Studies in the Life of the Christian
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Henry T. Sell >> Studies in the Life of the Christian
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9 David Maddock, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF THE CHRISTIAN
His Faith and His Service
By
HENRY T. SELL, D.D.
PREFACE
These studies consider the questions: What did Christ teach? What is
the standpoint of Christianity? What is a Christian? What ought he to
believe and why? How shall he regard the Bible and the church? What
should be his relations to God, to his fellow men, to his home, to
society, to business, and to the state?
The strength and reasonableness of the great main positions of
Christian faith and service are constructively presented. Careful
attention is also given to the practical application of Christian
principles to the perplexing problems of modern life.
This book is for use in adult Bible classes, Bible study circles,
pastors' training classes in the essentials of Christianity,
educational institutions and private study.
It is uniform with the author's "Bible Studies in the Life of Christ,"
"Bible Studies in the Life of Paul" and his other Bible study books.
HENRY T. SELL.
Chicago.
CONTENTS
I. CHRIST, THE GREAT TEACHER
II. THE CHRISTIAN'S GOD
III. THE CHRISTIAN MAN
IV. THE CHRISTIAN'S FELLOW MAN
V. THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
VI. THE CHRISTIAN'S BOOK
VII. THE CHRISTIAN PRAYER
VIII. THE CHRISTIAN SERVICE
IX. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
X. THE CHRISTIAN HOME
XI. THE CHRISTIAN BUSINESS WORLD
XII. THE CHRISTIAN SOCIETY
XIII. THE CHRISTIAN STATE
XIV. THE CHRISTIAN'S HOPE
STUDY I
CHRIST, THE GREAT TEACHER
Scripture references: Matthew 4:23; 5:1,2; 7:29; 13:54; 26:55;
28:19,20; Mark 1:21,22; 4:1,2; 6:6; Luke 5:3; 11:1; 19:47; John 6:59;
7:14; 8:28.
THE FOUNDER OF CHRISTIANITY
The heart of the Christian religion is found in Jesus Christ. If we
desire to know what Christianity is and of what elements it is
composed we must look to Him and His teachings. He is the great source
of our knowledge of what God, man, sin, righteousness, duty and
salvation are.
Our interest in the books of the Old Testament lies in the fact that
they lead up to Him. We study the books of the New Testament because
of their vivid portrayal of His life, teachings, death and
resurrection. With Jesus Christ a new era dawned for the world with
new principles, ideas and aspirations for humanity. His teachings
touch every department of human life and, where they are accepted and
followed, they show their marvellous transforming power. There can be
no more important study than what Jesus Christ said and did while upon
this earth. "Never man spake like this man" (John 7:46).
WHAT CHRIST TAUGHT
There are five great lines which His teachings followed; they have to
do with God, man, sin, salvation and the future life.
The Right Relation of God to Man and Man to God.--How does God regard
man? and, How shall man look upon God? are questions upon which the
best thought of men in all ages has been expended. Upon the answers
given have been founded all sorts of religious and philosophical
systems.
Man in this great universe desires to know in what relation he stands
to the Author of it. Is man only a creature of fate? What does God
care, great as He is, for one man?
Jesus Christ recognized this desire of man to know his standing with
God and He proclaimed not only the power, but the Fatherhood of
God. When He taught His disciples how to pray He began His immortal
prayer not with "Great God of the universe," or "Creator of all
things," but "After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which
art in heaven" (Matthew 6:9). Here was a new conception of God.
Through Christ man comes into personal relations with God as the
Father (John 16:27) who cares for him as a son. Man is to love and
forgive as God loves and forgives in this relation of Father (Matthew
22:37; 6:14,15). Man is to do all that he does as in the sight of his
Father in heaven (Matthew 6:1-26). God is made known as supreme love
(John 3:16).
The Right Relation of Man to Man.--There are many causes which divide
men into classes, castes and nationalities. Once divided men begin to
develop a class feeling and pride which tend to deepen and widen the
gulfs which separate them from each other.
With the truth proclaimed by Christ of the "Fatherhood of God" came
also the great truth of the "Brotherhood of Man." The true relation of
man to man, no matter what the caste, class, employment or
nationality, is that of sons who have a common father. The second
great commandment given by Christ is, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself" (Matthew 22:39). When He took the example for a good
neighbour He selected a Samaritan, a man of an alien race. Men are
naturally inclined to do good to those who treat them well and whose
help they need; but Christ, in carrying out this new law of brotherly
love said, "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, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in
heaven" (Matthew 5:44-48). It is only through this love of man for
man, no matter what the class or condition, that right relations
between men can ever be established and maintained.
