"His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6.
In the Teacher sent from God, heaven gave to the human race its best and greatest. He who had stood in the councils of the Most High, who had shared in the innermost sanctuary of the Eternal, was the One chosen to reveal in person the knowledge of God. Through Christ had been communicated every ray of divine light that had ever reached our fallen world. It was He who had spoken through everyone who throughout the ages had declared God's word to mortals. Of Him all the excellencies revealed in the earth's greatest and most noble souls were reflections. In Him was found the perfect ideal.
To reveal this ideal as the only true standard for attainment; to show what every human being may become; what, through the indwelling of humanity by divinity, all who receive Him may become--for this, Christ came to the world. He came to show how the children of God are to be trained, how they are to practice the principles and live the life of heaven.
God's greatest gift was bestowed to meet humanity's greatest need. The Light appeared when the world's darkness was deepest. Through false teaching the minds of men and women had long been turned away from God. In the prevailing systems of education, human philosophy had taken the place of divine revelation. Instead of the heaven-given standard of truth, people had accepted a standard of their own devising. From the Light of life they had turned aside to walk in the sparks of the fire that they had kindled.
Having separated from God, their only dependence being the power of humanity, their strength was but weakness. They were incapable of reaching even the standard set up by themselves. The want of true excellence was supplied by appearance and profession.
From time to time teachers arose who pointed minds to the Source of truth. Right principles were enunciated, and human lives witnessed to their power. But these efforts made no lasting impression. There was a brief check in the current of evil but its downward course was not stayed.
When Christ came to earth, humanity seemed to be fast reaching its lowest point. The very foundations of society were undermined. The Jews, destitute of the power of God's Word, gave to the world mind-benumbing, soul-deadening traditions and speculations. The worship of God "in Spirit and in truth" had been supplanted by the glorification of humans in an endless round of ceremonies. Throughout the world all systems of religion were losing their hold on mind and soul.
As people ceased to recognize the Divine, they ceased to regard the human. Truth, honor, integrity, confidence, compassion, were departing from the earth. Relentless greed and absorbing ambition gave birth to universal distrust. The idea of duty, of the obligation of strength to weakness, of human dignity and human rights, was cast aside as a dream or a fable. Wealth and power, ease and self-indulgence, were sought as the highest good. Physical degeneracy, mental stupor, spiritual death, characterized the age.
As the evil passions and purposes of men and women banished God from their thoughts, so forgetfulness of Him inclined them more strongly to evil. Bent on self-pleasing, they came to regard God as such a one as themselves--a Being whose aim was self-glory, whose requirements were suited to His own pleasure, a Being by whom people were lifted up or cast down according as they helped or hindered His selfish purpose. The lower classes regarded the Supreme Being as one scarcely differing from their oppressors, except by exceeding them in power.
By these ideas every form of religion was molded. Each was a system of requirements. By gifts and ceremonies the worshipers tried to propitiate the Deity in order to secure His favor for their own ends. Evil, unrestrained, grew stronger, while appreciation and desire for good diminished. People lost the image of God and received the impress of the demoniacal power by which they were controlled. The whole world was becoming a sink of corruption.
Only One Hope for the Race
There was but one hope for the human race--that into this mass of discordant and corrupting elements might be introduced a new leaven; that there might be brought to humankind the power of a new life; that the knowledge of God might be restored to the world.
Christ came to restore this knowledge. He came to set aside the false teaching by which those who claimed to know God had misrepresented Him. He came to manifest the nature of His law, to reveal in His own character the beauty of holiness.
Christ came to the world with the accumulated love of eternity. He showed that the law of God is a law of love, an expression of the Divine Goodness. He showed that in obedience to its principles is involved the happiness of everyone, and with it the stability, the very foundation and framework, of human society.
God's law is given as a hedge, a shield. Whoever accepts its principles is preserved from evil. Fidelity to God involves fidelity to humans. Thus the law guards the rights, the individuality, of every human being. It ensures their well-being, both for this world and for the world to come. To the obedient it is the pledge of eternal life, for it expresses the principles that endure forever. Christ came to demonstrate the value of the divine principles by revealing their power for the regeneration of humanity.
With the people of that age the value of all things was determined by outward show. As religion declined in power, it increased in pomp. The educators of the time sought to command respect by display and ostentation. To all this the life of Jesus presented a marked contrast. His life demonstrated the worthlessness of those things that most people regarded as life's great essentials. His education was gained directly from the Heavenappointed sources--from useful work, from the study of the Scriptures and of nature, and from the experiences of life.
"The Child grew, and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him." Luke 2:40.
