| The Christian Life | October 1947 |
Part I—God’s favor transferred from Jew to Gentile
The Sociology of Jesus Christ
“Be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father; which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”—Matthew 23:8-12
THE impact of the teaching of Jesus Christ upon his generation, although it was for a time ignored by the ruling powers of the day, both religious and political, had tremendous cumulative effects. Within a few years after his death it changed not only the entire political scene in his own country of Palestine, but also overthrew the power of the mightiest empire that had ever ruled in the earth up to that time. It diverted, in fact, the current of all human affairs and resulted in entirely new concepts of human relations, shifted the whole world’s balance of power, and caused a social revolution, the results of which are with us to this day.
Christianity, the worship of Jesus Christ, as the son of God, entered the world humbly and without fanfare of trumpets. It was sponsored by none of the rich or politically powerful of the day. While at first ignored, when the teachings of this simple Prophet out of Nazareth became even slightly obtrusive and offensive under the importunate solicitation of the ruling religionists of the day, he was contemptuously obliterated as a sop to a noisy minority. To Rome, then ruling in Palestine, Christianity was in no sense considered a political menace; but, because it stirred up the people to some considerable extent it was thought expedient to extirpate it lest it become another source of unrest to add to the many that had annoyed the Roman Administrators of Jewish affairs in their final pacification of the conquered state.
Lordly Rome, in its worldwide power, had little time to notice small individual agitators, except as they proved sources of embarrassment to local governors. Such, in their estimation, was this Jesus of Nazareth, and as such he was treated. Crucifixion, reserved by Rome for the worst sort of criminals, was imposed upon him by the Roman governor, but not because he thought him deserving of such a death. In point of fact, the Roman governor saw nothing in Jesus worthy even of stripes. He would have released Jesus, for he found no contravention of Roman law in anything Jesus had said or done. But the policy of Rome was ever to compromise in the government of conquered territory so as not to offend the customs and religion of the conquered. It was a good, safe, and politically sound policy by which much trouble was avoided and many friends made.
Thus it was good politics for the Roman governor to keep the head of the local religion in a good temper, other things being equal, and when, in the final scenes in the brief life of Jesus upon earth, he is paraded before the bar of Roman justice, Pontius Pilate can find no offense against Rome, but sees the political need to regard the demand of the Jewish high priest that this inoffensive and dignified Preacher be put out of the way because of some alleged offense he had committed against the Jewish religion.
Once, Pilate, after questioning Jesus, went before the Jews and said that he found him innocent of any wrongdoing, and wished to release him; but the aroused Jewish rabble, incited by the priests, demanded his death. Pilate, thinking to satisfy them with a little blood-letting had Jesus scourged, the soldiers crowning him with thorns and mocking him, perhaps thus concluding that this ridicule would serve to satisfy the mob. Again Pilate went to them and said that he found him innocent of any crime: “Behold the man,” he said, that is, look at him and agree with me that I should set him free. But the priests and temple officers screaming for his life, cried, “Crucify him!”
For a third time Pilate said: “I find no fault in this man, but take him and crucify him!” Pilate finally submitted to the dominating cry of the mob and gave Jesus over to the guards to be crucified.
In this scene is the beginning of the working of the power of the new message which Jesus Christ taught against the power of the state. Rome, personified in Pilate, submitted to the demands of the representatives of a conquered people for the life of an innocent man to satisfy political expedience. In that act, the fate of the whole Roman Empire was sealed, and the final fate of the Israelitish people also was determined.
At the last, even the very earth resented the spilling upon it of the innocent blood, and quaked; and the great veil, three inches thick, of rich fabrics, which divided the holy from the most holy in the Jewish Temple, was rent from top to bottom, which pictured, as Paul suggests in Hebrews 6:19,20 and 10:20, the opening up of the new and living way into the holiest of all by the death and resurrection of Jesus. These scenes, regarded from so far away, seem tremendously significant to us who look back on them today; yet they were forgotten by the majority and their meaning speedily obscured in the day in which they happened.
The teaching of this mild Prophet was little understood and less heeded in the day in which he lived. The tremendous import of his pregnant phrases was missed by most of those who heard his words. His miracles awed for the moment, but their deeper meaning was lost. Aside from those who sought “loaves and fishes,” there were few interested enough in his message to do more than give him momentary attention, and still fewer who discerned any depth to his words.
