The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

III. Exhortation to the Heathen Still Stresses Life Only in Christ

1. CHRIST OFFERS “IMMORTALITY”; SIN BRINGS “DESTRUCTION.”

In timing, Clement’s Exhortation to the Heathen was followed by The Instructor, and finally by The Stromata, produced between c. A.D. 194 and c. 202. But the Exhortation, designed to win pagans to the Christian faith, is first of all a devastating exposure of the abominations, impostures, and sordidness of paganism. It contrasts them with the truths of inspired Scripture, the true God, and Christ the Saviour of men. But it already breathes the spirit of philosophy throughout, and abounds in quotations from Greek philosophers and poets—which were destined to increase in his writings. In chapter nine Clement presents the call of God and warns against being ashamed of the Lord: CFF1 986.6

“He offers freedom, you flee into bondage; He bestows salvation, you sink down into destruction; He confers everlasting life, you wait for punishment, and prefer the fire which the Lord ‘has prepared for the devil and his angels.’” ²⁶ CFF1 987.1

2. CHRIST BRINGS LIGHT OF ETERNAL LIFE

Clement refers to Christ as the one who gives light—the “Sun of the Resurrection,” who “with His beams bestows light.” He warns against the “threatening” and the “punishment” foretold of those who flout the “grace” that becomes the “wrath” of the God, who rules the “never-ending day” that “extends over eternity.” And he warns against those who “make light of immortality.” ²⁷ In chapter ten Clement exhorts: CFF1 987.2

“Believe, and receive salvation as your reward. Seek God, and your soul shall live. He who seeks God is busying himself about his own salvation. Hast thou found God?—then thou hast life. Let us then seek, in order that we may live. The reward of seeking life is with God.” ²⁸ CFF1 987.3

Then he comments, “A noble hymn of God is an immortal man, established in righteousness, in whom the oracles of truth are engraved.” ²⁹ CFF1 987.4

In chapter eleven he rehearses the “Benefits Conferred on Man Through the Advent of Christ.” Man was made free in Paradise, but became “fettered to sins.” But to man, who has “wandered in error” and was “buried in darkness, shut up in the shadow of death, light has shone forth from heaven .... That light is life eternal.” Thus the “Sun of Righteousness”— CFF1 987.5

“hath changed sunset into sunrise, and through the cross brought death to life; and having wrenched man from destruction, He hath raised him to the skies, transplanting mortality into immortality, and translating earth to heaven.” ³⁰ CFF1 988.1

Salvation or destruction—those are the alternatives. CFF1 988.2

3. ETERNAL LIFE VERSUS ETERNAL DEATH

Then Clement adds, “Sin is eternal death,” and admonishes that the Word brought salvation, so that repentant men “might be saved”; or, “refusing to obey, they might be judged.” ³¹ Then he exhorts: CFF1 988.3

“I urge you to be saved. This Christ desires. In one word, He freely bestows life on you. And who is He? Briefly learn. The Word of truth, the Word of incorruption, that regenerates man by bringing him back to the truth—the goad that urges to salvation—He who expels destruction and pursues death—He who builds up the temple of God in men, that He may cause God to take up His abode in men.” ³² CFF1 988.4

4. PERFECT “BOON of IMMORTALITY” BESTOWED

Clement then presents “Jesus, who is eternal,” and is the “one great High Priest of the one God,” as exhorting men, saying: CFF1 988.5

“For to you of all mortals I grant the enjoyment of immortality .... I want to impart to you this grace, bestowing on you the perfect boon of immortality.” ³³ CFF1 988.6

And Christ adds, “I desire to restore you according to the original model, that ye may become also like me.” ³⁴ CFF1 988.7

5. CHRIST OFFERS TO CONDUCT US TO IMMORTALITY

Clement’s closing exhortations are: CFF1 988.8

“Let us haste, let us run, let us take His yoke, let us receive, to conduct us to immortality, the good charioteer of men ... and having yoked the team of humanity to God, directs His chariot to immortality, hastening clearly to fulfill, by driving now into heaven, what He shadowed forth before by riding into Jerusalem. A spectacle most beautiful to the Father is the eternal Son crowned with victory.” ³⁵ CFF1 988.9

Thus we will obtain the “greatest of all things which are incapable of being harmed—God and life.” And “our helper is the Word.” Clement’s final appeal is to choose—choose “salvation.” Weigh “which will profit you most—judgment or grace,” and he presents the contrast, “destruction.” ³⁶ CFF1 988.10