Thus prepared, Jesus went forth to His mission, exerting upon men, women, and children an influence to bless, a power to transform, such as the world had never witnessed.
Anyone who seeks to transform humanity must understand humanity. Only through sympathy, faith, and love can people be reached and uplifted. Here Christ stands revealed as the Master Teacher. He alone has perfect understanding of the human soul.
Christ alone had experience in all the sorrows and temptations that befall human beings. Never was another so fiercely beset by temptation. Never another bore so heavy a burden of the world's sin and pain. Never was there another whose sympathies were so broad or so tender. A sharer in all the experiences of humanity, He could feel not only for, but with, every burdened and tempted and struggling one.
What He taught, He lived. "I have given you an example," He said to His disciples, "that you should do as I have done to you." "I have kept My Father's commandments." John 13:15; 15:10. Thus, in His life Christ's words had perfect illustration and support. And more than this; what He taught, He was. His words were the expression not only of His own life experience but of His own character.
Christ was a faithful reprover. Never lived another who so hated evil, never another whose denunciation of it was so fearless. His very presence was a rebuke to all things untrue and base. In the light of His purity, people saw themselves unclean, their life's aims mean and false. Yet He drew them. He who had created them understood their value. In every human being, however fallen, He saw a child of God, one who might be restored to the privilege of divine relationship.
In every human being He discerned infinite possibilities. He saw people as they might be, transfigured by His grace. Looking upon them with hope, He inspired hope. Meeting them with confidence, He inspired trust. In His presence despised and fallen souls longed to prove themselves worthy of His regard. New impulses were awakened in many a heart that seemed dead to all things holy. To many a despairing one there opened the possibility of a new life.
A Life of Love
Christ bound them to His heart by ties of love and devotion, and by the same ties He bound them to one another. With Him love was life, and life was service. "Freely you have received," He said, "freely give." Matthew 10:8.
It was not on the cross only that Christ sacrificed Himself for humanity. As He "went about doing good" (Acts 10:38), every day's experience was an outpouring of His life. In one way only could such a life be sustained. Jesus lived in dependence upon God and communion with Him. His life was one of constant trust, sustained by continual communion, and His service for heaven and earth was without failure or faltering.
As a man Jesus supplicated the throne of God till His humanity was charged with a heavenly current that connected humanity with divinity. Receiving life from God, He imparted life to others.
Instead of directing the people to study human theories about God, His Word, or His works, He taught them to behold Him, as manifested in His works, in His Word, and by His providences. He brought their minds into contact with the mind of the Infinite.
"No man ever spoke like this Man." John 7:46. This would have been true of Christ if He had taught only in the area of the physical and intellectual, or only in matters of theory and speculation. He might have unlocked mysteries that have taken centuries of work and study to solve. He might have made suggestions in scientific matters that would have stimulated thought and invention till the close of time. But He did not do this. He did not deal in abstract theories, but in that which is essential to the development of character, that which will enlarge the capacity of human minds for knowing God and increasing their power to do good. He spoke of those truths that deal with the way people live, truths that will unite them with God.
Christ's teaching, like His sympathies, embraced the world. Never can there be a circumstance of life, a crisis in human experience, that has not been anticipated in His teaching, and for which its principles do not have a lesson. The Prince of teachers, His words will be found a guide to His co-workers till the end of time.
To Him the present and the future, the near and the far, were one. He had in view the needs of the whole world. Before His mind's eye was outspread every scene of human effort and achievement, of temptation and conflict, of perplexity and peril.
He spoke not only for, but to, the entire human family--to the little child, in the gladness of life's morning; to the eager, restless heart of youth; to men and women in the strength of their years, bearing the burden of responsibility and care; to the aged in their weakness and weariness. He spoke to every person in every land and in every age.
The things of this life He placed as subordinate to those of eternal interest, but He did not ignore their importance. He taught that heaven and earth are linked together, and that a knowledge of divine truth prepares people better to perform the duties of daily life. To Him nothing was without purpose. The sports of the child, the work of men and women, life's pleasures and cares and pains, all were means to one end--the revelation of God for the uplifting of humanity.
From His lips the Word of God came home to human hearts with new power and new meaning. In all the facts and experiences of life were revealed a divine lesson and the possibility of divine companionship. Again God dwelt on earth; human hearts became conscious of His presence; the world was encompassed with His love.
In the Teacher sent from God, all true educational work finds its center. Of this work today as verily as of the work He established during His earthly ministry the Savior speaks in the words: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End." Revelation 21:6.
In the presence of such a Teacher, of such opportunity for divine education, it is worse than folly to seek an education apart from Him. Behold, He is still inviting: "Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me, and let the one who believes in Me drink." John 7:37, 38, NRSV.