Sermons from the Latins/Sermon 31
Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension.
The Divinity of Christ.
"When the Paraclete cometh, He shall give testimony of Me." — John xv. 26.
SYNOPSIS.
Ex. : I. Truth's corner-stone. II. Opinions. III. Suggestions of arguments.
I. Guilt of sin : 1. Man-God. 2. Messias in figure and . prophecy. 3. In Gospels.
II. Christ's character : 1. Idolatry. 2. Hypocrisy. 3. Died to prove assertion.
III. Christ's deeds: 1. His miracles. 2. Resurrection. 3. Ascension.
Per.: 1. Arguments for infidels. 2. Our confidence. 3. Lord's second coming.
SERMON.
Brethren, disbelief in the divinity of Jesus Christ is and ever has been the world's blackest sin; it will be the gravest indictment brought against mankind by the Spirit of truth. The divinity of Christ is the corner-stone of our temple of faith, whose removal means the destruction of the entire edifice. It is a doctrine founded on undeniable evidence, supported by irrefutable arguments. Still they have never been wanting who would say: " We do not believe." In the groups that surrounded Him in Judea and Galilee, in the throng at the foot of the cross, opinions differed. Some scoffed, others adored; some reviled, others wept. So too, to-day. the agnostic, the Unitarian, the votary of science, all unite in denying Him that bought them. Vast numbers of so-called Christians, under the lead of pseudo-Christian ministers, practice a religion that never rises above the purely natural. They utterly eliminate the supernatural, and if, perchance, they revere the Christ as the ideal man, they absolutely refuse to adore Him as God.
Brethren, to prove to you this doctrine were but to offend your lively faith. Your very presence here is a profession of faith, and joined as you are in Christian worship with the millions who, to-day, bowed before Christ's altar, you form a link in an infallible chain of arguments proving Christ's divinity. But you will meet those who will demand a reason for the faith that is in you, and I would have you ready with an answer. Neither are the arguments I give all that might be adduced, nor are they fully developed. The preacher's function, I believe, is to suggest individual thought rather than to convey developed ideas.
My unbelieving friend agrees with me that God exists and that the Bible is His word; that man, fallen from his original innocence, needed and was promised a Redeemer who, whether He has come of not, though an ideal man, could never be more than a mere mortal. Brethren, that position, whether held by Jew or Unitarian, is untenable. For a mortal to be the Redeemer of mankind is a contradiction. The infinite distance between God's dignity and man's nothingness must be the measure of the guilt of original sin — an infinite offence calling for an infinite atonement. Now, if all the saints and angels that ever lived, with the Blessed Virgin at their head, were to unite for their whole lives, aye forever, in one act of reparation, they could never satisfy God's offended majesty. That is one reason why out of hell there is no redemption; viz., because the atonement of those lost souls, however intense or protracted, can never transcend the merely finite. God alone can expiate in a manner infinitely meritorious. The Redemption was a work not for man alone, for it exceeded his powers; nor for God alone, for man had sinned; but for both united in one — the man-God. Hie Redeemer, come when He will, must essentially have united the divine and human natures in His single personality. Has such a figure appeared in history? How shall I know Him? I turn to the Old Testament, a book sacred alike to Unitarian and Jew, and there I find Him fully described. As a result of the original promise of His coming, made to our first parents, I find Him, the expectation of Israel, alive in the minds and hearts of the people for four thousand years, and faith in Him sustained by type and figure and prophecy. I see Him typified in the saving ark of Noe, and in the paschal lamb whose blood on the door-posts saved the people from God's avenging angel. I see Him prefigured in Moses — the deliverer of his people; in Joseph, sold by his brethren to become afterwards their saviour; in Isaac, staggering under the wood for sacrifice; in Abel, slain by his brother; in Jonas, rising again after three days in the bowels of the earth. The prophets tell me when and where He was to be born — born of a virgin; they describe the adoration and gifts of the eastern kings; they foretell His lowly position in life, the incidents of His public career, His sufferings, the circumstances of His death — all are described with the minutest exactness even to such trivial matters as gambling for His clothing, or giving Him, for drink, vinegar and gall. With His photograph in one hand and a detailed account of His life in the other, how can I fail, when I meet Him, to recognize the Messias? And meet Him I do in the person of Jesus Christ in the New Testament, which is but the history of Christ and His followers and the doctrines they preached. Therein I find recorded as accomplished facts all that the ancient Testament foreshadowed. Such a weight of evidence is there in favor of Christ the Messias, that if an angel from heaven were to teach otherwise I would answer him "Anathema." If God were to charge me with blasphemy, I would reply: " Not guilty; you, not I, are responsible for the error." For the two Testaments are like the cherubim described in Exodus, their wings fold over the ark of the New Covenant, Christ's sacred personality, and they gaze ever through Him upon each other. They are the seraphim of Isaias's vision, who adoringly turn to Jesus and forever echo one another, chanting: " Holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth."
