53
February, 1946
C HRIST is His own proof. We have but to preach Him. It is becoming increasingly common to hear good and earnest men appeal to the conclusions of almost every branch of human learning in support of the truth of the Christian position. In their eagerness to “justify the ways- of God to men’* they thus seek help where no help is found: Quoting worldly men in defense of the faith cif Christ is a questionable practice. The call- ing in of such men to witness for the credibility of his toric Christianity is an expedient to which true faith never need resort. * In this zealous casting about for help from without, it often happens that Christ .is of necessity identified with some philosophy, some intellectual fad or political ideology Which happens to be currently acceptable to the public. He is thus made to ride in on the reputation of a popular creed, His well-wishers apparently over looking the fact that He will be forced to ride out again when the public’s enthusiasm for that creed begins to »wane. The thoughtful Christian cannot but view this situa tion with considerable apprehension. This whole business of appealing away from Christ to find support for Christ creates a suspicion that there may be in the hearts of these apologists something less than real faith. To make Christ dependent upon external testimony is at bottom to be false to Him. Every attempt to justify Him, to make Him acceptable by showing that He is on the side of this or that philosophy, is in fact to weaken His au thority and to make Him less than He actually is. Proponents of one scheme or another are forever trying to enlist Him in their fight by pleading that He was really one of them, born out of due time. But Christ stands alone, supreme, outside of and above all philoso phies and political opinions. He is not on anybody’s “side” except that of the meek, the lowly and the poor in spirit, -and He is on their side only because they have come over onto His. Christianity is a power apart. It lays hold of men and lifts them out of the world and into a relationship with God wholly above and independent of the world of fallen men. Christianity is Christ manifest in flesh, crucified, risen, glorified and now manifest again in the hearts of believing men. His power operates as effectively in a heathen heart as it does in the heart of a civilized man; it works as well under a Nero as under a Lincoln. This
is to state a fact concerning Christ, not to detract from the glory that was Lincoln’s nor to justify the wickedness of the man Nero. Christ is the bestower of a righteousness unique and Heavenly, hearing no relation whatever to any code known upon this earth. Where His pronouncement seems to coincide with the doctrines, of any religious teacher, as for instance, those of Buddha or Zoroaster, the simi larity is accidental. His message is like Himself, unique, and is not to be modified by or interpreted in the light of any Either religion, ancient or modern. He is that Prophet whom God sent. He is the Word made flesh. He is the will of God expressed in terms of a living person ality. His religion is apart from, beyond and outside of all religions and philosophies, and owes nothing to any ' of them. The anointed heart will understand what the heavy theological thinkers seem unable to see, that every ex cursion we make into the ways of human wisdom to gain support for the cause Of Christ weakens our position just that much. When we identify Christ with any human scheme, however noble it may be, we confess that He is not unique, and at the same time we prejudice against Him all who do not accept the particular scheme with which we associate Him. - It is notable that Christ did not espouse any of the schools *of theological thought current in His day, nor did He attack the social customs of His times. The oft repeated statement that Jesus was a “revolutionist” is completely false. He made no attempt to change the political world of Caesar or to improve the position of Israel under the rule of Rome. He was zealous to call men out of the world and to bring them into organic union with the new creation of which He is the head. There can scarcely be a re-birth of New Testament power until there has been a return to the unique Christ. He must be proclaimed for what He is in Himself, not as a fellow traveler with one or another social or political clique, but as the sufficient One, the Lord and Head of a, new race. We have sought to make Him an Ameri can, a socialist, a Protestant, a prohibitionist, and we have by s6 doing made Him other than He is. Such a partisan Christ cannot be trie Christ of the New Testa ment. All this may sound strange to many good people, but
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