das or Judas or anybody else. Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ. There is a popular tendency today to airily measure Jesus in the same mold one uses for ordinary men, and to compare the Christian movement with man made religions and enterprises. Some of it has a very scholarly aroma and an honest sound, but it is really ut terly beside the point. Paul wasted no time comparing the Gospel with current religions and trying to convince his hearers that the Gospel was the best answer to the world’s ills that had as yet come along. He declared it to be the only answer that ever had come along or ever would come along, all in a class by itself, with all com parisons out of order. Jesus is first and last. Without Him nothing can be done about salvation. With Him nothing more need be done. Theudas and Judas and all men and movements may be compared to each other, but never to Him. God has spoken, God came to earth, lived and died and rose again in His Son. That is final ity and all Gamaliels who try to liken something else or someone else to Jesus Christ are trying to compare the incomparable. Furthermore, Gamaliel suggested a false criterion. “We will measure this movement by the success of it. Time will tell.” Now success may be the standard gauge of this world where “nothing succeeds like success,” but earth’s yardstick does not apply to Jesus Christ. Accord ing to the viewpoint of His time, Jesus was a failure. He died in disgrace the death of a criminal and His fol lowers were dispersed. Nineteen centuries have gone and today it still appears that Caesar, not Christ, is on the throne. The world, the flesh and the devil have had things pretty much their own way. And, instead of the world’s being converted, we know that the Lord Himself said: “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” That certainly is not success as this world measures it.. Nor is it true in the things of Christ that “time will tell.” But eternity will tell and we await its verdict. The man who postpones taking his stand for Jesus Christ until he sees how the Gospel movement is going to succeed will live and die with Gamaliel. Visible suc cess has never been the proof of the approval of God for Jesus or His followers. They have been the scum and offscouring of the earth. If God blesses true Christians with wealth and advancement in things material, it is purely incidental, and not necessarily an indication of superior spirituality. He who tries to use this world’s textbooks on success in the things of the Spirit will end up like the man who offered a set of books entitled How to Succeed for a month’s room and board! It just doesn’t work. Finally, Gamaliel arrived at a false conclusion: “Re frain from these men, and let them alone.” But you can’t let them alone! You cannot play "hands off” in the cause of Jesus Christ. “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scat- tereth abroad.” You cannot suspend judgment and do nothing. You are either dead or alive, and you are either a Christian or you are not one. This polite busi ness of waiting to see how it all turns out, adding up all the evidence and making up our minds when we think all the facts are in, puts man on a pedestal before whom Jesus must stand trial in the hope of meriting his approval. The fact is, we are guilty and condemned sinners with the wrath of God abiding on us, with mercy offered. Until we definitely trust Christ, we definitely reject Him. “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” That admits of no fence-sitters. You can not assume indifference to Jesus Christ or His cause. You are with Him or against Him, gathering or scatter ing, condemned or justified. FEBRUARY, 1947
So Gamaliel was utterly mistaken in what at first glance seems a sound and sane position. He was right when he made the statement that if the Gospel move ment were of men, it would come to nought, but, if it were of God, it would not be overthrown. But if we do not get beyond those “if’’s, we shall die in our sins. Until we decide that the Christian cause is ofGod and join it, we are opposing it. We are on trial. A man in a European Art Gallery severly criticized the works of the old masters, as he walked out of the door. The old door keeper replied, “If you please, Sir, those pictures are no longer on trial, but the spectators are!” Christ and the Gospel have proven themselves. Who are we to take the judge’s seat and pass upon them? God offers sal vation as a free gift: take it and you are saved; leave it and you are lost. Until you take it, you leave it. But Gamaliel’s policy has many ramifications. As we said at the outset, he was an appeaser, an opportunist, who would not commit himself. We are reminded of the crowd on Carmel upon whom Elijah called down the fire of Heaven. Seven thousand in Israel had not bowed to Baal. There were present four hundred and fifty priests of Baal. Both of these groups had taken a stand and could be numbered. But when Elijah challenged his congregation: “How long halt ye between two opin ions? If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baalj then follow him . . . the people answered him not a wo,rd.” They would not commit themselves; they would not take sides. They would wait to see how things turned out. This is an age of appeasement. It begins in the home where the rod is spared and the child is spoiled. It continues in school where right and wrong have be come relative instead of absolute. It shows up in na tions as it did at Munich. And it has infected the pro fessing church. There is no forthright declaration like Peter’s to cut to the heart the opposition. It straddles the fence with Gamaliel and dismisses the assembly. Erasmus was a typical appeaser in true succession to Gamaliel. It has been written: “He (Luther) dwells on the ingenious carefulness of Erasmus to avoid deci sive utterance, attempting always to shade down his ‘Yes’ till it is almost a ‘No,’ and to burnish up his ‘No’ until it might almost pass for a ‘Yes.’ Erasmus is a Proteus! He is an eel ... . in the debate . . . people
Cathedral Spires, Yosemite
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