By J.H. Garrison
IF IT has taken the world a long time to rise to a true and worthy conception of God, the same thing is true concerning an adequate conception of man. If the former required the incarnation--the God-man--so did the latter. Not until Jesus Christ came into the world to show us the Father, did the world have an illustration of the sublime possibilities of our human nature. How mean a thing was the average man, and of how little value was human life in the public mind, when Jesus came into the world! Kings, those of royal blood, statesmen, generals, philosophers--these were worthy of consideration in varying degrees, but the average man, or the great mass of the common people--what was he--what were they--in the estimation of the ruling class? What rights had they that the emperor and the empire were bound to respect?
Power came down from the ruler, not up from the people. The extent and kind of slavery, the status of womanhood and childhood--the former divorced and the latter abandoned at pleasure--the cruelty of the amusements in which human life was sacrificed "to make a Roman holiday"--these were the outward badges of the low and unworthy estimate which prevailed at the time, in regard to the sacredness and worth of human life.
Then came Jesus upon the scene. Born in poverty and obscurity, among a people whose nationality had been swallowed up in the Roman Empire, and reared in an ill-reputed village, without the training of the schools, he developed such a personality, lived such a life, wrought such wonderful deeds, and taught so pure and sublime a doctrine concerning God and man and human duty and destiny, as to change the face of the world and inaugurate a new era in the history of mankind. Out of his life and teaching there came a new and infinitely higher conception of man, of his relationship to God, and of his dignity and undreamed of possibilities. On the plane of his divine manhood he met and overcame the most powerful and subtle temptations of the devil, healed all manner of human ailments, mastered and made his willing servants the laws and forces of the material and spiritual universe, and lived and moved in a spiritual realm in which neither sin nor death--man's two great foes--could have dominion over him.
Slowly yet surely this new revelation, in Jesus, of man's value and place in the world has been undermining thrones and dynasties, breaking the chains of human slavery, rewriting constitutions and laws from the new point of view of man's worth, building schools, hospitals, homes for the orphan and the aged poor, and creating a vast empire of democracy the world around in which the people are the source of power and rulers exercise only that which is conferred upon them for the public good. The ideal of character which Jesus gave to the world, has furnished a new goal for the individual, as his teaching concerning the kingdom of God on earth has given us a new conception of human society, as the goal of the church.
What is the new goal for the individual? "Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Be like your Father in heaven. "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Christ, then, is the goal towards which we are to aim. This ideal is brought within the range of human possibility by Christ's help. He came, he says, that we "might have life, and have it abundantly." What divine possibilities are opened to us in this word of Christ! How much life will he impart to the believing, obedient, trusting, striving soul? Is there any limit to the promise? None except that which we fix. To be a Christian is something higher, nobler and more exalted in privilege and possibility than many of us have yet dreamed of. It opens to us a radiant pathway growing brighter unto the perfect day. Its terminus is nothing short of transformation into the image of Christ. (Rom. 8:29) As we have borne the image of the earthly Adam so shall be bear the image of the heavenly Christ. (1 Cor. 15:49) What a magnificent destiny then does Christ open up to humanity! How rich are the treasures of truth and grace in him, by which he enables us to realize that destiny! What folly to turn away from such a goal, and from such a Guide and Helper, to seek the soul's satisfaction in any ism of our day, no matter what its name or claim. In Christ we are complete, since "in him dwells all the fulness of the God-head, bodily." He is man's goal and guide and in him alone we realize life's purpose and prize.
