_THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST._
Mr. Alexander Knox, in a letter to a friend,[4] makes the following
remark: "Religion contains two sets of truths, which I may venture to
denominate _ultimate_ and _mediatory_: the former refer to God as an
original and end; the latter to the Word made flesh, the suffering,
dying, rising, ruling Saviour; the way, the truth, the life. Now I
conceive these two views have almost ever been varying, in the minds
even of the sincerely pious, with respect to comparative consequence;
and, while some have so regarded the ultimate as in some degree to
neglect the mediatory, others have so fixed their view on the mediatory
as greatly and hurtfully to lose sight of the ultimate." This writer
refers to Tillotson on one side, and Zinzendorf on the other, as
instances of these extremes; and indicates that perhaps his own leaning
might be a little too much in the former direction.
[4] _Remains_, iv., p. 156.
It can hardly be doubted that there is something in this suggestion. In
the guidance and training of the soul some aim mainly at right
dispositions towards God and His will, without much dwelling on what
Knox calls mediatory truths; because they assume that the latter exist
only with a view to the former; and if the end has been brought into
view and is coming to be attained, there is no special need of dwelling
on the means. Others aim mainly at receiving the right impressions about
Christ dying and rising, and at complying with the _way_ of salvation as
it is set forth to us in Christ; because they are persuaded that here
the secret lies of all deliverance and progress, and that the end cannot
otherwise be reached. And Mr. Knox suggests, with truth most likely,
that such persons have often so occupied themselves with what may be
called the means of salvation, that they lose sight in a great degree of
the end to which all tends--life in God, life in fellowship with His
loving goodness and His holy will.
What application these views may have to divergences of our own day it
would take too long to consider. Mr. Knox's remark has been referred to
here in order to throw light on the mental attitude of Paul. Paul will
hardly be accused of losing sight of the ultimate truths; but certainly
he delights to view them through the mediatory truths; and he strives to
reach the ultimate victory, through the most realising application to
his heart and life of what those mediatory truths embody and disclose.
Through the mediatory truths the ultimate ones reveal themselves to him
with a wealth and an intensity otherwise unattainable. And the eternal
life comes into experience for him as he takes into his soul the full
effect of the provision which God has made, in Christ, to bestow eternal
life upon him. That order of things which is mediatory is not regarded
by Paul only as a fitting introduction, on God's part, to His ultimate
procedure; it is also in the same degree fitted to become for the
individual man the medium of vision, of assurance, of participation. In
other words, Paul finds God and makes way into goodness through Christ;
and not through Christ merely as an embodied ideal, but through union to
Christ Divine and human, Christ living, dying, rising, redeeming,
justifying, sanctifying, glorifying. He never pauses in any of these, so
as to fail in looking onward to God, the living God. But neither does he
pass on to that goal so as to disregard the way unto the Father. If he
could have foreseen the method of those who are striving in our day to
bring men to the blessedness which Christianity holds out by dwelling
exclusively on Christian ethics, he might have sympathised with their
ethical intensity; but he would surely have wondered that they failed to
find in Christianity more pregnant springs of motive and of power.
Perhaps he would even be moved to say, "O foolish Galatians (or
Corinthians), who hath bewitched you?" Not less, it must also be said,
might he wonder at many a gospel preacher, who rehearses the "way of
salvation" until the machinery clanks and groans, unable apparently to
divine--unable, at least, to bring out--that glory of God in it, that
wonderful presence and influence of infinite holiness, goodness, and
pity, which make the gospel the power of God.
We, meanwhile, shall do well to imitate the charity of Mr. Knox, who
cordially owned the Christian piety of those who might go too far either
way. Few of us, indeed, can dispense with the charity that is tender to
partial and imperfect views. But if we are to understand Paul, we must
find our way into some sympathy with him here; not only as he is seen on
this line to have attained so far in saintship, but as he is seen to be
sure that this way lay much more--that on this line his road lay to the
glory that should be revealed. He could contemplate the practice and
growth of piety in many lights; yet it came home to him most evidently
as growth in the knowledge and in the appropriation of Jesus Christ.