Just what did Jesus teach that was so different from the accepted thinking of his day? In so far as Rome was concerned, among the occupational troops there was little attention given to religion. The Roman Pantheon had many gods, and principal among them was the reigning Caesar who defiled himself and erected temples and statues to his own glory. A perfunctory sacrifice on state occasions to Caesar, god and king, sufficed to satisfy all religious demands. Thus the Roman soldiery of the day could regard with tolerance the religious practices of other peoples. For centuries in Rome itself many cults had occupied temples foreign to the accepted Roman deities. The Romans were well inured to forms of worship different from their own.
With the Jew, the case was much different. For seventeen hundred years the people of Israel had considered themselves the true people of God, who stood alone in that honor. Covenants had been entered into between God and the founders of their race under which they had become a great nation, strong in the strength which their Jehovah had given them. They were a people set apart to do a great work, for through them all peoples on earth were to be blessed. The evidences of God’s favor were in the Law which he gave them, and in the method which he devised for them whereby they might always continue to be recipients of his love and blessing.
They had had, in their long history, the great lawgiver, Moses, to guide them, and Aaron as a high priest to interpret the law to them. They had a long established priestly house whose sole concern was to watch over Israel that their special relationship with their God might be preserved. They occupied the land of Palestine by divine fiat and had been ruled over by kings of divine appointment. Before that, however, judges had been given to them for their correction and national well-being.
Prophets, inspired by God, had pleaded their cause with him, and pleaded with and warned them of punishments for offenses against him. They had been blessed and chastened periodically in their long national history as God’s chosen people, and through it all they had been blind as a nation to the great inner truths of their own religion.
All the prophets in their darkest hours had spoken to the people as a whole of the coming at last of the one supreme King who should restore again to them their former glory. All of them, but more especially their greatest prophet, Isaiah, had shown them in detail just what to look for when that King should come; and those prophecies were read by the people and to the people and were expounded and explained so that when the day of the arrival of the King approached many were in expectation of his coming. (Luke 3:15) But again, as in all things, they saw no further than the words, and their own vain imaginings.
Jesus came to his own people, and as a nation they refused him. But they listened to him and heard strange things, things so different from anything that they had ever heard before, that steeped as they were in the ritual and formalism of their temple worship, they could not credit the words of this new Prophet. For Jesus’ teaching was revolutionary. The high priest of the temple was a powerful voice in Jewish life. To be a Jew was not so much a national designation as it was the brand of a particular faith. No real Jew at heart has ever lost that feeling of separation from all other peoples because of his peculiar relationship with his God.
Around the temple worship, had grown up a highly formalized system of tithes and offerings to be made by the people so that they could continue to be ceremonially clean in the eyes of the temple priests, and therefore also in the eyes of their God. As in so many cases where the letter or form is considered of more importance than the spirit, this ceremonial formalism had, through the years, become filled with gross abuses.
Many of the sayings and acts of Jesus were aimed directly at these abuses. His condemnation, both direct and in parable, of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees—a sect which had grown up within the nation, the members of which prided themselves on the faithfulness with which they kept each smallest requirement of the Law—provided his most scathing comments.
His policy and his doctrines engendered freedom from the shackles of formalism in religion. Such teaching struck a body blow at custom and privilege. Should he succeed in making people think outside the channels of Jewish formalism, and within the doctrines which he taught, then priestly power would end and priestly privilege would be replaced with, the need to earn a respect which, under the accepted system, they simply demanded and received.
To the Pharisees, principal exponents of this demand for reverence because of their ceremonial holiness, Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes and Pharisees, who presume to be lawgivers to the people but do not do the things they demand of you. And all the things they do are done for show and to be seen of men. Upon their brows they bind their phylacteries (extracts of the Law written on parchment strips), of a much larger size than is called for, and in their manner of dress endeavor to appear the most holy of all the chosen people. But you will notice they love to be seen sitting at the head table at feasts, and in the synagogues you will find them always in the most prominent positions. When they are in the market place they revel in being called master and teacher, but I warn them the day of reckoning is coming when their lies, hypocrisy, and deceit will be judged and they will not escape the condemnation that will fall upon them.”—Matthew 23, paraphrase
Jesus endeavored to break through the reverence that the pseudo holiness of the Pharisees had bred in the people. If they could be convinced that there was more to being truly holy than a slavish adherence to the motions of a ritual, then there was hope of freedom for them. But in most cases the weight of the centuries was too great, and it was so much simpler to conform than to reform. As a result, the people generally, while they heard Jesus gladly, saw no reason for any immediate change from the old well-beaten paths to seriously accept this new doctrine.
