Now the word 'doctrine,' which is employed in my text, has, in the
lapse of years since the Authorised Version was made, narrowed its
significance. At the date of our Authorised translation 'doctrine'
was probably equivalent to 'teaching,' of whatever sort it might be.
Since then it has become equivalent to a statement of abstract
principles, and that is not at all what Paul means. He does not mean
to say that his gospel was a form of doctrine in the sense of being a
theological system, but he means to say that it was a body of
teaching, the nature of the teaching not being defined at all by the
word. Therefore we have to notice that the great, blessed peculiarity
of the Gospel is that it is a teaching, not of abstract dry
principles, but of concrete historical facts. From these principles
in plenty may be gathered, but in its first form as it comes to men
fresh from God it is not a set of propositions, but a history of
deeds that were done upon earth. And, therefore, is it fitted to be
the food of every soul and the mould of every character.
Jesus Christ did not come and talk to men about God, and say to them
what His Apostles afterwards said, 'God is love,' but He lived and
died, and that mainly was His teaching about God. He did not come to
men and lay down a theory of atonement or a doctrine of propitiation,
or theology about sin and its relations to God, but He went to the
Cross and gave Himself for us, and that was His teaching about
sacrifice. He did not say to men 'There is a future life, and it is
of such and such a sort,' but He came out of the grave and He said
'Touch Me, and handle Me. A spirit hath not flesh and bones,' and
_therefore_ He brought life and immortality to light, by no empty
words but by the solid realities of facts. He did not lecture upon
ethics, but He lived a perfect human life out of which all moral
principles that will guide human conduct may be gathered. And so,
instead of presenting us with a _hortus siccus_, with a botanic
collection of scientifically arranged and dead propositions, He led
us into the meadow where the flowers grow, living and fair. His life
and death, with all that they imply, are the teaching.
Let us not forget, on the other hand, that the history of a fact is
not the mere statement of the outward thing that has happened.
Suppose four people, for instance, standing at the foot of Christ's
Cross; four other 'evangelists' than the four that we know. There is
a Roman soldier; there is a Pharisee; there is one of the weeping
crowd of poor women, not disciples; and there is a disciple. The
first man tells the fact as he saw it: 'A Jewish rebel was crucified
this morning.' The second man tells the fact: 'A blaspheming apostate
suffered what he deserved to-day.' The woman tells the fact: 'A poor,
gentle, fair soul was martyred to-day.' And the fourth one tells the
fact: 'Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins.' The three
tell the same fact; the fourth preaches the Gospel--that is to say,
Christian teaching is the facts plus their explanation; and it is
that which differentiates it from the mere record which is of no
avail to anybody. So Paul himself in one of his other letters puts
it. This is his gospel: Jesus of Nazareth 'died for _our_ sins
according to the Scriptures, and He was buried, and rose again the
third day, according to the Scriptures.' That is what turns the bald
story of the facts into teaching, which is the mould for life.
So on the one hand, dear brethren, do not let us fall into the
superficial error of fancying that our religion is a religion of
emotion and morality only. It is a religion with a basis of divine
truth, which, being struck away, all the rest goes. There is a revolt
against dogma to-day, a revolt which in large measure is justified as
an essential of progress, and in large measure as an instance of
progress; but human nature is ever prone to extremes, and in the
revolt from man's dogma there is danger of casting away God's truth.
Christianity is not preserved when we hold by the bare facts of the
outward history, unless we take with these facts the interpretation
of them, which declares the divinity and the sacrifice of the Son of
God.
And on the other hand, let us keep very clear in our minds the broad
and impassable gulf of separation between the Christian teaching as
embodied in the Scripture and the systems which Christianity has
evolved therefrom. Men's intellects must work upon the pabulum that
is provided for them, and a theology in a systematised form is a
necessity for the intellectual and reasonable life of the Christian
Church. But there is all the difference between man's inferences from
and systematising of the Christian truth and the truth that lies
here. The one is the golden roof that is cast over us; the other is
too often but the spiders' webs that are spun across and darken its
splendour. It is a sign of a wholesome change in the whole sentiment
and attitude of the modern Christian mind that the word 'doctrine,'
which has come to mean men's inferences from God's truth, should have
been substituted as it has been in our Revised Version of my text, by
the wholesome Christian word 'teaching.' The teaching is the facts
with the inspired commentary on them.
II. Secondly, notice that this teaching is in Paul's judgment a mould
or pattern according to which men's lives are to be conformed.
