Of course, the religion of the Old Testament was not, according to Paul, purely a law religion; on the contrary Paul quotes the Old Testament in support of faith. But there was a law element in the Old Testament; and the law served merely a temporary, though beneficent, purpose. It was intended to deepen the sense of sin and hopelessness, in order that finally salvation might be sought not in man's way but in God's. The new order at length has come; in Christ we are free men, and should never return to the former bondage. The middle wall of partition has been done away; the ordinances of the law no longer separate Jew and Gentile; all alike have access through one Saviour unto God, all alike receive power through the Holy Spirit to live a life of holiness and love.
(2) The Type and the Fulfillment.—The contrast which was worked out in the Epistle to the Hebrews was especially a contrast between the sign and the thing signified. The ceremonial law, which had separated Jew from Gentile, was intended to point forward to Christ; and now that the fulfillment has come, what further need is there of the old types and symbols? Christ is the great High Priest; by him all alike can enter into the holy place.
(3) The Meaning of the Gospel.—The transition from Jewish Christianity, with all the difficulties of that transition, led finally to a deeper understanding of the gospel. It showed once for all that the salvation of the Christians is a free gift. "Just as I am, without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me"—these words are a good summary of the result of the Judaistic controversy. The transition showed, furthermore, what had really been felt from the beginning, that Christ was the one and all-sufficient Lord. When he was present, no other priest, and no other sacrifice was required. That is the truly missionary gospel—the gospel that will finally conquer the world.
In the Library.—Orr, "Neglected Factors in the Study of the Early Progress of Christianity" and "The Early Church." George Smith, "Short History of Christian Missions" (in "Handbooks for Bible Classes").
In treating the lesson for to-day, the teacher will be embarrassed by the wealth of his material. It is important, therefore, that the chief purpose of the lesson should not be lost amid a mass of details. That chief purpose is the presentation of Christianity as something that has a very definite and immediate bearing upon daily life. Christianity is first of all a piece of good news, a record of something that has happened; but the effect of it, if it be sincerely received, is always manifest in holy living.
In the Student's Text Book, little attempt was made at detailed analysis of the apostolic ideal. The defect should be supplied by careful attention to the "Topics for Study," and also, if possible, by the treatment of the lesson in class. First of all, however, it should be observed how naturally the apostolic presentation of the ideal grows out of the teaching of Jesus. The advance which revelation made after the close of Jesus' earthly ministry concerned the fuller explanation of the means by which the moral ideal is to be attained rather than additional exposition of the ideal itself. That does not mean that the apostles did no more, in the field of ethics, than quote the words of Jesus; indeed there seem to be surprisingly few direct quotations of the words of Jesus in the apostolic writings; the ethical teaching of the apostolic Church was no mere mechanical repetition of words, but a profound application of principles. Nevertheless the teaching of Jesus was absolutely fundamental; without an examination of it, the moral life of the apostolic Church cannot be fully understood.
(1) The Inexorableness of the Law.—Jesus had insisted, for example, upon the inexorableness of the law of God. To the keeping of God's commandments everything else must be sacrificed. "If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body be cast into hell." Matt. 5:29. In this respect the apostles were true disciples of theirMaster. The Christian, they insisted, must be absolutely ruthless; he must be willing to sacrifice everything he has for moral purity.
This ruthlessness, however, this thoroughgoing devotion to moral purity, did not mean in the teaching of Jesus, any more than in that of the apostles, that under ordinary conditions the Christian ought to withdraw from the simple pleasures that the world offers. Jesus himself took his place freely at feasts; so far was he from leading a stern, ascetic life that his enemies could even accuse him of being a winebibber and a friend of publicans and sinners. The fidelity with which the apostles followed this part of their Master's example has been pointed out in the Student's Text Book. The enjoyable things of the earth are not evil in themselves; they are to be received with thanksgiving as gifts of the heavenly Father, and then dedicated to his service.
(2) The Morality of the Heart.—Furthermore, Jesus, as well as his apostles, emphasized the inwardness of the moral law. Here again the apostolic Church was faithful to Jesus' teaching. The seat of sin was placed by the apostles in the very center of a man's life; the flesh and the Spirit wage their warfare in the battle field of the heart. See, for example, Gal. 5:16-24.
The sharp difference between the Christian life and the life of the world was set forth in the apostolic teaching by means of various contrasts.
(1) Death and Life.—In the first place, there was the contrast between death and life. The man of the world, according to the apostles, is not merely ill; he is morally and spiritually dead. Col. 2:13; Eph. 2:1,5. There is no hope for him in his old existence; that existence is merely a death in life. But God is One who can raise the dead; and as he raised Jesus from the tomb on the third day, so he raises those who belong to Jesus from the deadness of their sins; he implants in them a new life in which they can bring forth fruits unto God. A moral miracle, according to the New Testament, stands at the beginning of Christian experience. That miracle was called by Jesus himself, as well as by the apostles, a new birth or "regeneration." It is no work of man; only God can raise the dead. See John 1:13; 3:1-21; I John 2:29; I Peter 1:3,23.