More than that, the rising tide of opposition of the well-to-do, the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees, deterred many from following more closely the teachings of this new Prophet. Had some influential persons vigorously championed Jesus’ cause, in all probability many thousands would have hailed him as Messiah.
This strange Teacher taught many things in opposition to the accepted theology of his day and age. The Law of the Jews was a stern Law, demanding recompense for any injury received—“an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”—such was the strict justice to which the people of Israel had been born and in which they were bred. (Matt. 5:38) Now came one who taught a new doctrine—“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.” (Matt. 5:43) If a man strike you on one side of your face don’t strike back, but offer him the other cheek. Give to any in need, and if you lend do not expect a return. Treat all men as you would like to have them act toward you. Love men as God loves; for God loves the unthankful and those who are evil. Do not judge, do not condemn, be always ready to forgive, and be generous in your giving. By the measure you use in your giving, God will measure you a blessing in return.
Strange doctrine, indeed! And one which, if accepted, would have marked out the follower of it from all his fellows. For such was not the Jewish way under their Law. The people listened and wondered, and came again to hear this strange Preacher, and brought their neighbors, and went away, enthralled by the vision his words conjured up in their minds, but afraid to be too serious about it. They listened to his stories—for all Oriental peoples love a story—but sought not to discern what deeper meaning might be in the parables he told them, each man making what he could of what he heard and satisfied with the tales as it was told. All but a few.
Of the thousands who heard him, and were fed by him, and were healed of their sicknesses, only a few ever sought him out privately and asked for an explanation of what he had meant when he told such a story, or used such an illustration. Continually Jesus told his hearers, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto,” and then used some homely simile easy of comprehension by people who were largely agriculturalists, shepherds, and fishermen. On occasion the kingdom of heaven was like a sower sowing seed; again, it was like a grain of mustard seed; and still again, it was like a treasure hid in a field, or a merchant seeking pearls, or a fishing net.
The common denominator of all these kingdom parables was that the kingdom has a small and obscure beginning but ultimately it assumes the greater importance. Only a small amount of the seed sown fell on good ground but it brought forth a hundred, or sixty, or thirty times as much as what was sown. The mustard seed is the smallest of the seeds, but the full growth is a treelike shrub in which birds build their nests. The treasure in the field was small and took up little space, but the man who discovered it sold all he owned that he might buy the entire plot of land in which it was hid. The same picture is carried out in the pearls. The merchant finds one so fine that he sells all his possessions that he may own it.
In certain of the kingdom of heaven parables Jesus taught other things as well—how that in the sowing of the seed of the kingdom an enemy sowed weeds in the same field; but at the last, the weeds are burned and the good seed harvested. In the dragnet picture he showed similarly that the net caught every sort of fish, but only the good were kept, the bad ones being cast away.
The inner meaning of these stories he reserved for the faithful few who came after the close of the general meeting and asked for more light. “To you,” he said, “it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” because you take the trouble to ask for light, but to them (indicating the departing multitude) it isn’t given. (Matt. 13:11-15) They are half fed and satisfied. You want a full meal. You shall have it. But those others, they are fat and their ears are dull, their eyes closed. Your eyes are open as are your ears, and although many clever men have wanted to know the meaning of these things, they haven’t understood: but you, because you are humble enough to ask for light, shall have it. Now listen; this is what I meant—and he proceeds to show them the real meaning of what they had heard.—Matthew 13, paraphrase
Jesus taught his disciples other things. On one occasion they came to him and asked that they be taught to pray. (Luke 11:1) In a way this was a strange request. Prayer was offered for the people by the temple priests. The people participated by offering something of value to show their contrition of heart and their acceptance of the mediatorship of the priest on their behalf—it might be a gift of money or doves or other sacrifice. On occasion, in the synagogues, men were heard in supplication, pouring out their souls in an agony of repentance, striving to enlist the mercy of a demanding Providence. But no man raised in the Jewish tradition felt any near kinship with the great Jehovah; for, to the Jew, Jehovah was a stern and exacting Deity to be placated with offerings but not to be approached as a friend.
