Christ that the relation of the subject as such in this way comes into view. Here any mere outward consideration of the history ceases; the subject is itself drawn into the process; it feels the pain of evil and of its own alienation, which Christ has taken upon Himself by putting on humanity, while at the same time destroying it by His death.
Since the content, too, just consists in this, we have here the religious side of the subject, and it is in it that the Spiritual Community, or the Church, first originates. This content is the same thing as what is termed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is Spirit which has revealed this; the relation to men simply as men is changed into a relation which is altered and transformed into a relation which is entirely one of Spirit, and is of such a kind that the nature of God unfolds itself in it, and this truth comes to have immediate certainty in accordance with the form of outward manifestation.
Here, accordingly, he who at first was regarded as a teacher, a friend, a martyr, comes to have a totally different position. Up to this point we have had simply the beginning, which is now carried forward by the Spirit so as to form a result, an end, truth. The death of Christ is in one aspect the death of a man, of a friend who met his death by violence, &c.; but then it is just this death which, when conceived of in a spiritual way, becomes the means of salvation and the central point of reconciliation.
The perception of the nature of Spirit, that is, the presentation of the satisfaction of the need of Spirit, in a sensuous way, was accordingly what was disclosed to the friends of Christ only after His death. Thus the conviction concerning Him which it was possible for them to get from a study of His life was not yet the real truth; but, on the contrary, it was the Spirit which first showed them the truth.
Before His death He appeared to them as an individual
