By Theism without Christ is not meant a system like Judaism or
Mohammedanism, but a modern school which maintains that faith in God
becomes weakened and impaired by being associated with faith in Jesus.
There are those who cling with tenacity to the first article of the
Apostles' Creed, 'I believe in God the Father Almighty,' but who reject
with equal fervour the second article of the Creed, 'And in Jesus
Christ, His only Son, our Lord.' They resist with horror the
suggestion that the world is under no overruling Providence, or that
the humblest human being is not regarded with the tender love of the
Infinite God: they rival the most {128} mystical worshipper in the
ardour of the language with which in prayer they address the Father in
Heaven, but they refuse to bow in the Name of Jesus: they go to the
Father, as they think, without Him: they assert that to look to Him is
virtually to look away from God. They are as hostile as we can be to
the Substitutes for Christianity which we have been considering. They
have no sympathy with those who loudly deny that there is a God, or
with those who say that it is impossible to find out whether there is a
God or not, or with those who think that the Creator and the Creation
are one, that the universe is God, or with those who, not believing in
any Unseen and Eternal God, insist that the proper object of the
worship of mankind is man. In the proclamation of the existence of an
All-Wise and All-holy Being, in the proclamation that He has made the
world and rules it to its minutest detail, in the proclamation that
{129} there is a life beyond the grave, they are the allies of the
Christian Church. But then they go on to argue, For those who hold
these doctrines, Christ is quite superfluous: to hold them in their
purity Christ must be dethroned and His name no longer specially
revered. Some may still wish to speak of Him as among the Great
Teachers of the world, but some, in order to preserve these precious
truths unmixed, decline in a very fanaticism of unbelief to assign Him
even that position.
I
The declaration of our Lord, 'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me,'
has been a chief stumbling-block and rock of offence. Are we to
believe, it is asked, that only the comparatively few to whom the
knowledge of Jesus Christ has come can possibly be accepted of the
Father? When the words were spoken the number of His disciples was
exceedingly small. Did he mean that the {130} Father could be
approached only by that handful of people, that all beyond were
banished from the Divine Presence and must inevitably perish? That
this is what He meant both the friends and the foes of Christianity
have at times been agreed in holding. The friends have imagined that
they were thereby exalting the claim of Christ to be the One Mediator.
It may be a terrible mystery that the vast majority of the human race
should have no opportunity of believing in Him, should be even
unacquainted with His Name. We can only bow before the inscrutable
decree, and strive with all our might, not only that our own faith may
be deepened, but that the knowledge of Christ may be diffused over all
the earth, so that some here and there may be rescued. There is little
wonder that such a view should have given rise to questionings and
opposition, should have been rejected as inconsistent with mercy and
with justice. It is an {131} interpretation on which hostile critics
have laid stress as incontestably proving the narrowness and bigotry of
the Christian Creed.
If we bear in mind Who it is that is presumed to say, 'No man cometh
unto the Father but by Me,' the misconception disappears. It is not
merely an individual man, separate from all others, giving Himself out
as a wise and infallible Teacher. He Who makes the stupendous claim is
One Who by the supposition embodies in Himself Human Nature in its
perfection, Who is identified with His brethren, Who says, 'He that
hath seen Me hath seen the Father.' The Life which He manifests is the
Life of God. He is set forth as the Way to the Father: in mercy and in
blessing the Way is disclosed in Him: it is not in harsh and rigid
exclusiveness that He speaks, debarring the mass of mankind: it is in
tender comprehensiveness, inviting all without distinction of race or
circumstance, opening a new {132} and living way for all into the
Holiest. It is the breaking down of all barriers between man and man,
between man and God, not the setting up of another barrier high and
insurmountable. When Christ declares 'No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me,' He is not declaring that the way is difficult and
impassable, He is pointing out a way of deliverance which all may
tread. So far from laying down a hard and burdensome dogma to be
accepted on peril of pains and penalties, He is imparting a hope and a
consolation in which all may rejoice.