(2) Darkness and Light.—The contrast between darkness and light, also, was common to the teaching of Jesus and that of hisapostles. It appears particularly in the Gospel of John, but there are also clear traces of it in the Synoptists, Matt. 5:14-16; the righteous are "the sons of the light." Luke 16:8. In the writings of the apostles the contrast appears in many forms. "Ye are all sons of light," said Paul, "and sons of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness; so then let us not sleep, as do the rest, but let us watch and be sober." I Thess. 5:5,6. "Ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light." Eph. 5:8. God has called us "out of darkness into his marvellous light." I Peter 2:9. The contrast serves admirably to represent the honesty and openness and cleanness of the true Christian life.
(3) Flesh and Spirit.—An even more important contrast is the contrast of flesh and Spirit, which is expounded especially by Paul. "Flesh" in this connection means something more than the bodily side of human nature; it means human nature as a whole, so far as it is not subjected to God. "Spirit" also means something more than might be supposed on a superficial examination. It does not mean the spiritual, as distinguished from the material, side of human nature; but the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. The warfare, therefore, between the flesh and the Spirit, which is mentioned so often in the Pauline Epistles, is a warfare between sin and God.
The flesh, according to Paul, is a mighty power, which is too strong for the human will. It is impossible for the natural man to keep the law of God. "I know," says Paul, "that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.... I find then the law, that, to me who would do good, evil is present. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members." Rom. 7:18,21-23. In this recognition of the power of sin in human life, Paul has laid his finger upon one of the deepest facts in human experience.
The way of escape, however, has been provided; sin has been conquered in two aspects.
It has been conquered, in the first place, in its guilt. Without that conquest, everything else would be useless. The dreadful subjection to the power of sin, which becomes so abundantly plain in evil habit, was itself a punishment for sin; before the effect can be destroyed, the guilt which caused it must be removed. It has been removed by the sacrifice of Christ. Christ has died for us,the Just for the unjust; through his death we have a fresh start, in the favor of God, with the guilty past wiped out.
Sin has been conquered, in the second place, in its power. Together with the very implanting of faith in our hearts, the Holy Spirit has given us a new life, a new power, by which we can perform the works of God. A mighty warfare, indeed, is yet before us; but it is fought with the Spirit's help, and by the Spirit it will finally be won.
(4) The Old Man and the New.—As the contrast between the flesh and the Spirit was concerned with the causes of the Christian's escape from sin, so the contrast now to be considered is concerned with the effects of that escape. The Christian, according to Paul, has become a new man in Christ; the old man has been destroyed. The Gentiles, he says, are darkened in their understanding, and alienated from God. Eph. 4:17-19. "But ye did not so learn Christ; if so be that ye heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus: that ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth." Vs. 20-24. Compare Col. 3:5-11. This putting on of the new man is included in what Paul elsewhere calls putting on Christ. Gal. 3:27; Rom. 13:14. The true Christian has clothed himself with Christ; the lineaments of the old sinful nature have been transformed into the blessed features of the Master; look upon the Christian, and what you see is Christ! This change has been wrought by Christ himself; "it is no longer I that live," says Paul, "but Christ liveth in me"; Christ finds expression in the life of the Christian. It is noteworthy, however, that the "putting on" of Christ, which in Gal. 3:27 is represented as an accomplished fact, is in Rom. 13:14 inculcated as a duty. It has been accomplished already in principle—in his sacrificial death, Christ has already taken our place in the sight of God—but the practical realization of it in conduct is the lifelong task which every earnest disciple, aided by the Holy Spirit, must prosecute with might and main.
Details in the character of the "new man," as they are revealed in the apostolic writings, can here be treated only very briefly.
(1) Honesty.—Certainly the Christian, according to the apostles,must be honest. Honesty is the foundation of the virtues; without it everything else is based upon the sand. Nothing could exceed the fine scorn which the New Testament heaps upon anything like hypocrisy or deceit. The Epistle of James, in particular, is a plea for profound reality in all departments of life. Away with all deceit! The Christian life is to be lived in the full blaze of God's sunlight.
Many hours could be occupied in the class with the applications of honesty under modern conditions. Student life, for example, is full of temptations to dishonesty. To say nothing of out-and-out cheating, there are a hundred ways in which the fine edge of honor can be blunted. In business life, also, temptations are many; and indeed no one can really escape the test. The apostolic example deserves to be borne in mind; Christian honesty ought to be more than the honesty of the world.
(2) Purity.—In the second place, the apostolic Church presents an ideal of purity, purity in thought as well as in word and deed. The ideal must have seemed strange to the degraded populations of Corinth and Ephesus; but it is also sadly needed to-day. Let us not deceive ourselves. He who would hold fellowship with Christ must put away impurity; Christ is the holy One. Purity, however, is to be attained not by unaided human effort, but by the help of the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit, if he be admitted to the heart, will purge it of unclean thoughts.
(3) Patience and Bravery.—In the third place, patience and humility are prominent in the Christian ideal. These virtues are coupled, however, with the most vigorous bravery. There is nothing weak or sickly or sentimental about the Christian character. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong." I Cor. 16:13.
(4) Love.—The summation of the Christian ideal is love. Love, however, is more than a benevolent desire. It includes purity and heroism as well as helpfulness. In order to love in the Christian sense, one must attain "unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Eph. 4:13.
In the Library.—Hastings, "Dictionary of the Bible": Strong, article on "Ethics" (II). Kilpatrick, "Christian Character." Bruce, "The Formation of Christian Character." Luthardt, "Apologetic Lectures on the Moral Truths of Christianity."
Two apparently contradictory features appear in the life of the apostolic Church. In the first place, there was an intense other-worldliness; the Christians were regarded as citizens of a heavenly kingdom. In the second place, there was careful attention to the various relationships of the present life; no man was excused from homely duty. The two sides of the picture appear in the sharpest colors in the life of the apostle Paul. No one emphasized more strongly than he the independence of the Christian life with reference to the world; all Christians, whether their worldly station be high or low, are alike in the sight of God; the Church operates with entirely new standards of value. Yet on the other hand, in his actual dealing with the affairs of this world Paul observed the most delicate tact; and in all history it is difficult to find a man with profounder natural affections. Where is there, for example, a more passionate expression of patriotic feeling than that which is to be found in Rom. 9:3? "I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh."
On the one hand, then, the apostolic Church regarded all earthly distinctions as temporary and secondary, and yet on the other hand those same distinctions were very carefully observed. The apparent contradiction brings before us the great question of the attitude of Christianity toward human relationships. This question may be answered in one of three ways.
In the first place, there is the worldly answer. The Christian finds himself in a world where his time and his thoughts seem to be fully occupied by what lies near at hand. The existence of God may not be denied, but practically, in the stress of more obvious duties, God is left out of account.
(1) "Practical Christianity."—In its crude form, of course, whereit involves mere engrossment in selfish pleasure, this answer to our question hardly needs refutation. Obviously the Christian cannot devote himself to worldly enjoyment; a cardinal virtue of the Christian is self-denial. Worldliness in the Church, however, may be taken in a wider sense; it has often assumed very alluring forms. At the present day, for example, it often represents itself as the only true, the only "practical" kind of Christianity. It is often said that true religion is identical with social service, that the service of one's fellow men is always worship of God. This assertion involves a depreciation of "dogma" in the interests of "practical" Christianity; it makes no difference, it is said, what a man believes, provided only he engages in the improvement of living conditions and the promotion of fairer laws.
(2) This World Is Not All.—This tendency in the Church really makes religion a thing of this world only. Undoubtedly, much good is being accomplished by social workers who have given up belief in historic Christianity; but it is good that does not go to the root of the matter. Suppose we have improved conditions on this earth, suppose more men have healthy employment and an abundance of worldly goods. Even so the thought of death cannot be banished. Is the totality of man's happiness limited to a brief span of life; are we after all but creatures of a day? Or is there an eternal life beyond the grave, with infinite possibilities of good or evil? Jesus and his apostles and the whole of the apostolic Church adopted the latter alternative.
(3) The Secularization of Religion.—We lay our finger here upon one of the points where the modern Church is in danger of departing most fundamentally from the apostolic model. Religion is in serious danger of being secularized; that is, of being regarded as concerned merely with this life. The only corrective is the recovery of the old conception of God. God is not merely another name for the highest aspirations of men, he is not merely the summation of the social forces which are working for human betterment. On the contrary, he is a living Person, working in the world, but also eternally independent of it. You can work for the worldly benefit of your fellow men without coming into any saving contact with God; it does make a vast difference what you believe; it makes all the difference between death and life.
(4) The Teaching of Jesus and of the Apostles.—Only one-sided reading of the New Testament can find support for the opposite view. Jesus said, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of these mybrethren, even these least, ye did it unto me," Matt. 25:40; but the same Jesus also said, "If any man cometh unto me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:26. The giving of a cup of cold water, which receives the blessing of Jesus, is done for "one of these little ones ... in the name of a disciple." Matt. 10:42. Evidently the good works of the Christian are not independent of the attitude of the doer toward Jesus and toward God; Jesus regards the personal relation between himself and his disciples as one which takes precedence of even the holiest of earthly ties. Far more convincing, however, than any citation of definite passages is the whole spirit of the New Testament teaching; evidently both Jesus and his early disciples had their lives determined by the thought of the living, personal God, holy and mysterious and independent of the world. Social service exists for the sake of God, not God for the sake of social service. The reversal of this relationship is one of the most distressing tendencies of the present day; a study of the apostolic Church may bring a return to sanity and humility.
The second answer to our question is the answer of ascetics of many different kinds. According to this answer, the relationship of the Christian to God on the one hand, and his relationship to his fellow men on the other, are in competition. Consequently, in order to strengthen the former, the latter must be broken off. In its extreme form, this way of thinking leads to the hermit ideal, to the belief that the less a man has to do with his fellow men the more he has to do with God. Such conceptions are not always so uninfluential as we are inclined to think, even in our Protestant churches. Monasticism is not indeed consistently carried out, but it is often present in spirit and in principle. Some excellent Christians seem to feel that whole-hearted, natural interest in earthly friends is disloyalty to Christ, that all men must be treated alike, that admission of one man into the depths of the heart more fully than another is contrary to the universality of the gospel. By such men, individuals are not treated as persons, with a value of their own, but merely as opportunities for Christian service.
(1) This Solution Defeats Its Own End.—It is evident, in the first place, that such an attitude defeats its own aim. Evidently the power of a Christian worker depends partly at least upon hisinterest in individuals. It will not do, for example, for the teachers in this course to let their students say, "The teacher loves Christ supremely, but he has no interest in me." Evidently the power of influencing our fellow men is largely increased by an intimate personal relationship; if we are to serve Christ by bringing men to his feet, then we ought not to dissolve but rather to strengthen the bonds of simple affection which unite us to our human friends.
(2) This Solution Is Opposed to Apostolic Example.—The example of the apostolic Church points in the same direction; we have already noticed the intensity of natural affection which was displayed even by a man so thoroughly and heroically devoted to Christian service as was the apostle Paul. This example might well be supplemented, and supplemented most emphatically of all by the example which lies at the basis of all of the apostolic Church—the example of Jesus himself. If any man might have been aloof from his fellow men, it was Jesus, yet as a matter of fact, he plainly had his earthly friends.
The true solution of the problem is found in consecration. Human relationships are not to be made the sole aim of life; neither are they to be destroyed; but they are to be consecrated to the service of God. Love for God under normal conditions comes into no competition with love for man, because God takes a place in the life which can never be filled by any human friend; by lopping off human friendships we are not devoting ourselves more fully to God, but merely becoming less efficient servants of him.
Consecration of human relationships to God does not involve any depreciation of what is known to-day as "social service." On the contrary it gives to social service its necessary basis and motive power. Only when God is remembered is there an eternal outlook in the betterment of human lives; the improvement of social conditions, which gives the souls of men a fair chance instead of keeping them stunted and balked by poverty and disease, is seen by him who believes in a future life and a final judgment and heaven and hell to have value not only for time, but also for eternity, not only for man, but also for the infinite God.
(1) Society or the Individual?—It is sometimes regarded as a reproach that old-fashioned, evangelical Christianity makes itsfirst appeal to the individual. The success of certain evangelists has occasioned considerable surprise in some quarters. Everyone knows, it is said, that the "social gospel" is the really effective modern agency; yet some evangelists with only the very crudest possible social program are accomplishing important and beneficent results! The lesson may well be learned, and it should never be forgotten. Despite the importance of social reforms, the first purpose of true Christian evangelism is to bring the individual man clearly and consciously into the presence of his God. Without that, all else is of but temporary value; the human race is composed of individual souls; the best of social edifices will crumble if all the materials are faulty.
(2) Every Man Should First Correct His Own Faults.—The true attitude of the Christian toward social institutions can be learned clearly from the example of the apostolic Church. The first lesson that the early Christians learned when they faced the ordinary duties of life was to make the best of the institutions that were already existing. There was nothing directly revolutionary about the apostolic teaching. Sharp rebuke, indeed, was directed against the covetousness of the rich. But the significant fact is that such denunciations of wealthy men were addressed to the wealthy men themselves and not to the poor. In the apostolic Church, every man was made to know his own faults, not the faults of other people. The rich were rebuked for their covetousness and selfishness; but the poor were commanded, with just as much vehemence, to labor for their own support. "If any will not work," said Paul, "neither let him eat." II Thess. 3:10. In short, apostolic Christianity sought to remove the evils of an unequal distribution of wealth, not by a violent uprising of the poor against the rich, but by changing the hearts of the rich men themselves. Modern reform movements are often very different; but it cannot be said that the apostolic method is altogether antiquated.
(3) The Ennobling of Existing Institutions.—Certainly the apostolic method has been extraordinarily successful; it has accomplished far more than could have been accomplished by a violent reform movement. A good example is afforded by the institution of slavery. Here, if anywhere, we might seem to have an institution which was contrary to the gospel. Yet Paul sent back a runaway slave to his master, and evidently without the slightest hesitation or compunction. That action was a consistent carrying out of the principle that a Christian man, instead of seekingan immediate change in his social position, was first of all to learn to make the best of whatever position was his already. "Let each man abide in that calling wherein he was called. Wast thou called being a bondservant? care not for it: nay, even if thou canst become free, use it rather. For he that was called in the Lord being a bondservant, is the Lord's freedman: likewise he that was called being free, is Christ's bondservant. Ye were bought with a price; become not bondservants of men. Brethren, let each man, wherein he was called, therein abide with God." I Cor. 7:20-24. The freedom of the Christian, in other words, is entirely independent of freedom in this world; a slave can be just as free in the higher, spiritual sense as his earthly master. In this way the position of the slave was ennobled; evidently the relation of Onesimus to Philemon was expected to afford both slave and master genuine opportunity for the development of Christian character and for the performance of Christian service.
(4) The Substitution of Good Institutions for Bad.—In the long run, however, such conceptions were bound to exert a pervasive influence even upon earthly institutions. If Philemon really adopted the Christian attitude toward one who was now "more than a servant, a brother beloved" in Christ, then in the course of time he would naturally desire to make even the outward relationship conform more perfectly to the inward spiritual fact. The final result would naturally be emancipation; and such was the actual process in the history of the Church. Slavery, moreover, is only an example; a host of other imperfect social institutions have similarly been modified or removed. What a world of progress, for example, is contained in Gal. 3:28: "There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye are all one man in Christ Jesus." Not battles and revolutions, the taking of cities and the pulling down of empires, are the really great events of history, but rather the enunciation of great principles such as this. "Ye are all one man in Christ Jesus"—these words with others like them have moved armies like puppets, and will finally transform the face of the world.
In the Library.—R. E. Thompson, "De Civitate Dei. The Divine Order of Human Society." Clow, "Christ in the Social Order." Cunningham, "Christianity and Social Questions." Schmidt, "The Social Results of Early Christianity."
The last two lessons have emphasized the duty of consecration. The enjoyment of simple, physical blessings, the opportunities afforded by earthly relationships, are all to be devoted to the service of God. Exactly the same principle must be applied in the lesson for to-day. If physical health and strength and the companionship of human friends may be made useful in the Christian life, surely the same thing is true of intellectual gifts. The most powerful thing that a man possesses is the power of his mind. Brute force is comparatively useless; the really great achievements of modern times have been accomplished by the intellect. If the principle of consecration is true at all—if it be true that God desires, not the destruction of human powers, but the proper use of them—then surely the principle must be applied in the intellectual sphere.
The field should not be limited too narrowly; with the purely logical and acquisitive faculties of the mind should be included the imagination and the sense of beauty. In a word, we have to do to-day with the relation between "culture" and Christianity. For the modern Church there is no greater problem. A mighty civilization has been built up in recent years, which to a considerable extent is out of relation to the gospel. Great intellectual forces which are rampant in the world are grievously perplexing the Church. The situation calls for earnest intellectual effort on the part of Christians. Modern culture must either be refuted as evil, or else be made helpful to the gospel. So great a power cannot safely be ignored.
(1) The Obscurantist Solution.—Some men in the Church are inclined to choose a simple way out of the difficulty; they are inclined to reject the whole of modern culture as either evil or worthless; this wisdom of the world, they maintain, must be deserted for the divine "foolishness" of the gospel. Undoubtedly such a view contains an element of truth, but in its entirety it is impracticable. The achievements of modern culture are being made useful for the spread of the gospel by the very advocates of the view now inquestion; these achievements, therefore, cannot be altogether the work of Satan. It is inconsistent to use the printing press, the railroad, the telegraph in the propagation of our gospel and at the same time denounce as evil those activities of the human mind by which these inventions were produced. Indeed, much of modern culture, far from being hostile to Christianity, has really been produced by Christianity. Such Christian elements should not be destroyed; the wheat should not be rooted up with the tares.
(2) The Worldly Solution.—If, however, the Christian man is in danger of adopting a negative attitude toward modern culture, of withdrawing from the world into a sort of unhealthy, modernized, intellectual monastery, the opposite danger is even more serious. The most serious danger is the danger of being so much engrossed in the wonderful achievements of modern science that the gospel is altogether forgotten.
(3) The True Solution.—The true solution is consecration. Modern culture is a stumblingblock when it is regarded as an end in itself, but when it is used as a means to the service of God it becomes a blessing. Undoubtedly much of modern thinking is hostile to the gospel. Such hostile elements should be refuted and destroyed; the rest should be made subservient; but nothing should be neglected. Modern culture is a mighty force; it is either helpful to the gospel or else it is a deadly enemy of the gospel. For making it helpful neither wholesale denunciation nor wholesale acceptance is in place; careful discrimination is required, and such discrimination requires intellectual effort. There lies a supreme duty of the modern Church. Patient study should not be abandoned to the men of the world; men who have really received the blessed experience of the love of God in Christ must seek to bring that experience to bear upon the culture of the modern world, in order that Christ may rule, not only in all nations, but also in every department of human life. The Church must seek to conquer not only every man, but also the whole of man. Such intellectual effort is really necessary even to the external advancement of the kingdom. Men cannot be convinced of the truth of Christianity so long as the whole of their thinking is dominated by ideas which make acceptance of the gospel logically impossible; false ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel. And false ideas cannot be destroyed without intellectual effort.
Such effort is indeed of itself insufficient. No man was ever argued into Christianity; the renewing of the Holy Spirit is thereally decisive thing. But the Spirit works when and how he will, and he chooses to employ the intellectual activities of Christian people in order to prepare for his gracious coming.
Abundant support for what has just been said may be discovered in the history of the apostolic Church. Paul's speech at Athens, for example, shows how the Christian preacher exhibited the connection between the gospel and the religious aspirations of the time. This line of thought, it is true, was merely preliminary; the main thing with which the apostles were concerned was the presentation and explanation of the gospel itself. Such presentation and explanation, however, certainly required intellectual effort; and the effort was not avoided. The epistles of Paul are full of profound thinking; only superficiality can ignore the apostolic use of the intellect.
(1) Christianity Based Upon Facts.—The fundamental reason why this intellectual activity was so prominent in the apostolic age is that the apostles thought of Christianity as based upon facts. Modern Christians sometimes cherish a different notion. A false antithesis is now sometimes set up between belief and practice; Christianity, it is said, is not a doctrine, but a life. In reality, Christianity is not only a doctrine, but neither is it only a life; it is both. It is, as has been well said, a life because it is a doctrine. What is characteristic of Christianity is not so much that it holds up a lofty ethical ideal as that it provides the power by which the ideal is to be realized. That power proceeds from the great facts upon which Christian belief is founded, especially the blessed facts of Christ's atoning death and triumphant resurrection. Where belief in these facts has been lost, the Christian life may seem to proceed for a time as before, but it proceeds only as a locomotive runs after the steam has been shut off; the momentum is soon lost. If, however, Christianity is based upon facts, it cannot do without the use of the mind; whatever may be said of mere emotions, facts cannot be received without employment of the reason. Christian faith is indeed more than intellectual; it involves rejoicing in the heart and acceptance by the will, but the intellectual element in it can never be removed. We cannot trust in Christ, in the Christian sense, unless we are convinced that he lived a holy life when he was on earth, that he claimed justly to be divine, that he died on the cross, and that he rose again from the dead.
