

can see the peril to the

future of humanity.
It is not good that men should submit
themselves to the dictation of any one people, whether in

or in religion.
It is not
good that the highest
should
be
associated
with a corporate
personal morality

politics

QUEST OF DIVINE COMMONWEALTH

45

All imperialisms are a denial of the fundamental

unity of mankind, however bright their fallacious promise
of such a unity. The propaganda of Imperialism is a
egotism.

propaganda against the brotherhood of man, and if missions

"
"
"
"
to the
heathen
or to the
are inspired
lower classes

by the national or class egotism which believes that "our

"
must be right and everybody else must accept our

sort

then they are a form of spiritual imperialism.

"
and Pharisees, play-actors
Jesus

direction,

"

Woe

to you, scribes

have said; "you traverse sea and land

to make one convert, and when he is there, you make
him twice as much a child of Gehenna as yourselves." 3

is

reported

sounds

It

to

even

severe,

ganda which

on

rests

but

unfair,

sectional

pride

propaalways runs this

religious

risk.

Paul the

Jew had

to suffer the shattering

of his deepest

he came through to a new conception of a

He had to learn that there was no
work.
missionary's
It needs some effort of
distinction of Jew and Gentile.
beliefs before

the imagination to realize what this surrender cost him.

Perhaps it was like an American of the South being obliged

must sit at the feet of the negro, or an

Australian asked to view with equanimity, even to further,
"
"
civilization.
As a young man he
the spread of
yellow

to admit that he

had heard the humanistic talk of popular Stoicism

at Tarsus,

what seemed an
Now he must
obliteration of profound moral distinctions.
had
were
made of one
God
Stoics
The
right
capitulate.
Of all He made the same
stock all nations on earth. 4
demands, to all the same offer on the same terms.
and

his religious instincts revolted against

In the present corruption of the world no one nation

could stand aloof and say, "This is the wickedness of
If humanity was cursed
by sin, all
had sinned, whether Jew or pagan, and all had missed

other people."

Mt.

xziii.

15.

Ac.

xvii. 26.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

46

the divine

splendour

of

ideal

God

humanity.5

alone

make good what was amiss, and He could do it

with
men who abandoned all self-confidence (all
only

could

"

glorying in the flesh," as our translation of Paul has it).

this new creation was to take place we must presently

How

For the moment we are concerned to see this

inquire.
man as the pioneer of a new method of establishing the
Divine Commonwealth.
cell to cell

the sharing of a

The

purpose*

He saw

it

like a body,

growing

or built like a temple, stone to stone,

common

life,

through

common

the surrender to a

union of mankind he saw taking place at a

of common humanity deeper than

of nationality, culture, sex or status.

level

all

the ramifications

He

asked only that

each should confess his part in the general wrong, and trust
God to put him right in God's own way not the way of his

preference (" not my own righteousness, but the righteousness which comes from God through trusting Him").
On that common basis he saw a unity growing out of the

very diversity of men's minds and gifts many members,

but one body 5 diversity of gifts, but one spirit. 6 On these

terms he appealed to the devout Pharisee of the Jewish

synagogue, to the philosophers of Athens, the civil servants

of the Empire at Rome, the traders of Corinth, the artisans

"
of Ephesus, the slaves and riff-raff" of the seaport towns,
the half-Greek inhabitants of Asiatic

cities,

and the bar-

barians of Malta and the Lycaonian highlands.

With this
demand he stood before kings and proconsuls, and with the

same

offer

made him

he won the
c*

Onesimus, and

rascal fugitive slave

a brother beloved."

It has already been indicated that ideas of

commcnwealth were present

largely inspired
5

Rom.

I Cor.

Col,

iii.

a universal

in the pagan world.

by the sublime

ideals

Rome,

of Stoicism (which in

in.

9-23.
12-14, Eph. ii- 19-22, iv. 4-16 Gal.
9-11 ; Rom. iii. 21-30, Phi. ii . 3-9.
xii.

iiL

26-28,

QUEST OF DIVINE COMMONWEALTH

47

PauPs time gave a Prime Minister to the Empire, and in

itself), was con-

the next century ascended the throne

aiming at its establishment.

Paul, himself a
was
stirred
the
of
what Rome was
Roman,
thought
by
Rome
is the
doing.
Imperial
background of his greatest
and
the
of
it
was
epistle,
writing
largely inspired by the

sciously

thrilling prospect of setting up the standard of Christ on its

ancient Seven Hills.
And yet he knew that Rome must
fail.
The Roman Empire could never become the King-

dom

of God.

It lacked the

Even

moral foundation.

its

philosophic instructors were content to compromise with

which oppressed men and superstitions which

The Empire was founded on violence :
made a solitude and called it peace." It trans-

institutions

degraded them.

Rome **

cended national boundaries, but it ruled by an upper class

of the privileged and showed its contempt for the poor
by giving them "bread and circuses,'* Its blossoming might
be the fine flower of humane culture, but its roots were
in the degradation

of slavery.

And

demanded the abject

it

worship of an autocrat, which meant bondage, not of the

body alone, but of the spirit. The failure, in the end, of
this

magnificent attempt to unify the

judgment on

Paul's

which did not

Rome
end

kill

He

human

race justified

sought
by means
but made alive the individual spirit.

it.

its

best ends,

crushed the individual to glorify the

State.

In the

destroyed
by strangling or crippling every
local
of
institution
government and every guild or corporaitself

it

tion through which free co-operation was possible.

characteristic of Paul's mission that wherever he

was
worked
there sprang up live, vigorous local communities, free and
democratic, where individual initiative was prized and
It

Each of these communities

individual gifts found play.
felt itself to be a living embodiment of that City of God
"
Your
whose ultimate reality was eternal in the heavens.
citizenship

is

in

heaven

"

you are a colony of the Divine

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

48

Commonwealth

Roman

Paul wrote

the Christians

to

of the

This was because in each

individual member the great change had taken place
8
whereby the "life of the (New) Age" became a personal
colony of Philippi.7

experience.

There is nothing which in the last resort can unite manIt is a current
kind but the free contagion of this life.
view to-day that economic interdependence will unify
mankind. It is questionable. Nor indeed can political
organization attain that end, as we are learning every day,
see rather
unless the spirits of men be made one.

We

true process when the vision of the

artist or the rapture of the musician draws men together

a forecast of the

across the barriers, for they too have touched life at a point
But there is somedeeper than our transient divisions.

more

thing deeper and

that Paul speaks.

universal than art or music, and of

Man is born to be a son of God, and only

"

"

the liberty of the splendour of the sons of God

can the
commonwealth of man be founded. The missionary enterin

prise of Christianity, in its ideal

and largely

in its practice,

an indication of the true method of building the brotherin which the Kingdom of God may find

is

hood of man

When the missionary enterprise enters, as it has

expression.

sometimes done, into an unnatural alliance with national

ascendancies and all the superstitions of Empire, it stultifies
But when the missionary goes out, not as a European
itself.
or an American, but as a Christian simply, a son of God
seeking brotherly fellowship with sons of God waiting to be
revealed in

all

simply human
7

Phil.

of settlers
8

ZWT?

iii.

when he makes

his appeal to the

word of

men, speaking the

20.

who

reconciliation

is used
specifically of a colony
land reproduce the institutions of their

UoXirevfjia

in a strange

Mnnoc (Rom.

properly the
begun here and
is

nations
in

life

now

v. 21, vi. 22-3, Gal. vi. 8,

etc.)
of the cuwv of Messianic power and glory,

for those

who

are

in Christ.*

QUEST OF DIVINE COMMONWEALTH

which unites us

to

God and

then he

to each other

truest servant of the coining

Kingdom

49

is

the

that the world can

Such was Paul the Missionary.

was not to be expected that Jewish patriotism would

show.
It

The tradition
acquiesce in this treason to the national idea.
of privilege was too strong. Even any loftier souls who
may have

given up the dream of political domination yet

clung tenaciously to their spiritual ascendancy. Jerusalem

might never become another Rome, but Jerusalem was the
only conceivably spiritual metropolis of the world.
them Paul declared that their Jerusalem was a slave

To
city,

"
bound hand and foot to an obsolete tradition :
Jerusalem
"
9
above is free, which is our Mother
The unifying
"
that
patriotism of the City of God
city within whose
"
walls the souls of the whole world may assemble
was in
that watchword pitted against the divisive patriotism of the
tribal State and tribal religion.
That is the inner meaning
!

of the fight which Paul waged

all his life

against his old

associates.

There can be
"

universalism

"

little

doubt that in principle the question of

for Paul in the fact of his

was decided

conversion, even though it remains highly probable that

both his theory of the matter and his practice underwent

The

Christianity with which he had come

was not the timid "right wing" which
under James the Lord's brother sought a quiet modus

development.

into direct conflict

vivendi with national Judaism, but the militant radical

section which the martyred Stephen had led into the most
decisive break with the national
9
**

Gal.

iv.

and

11
legal tradition.

It

was

21-31.

Remain Rolland, Abwt

the

Battle (Eng.

transl.

1916),

p. 54.
11

Stephen was accused of speaking against the Temple and

announcing the supersession of the Mosaic Law, Ac. vi. 13-14.
It appears that Paul was present at his examination before the
Sanhcdrin (Ac. viiL I, xxii* 20) and heard his defence, which,

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

50

he was converted.

to this radical Christianity that

the beginning he had against

Law

and

Sanhedrin

Jerusalem

count

in their indictment

the organized force of the

the

The main
synagogues.
was a traitor to the

was

that he

"

and a confederate of Gentiles.

wrote

bitterly

From

him

from Corinth in the

It

the Jews," he
of his that has

is

first letter

"

survived,

drove us
all

who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets and

out, who never obey God, who are the enemies of

mankind, and who try

to

for their salvation"

pagans
how Paul

felt

about

But he had

prevent us from speaking to the

The turn of phrase shows

it.

also

him the conservative

against

right

wing of the Church, which included some at least

of die original disciples, though we may believe that
converts

from

the

sect

backbone of the party.

leaders are
their

concerned,

position.

of the Pharisees
So

x3

we

far as the

formed

the

more moderate

can understand and

They were cautious

in

respect
the presence of

venture.
They saw, and perhaps report
of
the
Paul's bold propaganda.
Some
perils
exaggerated,
of the language he used about freedom from law had

an

untried

a dangerous suggestion of anarchy.

to

what subversive

doctrines

They

did not

know

commit the

he

might
Moreover, they felt, and not unreasonably, that they were likely to know the mind of
their Master better than this new-comer who had never
heard Him speak, and they could not think that He
Christian

movement

wished the door quite so widely opened.

It is not the
time
in
that
the
nearest
of a
followers
history
only
great leader

have

failed

to

understand his secret, even

while they died for his cause.

if

it is

in Ac.

at all faithfully represented

vii,

by the rather tedious speech

dwelt upon the temporary and relative character of

both Temple and Law.

* I Thess. ii.
15-16.

*3

Ac. xv.

5, aori.

20.

QUEST OF DIVINE COMMONWEALTH

51

Nevertheless, Peter, generous and impulsive as ever,

had, without thinking much of what was implied, early
taken steps in the direction of a liberal attitude to
It was perhaps his influence which led to
pagans.
the concordat under which Paul worked for some time

with the concurrence of the

"

"

of the Church at
and
the
of
the Apostles it
to
Acts
Jerusalem,
according
was he who persuaded the Council of Jerusalem to sancpillars

I4
tion a liberal missionary
And
policy in Syria and Cilicia.
indeed when he visited Paul and his friends at Antioch, he

was quite carried away by the enthusiasm of the forward

The controversy had come to hinge upon the

movement.

question of eating at table with converts from paganism who

had not been adopted into the community with the recognized

Jewish ceremonies, especially circumcision. Large questions

do sometimes turn upon small points. This point, however,,
was not so small as it might seem. It is not a small thing
to-day for an Indian Brahmin to break caste by eating with
a pariah.
Moreover, the Christian brotherhood had from
the

first

made

its life

centre about the

common

table.

To

refuse to break bread with a fellow-Christian was to deny

that he had any part in Christ, at whose table the brotherhood

Peter, however, sat at table with these half-Greek

seemed over.
Syrians in the friendliest way, and the difficulty
Then came members of the extreme "right wing'*

met.

adherents of James, but no doubt plus royallstes que It

Even Paul's old friend
roi.
Peter, frightened, drew back.

and leader, Barnabas, gave way. The dispute culminated

in a regrettable public quarrel between Peter and Paul, the
echoes of which, perhaps, were to be heard later even in the
Pauline

churches.

J5

Peace,

however, seems

to

have

Peter and John

liberal view, and even James
end
the
in
the
took
probably

been

restored, as

between the

*4

Gal.

ii.

Gal.

ii.

leaders.

i-io, Ac. rv. 7-11.

cf. I Cor. i. 12.

11-14,

52

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

kept on friendly terms with Paul, and it was not by any

of his, but quite the contrary, that his ill-calculated
tactics ultimately contributed to Paul's arrest and impriill-will

sonment.

Ifi

But the extreme conservatives pursued him everywhere

with unabated zeal. They opened war by a powerful
mission to Galatia, where they all but succeeded in winning
to a Judaic Christianity the churches Paul had founded. 1 ?
From that time he had to count "perils from false brethren"

among

the difficulties of his work. 18

During most of

his

he was a nonconformist and a free-lance, regarded

with cool and rather suspicious tolerance by some of the most

active

life

respected leaders of the Church,

"

"

and with horror by the

We

need not impugn their

right wing.
Paul did in the heat of controversy. They
were honest men and zealous servants of the Gospel as they
ultra-orthodox

motives, as

Paul made mistakes, and some bad ones,

But Paul was right and
his opponents were wrong on the main issue.
It was the
controversy with the Jewish National Party
understood it

in the course of the struggle.

in the

Church that drove Paul

to formulate

and defend the

The laboured argument

which fills krge sections of the letters to Rome and Galatia

principles underlying his Gospel.

and which has often been treated as almost the only valuable
element in the Pauline writings is to be regarded as
apologetic directed against Pharisaic Judaism (which he
knew by early training from top to bottom) and its revival

This apologetic is almost

does not represent his missionary preaching ;
it represents the theoretical
justification of its principles
those
denied
who
his
against
right so to preach at all in the
within the Christian Church.

accidental

name of

it

Christ.

x*

Ac.

*7

Gal.

&

II Cor.

rxi.
i.

Much

of

it is

argumentum ad hominem

20-30.

6-9,

iii.

zi,

26.

1-5,

iv.

12-20,

v.

1-12,

vi.

12-16.

QUEST OF DIVINE COMMONWEALTH

and of temporary validity only as addressed

The

adversaries.

to those particular

very success he gained antiquated his

But concealed beneath

polemic.

thought

53

is

religion.

these temporary forms of

contribution to the philosophy of

his permanent
His victory, indeed, was

less

complete than

it

seemed.

By other channels than that of the Judaistic

propaganda the old spirit of Pharisaism entered into the
Church

formalism, its bondage to

tradition, its proneness to national and class prejudice.
shall not fight it to-day, in ourselves or in the Church,
:

its

narrowness,

its

We

with the precise weapons which Paul used

read his essential thought out of
living language of to-day

we

its

shall at least

deal with that undying Pharisee

beneath our hats.

Christianity is,
Christ after the

but

if

we can

know how

to

whom

most of us carry
have learned what

we shall
man who, though

But, also

from the

obsolete forms into the

he knew not

flesh, divined better than any what Christ

stood and stands for

CHAPTER V

THE ANCIENT WRONG

WE have seen how Paul saw humanity in evil case,
and how he devoted himself to its rescue from this evil case
"
"
as a closely knit
the revealing of the sons of God
by
More precisely, he saw mankind
Divine Commonwealth.
enslaved, and lived for its emancipation ; and he saw it
Those are the
"

and lived for its reconciliation.

two great words of the Pauline gospel

alienated,

redemption,"
time they have become wholly
theological terms, with their meaning confused by centuries
"
"
was the process
of dogmatic definition.
Redemption
:

**

atonement."

By

this

by which a slave obtained his freedom. Thousands of

Jews taken prisoners in the wars had been sold into slavery
in the Roman dominions, and it was a popular work of
benevolence for wealthy Jews to

That

"

redeem

"

them into liberty.

We

the source of the metaphor.

shall therefore
"
"
do well to use the term
as the nearest
emancipation
is

"

"

Atonement
equivalent of the Pauline expression.
is an old
word
the
restoration of unity
English
meaning
between
are
who
In
persons
("at-one")
estranged.
makes the king say to the
and
noblemen, Mowbray
Bolingbroke,
Richtird II Shakespeare

"

Since

we

cannot atone you,

we

rival

shall see

Justice design the victor's chivalry."

The

secondary meanings which the word has acquired are

Paul In the Authorized Version

foreign to the language of

54

THE ANCIENT WRONG

New

of the

Testament "atonement"

is

55

the translation

of a perfectly ordinary Greek word for the reconciliation

of estranged persons.
Paul saw men divided into hostile

camps "biting and devouring one another." 1 Behind

that internecine strife he saw the hostility of men to God
their

common

and the

Father.

divisions of

Get

of the enmity toward God,

"
be overcome.
While we

rid

men may

were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death

" "
of His Son
:
He is our peace, who made both one, and
broke down that dividing wall, our enmity."* "Reconciliathen, of the estranged, "emancipation" of the
enslaved, are the cardinal points of Paul's Gospel.

tion,"

We
what

have

is

now

to ask,

What

is

the enslaving force, and

To those questions,.
?

the cause of the alienation

Paul gives one answer, Sin.

That word too, however, he
used in a sense different from that in which it has come to be
used in modern theology and ethics. To understand his
view of sin we must make our way through some rather
tangled metaphysics.

Paul conceived reality in a dualistic way. There are

two planes of being, the one eternal, the other temporal ;
The visible world is
the one visible, the other invisible.3
in some sort a revelation of the invisible, but an imperfect
revelation, for it is entangled in a mesh of decay
(" cor-

rupton "). Decay is, in fact, so inseparable a property of

the visible world that Paul gives us no other general term
He simply calls it " decay,'*
for its material substance.
describing it by its most evident property rather than defining
describes the substance, if we may so call
Similarly, he
"
"
of the invisible world as
splendour
(" glory "), and

it.

may have
to light
1

xv.

conceived

and

cf.

many Greek

thinkers, as akin

Rom. v. 10, Eph. ii. 14.

of the two orders of being runs through I Cor.
Rom. viii. 20-21, II Cor. iv. i6-v. 4,

antithesis

40-50;

with

fire.

Gal. r. 15*

The

it,

it,

he

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

56

The

cosmical aspect of the question, however, is only

It is only in man that Paul
vaguely touched upon.
shows us anything approaching a complete scheme of

of the two planes. For man belongs, at

His bodily existence partakes of
"
he wears the image
the nature of the temporal and visible :
"
of the earthy." In him the visible substance is
flesh,"
the

relations

least potentially, to both.

and inevitably subject to decay. The flesh is

temporarily animated by the psyche (if we use the word
material,

"

soul

"

we

are suggesting false implications),

which

is

the

including even intellectual processes, but not belonging to the heavenly or eternal order.
"
inner man," whose nature is
the other hand is the
principle of conscious

life,

On

About the inner man in the non-Christian,

"
"
somewhat vague ; but it appears that the reason
"
"
by which God is known to all men, and the heart upon
which His law is written, partake of the nature of the
different.

Paul

is

invisible

and eternal world.4

The non-Christian is, however,

to Paul's mind an imperfect, immature specimen of Man.

It is in the Christian that we must study human nature
Here the inner man is definitely
in its developed form.
described as "spirit" (pneuma as distinct from psyche).
"
Like flesh," spirit is a continuum
it is the form of
being
;

of God Himself and of the

risen

and

glorified Christ,

man."
like

mere substance.

"flesh,"

energy, and
"
"
is

Spirit

such

as

life

It

is

power,

essentially

is

"life-giving" ("quickening").
therefore not properly a term of individual

Every man, so

psychology.

mature

but

"

the -form of being of the believer's own

inner
"
Not that spirit " is to be considered as if it were,

it is also

far as

he has attained

partakes both of flesh and of

The principle

to

truly

spirit.

of individuality is the "organism" ("body.")

to Paul the structure of bone, flesh,

This does not mean

4 II. Cor. iv. 16, cf.

21,

ii.

1 8,

Eph.

iv.

Rom.

vii.

22-3

18, Phil, iv. 7.

Rom.

ii.

14-15, Col.

i.

THE ANCIENT WRONG

57

and blood to which we give the name of body.

It is the
pure organic form which subsists through all changes of

The

material particles.

day
that

physical organ which I possess toits material particles from

most of

different in all or

is

which

I possessed eight years ago.

an organic identity and continuity

it is

Thus

less.

"

"

body

In so far

as

it

has

my" body none" the

for Paul the

or
organism
identity of the
was in nowise affected by any change in its sub-

The

"

"

**

"

might pass away, and splendour

or light-substance be substituted, and the organism remain
intact and self-identical.
Thus Paul's insistence on the
"
"
resurrection of the
body is meant to assert the continuity
of individual identity, as distinguished from the persistence
"
"
of some impalpable shade or soul
which was not in any
stance.

flesh

real sense the identical

"

of

man.

Paul could not have talked

"

"

it was the
;
saving souls
emancipation of the
body" that interested him, i.e. of the individual, selfThe phrase in the Apostles'
identical, organic whole.

"

Creed,
him.

the resurrection of the flesh," would have horrified

"
"
neither expected nor wished the
flesh
to rise

He

he wished the
bonds of the " flesh." 5

again

we

"

are

meant

creation."

to

"

body

It

is

interpret

It, too,

has

to be emancipated

probably on
the

from the

analogy that
"emancipation of the
this

somehow a "body" which can

be redeemed from decay and clothed with splendour in

the eternal world. 6

The metaphysical distinction of two planes of being

It is
does not precisely correspond to ethical distinctions.
5 I

Cor. iv. 35-54,

23, etc.

ii.

12-iii. 3,

I believe that the above

anthropology.*

not a systematic theologian, and he

loosely.
Sw/xa, ^v^j), Trvei/jua, all appear

But he

sometimes uses terms

Gal. v. 17, Rom. viii. 12-13,

a fair description of Paul's

is

is

at times in senses approximating more closely to their popular

or vulgar meaning than to the strict Pauline usage.
6

Rom.

viii.

21.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

58

often stated that Paul accepted a current view of his time,

He did
that spirit alone is good and matter essentially evil.

On the one hand there are

not accept any such view.
"
"
wickedness
of
forces
; 7 and on the other hand
spiritual
what
evil,

birth

wrong with the

is

but

its

material world

not

is

moral

its

subjection to the futility of a perpetual flux of

That

and decay.

subjection

contemporary

the earth was believed to have been

to the will of

God,

i.e.

it is

some
whose sake

traced not, as in

is

theories, to the sin of

for

Adam,

"

cursed," but vaguely

in the nature of things as they

8
though not of necessity permanent.
In man, however, the case is complicated.. By some
"
"
flesh
of mankind (which carries with it
means the

are,

has fallen under the dominion of sin, thus

the psych^)

becoming not merely morally indifferent, though perish"

flesh of
sin."
This Sin is a
able matter, but
mysterious power, not native to man or to the material
world, but intruding into human nature on its lower
speaks of it in
holds us in slavery

Paul

side*

reigns,

Whether he was

overcome.

abstraction, or

all

it

is

it

lives,

condemned

and

consciously personifying an

whether Sin was

him

for

really a personal

of popular mythology, is not clear.

not an inherent taint in matter, but rather

events

it is

one of the "spiritual forces of wickedness."

How

came

Sin

into

human

Paul does not answer very

traces it to

EpL
'

this

like the Devil

power,

At

terms

personal
;

age

discarnate

an

Gal.

IT. 3,
9,

crucified tie

intelligences

a question which

is

He

satisfactorily.

of a

historic transgression

vi. 12, cf.

who

nature

Col.

ii.

8,

Lord of glory

working

behind

'

the

sometimes

human
20

tie

(I Cor.
actions

ancestor

'

rulers
ii.

of

8) are

of men.

'

are in Paul generally powers hostile to men's salvation,

Rom.viii.38, 1 Cor. vi. 3,ii.i o,II Cor.xii./, Gal. i. 8, Col. ii. 18.
8 Rom. viii. 20.

Angels

Rom.

v. 12, 21, vi. 12, 14,

17-23,

vii.

8-n,

20,

viii.

3.

THE ANCIENT WRONG

in the

remote

59

was the common account

*
But in other passages
In
the background of
origin.
"
"

This

past.

given in contemporary Judaism.

he suggests a different
"
his world stand the
world-rulers

or

elemental spirits."

They have some special relation to the material world,

and it does not appear that in relation to it they are necessarily
But if man becomes subject to them, then he is fallen
to a state of unnatural slavery.
The process appears to be
after this fashion : the reason of man, being a spark of the
evil.

divine,

knew God and

read His law written on the heart

>

but instead of worshipping God and doing His will, it

stooped to adore material forms, and thereby fell under the

The

dominion of the elemental powers.

material to the place of
naturally right instincts.

and the whole

life

God

elevation of the

led to the perversion of

Reason

itself became

"

man's
"

reprobate

of mankind was thrown into disorder. 11

If the transmitted sin of

Adam

is

the characteristically

Jewish doctrine, the theory of elemental spirits starts rather

from Greek ideas. Neither can satisfy us, though each has
hints of truth
on the one hand, the solidarity of humanity
and the incalculable effects of individual transgression ; on
:

the other, the peril of exalting the physical and material to a

dominance which is not in accord with man's real nature.

What might have been the relations of flesh and spirit

had not sin intervened is a question on which Paul does not
Taking things as they are, he scans history
speculate.
everywhere the power of evil has degraded
the high estate he should hold, making even the
inner man," the reason which knew God, the conscience

and

sees that

man from
**

to His law, slave to the material part and

"
"
In the
flesh
sin
of decay and futility.
"
"
flesh
and thereby
Reason may bow to the
has its seat.
fall under the dominion of sin and decay, but its nature

which witnessed

sharer in

10

11

its

Rom.
Rom.

fate

v.
i.

12-21, cf.
18-23, 28;

IV

Ezra.

cf.

passages cited in note 7 above.

iii.

21-22,

vii.

11-12,

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

60

remains alien from

"

sin.

Flesh,"

assimilated itself to the evil power,

"

"

on the other hand, has

and the taint passes to
"

the psychi or
soul
of which it is the organ, so that the
"
desires of the flesh and of the intellect
stand for the evil

"The Flesh" therefore, in a moral

tendency in man.
mean
does
matter as evil in itself, but man's
not
sense,
emotional and intellectual nature as perverted by sin and
enslaved to material forces. 12
"
"
sin
is not for Paul
It will be evident from this that
identical

vidual

is

with actual moral transgression of which the indiis

fully responsible.
fully conscious and for which he

is the sense in which the word has been

generally
used by subsequent writers 5 but if it is taken in that
The actual
sense, then Paul is inevitably misunderstood.

