If all this evidence is insufficient to prove the Divine nature of
Jesus Christ, it may be well to consider on what religious fact or
truth we can fall back, as being based upon surer evidence, and
affording, therefore, a surer ground of faith and hope.
1. On what part of Christ's "work" on earth can we fall back? We can
no more recognise God the Father as truly revealing Himself in
Jesus as his co-eternal Son; and the whole light and life of such a
revelation in Christ, as hitherto seen and received by the apostles
and the Christian Church, is for ever extinguished and destroyed. We
can no more believe Jesus as our _Prophet_, when we do not accept the
very truths to which He gave most prominence: nor can we trust Him
as our _King_, when we believe Him to have been a mere man only, who
neither possesses nor could wield power adequate to govern the
world: nor can we trust Him as our _Priest_, for in Him is no longer
manifested the love of God in sending His own Son to be a propitiation
for the sins of the world. And who, we may add, will believe in a Holy
Spirit as a Divine Person, whose very work is represented by Jesus to
be that of convincing the world of sin "_because_ it believes not in
Him," as "glorifying Him," and taking of _His_ things to shew them to
the spirits of men?
2. Can we, then, accept of Christ as a perfect example? How is this
possible? For remember, it was the example of one who is assumed to
be a man like ourselves, but yet a man who never, by one act of
contrition or confession, acknowledged the existence of personal sin
or defect of any kind; a man rarely endowed, and yet who never once
expressed gratitude to God for His rich and varied gifts; a man who
prayed indeed to God, yet as one who was His equal, and who in His
last hours uttered such words as these--"All mine are thine, and thine
are mine! Father, _I will_ that they also whom thou hast given me, may
be with me _where I am_, that _they may behold my glory!_" Can
_we_, sinners, follow this example, as that of "our model man, _in
everything?" Dare_ we closely follow a life like this, and then end it
by voluntarily giving ourselves up as a ransom "for the remission of
the sins of many?"
3. Can we even retain _the character of Jesus?_ The atheist admits
that Jesus was the greatest man who ever lived on earth. A worshipper
of heroes says of Him in his _Hero Worship_,--"The greatest of
all heroes is one whom I do not name here." The character of this
wonderful Being has indeed been generally recognised as a bright spot
amidst the world's darkness; as the only perfect model of goodness
ever seen on earth--yea, as moral beauty itself! But unless the
history we possess of Jesus is untrue, and He was, therefore, no
historical but a mere ideal person,--or if He was a real person, as
represented in the gospel, yet not divine,--we cannot defend His
character without losing our own. For we have seen how He certainly
represented Himself as one with God,--as one who alone knew God and
truly revealed Him,--as one who demanded the same honour and love from
man as were due to God,--who required men to be willing to part with
their dearest friends, even life itself, rather than with Him,--who
asserted His right to assign to mankind their eternal destinies
according to the relationship in which each man stood to Him,--who,
when standing before an earthly judge, crowned with thorns, insulted
by the rabble, with every sign of weakness, and as if literally
forsaken by God and man, did not abate one jot or tittle of His
claims, but asserted them in all their magnitude, announcing His
return to the world in glory as its mighty Judge; and much more to the
same effect. Now, can any man, we ask, of common honesty defend such
a character as this from the charge of wilful imposition and daring
blasphemy, unless what He asserted was true? With reference to all the
good words or deeds which His professed friends may claim for Him,
yet so long as He falsely claims to be divine, we are constrained to
reject Him, as the Jews did, and to say with them, "For a good work we
stone thee not, but _because thou, being a man, makest thyself God!_"
It is not possible, therefore, to fall back on Christ's character, if
we reject Christ's divinity; for His character was manifest untruth,
and His claims an unprincipled deception!
