k:
didaskein hoti outos estin ho christos tou theou] (teaching that this is
the Christ of God): for a community which possesses the Spirit does not
reflect on whether its conception is right, but, especially a missionary
community, on what the certainty of its faith rests.

The proclamation of Jesus as the Christ, though rooted entirely in the
Old Testament, took its start from the exaltation of Jesus, which again
resulted from his suffering and death. The proof that the entire Old
Testament points to him, and that his person, his deeds and his destiny
are the actual and precise fulfilment of the Old Testament predictions,
was the foremost interest of believers, so far as they at all looked
backwards. This proof was not used in the first place for the purpose of
making the meaning and value of the Messianic work of Jesus more
intelligible, of which it did not seem to be in much need, but to
confirm the Messiahship of Jesus. Still, points of view for
contemplating the Person and work of Jesus could not fail to be got from
the words of the Prophets. The fundamental conception of Jesus
dominating everything was, according to the Old Testament, that God had
chosen him and through him the Church. God had chosen him and made him
to be both Lord and Christ. He had made over to him the work of setting
up the Kingdom, and had led him through death and resurrection to a
supra-mundane position of sovereignty, in which he would soon visibly
appear and bring about the end. The hope of Christ's speedy return was
the most important article in the "Christology," inasmuch as his work
was regarded as only reaching its conclusion by that return. It was the
most difficult, inasmuch as the Old Testament contained nothing of a
second advent of Messiah. Belief in the second advent became the
specific Christian belief.

But the searching in the scriptures of the Old Testament, that is, in
the prophetic texts, had already, in estimating the Person and dignity
of Christ, given an important impulse towards transcending the
frame-work of the idea of the theocracy completed solely in and for
Israel. Moreover, belief in the exaltation of Christ to the right hand
of God, caused men to form a corresponding idea of the beginning of his
existence. The missionary work among the Gentiles, so soon begun and so
rich in results, threw a new light on the range of Christ's purpose and
work, and led to the consideration of its significance for the whole
human