Reality of our Lord's Humanity.

19

Canon. In the present instance, by a series of incidental although most significant statements, the Gospels guard us with nothing less than an exhaustive precaution against the fictions of a Docetic or of an Apollinarian Christ. We are told that the Eternal Word σàpέ éyévero ×, that He took human nature upon Him in its reality and completenessy. The Gospel narrative, after the pattern of His own words in the text, exhibits Jesus as the Son of Man, while yet it draws us on by an irresistible attraction to contemplate that Higher Nature which was the seat of His eternal Personality. The superhuman character of some most important details of the Gospel history does not disturb the broad scope of that history as being the record of a Human Life, with Its physical and mental affinities to our own daily experience.

The great Subject of the Gospel narratives has a true human na Body. He is conceived in the womb of a human Mother2. He is by her brought forth into the world a; He is fed at her breast during infancyb. As an Infant, He is made to undergo the painful rite of circumcision. He is a Babe in swaddlingclothes lying in a mangerd. He is nursed in the arms of the aged Simeone. His bodily growth is traced up to His attaining the age of twelvef, and from that point to manhood. His presence at the marriage-feast in Canah, at the great entertainment in the house of Levi i, and at the table of Simon the Phariseek; the supper which He shared at Bethany with the friend whom He had raised from the gravel, the Paschal festival which He desired so earnestly to eat before He suf

x St. John i. 14. Cf. Meyer in loc. for a refutation of Zeller's attempt to limit oap in this passage to the bodily organism, as exclusive of the anima rationalis.

▾ St. John viii. 40; 1 Tim. ii. 5.

2 συλλήψῃ ἐν γαστρὶ, St. Luke i. 31. πρὸ τοῦ συλληφθῆναι αὐτὸν ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ, Ibid. ii. 21. εὐρέθη ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχουσα ἐκ Πνεύματος Αγίου, St. Matt. i. 18. τὸ γὰρ ἐν αὐτῇ γεννηθὲν ἐκ Πνεύματός ἐστιν 'Αγίου, Ibid. i. 20; Isa. vii. 14.

a St. Matt. i. 25; St. Luke ii. 7, 11; Gal. iv. 4: é§améotecλev å ☺eds τὸν Υἱὸν αὑτοῦ, γενόμενον ἐκ γυναικός.

b St. Luke xi. 27 : μάστοι οὓς ἐθήλασας.

c Ibid. ii. 21.

a Ibid. ii. 12 : Βρέφος ἐσπαργανωμένον, κείμενον ἐν τῇ φάτνῃ.

e Ibid. ii. 28 : καὶ αὐτὸς ἐδέξατο αὐτὸ εἰς τὰς ἀγκάλας αὑτοῦ.

f Ibid. ii. 40 : τὸ δὲ παιδίον ηὔξανε.

g Ibid. ii. 52 : Ἰησοῦς προέκοπτε . . . ἡλικίᾳ.

b St. John ii. 2.

i St. Luke. v. 29: doxùv μeɣáλnu

k St. Luke vii. 36.

...

1 St. John xii. 2.

20 Witness of Scripture to Christ's Human Body.

He

fered m, the bread and fish of which He partook before the eyes of His disciples in the early dawn on the shore of the Lake of Galilee, even after His Resurrection ",-are witnesses that He came, like one of ourselves, eating and drinking.' When He is recorded to have taken no food during the forty days of the Temptation, this implies the contrast presented by His ordinary habit P. Indeed, He seemed to the men of His day much more dependent on the physical supports of life than the great ascetic who had preceded Him 9. knew, by experience, what are the pangs of hunger, after the forty days' fast in the wilderness, and in a lesser degree, as may be supposed, when walking into Jerusalem on the Monday before His Passions. The profound spiritual sense of His redemptive cry, I thirst,' uttered while He was hanging on the Cross, is not obscured, when its primary literal meaning, that while dying He actually endured that wellnigh sharpest form of bodily suffering, is explicitly recognised t. His deep sleep on the Sea of Galilee in a little bark which the waves threatened momentarily to engulf", and His sitting down at the well of Jacob, through great exhaustion produced by a long journey on foot from Judæa, proved that He was subject at times to the depression of extreme fatigue. And, not to dwell at length upon those particular references to the several parts of His bodily frame which occur in Holy Scripture, it is obvious to note that the evangelical account of His physical Sufferings, of His Death, of His Burial a, and of the Wounds in His Hands and Feet and Side after His Resur

m St. Luke xxii. 8, 15.

n St. John xxi. 12, 13.