He has cast away for the sake of Christ the treasures so much valued by
the Jews, and many a treasure more. But what he would chiefly impress on
the minds of those to whom he writes is not so much the amount of what
he has cast away, but rather the worth of that which he has found, and
more and more is finding. The mass of things set down for loss is a mere
stepping-stone to this central theme. But though he tells us what he
thought and felt about it, most of us learn but slowly how much it meant
for him. When we sit down beside the Apostle to learn his lesson, we
become conscious that he is seeing what we cannot descry; he is
sensitive to Christ through spiritual senses which in us are torpid and
undeveloped. Christ holds him all through. It is faith, and love, and
gratitude; it is self-devotion, and obedience, and wonder, and worship;
and, through all, the conviction glows that Christ is his, that in
Christ all things have changed for him. "In Christ we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sin. He hath made me accepted in
the Beloved. I live; yet not I, but Christ. In Christ, old things have
passed away, all things are made new. Christ is made of God unto us
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ?" The intense heat of this
conception of Christ, it must once more be said, gives its distinctive
character to the religious life of Paul. May we not say that the
lamentable distinction of a great deal of current Christianity is the
coldness of men's thoughts about their Saviour? The views of many may be
characterised as "correct, but cold." Only what can be more incorrect,
what can more effectually deny and controvert the main things to be
asserted, than coldness towards our Saviour, and cold thoughts of His
benefits? This we should hold to be unpardonable. We never should
forgive it to ourselves.
"For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus." Christ had come
into the life of Paul as a wonderful knowledge. Becoming thus known to
him, He had transformed the world in which Paul lived, and had made him
conscious of a new order of existence, so that old things passed away
and all became new. The phrase employed combines two ideas. In the first
place, Paul felt Christ appealing to him as to a thinking, knowing
nature. Various influences were reaching him from Christ which bore on
heart, will, conscience: but they all came primarily as a revelation;
they came as light. "God, who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus." In the next place,
this discovery came with a certain assuredness. It was felt to be not a
dream, not a fair imagination only, not a speculation, but a knowledge.
Here Paul felt himself face to face with the real--indeed, with
fundamental reality. In this character, as luminous knowledge, the
revelation of Christ challenged his decision, it demanded his
appreciation and adherence. For since Christ claims so fundamental a
place in the moral world, since He claims so intimate and fruitful a
relation to the whole state and prospects of the believing man,
acquaintance with Him (at least, if it be acquaintance in Paul's style)
cannot pause at the stage of contemplation: it passes into appropriation
and surrender. Christ is known as dealing with us, and must be dealt
with by us. So this knowledge becomes, at the same time, experience.
Hence, while in ver. 8 the Apostle speaks of himself as encountering all
earthly loss that he may _know_ Christ, in ver. 9 it is that he may
_gain_ Christ and may be _found in Him_. Christ so came into the field
of his knowledge as to become the treasure of his life, replacing those
things which heretofore had been gain, and which now figured as loss.
When Paul turned from all else to know Christ, he turned, at the same
time, to have Christ, "gaining Him," and to be Christ's, "found in Him."
Christ, in fact, comes to us with commandments, "words" (John xiv. 23),
which are to be kept and done. He comes to us, also, with promises, the
fulfilment of which, in our own case, is a most practical business. Some
of these promises concern the world to come; but others apply to the
present; and these, which lie next us, either are neglected, or are
embraced and put to proof, every day of our lives. Besides all this,
Christ comes to us to fix and fill our minds, and to endear Himself to
us, in virtue simply of what He is. So viewed, He is to be owned as our
best Friend, and indeed henceforth, with reverence be it said, by far
our nearest Relation. This is to be, or else it is not to be. Each day
asks the question, Which? Paul's Christianity was the answer to that
question. How his answer rings in all our ears! Our Christianity also is
making its reply.
Both as to knowledge and as to experience the type was fixed from the
first: there could be no doubt about either. But both were to deepen and
widen as life went on. Christ was apprehended at first as a wonderful
Whole of good; but so that indefinite fields of progress were
continually to open up. In the very first days a knowledge dawned, for
the sake of which all else was counted loss; yet a world of truths
remained to know, as well as of good to experience, for the sake of
which also all else should continue to be counted but loss. This, in
fact, is only one way of saying that Christ and His salvation _were_
realities, divinely full and worthy. Being real, the full acquaintance
with all they mean for men can only arise in a historical way. Paul
therefore emphasises this, that real Christianity, the right kind of
Christianity, just because it has found a treasure, is set on going on
to find that same treasure still further and still more (comp. ch. i.
9). If the treasure is real and the man is in earnest, that will be so.
Such had been the course of his own Christian life from the first. Now,
though many years have disciplined him, though changing experiences have
given him new points of view, still, no less than at the first, his
rejoicing in the present goes hand in hand with reaching onward to the
future. The one, in fact, is the reason of the other. Both are rational,
or neither. He _has_ counted all to be loss for the excellency of the
knowledge which has broken upon his soul: and still he presses on, that
he _may_ know; for the same strong attraction continues and grows.
Before passing to details, something more should perhaps be said of this
magnificent generality, "the knowledge of Christ."