4. Can we preserve _the character of the apostles?_ That, too, has
hitherto been considered worthy of our respect and regard. Never did
men leave such a record of moral teaching, and such an impress of a
holy life behind them, a life so pure, wise, loving, so suited,
in every respect, to bless mankind, and to make a heaven below in
proportion as it is received. In these men we can detect no trace of
avarice, ambition, or selfish aims of any kind. They lived, laboured,
and died, that the world should become better and happier, and they
have so far succeeded that civilisation can never more be separated
from their names. But what was the substance of their teaching, and
the one grand object of their existence? I again reply, without fear
of contradiction, it was to persuade mankind to trust and love Jesus
Christ as God! The first Christian teacher who died a martyr's death
resigned his spirit into the hands of this Jesus, as his Lord in
glory; and the last and oldest apostle who first knew Him as his
friend, represented Him as the Alpha and the Omega, the King of kings
and Lord of lords. But if He was not this, how can the character of
those teachers be defended? As Jews they could not be ignorant of
the being and attributes of God, nor as men of the earthly life and
history of Jesus; yet they professed to preach Jesus as divine, and
_to work miracles in His name!_ They could not possibly have been
themselves deceived, and must therefore, if their faith was vain,
have attempted to deceive others. Common sense rejects every other
explanation. Anyhow, they were the successful heralds of an idolatry
which, we may boldly affirm, will never leave the world, and of a
blasphemy whose praises will never be silent on earth. Their character
must perish with that of their Master!
5. What, then, have we left us? The _morality of the New Testament?_
No! for all that is _peculiar_ to its morality are the duties which
spring out of the assumed relationship of Jesus to mankind. The gospel
morality of supreme love to Jesus becomes _im_morality, if Jesus is
not one with God. Prayer to Christ, personal communion with Christ,
personal attachment to Christ, hymns of praise to Christ, abiding
through faith in Christ, advancing the kingdom of Christ, labouring
for Christ and keeping _His_ commandments--in one word, that whole
life of the Christian towards God and man, every portion of which is
permeated by Christ as the sunlight fills the atmosphere, can never be
separated from the morality of the New Testament.
Nor can we any longer rely upon Old Testament facts, or on anything
there revealed regarding God, as distinct from what could have been
discovered without such a revelation, if our faith has been shaken in
the facts and the characters of the New Testament. He who can reject
the Christ of the New Testament, must necessarily reject the God of
the Old; and he who cannot rely on the apostles, cannot possibly rely
upon the prophets. All must be given up, and the Bible become a mere
curious record of falsehood.
6. Is this all? Enough one would think! But can we even fall _back on
God?_ What evidence has any man of the existence of a living personal
God, stronger than what he possesses of a living personal Saviour? Can
_any_ revelation of God during _the past_, and recorded in history, be
received as worthy of credit, if _this_ alleged history of Jesus is
rejected as unworthy? If the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
is not the only living and true God, where is the true God to be
found? If Jesus neither knew Him truly, nor truly revealed Him, who
can do either? And when, moreover, we have thus lost faith in the
character of Jesus and of His apostles, from what better evidence of
moral character or moral design on earth can we henceforth reason
upwards as to the moral character of a Divine Being?
In what position do we thus find ourselves? The Church of Christ must
be given up as a great falsehood, a huge idolatry, a society of weak,
deluded, or bad men. The character of its early founders, and the
Person to whom it owes its name, must, for the same reason, be
abandoned. The Old Testament can form but a feeble barrier to the
flood which has thus swept away the New, with all which has arisen out
of the assumed truth of its history. And thus each man, cut off from
the past, is left to discover a God for himself, from evidence which,
to satisfy him, must necessarily be more overwhelming than that which
he rejects, and on which the faith of the Christian Church has rested
for eighteen centuries. Can any man be satisfied with such a basis of
religion as this? Having rejected God as revealed in Jesus, _can_ he
peril his soul in peace on the God discovered by himself? Having fled
from Christianity as a religion whose foundations are insecure, can he
repose with confidence in the building which he himself has reared?
Or, if he moves at all, must he not gradually slide into universal
scepticism, and conclude that, since he cannot believe in Jesus,
he can believe in no one else,--that if deceived by Him he may be
deceived by all,--that if there is no such Person as the Divine Son,
there is no such Person as the Divine Father,--that if he must be
without Christ, he must necessarily be without God!
He may, indeed, in such a case, profess to believe in _a_ God; but is
He the living and true God, or one who is but the product of his own
mind, the shadow cast by his own human spirit? Oh! hear the words of
Him who is truth itself: "Ye believe in God, believe also in me;" "All
things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son
but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and
he to whom the Son will reveal him;" "Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest!" May the Lord's last
prayer be answered in us: "Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also
may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he
may give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is
life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent."