Lessons from the Christ-Life

The fact that the people were more interested in Christ’s teaching than they were in the dry, tedious arguments of the Jewish teachers, maddened the scribes and Pharisees. These teachers spoke with uncertainty, interpreting the Scriptures to mean one thing, and then another. This left the people in great confusion. But as they listened to Jesus, their hearts were warmed and comforted. He presented God as a loving father, not as an avenging judge. He drew all, high and low, rich and poor, to see God in His true character, leading them to call Him by the endearing name, «Our Father.»

By loving words and by works of mercy, Christ bore down old traditions and man-made commandments, and presented the love of the Father in its exhaustless fullness. His calm, earnest, musical voice fell like balm on the wounded spirit. He was revealing the image of God mirrored in himself. He presented to His hearers the truths of the prophecies, separating them from the obscure interpretations which the scribes and Pharisees had attached to them. He scattered the heavenly grains of truth wherever He went.

Determined to hear what Christ said to His disciples, the scribes and Pharisees kept spies on His track. These spies noted His words, and reported them to the Jewish authorities, who, when they heard them, were almost beside themselves with ill-concealed rage, which they interpreted to be zeal for God.

As the members of the Sanhedrim counseled together, there were not wanting men with strong, determined prejudices, who advised that this man who claimed so much be at once put down. If He were allowed to go on as He had been going, healing the sick on the Sabbath day, the sacredness of the day would be set at naught.

They saw that Christ’s influence over the people was fast becoming greater than theirs. They longed to crush Him for daring to make their traditions of none effect, but they feared to move openly, because of the people. They thought that if they worked secretly, watching His words and actions, they would soon find such accusations against Him that He could be put on trial for His life. Declaring that the end justified the means, they decided to circulate falsehoods among the people, declaring that Jesus of Nazareth was an impostor, and that He was making of none effect Jewish traditions and customs. They declared that if these traditions were criticised by this man, the whole Jewish economy could be criticised by any crazy enthusiast. The nation would become distracted, and the Romans would come and take away the power they still possessed.

«Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.»

Christ was accused of breaking the Sabbath by doing upon it works of healing. But He justified himself by stating that His work admitted of no interruption. He must work constantly, even as His Father works. It is by God’s unfailing care that we are provided with daily food. Then should we not trust in Him who has undertaken our salvation. The knowledge that the Father and the Son are united in the work of redemption should give courage and hope to the most desponding.

Christ, the surety of the human race, works with uninterrupted activity. He speaks of himself as working in the same way as the Guardian of the universe. He worked untiringly for the people of Israel. He sought to lead them to trust in Him who can save to the uttermost all who come to Him. Christ is the light which lighteneth every man that cometh into the world. From Adam, through the patriarchal age, this light made plain the way to heaven. To it gave all the prophets witness. In mysterious procession future things swept before their vision. In every sacrifice Christ’s death was pointed out. His righteousness ascended to God in every cloud of incense. His majesty was hidden in the holy of holies. Christ was as truly a Saviour before as after His incarnation. At the very moment of transgression and apostasy, He entered upon His work, laboring for the salvation of man with an activity equal to the activity of God.

«Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him because He not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making himself equal with God.» The whole nation called God their Father, and if Jesus had done this in the same sense in which they did, the Pharisees would not have been so enraged. But they accused Jesus of blasphemy, showing that they understood that Christ claimed God as His Father in the very highest sense.

Christ threw back the charge of blasphemy, with the words, «Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that himself doeth.» My authority for the work that I am doing, He said, is the fact that I am God’s Son, one with Him in nature, will, and purpose. I co-operate with Him in His work. My Father loves me, and communicates to me all His counsels. Nothing is planned by the Father in heaven that is not fully opened to the Son.

«The Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that himself doeth: and He will show Him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.» Christ was to do greater things than even the healing of disease. By His power the dead were to be raised to life. Scribes and Pharisees were to see that which would astonish them, at which they would be obliged to marvel, even though their hearts would be too proud and hard to make any acknowledgment.

«For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will.» What a statement to make before those whose hearts were already filled with hatred and murder. Christ was giving the rulers of Israel light, which would make them inexcusable. Nothing was left undone that could be done to convince them of their error. —

«For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.» God has laid the work of judgment upon Christ because He is the Son of man. He was made in all points life unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest. He was to become acquainted with the weakness of every human being. He could do this only by taking upon himself human nature. He must be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, that at the judgment of the great day none might question the justice of the decisions made. Our High Priest has been over the ground over which we must pass. He is acquainted with the circumstances of every case. He sees not as man sees, and judges not as man judges. He judges righteously. He has shown His love for men and women by giving His own life to ransom them from the penalty that must fall upon the transgressors of God’s law. He knows the value of human souls. He will not close the door of heaven against any one unless, for the safety of heaven, it is necessary to do so.

Lucifer refused to accept Christ as the Prince of heaven, his Sovereign and Leader. He refused to acknowledge the supremacy of the Son of God. The controversy between the Prince of life and the prince of darkness has been long and fierce. Those who place themselves under Satan’s banner, who refuse, as did the Jews, to yield allegiance to God or to obey His laws, can never be members of the heavenly family. They would make war against the law of Jehovah, calling it, as did Satan, a yoke of bondage.

Ever since his fall, Satan has been the leader of rebellion. Ever since that time he has been leading men and women astray. Christ’s work began with the beginning of transgression. Then the warfare between good and evil was begun. The Scriptures speak plainly of this warfare, carrying us down to the final triumph of Christ over Satan and his adherents. This conflict never ceases.

As soon as there was sin, there was a Saviour. Christ knew what He would have to suffer, yet He became man’s substitute. As soon as Adam sinned, the Son of God presented himself as surety for the human race, with just as much power to avert the doom pronounced upon the guilty as when He died upon the cross of Calvary.

As our Mediator, Christ works incessantly. Whether men receive or reject Him, He works earnestly for them. He grants them life and light, striving by His Spirit to win them from Satan’s service. And while the Saviour works, Satan also works, with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, and with unflagging energy. But victory will never be his.

«For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.» Christ was engaged in this warfare in Noah’s day. It was His voice that spoke to the inhabitants of the old world in messages of warning, reproof, and invitation. He gave the people a probation of one hundred and twenty years, in which they might have repented. But they chose the deceptions of Satan, and perished in the waters of the flood.

It was Christ who kept the ark safe amid the roaring, seething billows, because its inmates had faith in His power to preserve them.

When Christ came to the earth in person, Satan’s fiercest warfare was directed against Him. But by causing the Son of God to be crucified. Satan struck a blow at himself. When Christ died on the cross, Satan’s death-knell was sounded. His deceptions were narrowly watched by the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds, as he, in disguise, worked in such a way that he thought he could not possibly be detected. But he was left to follow his own course, to condemn himself by his own deeds. And before the cross of Calvary he stood revealed in his true character. When Christ cried out, «It is finished,» the unfallen worlds were made secure. For them the battle was fought and the victory won. Henceforth Satan had no place in the affections of the universe. The argument he had brought forward, that self-denial was impossible with God, and therefore unjustly required from His created intelligences, was forever answered. Satan’s claims were forever set aside. The heavenly universe was secured in eternal allegiance.

It was because of the issues of stake that the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds watched with such intense interest the struggle between the Prince of life and the prince of darkness. Those who had not sinned needed not the application of Christ’s blood, but they did need to be made secure from Satan’s power. The result of the conflict had a bearing on the future of all the worlds, and every step that Christ took in the path of humiliation was watched by them with the deepest interest.

Christ overcame the enemy for every created intelligence. Thus He has secured the salvation of all who will accept the provision made. None who will accept Him need be vanquished. Around all is thrown the protection of His meditation.

By personal experience Christ is acquainted with the warfare which, since Adam’s fall, has been constantly going on. How appropriate, then, for Him to be the judge. To Jesus, the Son of man, is committed all judgment. There is one mediator between God and men. Only by Him can we enter the kingdom of heaven. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. From His decision there is no appeal. He is the Rock of ages, a rock rent on purpose that every tried, tempted soul may find a sure hiding place.

«Verily, verily, I say unto you,» Christ continued, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. . . . The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.»

Christ here referred to those occasions upon which He should raise the dead. But His words have a deeper meaning. Not only was He to give life to those who were physically dead, but to raise to spiritual life those who were dead in trespasses and sins. Hearts palsied by transgression were to be roused by the work of the Holy Spirit.

By nature man has no love for God. It is not natural for him to think of heavenly things. Satan has worked against God and His government, leading men to attribute to God the traits which belong to the power of evil. Christ came to this world to reveal the Father. The human family had sinned against God. The terror of a broken law hung over them; and so low had they sunk, that it seemed impossible to infuse them with spiritual life. But in His work Christ was not to fail nor to be discouraged.

The Saviour saw that man has vast powers and capabilities for good, which can be used in the upbuilding of God’s kingdom. He came to restore to life those dead in sin. His voice is to be heard saying, «Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead.» «As the Father hath life in himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in himself.»

To arouse those spiritually dead, to create new tastes, new motives, requires as great an outlay of power as to raise one from physical death. It is indeed giving life to the dead to convert the sinner from the error of his ways; but our Deliverer is able to do this; for He came to destroy the works of the enemy. And will He not accomplish that which He has pledged himself to perform? —