Christianity has, among many features to recommend it, several that call for constant consideration. Neglect of their force and application can easily produce shallowness of experience and weakness of witness.
First, it can’t be too frequently and too emphatically stated that the Christian faith is historical in substance. It is not myth. It is not legend. The Person from whom it derives its name is the greatest historical personality this world has ever known. That is a tremendous claim. None can rival Him. His category is unique, for He is the only one of His kind. He is separated from men though He was a true Man–not so much by being higher than they are, but by being apart from them altogether. The danger lies in the direction of neglecting the solid and incontrovertible facts of the New Testament story. The evangelical records are authentic.
To many people–and not altogether ignorant people–Jesus Christ is a kind of semi-mythical person, somewhat akin to King Arthur. They have only the vaguest ideas about Him, and never dream of reading the Gospels to obtain more accurate information. Even among professing Christians there is a great deal of tradition which takes the place of authoritative knowledge. Much of this misconception is due to the ideas formed from imaginative representations by popular artists, from sentimental fictionalized biographies and emotional hymns. Yet an even cursory reading of the New Testament would reveal Him as a many-sided personality, perfectly balanced: strong physically, virile mentally, courageous spiritually.
He is tender and gentle, kindly and considerate, but with nothing weak or compromising. He is the ideal Man, historically real, moving across the stage of history as “God manifest in the flesh.”
Moreover, Christianity (as a social unit) had its commencement as a phenomenal historical event. The Christian Church had a definite beginning. It did not always exist, as some people seem to imagine. “When the day of Pentecost was fully come,” fifty days after the Crucifixion and ten days after the Ascension, the Holy Spirit descended on a group of believers in Jerusalem, and formed them into a New Society with its living Head in heaven. The Holy Spirit had been given in a manner never before known. He had come to abide with them, and be in them. These isolated disciples became a spiritual community, whose business was not in the acquisition of lands or riches, but in the development and enrichment of character. They became a spiritual organism capable of indefinite expansion by the preaching of the Gospel.
Further, the Church’s continuance is a historical miracle. Never was a barque so frail launched on such a tempestuous sea of opposition. Wave after wave of fiercest onslaught, the evidence of satanic malice, broke on the infant Church, but it weathered the storm. In fact, it not only survived, it grew strong and increased. Its entire history has been one of headway against inveterate hatred and undisguised opposition. Wherever its missionary bands have penetrated into the darkness of idolatry, superstition, ignorance, or priestcraft, they have encountered the forces of evil, and shown that the Christian faith can conquer the hosts of Satan. As a worldwide, virile witness to Jesus Christ, the Church is an evidence that our faith rests on historical facts. They cannot be removed.
Second, the faith which we believe and propagate is ethical in character. It prescribes rules of conduct for those who receive its message. It is not merely a set of historical facts for a man’s intellectual assent. These facts are related to his manner of living. It lays down general principles, the violation of which is considered an act of disloyalty to Christ Himself. Into these general principles are set numerous detailed instructions, so simple and so universal in their application that they are never out of place in any generation or in any society. That fact itself makes our faith unique. The proof of its truth lies in our adjustment in life to the ethical demands of our verbal confession of faith. Creed should regulate conduct; personal belief should issue in corresponding behavior.
Third, the Christian faith is spiritual in essence. Its power is not derived from material forces, but from contact with invisible reserves. Man-devised religious systems rely for their effectiveness very much on elaborate ceremonial and symbolical ritual, but the Christian faith, as it is disclosed in the New Testament, depends on no external trappings for its impressiveness. Its witness for God and truth and righteousness has always been most audacious and powerful when reliance on the Holy Spirit has been most complete. He is the Fountain from Whom all power is derived. The lesson for each of us is obvious–if we live in the Spirit (i.e., if we derive our new life from the Holy Spirit) we should walk in the Spirit, so that we may not fulfil the desires of the flesh (Gal. 5:17-25).
Fourth, our faith is dynamic in nature. Its central feature is that its life and practice are related to a living Person in heaven. Our Lord is not only a historical Person, but a living historical Person. He lives in the power of an indissoluble life. He is more than a beautiful example of the past; He is Himself a living, personal force in every generation. He communicates His own life to all who believe in Him. “Because I live,” He said, “ye shall live also.”
As Paul, the great Christian thinker and apologist, put it, “Nevertheless, I live, yet not I (i.e., my former self), but Christ liveth in me.” That is possible because our Lord has been received up into heaven, so that “if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Rom. 5:10). All this arises from the fact that God has fulfilled His promise in Psalm 110, “Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” It is an exalted Saviour, enthroned in heaven, Who is Himself Head of the Church and Lord of the believer.