God and man. This in itself lifts Him above the level on which hu manity has lived since the dawning of history. Leaders of thought in every age unanimously a c k n ow l e d g e the unique sinlessness of this person Jesus. Even David Strauss, the bit terest of all opponents of the super natural elements of the Gospels— even Strauss, with all his slashing, vicious criticisms, and his sweeping denials of everything partaking of the miraculous, was forced to con fess, toward the end of his life, that in Jesus there was moral perfection. “ This Christ . . . is historical, not mythical; is an individual, no mere symbol . . . He remains the highest model of religion within the reach of our thought; and no perfect piety is possible without His pres ence in the heart.” What Jesus Said About Himself Think for a moment now of the claims which this person Jesus made for Himself: He said that the Father sent Him. He declared that He came down from God; that the words He spoke, God had actually given Him; and that everything He did, He did according to the command ment of God. In fact, He said that He and God were One. He went even further than this and said that no man could know God except as He, the Son, revealed His Father, and that no man could come to God except through Him. Now what do you make of these statements? What do you make of the daring, the seemingly sheer egotism of a man talking like that? This is the person Jesus of whom all ages confess that He was a man of sinless character, wholly ap proved of God. Moreover, the Lord insisted that He Himself would be the final Judge of all men, their acts and their words; and that this verdict would rest ultimately upon what they did with Him. No other man in all the world, in his right mind, has dared talk like this. And as we b°ar His words, one of three con clusions must be reached. Either He was a liar and knew it, or He was self-deceived and b e l i e v e d things which were nonsensical or He was telling the truth.
Have You Considered Him? history of the human race that, for the last 1500 years, the entire Western •world dates every event, from the dawn of human history down to the present hour, by phrases that definitely relate them to His birth. No one today locates in time any event preceding the birth of Jesus without placing be fore the figures for the year, “ B.C.” which, of course, stand for “ before Christ.” Among Gentiles today, no court document, no newspaper, no letter, no deed, carries any date that is not controlled, whether they are used or not, by the letters “ A. D.,” the abbreviation for the Latin phrase Anno Domini, meaning, “ the year of the Lord.” Every text book of history in the whole West ern world, every dated page, bears testimony to the certainty of the appearance in this world, some 1900 years ago, of one by the name of Jesus, who later was called the Lord. With the historical reality of Jesus a settled matter in our minds, we next ask ourselves, What kind of person was this Jesus, the most famous and most discussed person in the whole vast history of the human race? To answer that question, we must turn to the Bible, particularly to the four books called “ Gospels,” written by four men, bearing the names, respectively, of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. What Jesus Was Like There are many characteristics of Jesus displayed in His three- and-one-half years—years of teach ing, of relieving distress, of healing the sick, feeding the hungry, com forting the sorrowing, praying, preaching, living the life of a true human being. But everyone will agree, that the outstanding charac teristic of Jesus in His earthly life was one in which all of us acknowl edge we fall so short, and yet which at the same time all men recognize as the most priceless characteristic any man can have, namely, absolute goodness, or, to
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phrase it otherwise, perfect purity, genuine holiness, and, in the case of Jesus, nothing less than sinless ness. Let us hear some of the strange testimonies concerning Jesus: Just before Judas committed sui cide, after betraying Jesus, he said, “ I have sinned, in that I have be trayed innocent blood.” Pontius Pilate who, as a Roman officer, had for years been passing verdicts on the innocent and the guilty according to Roman law, after a thorough investigation of the charges against Jesus and fre quent interrogations of Christ, re peated again and again, “ I find no crime in him.” The apostle Peter, who had lived with Christ for practically all His three-and-one-half years of minis try on this earth, said that Jesus was “without blemish and without spot” ; and that He “ did no sin.” The apostle John said of Christ, “ In him is no sin.” The apostle Paul, who once persecuted all who followed in the way of Jesus, de clared that Christ “ knew no sin.” Jesus Himself said that every thing He did pleased the Father and that Satan had nothing in Him. A voice from heaven, cer tainly the voice of the Father, said of Christ, “ This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Fifteen million minutes of life on this earth — every thought, every deed, every purpose, every word, privately and publicly, from the time He opened His baby eyes until He expired on the cross, were all approved of God. Never once did our Lord have to confess any sin, for He had no sin. Here was One who, as Dr. Schaff said, never put Himself in the atti tude of a sinner before God; never shed a tear of repentance; never regretted a single thought, word, or deed; never needed or asked divine pardon; was never concerned about the salvation of His own soul and boldly faced all His present and future enemies in the absolute cer tainty of His spotless purity before
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THE K IN G 'S BU SINESS
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