September -- October, 1970
By G. H. Lang
A.
1. Man is conscious of two worlds, an outer and an inner, a public and a private, an objective and a subjective. He is conscious also that these two worlds act and react upon each other, he is influenced by that world around and he in turn influences it.
2. He is further conscious that his own inner and private world is a triple realm, each of the three elements of which interact upon one another. In the one realm work thoughts, ideas, reasonings, plans. These thoughts upon various subjects arouse feelings, of love or hatred, likes or dislikes, affection or aversion. In the third realm of his inner life which man can distinguish he observes the will at work; he makes decisions for or against a proposed action or course.
This triple and interacting world is termed the heart, because it is the centre of man's whole life, and out of it flow the issues of life, as the blood flows from the physical heart to all parts of man's body.
3. Man is further and painfully conscious that both the world around and the world within are in disorder. Something is radically wrong with both. The physical world and its forces now help him, now hurt him. The moral influences, also, of the beings he touches are now a blessing, now a bane, now they purify him, now corrupt him; and he thus influences others.
4. Moreover, the uniform experience of all mankind, continued through thousands of years, has proved man's personal and complete inability to reduce to order either the world without or the world within. The confusion and corruption of both are more awful today than ever.
Each man knows that his thoughts are never absolutely right, true, correct, pure. He thinks wrongly, forms opinions that usually need correcting, has ideas that he knows are foul, or cruel, or unworthy. These he can never wholly exclude, or dismiss, or purify. He knows, too, that his feelings are more or less selfish, prejudiced, deceitful, and are all too likely to hurry him into actions he knows to be unwise or wrong. He is also aware that his will is inconstant, unreliable, too easily swayed by his desires or dislikes, and too often divided, distracted, that is, dragged in opposite directions.
To right-minded persons all this is a cause of grief and deep solicitude: but what can be done? In his soberer moments man responds sadly to the cry of the old writer: "Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me?" (Romans 7:24).
A.
1. Man is conscious of two worlds, an outer and an inner, a public and a private, an objective and a subjective. He is conscious also that these two worlds act and react upon each other, he is influenced by that world around and he in turn influences it.
2. He is further conscious that his own inner and private world is a triple realm, each of the three elements of which interact upon one another. In the one realm work thoughts, ideas, reasonings, plans. These thoughts upon various subjects arouse feelings, of love or hatred, likes or dislikes, affection or aversion. In the third realm of his inner life which man can distinguish he observes the will at work; he makes decisions for or against a proposed action or course.
This triple and interacting world is termed the heart, because it is the centre of man's whole life, and out of it flow the issues of life, as the blood flows from the physical heart to all parts of man's body.
3. Man is further and painfully conscious that both the world around and the world within are in disorder. Something is radically wrong with both. The physical world and its forces now help him, now hurt him. The moral influences, also, of the beings he touches are now a blessing, now a bane, now they purify him, now corrupt him; and he thus influences others.
4. Moreover, the uniform experience of all mankind, continued through thousands of years, has proved man's personal and complete inability to reduce to order either the world without or the world within. The confusion and corruption of both are more awful today than ever.
Each man knows that his thoughts are never absolutely right, true, correct, pure. He thinks wrongly, forms opinions that usually need correcting, has ideas that he knows are foul, or cruel, or unworthy. These he can never wholly exclude, or dismiss, or purify. He knows, too, that his feelings are more or less selfish, prejudiced, deceitful, and are all too likely to hurry him into actions he knows to be unwise or wrong. He is also aware that his will is inconstant, unreliable, too easily swayed by his desires or dislikes, and too often divided, distracted, that is, dragged in opposite directions.
To right-minded persons all this is a cause of grief and deep solicitude: but what can be done? In his soberer moments man responds sadly to the cry of the old writer: "Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me?" (Romans 7:24).
B.
5. Now it is a momentous fact that once, and only once since this disorder entered man's nature, there lived on earth a man whose inner world was completely and continuously free from disorder. He never had thoughts that he needed to correct or regret, He never felt feelings that were unloving; His will was single, undistracted, always directed to truth, right, purity.
