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THE KING’S BUSINESS
constantly making new departures in life. It is interesting to note that in their new departures and develop ments the new is always introduced through the old. The animal life has a basis in the vegetable life, and hu man life has a basis in animal life. But in each case the advance means a new infusion of life. This was illus trated in the creation of man. The body was created and God breathed upon it and man became a living soul. That introduction of new life came through the body, but it was not of the body. The old life was there, but there was a new life introduced which made man different from all other creatures. That new life represented a new realm which meant a forward step in Creation. This same law is also seen in God’s activities in history. Every real forward movement in his tory means a new breathing of God upon the old creating a new epoch. Is not this the very thing that hap pened in the coming o f Christ? He came into human life through the gateway of the old humanity, but He was not a mere evolution of that hu manity. He was born of Mary. He was the child of a human parent, and in that relationship lifted up into His life the life of humanity. Hence He was the Son of Man. But, that is not all o f the story. God breathed upon the old humanity in the person of Mary and in that breathing moved into a new relationship with that hu manity. This meant the beginning of a new life in history which gave hu manity a new start. God came into the life of the race in strict compliance with an old method of movement, but in a wholly new and unique manifesta tion. That is the story of Luke and we know nothing at all that success fully contradicts it. When men speak of the advent of Christ as being con trary to God’s usual methods in life they wholly fail to appreciate the fun damental significance of that advent.
His coming into the World was not the advent of an ordinary prophet, but the coming of a Saviour who was to lift the race into a new consciousness of life and realize a new thing in the uni verse. In this sublime stoop of the Godhead God followed the usual method followed in creative epochs. Now may I call attention fo the fact that if Christ came into the life o f hu manity according to the law of crea tive epochs it is wholly unreasonable to expect a life along the old lines of human experience. It would be un reasonable, I say, to expect it. When God moves forward in a creative epoch new things happen. Therefore it would be unscientific to expect the ordinary in the life of Christ. True to life and life’s law the simple straightforward story o f this Gospel of Luke does not give up the story of an ordinary life, but the story of one who was separated from man. In re cent years we have been laying special stress upon the fact that Christ is one with us. He took bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. That is a glori ous fact and must not be lost sight of for a single moment. We cannot get along without the gospel which de clares that He was tempted in all points like as we are. But that is only one side of the story. The other side is that He was “ undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens.” We have been losing sight of this side altogether too much in these later days. The great fact of His life as it stands out in the midst of the years is not that He was like us, but that He was absolutely unique. We have been very fond of comparing Him to the great religious teachers and leaders of the world, but the fact is we cannot honestly compare Him with them. He stands in lovely con trast holding out at its best all that is true in all the rest, but separating them from Him by an immeasurable gulf through His achievements o f life and
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