Requested by the disciples for instruction in prayer Jesus breaks with all accepted custom and tradition. “When you pray, speak in this manner,” he says. “Our Father which art in heaven, may thy name be kept holy, and thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Give us bread for the day and forgive us as we forgive others. Abandon us not in temptation and rescue us from the tempter.”—Luke 11:2-4, paraphrase
To the Jew, the great surprise of that prayer lay in the opening words, “Our Father.” To the Jewish mind, this opened up a great new world. If he could approach Jehovah directly, without a priestly intermediary, without doves or money in hand; if he could regard his God as a father, with all a father’s love and understanding, and be regarded by him as a child to be guided, corrected, and rewarded, then all Jewish traditional belief became as nothing. No more need of a temple with its ritual and its demands of satisfaction for every least infraction of the Law, but full freedom of action, full freedom of worship, full personal responsibility before God for one’s personal actions. Freedom, but freedom with responsibility.
And to emphasize this truth Jesus later showed them something else. To those chosen ones who had of their own free will elected to follow him, he said, “And now I am going to give you something entirely new. In place of the Passover which you, as good Jews, have kept faithfully year by year in remembrance of an old salvation, I am going to give you a new Passover, which you will not eat as when you were under the Law Covenant. You are free from that Law now, and from now on you will live under a new one—the law of love. I am going to leave you shortly, but one day I shall come again. Until I do return, in memory of me, and in evidence of the freedom I have given you, you will eat bread and drink wine as symbols of my body which soon must be broken on your behalf, and of my blood which must be spilled for your salvation. Without this sacrifice there can be no cancellation of your sins. And I lay upon you a new requirement. From you the old Law has passed, but a new one takes its place; namely, that you give complete heart loyalty to your God, doing all things to his glory; and that you love your neighbor—and your neighbor is anyone to whom you may do good—as you love yourself; and I want you to love one another as I have loved you.”—paraphrase
That the disciples understood only vaguely the things spoken by their Teacher is a matter of record. Jesus recognized their bewilderment at this new way of living which was so different from the old, but time pressed. Only a matter of hours lay now between this last feast which he was keeping with them and the final scenes of the great tragedy.
To relieve their distress of mind he promised them that the Holy Spirit of true inner discernment should come upon them, and with understanding would come comfort and peace of mind. They went out from the room, still confused, and then followed in rapid succession the betrayal by Judas; the capture of the unresisting Jesus; the accusation of the priests and suborned witnesses; his affirmation that he was the promised Messiah; his exculpation of all criminal activity by Pilate; and his being given over to be killed because it was not good politics to defend his innocence at the risk of censure from higher Roman authority. So Jesus died, having sown the good seed, some of which had fallen in good soil. He had offered the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price to his disciples on condition that they sell all their possessions and give up life itself in sacrificial service.
Having ninety-nine sheep safely enfolded, he had sought for and found the one that was lost. He had planted his vineyard and was going to a far country from which he would one day return to harvest his grapes. The kingdom of heaven had its small and obscure beginning. Weak mortals were to continue the work he had started, and when, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit of understanding came upon the minds of these few men from the ordinary walks of life then they saw the inner meaning of his quiet but mighty words. Then they understood the tremendous significance of the signs and wonders he had wrought. But much enlightenment was yet to be obtained, for only dimly yet did they comprehend that this new way of life, this new hope of salvation,. was not alone a Jewish privilege.
Later, the eyes of the apostles were to be opened to the fact that the new chosen people of God, which was to replace in divine favor the old nation of Israel, would include people of all nations. Gentiles were no longer to be considered alien and strange from the love of Jehovah. This new kingdom was accessible to all people who would hear the call and agree to the requirements for a heavenly citizenship.
To Peter was given the initial understanding of the matter. It was hard for him to comprehend. Custom dies hard, and centuries of adherence to Jewish laws of what was clean and what was unclean, had left deep furrows which took much smoothing out. Already, within eighteen years of the passing of the Master from the earthly scene, errors of teaching had crept in, and some who had been Pharisees, but who had accepted the new message, taught the people that no heathen might become a Christian except he first be ritually cleansed and set apart from his former life by the act of circumcision.
