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mate proof that a divine voice speaks in Scripture lies in the region of spiritual experience.

The central point, however, of Christ's teaching is that the revelation recorded in the Old Testament is mainly a revelation of human duty. If we set aside those instances in which our Lord reasons with the learned, and accommodates Himself apparently to their standpoint and to their preconceptions, it is striking how closely analogous His teaching is to that of the prophets. The doctrine

of God's Fatherhood stands in the forefront of His teaching, but He ever brings out its moral import as implying an ideal of sonship by which the ethical law of the Old Testament is transfigured. The old obligations are not abolished, but are spiritualized. The eternal principles of righteousness are extricated from their temporary kernel. Christ recognizes the element of accommodation in the ancient Law, and His main work is to impart to His hearers a point of view which will enable them to discern for themselves between the provisional and the permanent elements in the old dispensation, and to teach them that the supreme requirement of God is not the righteousness of conformity to outward law, but the holiness of a heart purified by love towards God and towards man. The lost sense of spiritual proportion was for ever re-established in the statement that this, the law of love, is the law and the prophets1.

3. Once more, Christ Himself and the New Testament writers represent the Old Testament as constituting an organic whole, to which the Messiah and His kingdom are the key. They look upon the entire preparatory dispensation as a shadow of good things to come. The ordinances imposed under the ancient system and the incidents described by sacred historians were divinely overruled in such a way as to prefigure

inde haurire non possit quod satis est, si modo ad hauriendum devote ac pie, ut vera religio poscit, accedat.'

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the mysteries and circumstances of the new covenant. It was of Christ that Moses wrote1; it was the sufferings and glories of Christ that prophets unconsciously described. Of the apostolic writers each one seems to give special prominence to one particular aspect of the prophetic character ascribed to the Old Testament. St. Paul discerns in the history of Abraham the assertion of that principle of faith which preceded the discipline of the Law, and lies at the root of the relationship between God and man which is revealed in Christ. St. Peter claims for the Christian Church titles which imply that she is the heir of the covenantpromises and privileges of God's ancient people 1. The writer to the Hebrews points to the fulfilment in Christ both of the law of sacrificial worship and of the purificatory rites of Judaism. The ancient ceremonial system was a shadow or outline-sketch of heavenly realities manifested in Christ. In the Apocalypse St. John invests the incarnate Son with the glories of the Messianic kingdom, unfolds the judgments of God and the fortunes of the Church in symbolism derived from the prophets, and describes the bliss of the redeemed in imagery transferred from the earthly Jerusalem to the heavenly sanctuary and the city of God.

In this case again the justification of the method employed in dealing with the Old Testament lies in the appeal to spiritual experience. The prophetic character of the ancient Scriptures is vindicated by the skill which so applies them. The spiritual sense,' it has been said, 'is its own proof, as a key by opening a complicated lock sufficiently proves that it has been designed for it. There is no need to enlarge on this point, which will be dealt with later. Let it suffice to

John v. 46. Our Lord's references to the fulfilment of the Old Testament in His own person and in the conditions of His earthly life are amply illustrated by Valeton, Christus und das A. T. pp. 22 foll. 3 Rom. iv; Gal. iii.

2

1 Pet. i. II.

I Pet. ii. 9.

Heb. x. 1.

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observe that this character of the old covenant corresponds to the predominance of prophetism in Israel's religion. For the creative element in Hebrew religion was a real and continuous self-communication of God to men; the one Spirit was ever at work, enabling those whom He inspired to anticipate His purposes, and to read, each in his measure, the divine thoughts for mankind'. Thus 'there is not one New Testament idea that cannot be conclusively shown to be a healthy and natural product of some Old Testament germ, nor any truly Old Testament idea which did not instinctively press towards its New Testament fulfilment 2." It is indeed characteristic of a divine religion that its main ideas do not suddenly break in upon human thought; the wisdom of God prepares the soil in which these ideas shall take root and flourish; it fosters anticipations which may welcome the truths ultimately to be disclosed; it impresses even upon external incidents and ordinances tokens of what is to come. The stage of promise, preceding that of law, is a comprehensive prophecy, real though dimly understood, of the goal towards which the whole religion tends. And there is truth in the suggestive remark of Augustine that the whole Old Testament is a promise in figurative form. It is only when we endeavour to grasp the meaning of St. Paul's phrase the fulness of Christ that we can do justice to the many-sidedness of the Old Testament. In it the various aspects of the Incarnation are presented in fragmentary forms, Christ in His offices; in His character; in His person; Christ in His relations to God and man; Christ in His body the Church; Christ as giving to God all that God required from man; Christ as bringing to man all that man required from

