SECTION LXXIII.

God is the basis of the moral, (2), in that He reveals himself in his universe as the Holy One,—discovers himself to man as the prototype of the moral, as the personally holy pattern after which man should form himself. In this consciousness of God as prototype of the moral, man conceives morality as Godlikeness, and himself,; in his true moral dignity, as God’s image and as a child of God.

The idea of a moral self-revelation of God is of wide-reaching moral significancy. Heathenism knows nothing of such a self-revelation; it is true, in the higher heathen religions, moral laws are referred to a divine origin, but this signifies simply either a revelation of the general laws of world-order, or, at best, a revelation of the divine will in regard to men, but not of the real moral nature of God. According to the Christian world-view, the good is not merely to be realized, but it exists already in full reality from eternity; morality is not to create something absolutely new, but only to shape the 86created after the model of its divine Creator; the free creature is to become like the holy God,—to come into free harmony, not simply with a naked idea but with an eternal reality. As a consequence of this, morality has an incomparably higher certainty and vitality than if the moral law appeared merely under the form of an idea. There can be no more convincing logic than the word: “Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” [Lev. xix, 2; xi, 44, 45; xx, 7; comp. Deut. x, 17 sqq.; 1 Pet. i, 15, 16; Eph. v, 1]; and Christ himself repeatedly presents the moral essence of God as the true pattern for man, both in general and in particular [Matt. v, 48; Luke vi, 36]. Even as in education there is no better moral instruction than that by personal example, so is there also in the moral education of humanity no more deeply influential moral revelation than that of the holy personality of God; and as the child naturally seeks not so much to realize a lifeless law as to become like a beloved and revered personal example, so is it likewise the case in the moral development of humanity in general; and this is not childlike immaturity, but rational truth; and herein also is the child a proper example. In realizing morality man does not present himself in the All as a solitarily-shining star, but as a God-loved and God-loving image of the invisible God,—as a human resplendence of His holiness.

A much deeper impression than that made by the revelation of the holy personality of God through speech, is made by the revelation of the same by actual reality in the person of Christ. We cannot answer here the oft proposed question as to whether the Son of God would have become man even had not sin entered into the world; the Scriptures give us on this point no decision; and even those who affirm it do not place the advent of the perfect man at the beginning of the race. Hence, even in this view, the coming of Christ is not held as a necessary condition of the moral life. But as Christ is in fact not merely the Redeemer suffering for and through sin, but also the true personal manifestation of the perfect image of God—the absolutely perfect prototype of human morality,—hence, for us, who are no longer in the condition of original sinlessness, the knowledge of pure morality is essentially conditioned on a knowledge of Christ. The first sin-free human 87beings needed not this historically-personal example in order to have a truthful moral consciousness, and to be able to realize morality; but we need it—we who have had to be redeemed from the curse and power of sin; we need, also as a help to a knowledge of the morality of unfallen man, this example that did not rise out of sin but stood above it. In a much higher degree, in fact, than Christ is the example for the redeemed, Is he the true criterion for a knowledge of unfallen human nature; for there is much in the moral life of the Christian for which Christ’s own life cannot be a direct example; for instance, the continuous struggle against the still-remaining sin in the human heart,—in Christ there was no such struggle; to him every thing that was sinful was foreign and external, but never inward and personal. On the. contrary, there could be nothing in the moral life, of unfallen man which could not be directly connected with the person of Christ, though indeed, not all the special phases of human morality could have their particular expression in the life of Christ. Thus we have occasion here to make at least allusion to Christ.