So urgent became this matter that in A.D. 51 a convention of Christians was called at Jerusalem, at which Peter with others of the apostles came together with representatives of the growing Christian churches. There the entire matter was discussed, and Peter explained how he had been enlightened of God as to the necessity of the good news of the setting up of the kingdom of Christ being presented to Gentiles as well as to Jews.—Acts 15
James, probably acting as chairman of the convention, undertook to sum up the matter which he did somewhat as follows: “Simon Peter has shown you how God has now turned this message of salvation through Christ to Gentile peoples, to find a new people to bear his name. From now on all our former ideas as members of the nation of Israel are changed. We are no longer of the nation of Israel, no longer obligated to serve God by means of temple sacrifices and the requirements of the Law. Out of the nation of Israel God has chosen some of his new people, and out of non-Israelitish people, Gentiles, he will choose some until he has found all he needs for his particular purpose.
“When that is done, he says, as shown by the statements of earlier prophets, he will return, and Israel will again become a favored people, receiving certain special blessings from him; but until this new creation is complete, Israel is out of favor with God and will not be considered by him as of any special significance. They have, however, equal opportunity with Gentiles to accept Christ as their Leader and Redeemer, and to enter the race and run for individual prizes—the prize of the high calling—the immortality which Christ brought to light in his preaching, as a reward for those who would set their hearts and devote their lives determinedly to attain it.
“But this is not all. When the full number of the new creation, this specially elect class is complete, then Israel will come back to a position of favor. Israel still inherits the ancient contract made with the founders of the nation, that they should be a channel of blessing to all mankind, and this promise by God will be fulfilled. For, through the reconstituted nation of Israel, the world of mankind will be initiated into the regulations of the new government, the government of Christ, which will be in process of being established, and they shall be used to guide and direct and educate mankind in general, by precept and example, in the requirements of the new kingdom of Christ.
“You who belonged to the sect of Pharisees, who have begun to see the truth of the preaching of Christ and now claim to be Christians, are wrong when you claim that before a Gentile can become a Christian he must first be subjected to the purely Jewish ceremony of circumcision. Circumcision was a physical mark to indicate that the bearer was of the chosen nation of Israel through Abraham to whom the sign of circumcision had originally been given, and was accepted by God as a chosen one in the special relationship with him indicated in the Law Covenant arrangement entered into between God and the children of Jacob. But that Law Covenant is no longer in effect to those accepting Christ Jesus.
“Christ kept the Law perfectly, and fulfilled it and all its provisions, thus ending its requirements. He offered his own body and permitted his own blood to be shed once for all time, to take the place of the animal sacrifices which for seventeen hundred years have been offered up as propitiation for sins committed and as evidence of promises made, and he did it not only for the people of Israel but for everybody. From now on, the sacrifice of Christ is the only one which avails at all with God. His favor toward any members of the human race is conditioned upon acceptance of the sacrifice made by Christ. It is as though Christ has become a lens which focuses the favor of God only upon those people who stand behind their Leader. Stand a little to one side or the other and the favor passes by.”
The Apostle Paul was the great interpreter and integrator in the early church, and to us, of the old doctrines and the new. He was peculiarly fitted for this work by birth and education. He was a Jew, of the sect of the Pharisees, and had been educated in the Law and the prophets, knowing all the devious interpretations placed on the writings of Moses by the over-meticulous exponents of the Law, which had grown up through the ages. More than that, he was a Roman citizen and versed in civil as well as in ecclesiastical law.
Paul’s finely trained natural mind had been further conditioned by years of study and teaching of the doctrines of Christ. To him, as to no other of the apostles, had God revealed many things bearing on the outworking of the Gospel message in the hearts of men, and in regard to the future of mankind.
On this subject of the transition period through which the early church was passing, he was an expert. His close acquaintance with the origin and development of the ritual of the Israelitish religion, when illuminated with the light of Christ’s new theology, showed him the logical outworking of this important part of the plan of God for man’s salvation.
This knowledge, and the need for clarification of the mind of the Jews who were coming into Christianity, caused him to write one of his greatest letters, his general epistle to the Hebrews. In it he outlined the entire plan of God, having particular reference to Israel’s place in it; what God’s dealings with Israel really had meant; the internal values of the Law arrangement which set Israel apart from all other nations, and the abrogation of the provision of the Law by the one great sacrifice of Christ.
Paul goes back to the original promises and covenants made by God with the patriarchs. In fact, he goes still farther back, and in the first chapter of the book establishes the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ as the One used by Jehovah as the agent of all creation; the one and only Son of God. This Being, he identifies as the One who came to earth in form of man, whom we know as Jesus, and who came with one mission to perform—to do what the Law had failed to do—to reconcile, once and for all time, fallen man with a just God. This was td be done through the suffering of death, and to be proven of accomplishment by the resurrection from the dead and his glorification.
