125. Chapter 4: The Sympathy Of Christ.

Chapter 4 The Sympathy Of Christ. The sympathy of Christ is in itself an important truth of Christology; but the special reason for its present treatment lies in its intimate relation to the question of his personality. Some facts which deeply concern this question may be most appropriately treated under the heading of the present chapter. The sympathy of Christ has an open place in the Scriptures. Inspiration gives it clear and full expression. We may also view it in the light of our own sympathy, although there is a wide difference between the two. We ever associate the sympathy of Christ with his greatness, with the intensity of his suffering and the infinite fullness of his love. Hence, it has for our thought and feeling a fullness and sufficiency infinitely above all mere human sympathy. Still the fact of sympathy in ourselves is helpful in this study, and gives us the deeper and clearer insight into the sympathy of Christ. With these several facts in hand this sympathy may seem to us specially open truth and one most easy of comprehension. Simply as a fact it is most manifest, but as a truth for doctrinal study it is one of the profoundest in Christian theology. It is inseparably connected with the divine incarnation, and this fact invests some of its elements in a like mystery. Still it is a great and precious truth of Christology, and therefore a proper subject for our deepest study. In order to the greatest benefit of this sympathy in our Christian life there is need that we apprehend its real and sufficient grounds. The apprehension of these grounds will give us the clearer insight into the person of Christ.