looked. Thus the words, It is finished, are supposed to exclude atoning work of any kind subsequent to the death of the Cross; whereas they only announce the completion of the particular work of obedience unto death which was the purpose of our Lord's earthly life. Neither the analogy of the Old Testament Day of Atonement, nor the direct teaching of the New Testament, sanctions the doctrine that the priestly work of Christ was finished when He died. If He was delivered for our trespasses, He was raised for our justification; if we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more... shall we be saved by his life. With S. Paul not the Cross and Passion, but the Ascension and the High-priestly Intercession are the climax of our Lord's saving work. If we ask what are the forces making for the salvation of men that flow from the priestly life of Christ in heaven, the answer may well be, What saving powers are there which do not proceed from it? All that the sacrifice of His earthly life obtained for us men and for our salvation, His heavenly High-priestly life bestows upon us. The whole life of grace in the Church on earth springs from this source; the Sacraments derive their whole efficacy from it; all the greater works that the Church has done since the Ascension-the baptism of the nations into Christ, 1Jo. xix. 30 (tetéλeσtai, consummatum est). 2 Rom. iv. 25, v. 10, viii. the interpenetration of human life and thought with the mind of Christ, the splendid victories of Christian faith and love, have been possible only because our High Priest has gone on our behalf into the Holiest, and there perpetually presents Himself to God. A gospel which ended with the story of the Cross would have had all the elevating power of infinite pathos and love. But the power of an endless life would have been wanting. It is the abiding life of our High Priest which makes His atoning Sacrifice operative, and is the unfailing spring of the life of justification and grace in all His true members upon earth. IV. THE PROPHET. THE Christ-offices are commonly reckoned as three; with the royal and the high-priestly life the Lord's Anointed unites the character of Prophet. There are examples in the Old Testament of the ProphetKing, the Prophet-Priest, and the Priest-King. But the fulness of Christhood seems to have been reserved for the ideal King and Priest and Prophet, who is able in His human life to discharge the functions of all.1 At first sight it might appear that the Lord's office of Prophet ceased when He left this earth. While His kingdom is not of this world, and His High-priestly work finds its proper sphere in the Holiest, the prophetic office might seem to have no place in a world where the full light of God streams upon all the inhabitants, and no interpretation of the Divine will can be needed. In the days of His flesh, on the 1 There are, however, approaches to this exercise of the three functions in the life of David, who was a prophet (2 Sam. xxiii. 2; cf. Acts ii. 30), and on one occasion assumed the ephod (2 Sam. vi. 14). 3 other hand, the Christ was pre-eminently Prophet; even those who were outside the circle of His disciples knew Him for this,1 and our Lord accepted the title,2 for, so far as it went, it was a true description of His work. His whole teaching was prophetic-a new teaching if not in all its contents, yet in its searching inwardness, in its creative power, in the Divine authority which He manifestly claimed. It must have been among the overwhelming sorrows which lay upon the souls of the Eleven on the night before the Passion, that the voice which had spoken as never man spake was about to be silenced in death. Jesus left nothing in writing, and all that remained of the utterances of the greatest prophet that Israel or the world had known was but an uncertain memory preserved by a group of loyal but imperfectly taught followers. So indeed it seemed to the Apostles. But even on that last night their Prophet taught them to look forward to a renewal of His teaching. His previous instructions had been but the first instalment of a greater prophecy, fuller, plainer, and more satisfactory than any hitherto uttered. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs (èv Tapotuíais); the hour cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but shall tell you plainly (παppnơiḍ ảπayyeλŵ) of the 1 Cf. Mc. vi. 15, Jo. iv. 19, vi. 14, ix. 17. 2 Mc. vi. 4. Father.1 The teaching of the Ministry had been on the whole parabolic or paroemiac-a revelation half revealed, draped in the wrappings of figure and symbol that hid the brightness of the naked truth, on which even the Eleven could not as yet bear to look. When Christ was taken from them, the plainer teaching of their Prophet would begin; not indeed as they understood 'plainness,' that is, with an apparent simplicity which veiled unapprehended realities, but by way of a direct appeal to spiritually enlightened understandings, giving them an insight into the inmost truth of things. Thus, the ChristProphet's larger and directer teachings were to belong to His life with the Father and not to His brief Ministry among men. The same discourse revealed to the Apostles the means by which the Lord would continue to teach after His departure. These things have I spoken unto you while abiding with you; but the Paraclete, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said unto you. When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from 1 Jo. xvi. 25. 2 Jo. xvi. 12 οὐ δύνασθε βαστάζειν ἄρτι. 3 Cf. verse 29, vûv ¿v πappnoíą Xaλeîs, though He had just used words (ἐξῆλθον—ἐλήλυθε—ἀφίημι—πορεύομαι) which were really as hard to understand as any of His earlier sayings. |