The Saviour of the World

The Reality of Christianity

When my soul is troubled and I am inclined to be depressed with a sense of the guilt of sin, then it is that I turn with a great longing for relief to Him who said that He “came to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10. And under such circumstances I find renewed courage and assurance in meditating upon the exalted character and the greatness of the power of Him who offers Himself to me as my Saviour. With the hope that what is helpful to me may bring fresh hope to others, I am passing on some of the wondrous things revealed concerning the Saviour of the world. SOTW 7.1

Jesus of Nazareth is the reality of Christianity; but when I say this, I refer to the real Jesus, the Son of God, who is the leading figure in all the Scriptures. In the emasculated Jesus who is presented to us by many teachers of these modern times, I do not find a Saviour who commands my whole-hearted devotion. It is one thing to admire an ideal character, but it is quite another thing to find a person whom we are glad to accept as the absolute Lord of our lives, with full confidence in both His ability and His willingness to satisfy the deepest longing of our souls for a heavenly experience. The Jesus with whom the favored twelve associated; the Jesus whom Peter proclaimed on the day of Pentecost as both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36, A. R. V.); the Jesus who revealed Himself from glory and in glory on the Damascus road, and whom Paul afterward preached as the crucified and risen Saviour (1 Corinthians 1:23); and the Jesus who in living power has been both the foundation (1 Corinthians 3:11) and the builder (Matthew 16:18) of the Christian church during all the centuries, is the Jesus for to-day. Modern philosophers may try to explain the present order of things without Him; modern psychologists may seek to account for all our spiritual experiences apart from Him; and modern rationalists may do their best to reduce Him to a mere impersonal force; but to those who are willing to receive Him He is still revealing Himself as the Wonderful One (Isaiah 9:6), the victorious Deliverer (Romans 11:26), and the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2:8). He is the blessed and adorable Saviour whom I desire to uplift as the only hope of a world in sin. He is my Saviour, and my heart rejoices in Him. SOTW 7.2

The testimony of the four evangelists establishes beyond any reasonable doubt that Jesus of Nazareth was a genuine historical person. They have not written the usual biography, and they have not idealized Him with whom they deal; but they have presented in a simple and straightforward style which commands confidence, a report of such words and works of Jesus as furnish a solid basis for faith in Him as both the Son of God and the Son of man, the Saviour of the world. As we read their writings, we behold the Man of Galilee, not with a visible halo crowning His head, but yet as the light of the world (John 8:12), walking before us in all the power of grace and glory, a true man and the true revealer of God (Matthew 11:27). SOTW 8.1

It is absolutely essential to a genuine Christian experience that we should exercise personal faith in the Jesus of history. As we live with Him from the manger in Bethlehem to the cross on Calvary, not acting as self-sufficient critics, but as sincere and open-hearted observers, there will certainly be formed in our minds the irresistible conviction that He is not only our brother, with all the characteristics of a genuine humanity (Hebrews 2:11), but that He is also more than a man, even the eternal Son of God (John 9:35-37), who came to this world and lived, and died, and rose from the dead, according to the age-long purpose, in order to be the Saviour of the world (1 John 4:14). He Himself is the miracle of the ages-a man having the same flesh and blood as we have, and yet living above the dominion of sin (John 8:46). SOTW 8.2

He entered the world in a supernatural manner (Matthew 1:18-23), supernatural works were wrought through Him (John 5:36), and He surrendered His life in a supernatural manner (Matthew 27:50); and yet He made Himself voluntarily just as dependent upon the power of His Father as we are dependent upon Him. Hear Him say, “I can of Myself do nothing” (John 5:30), and remember the nights of prayer (Luke 6:12) when He sought and obtained sustaining grace. SOTW 9.1

Follow Him through the Gospel of John: now He changes the water into wine (John 2:1-11); now He heals the noble-man’s son without visiting his home (John 4:46-52); now He restores to health the man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:1-9); now He feeds the multitude with the five barley loaves and the two fishes which He had blessed (John 6:5-13); now He walks upon the sea to go to the relief of His distressed disciples (John 6:16-21); now He gives sight to the man who was born blind (John 9:1-7); and finally He restores to life Lazarus, who had been dead four days (John 11:38-44). And these signs are recorded that we might believe that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,” and that by so believing we might “have life in His name.” John 20:30, 31. But while exhibiting these convincing proofs of His deity, it is equally clear from the same record that He was a man among men, in all things “made like unto His brethren.” Hebrews 2:17. SOTW 10.1

