01.11. XI. Christ, The Incomparable
XI CHRIST, THE INCOMPARABLE
“Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”—Php 2:5-11. THE phrase, “Christ, The Incomparable,” is extremely popular at present. It has come to be a custom with all liberal theologians, and almost a habit with outright infidels to pay tribute to the character of Jesus. Unitarians, and even atheists, have well nigh exceeded evangelicals in their laudation of the Man from Nazareth; and the present-day higher critics all say “Amen,” when we pay tribute to Him. Renan said, “In Jesus is condensed all that is good and exalted in all nature.” Thomas Paine remarked, “The morality that He preached has not been exceeded by any.” Disraeli, the Jew, confessed, “Jesus has conquered Europe and phanged its name to Christendom.” Rousseau remarked, “If the life and death of Socrates were those of a martyr, the life and death of Jesus were those of a God.” When, therefore, a conservative talks either about the accomplishments or character of Jesus, he will find no liberal theologian, and but few infidels, to oppose him. It is only when we come to the question of His deity, involving as it does, atonement for sin through sacrifice and cleansing by the shedding of blood, that they revolt and reveal their real estimate of Christ’s claims.
It is a marvelous thing that any man could so live and die as to compel even His enemies to pay tribute to Him; as to force from the lips of the most malignant opponents masterly encomiums, and yet Christ has accomplished that. When Paul penned this epistle to the Philippians this name was not so popular, and yet, by inspiration he proclaimed its coming power, and, for the moment, turned prophet, and the civilised of all later centuries consent to the circumstance that he spake truthfully.
There are three things he says about this Incomparable One.
First of all, God gave to Him AN INCOMPARABLE NAME.
“Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a things to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name.” Did you ever ask yourself the question why God gave to Him “a name that was above every name”? In how many respects is that an incomparable name? I shall not attempt to answer that in full; but a few suggestions:
He was incomparable in mental ability. Every apocryphal gospel tells remarkable things about the youth of Jesus. The true Gospels mention little of His youth, but when it is touched, His mental abilities are uncovered. At twelve years of age His parents at the feast, in leaving, miss Him. After they had gone a great way toward home they made the discovery that the lad was not with them, and went back, “and it came to pass, after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both hearing them, and asking them questions; and all that heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” Again in the Word of God we are told that “He grew,” not only “in stature,” but “in wisdom,” and that is easily accepted as a fact. The moment His public ministry begins men stand astounded, and even His enemies consent “never man spake like this man.” On one occasion, when He had finished with the delivery of certain parables, He came into His own country, and taught them in their synagogue, “insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brethren James, and Joseph, and Simon and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence, then, hath this man all these things?”
He was a product of no school and yet His speech has given rise to the great schools of the centuries. He was the author of no code of laws, yet His declarations determine the righteousness of all law. He engaged in no philosophical speculations, yet all philosophers are compelled to sit at His feet. He formulated no distinct system of theology, yet the only theology worthy the attention of men, and calculated to do aught for a sinning, dying world, is that which is in the strictest keeping with His wonderful words. Truly, as Dr. Robert F. Horton, of the Old World, once said, “Churches and theologies”—(he might have added, schools)—“have failed us and confused us, but when Christ speaks from the mount all is clear.”
He was incomparable in mighty accomplishments. Dwight Hillis never said a truer thing, than when he wrote, “Our wonder grows apace when we remember that He wrote no book, no poem, no drama, no philosophy; invented no tool or instrument; fashioned no law or institution; discovered, no medicine or remedy; outlined no philosophy of mind or body; contributed nothing to geology or astronomy, but stood at the end of His brief career, doomed and deserted, solitary and silent, utterly helpless, fronting a shameless trial and a pitiless execution. In that hour none so poor as to do Him reverence. And yet could some magician have touched men’s eyes they would have seen that no power in heaven and no force on earth for majesty and productiveness could equal or match this crowned sufferer whose name was to be ‘Wonderful.’ The ages have come and gone; let us hasten to confess that the carpenter’s Son hath lifted the gates of empires off their hinges and turned the stream of the centuries out of their channels. His spirit hath leavened all literature; He has made laws just, governments humane, manners gentle, even cold marble warm; He refined art by new and divine themes, shaped those cathedrals called ‘frozen prayers,’ led scientists to dedicate their books and discoveries to Him, and so glorified an instrument of torture as that the very queen among beautiful women seeks to enhance her loveliness by hanging His cross about her neck, while new inventions and institutions seem but letters in His storied speech. Today His birthday, alone, is celebrated by all the nations. All peoples and tribes claim Him. None hath arisen to dispute His throne. Plato divides honours with Aristotle; Bacon walks arm in arm with Newton; Napoleon does not monopolise the admiration of soldiers. In poetry, music and art, and practical life, universal supremacy is unknown. But Jesus Christ is so opulent in His gifts, so transcendent in His words and works, so unique in His life and death, that He receives universal honours. His name eclipses other names as the noonday sun obliterates by very excess of light.”