There can be no question but that, in that teaching as set forth in
Scripture, there does lie the mightiest formative power for shaping
our lives, and emancipating us from our evil.
Christ is _the_ type, the mould into which men are to be cast.
The Gospel, as presented in Scripture, gives us three things. It
gives us the perfect mould; it gives us the perfect motive; it gives
us the perfect power. And in all three things appears its distinctive
glory, apart from and above all other systems that have ever tried to
affect the conduct or to mould the character of man.
In Jesus Christ we have in due combination, in perfect proportion,
all the possible excellences of humanity. As in other cases of
perfect symmetry, the very precision of the balanced proportions
detracts from the apparent magnitude of the statue or of the fair
building, so to a superficial eye there is but little beauty there
that we should desire Him, but as we learn to know Him, and live
nearer to Him, and get more familiar with all His sweetness, and with
all His power, He towers before us in ever greater and yet never
repellent or exaggerated magnitude, and never loses the reality of
His brotherhood in the completeness of His perfection. We have in the
Christ the one type, the one mould and pattern for all striving, the
'glass of form,' the perfect Man.
And that likeness is not reproduced in us by pressure or by a blow,
but by the slow and blessed process of gazing until we become like,
beholding the glory until we are changed into the glory.
It is no use having a mould and metal unless you have a fire. It is
no use having a perfect Pattern unless you have a motive to copy it.
Men do not go to the devil for want of examples; and morality is not
at a low ebb by reason of ignorance of what the true type of life is.
But nowhere but in the full-orbed teaching of the New Testament will
you find a motive strong enough to melt down all the obstinate
hardness of the 'northern iron' of the human will, and to make it
plastic to His hand. If we can say, 'He loved me and gave Himself for
me' then the sum of all morality, the old commandment that 'ye love
one another' receives a new stringency, and a fresh motive as well as
a deepened interpretation, when His love is our pattern. The one
thing that will make men willing to be like Christ is their faith
that Christ is their Sacrifice and their Saviour. And sure I am of
this, that no form of mutilated Christianity, which leaves out or
falteringly proclaims the truth that Christ died on the Cross for the
sins of the world, will ever generate heat enough to mould men's
wills, or kindle motives powerful enough to lead to a life of growing
imitation of and resemblance to Him. The dial may be all right, the
hours most accurately marked in their proper places, every minute
registered on the circle, the hands may be all right, delicately
fashioned, truly poised, but if there is no main-spring inside, dial
and hands are of little use, and a Christianity which says, 'Christ
is the Teacher; do you obey Him?' is as impotent as the dial face
with the broken main-spring. What we need, and what, thank God, in
'the teaching' we have, is the pattern brought near to us, and the
motive for imitating the pattern, set in motion by the great thought,
'He loved me and gave Himself for me.'
Still further, the teaching is a power to fashion life, inasmuch as
it brings with it a gift which secures the transformation of the
believer into the likeness of his Lord. Part of 'the teaching' is the
fact of Pentecost; part of the teaching is the fact of the Ascension;
and the consequence of the Ascension and the sure promise of the
Pentecost is that all who love Him, and wait upon Him, shall receive
into their hearts the 'Spirit of life in Christ Jesus' which shall
make them free from the law of sin and death.
So, dear friends, on the one hand, let us remember that our religion
is meant to work, that we have nothing in our creed that should not
be in our character, that all our _credenda_ are to be our _agenda_;
everything _believed_ to be something _done_; and that if we content
ourselves with the simple acceptance of the teaching, and make no
effort to translate that teaching into life, we are hypocrites or
self-deceivers.
And, on the other hand, do not let us forget that religion is the
soul of which morality is the body, and that it is impossible in the
nature of things that you shall ever get a true, lofty, moral life
which is not based upon religion. I do not say that men cannot be
sure of the outlines of their duty without Christianity, though I am
free to confess that I think it is a very maimed and shabby version
of human duty, which is supplied, minus the special revelation of
that duty which Christianity makes; but my point is, that the
knowledge will not work without the Gospel.
The Christian type of character is a distinct and manifestly separate
thing from the pagan heroism or from the virtues and the
righteousnesses of other systems. Just as the musician's ear can
tell, by half a dozen bars, whether that strain was Beethoven's, or
Handel's, or Mendelssohn's, just as the trained eye can see
Raffaelle's magic in every touch of his pencil, so Christ, the
Teacher, has a style; and all the scholars of His school carry with
them a certain mark which tells where they got their education and
who is their Master, if they are scholars indeed. And that leads me
to the last word.