(2) Christianity Involves Theology.—Furthermore, Christian faith involves not only a bare acceptance of these facts, it involves also some explanation of them. That explanation can never be complete; the gospel contains mysteries in the presence of which only wondering reverence is in place; but some explanation there must be. It is quite useless, for example, to know merely that a holy man, Jesus, died on the cross; it is even useless to know that the Son of God came to earth and died in that way. The death of Christ has meaning for us only because it was a death for our sins; the story of the cross becomes a gospel only when the blessed meaning of it is explained. The explanation of that meaning forms the subject of a large part of the New Testament. The apostolic Church had none of our modern aversion to theology.
It is time for us to return to the apostolic example. Mere bustling philanthropy will never conquer the world. The real springs of the Church's power lie in an inward, spiritual realm; they can be reached only by genuine meditation. The eighth chapter of Romans has been neglected long enough; neglect of it is bringing deadly weakness. Instead of adapting her message to the changing fashions of the time, the Church should seek to understand the message itself. The effort will not be easy; in a "practical" age, honest thinking is hard. But the results will be plain. Power lies in the deep things of God.
(3) The Duty of Every Man.—The great intellectual duty of the modern Church is not confined to a few men of scholarly tastes. On the contrary, the simplest Christian may have his part; what is needed first of all is common sense. By an unhealthy sentimentalism, old-fashioned study has been discredited. If God is speaking in the Bible, surely the logical thing for us to do is to hear. Yet modern Christians are strangely neglectful of this simple duty. Bible study is regarded as of less importance than social service; improvement of earthly conditions is preferred to acquaintance with God's Word. The evil may easily be corrected, and it may be corrected first of all by the old-fashioned reading of the Bible. That requires intellectual effort—there is no use in turning the pages if the mind is elsewhere—but the effort can be made by the plain man as well as by the scholar. Simple acquaintance with the Bible facts by the rank and file of the Church will accomplish as much as anything else toward meeting the arguments of opponents. By learning what Christianity is, we shall be able, almost unconsciously, to refute what can be said against it.
This intellectual effort, however, should never be separated from practice. The best way to fix truth in the mind is to practice it in life. If our study teaches us that God is holy, let us hate sin as God hates it. If we learn that God is loving, let us love our fellow men as God loves them. If the Bible tells us of the salvation offered by Christ, let us accept it with a holy joy, and live in the power of it day by day. That is the true "practical Christianity", a Christianity that is based solidly upon facts. Conduct goes hand in hand with doctrine; love is the sister of truth.
The ultimate Source of all truth, as of all love, is God. The knowledge for which we are pleading can never result in pride, for it is a knowledge that God gives, and a knowledge consecrated at every point to God's service. Presumptuous reliance upon human wisdom comes from knowledge that ignores part of the facts; true science leads to humility. If we accept all other facts, but ignore the supreme fact of God's love in Jesus Christ, then of course our knowledge will be one-sided. It may succeed in producing creature comforts; it may improve the external conditions of life upon this earth; it may afford purely intellectual pleasure; but it will never reveal the really important things. This one-sided knowledge is what Paul was speaking of in I Cor. 1:21 when he said that "the world through its wisdom knew not God." The true wisdom takes account of the "foolishness" of God's message, and finds that that foolishness is wiser than men. The true wisdom of the gospel is revealed only through the Holy Spirit; only the Spirit of God can reveal the things of God. Without the Spirit, the human mind becomes hopeless in dismal error; it is the Spirit of truth who sheds the true light over our path.
"O grant us light, that we may knowThe wisdom Thou alone canst give;That truth may guide where'er we go,And virtue bless where'er we live."
In the Library.—Patton, "A Summary of Christian Doctrine." Greene, "Christian Doctrine." A. A. Hodge, "Outlines of Theology" and "Popular Lectures on Theological Themes."
A type of religious effort has become prevalent to-day which is directed chiefly to the present life; the improvement of worldly conditions is often regarded as the chief end of man. All such tendencies are strikingly at variance with apostolic Christianity. The apostolic Church was intensely other-worldly. The chief gift that the apostles offered was not a better and more comfortable life in this world, but an entrance into heaven.
Only the great outlines of the events connected with the end of the world are revealed in the New Testament. Minute details cannot be discovered except by an excessively literal method of interpretation, which is not really in accord with the meaning of the apostolic writers. Some have supposed, for example, that there are to be two resurrections, first a resurrection of the Christian dead and long afterwards a resurrection of other men; expectation of a thousand-year reign of Christ upon earth has been widely prevalent. Such beliefs are not to be lightly rejected, since they are based upon an interpretation of certain New Testament passages which is not altogether devoid of plausibility; but on the whole they are at least doubtful in view of other passages, and especially in view of the true nature of prophecy. God has revealed, not details to satisfy our curiosity, but certain basal facts which should determine our lives.
Those basal facts, connected with the end of the world, are a second coming of Christ, a resurrection of the dead, a final judgment, an eternity of punishment for the wicked and of blessing for those who have trusted in Christ. It is not maintained that these facts stand absolutely alone; certainly they are fully explained, at least in their spiritual significance; but the devout Bible-reader should be cautious about his interpretation of details.
The practical effect of the apostolic teaching about the end of the world should be a combination of earnestness with joy. A manwho lives under the expectation of meeting Christ as Judge will desert the worldly standard of values for a higher standard. He will rate happiness and worldly splendor lower, in order to place the supreme emphasis upon goodness. The difference between evil and good, between sin and holiness, is not a trifle, not a thing of merely relative importance, as many men regard it; it enters deep into the constitution of the universe, it is the question of really eternal moment. Again and again, in the New Testament, the thought of Christ's coming and of the judgment which he will hold is made the supreme motive to a pure and holy life. The apostolic example may well be borne in mind. When we are tempted to commit a mean or dishonest or unclean act, when unholy thoughts crowd in upon us like a noisome flood, we cannot do better than think of the day when we shall stand in the presence of the pure and holy Judge.
On the other hand, the thought of Christ's coming is to the believer the source of inexpressible joy. Christ has saved us from a terrible abyss. Our joy in salvation is in proportion to our dread of the destruction from which we have been saved. To the truly penitent man, the thought of the righteous God is full of terror. God is holy; we would sometimes endeavor vainly to shrink from his presence. Yet such a God has stretched out his hand to save—there is the wonder of the gospel—and if we trust in the Saviour the last great day need cause no fear. We are lost in sin, but God looks not upon us but upon him who died to save us. "Salvation" to the apostolic Church meant "rescue," rescue from the just and awful judgment of God.
The time of that judgment has not been revealed, but so far as any offer of repentance is concerned the time comes to every man at death. One question of detail cannot altogether be ignored. What did the apostles teach about the condition of the believer between death and the final resurrection? Upon this subject, the New Testament says very little, but it becomes clear at least that the believer, even when absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord, II Cor. 5:8, and that to die is to be with Christ. Phil. 1:23. On the whole, no better statement of the apostolic teaching about the "intermediate state" can be formulated than that which is contained in the Shorter Catechism: "The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass intoglory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves, till the resurrection." The hope of an immediate entrance into bliss at the time of death should not be allowed, however, to obscure the importance of the resurrection. The resurrection of the body will be necessary to "the full enjoying of God to all eternity."
That enjoying of God is no mere selfish pleasure; it means first of all a triumph of holiness. Every last vestige of evil will be removed. No taint of sin will separate the redeemed creature from his God. Service will be free and joyous. The consummation, moreover, will concern not merely individuals, but the race; no mere expectation of the personal immortality of individuals begins to do justice to the apostolic teaching. The ultimate end, indeed, is not our own enjoyment, but the glory of God. Some carnal, materialistic conceptions of the future age would really remove God from his own heaven, but such is not the teaching of the New Testament. God will be all and in all; only in his glory is to be found the true glory of a redeemed race. The power of loving God is the highest joy that heaven contains.
The present age, according to the New Testament, is a time of waiting and striving; it is related to the future glory as a battle is related to the subsequent victory. Satisfaction with the present life, even as it is led by the best of Christians, would to the apostles have been abhorrent; the Christian is still far from perfect. A prime condition of progress is a divine discontent. Jesus pronounced a blessing upon them that "hunger and thirst after righteousness." Eternal things to us are unseen; they can be discovered only by the eye of faith; we long for a time when hope will be supplanted by sight. Nevertheless, there is no room for despondency; the blessed time is surely coming.
Its coming is rendered certain by the presence, here and now, of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit may be relied upon to prepare us, both in soul and in body, for the glory of heaven.
(1) The Spirit in the Old Testament and in the Life of Jesus.—The Spirit of God was mentioned even in the Old Testament. At the beginning he "moved upon the face of the waters," Gen. 1:2; he was the source of the mighty deeds of heroes and of the prophets' inspired words. In the life and teaching of Jesus, however, theSpirit was far more fully revealed than he had ever been revealed before. He was the source of Jesus' human nature, Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35; he descended upon the newly proclaimed Messiah, Matt. 3:16, and was operative in all the earthly ministry of the Lord.
(2) The Spirit in the Church.—For the disciples, however, the full glory of the Spirit's presence was manifested only after Jesus himself had been taken up into heaven; the present age, from Pentecost to the second coming of the Lord, is peculiarly the dispensation of the Holy Spirit. Discontent with the Church's imperfections and dismay at her many adversaries should never cause us to lose confidence in the work that is being done by the Spirit of God. It was expedient that Jesus should go away; through the other "Comforter" whom he has sent, he manifests himself even more gloriously than he did to the disciples in Galilee.
(3) The Nature of the Spirit.—The apostles never discuss the nature of the Holy Spirit in any thoroughly systematic way. But two great facts are really presupposed in the whole New Testament. In the first place, the Holy Spirit is God, and in the second place he is a person distinct from the Father and from the Son. The divinity of the Spirit appears, for example, in I Cor. 2:11. The point of that verse is that the Spirit is as closely related to God as the human spirit is to a man. "For who among men knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, which is in him? even so the things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God." The distinct personality of the Spirit appears with special clearness in Rom. 8:26, 27. There the Spirit is represented as making intercession with him "that searcheth the hearts"; the one who intercedes is personally distinct from him before whom he makes intercession. Even more convincing, perhaps, is the great promise of Christ in John 14:16, 17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-15, where the other "Comforter" is spoken of in clearly personal terms and is distinguished both from the Father and from the Son. Personal distinctness, however, is not inconsistent with a perfect unity of nature. What the Spirit does the Son and the Father do; when the other Comforter comes to the Church, Christ himself comes. The doctrine of the "Trinity" is a profound mystery, but its mysteriousness is no obstacle to the acceptance of its truth. Mystery in the depths of God's nature is surely to be expected. This mystery, taught by the pen of inspired writers, has brought salvation and peace into the lives of men. Distinctly Trinitarian passages, such as Matt. 28:19; II Cor. 13:14, are merely the summation of theNew Testament teaching about God, and that teaching has worked itself out in unspeakable blessing in the life of the Church.