It is this Jesus of the Scriptures who is the reality of Christianity. He who is the Divine One assumed our human nature, in order that we who are sinful may partake of the divine nature. This is the very essence of Christianity, and involves personal union with Christ through the indwelling Spirit. But the risen, exalted, and glorified Christ, now representing us in the courts of heaven, and revealing Himself to us as a present Saviour, is the historical Jesus who walked among men, veiling His divinity in humanity, and it is just this Jesus of history who must become the Christ of our experience. SOTW 10.2

Of course the history of Jesus did not commence when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), but it is in His earthly life that we have the clearest revelation of His everlasting love, His saving grace, and His conquering power. He made known the love which takes no account of self (1 Corinthians 13:5), the grace which brings salvation (Titus 2:11), and the power which delivers from the fiercest assaults of the enemy (Matthew 4:10, 11). And all this was done, not for Himself, but for our benefit. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.... Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Corinthians 5:18-21. SOTW 10.3

What I wish to emphasize is that there is no Christianity apart from the historical Jesus, and that the reality of Christianity is known and becomes an experience when the Jesus of history abides in our hearts and lives His own life of power and victory in us. Galatians 2:20. From such an interpretation of Christianity as this it follows that for our salvation from sin something more is needed than even the most sincere assent to an orthodox creed; something more than the most rigid adherence to form and ceremony, even though the form and ceremony be divinely prescribed; and something more than the best human endeavor to imitate the life of Jesus. SOTW 12.1

“The greatest deception of the human mind in Christ’s day was, that a mere assent to the truth constitutes righteousness.... The same danger still exists. Many take it for granted that they are Christians, simply because they subscribe to certain theological tenets. But they have not brought the truth into practical life.... Men may profess faith in the truth; but if it does not make them sincere, kind, patient, forbearing, heavenly minded, it is a curse to its possessors, and through their influence it is a curse to the world.” SOTW 12.2

But it is not abstract truth, truth set forth in theological propositions, but “as truth is in Jesus” (Ephesians 4:21), truth personalized, that is thus a power in the life and expresses itself in Christian conduct. He who declared, “I am ... the truth” (John 14:6), must be the truth in us. And this is the reality of Christianity. SOTW 12.3

The Jesus of history became the Christ of experience when He came forth from the tomb after having died unto sin once, ascended on high in a real yet spiritual body, and then returned in the person of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to make effective in believers what He had wrought out for them. Thus Jesus of Nazareth became “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27. And it is absolutely true that “if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” Romans 8:9. “Apart from Me,” He declared, “ye can do nothing.” John 15:5. SOTW 12.4

It follows, then, that the secret of all success in Christian experience is the maintaining of a vital union with Christ, the Saviour of the world, an actual union of Spirit with spirit and of life with life, involving such an identification of our will with His will that He can work in us “both to will and to work.” SOTW 12.5

“When Christ took human nature upon Him, He bound humanity to Himself by a tie of love that can never be broken by any power save the choice of man himself. Satan will constantly present allurements to induce us to break this tie,-to choose to separate ourselves from Christ. Here is where we need to watch, to strive, to pray, that nothing may entice us to choose another master; for we are always free to do this. But let us keep our eyes fixed upon Christ, and He will preserve us. Looking unto Jesus, we are safe.” SOTW 13.1

It is the purpose of this book to develop as simply and as plainly as possible some features of the Christianity of the Scriptures on the lines here indicated, to guard every reader from being deceived by a philosophy which robs us of the real Christ by substituting the Christ of evolution, and to establish an abiding confidence in “the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints.” Jude 3. I am neither a modernist nor a fundamentalist, as these terms are generally used, for there are some teachings advocated by each one which I am unable to accept as being Scriptural, but I am a humble believer in God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and in the great salvation which the three persons of the Godhead have provided for all who will receive it. If the reading of this book shall bring to others such an increasing sense of the reality of Christianity as its writing has brought to me, I shall feel that my work has not been in vain. May our hearts burn within us as the Spirit of truth opens our minds to a fuller and more personal understanding of the Scriptures. SOTW 13.2