If we believe Him to be the Word of God made Flesh, if we see in Him
the Brightness of the Father's glory, it becomes a truism to say that
only through Him can life and healing be imparted to mankind. When He
Himself says, 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,' it is natural for
Him to add, 'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me.' It will {133}
be granted by all who believe in God that, apart from God, no soul of
man can have life eternal. The most strenuous advocate of the
salvation of the virtuous heathen will grant that their salvation does
not descend from the idol of wood and stone before which they grovel.
It is from the True God, the Living God, that the blessing proceeds.
It is His touch, His Spirit, His Presence which has consecrated the
earnest though erring worship of the poor idolater. No one who
believes in the Infinite and Eternal God could possibly say that the
monstrous image whose aid is invoked by the devout heathen is itself
the answerer of his prayer, the cause of his deliverance from sin, the
bestower of immortality upon him. The utmost that can be said is that
in the costly sacrifices, the painful penances, the passionate prayers
which he presents to the object of his adoration, the Almighty Love
discerns a longing after something nobler and better, {134} and accepts
the service as directed really, though unconsciously, to Him.
The feeble hands and helpless,
Groping blindly in the darkness,
Touch God's right hand in that darkness
And are lifted up and strengthened.[1]
But it is the hand of God that they touch. It is from the One
Omnipotent God that every blessing comes: it is the One Omnipotent God
Who turns to truth and life and reality every sincere and struggling
and imperfect attempt to serve Him on the part of those who know not
His Nature or His Name.
And what is true of God is equally true of Christ, the manifestation of
God. Only grant Him to be the Incarnate Word of God, and it becomes
plain that salvation can no more exist apart from Him than apart from
the Father. This Word of God is the Light that lighteth every man.
Whatever truth, whatever knowledge of the Divine, anywhere {135} exists
is the result of that illumination. The sparks which shine even in the
darkness of heathendom betoken the presence of that Light, not wholly
extinguished by the folly and ignorance of man. That is the One Sun of
Righteousness which gives light everywhere, though in many places the
clouds are so dense that the beams can scarcely penetrate. Now, if
that Word has become Flesh, if that Light has become embodied in Human
Form, we are still constrained to say, There is no true Light but His,
it is in His Light that all must walk if they would not stray, there is
no Guide, no Deliverer, save Him. Christ discloses, brings to view,
all the saving health which has ever been, all the power of restoring,
cleansing, healing, which has ever worked in the souls of men. The one
Power by which any human being, in any age or in any land, has ever
been fitted for the presence of the All Holy God, is made manifest in
Christ. 'Neither is there {136} salvation in any other, for there is
none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.'
We need have no hesitation in asserting that all who in any age or in
any land, or in any religion, have come to the Father must have come
through the Son of Man, the Eternal Word made Flesh. We do not
contend, as has too frequently been contended, that beyond the limits
of Christianity, beyond, it may be, the limits of one section of
Christianity, there is no truth believed, no acceptable service
rendered. We hail with gratitude the lofty thoughts and the noble
achievements of some who do not in word acknowledge Christ as Lord. In
the vision of the Light that lighteth every man, we see
How light can find its way
To regions farthest from the fount of day.[2]
'Now,' as is well said by the present Bishop {137} of Birmingham, who
will hardly be accused of any tendency to minimise the claims of
Christianity, 'this is no narrow creed. Christianity, the religion of
Jesus, is the Light: it is the one final Revelation, the one final
Religion, but it supersedes all other religions, Jewish and Pagan, not
by excluding, but by including all the elements of truth which each
contained. There was light in Zoroastrianism, light in Buddhism, light
among the Greeks: but it is all included in Christianity. A good
Christian is a good Buddhist, a good Jew, a good Mohammedan, a good
Zoroastrian; that is, he has all the truth and virtue that these can
possess, purged and fused in a greater and completer light.
Christianity, I say, supersedes all other religions by including these
fragments of truth in its own completeness. You cannot show me any
element of spiritual light or strength which is in other religions and
is not in Christianity. Nor can you {138} show me any other religion
which can compare with Christianity in completeness of light:
Christianity is the one complete and final religion, and the elements
of truth in other religions are rays of the One Light which is
concentrated and shines full in Jesus Christ our Lord.'[3]