Jesus did not begin His public Mission till He was about thirty years
of age. It opened with His baptism by John the Baptist, when by the
descent of the Spirit of God upon Him and the voice from heaven He was
marked out as the "Beloved Son", or as the Fourth Gospel represents
John the Baptist saying, "The Son of God". Then followed a retirement
of forty days into the wilderness, at the close of which He faced and
overcame the severe temptations, which were all intended to debase and
destroy the ideal embodied in His Mission as the Saviour not of His
nation only but of the whole world, and the Founder of a spiritual
Kingdom in the hearts of men. He soon gathered together disciples, of
whom He selected twelve, whom He named Apostles, to be His constant and
intimate companions. They did not fully realise either the mystery of
His Person, or the object of His Mission, till after He rose from the
dead. The conviction that a flash of spiritual insight brought to
Peter at Caesarea Philippi (St. Matt. XVI. 16) was not sufficiently
strong to prevent Him from publicly denying His Master at His trial.
It is difficult to summarise our Lord's teaching, for it cannot be
reduced to any system. His Ministry was one of Reconciliation of man
to God. As He said, He came to "seek and to save that which was lost".
His Gospel is the "Gospel of the Kingdom of God", or "The Kingdom of
heaven". This Kingdom was not relegated to the dim and distant future
but was to be inaugurated here and now. In all those who should become
members, a change of heart, a turning towards God instead of away from
Him, and a complete readjustment of values were required.[1] He was
Himself as it were the Door to this Kingdom, which could only be
entered through Him. He asked men to make Him the centre of Life,
instead of self. 'If any man will come after me, let him _deny
himself_.'
It should always be remembered, in studying the teaching of Christ,
that it is based upon the fact that men have a spiritual as well as an
intellectual and physical life; in other words, that they have a soul
as well as a mind and body, and of these the life of the soul is the
most important. He does not set forth an elaborate system of conduct,
but rather enunciates certain great general principles on which the
Christian life is to be based. These principles are to be applied to
every human relationship. The teaching of Christ does not deal with
particular circumstances, which vary from age to age, and differ in
different countries in different races of men, but with human nature
which is the same everywhere in its fundamental characteristics.
Consequently His teaching is never out of date, but each generation can
obtain the light it needs therefrom. It is not any flaw in the
teaching of Christ, but the very imperfect application of it by men to
the circumstances of life, which has from time to time caused the
charge of failure to be brought against Christianity.