6. Moreover, He manifested also a notable power of control over the world around Him. He reduced tempests to quietness; He walked serenely on storm-tossed water, His word of command caused food to multiply, diseases to disappear, health and vigour to revive; the very dead were restored to life, showing that His authority extended to that region of the universe also.
7. But more notable was His influence upon the moral world around. He read the thoughts of men's hearts; the wicked slunk from His presence convicted and ashamed; the repentant were pardoned and granted peace as to the guilty past; the fainthearted were cheered, the sad comforted, the perplexed guided: there was no sincere heart but was the better for contact with Jesus of Nazareth.
Even yet more noteworthy was His authority over demons, those invisible aggravators of human discord and disorder. They trembled before Him, fled at His command, and their victims became gloriously free from their debasing influence.
Ample proof of all this is found in the four accounts of His life known as the Gospels.
8. The advent of such a Man in this disordered universe was of the highest possible importance and significance. It showed that there is a life-energy superior to all forces of disorder, though lived under truly human conditions. "Our Saviour, Christ Jesus, abolished death and brought life and incorruption to light" (2 Timothy 1:10). Before His life on earth it had not here been demonstrated conclusively that there exists a life that corruption cannot reach, for in fact all other life had decayed.
9. But what life had this Man? It was human life, showing all the normal, ideal marks of this. But why, then, did His life prevail in the battle against sin while all other human beings fail in this battle? One who lived with Him three and a half years and watched Him closely, by night as well as by day, has left on record the result or his scrutiny [94/95] of Jesus. He tells us that he came to see that working through the human life of Christ there was another and higher life, one that had the impress and marks of eternity for it showed no trace of that variableness, frailty, transitoriness that the life of earth displays. It was, indeed that eternal life, that divine life, which had always existed with God the Father and was now in Jesus being manifested unto men on earth (1 John 1:2). Unaided human life, even when originally sinless, had always succumbed to the forces of disorder: human life conjoined with, suffused with, reinforced by eternal life was superior thereto. The Son of Mary, the Son of man, was the eternal Son of God, God manifest in human nature.
"O loving wisdom of our God!
When all was sin and shame,
A second Adam to the fight
And to the rescue came.
"O wisest love! that flesh and blood
Which did in Adam fail,
Should strive afresh against the foe,
Should strive and should prevail.
"And that a higher gift than grace
Should flesh and blood refine,
God's presence, and His very self,
And essence all-divine."
C.
10. This uniqueness of Jesus Christ involves, as a necessary consequence, that to Him all other men must resort if they would find the secret and power of victory, order, peace, for He stands forth the solitary Man who ever held that secret, secured that victory, enjoyed that peace. There never has been any other person who has saved sinners from their sins, or was entitled to say: 'I am the Light upon all your problems; come unto Me and I will give you rest from disorder and disaster.'
God sent forth His Son to be the Saviour of the world, and there is none other. Man must fix his attention upon Christ, as an Object outside of himself, if order is ever to reign within himself. To such as will not turn to Christ there must of simple necessity apply His words: "Ye will not come to me that ye may have life" (John 5:40); for none other of the sons of men has ever possessed that life or could impart it to another.
11. This indicates a fundamental principle of the true life of a Christian: it is a result of occupation of heart with Christ as a historical Person, the facts concerning whom are learned, believed, weighed, remembered. It is therefore no marvel that the Prince of darkness and disorder has ever striven to obscure and pervert the facts as to the Person of Jesus Christ, for thus he hinders his blinded dupes from trusting Christ (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).
In the second place this involves meditation upon the Bible as the message from God through which alone those facts can be ascertained. For it is evident that God has seen fit that the knowledge of the facts, dispensed at first through persons who had known Jesus, has been preserved for later generations solely in the Bible. Again, therefore, it is no marvel that the Father of lies has striven ceaselessly to spread doubts and denials as to the trustworthiness of these records, so that his victims should not, through them, come to the knowledge of Christ.
(To be completed)
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