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CHAPTER XIII

RECAPITULATION

T may be helpful to a clearer understanding of the foregoing exposition to bring the main points together in a brief résumé.

1. The material and spiritual creation is God's expression of Himself. Both natural and moral laws are the divine will impressed upon the cosmos. Christ the Son is the eternal objective expression of Deity, "the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and invisible; all things have been created through Him and unto Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." (Col. 1:15, 16.) The Eternal Son is the Word, (that is, the Expression of Deity), that was in the beginning with God, and was God, "the effulgence of His glory, the very image [or impress] of His sub

stance." The historic Christ is that Word become flesh, and dwelling among us as the "human life of God."

2. The cross, in its largest meaning, is the cosmic expression of divine integrity and of divine love. It is the exhibition, both in nature and in history, of the divine struggle for selfrealization. In other words, it is the struggle to "reconcile all things unto Himself

through the blood of His cross; whether of things upon earth, or things in the heavens." A human analogy is a sculptor struggling to realize his conception in a statue, or a moral reformer struggling to realize his moral ideal in social conditions. In each case there is an effort to reconcile the objective with the subjective.

3. This cosmic struggle is manifested in nature (1) in the law of struggle for self-preservation and the survival of the fitttest, with man as the consummation; (2) in the law of struggle for the life of others. In the moral sphere it is manifested (1) in the phenomenon of self-propitiation, by which is meant the voluntary sacrifice of some temporal good-even physical life

itself for the maintenance of moral integrity. In the moral world the primitive struggle for life takes the form of the struggle for holinessthe realization of the spiritual self.

The death on the cross was God's oblation of Himself to Himself, the satisfaction in suffering given by Incarnate Deity to the demands of His own holy character or law-the "propitiation" made by the world's Savior in pain and shedding of blood to His own self-respect. It was the price of self-preservation and of self-realization.

(2) The ancient struggle for the life of others culminates in the moral realm in Christian service. God's love for us sent the only begotten Son to suffer that we might not eternally suffer, to redeem us from ignorance, weakness, and sin. He did not suffer to defeat the claims of justice on us, nor to cheat the law out of its mortgage on sinners. He was not punished in our stead. He died not to release us from social and organic consequences of sin, but from sin itself. His death is no magical or mystical substitute for righteous living on our part. But His blessed life of purity and re

nunciation for our enlightenment and help is "the power of God unto salvation" from sinful living, the healing fountain of living waters. Jesus is the climax of the cosmic principle of giving oneself for others—the completion of the cosmic law of love.

4. The historic death of Jesus, therefore, is the focus of the cosmic struggle where both these laws meet; where the divine character realizes itself in perfect expression; where divine integrity and divine love are together fulfilled in one act of supreme sacrifice. In this act things in heaven-elements in the very Godhead itself— are reconciled, realized, perfected. “Though He was a Son, yet [He] learned obedience by the things which He suffered; and having been made perfect, He became unto all them that obey Him the Author of eternal salvation." (Heb. 5: 8, 9.) "For it became Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings." (Heb. 2:10.) These quotations indicate that the Godhead itself was in some sense

not perfect until "it is finished" at the death of Christ. In the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Man Christ Jesus, God Himself was "perfected" in the sense that He had completely realized Himself at one point in humanity. The blood of Christ, "who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish unto God," did effect something in the Godhead, as well as in humanity. The death of Jesus made no elemental change in the Father's character, nor in His attitude toward men; but it did bring to perfection, in objective realization, the eternal character of God. The lady's act of severing her hand to send to Saladin for the redemption of her lover made no elemental change in her loyalty and love, but it did bring that loyalty and love to perfect objective realization. In the death of Jesus the divine character returns unto itself in a completed circle, reconciling the Godhead within itself. "Of Him, through Him, and unto Him are all things."

5. The historic death of Jesus also effected

*John 19: 30. The word teleo, to complete, make perfect, bring to maturity, is used in all these passages.