The Right Relation of Man to Sin.--Man violates his sense of
righteousness and justice. He transgresses the laws of God and his
nature. Man's sin is everywhere doing its destroying work. There is
individual, social, corporate and national sin (Romans 3:23). This
fact of sin is not only set forth in the Bible in unmistakable terms,
but every government recognizes it in its laws and courts of justice.
Society puts up its bars to protect itself against the sinner, and all
literature proclaims the evil results of sin.
What ought to be man's attitude to sin? Shall he make light of it and
call it a necessary part of living? Shall he continue in it, although
he recognizes its evil results, and draw others with him into greater
and larger violations of the laws of God and man? These are practical
questions. Some temporize with sin and say, "Let us lead outwardly
correct lives, but within certain bounds we will do as we please";
hence arises the practice of secret sinning.
Christ came declaring that man's relation to sin should be
uncompromising. He used vigorous language in regard to sin. He said,
"Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must needs be that
offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh!
Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast
them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or
maimed, rather than having two hands or feet to be cast into
everlasting fire" (Matthew 18:7,8). But Jesus in thus advocating
heroic treatment for sin was but doing what eminent surgeons are
advising every day in regard to certain dangerous bodily
diseases. Jesus also laid His finger on the source of sin when He
declared, "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these
are the things which defile a man" (Matthew 15:19). A man must think
evil before he does evil, and hence the emphasis which Jesus placed
upon keeping the heart clean.
The Right Relation of Man to Salvation.--Man feels his inclination to
do evil and, seeing also the degradation wrought by it, desires to be
saved from it. The cry has gone up from many hearts to be free not
only from the power of sin but from the desire to commit sin. No man
can save himself. He may succeed in a certain outward reformation and
correctness of habit and speech, but he cannot control the thoughts
and inclinations of his own heart.
The special mission of Jesus Christ was to place man in the right
relation of salvation from his sins and to show Himself the Saviour of
Man. It was declared of Him before His birth, "He shall save His
people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). He said at the last supper,
"This is My blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the
remission of sins" (Matthew 26:28). He had power to forgive sins (Mark
2:10). He said not, "I show you the way," but "I am the way, the truth
and the life" (John 14:6). There is here a mighty spiritual power
which can save man from sin and can keep him from the desire to
sin. It is only as man enters into personal relations with Jesus
Christ, repenting of his sin and having faith in Him, that the burden
of sin is lifted from his heart (Matthew 6:33; 11:28,30).
The Right Relation of Man to Death and the Future Life.--The facts of
death and of what comes after cannot be set aside; they must be
faced. All forms of religion and systems of philosophy have striven to
sustain and comfort men at their trying hour of need. The trouble has
been, however, to find any certain ground of the hope of a future life
upon which to rest. No man has been able to do more than present a
good argument, in regard to the hereafter, which might or might not be
true.
But when Jesus Christ came He was able to speak with authority and
power. He plainly, in His description of the last judgment scene
(Matthew 25:31-46), showed the relation of man's faith and actions in
this world to his state in the world to come. He declared that a man
need have no fear of death or the hereafter who trusted in Him. "I am
the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he
were dead yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me
shall never die" (John 11:25,26). "In My Father's house are many
mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a
place for you" (John 14:2). In a supreme trust in Jesus Christ all
dread of death and the hereafter may be taken away and man may enter
into a right relation to immortality in this life.
FORMS OF CHRIST'S TEACHING
He used many forms in placing the truth before men. He paid great
regard to the timeliness and the manner of presenting what He had to
teach. Upon many occasions the multitudes were so captivated by His
words and works that they followed Him out into desert places.
Direct Discourse.--The Sermon on the Mount is a good example of this
teaching. Here He taught plainly, (1) "The nature and constitution of
the Kingdom" (Matthew 5:1-16); in itself (blessedness, vs. 1-12) and
in its relation to the world (vs. 13-16). (2) The law of the kingdom
(Matthew 5:17-7:12); general principles (vs. 17-20), the moral law
(vs. 21-48), religious duty (6:1-18), and duty in relation to the
world and the good and evil things in it (6: 19-7:12). (3) Invitations
to enter the kingdom (Matthew 7:13-29).
