Naked
in the World
Man comes naked into the world, but no man comes into a naked
world.
Every man comes into a culture and into a religious
framework. The idea of God, with the idea
of right and wrong, is in every culture.
Although it is debased where there has been no preaching of the true
Gospel of Christ, the remnant of true knowledge is everywhere
So men are without excuse before God. It has been long debated: Is man's mind is a tabula rasa
(a wax tablet) upon which is written the experiences of life, or is man born
with innate ideas, a debate beyond the scope of this paper. But all must agree: the world man is born into is not a wax
tablet. The world is rich in ideas, in
customs, in history.
This is the reason that every educated man eventually has to deal
with Jesus Christ. The sheer numbers
of those who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ, the impressive mark that
Jesus Christ has made on the religions of the world, the importance of
Christian thought on theories of government, ethics, history, music, art,
philosophy, and all the other disciplines make it imperative that the thinking
man confront Christ. Not to confront Christ
is madness, and is to ignore the greatest part of human history.
Much of the literature of the last centuries has been from the
desire to "explain" Jesus Christ.
Who is He? How can you explain
the effect He has had on the world?
Why is this? The place of
Jesus Christ in Christianity is unique.
No one speaks of "Loving Mohammed," or "Loving Joseph
Smith," or "Loving Moses," or "Loving the
Buddha.") The teachings of these
religious leaders may be seen to be authoritative, or even inspired, but the
Mormons do not speak of "having a personal relationship with Joseph
Smith," nor do Muslims speak of such a relationship with Mohammed. For one thing, these prophets are dead, and
their graves are known.
Not so Jesus Christ. Love
for Christ is the only acceptable reason for anything that is believed or done
in Christianity. "If you love me,
keep my commandments," is the word of Christ. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema,"
is the way the apostle put it. The call
to personal fellowship, to devotion, to love and communion is uniquely
Christian. When Christianity is reduced
to a philosophical system, or an ethical and moral system, it loses its unique
character, and the life goes out of it.
Because of the impact that Christianity has had on the world,
every culture and system must meet the question: "Is Christianity of
God?" There is no way that any
religious leader can escape the confrontation that the question brings.
This doesn't mean that people don't try. "There is good in all religion," is the mantra. It makes them feel expansive, large-minded,
and VERY religious. But instead of them
getting off the hook, this shallow response just sets the hook deeper. For if there is good in all religions, then
there is a standard by which the good can be known, if good is anything more
than benevolent feelings. And if there
is a standard by which the good can be known, then there is religious
truth--and religious error. This will
require me to decide which is which.
When I see this, the basic principle at the beginning of this
article is confirmed. Man is born naked
into the world, but he is not born into a naked world. He is born into a world where truth and
error are mixed together, and he has responsibility to choose the good and to
reject the error.
Then, what about Jesus?
Which is He, Good or Evil? Was
Jesus of God? or did His doctrine and life arise somewhere else? He is undoubtedly THE major moral teacher of
the history of the world.
But still men try to wriggle off the hook. "There are many paths to God. All the religions teach much the same
thing, and if the good in any of them is followed, man will find peace."
Those who say such things are ignorant, willingly or negligently,
of the unique claims of Jesus Christ.
"I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father
but by me." "If you believe
not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins." "He that believeth on me is not condemned, but he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the only begotten Son
of God." "He that hath the
Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." "The Father shows the Son all things
that He does." "That men should
honor the Son, just as they honor the Father." And many like things.
Any man who would think the things Jesus said--if they are not
true--is insane, viciously deceptive, or personally deceived, none of which
gives credibility to his witness. There
have been many such people in the world, asterisks of history. Was Jesus insane?
Here is the unbeliever's dilemma.
On one horn: if there is good in
all religion, then what is the good in Christianity? If the good is not Christ, then Christianity is rotten at the
core and is a great evil to be expunged.
Modern humanist leaders are unabashed at this and hate Christianity and
would do all to suppress it. Or lacking
that, would subvert it from the love of Christ and turn it into a sentimental
moral system, of service to the state.
On the other horn: If
Jesus is the good in Christianity, what about His claims of exclusivity? You cannot have it both ways and still
continue to think.
Israel was commissioned at Sinai to bear witness to the Unity of
the One True God, to speak of His justice and His Simplicity and
Invisibility. The religion of the Jews
condemned all the idolatry of the ancient world, for the true God is Invisible
and cannot be imaged. In condemning the
idolatry it condemned the disunity of the ancient world. One God means One Law for all the
nations. Further, it means that man is
created in the image of God and responsible to be moral according to the Word
of the Law given at Sinai. To say that
nothing happened at Sinai, to deny the words of Moses, is to make a mockery of
history, and reduce the heroic history of the Jews to folly. There is an implicit anti-Semitism among all
those who deny the authority of the Old Testament.
One thing is certain: the prophets of Israel did not preach the
good in all religion. They scornfully
and satirically denounced all idolatry.
But just as the life is in the acorn, so the gospel of Christ is
in the Old Testament. Both David and
Moses spoke of the One, the Messiah,
who would be after the order of Melchizedek, a higher priesthood than
that of Aaron, who would establish His own temple and ordinances and rule His
people from heaven, for He would never die. (Psalm 110 and Genesis 14).
Melchizedek is greater than Moses and Aaron and David, because Abraham their
father paid tithes to Melchizedek. Who
is that priest who was to come? The
church has always answered: Jesus
Christ.
How do you explain Jesus Christ?
It is certain that insane men, and viciously deceptive men, have been
important for periods of human history: witness our own century and the rise of
Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, and others. But
what communist spoke of his love and communion with Lenin, or what Nazi could
speak of such love to Hitler? Some
could fear such men, some might be inspired by them, some might even admire and
respect them; but love? Devotion and fanaticism--these are common
coin in the marketplace of human ideas, but not love and communion. These belong only to the true followers of
Jesus Christ, for to be a Christian is to partake of the life of Jesus Christ,
and to partake of His nature.
So we are left with our first premise: Man is born naked into the world, but man is not born into a
naked world. He is born into a world
dominated by the Person: the Person who lights every man who comes into the
world (John 1:9).
"What will you do with Jesus, who is called the Christ?"
----------------------
Pastor C. W.
Powell
Trinity
Covenant Church
Colorado
Springs, Co.