its perverseness by calling sinners to
him and by describing the opposition of the righteous to his Gospel as a
mark of their godlessness and hardness of heart.]

[Footnote 60: The blessings of the kingdom were frequently represented
by Jesus as a reward for work done. But this popular view is again
broken through by reference to the fact that all reward is the gift of
God's free grace.]

[Footnote 61: Some Critics--most recently Havet, Le Christianisme et ses
origines, 1884. T. IV. p. 15 ff.--have called in question the fact that
Jesus called himself Messiah. But this article of the Evangelic
tradition seems to me to stand the test of the most minute
investigation. But, in the case of Jesus, the consciousness of being the
Messiah undoubtedly rested on the certainty of being the Son of God,
therefore of knowing the Father and being constrained to proclaim that
knowledge.]

[Footnote 62: We can gather with certainty from the Gospels that Jesus
did not enter on his work with the announcement: Believe in me for I am
the Messiah. On the contrary, he connected his work with the baptising
movement of John, but carried that movement further, and thereby made
the Baptist his forerunner (Mark I. 15: [Greek: peplerotai ho kairos kai
engiken he basileia tou theou, metanoeite kai pisteuete en toi
euaggelioi]). He was in no hurry to urge anything that went beyond that
message, but gradually prepared, and cautiously required of his
followers an advance beyond it. The goal to which he led them was to
believe in him as Messiah without putting the usual political
construction on the Messianic ideal.]

[Footnote 63: Even "Son of Man" probably means Messiah: we do not know
whether Jesus had any special reason for favouring this designation
which springs from Dan. VII. The objection to interpreting the word as
Messiah really resolves itself into this, that the disciples (according
to the Gospels) did not at once recognise him as Messiah. But that is
explained by the contrast of his own peculiar idea of Messiah with the
popular idea. The confession of him as Messiah was the keystone of their
confidence in him, inasmuch as by that confession they separated
themselves from old ideas.]

[Footnote 64: The distinction between the Father and the Son stands out
just as plainly in the sayings of Jesus, as the complete obedient
subordination of the Son to the Father. Even according to John's Gospel,
Jesus finishes the work which the Father ha