That

Greek word used (hamartia\ like its equivalent in the

"
Hebrew of the Old Testament, originally meant missing

we might say, " going wrong." Now

whatever subtleties may complicate the discussion of such
the mark," or as

questions as moral responsibility and degrees of merit, at

is
something wrong with mana
racial,
corporate, a social wrongness
are made in some sense partakers by the

least it is plain that there

There

kind.

we

of which

mere

feet

That

is

is

of
the

our being born into human society*

meaning of "original sin," as the theo-

It is not the figment of an inherited

could anything so individual as guilty responsi-

logians call it
guilt

>

bility

we

how

be inherited

are

It

is

a corporate wrongness in which

by being men in

involved

this

purport of Paul's rather clumsy metaphysics

Rom. vii.

14, 18,

viii.

world.
is

to

5-8, Gal. v, 13, 19-21,

The

show how

vi. 8,

Col.

ii.

be added that in many passages

in an entirely non-moral sense as
standing simply
for the physical part of man, e.g. Rom. ii. 3, Gal. iv. 13, Col. i.
How easily the one sense passed into the other is shown
22, etc.
by a passage like II Cor. z. 2-4.
1 8,

Eph.
Paul was ffap
13,

ii.

3.

It has to

THE ANCIENT WRONG

61

the problem of evil in man is more than the problem of a

of sinful acts, which of his own free will he can stop

series
if

he makes up his mind to it. To some minds this disseem artificial. They will agree with the
"

tinction will

refused to repeat the prayer

God make
"
I
with
the
wouldn't
trouble
remark,
girl,"

who

child

good

about a

me a
God

I can be good by myself if

thing like that
a
I want to."
But
majority, perhaps, of those who take
life
There is a
seriously find that the trouble lies deeper.
little

The
deep-grained wrongness about human life as it is.
preoccupation with that wrongness as the primary interest
of the religious life is certainly morbid ; but no matter how
freely

that

and

we recognize the wonderful potentialities of

nature which we share, it remains true that

fully

human

a flaw somewhere, which defies simple treatment.

monstrous development of the doctrine of "total depravity" and the reaction against it, have partly blinded us
there

is

The

"

sin in the flesh."

to the reality of what Paul called
That
blindness has been partly connected with a fuller appreciation

of individuality and individual responsibility than Paul had

But have we not placed an exaggerated emphasis

attained.

upon

individual

responsibility

And

is

not that partly

why the whole idea of sin (in the sense in which evangelical
theology has used the term) has seemed to be invalidated
by the modern re-discovery of solidarity, and the recognition
of the influence of heredity and social environment ? It
say definitely of any particular
perpetrator was absolutely and excluWhen we have said that, it
sively responsible for it.
is often thought that the whole Christian doctrine of sin

would indeed be

wrong

act that

difficult to

its

not touch that doctrine as taught by

of
the "flesh," or lower nature of
thought
in
which
we all partake ; and of that
a
continuum
as
man,

is

disproved.

Paul
u

flesh

It does

He

"

as having acquired

towards what

is

wrong.

by some means an impulse

We

should set aside his termi-

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

62

nology, and seek

on the

fact

some other explanation of the

we must

racial

something common, something

of the term.

It

is

fact

but

surely agree with Paul, that there

is

about sin in his sense

a tendency transmitted by heredity and

deepened by environment, and its issues, like its sources,

No one of us can
are not individual merely, but racial.
disown his part in the complicated evils in which society
are wrong, and we need to be put
is
entangled.

We

right.

No

away the measure of

makes much difference here

casuistry explaining

dividual responsibility
fact

Our problem

of wrongness remains.

Indeed, with the modern emphasis

on

is

in-

the

Paul's problem.

solidarity,

rebelliousness against social evil in the world, the

and our

problem

is

pressing on us with a peculiar urgency.

Perhaps, therefore,
give ear afresh to a teacher out of that ancient
imperial world when he sets before us his thoughts upon
As we shall see, he finds the point of attack
its solution.

we may

upon

this gigantic force

not in the individual as

of wrong in the individual, though

an

isolated unit.

For the moment, however, we are concerned to pursue

For it brings disastrous consetrail of corporate wrong.

the

quences which also are corporate as well as individual.

Human history is a moral order, in which it is impossible
to

be wrong without incurring

Paul

in

calls,

much

more

traditional

rarely,

This

disaster.

language,

disaster

"The

"The Wrath

Wrath," or
of God."
It has

been supposed that Paul thought of God as a vengeful

despot, angry with men whom nevertheless He had Himself
created with the liability to err, even if He did not create
them to be damned for His greater glory. That is a mere
caricature

of Paul's

view.

There

are,

indeed,

many

"
of language that
The Wrath of
God" is not being thought of as a passion of anger
in the mind of God.
It is not without significance
indications in

that

there

his use

are

no more than

three

or

possibly four

THE ANCIENT WRONG

"

His Wrath ") appears at

"

(or

"The Wrath

where the expression

passages

Wrath

63

all,

of

while the phrase

God"
"
The

constantly used in a curiously impersonal way

Paul carefully avoids ever making God the subject of the

verb

"

to

speaks of God as
of saying that God

Once he

be angry."
"

Wrath

the

a strange

way

"

applying

made His

anger was thought of as a passion in the divine

It suggests rather a process directed or controlled
a person.^
Even in the passage which has about it most
felt, if

anger
mind.

by

is

of the sterner colours of Pharisaic theology the "vessels of

are the objects of God's forbearance ; a statement

Wrath "

which, if it does not rule out the idea that God is angry
with the persons on whom at the same time He shows mercy,
at least gives a startling paradox if Paul is supposed to have
the thought of an angry God in mind. I 4

Let

us,

then, consider the one passage where "The

"
is
spoken of in more than an allusive

Wrath of God

"The Wrath

way.
says

to

the

Romans

of
:

it

God

is

being revealed,"

to be seen

is

then

"

4C

In earthquake,

contemporary history. How,

"
God gave them up
and brimstone ?

own

in

he

work

at

in
fire

the lusts

of

God

;
gave them up
"
"
God
them
to disgraceful passions
up to their
gave
"
The Wrath of God," therefore, as
reprobate reason."

their

hearts

to impurity
5

seen in actual operation, consists in leaving sinful human

nature to "stew in its own juice." *5 This is a suffiterrible

but

if

we

conception,
ciently
in any measure of human free will,

believe, as

what

Paul did,

else is to

happen

choose steadfastly to ignore God ? Are they not

self-condemned to the reaping of the harvest of their
if

men

Qeov Rom. i. 1 8, CoL iiL 6, Eph. v. 6;

('H) 'op??. (TOV)
iii. J, Y.
Rom.
9, ix. 22 (possibly with avro/), rii. 19,
opyrj
xiil. 5, I Thess. i. 10, ii. 16 ; opyji Rom. ii. 5, 8, ir. 15, ix. 22
Eph. ii. 3, I Thess. v. 9.
X3

TJ

(ffOKtvrj pyrjg),
*4
he.

Rom.

22-23

*5

Rom.

i.

18-32,

xi*

8-10.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

64

"
"
a disordered
which is a reprobate reason
moral being, where the very instincts that should have led
"
If the
to good are perverted to the service of wrong ?
"

sinful deeds,

light that

And

is

"

in thee be darkness,

how great is that darkness

reprobation," be it observed, is the consequence

of the rejection of that knowledge of God which is native
this

"The

man.

to

Wrath," then,

eyes as the increasing horror

is

revealed before our

of sin working out

its

hideous

which overkw
takes sin is the growing perversion of the whole moral
atmosphere of human society, which cannot but affect
of cause and

to

or

greater

effect.

less

"The judgment"

degree every individual born into

Meanwhile, the characteristic personal activity of

God is not wrath but "kindness," "long-suffering,"
rooted in His love and
ready to display itself in
it

"grace."** That is why "The

word of the moral order for Paul.

last
is

real

Wrath"

it is moral
;
decay and death for the race.
not a complete account of the moral universe.
*7
To this matter we shall
justifies the ungodly."

and

But that
" God

terrible

is

The intention of this

presently turn.

the problem of sin as Paul faced

it,

is

chapter

individual

is

how

close

on the point
which every

implicated, and that if the moral

nothing more than a law of

retribution, there

order

is

is

nothing
but greater sin and moral disaster.^ &:
whole of this is only preparatory to a decisive

before sinful

man

declaration of the

Even

to set forth

and to suggest

to reality he was when he placed his finger

that sin is a racial and social fact, in

The

not the

is

The " wages of sin "

way out of apparently desperate conditions.

We

like to think
give too gloomy a view ?
that humanity left to itself would grow better.
But would
it ?
Is it not true that whole nations and societies of men
so, does

it

have sunk lower and lower out of sheer inner rottenness,

rf

Rom.ii. 22-24, S- 4> *i. 32.

17 Rom. iv.
5,v. 6,
See N. Micklem, The Ofen Light (C.R.S.) ch. iii.

vi.

23.

THE ANCIENT WRONG

65

often bringing other peoples down with them in their fell,

is a
And is such a future
solidarity of mankind ?

since there

for our species as the ghastly imaginings of

"
Time Machine " wholly inconceivable ?
Christ,

we

are told,

whom

Mr. Wells's
But Jesus

Paul professed to follow, took

no such gloomy view of human nature and

its

prospects.

may be granted at once that there is a difference of

emphasis between the Master and His disciple. There was
It

this,
Jesus worked among the Jews,
where the dominant theology took a gloomy enough view
of the nature of all men except a very few.
It was therefore His first and chief care to give hope to those who seemed
hopeless and to assure them of the glorious possibilities open
to them in the love of the Father in heaven.
Paul worked
among the pagans, where real downright evil was readily
condoned and glozed over, and its inevitable consequences
explained away, while none the less the rottenness of sin
was eating into the heart of that corrupt civilization, despite
"
all the efforts of moralists and legislators.
The Wrath "
that follows sin was actually being revealed ; and it was
part of Paul's task to open the eyes of the pagan world to
be willing to seek the better way. But
it, that they might
we cannot quote Jesus against Paul as giving an easy and

a good reason for

cheerfully optimistic view of the actual state of human

the contrary, there is enough in His teaching
society.

On

"

show that He too saw the society of His day rushing

down a steep place into the sea,'* with no hope of its redempto

"

J
Sovereignty of God." 9
was His true interpreter to the wider world.

tion save in the

Therein Paul

SeeMt.vi.23=LLzi.35,Mt.v.i3==LLxiv. 34, cf. MLix.

iii.
29, cf. Mt. xii. 32=LL xii. 10, ML viii. 35, cf.
Mt. x. 39=LL xvii. 33, Mt. xxiii. 34-36=!^. xi. 49^51, Mt. xL
*9

50,

ML

21 24~LL x. 13-15, LL xiii. 1-9, etc. The principle running

through all such sayings is that of the disastrous consequences
of wrong choice in a moral universe : cf. Gal. vi. 7. On the other
hand, the characteristic personal activity of God is illustrated in
the 'patient love of the Shepherd and the Father of the ProdigaL

CHAPTER VI

THE TYRANNY OF AN IDEA

WE

now

of our subject where

most
perhaps
original and characit is most cumbered with
time
and
at
the
same
where
teristic,
temporary elements : his treatment of the idea of Law.
The enormous importance which attached to that idea in
contemporary Judaism, and particularly in the Pharisaic
have

to approach that region

Paul's contribution

is

which Paul belonged, has already been

Law of Moses is
the
on
surface.
the one hand
On
curiously contradictory
it reflects for him that inexorable moral order which is in
branch of

indicated.

it

to

Paul's attitude to the historic

The nature of things is the will of

the nature of things.
law
which
and
the
reflects it must be of God, and thereGod,
fore holy, spiritual, just

and good.*

On

the other hand

he detests this law as the supreme instrument of slavery (why,

we shall see presently). It is not unfair to regard this
deep paradox in his thought as the penalty of a false upbringing, which had implanted almost a morbid idfe fixe
that he never threw off.

made
of the
will

it

His training and prepossessions

for ever impossible for him to take a detached view
in which he had been taught to see the eternal

Law

of God.

He might reasonably have attacked

upon equal terms of ritual

He did not do
principles.
impossible.

The Law was

x

Rom.

trivialities

so.

His

its
mixing
and awful moral

training

made

it

a vast and indivisible system

vii.

66

12, 14.

THE TYRANNY OF AN IDEA

which must somehow be accounted
entire mental background
him at this point. But it

67

for as a whole.

His

made

things peculiarly hard for

was not without advantage that

Christian thought was thus led to face with the utmost

the conflict which underlay the attack that

definition

had made upon the organized

Jesus Christ

religion

of

His day.

The
free

attitude of Jesus to the Jewish

and unembarrassed.

He made

Law was

singularly

as an imEven its ritual

tolerance where they did
full

use of

it

pressive statement of high ethical ideals*

He

practices

treated with perfect

not conflict with fundamental moral obligations. From

Pharisaic formalism He appealed to the relative simplicity

of the venerable written law.

law

humanity

But again from the written

He

itself
:

appealed to the basic rights and duties of

the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the

the Law might permit the dissolution of marriage,

\
but there was something more deeply rooted in the nature
of things which forbade it ; the lex talionis^ the centra}

Sabbath

principle of legal justice, must go overboard in the interests

of the holy impulse to love your neighbour not merely as

Such free-handed
yourself, but as God has loved you.
of
the
whole
notion
meant
that
morality as a code
dealing

of rules with sanctions of reward and punishment was

But the average Christian was slow to see
abandoned.
this

implication.

For

instance, Jesus

had taken fasting

and given

it a
acts,
place only
of
certain
and
as the fitting
spiritual
spontaneous expression
This is what an early authoritative catechism of the
states.
"
Let not your fasts be
Church made of His teaching :

out of the

class

of meritorious

fast on Monday and Thursday ;

on Wednesday and Friday." a It
but we may ask, Was it not on some very

with the hypocrites, for they

ye therefore shall fast

sounds ludicrous,

Mk.
dpostles,

ii.

viii,

18-20, Mt.
i.

vi.

16-18; Teaching of

the

Twelve

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

68

Church

similar principle that the

"

of

reconstruction

its

did actually carry through

religious

observance

"

And

Church which so perverted Christ's treatment of the ritual

law proved itself almost equally incapable of understanding
of the moral law.
was therefore of the utmost importance that one
who knew from the inside the system which Jesus
His drastic revisio
It

attacked

should,

being compelled to confront

legalism with His Master's inde-

through

own exaggerated
pendence, point the way to the more fundamental impliPaul found himself
cations of what Jesus had done.
his

reconsider, not

driven to

greatness that

and

he did so on the

but of experience.

In

its

precept or that, but the

it is a mark of his real

this

whole nature of law as such

basis,

not of theory merely,

elements, moreover, the experience

on which he founded was wider than that of a Pharisaic

Jew. For it is not of any peculiarly Jewish experience that
he speaks. For himself, no doubt, whether as Jew or as
Christian, the so-called

Law

of Moses was absolute law.

Within the sphere of law there was nothing higher or more

Yet the identical

perfect.

principle appeared also

among the

The

pagans.
pagan sense of right and wrong was God's
law written on the heart the same law as that delivered on

have said, though more doubtfully,

and
He had sympathy
imperfectly revealed.
obscurely,
Sinai,

enough

Paul would

to perceive that the Stoic too

must

fell

upon

this

problem of a law which he could not but acknowledge as

divine, which yet condemned him without giving him

There are passages in Stoic writers

tinged with a melancholy which recalls the moving transcript from Paul's experience in the seventh chapter of his
strength to do better.

Epistle to the

and not a

bottom a human problem,

Jewish one, that he is facing, but his

Romans.

specifically

It

is

at

own

bitter experience in Pharisaic

edge

to his

analysis.

Judaism lent a cutting

THE TYRANNY OF AN IDEA

69

The education of the youthful Paul in his Jewish home at

Tarsus must have been a very rigorous one. We may
compare it with the strictest kind of Puritan training which
in this country,

moulded the

a very high standard of personal purity and

that his food and
the way he had his

drilled into

probity.
clothes,

and still more perhaps in Scotland and Wales,

of a former generation. He was early

lives

As he grew up he found
the way he washed his hands,

hair cut, and

the simplest operations of a boy's daily life

were rigidly prescribed,3 and were so distinct from those of
other Tarsian boys that he was bound to ask,
?
He
all

Why

was
it

told,

Because the

in His law, as

steal

and
us.

He

God

of our fathers has commanded

has also

commanded

us not to kill or

we

do otherwise, the wrath of

So he came to think of this God
if

God

will

come

as very strong

upon
and holy, but

He was a mercialso very stern and jealous.

in the in estimbut
His
was
shown
too,
mercy
chiefly
able gift of the Law to Israel, His darling people. 4 Through
ful

God

that gift they knew, and only they, the eternal rule of life

by which alone happiness could be

attained.

"

before you this day a blessing and a curse

Paul learned to recite out of Deuteronomy.

"

See, I set

so the

young

To know the

Law and keep it in its entirety was the assured way to perfect
To infringe the least of its precepts was to

blessedness.

bring
for

down

the vengeance of a justly incensed God, "an eye

Such was the eternal

an eye, and a tooth for a tooth."

Deut. :riv. 3-21, nii. 1112, Lev. xir. 27, Mt. vii. 3-4*
See especially the saying of Rabbi Akiba (died 135 A.D.)
in Pirke Aboth, iii. 19 :" Beloved are Israel, in that to them was
given the precious instrument wherewith the world was created.
Greater love was it that it was known to them that there was
given to them the precious instrument wherewith the world was
*
created, as it is said, For a good doctrine I have given you ; forCf.
sake not my Torah (Law)'" (translation by Herford).
Psalm cilvii. 19-20, czk. 89-96, kxviii. 1-7, and Rabbinic
3

passages cited

by Weber,

of. tit.

pp. 18-25.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

7o

which God must vindicate, because He was God.5

And the Law itself in all its precepts was a pattern for
human life framed upon this eternal justice, with its root

justice,

principle of reciprocity or retribution.

of
given, in the inscrutable providence

This

Law had

God,

to His chosen

been

people as the supreme mark of His favour.

So Paul was taught at home ; and as he looked upon the
Greek boys he passed in the street, he was proud to think
that he had a secret denied to

them

all

Law

he knew the

undoubtedly brought to an earnest-minded

a real moral elevation.
Such writings as the hundred-

Its possession

Jew

show with what enthusiasm a pious

this great gift of God to his race.
could
contemplate
Jew
4S>
law
It is my meditation all the day."
!
how
I
love
Oh,
Thy
think
of
Paul
as
sharing in such emotions in his
may
and-nineteenth Psalm

We

study of the Law, especially from the time when, aiming

at the Rabbinate, he devoted himself wholly to it*
Out of
this concentration upon the Law grew on the one side an
intense national pride,

on the other an overwhelming sense

of the moral order with its awful principle of retribution.

Both were affronted by the discovery in Palestine, when he
went there, of those renegade Jews the Nazarenes, whose
leader had set himself up against the Law and denounced
its

authorized interpreters, and had at last been cast out of

the commonwealth of Israel for blasphemy against God's

Temple and His Holy Name. It was a grim enthusiasm

for the moral order which made Paul a persecutor, as it has
"

According to the Jewish mind, requital was deeply ingrained

Exceptions there might be, but
they were more apparent than real. The most solemn and the
*
most true adage in the world was measure for measure.* * All
measures shall pass away, but measure for measure shall never
The Rabbinic uses of the word Middah, Measure,
pass away.'
5

in the whole scheme of things.

Attribute,

Montefiore
55-

form a chapter in themselves*"

Beginnings of Christianity, ed. Jackson

Quality,
in

C.

&

G,

Lake,

THE TYRANNY OF AN IDEA

71

"

made many

another.
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
Paul might have thought he had his answer ready :
"Because the moral order must be vindicated and the

Me

"

law-breaker

Yet when the

home he found he had no

punished.'*

actually pressed

question
answer.

was

For while outwardly Paul was the proud, irreproachable

champion of the Law, inward struggles plunged his soul in
darkness and

The

confusion.

nature had revealed

The

of the moral law.

that took hold

weakness of his

itself in conflict

human

with the absolute claims

sense of impotence and despair

is reflected in one of the most

upon him

passages of his writings, the seventh chapter of the

to
the Romans.
It is not without significance that
Epistle

moving

the example he there uses to illustrate his point is the one

in the Decalogue which is concerned with

commandment

thought and not with overt word or

not covet," said the Law. We may
ness

is

noted in the Gospels

From

pious Pharisee.

"

act.

Thou

shalt

recall that covetous-

as a special snare

his Pharisaic days

of the

Paul was well

aware that morality must cover the inner life of feeling,

"
He is not a Jew who is such
thought, motive, and desire.
"

only outwardly
any time in his

is

life.

a sentence he might have written at

Now, it appears, he found that even

though he might conform his outward actions to the requirements of the Law he could not control his thoughts and
desires.
But the Law was a single whole ; to break one
7
He was as honest and strict
precept was to renounce all.
with himself as he was severe with others, and he fell under

He loved the Law,.

the scourge of self-condemnation.
"
consented to it as good, rejoiced in it after the inner man,"
"
The good I would,
as he says, but he could not keep it
Rom.
7

Gal.

ii.

iii.

28-29.
lo-ii.

Several Rabbinic sayings to

are quoted in Wetstein's note on Ja.

unambiguous statement of the

ii.

10,

principle.

which

is

this

effect

an early and

72
I

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

do not, and the

evil I

would

do

not, that I

when

present with me."

It is at this point that Paul's experience as a Pharisee
It was
falls in with the common experience of men.

would do good,

evil

is

"
Jew who wrote

not a

The

sequor"

moral

Video mellora proboque^ deteriora

incompetence

of

human

nature

the presence of an acknowledged ideal is no private

man may perceive the ideal clearly, and
discovery.
in

with a keen

it

contemplate

aesthetic

delight,

and yet

desires and impulses which contradict it may be so much

more real to him that his actual conduct is a perpetual denial
of the ideal. This divided state of the personality is a state

of miserable impotence, in which the freedom of the will

"
is a mere illusion.
The freedom of the will," writes a
8

modern

psychologist,

"may

be a doctrine which holds true

of the healthy, and indeed the exercise of will and determination is the normal way in which to summon the resources of

power
power

but the doctrine that the will alone

is

the

way

to

a most woebegone theory for the relief of the

is

Freedom to
morally sick and who of us is whole ?
choose ? Yes
But what if, when we choose, we have
!

no power to perform

We

open the sluice-gates, but the

we pull the lever, but nothing happens

we try by our will to summon up our strength, but no strength
channels are dry

comes."

No

wonder Paul described such a condition

as

a state of slavery.
Most of us know something about this condition, though
few of us are reduced to the depths of despair to which

Paul

tion

of a

We

came.

science

with

may be
real

practice

is

pacify

not

very

exacting

con-

But the ques-

rough approximation.
whether this half-conscious tolerance

raised,

though unacknowledged rift between ideal and

not a form of "suppressed complex" which

works more injury than we commonly imagine.

*
J. A. Hadfield, in The Spirit (ed. B. H. Streeter),

Worse
p. 87,

THE TYRANNY OF AN IDEA

73

certainly is the state of the person who is sentimental enough

to think that to admire what is noble is a sufficient substitute for doing

it.

Worst of

of pretending

to ourselves that

we

we can

find easy

"

all

is

the actual hypocrisy

by great rigour in practices

balance
the
tip
even, and

Compound for sins that we're inclined to

By damning those we have no mind to."

Such hypocrisy is often a form of instinctive self-protection,

and it is most common where moral ideals have been reduced
to the

most

precise

and comprehensive

rules

of

That

life.

probably why the Puritan of literature is so often a hypocrite, and likewise the Pharisee of the Gospels, whose

is

was

religion

discipline

to

pressed

an even more logical

He was
and
with
honest
himself.
earnest, clear-sighted,
absolutely
He could find no way out of the impasse. He could not
extreme.

Paul was not that kind of Pharisee.

its most inward and spiritual

which sought to rule the thoughts and motives.
But law must be upheld. It was in the nature of things,
and God must needs vindicate it. Where then was any

keep the Law, especially in

precepts,

door of hope for Paul the sinner

We now come to the turning-point in Paul's careen He

Damascus, the fierce avenger of an outraged Law 5
but in his heart he felt that the Law had broken him, and

set out for

hope was almost gone.

"Who
"

clutch of' this dead body ?

passes, and we meet a new Paul.

has passed from his soul, with

"

is

all

me from the
Time
The terror of the Law

will rescue

his bitter cry.

now no

the miserable sense of moral

There is now no condemnation

impotence
do anything in Him who gives me strength."
:

"

"I can
And he has
;

further thought of inflicting the terrors of the

He who

Law

once "breathed out threatenings

upon
"
and slaughter is now content if he may bear his share of
"
I am glad of
the sufferings by which others may be saved :
others.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

74

sufferings for

my

you

am making up

in

my own

flesh

the deficit of Christ's sufferings for His Body, which is the

"
"
I am crucified with Christ." 9 What we
Community ;

observe in

this

all

that the preoccupation with law,

is

and

more

precisely with its principle of retribution, has slipped

away ; and in the freedom and peace of mind that ensues
"
heart at leisure from itself" and open
Paul has gained the

new
"

secret of

He

human sympathy.

to all tides of

What

life.

has discovered

some

is it ?
*

God who

Light shall flash out of darkness

flashed upon our hearts and enlightened us with a knowledge
I0
It was a
of the splendour of God in the face of Christ"

new

said

perception of

God

that had

of Pharisaism was like the

He

aloof from the world

He

course.
sinful

did not here

men,

Paul

lets

He

come

to Paul.

of the Deists,

The God
He stood

had made, and let law take its

and now deal with individual

us see

the experience, when God

dealing with him.

God

how new and wonderful was

"flashed on his heart" in personal

had not suspected that God was

His theological studies had told him that God

was loving and merciful ; but he had thought this love and
mercy were expressed once and for all in the arrangements
like

that

He had made for Israel's blessedness

*4

the plan of salvation."

was a new thing to be assured by an inward experience

admitting of no further question that God loved him, and
It

that the eternal

erring child.

mercy was a Father's free forgiveness of His

This was the experience that Christ had

brought him : he had seen the splendour of God's own love

"
in the face of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for

Il

me."

What knowledge

of Jesus Christ and His

teaching lay behind the flash of enlightenment it is now impossible for us to say ; but it is clear that the God whom Paul

met was the

9

10

Rom.

**

viii.

Father

"

1-2, Phil.

II Cor. iv. 6.

of Jesus'

own Gospel

iv. 13, Col.

i.

24, Gal.

"

parables, the
ii.

19, vi. 14.

Gal. 2. 19-20.