He was equally plain in regard to His own mission. He declared Himself
to be the Son of God and claimed equality with the Father (John
5:18-23). He said, "I and My Father are one" (John 10:30). He
affirmed His preexistence and that He had glory with the Father before
the world was (John 17:5) and whoever had seen Him had seen the Father
(John 14:9). At His trial, in answer to the question of the High
Priest, He declared that He was the Christ, the Son of God (Matthew
26:63-66). After His resurrection He told His disciples, in sending
them forth to their mission, that all power was given Him in heaven
and in earth (Matthew 28:18-20).
Parables (Mark 4:2; Matthew 13:3).--Christ spoke in parables to convey
and send home to the hearts of His hearers the truth, just as Nathan
employed the parable of the lamb in the case of David to make him
acknowledge his sin. They were adapted to the capacities of His
hearers. Each parable had some great central truth.
The parables have been classified as:
1. The Theoretic, which teach general truths concerning the kingdom of
God, such as, "The Sower" (Matthew 13:3-23), "The Treasure" and "The
Pearl" (Matthew 13:44,45).
2. Grace, setting forth the divine goodness and grace as the source of
salvation and law of Christian life, such as, "The Lost Coin," "The
Lost Sheep" and "The Lost Boy" (Luke 15).
3. The Prophetic or Judgment parables, which proclaim the
righteousness of God as the supreme ruler, rewarding men according to
their works, such as, "The Wicked Husbandmen" (Matthew 21:33-41), and
"The Ten Virgins" (Matthew 25:1-13).
Miracles (John 3:2; 2:23; 6:2; Mark 1:32-34).--Christ appealed to His
works as an evidence of His divine mission (John 10:38). Miracles are
possible, probable and credible, when we believe there is a personal
God, who is the Supreme Ruler of the universe and that He cares for
man.
The thirty-six miracles of which an account is given in the four
gospels have been divided into three classes; their teaching is
important:
1. The Nature miracles show the divinity of Christ. The feeding of
the five thousand men (Matthew 14:15-21) reveals His creative power,
and the stilling of the storm on the Lake of Galilee (Matthew 8:23-27)
His divine command over Nature and its forces.
2. The Healing miracles reveal not only His divinity but His humanity
and compassion. They set forth the one being who loves the human race
with His whole heart. This class of miracles shows the mission of
Jesus to be the extinction of sin and disease, and the redemption of
man, body and soul.
3. The Moral miracles are the life of Christ and its effect upon the
world.
Example of Living and Dying, the teaching of which is elaborated in
the Acts and Epistles (Acts 1:8; 2:31-41; 13:23-42; Philippians
2:5-11; Colossians 1:13-20).
HOW CHRIST TAUGHT
With Authority (Matthew 7:28,29; Mark 1:22).--He declared that "All
power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth" (Matthew 28: 18). He
did not quote precedents but said, "I say unto you."
With Persuasiveness and Love (Matthew 11:28-30; 19:13,14; John 3:17;
Luke 9:56).--People of all classes gathered about Him, in the
marketplaces, in the fields and by the seaside. They followed Him into
desert places to hear the gracious words that fell from His lips.
With Originality (John 12:46).--He taught a new philosophy of sorrow
and suffering, a new law of self-sacrifice and a new law of love for
fallen humanity.
With Promise (Matthew 28:20; John 14:12-19; 16:1-14; Acts 1:4-8).--His
work He declared was not to end with His resurrection and ascension,
but was to continue. He promised to endue His disciples with power
from on high in their task of converting a world. This promise of
divine help was also extended to all His disciples in their effort to
lead pure and righteous lives.
QUESTIONS
What can be said about the Founder of Christianity and His teachings?
What did Christ teach; about the right relation of God to man, man to
man, man to sin, man to salvation and man to death and the hereafter?
What can be said of the forms of Christ's teaching; direct discourse
(give examples), parables (give the teaching of the three classes),
miracles (give the teaching of the three classes) and example of
living and dying? How did Christ teach? What can be said of His
authority, persuasiveness, originality and promise?