(4) The Work of the Spirit.—A complete summary of the belief of the apostolic Church about the work of the Holy Spirit would be impossible in one brief lesson. The Christian life is begun by the Spirit, and continued by his beneficent power. Conversion, according to Jesus and his apostles, is only the manward aspect of a profound change in the depths of the soul. That change is "regeneration," a new birth. Christian experience is no mere improvement of existing conditions, but the entrance of something entirely new. Man is not merely sick in trespasses and sins, but "dead"; only a new birth will bring life. That new birth is a mysterious, creative act of the Spirit of God. John 3:3-8.
But the Spirit does not leave those whom he has regenerated to walk alone; he dwells in them and enables them to overcome sin. The motive of his work is love. He is no blind force, but a loving Person; the Christian can enjoy a real communion with him as with the Father and the Son. In the presence of the Spirit we have communion with God; the Persons of the Godhead are united in a manner far beyond all human analogies. There is no imperfect medium separating us from the divine presence; by the gracious work of the Holy Spirit we come into vital contact with the living God.
The Spirit is the ground and cause of Christian freedom. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." II Cor. 3:17. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Rom. 8:14, 15. This liberty that the Spirit brings is, however, not a liberty to sin; it is liberation from sin. The body of the Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit; in that temple only purity is in place. The inward power of the Holy Spirit in the heart is more powerful than the law; if a man yields to that power he will overcome the flesh; the law of God is fulfilled by those "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
In the Library.—Vos, "The Teaching of Jesus Concerning the Kingdom of God and the Church." Crane, "The Teaching of Jesus Concerning the Holy Spirit." Swete, "The Holy Spirit in the New Testament." Thomas, "The Holy Spirit of God."
The apostolic example can be applied intelligently to the problems of our time only if there be some understanding of the intervening centuries. We are connected with the apostolic Church by an unbroken succession. A study of Church history would help us to apply the New Testament teaching to our own age.
The Christian writings which have been preserved from the early part of the second century show a marked decline from the spiritual level of the apostles. Evidently the special inspiration which had made the New Testament a guide for all ages had been withdrawn. Yet the Spirit of God continued to lead the Church. Even in the darkest periods of Church history God did not forget his people.
Only scanty Christian writings have been preserved from the first three-quarters of the second century; the extant works of the so-called "Apostolic Fathers" and of the "Apologists" are of limited extent. About the close of the century, however, the record becomes more complete. Clement of Alexandria, Irenæus of Asia Minor and Gaul, and Tertullian of North Africa, give a varied picture of the Christian life of the time. The Church had gained rapidly in influence since the conclusion of the apostolic age; persecutions had not succeeded in checking her advance. Finally, under Constantine, in the first part of the fourth century, Christianity became the favored religion of the Roman Empire.
About the same time, in A.D. 325, the first ecumenical council, at Nicæa, undertook the work of formulating the belief of the Church. The creeds which were adopted at the great ancient councils are accepted to-day in all parts of Christendom. During the same general period, the power of the bishop of Rome was gradually increased until it culminated in the papacy.
After the conquest of the western part of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, Christianity was accepted by the barbarian conquerors, and during the dark ages that followed the Church preserved the light of learning and piety until a better day should dawn. During the middle ages, though there was for the mostpart little originality in Christian thinking, great scholars and theologians formed striking exceptions to the general condition. The political power of the papacy became enormous, but was hindered by the personal weakness and immorality of many of the popes. The degraded moral and spiritual condition of the Church was counteracted here and there by the establishment of monastic orders, whose purpose at the beginning was good, by the writings of certain mystics, and by the work of the three "pre-reformers," Wyclif in England, Huss in Bohemia and Savonarola in Italy.
A genuine advance, however, did not come until the Reformation of the fifteenth century, when Luther in Germany and Zwingli in Switzerland, almost at the same time and at first independently, became the leaders in a mighty protest. A little later Calvin carried out the principles of the Reformation in a comprehensive theological system, and by the power of his intellect and the fervency of his piety exerted an enormous influence throughout the world. The Reformation was distinctly a religious movement, though it had been prepared for by that revival of learning which is called the Renaissance. The work of Luther was a rediscovery of Paul. Not the performance of a set of external acts prescribed by the Church, but, as Paul taught, the grace of God received by faith alone, is, according to Luther, the means of salvation.
The Reformation brought about a counter-reformation in the Roman Catholic Church, and the western European world was finally divided between the two great branches of Christendom. After a period of controversy and wars between Protestants and Catholics, the Church was called upon to fight a great battle against unbelief. That battle, begun in its modern form about the middle of the eighteenth century, continues unabated until the present day. We are living in a time of intellectual changes. To maintain the truth of the gospel at such a time and to present it faithfully and intelligently to the modern world is the supreme task of the Church. The task to some extent has been accomplished; and the missionary movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries attests the vitality of the ancient faith. God has not deserted his Church. There are enemies without and within, compromise will surely bring disaster; but the gospel of Christ has not lost its power. This is not the first time of discouragement in the history of the Church. The darkest hour has always been followed by the dawn. Who can tell what God has now in store?