THE TYRANNY OF AN IDEA

75

"Shepherd" who goes after the one sheep until He finds it

It was the God, in fact, whom the whole of the life of
Jesus
set forth, to the astonishment

of those among

Living still. He brought God

unmistakable way. The divine love

moved.

to

men

whom He
in the

same

that through Jesus

had found Zacchaeus the publican had now through the

risen Jesus found Paul the
Pharisee.
Henceforward
the central facts of
a sinner

the

God

work of

had become

life

for Paul

were

that while

he was yet
this was

had found and forgiven him, and that

Jesus Christ in whose love the love of God

About those two foci in experience his

plain.

12

theology revolves,
In order to establish against those who impugned it the
validity of his new experience of God, Paul set out to dis-

cover in what were to him and to his

critics indisputable

The interest of these

facts, the proof of his assertion.
discussions for us is limited to the extent to which they
illuminate on various sides the new conception of God and
His dealings which had come to Paul in experience.
His
argument comes to this, that while the Law had a pkce of
its

own

in the providential order,

never did and never

it

could exhaust the whole truth about

God and man.

Law

worked wholly within the sphere of reciprocity or recomBut history showed that such reciprocity was at
pense.
In the
least very irregular and incomplete in its operation.
first place, his critics must grant that in God's dealings with
"
"
there was an element
chosen people
the ancestors of the
of free choice on God's

part, altogether out of relation to

Abraham was
the deserts of the objects of that choice.
even before he had taken upon him the rite of

called

Jacob was loved by God, as the Scripture

he had done either good or ill. That
before
showed,
indicated a freedom of choice on God's part which was
circumcision.

Rom.

v. 6-8,

13-15, Eph.

i.

viii.

4-7,

ii.

Cor. r
35-39,
4-10, iii. 18-19,

H- 1 ?*
v. 1-2,

18-19, Col.

i.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

76

13
Such freedom
incompatible with the strict working of law,
of choice, however, raises a new difficulty the case of the

They

"rejects."

are left in sin, and must

on the

principles

of law pay the inexorable penalty of sin in ever greater

and greater sin until complete moral disaster and death is

"

But what

the result.

actually happens ?
with all His will to exhibit His wrath

His power, bore very patiently with

only for destruction

"

I4

There

is

What

if

God,

and make known

vessels

of wrath,'

a flaw, that

is,

fit

in the

<c
In this,
Lord,"
working of the system of recompense.
exclaims a contemporary Pharisaic writer, "shall Thy
righteousness and goodness be declared, if Thou wilt com-

The

have no wealth of good works." I5

these words is dearly very uncertain

them

passionate

that

of

writer

whether God's compassion does actually reach so far.

Paul, like most Pharisees, is sure that in all ages a

remnant at

least

verifiable in

the experience of

has found

unmerited mercy of God,

even though His normal principle was retribution.
In
other words, forgiveness is, and always has been, a fact
is

some men

at least.

wholly inconsistent with the law of retribution.

But
"

it

Do

you make light," Paul wrote, "of the wealth of His

kindness and tolerance and patience ?
Do you not know
the

that

of

kindness

"
repentance

l6

In

God

is

practice, that

trying to lead you to

is to
say, the Law as an

absolute system of recompense has wrecked itself

character of God as loving and pitiful
But this
that

God

has passed over, or

*3

Gal.

iii.

T4

Rom.

J5

IV Ezra

ix.

7-22,

iv.

**

winked

21-31, Rom.

iv.,

is

ix.

7-13.

22.
(II Esdras)

viii.

31-36, but contrast 37-62;

cf.

1-3, ix. 15, 21-22, x. 10 ; vii. 68, 133. The

about A.D. 100 ; but surely it was out of some such position

as this that
16

very fact
of

at," sin in spite

id. vii. 4.7-61, viii.

date

upon the

Rom.

Paul advanced into Christianity.

ii.

4.

THE TYRANNY OF AN IDEA

the

Law,

indicates the logical

necessity for

77

some

different

17
principle to be disclosed.

Next, and arguing still from facts which would be

admitted by his Pharisaic opponents to facts which
they
were attempting to deny, Paul showed that within the Jewish
system

itself

a principle different from the legal principle

This seems so obvious to us, to whom

was to be found.

the prophetic element

is

the heart of the Old Testament,

But to the Pharisees the Law

as hardly to need
labouring.

was the foundation of

all, the prophets merely commentary.

Paul challenged them to interpret the Law by the
prophets, and to find, even in the books of the Law itself,
statements suggesting a personal relation to God over and

In

effect,

abo\*e the merely legal relation to Him as governor of the

In effect he says to his critics, "You cannot
universe.
find a place for these sayings

that the Christian revelation of

logical necessity in the heart

/ can/*

God

is

of the old

And

so

he shows

the fulfilment of a
18

religion.

But further, the system of legal retribution was fitted,

Paul argued, to exhibit God's wrath, but not, in the full
That is a startling statement
sense, His righteousness*
or for
addressed to any Jewish public of the first century
"
"
that matter to the bulk of
Christian
opinion to-day.
Yet it was a thought not unfamiliar to the prophets,

shown in making His people

God must show Himself, says Paul, at once
righteous.
20
For all the scholastic language^
"just and justifier."
that God's righteousness

is

19

*7
18

Rom. iii. 25, cf. Ac- xvii. 30.

Rom. x., iv. 3-8, Gal. iii. 11-12,

4-18.
19 See
especially

1 Cor. r. 4, c

II Cor*

xfr. 8-25, Iv. 6-13, Ivi. I, Ixi. 10-11,

15-16, cf. Dan. ix. 16. The idea is sugIV Ezra viii. 36.
gested, but scarcely adopted, in
2
Rom. iii. 26, cf. i. 16-17, with 1 8 sqq., setting the problem
Is.

Jer. xxiiL 5-6, xxxiii.

which

is

solved in

iii.

21 sqq.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

78

is here a
very vital truth : that righteousness, or justice,
21
It is the point which
a bigger thing than mere reciprocity.
He
that a man's field
when
observed
made
Christ
drily
Jesus

there

is

and rain whether he has deserved these good things

when He likened God to an employer so lost

gets sun

or not, and
to

all

sense of justice as to pay a day's

22

God must, by an inner

"
His
do good to men
property
work.

wage

for

But within the sphere of law there

forgive."

If righteousness or justice

for forgiveness.

an hour's

necessity of His nature,

is to have
mercy and to

is

is

no place

retribution,

Once
unrighteous.
more there is a logical necessity for the revektion of
something other than law.
law assumes, then forgiveness

as

The
his

is

dilemma, therefore, which Paul places before

opponents is this : If you are once agreed that the ethical
real

the basis of all relation of God to man, then you are bound
of retribution. It appears to be

is

to deal with the moral

kw

the very foundation of morality, and yet it conflicts with the

"
God is not like that." Until
religious instinct which says,

you can

with the principle of retribution, you

clear scores

will be haunted

by it in all your attempts to give play to

As we have seen, some of Paul's Jewish
the grace of God.
of
his fellow-Pharisees, found themselves
even
compatriots,
able in

some measure to hold to the

"
'*

yet to find a

little

door

and
But if

legal principle

for the grace

of God.

you are taking morality seriously, this position cannot be

stable, and indeed Christianity itself, foiling to understand
or follow Paul, has given proof how if you persist in identifying righteousness with retributive justice, and then insist
God must be righteous or just before He is merciful,
you cannot let the character of God have that effective
that

power

in the religious

Yet law
21

and moral

serves a purpose.

See

Norman Robinso n,

Mt.

v. 45, xi,

1-16*

life

After

which belongs to it.

the moral order of

all,

Christian Justice, in this series.

THE TYRANNY OF AN IDEA

which

retribution

it

embodies

is

a real fact, though

79
it is

not

the only relevant fact, nor the final and decisive fact.
If
"
Paul had worked with the idea of development or
evolu-

he might have explained the place of law as a necessary

Indeed he comes very near to
"
*
"
so.
The
he
was our pedagogue,'
Law/*
doing
says,
until Christ should come."
Those words have been inter-

tion,"

stage in that development.

preted as though they described the

Law

as a preparatory

education, continued at a higher stage by Christ

not quite what Paul meant. The

"
in Greek society was not a
schoolmaster."

however,

is

"

That,
"
pedagogue
He did not

He
give lessons (at least that was not his natural function).
was a slave who accompanied a boy to school, and both
him and also exercised a supervision which
He is, in fact, a
interfered with the boy's freedom of action.
in
little
which
Paul
the
figure
gives us to illustrate
allegory

waited upon

the position of the People of God before Christ came. There

was a boy left heir to a great estate. He was a minor, and
so must have guardians and trustees.
He was as helpless
in their hands as if he had been a slave.
He must live on

the allowance they gave him, and follow their wishes from
"
"
day to day. They gave him a pedagogue to keep him
He could not please himself, or realize
out of mischief.

own

Yet all the time he was

purposes and ambitions.
and
the
was
one else's. Just so the
estate
his
no
5
the
of
Divine
Commonwealth, was cramped
People
God,
and fettered by ignorance and evil times. It remained in
his

the heir

uneasy expectation of one day coming into active existence*

At last the heir came of age : guardians and trustees
abdicated their powers, and the grown man possessed in full
realization all that was his.
So now the fettered life of

the Divine

Commonwealth

bursts

its

bonds and comes into

active existence.

The Law
tory stage of

therefore appears as a necessary but transiIt was not fundamental to God's

discipline.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

80

In the same passage Paul points

dealings with His sons.
out, in his scholastic fashion, that historically the Law came
"
"
had been given to
four hundred years after the
promise
"

faithful

Abraham

"

and the

"

testament

"

by which

His blessing upon Abraham could not be

In
reversed by a codicil added four hundred years later *3
other words, the intervention of law was not a reversal of

God

devised

God's original and eternal purpose of pure love and grace

towards men ; it only subserved that purpose, while it
"
seemed to contradict it, just as the presence of the
peda"
heir
the
seem
to
high-spirited
might
young
quite
gogue
contrary to the rights secured to him by his father's will.
How then did the Law subserve the purpose realized in
Christ

Paulas answer

is

so startling that his commentators

have been reluctant to take his words in their plain mean"

The Law," he says, " came in, by a side wind, in
ing.
" *4
If Paul
order that there might be more transgression
often talked like that, we can understand how he shocked
!

the good folk at Jerusalem, Jews and Christians alike !

Yet there is no great difficulty in resolving the paradox.
The Law came in, not to increase " sin," of course, but to

We have seen

increase transgression.

that for Paul

**

sin

"

of the Race, in which things have gone wrong,

quite apart from any consideration of a conscious or deliberate
is

state

wrongdoing on the part of any

came, sin was in the world, but

individual.

"

Before law

not imputed where

there is no law." *5
The knowledge of the moral law con*
fronts the sinful state with a rule of goodness, and
by the
contrast brings

home

the

wrong

sin

is

to the conscience as guilt.

An

examination of the seventh chapter of Romans makes

this dear.
have already treated that chapter as an
index to Paul's state of mind just before his conversion.

We

But the passage

33

Gal.

iii.

is

ideal

biography rather than a

*4

ij-iv. 7.
*5

Rom-

r.

Rom. v.
1-1+.

20,

cf.

strict tran-

Gal.

Si. 19.

THE TYRANNY OF AN IDEA

"
script

from the

life."

"

81

It starts with the description of an

age of innocence," which for the individual as for the

race is an inference of reason or a figment of the imagination
rather than strict history.
There never was a time when
Paul, or when the human race, was self-conscious without
also being in some
rudimentary way conscious of moral

Yet by comparison with later stages we may

obligation.
"
use as a working concept the notion of an age of innocence."

By that is meant, not that one did no wrong, but that one
had no sense of any contrast between what one actually
"
did and what one ought to have done.
Once I lived my
own life, without any law," Paul puts it. But while that
stage remained there was no chance of better things. The
establishment of a clear distinction between right and wrong
was essential. Yet it is probably true that in every normal

emerged in conscience as the sense of

done
wrong, the sense of guilt or shame, essentially
having
"Law came to life and I
humiliating and painful.
case this distinction

Then

died,"

follows the phase of struggle and defeat, with

which we have already

dealt.

necessary here to distinguish between two counts

He found that the
Paul
which
brings against law.
It

is

knowledge that a thing was wrong provoked him to

seek it, so that to that degree law actually increased

u sin"
lore

The
"

fact

is

in proverbial
to stand as a wide-

sufficiently attested

stolen fruits are pleasant

"

spread experience. But it is not so important or perhaps

so universal as Paul seems to have thought ; or at least it is
it appears to have been
scarcely so important universally as
for him.

In any case it rather obscures his main point, which

Every individual of the human race is so entangled

" that he has no
*c
power, left to
wrongness
acts
whether
avoid
to
which,
himself,
committing constantly
he knows it or not, add to the sum of the wrong. To knowthat these acts arc wrong does not prevent him from doing
6
is

this

in the general

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

82

them, for

**

the law

is

weak through

the flesh

"
;

**

but

it

does imprint upon his conscience in the indelible characters

of shame and guilt the contrast of good and evil. It brings

sin

"

home, from being a general state of the human race,

burden upon the mind of the individual.
"
"
it is
no longer "sin merely
transgression."

to be a conscious
It

is

We may compare the condition which Aristotle describes as

tk

incontinence/'

now
he

the essence of which

is

that the individual

he did not at a lower stage, that the things

are
doing
wrong, and yet cannot keep himself from

knows,

is

27

them*

as

makes

Aristotle

state

this

the

natural

approach

to the next higher, that of

continence," in which the
known
are
be
to
things
wrong
through struggle and effort
it is a
discarded.
great
gradually
Similarly, Paul sees that

advance to have discovered sin in one's

Only the man who

own

heart as

guilt.

conscious of his guilt can be saved

from the sin of which he is guilty. Only as the individual
is

acknowledges such guilt can the racial wrongness be sucIn this sense, the function of law as
cessfully attacked.
"
"
can
be regarded as part of a beneficent
increasing guilt
divine plan.

Otherwise

But only

if

there

we may

is

something

else to follow.

Paul's charge against

hope.
give up
the Judaism in which he was brought up was that its
all

view of the world went no further than the merely legal

Perhaps his statement of the case was sometimes
stage.
too sweeping.
Surely he would have admitted that at all
times it was possible even within Judaism for men to
transcend the purely legal attitude, and that as a matter

of

fact

This

many

is,

saints

of the

implied

indeed,

Seven Thousand

and

in

old

order had

done

his references

to

Remnant.

But

Isaiah's

so.

Elijah's

in

the

main the highest moralists of his time did

actually
see no further than a system which
attempted to build
^ Rom. viii. 3, cf. IV* Ezra iii. 20-22.
*7

'AKpavia

see Nlcomackean Ethics, VII. 1*1 0.

THE TYRANNY OF AN IDEA

83

of man exclusively upon that principle of

which
reciprocity
they discerned in the nature of things,
and allowed no real place for a fresh, direct, personal act of
the moral

life

the loving, gracious God whom yet they professed to worship.

Paul held that this God had indeed framed a universe in

which the principle of

retribution

was

at

work

for

he

Law

largely answered to real facts,

and certainly he never doubted that evil is ultimately
The conception
disastrous and good ultimately blessed.

never denied that the

of a right which should be defeated at the end of the day

did not dawn upon his mind
that was left for Mr. Bertrand
:

Russell
reactions,

But this whole universe, with all its complex

he held to have been constituted by God to the

end that through it man might rise to a higher order, that

"
"
"
At that point the pedagogue
sons of God."
of the
must step aside, and God's heir claim his freedom.

CHAPTER

VII

THE SOX OF GOD

"WHAT the law could not do, because it was powerless
through our lower nature, that God did, by sending His
own Son." i From what has already been said it should
*
be clear that the problem before Paul was not How can a
*
'
God is by His
just God forgive sin ? but Granted that
nature both "just and justifier,"

He must

forgive sin
righteous
how is that righteousness to be

i.e.

that because

He

is

and impart righteousness,

made

available for

man

therefore not a problem of the adjustment of abstract

principles of justice and mercy, but of the relations of God
It

is

and man on the personal plane. Man must discover himWith this in view, " When the full
self as a son of God.
time had arrived, God sent out His Son, born of a woman,
born in subjection to law, in order that He might emancipate
those who were subject to law, i.e. that we might receive
3

adoption into sonship."

It is not here proposed to attempt any discussion in detail
of what is called the " Christology " of Paul. It is a highly
speculative structure of thought,

making use of a difficult

is
compounded

As a philosophy it
philosophical vocabulary.
of various elements, not easily disentangled.

First, already
in pre-Christian times there was a
highly elaborated body
of Jewish doctrine concerning the Messiah.

Implying

at one
1

time no more than an ideal Hebrew prince of

Rom.

viii.

3.

Gal.

iv.

45.

THE SON OF GOD

85

the dynasty of David, the conception had attracted to

some of the most mystical elements

At

in

Jewish

itsel

religious

the

beginning of the Christian era the

Messiah was widely thought of as an eternal Being, called
"
The Son of Man," or " The Man," as though He were the

thought.

type or representative of humanity, abiding with God from

eternity, partly revealed in vision and mystical experience
to saints of all ages, such as Enoch and Ezra, but des-

all

"in the fulness of

tined

fested for the

now

time" to be openly maniconsummation of human history.3 It may

be taken as certain that Jesus believed Himself to

life and went to His death in

be Messiah, and shaped His

that conviction.
The only question is to what extent He
shared various forms of contemporary belief about the
It
Messiah, and in what ways He re-shaped the idea.
least highly probable that He was the first to link
"
Servant
the thought of the Messiah with that of the ideal
"
" in the
"
Second
Isaiah
the
of Jehovah
prophecies of

seems at

the Servant

who would

suffer

and die that others might

know God.

Without further discussion, it will be plain

that Paul was from the outset within the sphere of Messianic
ideas, both in their traditional form in Pharisaic Judaism,
and in the form in which from the life and teaching of Jesus
they had passed into early Christian circles.
Further, Messianic beliefs had already, to some degree,
become fused in certain types of Jewish thought with the
idea of the

"Wisdom" of God, by which He made

He reveals Himself to man. And

the world, and by which

turn had been brought in contact with the Greek

"
"
or eternal Reason the rational
doctrine of the
Logos
this in

order of the universe, and the divine spark in man.

Paul never actually identifies Christ with the

"

Although
Logos," as

Charles' Apocrypha
3 See
especially The Book of Enoch (in
and Pstudcpigrapha), and IV Ezra (=11 Esdras in the English

Apocrypha)*

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

86

the author of the Fourth Gospel does, yet in his attempt to

understand the position of Christ in relation to man and his

world he owes much to Logos speculation ; and he does

"
The Wisdom of God, in so many words. 4
1'

call Christ

In the world outside Judaism, the most living religions of

u

the time generally centred in faith in a

Saviour-God," who
was often believed to have lived, died, and risen again, and

with

whom

win fellowship through

believer could

the

"

These were the so-called mystery-religions."

Their origins were various, their rites were sometimes
wild and licentious, and in most the superstitions of magic

certain

rites.

and astrology played a part ; but at best their offer of fellowship with a Saviour-God ministered to a real religious need
of the time.

The

view has been put forward that Paul

reacted from Judaism practically to a mystery-religion of

the ordinary type, with Jesus Christ as its mythical Saviour-

God.

One need

opinion,

if

not be committed to any such paradoxical

one holds that he was influenced both in thought

cults
probably not from personal
"
"
but
that
because
sort of thing was
in the air
knowledge,
of the religious world at the t'me. His audience in the

and language by these

It did
pagan world had not the background of Judaism.
not know what he was talking about when he spoke of
"
"
"
the Christ
the
(" Messiah ") ; but when he spoke of

Lord, the Saviour," the phrase at

to

their minds.

Their highest

conveyed some idea

religious experience had
least

hitherto been associated with language of that kind, and it

expressed an idea which could be filled in from the abundant

material supplied by Christian experience and

by the life
and teaching of Jesus Himself. The Christian
missionary
in India,
say, to-day, follows a not very different plan.
From such sources are the terms of Paul's " Christology" derived. But it cannot be too

emphatically

* I Cor.

i.

24, 30.

Tiie

'

Wisdom

'

idea

is

best represented

by the books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus in the English Apocrypha.

THE SON OF GOD

repeated that the thing he

is

87

talking about in these terms

not a speculative idea, but a piece of real experience.

That he had met Christ face to face he never doubted ; it
"
was a part of his actual history.
It pleased God to reveal
"
"
"
His Son in me ;
last of all. He was seen of me also
;
is

"

henceforth I

in

me

ditions I live

loved

am

and the

me and

alive,

life

and yet not

I

now

my

trust

which

by virtue of

I,

but Christ

is

alive

under phvsical conin the Son of God, who

live

gave Himself for me."

This

is

the authentic

Mr. H. G. Wells has

language of personal experience.
"
told us that what he means by
God " has a close
resemblance to what Paul meant by
is
so far right that each of these

of a

meeting

personal

who

Leader,

known

is

an

with
at

once,

"

Christ."

men

is

He

us

telling

unseen Friend and

be the

to

intuitively,

Leader of humanity, and the Friend of

all

who have

yielded themselves to the divine call sounding in the heart

of man. So far as one can judge, the chief specific differ-

ences in the experience of the two men are that Paul's

"
"
bears the definite ethical lineaments of the hisChrist
toric Jesus,

He

and

and

Creator.

its

eternal type of

He

is,

Wells's "Invisible King,"

vision that

"
Son of God
the
between personal beings
What Paul saw in the

in fact, the

the relationship

all

and the personal Centre of

changed

his life

the face of Christ."

The

of

Mr.

that, unlike

has a real and intimate relation to the whole universe

God " by which

reality.

was

"

"

the splendour of God in

"
met is the Wisdom

Christ he

the worlds were framed

that

is,

as

we

might put it, the ultimate meaning of all reality is no other

than the meaning of the life and character of Christ.
But,
**
like the
Invisible King," Paul's Christ has had a history
entwined with the history of man.
Gal.

6,

xii.

i.

15-16,

ii.

19-20,

Cor.

Man

ix. i, iv.

was made

4-8,

1-9.

God

the Invisible King, p. 6,

cf.

pp. ziii-xiv.

cf. II

"

Cor.

in
iv.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

88

"

"

''

of God is Christ.7
:
that
the image of God
image
There is in men a life derived from their natural progenitor,
"
whom Paul calls by the Hebrew word for man, Adam."

But there

is

linked with

in men also a higher life, by which they are

"
The first man
God and the eternal order.

Adam became a living psy:hs^ the last Adam, a life-giving

The first man is earthy, of clay the second
Spirit.
Man is from heaven." This second Adam or heavenly
Man-in-men is Christ. 8 The people of God in their ancient
.

"

pilgrimage

drank of the

and that rock

is

Christ ";

rock that followed them,

spiritual
9 or,

petual springs of the spiritual

as

we

life

might put it, the perof the Race are found in

Him.

we now recall what was said above of the dealings

God in history for the founding of the Divine Commonwealth, we shall see that in Paul's view every step in that
If

of

direction

was

in

some sense an act of Christ within humanity

And every such step led forward to some decisive act in

which what was before obscure and halting should become
definite

and

Then

effective.

at last

"in the

fulness of

time," Christ came.

By a gracious act of God, His Son
"
"
was sent forth ; or, to put the same thing in another
way5 by His own act of will, in absolute unity with the pur-

"

He made Himself of no consequence,

pose of His Father,
the
accepted
standing of a slave, and was born in human
form ; and so, presenting the appearance of a man, He
stooped to a subordinate position, and persevered in it
"
death
a death on the gallows !
In other words,

who

till

He

always and everywhere the Man-in-men became a

a
man^ Jew, a crucified criminal. I0
So stated, the thought is by admission a difficult
one.
7

is

But there are certain points which need to be

II Cor.

iv,

8 I Cor. iv.
10

Gal.

iv. 4,

4, Col.

45-49,

Rom.

L 13-19,

cf.
i.

II Cor.

cf.
iii.

3, viii. 3, II

I Cor.

viii.
9

17.

Cor.

viii.

6.

I Cor. x. 4.

9, Phil.

ii.

6-8.

THE SON OF GOD

observed.

The

question

in

Paul's

mind

89
not a ques-

is

tion of the scarcely thinkable combination in one person

of the contradictory attributes of transcendent Deity on

"
"
and non-divine
natural
one hand and of a purely
the
on
other.
itself means Christ,
humanity
Humanity
and has no proper meaning without Him.
Unless a man
"
is a
he has yet
son of God," he is so far less than man
"
to grow
to a mature man, i.e. to the measure of the full
stature of Christ."
The history of man is the story of
the course by which mankind is becoming fully human. The
"
"
Mind in this
the
the

controlling
of the whole process

life-giving Spirit

history

Paul conceives as a real personality,

in
that
relation to God in which alone
standing already
man is fully human ; already, and eternally, Son of God.

The emphasis, implied in Paul's teaching, upon the absolute importance of the entry of this Son of God into human
history as an individual may be regarded as a part of the
general movement of thought by which during these
centuries the individual was for the first time being dis-

covered, simultaneously with the transition from national

or tribal to universal conceptions of human history.
In
the centre of this movement stands the personality of Jesus
Christ, intensely individual, and yet wonderfully universal

an individual who consciously gathered up in His hands the

threads of history, and who has proved Himself through
following ages to have a direct affinity with the most diverse
types of

man

We

in all peoples.

can yet discern in

Him

a continuity with the universal higher impulses of humanity,

and a personal command of men who are brought in touch

with Him; and these are essentially the facts lying at the
base of Paul's conception of the Son of God who became a

man
to

**

in the fulness of time."

add,

what we

achievement which

To

this,

however,

we have

presently consider, the definite

Paul saw to have issued from the life

shall

11

Eph.

iv.

12-15.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

9o

solid part of history.

achieved historically that
"
lifePaul identified Jesus with the Son of God who is the
"
it
be
of
suggested, is
may
humanity. This,
giving Spirit
"
"
than
a firmer ground for the building of a
Christology
the
data
of
minute
concerning
meagre
analysis

and death of Jesus, and which stands as a

It

is

on the ground of what

He

psychological
Not that
the self-consciousness of Jesus in the Gospels.
for the investigation
psychology is of no importance here
;

of phenomena of personality which seem

to lie

beyond the

threshold of ordinary individual consciousness may well lead

us nearer to an understanding of the greatest difficulty in

which Paul's teaching about Christ after all leaves us the

union of the universal and the individual in one personality,
any case we must

set it down as a very sugin

Paul's
element
gestive
thought, that he regards the
life of Jesus as a
individual
whole of the
workingout of one supra-historic act of self-sacrifice, in which

In

we
of

the

see

may

self-sacrifice

to

gathering-up of the whole impulse

be found in the history of mankind.

