Philippians and Philemon - MR Vincent - 1906.pdf

INTRODUCTION XXXV
is introduced, not for the purpose of formulating the doctrine of
Christ's preexistence and of defining the nature of his humanity
as related to his preincarnate condition, but in order to enforce
the practical exhortation to humility. Thus, too, the doctrine of
justification by faith as treated in ch. iii. lacks none of the essen-
tial elements of the discussion in Romans ; yet it gains in practical
force and attractiveness by being intertwined with the doctrine of
mystical union with Christ. It is this which makes that passage,
brief as it is, so valuable for the study of the real PauHne doctrine
of justification, affording as it does no room for that scholastic
and mechanical interpretation according to which justification is
resolved into a forensic adjustment effected by a legal fiction of
imputed righteousness.
Yet the attitude of the epistle towards doctrinal error is neither
hesitating nor compromising. Its dealing with the Judaisers in
ch. iii, reminds us that the writer is still the Paul of the Galatian
and second Corinthian letters. None the less it bears witness to
the discriminating quality of a ripe charity, to the sound wisdom
of Christian love which knows how to draw the line between weak-
ness and perverseness ; between the occasional lapses of Christian
immaturity and the wicked obstinacy of an estranged heart
between the mistakes of an untutored conscience and the selfish
persistence of unholy desire.
But while the character of the epistle is ethical rather than doc-
trinal or controversial, it gives no countenance to the tendency to
resolve the gospel into a mere code of morals. The moral inspira-
tion which it represents has its impelling centre in a person and a
life, and not in a code. The personal Christ is its very heart. It
exhibits Christ in Paul rather than before him. Christ is not a
subject of controversy ; he is not simply a pattern of conduct.
He is the sum of Paul's life. Paul's ideal is to be found in him.
His death is not a sorrowful reminiscence ; it has been shared by
the apostle in his own death to sin. The view of the resurrection,
which this letter in common with that to the Romans presents, is
a standing rebuke to the superficial conception and the loose
grasp which the church too often brings to that truth. The res-
urrection of the Lord is to Paul a present, informing energy and
not only a memory and a hope. He would know the power of
the resurrection now and here as well as hereafter. He not only
;