1 Cp. Schultz, O. T. Theology, i. p. 54.

2 Ibid. p. 52.

3 Serm. iv. (de Jacob et Esau) 9: 'Vetus enim Testamentum est promissio figurata; Novum Testamentum est promissio spiritaliter intel

lecta.'

4 Eph. i. 23.

God; Christ as seen in this dispensation in suffering; Christ as seen in the next dispensation in glory; Christ as the first and the last, as all and in all to His people ',' in whom all the promises of God are yea, and

in him Amen 2.

Enough has been now said to illustrate the method observed by our Lord and the New Testament writers in their use of the ancient Scriptures. Their example teaches us that the true key to the Old Testament is possessed only by those who have the mind of Christ, and who are guided by the same Spirit that 'spake by the prophets.' There are indeed one or two passages in which our Lord seems to suggest principles of scriptural interpretation which could be safely employed only by Himself. Such is His answer to the Sadducees as touching the dead that they rise. Here we have an instance of interpretation that necessarily transcends any human method, and that raises farreaching questions as to the degree in which ordinary minds can penetrate the significance of Scripture. Only He who knew God with an absolute knowledge could thus reveal a mystery necessarily involved in covenant-relationship to Him.

The authoritative tone with which both here and in the Sermon on the Mount Christ elucidates the inner meaning of the ancient law constitutes an element in His claim to be more than man, and it may well check the temper of confidence with which men pass judgment on the contents of the Old Testament, or criticize the reasoning of the New. We cannot for a moment suppose that with His unique spiritual insight our Lord could mistake the real character of the Scriptures to which He so solemnly appeals. That He penetrates to the very heart of their meaning, that He assigns to each part of them the exact significance they were

1

Jukes, The Law of the Offerings, p. 10. Cp. Rev. i. 17; Col. iii. 11. 2 2 Cor. i. 20. I Cor. ii. 16.

3

↑ Mark xii. 26 foll. Valeton, Christus und das A. T. p. 43, makes some good remarks on this passage.

divinely intended to convey, that He grasped unerringly their general drift and their precise bearing on His own work and mission, it is simply impossible to doubt. And although, as we have seen, He does not discard methods of interpretation which were in general use at the period of His active ministry, He so employs them as to rescue the Old Testament from the misuse it had suffered at the hands of the scribes, and to restore to the written word its rightful vitality and authority. Thus to His Apostles and to His believing Church Christ is verily the light of all Scripture.'

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By way of summary it may be said that both Christ and His apostles use the Scriptures with a certain prophetic freedom. In the contrast between their teaching and that of the scribes is implied the revival of the spirit of prophecy. The word of God again comes to Israel, again has free course. It is significant indeed that the Old Testament is not expressly called 'the word of God' in the New. In the Gospels 'the word of God' means the oral delivery of the gospel. It is not something written, but a living seed implanted by the preaching of the divine message in the heart of the hearer. Nay, Jesus Christ Himself is in utterance and act the living sermo Dei1. In the Old Testament the Word or Wisdom of God lives as the soul in the body; and every scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven must bring forth out of his treasure things new as well as things old. Accordingly the apostolic writers display a certain flexibility in their use of exegetical methods and in their practical applications of Old Testament Scripture, as if to teach us that those who cling to rigid rules of exposition may fall far short of ascertaining the mind of the Spirit. Practically the New Testament points us to the unction from the Holy One as the only unfailing source of spiritual

truth.

1 Cp. Meinhold, Jesus und das A. T. p. 60. Consider the use of λóyos in James i. 18; 1 Pet. i. 23.

Matt. xiii. 52.

3

I John ii. 20.

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