There are five great lines which His teachings followed; they have to
do with God, man, sin, salvation and the future life.
The Right Relation of God to Man and Man to God.--How does God regard
man? and, How shall man look upon God? are questions upon which the
best thought of men in all ages has been expended. Upon the answers
given have been founded all sorts of religious and philosophical
systems.
Man in this great universe desires to know in what relation he stands
to the Author of it. Is man only a creature of fate? What does God
care, great as He is, for one man?
Jesus Christ recognized this desire of man to know his standing with
God and He proclaimed not only the power, but the Fatherhood of
God. When He taught His disciples how to pray He began His immortal
prayer not with "Great God of the universe," or "Creator of all
things," but "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which
art in heaven" (Matthew 6:9). Here was a new conception of God.
Through Christ man comes into personal relations with God as the
Father (John 16:27) who cares for him as a son. Man is to love and
forgive as God loves and forgives in this relation of Father (Matthew
22:37; 6:14,15). Man is to do all that he does as in the sight of his
Father in heaven (Matthew 6:1-26). God is made known as supreme love
(John 3:16).
The Right Relation of Man to Man.--There are many causes which divide
men into classes, castes and nationalities. Once divided men begin to
develop a class feeling and pride which tend to deepen and widen the
gulfs which separate them from each other.
With the truth proclaimed by Christ of the "Fatherhood of God" came
also the great truth of the "Brotherhood of Man." The true relation of
man to man, no matter what the caste, class, employment or
nationality, is that of sons who have a common father. The second
great commandment given by Christ is, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself" (Matthew 22:39). When He took the example for a good
neighbour He selected a Samaritan, a man of an alien race. Men are
naturally inclined to do good to those who treat them well and whose
help they need; but Christ, in carrying out this new law of brotherly
love said, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to
them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and
persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in
heaven" (Matthew 5:44-48). It is only through this love of man for
man, no matter what the class or condition, that right relations
between men can ever be established and maintained.
The Right Relation of Man to Sin.--Man violates his sense of
righteousness and justice. He transgresses the laws of God and his
nature. Man's sin is everywhere doing its destroying work. There is
individual, social, corporate and national sin (Romans 3:23). This
fact of sin is not only set forth in the Bible in unmistakable terms,
but every government recognizes it in its laws and courts of justice.
Society puts up its bars to protect itself against the sinner, and all
literature proclaims the evil results of sin.
What ought to be man's attitude to sin? Shall he make light of it and
call it a necessary part of living? Shall he continue in it, although
he recognizes its evil results, and draw others with him into greater
and larger violations of the laws of God and man? These are practical
questions. Some temporize with sin and say, "Let us lead outwardly
correct lives, but within certain bounds we will do as we please";
hence arises the practice of secret sinning.
Christ came declaring that man's relation to sin should be
uncompromising. He used vigorous language in regard to sin. He said,
"Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that
offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!
Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast
them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or
maimed, rather than having two hands or feet to be cast into
everlasting fire" (Matthew 18:7,8). But Jesus in thus advocating
heroic treatment for sin was but doing what eminent surgeons are
advising every day in regard to certain dangerous bodily
diseases. Jesus also laid His finger on the source of sin when He
declared, "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these
are the things which defile a man" (Matthew 15:19). A man must think
evil before he does evil, and hence the emphasis which Jesus placed
upon keeping the heart clean.
The Right Relation of Man to Salvation.--Man feels his inclination to
do evil and, seeing also the degradation wrought by it, desires to be
saved from it. The cry has gone up from many hearts to be free not
only from the power of sin but from the desire to commit sin. No man
can save himself. He may succeed in a certain outward reformation and
correctness of habit and speech, but he cannot control the thoughts
and inclinations of his own heart.
The special mission of Jesus Christ was to place man in the right
relation of salvation from his sins and to show Himself the Saviour of
Man. It was declared of Him before His birth, "He shall save His
people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). He said at the last supper,
"This is My blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the
remission of sins" (Matthew 26:28). He had power to forgive sins (Mark
2:10). He said not, "I show you the way," but "I am the way, the truth
and the life" (John 14:6). There is here a mighty spiritual power
which can save man from sin and can keep him from the desire to
sin. It is only as man enters into personal relations with Jesus
Christ, repenting of his sin and having faith in Him, that the burden
of sin is lifted from his heart (Matthew 6:33; 11:28,30).
The Right Relation of Man to Death and the Future Life.--The facts of
death and of what comes after cannot be set aside; they must be
faced. All forms of religion and systems of philosophy have striven to
sustain and comfort men at their trying hour of need. The trouble has
been, however, to find any certain ground of the hope of a future life
upon which to rest. No man has been able to do more than present a
good argument, in regard to the hereafter, which might or might not be
true.
But when Jesus Christ came He was able to speak with authority and
power. He plainly, in His description of the last judgment scene
(Matthew 25:31-46), showed the relation of man's faith and actions in
this world to his state in the world to come. He declared that a man
need have no fear of death or the hereafter who trusted in Him. "I am
the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he
were dead yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me
shall never die" (John 11:25,26). "In My Father's house are many
mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a
place for you" (John 14:2). In a supreme trust in Jesus Christ all
dread of death and the hereafter may be taken away and man may enter
into a right relation to immortality in this life.