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How DoWe Knew! That Jesus is the Son of God? Rev. Cortland Myers, D. D. XL. D.
Rome. The whole catalogue of them lived and died for this truth concerning Christ that He was the Son of God. Heaven had an announcement to make as well when Christ came. The shepherds had the message from the angels when they came and announced His coming as the Son of God. When He was baptized and began His ministry on the banks of the Jordan the heavens opened and the voice of God was heard on earth saying: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Then on the Mount of Transfiguration the disciples were paralyzed when that voice was heard again on earth saying: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Now the question is this. Can that claim be substanti ated? It was made by Him. It was made by Heaven. It was made by His disciples. It is the heart of the Bible. Can the claim be substantiated? First of all, yes by His sinless, perfect life. The Ideal Man Suppose you were asked to write the life or to make a picture of an ideal man. You would have a task on your hands. You have never lived with one yet. I can ask any wife and she will tell me “no.” You have never seen him walk along the roadway of this world. Your imagination could reach its limit and you would never yet make a pic ture satisfactory to your fellowmen of an ideal man. He. has never lived. The world has had many great men. Moses was a great man but he had his faults. David was a great man but he had serious faults. Socrates was a great man but he made many mistakes and errors. You could ask them all and every one of them would say: “If you talk about an ideal man, it is not me. I know myself better than anybody else. I know my weaknesses and defects and I am not the ideal man.” The better a man is usually the more humble he becomes and he declares in all his humility, “I am so far away from my own ideal.” But there were men in history who have written the story or made the picture of an ideal life. One of them was a Frenchman and the other was an Englishman. Victor Hugo made his picture of Jean Valjean and you can read it a hundred times and never tire of the picture. He wrote concerning the peasant class and he depicted there some thing that has lived In the lives of men ever since he wrote it. Lord Tennyson was a fine specimen of manhood himself and he drew a picture from the royalty class. He made the picture of King Arthur, a man who rendered service for his fellowmen, a man who lived on the high level and was always the example of truth and sincerity. When these two men who have been best known for writing an ideal life looked at their records both of them declared they got the source of their inspiration and their idea from the one Ideal Man who ever lived on this planet and the world has always passed the verdict on Hugo’s Jean Valjean and on Lord Tennyson’s King Arthur as being only a poor rep resentation after all of the ideal Person Jesus Christ Him self. Then when we have discovered the fact that there has lived in this world a perfect life, a perfect human life, we have also discovered that that human life has never yet been contradicted in regard to its perfection. Even His enemies had to confess this and find no fault. Pilate him- ( Continued on Page 17 §)
ESUS Christ claimed to be the Son of God. He made other astounding claims. He declared I am the Light. I am the Way. I am the Truth. I am the Vine. 1 am the Life. Ask in My name. I will rise from the dead. Eat My body and drink My blood. Keep my commandments. I am the Resurrection. I am from above. I am the Light of the World. I came down from Heaven. Before Abraham was, I am. All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. I am greater than the temple. A greater than Solomon is here. I am Lord of the Sabbath. He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father. Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Ye call Me Master find Lord and ye say well, for so I am. Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away. Hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. This is My blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sin. I will raise you up at the last day. Lo, I am with you all the days even unto the end of the age. The Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father and then shall He reward every man according to his works. Those claims are staggering and any other man in all hu man history who ventured before his fellowmen to make such claims as those would have shocked them. They would have either said he was a blasphemer or a mad man, but when Jesus Christ makes those claims everyone immedi ately assents. They somehow agree to it and are not shocked for it seems perfectly natural. Those amazing claims are not matched anywhere in all the world’s life. Only God can say things like that. He claimed to be a perfect teacher; to set a perfect ex ample; to be a sinless being; that all thould love Him and obey Him. He claimed to work such miracles as no other ever tjid. He claimed that prophecy was fulfilled in Him. He claimed He would rise from the dead. He claimed He would Himself be the final judge of the world. He was original in claiming to know all about another world. He was original in giving to men an entirely new conception of God. He was original in proposing to set the world right not merely by His life and precepts but largely by His death. He was original in claiming to give to men an in visible and potent help in amending their own lives. He was original in His idea of a divine society on earth and the kingdom of God here and now. He was original in claim ing to exercise the divine prerogative to forgive sin. He was original in claiming for Himself His superior power to legislate and did not hesitate to say “A new command ment I give unto thee.” He himself distinctly made those astounding claims for His personality. Then His disciples, His inspired follow ers, repeated those claims concerning Him and repeatedly repeated them. They emphasized all that He himself had ever declared. John said He was the Son of God and they exiled him and he died in exile for saying it. Peter said he was the Son of God and they crucified Peter with his head downward because he said it. Thomas said He was the Son of God and they murdered him because he said it. Every one of the apostles said He was the Son of God and they were all persecuted to their death because they said it. The apostle Paul declared He was the Son of God and then laid his head on Nero’s block in the old city of
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