But let us suppose for a moment that Christ was a mere man, commissioned by God to reform society by introducing Christianity. What follows? First, it would be short-sighted policy on the part of God. Men are ever inclined to adore as gods the sources of great benefits. Thus the Pagans adore the sun, the Egyptians the elephant, and the Israelites in the desert, when hungering for the flesh-pots of Egypt, adored a golden calf. To empower Christ to confer such incalculable blessing on mankind and to expect them, nevertheless, to abstain from idolatry, would argue on the part of God an ignorance as well of human nature as of future events. In that case, too, Christ, whose holiness and disinterestedness are vouched for even by Pilate and Judas — Christ would have proved false to His mission by arrogating to Himself divine worship, and society to-day, plunged as it is in idolatry, is more iniquitous than it was two thousand years ago. Why, in that case we would have to conclude that God's providence has lost its hold on the guidance of human events, and that the marvels Christ and His followers wrought, and the wondrous endurance of His doctrines and institutions, have been effected independent of and in opposition to Almighty God! If Christ was not God, He was king of hypocrites, something even His worst enemies have not dared to assert. The Apostles, who knew Him as brother knows brother, testified to His sanctity with their love and their lives. His enemies even, the Jews, declared no man had ever spoken as He, and admitted He went around doing good. And are we, as they, to believe Him in all things but the assertion of His divinity? Are we to revere Him as everything save as God? " I am the Son of God," He declared; and though the rabble stoned Him as a blasphemer, He did not retract. Paul and Barnabas and John the Baptist confessed they were neither gods nor Christ. Though His words were a scandal to the Jews and a stumbling-block to the Gentiles, yet Christ did not recall them. Before Caiphas, when on trial for His life, He declared His divinity. Did He not die on the cross for it, and to prove it? And can I do less than, like the centurion,( confess that verily this was the Son of God?
Brethren, not only did Christ assert His divinity; He also proved it by His miracles. " Though you believe not Me," He said, "believe My works." He changed water into wine; He multiplied the loaves and fishes; He commanded the winds and the sea; He healed diseases humanly incurable, and raised the dead to life. No man, whatever his mission in this world, has since or before enjoyed such power. Miracles have been wrought before Christ and after Christ but, on analysis, you will find all were effected in the name or by the power of Jesus. The power of miracles is peculiarly an attribute of God. Nor is there room for doubt as to the reliability of their chroniclers, as the New Testament is a history compiled by eye-witnesses that has for nineteen hundred years braved every critical assault. And if its narrative is worthy of credit why not, also, its positive assertions,? If I believe the evangelist recounting Christ's lowliness, why mistrust him extolling Christ's greatness? He is but a helpless babe, but the angels around and above Him sing " Glory to God in the highest." Humble Simeon and Anna bless God for having shown them the Saviour of Israel, and the kings do homage before Him, He is a mere stripling in the midst of the doctors, but they are astounded at His answers. He is no more than any one of the throng that goes down to the Jordan for baptism, but the heavens open and God proclaims: "This is My beloved Son." The ascent of Thabor is as steep for Him as for His Apostles, but presently He is transfigured, adored by the prince of prophets, and once more proclaimed to be the Son of God. Lord, ask me as you asked St. Peter: "Who do you say the Son of man is? " Ah, I will not turn my puny voice to heaven saying " Father, He is not Thy Son." In the face of such evidence I can only answer with Peter: " Thou art the Son of the living God."
