140 Christ condescending to give reasons. CHAP. 



cannot show that the Sadducees would have been 

 wrong in making such comments ; and the difficulty 

 would probably be felt more generally than it is, 

 were it not for the prevalence of an almost mechanical 

 conception of Christ's authority. To the believer, 

 the authority of Christ is supreme when He puts it 

 forth. When He says, "/ say unto you, Love your 

 enemies" l it is the believer's duty to do his best to 

 obey, trusting that by thus doing God's will he will 

 learn to understand the doctrine, 2 and to see its 

 reasonableness, if he does not see it already ; and 

 experience shows that he will learn to understand it 

 and to see its reasonableness. But this is inapplicable 

 to the passage before us. Christ is not here putting 

 forth His authority on the contrary, He condescends 

 to reason with His opponents. He does not now pre- 

 face His words with "I say unto you." He who, in 

 conversation with His trusting friend Martha of 

 Bethany, claimed to be the Resurrection and the 

 Life, 3 here tells the unbelieving and hostile Sadducees 

 that they greatly erred when they failed to read the 

 doctrine of the Resurrection into a passage in Moses 

 where it is not expressly revealed. Now if we, who 

 believe in Christ, are content to accept this argument 

 as a sound one on Christ's mere authority, we shall 

 learn no lesson from it whatever ; it will be to us 

 only one among many assertions of the Resurrection, 

 and will certainly not convince any one who remains 

 unconvinced by Saint Paul. What we are meant to 

 1 Matt. v. 44. 2 John vii. 17. 3 John xi. 25. 