Christ is first of all known historically; so He is presented to us in
the Gospels. His story is part of the history of our race. He passes
through youth to manhood. We see Him living, acting, enduring; and we
hear Him teaching--wonderful words proceed from His mouth. We
contemplate Him in His humiliation, under the limits to which He
submitted that He might share our state and bear our burdens. In the
pathways of that Jewish life He discloses a perfect goodness and a
perfect dignity. We see especially that He cherishes a purpose of
goodwill to men which He bears to them from the Father. It overflows in
all His words and works, and in the prosecution of it He moves on to lay
down His life for us. This is the beginning of the knowledge of the Only
Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Much may as yet be
undefined; many questions may crowd on us that receive as yet no precise
answer; nay, much may seem to us as yet to be strangely entangled in the
particulars of an individual and of a provincial existence. But this
presentation of Christ can never be dispensed with or superseded; and,
for its essential purpose, it never can be surpassed. For this is the
Life. "The Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and show unto you
that Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto
us."
This vision, which the Gospels set before us, was also before the mind
of Paul. And words of our Lord, delivered in His earthly ministry, and
preserved by those who heard Him, were treasured by the Apostle of the
Gentiles, and reproduced to guide the Churches as need required. Yet
there is a sense in which we may say that it is not exactly the Christ
of the Gospels who comes before us in the Pauline writings. The Christ
of Paul is the Lord who met him by the way. It is Christ dead, risen,
and ascended; it is Christ with the reason and the result of His
finished work made plain, and with the relation unveiled which He
sustains to men who live by Him; it is Christ with the significance of
His wonderful history for believers shining out from Him--Christ
_vestitus Evangelio_. Now He has gone up above all worlds. No longer is
He hedged about by necessities of mortal life; no longer tied by earthly
bonds to some places and some men and one nation. He is glorified; all
fulness dwells in Him; all God's purposes are seen to centre in Him. And
then, by His death and resurrection, the tie between Him and His people
is unveiled to faith, as it could not be before. They are one with
Him--in Him redeemed, endowed, triumphant, glorified. Every Christian
privilege and attainment, every grace, every virtue and good gift, takes
on a celestial character, as it is seen to be an element in our
fellowship with Christ. The state of Christians is seen reflected in
their Head. And, in turn, Christ is seen, as it were, through the medium
of the relation which He sustains to them, and of the wealth of good
arising to them by it. It is Christ as He is to His people, Christ as He
is set in the centre of the world of good that radiates to them all,
whom Paul wonders at and worships. And he finds all this to be rooted
in our Lord's death upon the cross, which was the crisis of the whole
redemption. All that follows took character and efficacy from that
death.
A special insight into all this was included in the wisdom given to
Paul. And yet this view of things does not turn out to be something
diverse or alien from what the Gospels set before us. Rather it is the
gospel story revealing its native significance and virtue along many
lines which were not so distinct before.
But now all this, in turn, leads us to the third aspect of the case.
What Christ is and what He does may be described; but there is a
knowledge of it which is imparted practically, in the progressive
history of the believer. According to the Christian teaching, we enter,
as Christians, on a new relation; and in that relation a certain blessed
well-being is appointed to us. This well-being is itself an unfolding or
disclosure of Christ. Now this well-being comes home to us and is
verified in the course of a progressive human experience. Life must
become our school to teach us what it all means. Life sets us at the
point of view now for one lesson, now for another. Life moves and
changes, and brings its experiences; its problems, its conflicts, its
anxieties, its fears, its temptations; its need of pity, pardon,
strengthening; its experience of weakness, defeat, and disgrace; its
opportunities of service, self-denial, fidelity, victory. For all these
occasions Christ has a meaning and a virtue, which, in those occasions,
is to become personal to ourselves. This makes knowledge indeed. This
becomes the vivid commentary upon the historical and the doctrinal
instruction. Life, _taken in Christ's way_, along with prayer and
thought, manifests Christ's meaning, and makes it real to us, as nothing
else can. It furnishes the stepping-stones for passing onward, in the
knowledge of Christ.
This also was Paul's condition, though he was an inspired man. He too
was fain to improve his knowledge in this school. And when we take all
three aspects together, we shall see how truly, for Paul and for us, the
knowledge of Christ is, on the one hand, so excellent from the first,
that it justifies the great decision to which it calls us; and, on the
other hand, how it creates a longing for further insight and fresh
attainment. The latter we see in the Apostle as plainly as the former.
From the first, he knew in whom he believed, and was persuaded that for
His sake all else was to be resigned. Yet to the end he felt the
unsatisfied desire to know more, to gain more; and his heart, if we may
apply here the Psalmist's words, was breaking for this longing which it
had.