" from
whom all
and there was one human life which was
It

is

"

the

life-giving Spirit

comes,

entirely an
in that intense, purposive and deliberate

expression of

it,

form which

proper only to individuality."

is

this

According to

Paul, not only had that life of self-sacrifice decisive results

for all men, but it marked a crisis also in the
of
Christ.

By

relation to

that humiliation

He

humanity and to God,

Him " to be Lord of the Racers

life-history
actually attained a new
"
for
God highly exalted

Henceforward having by
His earthly ministry and death pioneered a
highway for
Himself into the hearts of men, He dwells
in
spiritually

conscious

communion with

all

those

who

the image of His

dying, so that their
Col.
*3 Phil.

i.

19,

ii.

23-27, Rom.

ii.

4,

life is

hidden with

9.

9-11, CoL
i.

are conformed to

yiii.

i.

18-20, Eph,

34, iiv. 9.

i.

20-23,

Cor. iv.

THE SON OF GOD

91
"

Christ in God, and on earth they form His body,

until He
come." 14 For a day is yet to come when Christ will he

"

revealed

who

"

new and fuller way, and with Him all

And in a figurative or mythological

in a

share His

life.

form he shows us Christ

as the Captain of His redeemed,

His
foes
to
the
smiting
ground and the last of them is
death.
a
redeemed and deathless universe,
Lord
of
Then,
:

He makes

the

humiliation

He

last

As

sacrifice.

in

the hour of His

rendered up His body and soul to

God

for

the redemption of the world, so now, its victorious King,

He yields up the Body His Spirit has created "that

God may

be

to finish

and

and

all

in all."

IS

"
Such is in rough outline Paul's conception of the historic
"
a Christ who has a history of His own, intimately
Christ
connected at every stage with the history of Alan from start
;

who

appears as an individual to share man's

at a point historically determined by His own

That appearance
as hidden Spirit in humanity.
life

an individual

as

the

is

working
on earth

the history both of Christ

crisis in

Himself and of the humanity He saves and leads. The

ministry of Jesus, therefore, culminating in His death, is
whole thought. If in certain aspects of
the death that bulks most largely because

essential to Paul's
his
it

theology

seemed

it is

him

to

be the purest and most moving

to

expression of what the whole life meant he is quite

aware that the ethical impulse given by the example
and teaching of Jesus is of the very stuff of the

Christian

He

life.

sparingly, but

those

alludes

I Cor. 1.

iv.

i.

16-17,

1 8,

4-16; Rom.

Col.
*5

i.

27,

iii.

24,

viii.

9-1

*ii.

ii.

12-27, Rom.

19,

iii.

9-11, 17,
1

the

Gospel

story

but

study his teaching most closely

himself acting and speaking
is

become aware that he

15), Col.

to

who

(cf.

IThess.iv. 13-7. 10,

Gal
1

Cor.
iii.

xii.

EpL

15,

iii.

28),

4-5

(cf. also I

Cor.

vi,

23, ii. 5-7, 15-22,

ii, 23, II Cor. iv. lo-n,
i.

EpL

iii.

Cor.iv. 12-28, Eph.

14-19.
10 ct passim.

i.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

92

through under the impulse of the life and teaching of

16 it
Jesus. If he refuses to "know Christ after the flesh/"
all

means that he

will not risk a harking-back to the

temporary

conditions of the Galilaean ministry when the Spirit of

The issues
Christ is clearly leading out into new fields.

of that ministry have been gathered up in the new experi"

ence of Christ in me," and that experience gives a living
Christ,

who

onward those who

leads ever

will adventure

with Him, and not a prophet of the past, whose words might
pass into a dead tradition.

At
with

the same time, the indwelling Christ is continuous

Man who died ; and Paul clearly assumes a

the

knowledge of the Jesus of the

spondents.

It

in

is

probable,
to meet

Gospels in his corre-

fact,

our

that

earliest

new
Gospel
Churches of the Gentile Mission, and that the Gospel
according to Luke represents the picture of Jesus Christ
took

form

the

needs

of

the

which was given to the Pauline Churches by one who had

worked for years under Paul's own direction. At the
same time, we must say that Paul's service to Christianity
might have been even greater than it was if he had given
dear expression to the direct religious value of the life

One

that Jesus lived.

of the tasks

still
awaiting Christian
of
out
the
thought
filling
categories of Pauline
the
of
from
content
the
human
life of Jesus.
The
theology
Christian of this generation, to which modern scholarship

is

the

has given a clearer picture, perhaps, of Jesus of Nazareth

than has been possessed by men since the earliest ages of
Christianity, should steep his

of the Gospels,

mind

in the stories

and sayings

Figure of Jesus stands before him

and then turn anew to the glowing

until the

in the colours of

life,

language in which Paul

tells

him and means

men.

for all

what
So

that Figure

we

shall

meant

for

miss neither

the vivid humanity of the Gospel story nor the splendid

* II

Cor. v. 16-17.

THE SON OF GOD

universality of Paul's vision of Christ

93

the unseen

Com-

panion of humanity on its long pilgrimage, who for the

accomplishment of His high mission wrough: in a human
life

the critical act of deliverance.

To
now

the consideration of that act of deliverance

turn.

we must

CHAPTER

VIII

THE DECISIVE BATTLE

IT

will be well at this

oint to recal the view

which Paul

of the situat'on with which Christ came to

Humanity was fightirg a losing battle against Sin.

sets before us

deal

For Sin had laid claim to the whole range of man's physical
The "inner man" maintained a
and psychical existence.
feeble protest, especially where it was fortified by a dear
But that protest
knowledge of Right as expressed in law.
did not make itself effective in action, for knowledge of
the Law could not of itself overcome the weakness of the
"
So complete was the social and racial degradation
flesh,"
of mankind that no individual born could escape partaking
in the general wrongness, consciously or unconsciously.
In either case the wrong way of life must lead to disaster

"

The Wrath,"

or inevitable Nemesis of Sin in a moral

meet the need, a way must be found to
break the power of Sin and secure for man a new moral
competency and at the same time to replace the revelation
of Right in terms of law by one which should establish
universe.

To

personal relations congruous with the real character of God.

There will therefore be two sides to the work of Christ, a

negative or backward-looking, and a positive or forwardOn the one hand He must defeat Sin and clear

looking.
scores with

Law.

On

the other hand

He must

bring

man

moral power and create in him a principle of self-determined

These two aspects of the matter cannot
goodness.
always
94

THE

DECISIVE BATTLE

95

be clearly distinguished, for they are complementary at every

but we may say roughly that the one side is repre-

stage ;
sented

by what

called the doctrine of Justification

is

Faith, the other by the even

"

by

more important Pauline teach-

We

in Christ."
ing about life
of
the
matter.
aspect

consider

first

In order to understand Paul's teaching here

the former

it

is

neces-

belief in the solidarity

sary to give full weight to
of man.
On the one side that solidarity Is considered as
his

"forensic,"
tion

which

In

sentative.

mankind is regarded as a real corporaand suffers in the person of its repre-

i.e.

acts

primitive

the tribe or other

society

community

is

"

the
so

personality"

of

much more

defined than that of the individuals composing

it

clearly
that the

whole community naturally suffers for any crime of one

of its members.
If an Achan breaks tabu^ his whole kin
If a Macdonald of Glencoe delays to take
the oath of allegiance, his whole clan must be massacred.

must
It

perish.

is

of the

only an extension of that idea when Paul thinks

human race as a corporation represented on the
**

natural plane by
Adam," the hypothetical ancestor, whose
act of sin involves the whole Race 5 but capable also of being

represented by Christ, and sharing likewise in His "act

of righteousness." I On the other hand the solidarity is

considered as metaphysical.

of human nature,
each

Flesh," or the lower part

thought of as a continuum, in which all

It is a tainted heritage which comes
share.
is

men
man burdened

individual
to

"

Thus a blow

with

the

of

racial

sin.

Sin by any human being

"
is struck on behalf of all.
flesh

who

results

struck at

partakes of the

"

On this double idea of human solidarity rests the theoretical

It
exposition of Paul's thought about the work of Christ
is clear that for the purpose of his doctrine the reality of

Christ's

human
1

life is

Rom.

absolutely demanded.

v* 12-21, I Cor. rv.

21-22.

Only a

real

96

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

man

of

flesh

and blood could strike the blow

"

;r all

men.

in the fcrm of sinful flesh.'*

says Paul, sent His Son
The word '" form " is not to be taken as expressing any
"
flesh/' Christ occupied the post
unreality.
By taking

God,

of danger,
as

for Sin

gift

was lord of the

That He

its slave.

He gave

to all

flesh,

and claimed

successfully resisted that

claim

Him
is

the

are partakers with Him of our

was not a sinner in His own person ;

men who

common nature. He
"
God made Him
but

sin for us."

That

is

said

from the

"

**

doctrine of solidarity.
forensic
point of view rather of the
Jesus was made the representative of sinful man, and so before

the law was responsible for

metaphor of a law-suit.

sin.

Sin

We have now an elaborate

claimed

(personified)

its

slave, but the verdict was given against the plaintiff.

That, and not merely the moral censure of sin, is meant by
"
God condemned Sin in the flesh.**
the strange phrase that

The daim

of Sin upon Christ was disallowed, and therefore

the daim of Sin upon all men who are identified with Christ
was disallowed. His death, which might seem a victory
for Sin,

is

shown by the following

resurrection not to be

such a victory. Death had not touched Christ's real self ;

it had become, instead of final defeat, a passage out of the
"
"
"
"
The
bondage of flesh into the liberty of the Spirit.'*
death He died, He died in relation to Sin, once for all ; the
life that

He lives, He lives

in relation to

God."

the representative of a corporation

which potentially includes all humanity. Those who are
made one with Christ by that act of "faith," which we shall

In

all this,

Christ

is

presently consider more particularly, enter at once into the

benefits of this emancipation from Sin and this liberty of the
Spirit It is very clearly to be observed that Christ's action is
throughout stricdy representative. He acts for us, but not in
a sense which excludes us from the act, but rather includes
"One died for all ; therefore all dieda " says Paul
as in it
* II

Cor. y. 21,

Rom.

viii.

3, vi.

ro.

THE

DECISIVE

BATTLE

97

And when he comes to expound the

tter
quite clearly.
in more detail, he shows that this co-operation in the act,
however

"

"

it is conceived, is to be
inter"
He died for all, so that
preted in a very practical way.
those who live should no longer live for themselves."
In
fact, Christ's action becomes available for men exactly in

forensically

proportion as His representation of them becomes a real

that

thing,
tions,

own

is

in proportion

and make them

lives

the

as

they accept

its

guiding principles

implica-

of their

It is surely in a similar sense that we must understand

the metaphor of sacrifice, which has been pressed so exclusively in much Christian theology, though so far as Paul

concerned it is less akin to his habitual ways of thought

than the metaphor of the lawsuit. The practice of sacrifice
is in one form or another characteristic of all
religions
is

The meanings
stages of development.
are various, but almost all depend upon the idea of
The victim is often considered
solidarity in some sense.
as one with the Deity, and the worshippers by partaking
in

their

given to

in

earlier

it

the sacrifice are admitted to the same unity.

The

sacrificing priest acts in a completely representative capacity :

his act is the act of the body of worshippers, and the benefits

of the act accrue to them

all.

Again, in

many forms of

ancient sacrifice the priest so represented the Deity that

he was considered as identical with the Deity, and so also
with the victim he offered.
Deity, victim, priest, and worshippers formed in the act of sacrifice an organic whole.

how much of this complex of ideas lay explicitly in the

minds of the people to whom Pau" wiote it is 'mpossible
to say ; but such is the background of the most universal
It has indeed
element in the religions of his time.

Just

been well observed that to the ancients it '-eemed that

they had told the inmost secret of a matter when they had
3 II

Cor. v. 14-15,

Rom.

vi.

5-8.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

98

it

expressed

in terms of sacrifice, whereas for us

there that the difficulty begins.

may find a clue to the idea

We

it is

just

which for Paul was

most regulative of the meaning of sacrifice in the exhortation which he addressed to his correspondents at Rome :
"Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
the worship which
To give the sentence its proper tone
reason renders/
we may recall that by "body" Paul meant the whole
for God's acceptance, for this

fit

personality,

blood.

and not merely the structure of flesh and

therefore first of all the dedication

Sacrifice is

God

to

is

of

one has and

that

all

is.

It

is

of

surely

he speaks when he uses that old-world

"the
blood
of Christ"
For to the ancient
expression
"
5
this sacrifice that

mind the life thereof is the blood thereof." The shedding

of blood meant the laying down of the life. And this laying
down of the life derives its full significance from the
thought of

solidarity.

An

ancient prophet

had drawn

from the thought of solidarity the splendid conception of an

ideal Servant of the Lord who hould surrender h!s life in
all

manner of humiliation and

"

live.

By

Thou

shalt

his

make

shall

My

suffering that others

his life

an offering for

might

sin.

righteous Servant justify many."

knowledge
seems to have been in that thought that Jesus went to His
death.
Paul did not regard this self-sacrifice of Christ as
It

being altogether different in kind from the self-sacrifice to

which

Christian people are called in their

He
way.
"
himself
to make up the deficit of Christ's
professed
ready
7
the
But
sufferings on behalf of His
all

Community."

Body,

there was a completeness about the self-dedication of Christ

which, like everything about Him, pointed to a unique

4

Rom.

Gen.

Eph,

i,

6 Is.

7,

rii.

ii.
ii.

liii.

i.

4:
13,

Rom. iii.
Col i. 20.

so

xo-ii.

25, v. 9. I Cor. x. 16,

7 Col.

i.

zi.

24, II Cor.

i.

25, 27,

5-7,

THE

DECISIVE BATTLE

relation to the universal action

for

in

and

its

in

99

and eternal purpose of

God

man, and which

certainly proved itself decisive

The sacrifice of Jesus Christ takes

historical results*

unique significance from what He was. The ethical

"
of it all is most clearly brought out by Paul.
Just
as the transgression of a single individual issued in condemnaits

basis

tion for all

issued

men, so the

for all

men

righteous act of a single individual

in

setting-right

('justification'),,

which brought (new) life.

For as through the disobedience of one man the multitude of men were set wrong, so
B
by the obedience of the one the multitude will be set right,"
In the light of

which Paul most

in sacrificial

"

All

terms

we may

read

the passage in

explicitly sets forth the

work of Christ

all

this

went wrong and missed the divine splendour

and

all

are set right by God's free grace through the emancipation worked
in the person of Jesus Christ.
God set Him forth as a means of

annulling sin, through the trust (of men), in virtue of the laying-

down of His

life.

This

God

did to show His righteousness,,

because of His passing-over of former wrongdoings while He

held His hand
with a view to showing His righteousness at
the present time, so that He might be at once righteous and the
Setter-right of those who take their stand upon trust in Jesus." 9

On

this difficult passage

two comments

in particular

must

First, the word which our familiar version givts

as "propitiation" does not mean propitiation, which is

be made.

The noun
properly the soothing of an angry person.
from
verb
the
hilasterion is derived
hilaskesthat^ and means*
an instrument or means for the accomplishment of the action
indicated

"
is
8
10

by the verb. The original meaning of hilaskesthai

an angry person." I0 In the Greek Old Testa-

to soothe

Rom. v. 17-19.
From this sense of

9
IXao-ireo-flat is

Rom.

derived the

iii.

23-26.

common

usage
e
a propitiatory
pagan inscriptions, 9EOIS IAASTIIPION,
'
offering to the gods ; but it is a mistake to argue directly from
this to the Christian use of the noun.
in

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

ico

rnent, for example,

so used for Jacob's propitiation of

it is

But while pagan usage frequently makes God the

of
such an act, this idea is suggested in the Old
object
Testament by only three passages out of some scores, and
Esau.

nowhere

New Testament. 11 On

the other hand, the

annul
sin
or
defilement/' which is
meaning
the
use
of
the
in
also found
term, becomes the regular
pagan
meaning in the Old Testament. The subject may be a
in the

to expiate or

man

In the former case the

(such as a priest;, or God.
reference may be to sacrifice, or to ritual washing, or to

any such

which

act by

it

was believed

equivalent to ""forgive."

is

meaning
though God

"

is

not actually

to expiate," yet

He

is

made

said to

in ancient times that

In the

uncleanness could be removed.

case,

the

In our present passage,

the subject of the verb

have

expiation,** or of dealing with sin.

latter

I3

"

set forth a

The means

is

means of
shown to

terms by the following mention

of blood," in the sense of life laid down. So far, therefore,
from the sacrifice of Christ being thought of as a means of

be thought of in

sacrificial

"

soothing an angry Deity,

God Himself to
human

The

it

is

represented as an

act of

cope with the sin which was devastating

life.

comment is upon the latter part of the passage,

and may be made more shortly by a reference to what
"
has been said above (p. 76).
The passing-over of former
"
the
means
exhibition, in religious experience,
wrong-doings
of a principle of the divine dealing which is inconsistent
other

law.
Under the old regime, as Paul sees it,
there were two different principles at work, the principle
of retribution embodied in the scheme of things, and the

with

strict

principle

of mercy discerned

in the personal dealings

11

of

God

Unless ^.atrQrf.i pot, Lk. zviii. 15, is regarded as such a

but though passive in form, the verb is virtually intransitive
*
be propitious/ not be propitiated.'
in meaning
use

E.g. Ps. kiv.

4 (Lxx.=kv.

3,

E.T.) Dn.

iz.

24

THE DECISIVE BATTLE

What was

with men.

called for

101

was a new revelation

in

which one* single principle of righteousness should be displayed, and God's character be fully shown forth in dealing

human

13

This was accomplished in God's gift of

and
in
that
act of self-dedication to which His
Christ,
"
"

with

obedience

There

sin.

to

God

led him.

nothing here about a penalty borne by Christ as

a substitute for guilty man.
The nearest Paul comes to
is

such a suggestion is in a passage in the Epistle to the Ga-a"

tians where he uses the metaphor of the
curse." 14 To the

thought of the ancient world the curse was a real force

launched upon the world and destined ultimately to work

Such was the curse

itself out.

upon the House of

that lay

Atreus in Greek legend, and such the curse pronounced

upon Babylon by the Hebrew prophets. Now the Law

pronounced a curse upon all who should break it. Such a
curse must fulfil itself, quite mechanically.
It is a good
argumentum ad homlnem^ at

least,

when

Paul, writing to the

half-Greek, half- Anatolian, and wholly superstitious people

of the Galatian province, bids them think of Christ as having
exhausted in His own person the venom of the ancient

somewhat as Orestes in the Greek legend exhausted

"
House of Atreus and finally reconciled "

curse

the curse of the

the Furies

who

pursued the family.

The

teachers

who

to bring Paul's converts back into the allegiance

said that unless they complied at least
of the Jewish

were seeking

Law

with certain

power

to

minimum

condemn them.

the sentence of the

Law

requirements, the

Law

still

had

"

Paul replies :
Even supposing
to have all the inevitable ; otency

you attribute to a solemn curse, yet such a curse can be

Christ bore that curse j for He was
exhausted.

Now

crucified,

crucified
J3

and the

Law

person.

Yet He

expressly puts under a curse the

survived

it,

and came out

See Fearon Halliday, Reconciliation and Reality, in this

J4
Gal. iii. 13.

series.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

102

victorious.

He must

have broken the power

therefore

In
of the curse, and you need fear the Law no more."
so far as this is more than metaphor, it is meaningless
to us, for we do not believe that a curse is a substantive

But we do believe, because we

force working inevitably*
there
are circumstances in which,
that
it
actually happen,

see

by defying the consequences, a person may so endure the

pain of corporate wrongdoing as to win power to lead his
fellows out of

In that sense the comparison throws

it.

upon the work of Christ. It is, however, only a

which occurred to Paul in the midst of
illustration
passing
that particular controversy, and he does not return to it in

real light

kter

letters.

More might
in

thought

be said of the various figures and forms of

his conviction of the

which Paul embodies

decisive value of the

work of

Christ.

To

our ways of

thought his whole construction is not very satisfactory, if

But
it be treated in any sense as a system of theology.
by the

flashes

partly re-read

of light he throws here and there we can

tries to
Jesus Christ took
portray.

what he

human fight against wrong. He

and
accepted honestly
fearlessly all the conditions of human
and
in
the
nature,
wilderness, on the mountain, in the
"
"
and
in
those
countless
of which He
temptations
garden,
the

full

risk

of the

He faced
spoke to His disciples, he faced the common foe.
**
ft as one
born of woman," having in his human nature
the conditions which in us

all

make

for sin.

**

one born under the Law,"

whose temptations took the
age and country.
deliberately threw

What
in

His

is

lot

that

is

as a

He faced

Jew of His

as

time,

specific forms proper to

more, He faced it as one

with the sinful and weak.

it

His

who

He

did not withdraw Himself or stand aloof, but was content

to be known as the companion of disreputable characters.

All

we know to be true of the actual life of Jesus Christ,

facing in this way our common battle, He won victory

this

And

THE
along the

all

line.

self-dedication

and

DECISIVE BATTLE
He

accepted

of what Paul

calls

life

103

in a spirit of utter

"

living sacrifice

"

He

carried it right through to death ; death with

circumstance
of horror, and with every chance
every
of escaping it almost to the very end, at the cost of the

smallest unfaithfulness.

But what has

all this

ancient history to do with us

We
We

should scarcely accept Paul's ways of stating solidarity*

do know, however, that solidarity is very

large measure the product for good and
history which lies behind
into which we are born.

yet solved

us,

and of the

The

but certainly since

We are in

real.
ill

social

of the

racial

environment

mystery of heredity
man had a mental

is

not

life

or

"

psychology," that psychology has been social as well as

individual, and it comprises factors, present in the individual^

which are due to the experience cf the race, and most of all to
the achievements of its leaders. The champions of a nation's
take an example, bequeath to their nation more
than the actual constitutional liberties they secure in black
and white : they form a psychology of liberty into which
liberties, to

every

member of

that nation

is

born.

He must

do some-

thing with it ; he may disown and struggle against it, but

he cannot divorce his life from its influence. The same
is

of

true of the great witnesses to truth, and the great lovers

men the poets and artists in life, to whose music the

chords

of every individual soul within their corporate

whether they are played upon or not.
that on a universal human scale what Christ did He

tradition are strung,

So

it is

did for us.

His great fight and victory are part of the spiritual

We react
the Race, into which we are all born.
history of
one way or another to those decisive facts. They happened^
and they exist to-day as an indelible part of the psychological
of man. The world in which Christ died is not
heritage

a world in which one can

without meeting at all points>

in oneself and in one's environment, the moral challenge
live

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

ro4

and the moral

possibilities

the stuff of our history.

One
to

which

that

event mingled in

We may react differently to them.

way, thereby laying himself open

the divine forces, working within humanity, which

will accept Christ's

all

Another will reject His way, and thereby

himself an alien from this main stream of spiritual
In either case, the acceptance or rejection is not
progress.
Christ released.

make

a theoretical attitude to a dim past, but a daily reaction to

"
"
of the world in which we move from
in the air
forces

a tangle of conflicting forces ;

the sphere of these forces or of those.
to fling oneself without reserve into the

day to day.

Society

we throw our

lives into

To be a Christian is

is still

stream of forces issuing from

achievement.

Christ's

supreme moral

When we take this point of view, there are certain elements

and death of Jesus Christ which are seen at once
He greeted God as Father and
t3 be decisive for us all.
in the life

His life was

Friend in everything and at every point.
it was as a Son of God that He made

that of a Son, and

His

sacrifice

of self-dedication to the Father.

His fellows a love such

as

He

discerned in

Towards

God was

the

perpetual motive power of action

a love generous, impartial,

to
a love that put active,
save
uncalculating, passionate
**
"
beneficence
to
the
in the central
unceasing
neighbour

and met wrong with an overplus of good. In such a

the
life,
principle of sonship and of freedom from retributive
Law is made manifest, and so the possibility of a new kind
place,

of life

is communicated to man.
word should here be spoken upon the significance
which Paul attaches to the resurrection of Christ as the
consummation of His work. It is true that for him, and

vastly more important

communion
with Christ
permanent
centre of the new life.
Of this much more will

certainly for us, the

resurrection

is

as the condition of that

which

is

the

be said presently.

But Paul

also sees in it the conclusive

THE

DECISIVE BATTLE

105

proof of His victory over Sin. For us it can hardly take

the same place it took for him in precisely this relation, if
only because bodily death has not for us the same intimate
connection with Sin that Paul had been taught to attribute
to it. 15
see in death something quite natural, and not

We

Yet in the fact that death had, maninecessarily horrible.

no
to
power
quench the living activity of Jesus Christ
festly,

we may see a pledge that the natural order itself is subordinate to the ends of the spiritual life.
In that order the
death of the body

is

an episode, of much

interest

and

signifi-

cance indeed, but still only an episode, for those who stand
for what Christ stood for
which is in the end what the

Universe stands

for.

Putting

it

lived as

negatively,

He

did live

we might say :
and died as He

Suppose Christ, having

had then simply gone under. Suppose no one had
henceforward had any sense of dealing with Him. Suppose
in particular that that great wave of spiritual experience
did die,

had not passed over the primitive

that their

Lord was

possible.

Suppose

Christians, assuring

them

and making a Church

to be true : it would not neces-

in their midst,

all this

the validity of what Christ stood for ; but

sarily destroy
us asking whether perhaps He was a mere
it
leave
might
rebel against

universe which, on the whole, stood for

There

something quite different

so.

They

are our

are

many who do think

allies in the great fight, but they are

If, on the other hand, we hold

apt to be depressing allies.
the continued personal existence and activity of Jesus Christ

to be

an assured

on our behalf

fact,

universe in which

even while
*5

Rom.

we

then

also

is

we

we know

wrought
and we
live
;

rebel against

v. 12,

vi.

Paul's Jewish heritage.

Fearon Halliday, op

that

what He wrought

into the very fabric

its

are at

home

in

it,

wrongs.

23, I Cor. iv. 21. This idea

Cf. IV Ezra iii. 7, vii. 118.

cit.

of the

pp. 141-146.

is

part of

See also

CHAPTER

IX

EMANCIPATION
THE

death of Jesus Christ, then, we shall consider as a

decisive fact not only in past history, but in the present
constitution of man's world of thought and action, a fact

towards which

we must

needs take up an attitude positive

or negative. It was the crisis of a great conflict. The

forces of evil gathered themselves for a decisive assault upon
the moral integrity of the Son of God.
They drove Him

through the horror of failure, scorn, agony of mind and body,

and death in darkness. For all the storm

dereliction of soul,

He

never bent or broke.

It did not

change His perfect

God, or the purity of His love to those who

wrought the wrong. Therein was the proof of His victory.
Such is the fact to which we have to orientate ourselves.
We may decline to accept for ourselves what Christ did ;
we may refuse the principle which His life and death carried
self-surrender to

If so, then we assert against Christ the contrary

"
the
principle,
principle which slew Him.
Saul, Saul,
"
is the protest which Christ
?
why persecutest thou
to victory.