More than that, his humanity was that of one of the descendants of Abraham. Thus he came to earth to take not only the place of Adam, and to assume Adam’s responsibility before God, but also to assume the added weight of the Law, and thus rescue all mankind.
Jesus Christ is presented by Paul to the sanctified portion of the people who had set themselves apart as Christ-followers, as a greater High Priest than Aaron, in that he was a Priest with kingly powers—One who not alone could make propitiation for the sins of the people but who also possessed in himself and by his own word, the powers of life and death. This Jesus is also a Lawgiver greater than Moses, thus deserving a higher reverence by all Jewish people than they accorded to Moses, whom they regarded as the greatest man of all time.
Moses had shown Israel a new land which the faithful of the nation might possess. Jesus showed a place for the faithful far transcending the earthly land of Palestine, as their goal. Jesus was, therefore, a greater Prophet and a greater Lawgiver than Moses, yet many, because they would not believe this, would fail of accomplishment even as their forebears had perished in the wilderness.—Hebrews 3
Today, Paul declares, is the day of opportunity to enter into the rest of God, to accept in anticipation the reward of righteousness and faithful service. And we have no need to fear failure in performance. Our High Priest, having mediated between us and divine justice, had experienced our problems and temptations and was desirous of our victory. In this conviction and with this promised help, we might boldly claim the promises of God, being assured mercy and help for times of need.—Hebrews 4
Thus was Jesus greater than Moses the lawgiver, who would lead the people of God into a rest more lasting than was accorded the Israelites after they had entered the land of Palestine. Then Paul goes on to speak of the next great and revered figure in the history of the nation—Aaron.
Aaron, brother of Moses, was the high priest of the tabernacle worship of Jehovah. He ministered the important sacrifices of the Israelitish religion, assisted by the tribe of Levi, which alone of all the tribes was set aside for this ministry. To the Hebrew people, therefore, Aaron was the chief figure in its religious life, as Moses was the chief figure in its legal existence.
Paul points to Jesus, who, he says, was not a High Priest of the aaronic line, but claimed an older and higher priestly office, after the order of Melchizedek, whom even the great Abraham recognized as of a superior line, and to whom he had paid tithes and given reverence. Thus Jesus Christ was more worthy of respect even than Aaron, and being of the direct line of descent from David, the most outstanding of Israel’s kings, was yet greater as a King even than David himself. Thus, on all points as Lawgiver, Priest, and King, Jesus qualified for complete acceptance by Israel in place of their great ones—Moses, Aaron, and David.—Hebrews 4,5,7
To Jewish people, this fact of the great High Priest—greater than Moses and greater than Aaron, yet born a Jew and subject to the Law—was a most important one. Conviction on this point would clear from their minds all reverence for the lesser Law which the greater Priest had subordinated, and, in fact, superseded by a new law. Thus, once convinced of their complete freedom from the ancient Law of Moses, they might with confidence go forward, still a covenant people, but in a new sense. For the new law of Christ, the law of love, and of personal consecration, was far broader in its scope than had been the old Law which applied only to one nation. This new law called for acceptance by people out of all nations—Jew and Gentile alike—and these constituted a newly created nation, the component parts of which came from all nations.
To use something approaching an analogy one might look at the American people who are a heterogeneous admixture of many nations, made homogeneous through the alchemy of the American national spirit, Germans, English, Irish, Polish, French, Spanish—men of all countries—have come from their homeland, settled in America, learned a common language, and taken the name “American” with pride and satisfaction—a new nation made from parts of many older ones.
So with the Christians. As James points out, no longer are the Jews to be the sole basic stock from which the Christian church will draw its membership, but all nations will contribute their quota, and the new nation, the Christian people, will be one in Christ. (Galatians 3-11) Paul continues:
“Having therefore a High Priest greater than Aaron, he ministers in a manner different from Aaron and the levitical priesthood. They offered continually gifts and sacrifices on the altar, and the Priest Jesus also must have something to offer. The ministry of Jesus is, however, greater than that of the tabernacle worship, and the sacrifice he makes is greater than all the sacrifices offered on the brazen altar. Even as the sacrifices of Aaron were the evidences of the existence of a covenant, so the sacrifice of Christ is the evidence of the existence of a greater covenant—one not written on tablets but inscribed in the hearts of the people. A covenant and a law which need not be read on an appointed day to the people to bring it to their remembrance, but one which all should know and never once forget.”—Hebrews 8, paraphrase
Paul then takes the tabernacle, its construction, its furniture, and its sacrifices, piece by piece, describes them and their function and deals similarly with the details of the priestly office pertaining to sacrifice, and shows that Jesus Christ had fulfilled in himself all things of which the tabernacle and its worship were a forecast. The tabernacle was a shadow, Christ was the substance.