It was remarked above that the "excellency of the knowledge of Christ"
in ver. 8 corresponds in the Apostle's thought to the "gaining" of
Christ and being "found in Him" of ver. 9; and this may be the best
place to say a word on these two phrases. To gain Christ, points to a
receiving Christ as one's own; and the Apostle uses the phrase so as to
imply that this finding of Christ, as One who is gained or won, was
still going on; it was progressive. Clearly also the alternative is
implied, that what is not gained is lost. The question in the Apostle's
life, about which he was so decided, was about no less than losing or
gaining Christ. The phrase "be found" points to the verification of
Paul's relation to Christ in his history and in its results. That
relation is contemplated as something that _proves_ true. It turns out
to be _so_. We shall best understand the phrase as referring, not to
some one future date at which he should be so found, but rather to
present and future alike. As men, or angels, or God, or Christ might
view him, or as he might take account of his own state, this was what he
would have _found_ in regard to himself. Every way he would be found in
Christ. The form of expression, however, is specially appropriate here,
because it fits so well into the doctrine of righteousness through
Christ, which the Apostle is about to emphasise. A similar remark
applies to the expression "in Christ" so frequently occurring in the
Pauline writings. This is usually explained by saying that the Apostle
sets before us Christ as the sphere of his spiritual being--in whom he
lived and moved--never out of relation to Him, and not so related to any
other. Such explanations are true and good: only we may say that the
pregnant strength of the expression seems to be weakened even by the
best explanations. The relation in view is too wonderful ever to be
adequately described. The union between Christ and His Church, between
Christ and the believing man, is a mystery; and, like all objects of
faith, it is dimly apprehended by us for the present. But the certainty
of it, and its wonderfulness, we should never allow ourselves to
overlook. Christ is able to bring men into fellowship with Himself, to
assume responsibility for them, to represent their interests and to care
for their good; and men may receive Christ into their lives; with a
completeness on both sides which no explanations can adequately
represent. The identification with Christ which the phrase suggests
naturally fits what follows.
Now the Apostle goes more into detail. He tells us what were for him the
main articles of this good state of being "found in Christ." He
indicates, with a certain eager gratitude, the main lines along which
the benefits of that state had come into experience, and along which he
was pressing on to know the fulness of Christ. First, in Christ he has
and shall have not his own righteousness, which is that of the law, but
that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. Then, secondly, he has in hand a practical knowledge of
Christ, culminating in the complete deliverance of the resurrection. It
includes two aspects or elements; Christ known in the power of His
resurrection, and Christ known in the fellowship of His sufferings.
The first thing then which rises distinctly into view in connection
with being found in Christ is the possession of the new righteousness.
We have seen already that value for righteousness such as is of law, and
hope of achieving it, had been associated with Paul's old days of Jewish
zeal. He then stood on the law, and gloried in the law. But that had
passed away when he learned to count all things loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ. Ever after, the contrast between the two
ways of seeking "righteousness" continued to be fundamental in Paul's
Christian thinking.
The law here in view was the whole revealed will of God touching man's
behaviour, coming as a will of authority, requiring obedience. The
discussion in the earlier chapters of the Epistle to the Romans makes
this plain. And Paul's way of keeping the law, in those old days, though
it was necessarily too external, had not been so merely external as is
sometimes supposed. His obedience had been zealous and resolute, with as
much heart and meaning as he could put into it. But law-keeping for
righteousness had been the principle of it. The Jew was placed under a
law; obedience to that law should be his pathway to a destiny of
incomparable privilege and gladness. That was the theory. So believing,
Paul had given himself with zeal to the work, "living in all good
conscience before God." A great change had now befallen him; but that
could not imply on his part a renunciation of God's law. The law, better
understood indeed, and far more inwardly apprehended, still retained
for Paul its great outlines, and was reverenced as Divine. It was holy
and just and good. It was felt still to shed its steadfast light on
human duty, awakening and illuminating the conscience; and therefore it
revealed most authentically the moral situation, with its elements of
failure, and danger, and need. The law stood fast. But the scheme of
life which stood in keeping the law _for righteousness_ had passed away
for Paul, vanishing in the light of a new and better day.
Here, however, we must ask what the Apostle means when he speaks of the
righteousness which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, the righteousness
which is of God unto or upon faith. Great disputes have arisen over this
question. We must endeavour to find the Apostle's main meaning, without
involving ourselves too much in the mazes of technical debate.
_THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH._
"Not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the
law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness
which is of [from] God by [upon] faith."--PHIL. iii. 9 (R.V.).