• St. Luke vii. 34 : ἐλήλυθεν ὁ Υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐσθίων καὶ πίνων.

P Ibid. iv. 2 : οὐκ ἔφαγεν οὐδὲν ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις.

q Ibid. vii. 34: ἰδοὺ, ἄνθρωπος φάγος καὶ οἰνοπότης.

St. Matt. iv. 2: vσтeрov èreivare.

• Ibid. xxi. 18 : ἐπανάγων εἰς τὴν πόλιν, ἐπείνασε.

t St. John xix. 28: dw.

- St. Matt. viii, 24 : αὐτὸς δὲ ἐκάθευδε.

* St. John iv. 6 : ὁ οὖν Ἰησοῦς κεκοπιακὼς ἐκ τῆς ὁδοιπορίας ἐκαθέζετο οὕτως ἐπὶ τῇ πηγῇ.

y Thy Kepaλhy, St. Luke vii. 46; St. Matt. xxvii. 29, 30; St. John xix. 30; τοὺς πόδας, St. Luke vii. 38; τὰς χεῖρας, St. Luke xxiv. 40 ; τῷ δακTúλe, St. John viii. 6; тà σKéλn, St. John xix. 33; тà yóvaтa, St. Luke xxii. 41; thy wλeʊpàν, St. John xix. 34; Tò oŵua, St. Luke xxii. 19, &c.

St. Luke xxii. 44, &c, xxiii.; St. Matt. xxvi., xxvii.; St. Mark xiv. 32, seq., xv.

• St. John xix. 39, 40; ἔλαβον οὖν τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Ἰησοῦ καὶ ἔδησαν αὐτὸ ὀθονίοις μετὰ τῶν ἀρωμάτων : cf. ver. 42.

Witness of Scripture to Christ's Human Soul. 21

rection b, are so many emphatic attestations to the fact of His true and full participation in the material side of our common nature.

Equally explicit and vivid is the witness which Scripture affords to the true Human Soul of our Blessed Lord ". Its general movements are not less spontaneous, nor do Its affections flow less freely, because no sinful impulse finds a place in It, and each pulse of Its moral and mental Life is in conscious harmony with, and subjection to, an all-holy Will. Jesus rejoices in spirit on hearing of the spread of the kingdom of heaven among the simple and the poord: He beholds the young ruler, and forthwith loves him. He loves Martha and her sister and Lazarus with a common, yet, as seems to be implied, with a discriminating affection f. His Eye on one occasion betrays a sudden movement of deliberate anger at the hardness of heart which could steel itself against truth by maintaining a dogged silences. The scattered and fainting multitude melts Him to compassionh: He sheds tears of sorrow at the grave of Lazarus i, and at the sight of the city which has rejected His Lovek. In contemplating His approaching Passion and the ingratitude of the traitor-Apostle m, His Soul is shaken by a vehement agitation which He does not conceal from His disciples. In the garden of Gethsemane He wills to enter into an agony of amazement and dejection. His mental sufferings are so keen and piercing that His tender frame gives way beneath the trial, and He sheds

b St. John xx. 27; St. Luke xxiv. 39: tdete Tàs xeîpás μov Kai TOÙS πόδας μου, ὅτι αὐτὸς ἐγώ εἰμι ψηλαφήσατέ με καὶ ἴδετε· ὅτι πνεῦμα σάρκα καὶ ὀστέα οὐκ ἔχει καθὼς ἐμὲ θεωρεῖτε ἔχοντα.

• 1 St. Pet. iii. 18: θανατωθεὶς μὲν σαρκὶ, ζωοποιηθεὶς δὲ πνεύματι ἐν ᾧ καὶ τοῖς ἐν φυλακῇ πνεύμασιν πορευθεὶς ἐκήρυξεν. The τῷ before πνεύματι in the Textus Receptus being only an insertion by a copyist, veûua here means our Lord's Human Soul. No other passage in the New Testament places It in more vivid contrast with His Body.

4 St. Luke x. 21: ἠγαλλιάσατο τῷ πνεύματι.

• St. Mark x. 21: ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς ἐμβλέψας αὐτῷ ἠγάπησεν αὐτόν.

f St. John xi. 5.