Brethren, Christ's Resurrection is the culminating proof of His divinity; the corner-stone of Christianity. " If Christ be not risen," says St. Paul, " our faith is vain." The Jews recognized its importance when they sealed the great stone that closed His tomb and set a guard of soldiers. For Christ had repeatedly foretold that He would rise again the third day. Future events are known to no man; no, not even to the angels in heaven, but to God alone; and though God has given men the gift of prophecy, He has never empowered any man to foreshadow His own personal destiny. Christ's divinity is doubly proven by His Resurrection, and His Resurrection is certain beyond the shadow of a doubt. That He actually died is testified to by His exhausted condition before crucifixion, by His three hours on the cross, by the gaping wound in His side, by the soldiers who refrained from breaking His limbs because they found Him already dead. And that He rose the third day from the dead, who shall deny? They will tell you those timid Apostles rolled back the stone and stole His body, that the rigid discipline of Rome was relaxed for once and the soldiers slept; but ask them for their proofs and they will bring forward, as did the chief priests, these same sleepy soldiers as witnesses of the theft. Far different the proofs of our belief. We know whom we have believed— we know that our Redeemer liveth. We have met Him newly risen on the way to Emmaus and heard it from His very lips. We have seen in Him evidence of rational life when He expounded the Scriptures and upbraided our incredulity; of sentient life when He heeded our hospitable entreaties; of animal life when He shared our meal. Why, have we not put our finger into the very print of the nails, and our hand into His side? What remains for us to do, in the face of such evidence, but to fall down adoringly and exclaim: " My Lord and my God!"
Brethren, the Ascension which we last Thursday commemorated is still another proof of Christ's divinity. Had He been a mere mortal, He could not have ascended of Himself; there would have been need of Elias's fiery chariot or of some similiar manifestation of almighty power. That is why the Church draws such a sharp distinction between Christ's manner of going heavenward and Mary's, for Mary was assumed or lifted up by God, but Christ ascended. For no one ascends to heaven by his own volition and power, but He, the Son of man, who descended from heaven. The Word was made flesh, clothing Himself, identifying Himself with our humanity, and dwelt amongst us leading captivity captive, and ascended on high to be for all time the Giver of gifts to men. The power with which He freed men from the slavery of the devil and placed on them His own light yoke and sweet burden proved Him to be 'God. He had proved it sufficiently by His victory over sin and death, but during the forty days between His Resurrection and Ascension, as we read in the Acts, He showed His divinity by many further proofs, and He confirmed it by His Ascension. Finally, He proves it by the permanency of that Church which He perfected during those days, and by the gifts with which He endowed her. He sent the Spirit of love, the All-good, upon her, to be diffused in our hearts crying Abba, Father, to encourage us with the thought that we shall have our Father for our judge and our Brother for our advocate. By His Resurrection and Ascension He has animated our faith in His divinity and all that it entails, enlivened our hope of arising and ascending as He did, and inflamed our charity, for where lies our treasure thither tend our hearts. He has given to all men a tendency upwards which, if rightly directed, leads to heaven. Many, alas! mistake the mount of God, climbing the hills of knowledge or of power in the vain hope that, once at the summit, they may be able to touch the heavens with their hand or take possession of the sun. But the pathway heavenward lies not on earthly slopes, however fair; no, not even up glorious Thabor does it lead, but up Calvary alone, for as it was necessary for Christ to suffer and so enter into His glory, so His every faithful follower must deny himself and take up his cross and follow the Saviour through many tribulations into the kingdom of heaven.
Brethren, we have twice heard Christ's divinity proclaimed by God the Father Himself; we have heard it from the angels by His empty tomb; we have read it in almost every chapter of the Scriptures, Old and New; Nature has confessed it by her wondrous obedience; Christ has proven it by His prophecies and miracles; the blood of the martyrs loudly asserts it; the marvellous spread of the Christian religion does and will bear testimony to it for all time. But these arguments are for the unbelieving. For ourselves, we have within us an indefinable sense of security, whereby, without inquiring into the why or the wherefore, we believe in Our Lord with a faith that nothing can shatter. Blessed are they that have not seen and have believed. Our faith is our joy and our crown. Let it also instil into our lives a measure of salutary fear. When the Lord was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, He came as the lowliest of the low. Let us not forget He is to come again with power and majesty to render to every man according to his deserts, when the wicked shall go into everlasting fire but the just into life everlasting.