Me

our action. On the other hand, we may

the
accept
principle of what Christ did.
may accept
utters against

We

who

"

and
able to
drink of that cup, and with that baptism to be baptized,"
but as those who are willing that the act and mind of God
so revealed should be the principle of their own lives, and
it,

not as those

believe themselves

106

fit

EMANCIPATION
will leave the shaping of those lives to

Paul

107

Him.

This

is

what

"faith."

calls

This conception

is

of such fundamental importance in

try to understand it more

we must

Paul's teaching that

In the theological constructions which have

"
"
been based upon Paul the term
faith
has suffered such
and
it has ahnost lost definition of
that
turnings
twistings

particularly.

own use of the word there

Perhaps, however, we may get

Indeed, even in Paul's

meaning.

is
very great complexity.
"
a clue from his uss of the familiar words
faith to remove

The expression echoes a

we shall not go far wrong

mountains."
Christ

and

saying of Jesus
in starting

from
"

" Have faith in God

the use Jesus made of the word.
was the one condition He propounded to those who sought
His help. 1
By that is clearly meant trust, confidence
directed towards

This

is

God

as the

Father and Friend of men.

2
meaning of the word to Paul.

the

As

it is

Christ

who not only shows us the God in whom we trust, but who
has also Himself cleared away obstacles and made such trust
"
possible, faith

"

Christ," or
for Paul in

is

alternatively described as

towards Christ"

faith

no way

different

from

faith

the faith of

That, however,
in God.
God is

is

in

"

God is trustworthy."
the last resort the object of faith, for
That is the fundamental postulate of Paul's belief : God is
worthy of our

trust. 4

It remains for us to trust

Him suffi-

Him act. It is wrong to suppose that for Paul

ciently to let
act on man's part, which wins salvation,
a
meritorious
is
faith
t

I Cor. xin. 2, cf.

Rom.

iii.

(the genitive

is

ML

22, 26, Gal.

ii.

Xpi0T&> is probably
it is rather faith towards

God

Christ, Col.

15.

Xpttrry

i.

'Irjtrov

22-23.

Thess.

5.

8.

22, Eph. iii. 12, Phil. iii. 9

not subjective in any case) ; Col. ii. 5. Hearts kv
'
'
not exactly what we mean by faith in Christ ;
ii.

4,
is

Eph.
to

i.

16,

iii.

as conditioned

In Gal.

iii.

be construed with

26

by communion with
it is

irtarrew.

doubtful

if

kv

Outside these

three passages the expression doa not occur in Paul.

Thess. v. 24.
4 I Cor. i.
9, x. 13, II Cor. i. 18, I

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

ic8

or even, in a more modern war of speech, a creative moral

Paul does not, in fcct, spe?,I: when he is
principle in itself.
^
t>
using language strictly, of "justification l-y fcirh," ut
""0:1
or
the
ground
"justification by grace through faith,"
It means
of faith." 5 This is not mere verbal su h:Lt;:.

"

"

becomes ours, not by the

righteousness of God
assertion of the individual will as such, rut by :hs willingness
to let God work.
The critical moment in the religious
that the

according to Paul, is the moment when one

still and see the salvation of Gxl."

life,

is

willing

We can see

to "stand

how he came upon that thought. Paul had supposed that

he was securing "righteousness" by a lire of feverish
competitive,

self-assertive,

activity,

It

violent.

did

all

nothing but involve him more deeply in moral impotence.

Then he was

me
"

to

do

"
?

"

Lord, what wilt Thou have

was the confession of surrender, the word of
struck down.

faith."

"Naked

My

wait

Thy

love's uplifted strode.

hast hewed

am

defenceless utterly."

the tone of saving faith in God.

is

from me.

Such

armour piece by p ece Thou

As

related to Jesus Christ,

am

crucified with

Christ"

it is

It

is

surrender.

expressed in the saying

is

When

manifests utter self-abandonment to the will of God.

Paul sought to

of

Galatian converts to the full meaning

recall his

their faith,

part of the*
For the cross of Christ

or at least that

meaning of those pregnant words.

"

he reminded them

how he had " depicted

Christ crucified before their eyes," and that had

inspired
6
their surrender to God.

This
5

trust in

God

is,

Paul says, the ground of our

8, Rom. iii.
EpL
EpL iii. 12, 17.
ii.

30,

iv.

ii.

19,

iii.

i, ri.

14;

cf.

justifi-

16, v. i, is. 32, Gal.

iiL 24,

* Gal.

"

Ac. nii. 8-10.

ii.

16,

EMANCIPATION
cation," or

"

The word is in the first place

Much as we are said to " j ustify "

setting-right."

a term of the law-courts.

when we show it to be the right course, a

man when he pronounced him,

a course of action

judge was

109

said to "justify" a

upon the evidence, innocent of any crime kid to his charge,

and so restored him to his rights as a citizen. Here, therefore, we have one of a whole series of religious and ethical
terms which were inherited from Judaism with

For the later Jews morality was

'*
"
be met
sin was a
debt," forgiveness a

outlook.
to

of the

its

legal

a legal obligation

remission

"

Along with these terms goes the word

meaning the acquittal of an accused person.

legal penalty.

"justification,"

It must first be understood in its proper legal sense, with

the help of the entire setting of the law-court, and then as
the whole of ethics is translated out of legal into personal

terms, "justification" will be translated with the rest.

Paul's whole work is a standing challenge to make such a
translation complete.

Here then we have the human

ideal righteousness

as

Paul

says.

its

The

soul a prisoner at the bar of

own thoughts accusing and defending,

verdict

there can be no other.

on the

No

facts

soul

is

must be "Guilty" :
from personal

clear

That verdict
participation in the moral evil of the race.
carries with it the sentence to go on sinning till moral disaster
ensues ; for the Wrath or Nemesis of sin is that man is left
to his

own

evil propensities.

The

sin

we

have admitted

"

what a man sows, he

into our life is
"
8
I
But now the prisoner makes his appeal :
reaps."
self-propagating, for

Nevertheless
confess myself guilty, a slave of sinful habit.
I accept the act of Christ, as
I disown this sinful self.

He died to sin ; I make His act mine.

representing me.
I am crucified with Christ, and I throw myself in trust
upon the God whom Christ has shown me."
7

Rom.

ii.

15.

8 Gal. vi.
7,

Rom.

vi.

23, interpreted

by

i.

18 sqq.

no THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

"

I bind unto myself to-day , . .

By power of faith, Christ's ncamation
:

His death on Cross for my salvation,

His rising from the spiced tomb,
8 *
His riding up the heavenly way."

On

that basis the prisoner

is

The

acquitted.

process

be understood apart from the antique idea of

The accused
solidarity which has already been explained.
cannot

acquitted, not

is

by virtue of a righteousness individually

achieved by him, but by virtue of the righteousness of

his representative which he accepts as his own by the
"
The righteous act of one issues in justifiact of faith.
cation for all ... through the obedience of one the
9

There is no thought of a
a
borne
substitute, but only of a righteousness
by
penalty
achieved by a representative.
multitude are set right"

So

far it

would seem that the transaction

To an ancient, indeed,

its fictitious

is

character

a legal

would

fiction.

scarcely

be obvious, since for him representation was a fact, and not a

For us, however, if this is all there is to be said,
fiction.
then the doctrine of justification is unreal.
But this is not
now approach the translation from legal into
What is the actual state of mind of the
personal terms.
"
He has disowned, not merely certain
"justified
person ?
evil practices, but his own
That is implied
guilty self.
all.

We

in the act

So

of

far as the

guilty self

is

faith in Christ.

He

whole intention of

is

his

crucified with Christ.

mind

is

concerned, that

The controlling factor

and
love
of God as revealed in
power

dead and done with.

in the situation

Christ and His

is

"

the

righteous act."

That

is

the centre about

which the man's whole being moves in the moment of

"faith."
Outwardly, he is the same man he was, open
still

to his neighbours' harsh judgment, liable

s'

Breastplate of St. Patrick.

Rom.

v.

still

to con-

18-19.

EMANCIPATION

in

damnation under a law which balances achievement against

But really the man is changed through and

shortcoming.

through by that act of self-committal, self-abandonment to

God. Before God he is indeed dead to sin and alive in a

In fact, he is righteous,
quite new way to righteousness.
in a fresh sense of the word ; in a sense in which
righteousness is no longer, so to
say, quantitative, but qualitative ; in

which

it

consists not in a preponderant balance of

good deeds

10
achieved, but in a comprehensive attitude of mind and will.
If our highest values are personal values, then at bottom a

man

right or wrong according to his relation with the

There is only
personal centre of reality, which is God.
is

one such

relation

which

is

trusting surrender to God.

to

God

is

He

right.

is

right,

and that

man who

justified, in

no

is
is

the relation of
in that rektion

fictitious

way, but

by the verdict of reality. He possesses righteousness

"
not a righteousness of my own, resting upon law, but the
righteousness which comes through trust in Christ, (or to
put it differently) the righteousness which comes from
on the condition of trust."

There

God

a real moral and religious revolution here.

a man does, or
legal religion lays all the emphasis on what
The power of the will, the self-assertive element
wills to do.
in us,

is

is

brought into the foreground.

which

this is the religion

says that not
God does, is the root of the matter.

of deeds done,
"

10

Much
And

So ends

the

"

anyone should boast."

It

is

do, but

what

not a matter
Righteousness

ill he did, so
hope all's even,
soul through mercy's gone to heaven."

good, some

tliat his

University, on
North Wales.
11

lest

In direct contrast to

what we

Yale, the founder of Yale

tombstone in the churchyard of Wreiham,

epitaph of Elihu
his

iii.
9, cf. Rom. vi. r-ii, riii. 14, Gal. v. 24, Col. iii.
See also Fearon Halliday, op. cit* chs. x.-xii,
EpL ii. 9, Rom. iii. 27, I Cor. iii. 7 (cf. i. 18-31), iv. 7.

9-11.

Phil.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

ii2

not the offering of sacrifice, the doing of good deeds, the

or any of the things whereby
entertaining of right opinions,
the self is asserted. It is the quiet acceptance of that working
is

"

It is good that a man should

The immense
both trust and quietly wait for the Lord."
of passivity
a
moment
in
is
rooted
life
the
religious
energy of

of

God whereby we are saved.

in

which God

from

acts.

sin apart

There

from

this.

in fact,

is,

If every

no ultimate deliverance

man

started his course

with a clean sheet and a perfectly free will, things might be

But none of us do so start. Our best efforts

different.

at self-reform are tainted and misdirected

by the

evil that is

That is why so often the most sincere efforts of

results. The
religious men have produced the most disastrous
more fervour and energy they throw into their endeavours,
in us.

The author of Ecclesiastes had thisthe worse for society.

kind of righteousness in mind when he gave the caution

"Be

Paul knew about it,

righteous overmuch."
for he had, in the fervour of his religious zeal, been a persenot

But on the Damascus road he came

cutor.

and

in that

moment

weight of past

evil

new

was gone

creation
:

was

new

to a standstill
effected.

life,

The

God-directed,

began.

How

immense the moral task which this new creation

shall
For the moment let us
imposes
presently see.

we

contemplate the significance of this revolution in religion.

higher faiths call their followers to strenuous moral

The

Such

likely to be arduous and painful in

proportion to the height of the ideal, desperate in proportion
to the sensitiveness of the conscience.
morbid scrupulouseffort.

effort

is

ness besets the morally serious soul.

It is anxious and
troubled, afraid of evil, haunted by the memory of failure.

The
less

best

of the Pharisees tended

the best of the Stoics.

And

in this direction,

so

little

has

and no

Christianity

been understood that the popular idea of a serious Christian

is modelled
upon the same type of character. There is

EMANCIPATION

113

joy about such a religion 5 and as any psychologist

tell us, the concern about evil
The
magnifies its power.
ascetic believed that because he was
becoming so holy the
Devil was permitted special liberties with him, and found
little

can

in his increasing

Not along

agony of
track

this

token of divine approval.

of moral progress.

effort a

the path

lies

Christianity says : Face the evil once for all, and disown it.
Let His
quiet the spirit in the presence of God.
In particular let the
perfections fill the field of vision.

Then

concrete embodiment of the goodness of God in Christ

and absorb the gaze of the soul. Here is righteous-

attract
ness,

not as a fixed and abstract

The righteousness
person.
of God's own Spirit in man.
possession of humanity.

world.

ideal,

It

It

is

Is

a permanent and growing

historic

and

integral to

Let that righteousness be the centre of

and the sole movement of the soul a

whom

but in a living human

is a real achievement

of Christ

it all

proceeds.

When

full

that

is

consent to
so,

our

attention,

God from

the morbid cleft

between the soul and its ideal is bridged ; the insidious

haunting presence of sin is banished ; new powers invade
"
the soul.
It is God who is at work in us, both in act and
in will."*

perhaps worth while to add that modern psychorecognize the importance of passivity or selfsurrender as the means to a renewal of life and energy.
It

is

logists

" Weakness
mind

of

results

from the wastage caused by

Power comes from a

condition

restlessness

of mental

u
of the
quietude," says one of them, adding that several
the
view
tended
.
have
towards
.
greatest psychologists
that the source of power is to be regarded as some impulse
.

works through us, and is not of our own making." 14

Another observes that " to exercise the personal will is still

that

*3

Col.
*4

Ph2.
i.

J.

ii.

13, cf. I Thess.

29, Eph.

i.

H, Hadfidd

19-20,
in

The

ii.

iii.

15, II Cor.

iii.

5, 1

20-21*

Spirit^

pp. 106, lio.

Cor. xiL 6.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

ii 4

where the imperfect self is the thing

Where, on the contrary, the subtake the lead, it is more probably the better

to live in the region

most emphasized.
conscious forces
self in posse

Accordingly a

the operation."

that directs

a must
relax, that is, he must 611 back on the
person
15
larger Power that nukes for righteousness.

We must now observe that this experience of "justification

n assumes a

different aspect according as the point

of

view is specifically religious or spe ^fically ethical. Religious

experience has about it something which is timeless or eternal
In the moment of the
cess disappears.

soul's

touch with

"

Hence

1'

justification

experience of the grace of God

in

its

value.

it

the time pro-

as a

pure religious

complete in itself and eternal

can speak of it historically as if

Paul

for the Christian

God

is

was an event

finished

once for

all.

1*

But, on the other hand, no one has more cogently than

he presented the tremendous moral endeavour to live

out the righteousness of God. From this ethical point of
view, to which the time-process is all-important, righteousAlmost at the very end of his
ness is a gradual attainment.
**

Paul could write,

won, or become perfect
life

may

It

is

am

lay hold of that for

me. My
of it yet 5
behind, and

not as though I had already

pressing on in the hope that

which Christ Jesus kid hold of

brothers, I do not reckon that I have laid hold

but there is one thing
I do forget all that lies
stretch out to

what

lies before,

and

I press

on

towards the mark, for the prize of God's upward call in

Christ Jesus." I?
One who spoke in that way can hardly
be accused of neglecting the progressive element in morality.
William James, Farieties of Religious Experience,
pp. 209The passages here quoted are taken by James from Starbuck ; but the whole of James* discussion of the type of conversion
*
by self-surrender/ in Lecture ii. provides an illuminating coml6 Rom, v.
ment on Paul.
i, 9, viii. 30, 1 Cor. vi. n.
*5

10.

J7

Phil.

iii.

12-14,

cf.

I Cor. ii. 23-27, Gal. v.

5.

EMANCIPATION
Yet Paul

never far from the thought of that finished work

"
all human endeavour flows.
Work out your

is

from which

own

salvation, because

There
for his

of

may have
"

conversion

him

led

once-for-all-ness

is

at

work

in you.*'

rt

"

its

suddenness and completeness

into too unqualified statements of the

of

who

asseition that

In any case

justification.

he was misunderstood on

clear that

pagans

God who

converts.

own

his

it is

a difficulty here for us, as it proved a

difficulty
It may be that the peculiar character

is

first

115

it

is

by converted

this point

took in unintelligent literalness his strong

we have been cleansed, justified, sanctified."'

"

We cannot, however, escape from the difficulty by any short

cut

There

Paul

is

finality in that religious experience

while there

calls justification,

For most of

process.

moment

back to the

"

to

none the

the

"

which

a moral

After failure and

secret place of the

renew our abnegation of the

acceptance of the righteousness of

perhaps allows too

less

us there must be a repeated harking

of surrender.

we must enter once more into

High

is

fell

Most

guilty self and our

God

in Christ

Paul

for this necessity, explicitly at least.

of vital importance that he told us so

little

But for all that, it is

plainly that everything depends on an act of God, eternal
and single, in the soul, renewable indeed by acts of faith,
but in
as

of

essence the one abiding fountain of

its

all

all

such

acts,

moral endeavour.

"God

justifies

the

ungodly."

word of the Pauline Gospel.

18 Phil.

ii.

12-13*

We may

19

That

is

the watch-

It states in a

observe

tow

this

dogmatic

reproduces in

Kingdom of God.
"
"
It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom
;
" "
"
The Kingdom
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God :
and yet
of God is like treasure hid in a field, which a man found, and
" "

new

terms wliat Jesus had said about the

*9

he had and bought that field :

narrow the way that leadeth unto life."

sold all

gate and

Rom.

iv.

5*

Strait is

the

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

ii6

To
phrase the truth which the life of Jesus declared.
the paralytic He pronounced forgiveness, there and then,
before any amendment or reparation of wrong had taken
on the ground of

place, simply
was a sinner

of

in

it

He

He

had

first

made them

The

consorted with them.

respectable

Pharisees could not

this restoration to full rights as children

ground of a simple

"

"

the proof

received

disrepuPharisee would have objected, one

No

table characters.

He

she showed.

the love

supposes, if

The woman who

faith.

accepted as forgiven, finding

To

faith.

of

and then

away with

God on

the sole

forgive the paralytic was

But
two men who went to pray. The
disreputable tax-collector threw himself on the mercy of
God in simple trust. He went home "justified." The
blasphemy

receive sinners was a scandal.

to

Jesus told a story of

Pharisee thanked

God
u

for the righteousness

he had attained

as Paul would say,

he gloried before God on the ground
of works/' But he was not j ustified. One Pharisee at least

awoke

to the truth,

and he has

took a Pharisee to see

the Pharisee put

it

all

what

told us

it

meant.

It

Paul

that Christ's action implied.

had

into the crabbed theological terms he

been taught, but transcended those terms in the statement.

It will help towards the appreciation of what Paul meant
"
if we consider other
by the forensic term "justification

which he uses

to describe the same experience.

It
from
deliverance
the
of
an
external
emancipation,
yoke
moral standard and from the tyranny of evil habit. The
figures

is

justified

like a

man

like a slave freed

is

from his master's power; or

widow whom her husband's

death has emancipated

from the

Law

absolute dominion (potestas) into which Roman

gave the married woman ; or like the heir who on

attaining
trustees,

his

majority

bids

associated

I Cor.

farewell

and becomes master in

30,

cf.

Eph.

i.

7,

his

with

guardians
20
house.
It

otjecuWic

14, Col.

i.

and

to

own

14.

Rom.

iii.

is

See also

no
24,

Rom.

EMANCIPATION

117

mere change of status of which Paul speaks in such metaIt is a real deliverance from something which
phors.
denies free play to the human will to good.
Yet it is not
"
"
the attainment of that
unchartered freedom which means
"

bondage to

chance

On the

3I

desires."

other

side, it

means

Once Paul describes it,

entering into a new allegiance.
"
"
the
for
the
boldness
of
metaphor, as servitude
apologizing

And indeed his perpetual use of the appellatowards God.

"
tion
slave of Jesus Christ," which is directly correlative
"
to the title
Lord," preserves always the sense of a very

The immediate antecedents of language

binding allegiance.
of that kind are probably to be found in the religious termi-

The members of a religious cult, bound

one another and to their patron God,
The Emperor was
addressed Him as their "Lord."
addressed as "Lord" when he was regarded as a divine
It was because the Christian would
object of worship.
nology of the time.

sacramentally to

retained

Emperor the

the

not give

for

Jesus

divine

honour

the

Church

that

alone,

which
came

he
into

Thus Paul thought

deadly conflict with the Empire.
of the Christian life as freedom within a very absolute
allegiance.

The more pregnant term, however, for this relation to

God is "sanctification." In religious language "holy"
The sanctification of
means devoted to the Deity.
the Christian means that he is entirely devoted to God ;
he

is

as

and exclusively dedicated to the service

truly

God
any temple or priest in the older religions.
The distinction which theology has made between

of

as

justification

sanctification

not
vi.

to

be

the

as
as

found

6-7, 12-23,

viii.

act

momentary

the

process
in Paul.

2 y II Cor.

See Wordsworth, QJt

to

is

For him they are only

iii.

v. i, 23.
a*

of deliverance and

of attaining perfection

Duty.

17,

Gal.

iv.

1-7, 21-31,

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

ii8

different aspects

of the same

act. 33

By

the same act of

sanctified ; and as the righteousgrace that justifies we are also

ness attributed to us by the act of justification is to be appro-

so is the sanctity
priated through a course of moral endeavour,
in the moral
out
worked
be
to
act
the
us
same
to
imparted
by

the ungodly, and in the same sense He

sanctifies the unholy. He claims us as entirely His own ; and

God

life.

justifies

in proportion as

we admit

that claim steadily in all the

a
changing experiences of life, it establishes itself in character
of
God.
manifest
the
stamp
bearing

We are already at

the point of transition

from what has

been called the negative or backward-looking aspect of

work

Christ's

The two

for us to the positive or forward-looking.

Paul in one striking and
aspects are combined

by

comprehensive metaphor, that of dying and rising again.

Here he makes use of the symbolism of baptism, which in
the East was performed by the complete immersion of the
"
were buried with Christ through

We

believer in water.

our baptism (and so entered) into a state of death, in order

that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the
splendour of the Father,

which belongs

we

too might walk in the newness

To the rite as such Paul

to (real) life." 23

"

Christ," he says,
overwhelming importance.
did not send me to baptize, but to preach the
GospeL" *4
But to his pagan converts it appealed as a sacrament parallel
did not attach

"

Greek mysteries. The governing idea of all

was
that by the performance of physical acts
mysteries
to those of the

could be attained.

spiritual effects

And

principally,

such

sacramental acts united the worshipper with his

dying and
In some cults such a union seems to
rising Saviour-God.

have been regarded as a real dying and rising of the

worshipper,
in the sense that through the sacrament he
acquired

I Cor. 71.

16-17,
*3

vi.

Rom.

i.

30, cf.

Rom. vi.

19,

EpL

vi.

x-ix, Col. iL 10-13.

ii.

from

19, 1 Thess. iv. 3-7, 1 Cor.

21.
*4

I Cor.

i.

13-17.

iii.

EMANCIPATION
God an

the

immortal essence.

119

In a similar way Paul's

Paul recognized in
pagan converts thought of baptism,
the idea a most suggestive figure for the change wrought
by faith in Christ. He found it necessary to guard against
the crude sacramentalism which found in the mere
physical
process as such the actual impartation of new life, quite
apart from anything taking place in the realm of inward
The Israelites in the wilderness, he pointed
experience.

out in a curious argument, received baptism in the Red

Sea and in the cloud which overshadowed them ; and
"
the majority of them God did
yet they were disobedient,
not choose," and they perished miserably. 3 5 The inference

No sacramental act achieves anything unless It

plain.
an outward symbol of what really happens inwardly in
The test of that is the reality of the new life
experience.
is

is

as exhibited in its ethical consequences.

"

How

can

we

who
is

If baptism
are dead to sin live any longer in sin ?"
a real dying and rising again, then it is indeed a profound

revolution in the personal

bound
It

to

is

show

the

a revolution which

is

simply

character*

of the

means anything, he says, it means

you share with Christ His dying to sin and His rising

new
"

life,

new moral

the act by which he entered into the Christian

communion.
to

in this sense that Paul appeals to the baptism

Christian

that

itself in

If that

rite

life.

The

death

life

He

He

lives,

died,

He

way you must reckon

alive in relation to

He

lives

died in relation to
in

relation to

sin,

God.

once for

all

In the same

yourselves as dead in relation to sin, and

And
in (communion with) Christ Jesus.

God

must not reign in your mortal body" (i.e. in the physical

the individual organism, in which, according to Paul,
of
part
"
so that you obey its desires*
Sin had become firmly entrenched)
Do not make over your bodily organs to Sin, as implements of
so Sin

unrighteousness,

but make yourselves over to God, as persons

I Cor. x.

I-TI.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

120

from the dead, and your bodily organs as implements

of righteousness to Him. For Sin shall not be your lord, since
a6
you are not under Law, but tinder (God's) grace."
raised to life

we

In reading the passage

are aware that

Paul

is

speaking of something profoundly real in his own experience.

have left now the region of mere metaphor, and entered

We

into a sphere where spiritual realities are described in terms

not indeed adequate to them, but coming as near as may he
to direct expression.

"

The

death

"

spoken of

is

a real

deadening of certain sides of the nature, a real privation

"
I am
of life and energy on the part of evil propensities.
The crucified person the man
crucified to the world."

with the hangman's rope about his neck, shall we say ?

has done with this world, its interests and concerns. It is
all over.
The mind has become detached. Even so Paul

found that in the moment of

That

his conversion

much which had

detached from

*'

obstinate

covetousness

"

he had become

before dominated him.

which the contemplation of

law had seemed only to strengthen the ambition, egoism,

was
perhaps lust, which are summed up in that word
dried up from

its

springs.

He

cared no

more about the

**
The things
very things which had been his greatest pride.
"
which used to be gain to me," he wrote,
I have now
reckoned so much loss because of Christ
In fact, I

reckon everything mere loss, because the knowledge

of Christ Jesus my Lord so far exceeds them all. On
His account
thing, and

have actually suffered the

reckon

it all

mere

refuse

gain Christ." *7
It

loss

of every-

so that I

may

"

apparent that, stated in its absolute form, this death

and resurrection " was not true of
many of his pagan converts.

To
a

is

them the

theoretical
a*

"

"

was ceremonial, the " resurrection "

inference from it, and the moral
change had
death

Rom. vL 12-14.

Gal.

vi.

14, Phil, in. 7-11.

EMANCIPATION

121

That is why, instead of the

which would seem to be required logically,
he sometimes gives an exhortation. "Let not Sin reign . .
taken place only partially.

positive statement

Do
He

not

make your

bodies implements of unrighteousness."

have found by experience the necessity
to
seems, indeed,
"
for greater emphasis on the
I have been crucified
process.

with Christ," he wrote to the Galatians in the height of

It has been pointed out that crucifixion is in

his mission.

any case a lingering death* But in what is possibly his last

"
"
letter he speaks of
a
getting conformed to His death

Yet he knew always that everyprocess not yet complete.

in
that
He died to
was
involved
decisive moment.
thing

"
carried about in the body
Thenceforward he
the dying of the Lord Jesus," and the course of life as it
came day by day made the death more and more a reality
in the workaday world. 38
More and more in those later
real life he lived was a hidden
he
that
the
was
conscious
days
"
life.
You died," he wrote to the Colossians from his
sin once.

