July 1930
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K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
331
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CA n s Jesus Christ/Was More Than a Man O man would want Christ as a Saviour if he understood Him perfectly. Our Saviour must be more than a man. Jesus is born of woman, He grows up to be a boy, He goes out about the streets, He works in the shop with His father, the carpenter; by and by He goes out among men, walks up the roads, goes sailing by the lake, and in many ways He shows Himself to be a man. Finally
to sleep in a boat. That surely was like a man. Read the passage through. Jesus was asleep in the boat; they awoke Him and He arose up and said to the winds and the waves, “Peace, be still.” That was not the act of a man. One day,He had been walking a long distance and was very tired. About noon He sat down beside a well. A woman came up and He said, “ Woman, will you be kind enough to give me a drink of water?” Certainly, that was a man. They had a little chat and He said, “ Whoso
He dies. It is perfectly plain that He is a man, yet all the while He must be something more than man. He is not born as others are; the Holy Spirit gives Him birth of the Virgin Mary. He does not talk and act like other men. He commands the winds, He heals the sick, He raises the dead. He speaks of Himself as no other man could. “ I am the light.” “ I am the resurrection,” I am the life.” He names Him self in associations such as no other man would ever presume to do. Think of any man who ever lived—think of Paul, himself saying, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Jesus Christ said that. “ Eternal life is to know God and me.” Think of Paul saying on Mars Hill, “ I saw your altar there to the un known god. Whom ye ignorantly worship I declare unto you. He that hath seen me hath seen God.” That is what Jesus Christ said. When Paul was in prison, the jailer c a m e to him and asked, “ Sirs, what must I, do to be saved?” Think of Paul an swering, “ My friend, eternal life is to believe on me and God.” That is what Jesus Christ said. There never was a man in
ever drinketh o f this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh o f the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well o f water springing up into' everlasting life.” That was not like a man. But there was His death on the Cross. There was the bent form, the head falling upon the breast, the dying groans, the red blood trickling from the hands and feet, the brow torn with the thorns. The soldiers thrust the spear into his side, and He bowed His head and gave up the spirit. But that is not' the whole of the story. While He was dying upon the Cross, a poor sinner, in the last instant of his life, turned to Him for salvation. Jesus took him to His heart with the prom ise of salvation. He did not point the dying man away from Himr self. He died, but the hands out stretched upon the Cross opened the gate of paradise for a dying malefactor. That is the act of God, not man. I Moral Philosophy Without Jesus Christ N the Book of Proverbs the bare commandments of Al-
Christ is God No mere man is the Christ I know But greater far than all below; Day by day His love enfolds me, Day by day His power upholds me. All that God could ever be The Man o f Naz’reth is to me. No mere man is the Christ I find Standing alone among human kind; Living amid earth’s sin and strife Time?s miracle—a perfect life. All that God could ever be Earth’s Perfect One has been to me No mere man can f orgive my sin And break its reigning power within, Or reach down to my deepest need And give life that is life indeed. All that God could ever be That must my Saviour be to me. No mere man can my strength sustain And drive away all fear and pain, Holding me close in His embrace When death and I stand face to face. Then all that God can ever be The unseen Christ will be to me. lift/. M. C.
his senses who would be so wild as to dare associate himself with the eternal and make eternal life depend upon know ing him as well as God. Explain the incarnation. I can not. The incarnation was God made manifest in the flesh. That is as far as we can go, and that is enough for the first hundred years. If you want it more fully stated, take Paul’s word, “Jesus Christ was in the form of God. He put off the form of God and put on the form of man” ; as one of you might take off one suit and put on some meaner suit. It would not change you. Jesus took off the form of God and put on the form of man. That is the incarnation. I never found a passage in the Bible speaking o f Christ as man alone. I do not believe you can find any such passage. There is one place where we read that Jesus went
mighty God- are transformed into an elaborate philosophy. Each commandment is cut and polished until it sparkles like a diamond. That is what makes them valuable. They are so small and compact that they ought to be easy to remember and teach. A hundred epigrams flash from the book like rays of light. This is also true of Ecclesiastes. The wisdom, beauty and reasonableness of the law are exhibited from every side. We see how advisable, how profitable, how prudent, how admirable it is to be good— and how impossible; for the king who made these com mandments trampled every one of them into the dust. The king who uttered these epigrams went straight against them every one. Read 1 Kings 11 if you want to know what moral philosophy by itself amounts to. The lover of
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