The tabernacle sacrifice, the blood of bulls and goats sacrificed on the altar and presented to God as a symbol of expiation for the sins of the people, was fulfilled once for all time, by the death on Golgotha’s cross-altar of the flesh of Christ. The shedding of his blood once for all time sealed the covenant whereby he purchased the human race and acquired the right to give them life. Nevermore, therefore, after his sacrifice had been offered, could the blood of animals have weight with God. All the human race now must look for their release from sin, original and acquired, to the one-time sacrifice, Christ.—Hebrews 9
God had been pleased to give his well-beloved Son as an offering for sin because he of all living beings, whether men or angels, was best qualified to successfully pass the crucial tests which he would be subjected to in an evil world, and at the same time keep the exacting Law of God. The reward that would follow the successful laying down of his humanity, was the glory, honor, and. immortality of the divine nature.
We, therefore, may have steadfast assurance that when Jesus had completed his sacrifice and received full assurance of his perfect success in that he was raised from the dead, we also may be successful in following where he has led, if we will believe, with untroubled faith, that the promises of God are as sure toward us as they were to his Son.—Hebrews 10
What then, is this faith with which we, who are called to be members of this newly created nation of God, must be endowed? The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is a rallying call to the Israelitish nation to review the great victories which had been won by faith in olden times. Yet the severely tried faith of these great men and women had not been sufficient to enable them to find eternal life and receive the fulfillment of the promise that they should bless all families of the earth. But we, Christians, inheritors of that promise, might hope for a full success, and even a still better thing than ever was offered to the chosen of Israel.—Hebrews 11:39,40
Jesus endured the shame and the death of a felon for the joy that was offered to him if he proved faithful. We too may hope; but many times courage will fail, the desires of the flesh will prevail in spite of prayer, contrition of heart, and true repentance; and the experiences will seem too heavy to be borne. Yet in visions and pictures great men of the past had evidence that Jehovah was a God of power, and once we have set our feet on the road to the kingdom there can be no turning back lest, if we be of little faith and are easily turned out of the way, we shall lose all that otherwise we might gain. But by serving God we receive an unending kingdom which shall never be overturned.
Finally, Paul advises those who would follow Christ to observe certain fundamental requirements of Christian conduct, among which he enjoins them to remember to love without favor those of the brotherhood; to be content; not to seek for earthly elevation or wealth, position, and power as a measure of safety, for God has promised his never-ceasing care and protection. And he never changes.
Keep faithful to the holy Word of God, rejecting all strange teachings, remembering always that even as Jesus was despised and rejected of men, so also we may expect similar treatment. And to remember, also, that we seek no establishment permanently on earth, realizing rather that our citizenship is hypothecated to heaven; yet not to forget that while we are here we are subjected to the common laws of the land in which we live, provided they do not conflict with our divinely regulated consciences and service of God.
In matters of faith and doctrine we should respect those whom, of our free will, we appoint as supervisors of the church. Paul concludes, “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”—Hebrews 13:20,21
This, then, in the days of his dwelling on earth, was the social message of Jesus Christ to the people of his day—that through his ministry and sacrifice they were freed for all time from the weight of the Law, and might volunteer for inclusion as members of the new nation which was from thenceforth to bear the name of God; that for those who would put aside all encumbering tradition, forsaking personal ambition and the seeking of earthly prestige and power, and would faithfully follow the path trodden first for them by the humblest, yet the greatest man who has ever lived on this earth, there was a reward so much greater than any cost to secure it, that no adequate comparison could be made; and that the measure of their acceptance of Jesus Christ would be shown by the love they bore to their fellow wayfarers, and their own self-sacrifice.
A simple code is this, and simply stated; yet one more difficult to carry out than any manmade system of laws ever devised. Few, indeed, in the years that have passed since Jesus walked the earth in the days of his flesh, have been able to keep it. Yet for those in Christ who endeavor to do so today, the reward still awaits. After the cross, the crown!