Roman
God.

prison,

When

"and your life lies hidden with Christ in

who is our life, is manifested, then we

Christ,

too shall be manifested with

"

Him

in splendour." *9

The

behind the frontage," it has been observed, is in all of

us something greater than the self of the shop-window
self

For the Christian

which

all

self

perpetually nourished into greatness by inward com-

is

the world can see. J

munion with God

"

As

that secret

in Christ.

torrents in

summer,

Half-dried in their channels,

Suddenly rise, the' the

Sky is still cloudless,

For rain lias been falling
Far off at their fountains

** II
3

Cor.

H. G.

iv.

*9

7-1 1.

Wells, The

New

Col. Hi. 1-4.

Mackiavelli, pp. 291-2.

122

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

So

hearts that are fainting

full to o'crflowing,

Grow
And

thej that behold it

Manrel, and know not

That God

at their fountains

Far off has been raining."

The
between
the

way

31

endeavour to keep open all the avenues

hidden world and the world of every day is
"
to what Paul means by
getting conformed to

faithful
this

the death of Christ" and

"knowing

the

power of His

resurrection."
Longfellow, Saga of

King

Qlaf, nil.

CHAPTER X

THE LORD THE

"

GOD

SPIRIT

gives proof of His love for us in the fact that while

Much
still in the wrong Christ died for us.

we were

we have been set right by means of His

we be saved from the Wrath through Him.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God
through the death of His Son, much more now that we are
reconciled shall we be saved by means of His life." 1 In that
repeated "much more" is much virtue.
Theology has
more

then,

now

that

self-sacrifice, shall

often represented Paul as though he were supremely or even

solely interested in the death of Christ on the cross and the

"

This is a somewhat
effected.
one who showed so clearly that his eyes
were set upon the risen Christ, and his thought returned
gladly again and again to the wonder of the new life He gave.
That positive gospel of the resurrection-life in Christ was

Atonement" thereby

ironical fate for

an even greater thing to Paul than the doctrine ofjustification,

important as this was in clearing the ground of all that

cumbered the course.

**

If you are risen with Christ, seek

on the right hand
is,

the things that are above, where Christ

of God."

he

is

Paul

is

always exultantly aware that as a Christian

With Christ's
living in a new age*

new man,

resurrection the limits of the old order have been broken

through.

good

It

is

an age of miracle, in which nothing is too

The hope of the new age had often
1
Rom. v. 8-10.

to be true.

123

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

124

the emancipation of the

associated itself with a belief in

body from the limitations of physical

festly

this
:

century

existence*

Mani-

had not come about for the Christians of the

still

they

looked for

But Paul held that

appearing.

it

to

come

first

at the Lord's

in principle the Christian,

was hid with Christ in God, was already

whose
"
"
and living in an age of glory."
delivered from the c< flesh
The " flesh " might indeed be " an unconscionable time
real self

a-dying," but the actual experience of the new life showed

"
"
were at work.
eternal life
that the moral powers of

Now

in this Paul

met half-way a

characteristic belief of

It was held possible, by the perthe pagan religious world.

formance of certain rites, or the acquisition of certain secret

knowledge, to become immortal while in the body.

There

was an inward "deification" which ensured everlasting

life for

Paul made use of this idea,

exclusively metaphysical and sacramental

the initiate after death.

while correcting

its

For the Greek

bias.

as indeed in large

measure for

later

the
Christian theology as formed by the Greek mind
"
"
essential thing was a change of
substance or metaphysical

nature

its

means, a

rite

and end the assurance of

its aim
For Paul

or an esoteric doctrine; and

life

beyond the grave.

the essential thing was a new moral character, as the only

of a life akin to the life of God, and its means

real evidence

was the receiving of Christ, not by any magical rite, nor by

assent to a system of doctrine, but in the moral fellowship
of

"

faith."

The

risen life

is

in the first place a life

whose

Prolonged into the future it means

immortality, because life of that kind, made ethically valuable
through a personal fellowship, cannot be ended by the death
fruits are ethical.

of the body.

Moral conduct and immortality alike are

of an indwelling Spirit. " The

represented as the harvest

fruit

of the

Spirit

is

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

goodness, loyalty, self-control"; "he who sows into the
Otherwise
Spirit will reap out of the Spirit eternal life."

THE LORD THE

expressed, the Spirit

ance."

of

life

efficacy

All that

"
is

the

first

SPIRIT

125

instalment of our inherit-

man

hopes for as the corporate perfection

in
principle by that Spirit whose moral
given
a matter of daily experience to the Christian. 2

is

is

This idea of the

be well to

Spirit

is

so vital to Paul's teaching that it will

to see it in its historical

make some attempt

context of thought.

In Jewish apocalyptic thought, the expectation of c< the

life of the
coming age," or the Kingdom of God, was

men by

of the possession of

associated with the idea

the

divine, or holy, Spirit, which had moved the ancient prophets

and saints. The possession of the Spirit was conceived as

bringing a miraculous heightening of the normal powers

the ability to see things invisible, to hear divine voices, to

speak mysterious and prophetic words, to heal disease, and

to dominate the world of matter.
After the death of Jesus
there broke out

among His

followers

phenomena such

have frequently been observed in periods of

"

as

religious exalta-

Persons fell into trances in which they

revival."
heard unutterable words spoken, or saw visions of Christ
and of heavenly beings. The powers of suggestion and of
tion or

suggestibility

were greatly

intensified, so that

morbid cases

of divided personality ("demon possession") yielded to

the suggestions of sanity ; and even physical ailments of the
limbs and bodily organs proved amenable to treatment by

mental processes.
In public gatherings men would be
moved by a storm of intense feeling to utter cries which,
though inarticulate, were held to be full of deep meaning,
perhaps even to be the

'*

tongues of angels."

On

a higher

had moments of exceptional insight into truth,

"
which they attempted to express in words of prophecy."3

level they

Gal. v. 22-23,

vi.

riv.,

Rom.

8,

14, Col. i. 27.

3 The locus classicus for

Eph.

viii.

23,

II Cor.

i.

22, v. ;,

i.

which

'

pneumatic

phenomena is I Cor. iii.phenomena in Acts.

elucidates the references to similar

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

126

None of these phenomena were unparalleled or in the strict

sense miraculous, but to the early Christians it seemed that
these were the literal fulfilment of the miraculous expectaof Apocalyptic.

tions

They were

valued

accordingly,

as the manifestation of the Messianic Spirit, the gift of the

simple followers of Jesus to whom these

strange things happened were elated by the sense of power
they brought. They scarcely realized that the real miracle

new

age.

The

was something deeper and greater than

**
"

life
life

all this.

Beneath

flowed the steady stream of moral

renewed through the inspiration of Jesus Christ in His

the froth of

revivalism

and death.

The

Gospel went out into the pagan world, where

the moral background of

the original

Christian

com-

munity was kcking. The volatile converts of Anatolia

and Greece hailed with avidity the most exciting and
"
"
spectacular effects of the

fervour.

revival

The

magical

and occult has always a fascination. There was grave

danger that the Gospel would evaporate in a burst of sen-

This danger Paul had to face, and in facing

to apply the cold light of a searching criticism

sationalism.
it

he was driven

to these emotional

shared.

The

where.

It

phenomena

in

which he himself

faculty of self-criticism

is

particularly

rare

in

is

rare

fully

enough any-

enthusiasts.

Paul

possessed it, and for that reason he was able to give to the
Christian community such a sympathetic and convincing

estimate of spiritual values that the whole idea of the Spirit

became a new thing. He never thought of denying that

there was a real value in the visions of glory and the inspired
men attributed to the Spirit; but he

utterances which

pointed out that these were mere symptoms, and symptoms

"
of varying value. For instance,
speaking with tongues,"
or the utterance of emotional cries of no clear meaning,

was, though more surprising, far

insight into truth

less

which expressed

valuable than the clear

itself in

prophecy.

But

THE LORD THE

greater than all was the moral

brought.
risen life

The

behind
reality

all

SPIRIT

127

renewal that the Spirit

was that sharing of the

of Christ which reproduced

in the believer the

character of his Lord.

We have seen that Paul believed

who

in

a "life-giving Spirit"

through the ages was the fountain of life to men,

and was manifested at last in an individual human person,
all

Jesus Christ.
Spirit,

In accordance with

which the

early

this belief

Church believed

it

he held the

possessed, to be

no other than Christ Himself, now liberated from the

necessary limitations of His human life, and entering by
direct fellowship into the Christian.
as has

been

**

said,

On

This did not mean,

"

a certain de-personalizing
of Christ
meant the elevation of the idea of Spirit

the contrary, it
from the category of substance to that of personality. To
have the Spirit does not mean, as it used to mean, that some

mysterious stream of divine essence is passing into the human

It means being in the most intimate conceivable
organism.
There are two sides to Christian
touch with a Person.

On the one side it is a

experience as Paul knows it
"
the Son of God, who loved
of trust and love towards
and gave Himself for me" ; on the other side
renewed from within by an immanent Spirit
Lord we trust is none other than the indwelling

it is

life

me
life

Yet the
Spirit that

the inspirer of our thoughts, our prayers, and our moral

Christ without, our Saviour, Friend, and Guide;
Christ within, the power by which we live.

is

acts.4

There

lies

here a deep mystical experience only partially

4 II Cor. iii. 17,

Instead of multiplying references to show
the identity of Christ's work with that of the Spirit, I would suggest
to the interested reader that lie should take a Concordance and

how often a statement made about Christ

one place can be confronted with a closely similar statement
made in another place about the Spirit. He should iave no

discover for himself

in

difficulty in filling a

quarto sheet with such doublets.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

128

But

capable of description in words.

is

there not a partly

one another ?
analogous duality
You have a friend, dear as your own soul, the very embodiment of that which you admire and aspire to. Now you
in

our deepest

relations with

room and converse with your friend, and

spoken word, or act, or look, may exert upon you the
influence of his personality.
Or you may be apart and he
sit in

may

the

his

may
may

exert that influence by letter.

Or without letter you
recall him so vividly that the memory serves as a potent

source of influence.

All this

is

still

the friend without.

But when once the influence is established, there is a somewhat abiding in the central places of your own mind which
You may even be unconis
yet not yours but your friend's.
scious of it, but it shows itself in countless ways. Some one
"
I seemed to hear X. in what you said just
will remark,
"
"
now ; or The way you did that was so exactly X. that
In some strange way your
I could have fancied him here."
friend has become a part of yourself animus dimidium tu&.
There is more here than we can readily express and perhaps
it is not
altogether different from the double relation of
Paul converses with the Lord
Christ to the faithful soul
;

as

man

the Lord

converses with his friend

.

and

He

said

**
:

."

Thrice I besought
But at other times

"

The Spirit of Jesus suffered him not." 5

The Gospel used to be presented as an appeal to believe
"
in the Saviour who
did it all for me long ago," and then
retired to a remote heaven where He receives the homage of
believers till He come again to inaugurate the Millennium,
The mind of our generation, having little comprehension
or taste for such a message, is usually content to try and dis**
the Jesus of history,'* conceived as a human example

cover

and teacher of a

distant past

Meanwhile there

exists always

alongside all forms of religious belief the great tradition

of mystical experience* The mystic knows that whatever
5 II Cor. xii.
1-9,

Ac.

xvi.

6-7,

cf. I

Cor.

ii.

16, Gal.

12.

THE LORD THE

SPIRIT

129

be the truth about an historic act or person there is a Spirit

In our time even natural science abates
dwelling in man.
its

arrogant

and admits the possibility of such

most deeply religious spirits of our time

denials

The

immanence.

tend to take refuge from the uncertainties of belief in an

inward sense of communion with the divine, which is too

widely attested in

human

experience to be easily set aside

and they report that they have no need of an

Christ at

The weak point of mysticism, as

all.

by a matter-of-fact person,

What

ethically.
traffic

the

Or

is

at all

moral

It not a
?

is

Does

It

knitter drowsed

"

tell

us

seen at least

apt to be so nebulous
those who claim most

it is

is,

Is It

least.

a power making

higher synthesis of good and evil ?

that is to say, not a personal
Being

It a

work
? 6

that

Immanent

with It can often

for righteousness, or

is

historic

"

The

by rapt
raising

aesthetic rote,"

" like a

of these questions

is

not

intended to throw any doubt upon the validity of mystical

experience as such ; but we have a right to ask what

content

but

all

is

Paul was a mystic,

given in the experience.
had
a personal object.
mystical experience

his

was Jesus

Christ, a real, living person

historic,
alone
not
alien
from
not
of
the
;
divine, yet
past
yet
him
within
was
for
The
with
continuous
Spirit
humanity.
It

the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and recognized by His lineaments.

To express this fact, Paul coined a new phrase. The
primitive Christians were accustomed to speak, in language
"
which was older than Christianity, of being in the Spirit,"
as though Spirit were an ethereal atmosphere surrounding
the soul, and breathed in as the body breathes the air. Paul,
too, used this expression, but he placed alongside it a parallel
"
"
form of words, in Christ," or in Christ Jesus." Where
we find those words used we are being reminded of the
intimate union with Christ which makes the Christian life

an eternal

life

<

lived in the midst of time.

Thomas Hardy, The

9

Dynasts

The

deeper

130

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

shade of meaning would often be conveyed to our minds

we translated the phrase " in communion with Christ"

Thus

the Imitation of Christ

His recorded

and ways of

acts

scarcely expect
are so different.

much

success,

is

if

not an attempt to copy

an attempt which can

where the conditions of life
"
life

in Christ," to give heed

seeks
to propagate in other men
to the Christ within, who
the truly human life which He once lived in Galilee and
It

The

Jerusalem.

means to be

Christ of Nazareth had one

life

only

manger and the cross the life of

Carpenter, Teacher, and rejected Messiah of the Jews.
He must live again in countless human lives before He is
to live between the

fully Messiah of mankind, in the lives of modern men and

women placed in a world so different from that which spread
itself

around His

home

village

make

it

a reality in

large measure by

life is

many

could say with Paul,

truly Christian life is a

*4

To

in ancient Galilee.

express this in a satisfying theology

is

baffling task

a problem solved

to

in surprisingly

simple Christians in all ages,

For me to live is Christ."

who
The

life not transcribed from the

pages of
the Gospels, but continuous with the divinely human life
there portrayed, because the genius of the same Artist is at

work on

the

new

**

canvas.

We all reflecting as in a mirror

the splendour of the Lord, are being transformed into the

(of God), from splendour to splendour, as by
of
the Lord the Spirit." 7
the working

same image

We can trace how in Paul's writings this thought of " the

Lord the

"

Spirit

experience.

The

baptism by which
**

dominated the whole range of Christian

initiation

we

die

baptism in the Spirit,"

in the Spirit of Christ.*

into

and

the Christian

life

the

is
again with Christ
the steeping of the whole
being

This

rise

is

the true baptism, of which

7 Phil. i. 21, Gal. ii. 20, iv.

19, II Cor. Si. 12-18,
14, Eph. iii. 17. Cf. I Thess. i. 6, 1 Cor. xi. i.
* I Cor. xii.
13, cf. Gal. iii* 27, Rom. vi. 3.

Rom.

liii,

THE LORD THE

the immersion in water

is

the implanting within our

present indeed in

SPIRIT

131

It means
only the effectual sign.
human nature of a divine element,

germ and

in potentiality before, but

woe-

fully obscured and frustrated by our participation in the

all human
This
society as it is.
now and brought to conscious life,

wrongness which infects

divine element, freed

Lord and Giver of Life with the acclamation

"

salutes the

"

For the Spirit we have received is the

Abba, Father !
Spirit of the Son of God, and we possessing it are God's
"
"
sons too, and
that of God in us
leaps out towards the

God who

is

moves us
God's Son
us

the source of

it.

The

Spirit

of Jesus within

to prayer : indeed, prayer is just that moving of

in us towards the Father.
Though we are

burdened with the greatness of our need, so that our prayers

are not even articulate, yet in such "inarticulate sighs"
"
This gives us the true
the Spirit
intercedes for us."
character of all Christian worship.

It

"

is

an expression of our

Whatever outward forms

partnership with God's Son." 9
or
it
use
shun
Christian worship is the reciprocal
may
He gives the Spirit, which
fellowship of God and His sons.
then returns to Him in prayer and adoration. The norm
and prototype is Christ the Son of God. The lonely
"
exultation in the
prayers on Galilaean hills by night, the
"
"
He
thank
when
cried
I
Thee,
Spirit
Father, Lord of

heaven and earth," the agonizing supplications of Geth"

"
these
Abba, Father, Thy will be done !

semane

are re-enacted in His brethren in

whom

the Spirit prays.

Therewith comes also a new possibility of knowledge

of God. There is indeed a natural knowledge of God
innate in man, but it is, in experience at least, dim and
10
lacking in conviction, being mediated by His works.
But to share Christ's Spirit is to be admitted to the secrets of

God.
9

27,

Perhaps one of the most striking features of the early

Gal.

iv.

EpL vL

6-7,
1 8.

Rom.

viii.

14-17,

I Cor.

i.

10

9; Rom.

Rom.

i.

viii.

26-

19-21*

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

132

movement was the re-appearance of a confidence

Judaism had become
immediately.
traditional
the word of the Lord, the Rabbis held, came
Christian

that

man can know God

:

to the prophets of old, but we can only preserve and interpret

the truth they handed down.
Jesus Christ, with a con-

uJence

that to

the

timid

traditionalism

He knew

appeared blasphemous, asserted that

and was prepared

of

His

the Father

He did

to let others into that knowledge.

down

new

time

God, but
His
own
in
attitude
to God.
sharers
others
by making
"
This is what Paul means by having the mind of Christ."
It was this
Having that mind, we do know God.

so,

not by handing

tradition about

gave Paul

clear, unquestioning conviction that

as a missionary
them too

To

but he expected

his

power

also in his converts,

it

came "by
God would give

"the word of knowledge"

He prayed that
the same Spirit."
them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowSuch knowledge is, as Paul freely grants,
ledge of Him.
but
undeniable knowit is real, personal,
only partial,
In friendship between men there is a mutual
knowledge which is never complete or free from mystery
a certainty nothing could shake
yet you can know with
ledge.

"

97

not the man to do such a thing, or

that your friend is
that such and such a thing that you have heard is "just like

You

him."

criterion.

have a

Such

is

real

knowledge which gives you a

the knowledge the Christian has of his

Father.

This knowledge of God

ethical

life.

gives a

We have seen that for

new ground

Paul the

for the

"

conscience,"

or consciousness of oneself as a moral being, is the court of

moral judgment Now when a man has received the Spirit

of Christ, that

"
i.

I Cor.

9-10, Col.

I Cor.

riii.

ii.,

ii.

12.

Spirit enters
iii.

2-3,

8,

and inhabits the

II Cor. z.

EpL

i.

3-6,

17, I Cor.

central place of

I Thess.
viii.

i.

5,

PHI,

1-3, Gal. iv. 9,

THE LORD THE

his self-consciousness

man

"

he

hurt

my self-respect

Jesus Christ

Is

referred to as

"

Is this

"

but

practical

"

Does

on

"

my

arises, it

Does

it

relation to

Not

that Jesus
Christ living in
the Christian approaches
?

"

it is

he brings the mind of

This, of course, he cannot do unless

it.

mind of Christ

hurt

this

Him

In this way

problems of ethics

Christ to bear

the

a moral question
unworthy of myself ?

an outside standard

me " who is the j udge.

all

conscious of himself, not as a

God, standing in a special

unworthy of

it

133

When

relation to Jesus Christ.

takes the form, not

is

is

merely, but as a son of

SPIRIT

is

his

mind

too.

That

is

to say, the

Christian solution of

one

who

any difficulty cannot be reached by

disinterestedly and externally examines and com-

pares the evidence, without being committed to the result

It is revealed to him who lets Christ's
of his examination.

mind dominate him day by day, and then

sees things as they

He has thus his ethical standard within

appear to that mind.

Here is the real secret of moral emancipation

In the Gospels we see Jesus taking up a wonderfully detached
attitude to traditional morality, picking and choosing,
himself.

in a way
rejecting and sanctioning,
to
his
contemporaries
bewildering

which must have appeared

in a way, indeed, which

understood.
Paul grasped the
really
in
dealt
this
secret of it.
Jesus
sovereign way with the moral
of
who gave the law was His
God
the
law because
Spirit

few of His followers

because the inward impulse that shaped His own

was the very central impulse of all true morality. He was

Spirit
life

God's Son, and lived in His Father's house ; and the law of
In all this the
the family of God was His very nature.
"
**
of
the
He who has
of
God."
Son
Christian is a
partner
the Spirit judges all things, and is judged by no one." The
principle of moral autonomy could not be more strenuously
asserted.^

And

Paul's willingness to trust the

12

Rom.

13

ix. i, I

Cor.

ii.

Cor.

viii.

15, iv. 3-5.

12.

autonomy of

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

134
others

is

often really touching,^ though

we

need not seek

to excuse his occasional attempts at a dictation which

was

really not consistent with his principles.

Here we have Paul's sufficient justification against those
who accused him of antinomianism or a relaxing of moral

The

moral demand of letting Christ's Spirit

rule you In everything is far more searching than the demand
of any code, and at the same time it carries with it the

standards.

promise of indefinite growth and development. It means

that every Christian is a centre of fermentation where the
morally revolutionary Spirit of Christ attacks the dead mass
Ethical originality is the prerogative of the

of the world.

whose conscience Is the seat of Christ's indwelling :

originality is imperative for a world which is
"saved in hope," a world which needs progress. The
Christian

and such

seeming extreme individualism of

this doctrine

by the doctrine of the Body to which

we

is

corrected

shall

come

presently : but for the moment let us do full justice to

Paul's claim of autonomy for the Christ-inspired conscience.
It

is

a claim

where

we must

our might in a world

In
strong and growing.

press with all

belief in regimentation

is

relation to the existing world-orders, in so far as they are

based on the violent assertion of authority, serious Christianity

It does indeed reverence authority in so
is anarchism.
far as that authority

obeys

God

"

is

rather than

an agent of

man, and,

Paul, "cares not a rap for the

tribunal"

God

for good," but

it

in the last resort, with

judgment of any human

*5

The indwelling of Christ's Spirit means not only moral

Paul's count against the
discernment, but moral power.
Law is that it was impotent through the flesh. Against
this
X4

impotence Paul

sets

the ethical competence of the

See especially Phil. iii. 15-16, which a false reading represented by the A.V. has changed into a plea for uniformity !
XS Rom. xiii.
r, 4; I Cor. iv. 3.

THE LORD THE

**

can do anything in

Spirit

he exclaims.

God may

For

Him who

friends

his

SPIRIT

me strong,"
"

he prays
that
the wealth of His splen-

in

grant you, according to

makes

135

Asia

made strong with power through His Spirit in

the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through
your trust in Him."** This is the antithesis of the dismal
dour, to be

picture presented in the seventh chapter of the Epistle to

the Romans, and

experience.

it

comes, just as evidently as that, out of

we may say that the thing above al!

Indeed,

which distinguished the early Christian community from

its environment was the moral
competence of its members.
In order to maintain this we need not idealize unduly the
There were sins and scandals at Corinth
early Christians.
and Ephesus, but it is impossible to miss the note of genuine

power of renewal and recuperation

of the

the power

simple person progressively to approximate to his moral ideals

in spite of failures.
The very fact that the term " Spirit "

"

used points to a sense of something essentially

supernatural" in such ethical attainment. For the primitive
Christians the Spirit was manifested in what they regarded
is

Paul does not whittle away the miraculous

He conit to the moral sphere.

as miraculous.

when he

sense

centrates

transfers

attention

more wonderful

on the moral miracle

as something
with
So
tongues."
any speaking
he of the new and miraculous nature

far than

fully convinced

is

"

of this moral power that he can regard the Christian as a

"
new creation." This is not the old person at all : it is a

"new man," a created

The result of all
man.

It

dom"
16

Cor.

this is

that the Christian

ambiguous in

rii.

EpL

9-10,

iii.

common

Rom.

is

J7

a free

14-19, 1 Cor.
3-4.

iii. 2.

usage*
i.

It

is

18, 24, ir. 20,

some-

Rom.

3.

xiii.

II Cor. v. 17 (cf. I Cor. iv. 15),

1,

good deeds."

here to be observed that the term "free-

Phil, iv.13,

1 6, II
*7

is

is

in Christ Jesus for

EpL

ii.

10, iv. 24, Col.

iii.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

136

times used to imply that a man can do just as he likes,

To this the deby any external force.

undetermined
terminist

that

replies

of free will

is

a matter of fact this freedom

as

so limited by the laws

existence as to be illusory.
is

which condition man's empirical

The rej oinder from the advocates

that no external force can determine a man's

moral conduct (and with mere automatism

we

are not con-

cerned), unless it is presented in consciousness, and that in

being so presented it becomes a desire, or a temptation, or a

In suffering himself to be determined by these the

motive.

man

not submitting to external control, but to something

which he has already made a part of himself for good or ilL
is

When, however, we have

Not all

further problem.

moved by

in being

said that,

that

is

we

immediate desire

my

myself of that ultimate satisfaction which

"
of all effort. If that is so, then to do as

be no freedom at

There

all.

is

are faced with a

desired

is

desirable,

may

and

be balking

the real object

"
I like
may well
is

a law of our being

which

forbids satisfaction to be found along that line, as it is written,

"
He gave them their desire, and sent leanness into their

souk"
is

He, then, whose action is governed by mere desire

not free to attain the satisfaction which alone gives

meaning to that
law of our

this

desire.

being.

There

no breaking through

Every attempt

experience to be futile.

itself in

is

to

Hence we

do so proves
are in a

more

hopeless state of bondage than that which materialistic

determinism holds ; for the tyrant is established within

own

One way, and one way only,

bondage remains. If we can discover how to
make our own immediate desire, and the act of will springing
our

out of

out of
to

consciousness.

this

it,

"do

as

accord with the supreme law of our

being, then
we like'* will no longer be to run our heads

against the stone wall of necessity which shuts us out from

the heaven of satisfaction.
For we shall only " like " doing

what we

"

ought."

This introduces a new sense of the

THE LORD THE

word "freedom."

It does not

our

of

follow what

futile desires to

137

now mean freedom from

but freedom from the tyranny

restraint to follow

desires,

SPIRIT

is

really good.

The

state of slavery described

in the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is a
"
"
flesh
in the
slavery to wrong desires ; not merely to

This

Paul's meaning.

is

abstract, as

but to the

implying our material nature and environment,

"
"
the lower nature and
mind of the flesh

environment made a part of one's conscious

slavery

is

the

more

intense because there

is

self.