STUDY II
THE CHRISTIAN'S GOD
Scripture References: Genesis 1:1; 17:1; Exodus 34:6,7; 20:3-7;
Deuteronomy 32:4; 33:27; Isaiah 40:28; 45:21; Psalm 90:2; 145:17;
139:1-12; John 1:1-5; 1:18; 4:23,24; 14:6-11; Matthew 28:19,20;
Revelation 4:11; 22:13.
WHO IS GOD?
How Shall We Think of God?--"Upon the conception that is entertained
of God will depend the nature and quality of the religion of any soul
or race; and in accordance with the view that is held of God, His
nature, His character and His relation to other beings, the spirit and
the substance of theology will be determined." When one man says, "I
believe in God" he may have in mind an entirely different conception
of God from another man who uses the same expression. There is a
Christian idea of God and there are many non-Christian ideas about
God; it is the latter which keep men from heartily engaging in the
service of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Wrong Conceptions of God.--Some of these are:
1. That He is a blind fate or unknowable force. Personality is
denied, and it is asserted that this great force neither sees, cares
nor even knows what men do or do not do.
2. Even if this great force be personal, and knows what is going on
amongst men, He is perfectly indifferent to right or wrong actions.
3. God knows and sees all that is going on, but He has wound up this
universe like a great clock. To help or succour any man in his
distress would disarrange the whole system. Natural law must have its
course; it is useless to pray.
4. God is revengeful or weak; in the first place men seek to keep out
of His way, in the second they do not care.
When men adopt these wrong ideas of God and cherish them they are
fashioned after them in life and character. Here are the
stumbling-blocks which need to be removed before men, who think this
way, can be brought into sympathy with the Church of Christ. Man can
never come into personal loving relations with a Universal Substance
or Force, no matter how mighty it is.
Right Conceptions of God are necessary for the true worship of the
Almighty, for the exercise of proper conduct to our fellow men and for
the upbuilding of our own spiritual life. Never was there a time when
the great fundamental positions of the Bible, in regard to God, needed
to be more plainly stated than to-day. When men stand firmly upon
these positions a whole host of perplexities and anxieties will take
their departure.
The Christian Conception of God has been thus expressed, "God is the
Personal Spirit, perfectly good, who in holy love, creates, sustains
and orders all." The essential matters covered in this statement are:
1. The nature of God. He is the Personal Spirit (Exodus 3:14; John
4:24) who can enter into personal relations with man, and who hears
and answers prayer.
2. The character of God. He is perfectly good, pure and holy (Psalm
25:8; Nahum 1:7; Romans 2:4). Man may have perfect confidence, however
matters may seem to him to go wrong with his imperfect vision of the
world and the happenings in it, that there is a good God who governs
all in the interest of righteousness (Matthew 13:24-30,36-43).
3. The relation of God to all other existences. He creates, sustains
and orders all (Genesis 1:1; Psalm 19).
4. The motive of God in His relation to all other existence; it is
holy love (1 John 4:8).
Supreme power, personality, intelligence and perfect goodness are then
the great revealed truths which the Bible presents to us as the proper
conceptions which we should have of God.
But if it is desired to know what God is like we look at once to Jesus
Christ. He is supreme intelligence. He has power over nature and men
and He uses all with the motive and purpose of a holy love. We know
that He controlled nature, when on earth, and not nature Him. He
taught the great love of God for man. He made it plain that men were
not in a relation as atoms of matter in a whirlpool of action, but as
sons to a loving father.
GOD IS SUPREME
God's Attitude to the Universe.--The Scriptures are consistent in the
statement, many times made, that God is the source of all things. He
brings all things into being and sustains all by the word of His
power. His is a work of perpetual administration. But God is not
wholly occupied in conducting the affairs of the universe, neither
does it exhaust His possibilities (Psalm 8:1; 148:13). He is greater
than the universe. God, says Dr. Clarke, in his "Outline of Christian
Theology," is like the spirit of a man in his body, which is greater
than his body, able to direct his body, and capable of activities that
far transcend the physical realm. God is a free spirit, personal,
self-directing, unexhausted by His present activities. This statement
affirms both the immanence and the transcendence of God. By the
immanence of God is meant that He is everywhere and always present in
the universe, nowhere absent from it, never separated from its
life. By His transcendence is meant--not as is sometimes
represented--that He is outside and views the universe from beyond and
above, but that He is not shut up in it or limited by it, not required
in His totality to maintain and order it. By both together is meant
that He is a free spirit inhabiting the universe, but surpassing it,
immanent as always in the universe, and transcendent, as always
independent of its limitations and able to act upon it.