8 St. Mark iii. 5: περιβλεψάμενος αὐτοὺς μετ ̓ ὀργῆς, συλλυπούμενος ἐπὶ τῇ πωρώσει τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν.

h St. Matt. ix. 36: ἐσπλαγχνίσθη περὶ αὐτῶν.

1 St. John. xi. 33-35: Ἰησοῦς οὖν ὡς εἶδεν αὐτὴν κλαίουσαν καὶ τοὺς συνελθόντας αὐτῇ Ἰουδαίους κλαίοντας, ἐνεβριμήσατο τῷ πνεύματι, καὶ ἐτάραξεν ἑαυτόν. Εδάκρυσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς.

* St. Luke xix. 41: Ἰδὼν τὴν πόλιν, ἔκλαυσεν ἐπ ̓ αὐτῇ.

1 St. John xii. 27: νῦν ἡ ψυχή μου τετάρακται.

* Ibid. xiii. 21: ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐταράχθη τῷ πνεύματι καὶ ἐμαρτύρησε.

22

Reality of Christ's Manhood not

His Blood before they nail Him to the Cross ". His Human Will consciously submits itself to a Higher Will, and He learns obedience by the discipline of pain P. He carries His dependence still further, He is habitually subject to His parents 9; He recognises the fiscal regulations of a pagan stater; He places Himself in the hands of His enemiess; He is crucified through weakness t. If an Apostle teaches that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him", an Evangelist records that He increases in wisdom as He increases in stature. Conformably with these representations, we find Him as Man expressing creaturely dependence upon God by prayer. He rises up a great while before day at Capernaum, and departs into a solitary place, that He may pass the hours in uninterrupted devotion y. He offers to Heaven strong crying with tears in Gethsemane2; He intercedes majestically for His whole redeemed Church in the Paschal supper-room a; He asks pardon for His Jewish and Gentile murderers at the very moment of His Crucifixion b; He resigns His departing Spirit into His Father's Hands".

Thus, as one Apostle teaches, He took a Body of Flesh d, and His whole Humanity both of Soul and Body shared in the sinless infirmities which belong to our common nature®. To deny this fundamental truth, 'that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh,'

- St. Mark xiv. 33: ἤρξατο ἐκθαμβεῖσθαι καὶ ἀδημονεῖν, καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς, • Περίλυπός ἐστιν ἡ ψυχή μου ἕως θανάτου. St. Luke xxii. 44: γενόμενος ἐν ἀγωνίᾳ ἐκτενέστερον προσηύχετο, ἐγένετο δὲ ὁ ἱδρῶς αὐτοῦ ὡσεὶ θρόμβοι αἵματος καταβαίνοντες ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν. Cf. Heb. v. 7.

• St. Luke xxii. 42: μὴ τὸ θέλημά μου, ἀλλὰ τὸ σὸν γενέσθω.

• Heb. v. 8 : ἔμαθεν ἀφ ̓ ὧν ἔπαθε τὴν ὑπακοήν.

4 St. Luke ii. 51: ἦν ὑποτασσόμενος αὐτοῖς.

r St. Matt. xxii. 21. For our Lord's payment of the Temple tribute, cf. Ibid. xvii. 25, 27.

• Ibid. xvii. 223 St. John x. 18: οὐδεὶς αἴρει αὐτὴν [sc. τὴν ψυχήν μου] ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, ἀλλ ̓ ἐγὼ τίθημι αὐτὴν ἀπ ̓ ἐμαυτοῦ.

t 2 Cor. xiii. 4: ἐσταυρώθη ἐξ ἀσθενείας.

u Col. ii. 3: ἐν ᾧ εἰσι πάντες οἱ θησαυροὶ τῆς σοφίας καὶ τῆς γνώσεως ἀπόκρυφοι. * St. Luke ii. 40: ἐκραταιοῦτο πνεύματι. ver. 52. προέκοπτε σοφίᾳ. See Lect. VIII. y St. Mark i. 35.

· Heb. v. 7: ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ, δεήσεις τε καὶ ἱκετηρίας . . . μετὰ κραυγῆς ἰσχυρᾶς καὶ δακρύων προσενέγκας.

a St. John xvii. 1: ἐπῆρε τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν, καὶ εἶπε. b St. Luke xxiii. 34: πάτερ, άφες αὐτοῖς· οὐ γὰρ οἴδασι τι ποιοῦσι. That this prayer referred to the Jews, as well as the Roman soldiers, is clear from Acts iii. 17. • St. Luke xxiii. 46.