The

the Reason or

Conscience recognizing the ideal of true satisfaction, and

What
chafing more and more at its impotence to resist.
the Law could not do, God has done by the gift of the
Spirit
self.

"

He has given the victory to the higher

:
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,"
of the Spirit the law of a life in communion

of Christ

"

Where

The Law

has made me free from the law of sin

Whereas life was a hopeless struggle, in which
the higher self was handicapped against a foe that had all the
advantage, it now becomes a struggle in which the handicap

with Christ Jesus

and death."

is

removed, and victory already secured in principle, because

The Law was external j it
has come into the life.

God

was a taskmaster set over against the troubled and fettered

will of man.
The Spirit is within, the mind of the Spirit
is the mind of the man
himself, and from within works
out a growing perfection of

life

which

satisfies

the real

In the full sense freedom is still an

longing of the soul.
object of hope ; but the liberty already attained makes
possible the building

up of a Christian morality

CHAPTER X!

THE DIVINE COMMONWEALTH

DISCOVERED
FROM

Paul's teaching about the Spirit of Christ flows

naturally a thought in which we may find the consummation

Where many individuals

share an experience
"
there
partnership of the Son of God
must be a very intimate unity among them. Moved and
governed by the same Spirit, they are one at the deepest

of his work.

so intimate as the

levels

of

life.

"

The new

life in

Christ, while

it

rests

upon

a most intensely individual experience, is yet a life in which

no man is a mere individual. He is a member of Christ's

Body.

We

may

recall that for

Paul

"body" meant a
makes a man a

real organic identity such as that which

single self-identical individual through all

the years.

Wherever

Christ's Spirit

is

the changes of

at work, there

is

Thus the immense

His body ; and He has only one body.
varieties of spiritual activity are only aspects of the one life,
analogous to the functions of various organs in a living
Each is necessary to all, and each
its place in the whole.
from
There
gets
significance only
the
whole
area
of the
is one Spirit, and therefore
through
human race there can only be one body. Here the evolution of monotheism reaches its necessary conclusion.
"
There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit ; and there
are varieties of services, but the same Lord ; and there are
varieties of activities, but the same God, who is the source
body

hand, eye,

ear.

its

138

THE COMMONWEALTH DISCOVERED

of

all

Spirit

"

activity in us all."
.

one

God and

There

Father of

is

139

one body and one

who is above all,

all,

and through all, and in all." 1 This drawing of the last

inference from the development of a great religious principle
is

a signal contribution of Paul to social philosophy. The

had already reached a doctrine of the unity of man.

Stoics

Here, as in other points, Paul stands right in the midst of

wide streams of thought. But it may be observed that the

was worked out wholly within a system of

Pantheism, and suffered from the limitations
which such a philosophy involves. Paul's Christian docStoic doctrine

naturalistic

trine of the unity of

revelation of the one

man

has

God,

knitting together all

its

centre in a moral self-

men who

moral and personal relation to Him.

for the theory of the matter.
But important

will accept a

So

much

was Paul's

theoretical

contribution,

it

as

was not a mere

matter of theory. It represents the actual experience of the

When a number of individuals
early days of Christianity.

with varying and even dashing interests have been caught

by a revolutionary force which has made some one new
interest mean more to each than any of his previous interests,
then a new unity is inevitably created. This is what

The fact of
actually happened to the early Christians.
Christ and His dealing with them became more important
to each than
interests

any other

of his experience. The separate

slave, man and woman, Jew and

fact

of master and

Gentile, man of culture and barbarian, faded into nothing

before the absorbing feet which made each of these a Christian.

one. 3

Christ lived in each, and therefore the life of all was

One of Paul's great words is that which is variously

translated

word

is

"communion"

koinonia,

which was

implying co-partnership or
1

I Cor.

Gal.

rii.,

iii.

Rom.

iii.

26-28, Col.

fellowship."

The Greek

originally a commercial term

common

4-5,
iii.

**

or

EpL

u,

iv,

I Cor.

Thus

possession.

1-16, Col.
iii.

13.

i.

in

18-29,

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

140

the Gospels the sons of Zebedee and of John are said to have
been foinonai, or partners, in a kind of joint-stock company
owning fishing-boats. This word seemed to the early
Christians
relations

most appropriate term to describe their

the

They were co-partners in a

"
the splendid spiritual
heritage" in which
with
Christ."
The ground of
"joint-heirs

one to another.

great estate

they were

was what they

their corporate life

the Spirit"

a joint-ownership in

of

called "partnership
all

that

was most

real

vital to them all.

Our liturgical phrase "the com"
munion of the Holy Ghost curiously obscures the vividness
of the original words, as Paul passed them down to us. 3

and

Here, then, as Paul saw with a sudden clearness of vision^

in actual being that holy commonwealth of God for

was

which the ages waited.

Here was a community created not

by geographical accident or by natural heredity, not based

on conquest, or wealth, or government, but coming into
existence by the spontaneous outburst of a common life in
a multitude of persons. The free, joyous experience of
the sons of God had created a family of God, inseparably
"
one person in Christ Jesus."
one in Him :

This is not to say that all distinctions between men are

For the irrelevant distinctions
blurred in a dull uniformity.
of

class, race,

and

nationality,

which

set

men

in

hostility,

are substituted those differentiations of function which bind

men

together

in

much ado

had

co-operative

induce

to

his

commonwealth. Paul
Greek converts, born

individualists as they were, to give full play to this

unity
difference.
The Corinthians made even the varied

in

endowments of the Christian life matters of competition

and rivalry. They had no criterion of worth, but judged
a man's gifts solely by their "rarity value."
3

The

KOLvuvla.
cf.

17

Paul bade

following passages will illustrate the significance of

II Cor. i. 7, cf. Phil, iii. 10 and Rom. viii. 17 ; Phm.

I Cor. x. 16-21

6,

I Cor.

i.

9, II Cor. xiii. 13

Phil.

ii.

i.

THE COMMONWEALTH DISCOVERED

them apply a new

how

have seen

test

the up-building of the body.

Paul criticized the

This was the

the early period.

"

them.

"

We

"

phenomena of
which
he judged
by

revival

test

141

'*

was of small value it

Speaking with tongues
"
"
no
but
was of
the
individual.
one
profited
Prophecy
it benefited the
value
The
endowgreater
community.
:

ment of the Christian was an endowment for service ; the

variety of endowments pointed to an organism with a
variety of functions. Since the endowments came from the
Lord the Spirit, it was He alone who could give meaning and
reality to the whole.

It

functioned.4

community
Paul was led

was as His Body that the whole

Pursuing this line of thought,

to see that the gifts

and endowments which

are of vital importance are the moral virtues, and above

"
the perfect link."
This divine love
all, love, which is

or charity is the subject of Paul's famous lyrical passage

in the thirteenth chapter of his First Epistle to the
Corinthians.
gift

of the

It

is

"
Spirit.

the highest and most comprehensive

love of God is shed abroad in our

The

by the Holy

Spirit given to us." 5

the highest category of Christian ethics is deduced
by Paul directly from the experience of the indwelling
Spirit of Christ, and we may find in the fact a confirmation

hearts

Thus

of the

reality of his claim to guidance by Christ's Spirit ;

the central thing in the teaching of Jesus is His
enthronement of love to God and man as the supreme and

for

sufficient

kw

of human conduct.

Paul

is

moving

in

different regions of thought, yet emerges at the same point ;

and when he claims that in spite of the manifest differences
his guide to the goal has been Christ Himself,
allow that his claim has reason.
Love, then, is
"
Be under no obligation
the sum-total of moral obligation

of the route

we must

4 I Cor. rii.

4-1 r, 28-31,

ziv. 1-5,

Rom.

7-16.
5

Col.

iii.

14-15, Rom.

v. 5,

Gal. v. 6.

lii.

6-8, Eph.

iv.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

142

For

to anyone except the obligation of love.

love

is

the ful-

a creative principle of society, the

actual force which builds and keeps in being the mystical
filment of law.'*

It

is

"
It
Israel of God."
body of emancipated humanity, the
"
"
"
Law
new
of
or
Law
the
Christ
of
is the
groundwork
of the Spirit."*
Here we find the necessary and sufficient correction
to the individualism of Paul's ethic

of the

Spirit.

The

sense of a supernatural intuition of God and His will,

independent of tradition or the mediation of any authority,
is

apt, if taken alone, to strengthen individual self-reliance

It "puffs up,"
But if
says Paul.
of
the
then
it
also
is the
Christ,
spirit
Spirit
and
of
"while
love
builds
love,
Spirit
knowledge pufis up,
"
up ; builds up, not the character of the individual being

to a

morbid degree.

the revealing

we

is

than justice to Paul if we so interpret him

but builds up the commonwealth of God into an ordered

do

less

and organic whole.

As
in

the initiation of the Christian

one

"
Spirit

in

which the

"

immersion
and rose again with
the rite of baptism, so also
life,

that

believer died

Christ, had its proper symbol in

the fellowship of the Body of Christ had

its
symbol in the
"Lord's Supper." From the beginning the Christian
communities had their common meal, the "breaking of
bread," and although we have not any explicit account of
the meaning which before Paul's time was attached to the

custom, yet the primitive record states that the Lord at His
last meal with His disciples broke bread, saying "This is
body "5 and His followers can hardly have continued to

My

break the bread without some recollection of His words, or

without attaching some special meaning to them. For
Paul, at any rate, the breaking of the bread which Christ
"
had called His body was a sharing in the Body of Christ " :
*

Rom.

7 I Cor,

xin. 8-10, Gal. v,

viii.

i, cf.

EpL

iv.

13-14,
16.

vi. 2.

THE COMMONWEALTH DISCOVERED

"

because there

for

we

all

is

one

loaf,

we,

who

share in the one loaf*" 8

143

are many, are one body,

In order to understand

by that, we must remember how

he
took
the thought that the life of the
absolutely seriously
"
Christian is the life of Christ.
As the soul," or principle

what Paul meant

of

to say

animates the body of flesh, so the Spirit (of

When bread is eaten, the
animates
the community.
Christ)
virtue of it passes into all the members of the body.
So in
nourishes
is
the
the
receiving Christ,
community,
Body, which
life

(psyche)

all its several

members and they

sharing of the

common

are inseparably one in the

life.

There

is behind this a deep

mystical thought resemthat
of
the
bling
higher mystery cults of the Greeks,
in which the sacred food of the God was eaten, and

the worshipper became one with Him.

But Paul will
let the matter rest at that quasi-magical
level at
which the mere consumption of consecrated elements by

not

itself sufficed to

work some mystic

underlying the meal

change.

The

reality

Christ's impartation of Himself in

If love
His Spirit to His people. But that Spirit is love.
be not an actual and effectual force in the gathering of
is

form is utterly empty and has no value.

at Corinth the Christians came together in a selfish

believers, then the

When
and

were not eating the Lord's

quarrels and rivalries.
in luxury; the poor looked on and

individualist spirit, they

Supper, but their own.

The

rich

feasted

There were

Under these conwas

ditions, says Paul,
quite impossible to eat a true
a
the
It
was useless to take the bread
of
Lord."
Supper
and say, cc This is the Lord's Body," when you did not
"
" discern the
the unity which His Spirit creates
Body
hungered, and the

rich despised them.

it

among
hearts.

those

who have the

love of

For the Supper was

dying of Christ, and of

* I

Cor. i.

also

all
1

God

shed abroad in their

a solemn memorial of the

that the dying

6-2 1,

xi.

17-34-

meant

It

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

144

reminded the

partakers

dead to the

Christ

The

and greed.
tion in Christ's sacrifice

its selfishness

The

is

Supper

they were crucified with

of the unsanctified heart,

that

evil passions

therefore

cup of wine was a participa-

new

the blood of the

covenant.

more than an ordinary community-

meal, and more also than the consuming of sacred food

which brings magical potency with it : it is the current

renewal of a union with Christ both in His death and in

"
and so a repeated
crucifixion of the flesh
with the affections and lusts," and a repeated constitution
His risen

life,

of Christ's Body in the renewal of mutual love through His

Spirit
**
Bodv of Christ Paul sees the ecclesia of God."
It
Ecclesia is a Greek word with a splendid history.
was used in the old free commonwealths of Greece for the

In

this

general assembly of all free citizens, by which their

was governed.

life

When

political

liberty

common
the

went,

name still survived in the restricted municipal self-government which the Roman State allowed. It was taken over
by the brotherhoods and
superseded

the

old

guilds

political

which

some measure

in

the

Among

associations.

Jews who

spoke Greek this word seemed the appropriate

describe the commonwealth of Israel as ruled by

one to

God

the

historical

Theocracy.

Our

of

translation

it is "Church."
That word, however, has undergone
such transformations of meaning that it is often doubtful

sense it is being used.

Perhaps for ecclesia we
the
use
more
word,
simpler,
general, and certainly
may
**
nearest to its original meaning
commonwealth."
in

what

We

have spoken throughout of the Divine Commonwealth.

"
That phrase represents Paul's ecclesia of God." 9 It is a
loving persons, who bear one another's
seek to build up one another in love, who

community of
burdens,
9

GaL

who

I Cor.
ri.

i.

16.

2, i. 32, XL 22, nr. 9, II Cor.

i.

r,

Gal.

i.

13

THE COMMONWEALTH DISCOVERED

145

"

have the same thoughts in relation to one another that

10
It is all
they have in their communion with Christ."
this because it is the living embodiment of Christ's own

This is a high and mystical doctrine, but a doctrine

which has no meaning apart from loving fellowship in real
A company of people who celebrate a solemn sacralife.
ment of Christ's Body and Blood, and all the time are
moved by selfish passions rivalry, competition, mutual
contempt is not for Paul a Church or Divine Commonwealth at all, no matter how lofty their faith or how deep
Spirit.

their mystical experience ; for all these things

"
up "; love alone builds up."

"

may

puff

In the very act, therefore, of attaining its liberty to exist,

Divine Commonwealth has transcended the great
divisions of men.
In principle it has transcended them
the

and by seriously living out that which its association

means, it is on the way to comprehending the whole race.
Short of that its development can never stop. This is the
revealing of the sons of God for which the whole creation
all,

is

waiting.
10

Phil.

ii.

that this, rather than the

correctly renders the

Greek

original, I

am

common
convinced.

translation,

CHAPTER

THE

LIFE OF

XII

THE DIVINE

COMMONWEALTH
PAUL, as a Pharisee, was supremely concerned with conduct,
for in Judaism not orthodoxy but correctness of conduct

was the test of a religious man. The standard of conduct

was external and confused trivialities of ritual with the
**
But conduct was the
weighter matters of the Law."
When
Paul
became
a Christian he
all-important thing.
did

not lose his interest in practical

In

religion.

his

greatest theological epistle the high argument reaches a

when

climax

"

you

he turns

of the whole
In

the

of him

as

not,

impose a

is

"

to

therefore^

my

brothers,

show how

the

sum and

moral holiness in practical life. 1

teaching he gives we must

in

to

train

missionary seeking
the midst of a heathen

urge

substance

ethical

community
could

with

think

Christian

society.

He

and would not, do so by

rigid

code governing

all

any attempt to
behaviour.
His aim

He wished to
was to see "Christ formed in them."
see them enter into that self-determining life of fellowship
with Christ which means emancipation of the spirit of man.
That life of fellowship with Christ means also membership
of a body. From these two principles the Spirit of Christ
of Christ creating the body
morality must spring by the pure and free submission

in the individual, the Spirit

all

Rom.

li.
146

33-xii. 2.

COMMONWEALTH

LIFE OF DIVINE

147

of individuals to the leading of that Spirit All that Paul

could do was to set forth by way of example the kind of

which such leading tended for people situated as

In
correspondents were situated in the Roman world.

way

in

particulars his ethical teaching

his
its

embodies a good deal of the

new morality which contemporary Stoicism was proclaiming,

of the humaner Jewish morals of the tradition of
"
Sirach and the
Wisdom" literature. The wise
ben
Jesus
moral teacher will express the ideals he wishes to promulgate
as well as

terms already appreciated by his hearers*

But the unity of the whole depends upon an informing spirit
"
It is the character of Christ which makes it a whole.
I

as far as possible in

urge you by virtue of the meekness and sweet-reasonable"

"
ness of Christ
Bear one another's burdens, and so
;

"

"

whatever you do, in act

or word, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus**:
when Paul uses such language it is more than a form
fulfil

the law

of words.
viction,

Christ

It represents a settled

that

first

among men

of

it is

where

the

there

work of

is

and reasonable con-

knowledge of good

Christ the life-giving Spirit,

and secondly that now that Christ has lived the human life
we have a clear line of definition, a test for all our moral
In the whole of Paul's moral teachings a
intuitions.
single and self-consistent ideal is implied, and that ideal
If we take as the vital
in the character of Jesus Christ.

centre of Pauline ethics the

poem of love

in the thirteenth

chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, we shall

not be wrong in recognizing in it a portrait for which
What Paul was trying to do was
Christ Himself has sat.
to

show how a man would

live if Christ

at Corinth, at Ephesus, at

Rome,

were

living in

him,

in the reign of Nero.

which he would avoid as a

were
forbidden by the best conthey
science of heathendom.
Indeed, the catalogues of vices

There were

certain things

matter of course

* II Cor. x.
i,

Gal.

vi. 2,

Col.

iii,

17.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

148

which Paul

gives correspond fairly closely with those of

contemporary
into

two

He generally

moralists.

classes

of the

sins

flesh,

of

groups them broadly

lust

and

commercial

anti-social vices, especially the

and

appetite,

vices,

summed

"greed" or "over-reaching" pleonexia.l I say "as

"
and such it was for Paul, but not
a matter of course
up

as

We are startled

to find gross unchastity at

at
Ephesus, drunkenness at both. The fact
Corinth, theft
is that Paul had addressed himself to an audacious enter-

for his converts.

prise

in

society.

narrowly

human

we

how

ask

Puritan

pietistic

nature,

the

into

calling

If

Church the very

up

brought
reached such

sect

we remember

riff-raff

man

this

that he

of
a

in

faith

in

was a follower of

the Friend of publicans and sinners and find the answer

But

there.

doubted

that

and

these

he

evil

assailed

must go he never

things

them

in

a steady confidence

that Christ had given the victory.

Over against these vices Paul does not set

any merely

He

does not correct unchastity by

demanding monkish celibacy, or avarice by insisting on
Franciscan poverty, or drunkenness by erecting total
negative asceticism.

In the Epistle to the Colossians he

blazes out against the asceticism of certain circles as a denial
abstinence into a law.

of the supremacy of Christ over

freedom of the Christian man.

all

and you are

is

and Christ

**

creation

God's,"
His doctrine of "mortification" 5
Christ's,

and of the

All things are yours;

is

his

broad

is
something
rempvcd from that of subsequent Catholicism : it is not
the ascetic discipline which is a kind of reversed self-

principle.4

far

pampering, but the complete dissociation of oneself from

impulses, and the

all selfish,
self-regarding, self-protecting
3

Rom.

i.

19-21, Col.
4 Col.
5

Col.

ii.
iii.

24-32, I Cor. v. 10-11, II Cor.

Si.

5-8.

16-23,
5

sqq.

Cor.

iii.

21-23,

x.

23-26,

iii.

20,

Gal. v

COMMONWEALTH

LIFE OF DIVINE

149

readiness to accept the consequences of that dissociation in

contumely, persecution or hardship to body or soul. In

loss,

his First Epistle to the Corinthians there

is

a passage

which

an interesting study in the light of this. 6

Its
"
"
ascetic
Paul
conclusion is perhaps the most
in
passage
affords

The

and the context merits examination.

is

Paul's refusal to take

money

point at issue

for his sen-ices.

It

was the

custom of wandering preachers of the Cynic, Stoic, and other

sects to receive gifts from their hearers.
Jesus Christ
had sanctioned the expectation of hospitality on the part of
His followers : and Peter at least seems to have interpreted
including maintenance for his wife.

this as

right and proper," says Paul

"

"

All quite

but I personally should

find it a hindrance.
I prefer to bear
my own burden.
to
the
am
I
even
prepared
liberty which
Similarly
yield
I claim for
am
to
I
Christian
5
put myself
every
ready

beside

weak-minded persons and accept

they consider necessary.

am

restrictions

which

prepared to give up any-

thing which interferes with the success of my mission, as

the athlete surrenders what would incapacitate him for
*

brother ass,
running, and if
much the worse for brother ass
!

ass to heel

he

shall

not balk

the body

But

me

protests

so

am bringing brother

in the end."

If that

is

He has got work to

asceticism, then Paul is an ascetic.
do which must be done, and that work is his consuming
As the boxer trains hard and the racer runs light,
so he will drop what hinders him from pressing towards
"
That is different from the timid touch not,
*ihc mark.
passion.

handle not," of the Colossian ascetics, and from

the later ecclesiastical prohibitions and restraints.

taste not,

On

one point, however, Paul seems untrue to himself.

we learn there were ascetics at Ephesus who

little later,

6 I Cor. ix.
7 I

have ventured to make Paul speak the language of Francis

neither, I think,

would object

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

150

from marriage, and probably claimed

If so, he had only himself to blame.9 For
himself he deemed the renunciation of family life necessary
taught abstention
Paul's sanction. 8

had as much right to marry as

So far, so good : but when he
and
the
rest.
Peter, James,
in
mission work, to follow his
not
wished others,
engaged
example, and suggested that marriage was a pis aller^ he
for his mission, though he

was on

less safe

There

ground.

is

much

to

be said for Sir

William Ramsay's view that Paul was concerned

in the first

instance to maintain his right to be a bachelor if his work

demanded it To the normal Jew there was something
eccentric,

not worse, about celibacy, and

if

the

among

"

Greeks the man who did not marry was " asking for
Paul set out to claim that a full, pure, and
scandal.
honourable

so

many

to

people

are,

by some must be

But he was

marriage.

into

proving

him

do best to hold

shall

on

could be lived, and

life

outside

lived,

the whole question

fast,

of the

carried

away, as
much.
We

too

in

this

matter

and

of the sexes,

relations

more humane and

his

truly Christian teaching that

neither male nor female, the pure
and wife is a sacrament of the divine love of

while in Christ there

man

love of

is

Christ, and the marriage

relation

which

consecrates

it

is

indissoluble. 10

The

on evil living is not by way of ascetic

by a steady appeal to the new life in Christ.
Ir
Thus, he writes to the Christians of Salonica
frontal attack

regulations, but

God

called

And

holiness.

us,

not for an impure

so any one

who

life,

but into a

life

of

neglects (this calling) neglects

man but God who gives to us His Holy Spirit. About love
for the brotherhood, again, there is no need for me to write to
not

I Tim.

iv. 3.

10

Gal,

"

I Thess. iv.

iii.

28,

Eph.
7-12.

v.

21-33, I Cor.

I Cor. vii.

vii.

xo-ii.

COMMONWEALTH

LIFE OF DIVINE

151

you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another ;
and indeed you act accordingly towards all the brothers in all

But I beg you, my brothers, to do still better (in

and to take pains to lead a quiet life, to mind your
own business, and to work with your own hands, as I told you ;
so that your conduct may be respectable in the eyes of outsiders,
and that there may be no destitution among you."
Macedonia.

this direction),

There

is

sound sense

us

in these injunctions to

an excitable

Here and everywhere Paul

and unsteady people.

impresses

with his readiness to trust the Christian impulse and

illumination in his very fallible converts.

Again and again
"
do ye not even of
he echoes the appeal of Jesus,

Why"

And from the

yourselves judge that which is right ?
"
same root grows as of necessity the whole new life.
The
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, loyalty, self-control." *3
But further, the Spirit is a corporate possession and
There is a "partnership of
not a
individual.

merely

the Spirit."
new centre

That
the

fact

whole

full

given
ethical

play creates from a

In the twelfth

life.

chapter of the Epistle to the Romans we see the

Christian ethic growing out of the thought of the claim

of the body upon each of its members.

The Epistle to
the Ephesians supplies the fullest working out of this.^
It is interesting to survey this broad sketch of Christian
community-life

an

is

appeal

another.

the

the

in order that

J4

common

Lk.

each stage there

principles of life "in
at

store.

he may have something to bring into

Mutual regard must take the place

of envy, hatred, malice,

"

how

central

Speak the truth for we are members one of

Let the thief stop thieving, let him work

Christ."

hard

and observe
to

xii.

Eph,

iv.

same ground.

and

all

57.

25-vi. 9.

CoL

iii.

5-iv.

uncharitableness,

"as

13 Gal. v.
22-23.
6 goes over much the

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

152

Christ loved you and sacrificed Himself for you."

Injuries
"
must be blotted out by forgiveness as God in Christ for"
The Kingdom of Christ and God " rules
gave you."

out alike unchastity and avarice or the idolatry of

Mammon.

Mutual subjection is the rule. This begins in the family,

"
"
where the relation of husband and wife is a mystery or
sacrament of the relation of Christ and His Church.

and children have mutual duties and

responsibilities

Slaves must give obedience

Lord."

doing the will of God," and masters must

to

Parents

"

"as
"

in the

Christ's slaves

do j ust the same

"

the slaves, because masters too are slaves of Christ

need to observe here is the conception of mutual

What we

responsibility

founded on an identical relation to Christ.

Paul has taken over the framework of the household as

known

Greek, Roman, and Jewish law

supreme lord and disposer of his wife,

and

to

the housefather as

his children

his

But in doing so he has introduced a revolutionary

slaves.
principle which was bound to transform the whole concepIn regard

tion.

to slavery Christianity

ments to Stoicism

brought reinforce-

the protest it was making against

Its attack was made from a
that deep-rooted institution.
different side.
Stoicism started in the main from the natural
in

unity and equality of men, and showed that slavery as an

was illogical. Christianity started from the slave

institution

"

brother for whom

himself as a son of God, and so a
It did not at the outset
Christ died."
say that the institution

was

indefensible.

slave as a

This new attitude

man.

the letter which

new

It introduced a
is

attitude to the

well illustrated from

Paul wrote to his friend Philemon of

He had lost a slave, Onesimus, who had run

with
belonging to his master.
money
away
By some means
Paul came in touch with the slave, and brought him to a
He induced him to return to his master,
better mind.
Colossse.

with a

beg you

letter

for

from Paul.

my

In

this letter

son Onesimus, born to

he wrote

me

in

my

"

prison.

COMMONWEALTH

LIFE OF DIVINE

153

'

good-for-nothing he was once, but now he is good for

much, both to me and to you. I have sent him back to

though I sent you my own heart. ... It may be

he was separated from you for a time for this reason,
that you might get him back no longer as a slave, but some-

you

as

that

dear certainly
thing better than a slave, a dear brother
and
far
dearer
natural
to
both
relations
me,
surely
you,
by
and in (communion with) the Lord."
There is here
to

power which goes deeper even than the

humanism of the Stoics. We may recall that even

a transforming
splendid

one of the noblest of them, could dissuade a

"
It is better
punishing a slave in the words
for your slave to be bad than for you to make yourself
Epictetus,

man from

unhappy."