God's Attitude to Man.--God has not only placed man at the head of the
animal world, but has endowed him with qualities which make him its
lord and master. God is more than the Creator of man. He is his
Father, Saviour and Friend.
God comes to man in the attitude, of The Supreme Spiritual Being,
approaching a spiritual being who is of priceless value. Jesus Christ
makes this truth very plain. He everywhere teaches the great worth of
the life of a man and that God is seeking to come directly into touch
with this life which is so precious in His sight (John 3:16; Matthew
10:30,31). This life is not the physical but the spiritual which is
the real life of a man. "Not what one has, but what one is, gives the
true measure of a man." He said, "For what shall it profit a man, if
he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a
man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36,37). "Is not the life
more than meat and the body than raiment?" (Matthew 6:25). "In
harmony with this view of the worth of life," Professor Stevens in
"The Theology of the New Testament," says, "Jesus taught that the most
humble and insignificant person, on whom men set no value, is precious
in the sight of God. These little ones, be they children or humble
believers, are not the despised (Matthew 18:10). The least important
person who goes astray from goodness excites the pity and solicitude
of God, and He seeks him and brings him back as the shepherd, leaving
his ninety-nine sheep, goes into the mountains in eager search after
the one that has wandered away" (Luke 15:14).
The hope of everlasting life is bound up with the recognition by man
of the priceless value of the spiritual life and of the necessity of
his coming into harmony (in thought, will and action) with God's plans
for him (John 17:3; Luke 12:16-21; John 1:4; 3:15,34-36; 6:35,47;
14:6).
"GOD IS THE PERSONAL SPIRIT"
"God is Spirit," these words of Christ, uttered to the Samaritan woman
(John 4:24), have reference to the nature of God and show us how we
are to think of Him. He is not limited to a particular place of
worship, but is to be worshipped "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23).
When we speak of a spirit we mean a being who has intelligence and
will; one who thinks, feels and wills. God the great intelligence and
will can enter into communication with man who, while he has a body,
has also a spirit possessing intelligence and a will. We need not
define the difference between God and matter, "if only we give full
weight to this vital and practical difference, that He is one who
thinks and feels and wills. The composition of spirit we may never
understand, but this is the action of spirit and this is
intelligible." God is everywhere represented in the Scriptures as
exercising intelligence and will (Genesis 1:1,2; 6:3; Job 26:7-14;
38:1-41; Psalm 2; 19; 72; Isaiah 61:1; Mark 10:27; 12:27; John 3:34;
Acts 3:26).
God is Personal.--Personality has two characteristics;
self-consciousness and self-direction. When it is said that God is
personal, the meaning is that He knows Himself as God and directs His
own actions. In the Bible He is represented as saying "I" (Exodus
20:2; 3:14) and as directing all things. Personality does not limit
God. He is the one perfect personality. Personality in man exists
only in a more or less imperfect degree. Personality is understood
here not as "bodily," but as belonging to the spirit.
GOD IS GOOD
The Character of God is a subject of great importance to man. God is
the Supreme Personal Spirit, yet to know only this is to leave out a
very vital part in our estimation or knowledge of God. We desire to
know and feel that God is not only the greatest, but the best being in
the universe. Hence God is shown to us in the Bible to be inwardly
perfect and outwardly consistent with this perfection. The Old
Testament shows a struggle between God and man; God seeking to bring
man to the thinking of right thoughts and doing of right actions and
man resisting Him. The history of Israel is a story of a nation whom
God would make a righteous people; all the laws given to it, civil,
sanitary and ceremonial, were with the end in view to make it "a holy
nation"; all its prophets and teachers proclaim the righteous and just
character of God (Exodus 19:6; Leviticus 11:45; 19:2; 20:7, 8; Numbers
15:40; Deuteronomy 14:2,21; Joshua 24:19; Psalm 22:3; 99:3; 111:9;
Isaiah 6:3; 57:15). In Jesus Christ and His life upon earth we see the
goodness of God in its largeness. "In His gospel holiness is the
ideal, the substance of Christian character and the end in view in
Christian experience." He says, in the Sermon on the Mount, "Be ye
therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect"
(Matthew 5:48).
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