4 Col. i. 22 : σώματι τῆς σαρκός.

• Heb. ii. 11: ὅ τε γὰρ ἁγιάζων καὶ οἱ ἁγιαζόμενοι ἐξ ἑνὸς πάντες. Ver. 14: μετέσχε σαρκὸς καὶ αἵματος. Ver. 17: ὤφειλε κατὰ πάντα τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς ὁμοιωθῆναι. Ibid. iv. 15: πεπειρασμένον δὲ κατὰ πάντα κάθ ̓ ὁμοιότητα.

forfeited by Its prerogative graces.

23

is, in the judgment of another Apostle, the mark of the Deceiver, of the Antichrist. Nor do the prerogatives of our Lord's Manhood destroy Its perfection and reality, although they do undoubtedly invest It with a robe of mystery, which Faith must acknowledge, but which she cannot hope to penetrate. Christ's Manhood is not unreal because It is impersonal; because in Him the place of any created individuality at the root of thought and feeling and will is supplied by the Person of the Eternal Word, Who has wrapped around His Being a created Nature through which, in its unmutilated perfection, He acts upon humankind 5. Christ's Manhood is not unreal, because It is sinless; because the entail of any taint of transmitted sin is in Him cut off by a supernatural birth of a Virgin Mother; and because His whole life of thought, feeling, will, and action is in unfaltering harmony with the law of absolute Truth h. Nor is the reality of His Manhood impaired by any exceptional beauty whether of outward form or of mental endowment, such as might become One 'fairer than the children of men,' and taking precedence of them in all things k; since in Him our nature does but resume its true and typical excellence as the crowning glory of the visible creation of God1.

fr St. John iv. 2: πᾶν πνεῦμα ὁ ὁμολογεῖ Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθότα, ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐστι. 2 St. John 7: πολλοὶ πλάνοι εἰσῆλθον εἰς τὸν κόσμον, οἱ μὴ ὁμολογοῦντες Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐρχόμενον ἐν σαρκί· οὗτος ἐστιν ὁ πλάνος καὶ ὁ Αντίχριστος.

The avvooraría of our Lord's Humanity is a result of the Hypostatic Union. To deny it is to assert that there are Two Persons in Christ, or else it is to deny that He is more than Man. Compare Hooker, Eccl. Pol. v. 52. 3, who appeals against Nestorius to Heb. ii. 16, οὐ γὰρ δήπου ἀγγέλων ἐπιλαμβάνεται, ἀλλὰ σπέρματος ̓Αβραὰμ ἐπιλαμβάνεται. At His Incarnation the Eternal Word took on Him Human Nature, not a Human Personality. Luther appears to have denied the Impersonality of our Lord's Manhood. But see Dorner, Person Christi, Bd. ii. p. 540.

The Sinlessness of our Lord's Manhood is implied in St. Luke i. 35. Thus He is ὃν ὁ Πατὴρ ἡγίασε καὶ ἀπέστειλεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον, St. John x. 36 ; and He could challenge His enemies to convict Him of sin, St. John viii. 46. In St. Mark x. 18, St Luke xviii. 19, He is not denying that He is good; but He insists that none should call Him so who did not believe Him to be God. St. Paul describes Him as тòv μh yvóvτa åμapτlav, 2 Cor. v. 21; and Christ is expressly said to be χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας, Heb. iv. 15; ὅσιος, ἄκακος, ἀμίαντος, κεχωρισμένος ἀπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτωλῶν, Heb. vii. 26; ἀμνὸς ἄμωμος καὶ dominos, 1 St. Pet. i. 19; 8 ayios kal díkalos, Acts iii. 14. Still more emphatically we are told that àμapría év avtų oùk čoti, 1 St. John iii. 5; while the same truth is indirectly taught, when St. Paul speaks of our Lord as sent èv dμoiúμati σaρkòs åμaprías, Rom. viii. 3. Mr. F. W. Newman does justice to the significance of a Sinless Manhood, although, unhappily, he disbelieves in It; Phases of Faith, p. 141, sqq. i Ps. xlv. 3. * Col. i. 18: ἐν πᾶσι πρωτεύων.

1 Psalm viii. 6-8. Cp. Heb. ii. 6-10.