*5

the household we have the growing

In
pre-Roman times the Greek city-state
community.
had formed a real community, where the individual was
Passing beyond

u
The
conscious of having his part in the
general will."
all
the elaborate organization
system had collapsed, and for
of the Empire with its local and central government there

was no

real

community wherein a man could

whole-hearted
cerns

which

fellowship
is

with others in

necessary

to

full

find that

common

life.

con-

similar

problem faces us to-day, and provokes the various

The
schemes of Syndicalism and the "Soviet" idea.
the formation of
in the Roman Empire was
result

and semi-religious guilds, of which the central

government was perpetually jealous, which it tried time and
religious

The
time again to cripple but never dared utterly to destroy.
Christian Church was the biggest attempt to create a real
community within the amorphous

society of the

Roman

In large measure it succeeded, because it based

itself upon a real experience of fellowship founded upon
"
"
Lord whose character
a free and personal relation to a
world.

Enchiridion,

zii.

I.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

154
was

definite

one of

"

and known
"

& personal relation which was

We

or complete confidence.

faith

conception of mutual responsibility working

the community.

"

see

itself

the

out in

l6

We

urge you, brothers, give good advice to the disorderly^

console the timorous, hold the weak by the hand, and be patient

with everybody,"

Each member must have something worth bringing

into the

"

common

For just

store.

X7

we have many organs

in one body, and these organs

we, many as we are, constitute
one body in (communion with) Christ, while we are individually
And so, since we have different gifts,
organs of one another.

have not

all

as

the

same function,

so

to God's graciousness shown to us, if the gift

be inspired preaching, let us preach up to the full measure of
our conviction ; if it be administration, (let us throw ourselves)
into administration ; if it be teaching, into teaching ; if it be

corresponding

the encouragement of others, into encouragement ; a man who

gives should do it open-heartedly, one who takes the lead, with
energy, one who does a kindness, with cheerfulness."

And this applies

to material as well as spiritual things.

The

enunciated by Paul quite incidentally.

During
the central portion of his career as a missionary he set on

principle

is

which he hoped to promote that

and
between
Gentile Christians which was
Jewish
unity
one of his dearest aims. The Christian community in
foot a great scheme by

Judaea was in great poverty, from various causes, including

famine and probably persecution.
Paul projected an extensive Relief Fund, to which all his communities of converts

from paganism should contribute as a mark of brotherly

and also as some acknowledgment of the real debt
which they owed to the first promulgators of the Christian
love,

The

feith.

terms
16

latter point

Paul puts to the

Romans

in these

l8

I Thess. v. 14.

J7

Rom.

xii.

4-8.

*8

Rom

xv.

26-27.

LIFE OF DIVINE
"

COMMONWEALTH

Macedonia and Achaia have decided

{koinonla) for the poor

among

the

to

make

155
*

sharing-out

Holy Community at Jerusalem.

and indeed it was their bare duty ; for if the

"
"
pagans shared in (the verb is koinonerz) their spiritual possessions,
it is
only fair that they should help the Jews with their material

They

decided

possessions."

almost impossible to reproduce in English the play

upon the world koinonia which makes it clear tha the
"
"
of Christians is a partnership in material
partnership
It

is

Here is a basis for a farHence the motive Paul

reaching Christian communism.
for
which is capable of a wider
work,
suggests
and more fruitful application. Paul, we may observe,
brought into Greek society, with its affected contempt for
goods as well as in

spiritual.

"

"

of all handiwork, the healthier Jewish

vulgarity
tradition of respect for the craftsman.
But observe the

the

motive

cc
:

man

should labour with his hands, that he

J
may have something to give to him who has need," 9
In other words, Work not for gain, but to enrich the
Mr. Bernard Shaw's dictum, " Do your
community,
work for love and let the other people lodge and feed and

an equally good, if rough,

expression for the teaching of Paul as it is for that of
clothe

you

for love,"

is

Jesus.

The interaction of the two principles of individual

autonomy and mutual responsibility is well illustrated
by Paul's dealing with some questions of casuistry which
arose out of the clash of different races and cultures in the

Church.

At Corinth

a difficulty arose about the eating of

The diffifood which had received a pagan consecration.

be
avoided.
If
to
not
could
you belonged
any sort
culty
of social club or trade guild, you could not go to the members'
X9

dinner without having food over which a pagan

EpL

iv.

28.

ao

"

grace

Preface to AndrocUs and the Lion.

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

156

before meat

"

had been

said.

If you dined out with friends,

the same thing might happen.

And anyhow, you never
knew but that the meat you bought at the butcher's had

In the Forum of Pompeii,

in some sacrifice.
of
Divine
the
the
indeed,
Emperor stands between
chapel
The
the place of slaughter and the butcher's shop.

done duty

close

of sacrifice with

connexion

the

sale

of meat

is

Here was a strange dilemma for a person who

clear.
believed that such a consecration brought demonic influence

The

into the food.

such

"

unclean

"

Jew, then as now, would not touch

The conscience of the primitive

meat.

No

Church was

it. 31

that

same way. But others,

"
No, an idol is nothing

many

equally tender about

at Corinth felt in the

inspired by Paul's teaching, said :

in the world 5 there is nothing in it."

wonder, then,

And

they freely

and openly ate the consecrated food, to the great scandal

of the "weak-minded brother." "Everything is lawful"
"
made all meats
was their watchword. Had not Christ
"
Paul retorts : " Everything may be lawful ; but
clean
?
It is not everyhas this robust faith, and if a weaker-minded
brother follows your lead and eats, in the ineradicable

not everything builds up (the community).

one

who

belief that

he

incurring defilement, you have injured his

for him.""
similar

is

conscience, and you are responsible

Rome

over Sabbath-keeping and vegeand

Paul
with it similarly : All days are
deals
tarianism,
alike ; all foods are legitimate ; but if your faith does not
difficulty arose at

ML

a* Acts x,
vii.
11-14. The teaching of Jesus in
14-1;
had evidently not been assimilated. The following verses in Ml.
may represent (by a device he adopts elsewhere), under the form
of a private explanation, the process by which the early Christians

came

to understand the

meaning of their Master's teaching upon

this

point.
33 I Cor.

cussion, the

and

"

viii.

1-13,
"

words

we know

r.

We

that an idol

14-31.

know
is

that

la the opening of the diswe all have knowledge,"

nothing in the world," are probably

COMMONWEALTH

LIFE OF DIVINE

157

then you must not go a step further

your conscience allows. "That which does not
" brother "
spring out of conviction is sin." And if there is a
really rise to that height,

than

who

has scruples you must not indulge your liking

till

"

you

Do not ruin
your way of thinking.
with your eating the brother for whom Christ died." 3 3
What we have here to note is the immense value attached

have

won him

the

to

to

individual

conscience.

No community

can

be

**

Paul says, except upon a tender and sincere

regard for the conscience of its members, even though the
conscience be mistaken or over-scrupulous.
On the other
built up,"

hand, the robust conscience is bound to criticize with a

candid eye the whole field of obligation and duty, unhampered by tabus or superstitious fears 5 moved only by the
consciousness of a relation to Christ within the conscience

which must never be desecrated, and by a perpetual sense

"
of responsibility towards others
for no one lives to
himself and no one of us dies to himself."
:

Finally,

the

growing

Christian

community aims

at

comprehending
humanity. Meanwhile, its task unit has relations to "the outsiders."
finished,
First, the
Christian has a duty to the conscience of his pagan neighHe is bound to respect their moral standards to
bours.
"
Think out conduct which shall
the utmost of his power.
be honourable in the judgment of all men." 3 * But further,
all

the obligation to a general beneficence which love entails

not limited by the bounds of the Christian community :

is

"

as

we have

opportunity

let

us do good to

"

#//, especially

to

Never return evil for

members of the family of faith."
what
is
both
towards one another
but
good
evil,
always pursue
from the letter of the Corinthian church
"
"
or ultraview of the
strong-minded
Paul accepts both statements with qualifications.

to be taken as citations

to Paul, expressing the

Pauline party.
*3

*4

Rom.
Rom.

xiv.
zii.

T -xv.

6.

17, I Cor. x, 32, I Thess. iv. 12, cf. Col. iv. 5*

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

158

"

and towards all."

am debtor/'

Paul said,

"

Greeks and

to

That debt he sums up in the same epistle as

one another." 2 5 That love will inspire the most

barbarians."

"

to love

scrupulous discharge of

all

The emperor

duties.

social

government come within the scope of

obligation, the more so because, however

and

his

embody something of

the empire does seek to

this general

imperfectly,
that natural

law of recompense which can only be transcended as men

enter into the higher life of love and liberty in Christ. 36 But
love will lead to something

For

discharge of duties.
is

in paganism, there

is

more

positive than the

mere

the measure of good that there

also a power of evil, which is exerted
all

by way of opposition to the Christian community. This is

to be met always, not merely with non-resistance, but with
"

an overplus of good.

If possible, keep the peace with

all,

Do

with you.

not seek revenge,

the Nemesis of sin have its course.

so far as the decision lies

dear friends, but let

.
Do not be conquered

with good."

This

*7

is

by

surely

but

evil,

an

conquer

admirable

evil

summary

and application of the teachings on non-resistance in

the Sermon on the Mount.
The outcome of it all is
that the principle of reciprocity
"an eye for an eye,
"
which in the old religion
and a tooth for a tooth
defined the nature of the divine dealing and therefore of
moral obligation as between men, is superseded by the

new

positive and creative principle of love.

the only principle upon which

the only foundation of human
is

In

must

basis

new community
future of
history

created

mankind

must

2I>

Gal.

**

Rom.

Because love

deals

with us,

it

is

morality.

implied that society as constructed on a

The future lies with the
pass away.

all this it is

pagan

God

by the

Spirit

The

of Christ.

entrusted to this
community, and its
be the growth and consolidation of this com-

vi. 10,
xiii.

is

I Thess. v. 15,

i-io.

Rom.
37

i.

14, cf.

Rom.

jii.

xiii.

8.

14-21.

LIFE OF DIVINE
Its

munity

members

COMMONWEALTH

159

are as "luminaries in the world,

^8
holding out the word of truth."
They are
a purpose the purpose of bringing into God's

"

elect

"

for

way and into

the fellowship of His Son the whole race of mankind without
In looking forward, therefore, Paul can condistinction.
upon the fortunes of Christ's Body.
he sees the promise of a true commonwealth of
Already within the borders of the Christian Society

centrate attention

In

it

man.
the

distinctions

great

of race, sex, culture,

are

status,

transcended, and the autonomous company of believers

Ephesus or Rome is a real nucleus of the universal

at

commonwealth. He sees this commonwealth growing

up, built on the foundation of apostles and prophets
lives of men illuminated, inspired, and sanctified
with
Christ
Spirit

corner-stone

for

Or

God.

of

temple inhabited by the

again, he sees it as a living
;

Christ the Head, every joint playing its part

the living structure, till it grows into

organism

in consolidating

perfect humanity.
this

"

full-grown

Then as his vision broadens he sees

man " made the means of the redemp-

which waits in hope for the revelation

For God who "was in Christ
the world to Himself" has purposed in the

tion of the universe

of the sons of God.

reconciling

end

"to sum up

earth." -9

That

in

Christ

vision of

all

things,

in

a world made

heaven

and

one and

free

was the inspiration of the apostle's life-work, and it

the word of hope he passes on to a distracted race.
*8

Phil.

ii.

39

EpL

ii.

25-28.

is

15-16.
19-22,

iv.

12-16,

i.

10, c

Col.

i.

20

I Cor. xv.

APPENDIX
A LETTER FROM PAUL THE MISSIONARY
TO THE SOCIETY OF CHRISTIANS IN

ROME
THE
the

abridged

following

Romans aims

of the

paraphrase

at presenting in a plain

Epistle to

way

the con-

sequence of the argument, while suggesting the

free epistolary form of the original x

tinuous

My

DEAR FELLOW-CHRISTIANS OF ROME,

I go I hear of your faith, and I thank
a part of my daily prayers that I may be
I believe such a visit would do you
you.

Wherever

God

for

it.

permitted to

It

is

visit

In fact, I have
sure it would do me good.
and again to get to Rome, but hitherto something
has always turned up to prevent me.
I shall not feel that
my work as missionary to the Gentiles is complete until
I have preached in Rome.
My mission is a universal one,
knowing no bounds of race or culture naturally, since
my message is a universal one. It is a message of God's
righteousness, revealed to men on a basis of faith (i. 1-17).
Apart from this, there is nothing to be seen in the world
of to-day but the Nemesis of sin. Take the pagan w rid:
all men have a
knowledge of God by natural religion 5
but the pagan world has deliberately turned its back upon
good, and

am

tried again

First published in

The Student Movement> 1919.

1 60

A LETTER FROM PAUL

knowledge, and, for

this

all

its

161

boasted philosophy, has

degraded religion into idolatry. The natural consequence

is a moral
perversity horrible to contemplate (i. 18-32).
But you, my Jewish friend, need not dwell with com-

You are guilty

placency upon the sins of the pagan world.
Do not mistake God's patience with His people
yourself.
His judgments are impartial. Knowindulgence.
ledge or ignorance of the Law of Moses makes no difference
here.
The pagans have God's law written in their confor

If they obey

science.

And

demned.

it,

well

as for

they stand conyourself a Jew and

if not,

call

you you
on the Law. But have you kept all its
You are circumcised and so forth : that goes

pride yourself

precepts ?
for nothing

His

God

looks at the inner life of motive and

An

affection.
sight.

honest pagan is better than a bad Jew in

I do not mean to say there is no advantage in

being a Jew : [of this more presently ;] but read your Bible
and take to yourself the hard words of the prophets spoken,
remember, not to heathens, but to people who knew the

Law, just as you do. No, Jew and pagan, we are in the
same case. No one can stand right before God on the basis
of what he has actually done.
Law only serves to bring
consciousness of guilt

But now,

Law

(ii.

apart,

i-iii.

20).

we have

a revelation of God's

It comes by faith,
righteousness [as I was saying (i. 17)].
the faith of Jesus Christ j and it comes to every one^ Jew or

Gentile,

who

has faith.

We

have

all

sinned, and

all

of us

can be made to stand right with God. That is a free gift

are emancipated in
to us, due to His graciousness.

We

Christ Jesus, who is God's appointed means of dealing with

a means operating by the devotion of His life, and by
sin

on our part. It is thus that God, having passed over

committed in the old days when He held His hand,
demonstrates His righteousness in the world of to-day ;
i.e. it is thus that He both shows Himself righteous, and
faith

sins

II

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DA"'

162

makes those stand right before

No

Christ.

room

Him who

for boasting here

have

No

Jew and Gentile here (iii. 21-31).

But what about Abraham ? you will

faith in Jesus

distinction

of

Did not he

say.

win God's graciousness by what he did I Not at all

Read your Bible, and you will find that the promise was
and the Bible
given to him before he was circumcised
;

expressly says that

for righteousness,"

"

he had

God, and that counted

faith in

The same

principle applies to us all

[To return to the point, then.]

We stand right with God

(chap.

iv.).

on the ground of faith, and we are at peace with Him, come

what may. God's love floods our whole being a love
shown in the fact that Christ died for us, not because we
were good people for whom anyone might die, but actually
while

we were

sinners.

for His enemies.

He

Very well

died, not for His friends, but

then,

if

while

we were enemies
now that we are

Christ died for us, surely He will save us

If He reconciled us to God by dying for us,
will
He
save us by living for us, and in us*
There
surely
friends

is

something to boast about ! (v. i-i

[Christ died and lives for us all,

how

can the

Adam's

sin

I
But, you ask,
say.
and death of one individual have conse-

life

quences for so

i).

many
and

?]

if so,

Christ's

righteousness ?
comparison between the

You

believe that

why

should

Of

course

we

we

not

there

lived

a whole race wins

righteously

Law

you

for

by
no

is

really

power of evil to propagate itself

win the victory, for that is a matter

and the power of good to

of God's graciousness. However, you see
one man sinned a whole race suffers for it

what about

all suffer
all profit

say,]

Law

life

my
;

by

only came

point

one
it.

in

Man

[But
by the

way, to intensify the consciousness of guilt (v. 1 2-21).

Now I come to a difficulty. I have heard people say,
**

If human sin gives play to God's graciousnessj

let us

go

A LETTER FROM PAUL

on sinning to give

Him

a better chance.

"
may come ?

163

Why not do

evil

What nonsense
To be saved through Christ is to be a dead man so far as sin
Think of the symbolism of Baptism. You
is concerned.
that good

(cf.

iii.

8).

go down into the water : that is like being buried with

Christ.
You come up out of the water that is like rising
with Christ from the tomb.
It means, therefore, a new life>
:

which comes by union with the living Christ. You

admit that, once a man is dead, there is no more claim

life

will

him

against
is

for

any wrong he may have committed.

from all claims on the part of his

like a slave set free

He
late

Think, then, of yourselves as dead. When you

remember the death of Christ, think that you i.e. your
were crucified with Him. And when you
old bad selves
master.

remember His

resurrection, think of yourselves as living

with Him, a new life. And above all, bear in mind that
and so you, living
Christ, once risen, does not die again
in
not
die
new
life
need
I mean, the sin
the
Him,
again.
:

you need not any longer control you j

You 'are freed slaves ; do not sell yourselves

that once dominated

do not

let it

Or, if you like to put it so, you are now

not of Sin, but of Righteousness (a very crude way
of putting it, but I want to help you out). Just as once
into slavery again.

slaves,

you were the property of Sin, and all your faculties were
instruments of wrong, so now you are the property of
Righteousness, and every faculty you have must be an instru-

ment of right. Freed from sin, you are

The wages your
that is what I mean.

1-23).
take another illustration.

of

God

old master paid

Your new Master makes you a

was death.
life

slaves

present of

(vi.

Or
woman

when

is

bound

to

You know

her husband

that by law

while

he

lives ;

she can marry again

So you
if she likes and the law has no claim against her.

may

he

is

dead she

is

free

think of yourselves as having been married to Sin, or

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

164

Law.

to

now

Death has

you from that marriage

released

bond, [though here the illustration halts, for] it is Christ's

death that has freed you ! Well, anyhow, you are free

You

marry Christ.

to
free, shall I say,

progeny of evil deeds by your

first

had a numerous

marriage

you must

now

I
produce an offspring of good deeds to Christ.
must
in
God
Christ's
serve
of
course, you
spirit
mean,
i-vii. 6).

(vi.

Now

admit that

law with

sin.

That

all this
is

not

clear that the function of

sin

I should
e.g.

was but

sounds as though I identified

my

law

never have
ts

that the law said

meaning.
is

But surely

it is

to bring consciousness

known what

Thou

of

covetousness

Such

shalt not covet."

the perversity of human nature under the dominion of

There
sin that the very prohibition provokes me to covet.
is

I knew nothing of Law, and lived my own

Then Law came, sin awakened in me, and life

was a time when

life.

became death

Of

me.

for

Law is good, but Sin

am only flesh and blood,

course

took advantage of it, to my cost. I

and flesh and blood is prone to sin.

I can see what is good,

cannot practise it ; i.e. my reason
recognizes the law, and yet I break it through moral perIf you like to put it so, there is one law for my
versity.

and

desire

reason, the

it,

but

Law

of God, and another for

my

outward

It is like a living man

conduct, the law of sin and death.
chained to a dead body.
It is perfect misery.
But, thank

The law of the Spirit of Life

God, the chain is broken
which is in Christ has set me free from the law of sin and
death.
Christ entered into this human nature of flesh and
blood which is under the dominion of Sin. Sin put in its
!

claim to be His master

was
was

righteousness, holiness,

who

but Christ

won His

case

Sin

claim disallowed, and human nature

non-suited,
free.
The result is that all the Law stood for of
its

live

by

and goodness

Christ's Spirit.

There

is

are

fulfilled in

two

possible

those

forms

A LETTER FROM PAUL

165

of human

life :
there is the life of the lower nature of
and blood, of which I have spoken ; and there is the
of the spirit. We have Christ's Spirit, and so we can

flesh
life

give

new life

You

And in the end that Spirit

whole human organism (vii. 7 viii.

of the

live the life

spirit.

to the

see, then, that the

will
1

flesh-and-biood nature has

1).

no

We

claim upon us.

belong to the Spi it. Those who are
actuated by that Spirit are sons of God.
[I used a while
"
"
back the expression,
slaves of God
but really] we are
;

not slaves but sons

sons

and when we come

it

will be

(viii.

and

into

heirs of

like Christ

God,

our inheritance,

how

glorious

12-18).

At the present
This, however, is still in the future.
time the whole universe is in misery, and in its misery it

New

waits for the revelation of God's sons.

seems

futile in

its

creation's pangs.

transience

and

even

But we have hope

all

we

existence

still

share

and the ground

of that hope is the possession of God's Spirit in a first

The fact
instalment only, but enough to reckon upon.
is that
every prayer we utter yes, even an inarticulate
prayer

is

the utterance of the Spirit within

us.

We

know that all through God is working with us. His purpose
If
is behind the whole
process, and He is on our side.
He gave His Son we can trust Him to give us everything

He loves us, and nothing in the world or out of it

can separate us from His love {viii. 1839).
[That concludes the present stage of my argument ;

else.

but before I can proceed to

to a difficulty already raised
difference

final deductions, I

must return

iii.
14).] If there is no
(cf.
between Jew and Gentile, does all the great

past of Israel

go for nothing

Do

all

the promises of

First, let me say how bitterly

Scripture go for nothing ?
I regret the exclusion of the Jewish nation as a body from
I would surrender all my Christian privileges
the new life.
if I

could find a

way

to bring

them

in.

But we must

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

166

recognize facts ; and the first fact is that the nation as a

whole never was able to claim the promises ; from the

beginning there was a process of selection. Of the sons of

of the sons of Isaac,
Abraham, Isaac alone was called
;

we

ask why, there is no answer save that

Jacob only.
God is bound by no natural or historical necessity, but
To question that will is
intervenes according to His will.
If

Then again,
as absurd as for the pot to arraign the potter.
while some members of the Hebrew race have always fallen
out, always God has declared His purpose ultimately to
members of the Hebrew race and that
what
is now
Now, as I said, I desire
just
happening.
the whole nation should
more
than
that
nothing
earnestly
be saved. But the fact is that they have deliberately rejected
the chance that was offered them.
There is nothing remote
include others, not
is

or abstruse about the Christian message. It is a very simple

thing : acknowledge Jesus as Lord, and believe that He
alive ; that is all.
And they cannot say that they have
never heard the message, for Christ has His witnesses everywhere. It looks, then, as if God>had rejected His people,
is

as punishment for their obstinacy.

do not believe

it.

God's promises cannot go for nothing. In the first place,

there has always been, and there still is, a faithful remnant

of the Jewish people. And in the second place, as for the

main body, their present rejection of the message is only a
means in God's Providence for its extension to the Gentiles.

The old olive-tree of Israel stands yet

many of its branches

off, and new branches of wild olive have

been engrafted in their place.
But God can engraft the
lopped branches on again, if it be His will ; and I believe

have been lopped

it is

His

return to

of

will,

and that ni the end the whole nation will

Him and

Israel has

inherit the promises.

And

if

meant such blessing to the world,

greater blessing will

its

the failure

how much

ultimate salvation bring !

God's
i.
is
universal
:
16),

purpose, as I said at the beginning (cf.

A LETTER FROM PAUL

He

167

has permitted the whole of humanity, Jew and Gentile

under sin, only in order that He may finally

alike, to fall

have mercy on the whole of humanity, Jew and Gentile

How profound and unsearchable are His plans

alike.

ix.

(chaps,

now

xi.).

can take up again my main Argument J

If
of
with
God's
what
to
be
us,
dealing
ought
way
our response ? Can we do less than offer our entire selves
[So

this

God

to

the

is

How

as a sacrifice of thanskgiving ?
In a life lived as by members
?

will that

work out
body.
rule

all

of one single
Let each perform his part faithfully. Let love
your relations one to another, and to those outside,

Do not regard the Emperor as

even to your enemies.
outside the scope of love, but obey his laws and pay his taxes.
Love is, in fact, the
Yes, and pay all debts to every one.
one comprehensive debt of man to man. If you love your
neighbour as yourself, you have fulfilled the whole moral
But be

law.

already
I

in earnest^abput things, for the better

day

is

dawning

hear you

(chaps, xii.-xiii.).
have differences among yourselves

about

Take this matter,

Sabbath-keeping and vegetarianism.
I
mean
as
an
of
what
example
then,
by the application of
all conduct
Remember
that the Sabto
love
brotherly
and the anti-Sabbatarian, the vegetarian and the
Give each
meat-eater, are alike servants of one Master.

batarian

other credit for the best motives.

Do not think of

yourself

think of your Christian brother, and try to put

If he seems to you a weak-minded,
yourself in his place.

alone

over-scrupulous individual, remember that in any case he

is
your brother, and that Christ died for him as well as for

and

If through your
reverence his conscience.
is harmless in
act
which
an
he
should
do
you but
example
Is it worth
sin to him, you have injured his conscience.
you,

while so to imperil a soul for the sake of your liberty in such

If the other man is weak-minded, and you
external matters ?

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

z68

strong-minded, all the more reason why you should help to

bear his burden.
Remember, Christ did not please Him-

In a word, Sabbatarian and anti-Sabbatarian, Jew

and Gentile, treat one another as Christ has treated you,
and God be with you (xiv. i-xv. 13).

self.

Well, friends,
tation from me.

hardly think you needed this long exhorYou are intelligent Christians, and well

able to give one another good advice.

Still,

thought

might venture to remind you of a few points ; for after

do feel a measure of responsibility for you, as missionary
all, I
to the Gentiles.
as far

to

West

relief

to set out for Spain

me,

that I
I

we

fund

work

After that I hope to start

accomplished

my

and take

free to visit

mission

have raised in Greece.

in the

West, and

propose

Rome on my

errand to Jerusalem

may be

my

Now I am going to Jerusalem

as the Adriatic.

hand over the

that

now

have

you

may

Pray for
way.
be successful, so

(xv. 14-23).

wish to introduce to you our friend Phoebe.

She

renders admirable service to our congregation at Cenchraeae

Do

all

you can

Kind
and

her

she deserves

regards to Priscilla

all friends in

(P.S.

be gentle

it.

and Aquila, Epaenetus, Mary,

Rome.

Beware of folk who make mischief.

and

Timothy,
at

for

Corinth

amanuensis

all

Lucius,

send

Be wise

Jason,

kind

Sosipater,

(So

regards.

and
do

all

friends

T/rftW,

!}

Glory be

to

good be with you.)

God
With

all

good wishes,

Your

brother,

PAUL,
of
Jesus Christ.
Missionary

INDEX OF REFERENCES TO THE

PAULINE EPISTLES

7o

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY

INDEX OF REFERENCES

171

1 72

THE MEANING OF PAUL FOR TO-DAY