He was incomparable in essential character. In all the days of my life I have never fallen upon an attack of the character of Christ until recently. Rousseau admitted it, Paine paid it tribute, Hume honoured it, and our countryman, Ingersoll, declared, “For the man Jesus, I have infinite respect.” Even erratic minds denying the deity of Christ and deriding the claims of the Church, never had the hardihood to decry His character. It remained for a modern, to attempt that defamation and exercise that blasphemy. The world for many centuries, so far as it has read the Scriptures at all, has been well nigh a unit in its exalted judgment of Jesus. In fact, the picture given in the four Gospels is just exactly such as to confirm the basis for Dr. Carnegie Simpson’s claim that no such character could ever have been conceived apart from its actual existence. He quotes J. S. Mill as having declared, “It is no use to say that Christ, as exhibited in the Gospels, is not historical, and that we know not how much of what is admirable has been superadded by the traditions of His followers.” It is no use, because, as Mills adds, “who among His disciples, or their proselytes—he might have added, ‘who among the poets and dramatists of all the world’—is capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Jesus or of imagining such a life and character. The only way in the world to account for their work is to suppose that they spoke in utter veracity. They had a model and they copied it faithfully, and because the model was faultless, the reproduction, being faithful, was perfect, also.” This character of Jesus becomes the more resplendent when one remembers the day in which He was born and lived. As another says, “It was an hour when tyranny and crime had gone upon a carnival. It seemed as if despots had determined to leave on earth not one of the gifted children of song or eloquence or philosophy or morals. Julius Caesar, the writer and ruler, had been murdered. Cicero, the orator, had been assassinated. Herod, who ruled over Christ’s city, murdered his two brothers, his wife, Mariamne, slew the children of Bethlehem, and, dying, ordered his nobles to be executed, that mourning for the king might be widespread. Yet in such an era, when He saw a thousand wrongs to be achieved, Christ maintained His serenity, and reigned victorious over life’s troubles.” And one might add, He provided a solution for every sorrow and a salvation from every sin. But the apostle speaks in the next place of A CONQUERING NAME.
“He gave unto him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth.” His triumph in heaven is complete. Two schools of interpreters—yea, twenty—have attempted the book of Revelation. But the two great schools are Praeterists and Futurists. The first of these says that most of the things prophesied in the book of the Revelation have passed already, and the second insist, “Not so; they are all yet to come.” Neither is right! Some of them have transpired and others of them are yet to come to pass. Two thousand years ago John, on the Isle of Patmos, was vouchsafed a vision of the open heaven. He saw Jesus in His glorified estate. From Him he received messages for the seven churches in Asia; and then the Faithful and True Witness turned his attention to “the things that must shortly come to pass,” and among them He granted to him a vision of the war in heaven. Michael is shown going forth to war with the dragon, “and the dragon warred and his angels; and they prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him. And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying, Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accuseth them before our God day and night. And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe for the earth and for the sea; because the devil is gone down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time” (Revelation 12:7-12). Where Christ is, this arch fiend cannot reign; he cannot even remain.
He will accomplish the supremacy of the earth. “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things on earth.” O, how that declaration from Paul’s pen fits into the teaching of the Old Testament worthies. The Psalmist, catching a vision of the ages to come, wrote, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the River unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall render tribute; the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him; all nations shall serve him. For he will deliver the needy when he crieth, and the poor, that hath no helper” (Psalms 72:8-12). Daniel, also, you remember, says, “I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a son of man, and he came even to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:13-14). This is that of which Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:24-25 : “Then cometh the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all his enemies under his feet.”
All civilisation moves to one end, whether it knows it or not; and all Christianisation has one object, whether it be thoroughly apprehended or not, and that is the conquest of Christ in this world, and the making of a new earth in which dwelleth righteousness. And it shall be done! I know the discouragements of the days intervening, and I know how the delays trouble even the dutiful; I know how apostacy from the faith filches the place of genuine prophets, and yet I know, on the authority of God’s word-prophecies many of which have already found a fulfilment, that we move directly to this conquering by the Christ! God shall bring it to pass. Someone has said, “The century plant takes a hundred years for root and trunk, but blossoms in a night. And nations also shall in a day be born into culture and character.” And this same writer says, “And every knee shall bow to the name that is above every name, and He whom God has lifted to the world’s throne shall, in turn, lift the world to a place beside Him.” His victory over hell will be acknowledged. There are some people who seem to think that hell is to beat heaven out; that the final victory is to be with the underworld. The text says not so; “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth” Satan and his entire host perfectly understand that fact. That is the interpretation of the speech of the devils at the sight of Jesus. They trembled when He drew nigh; begged Him not to “torment them before their time” as if it were perfectly understood that there was a time fixed when every devil that had ever allied himself with the great Dragon, and become a permanent rebel against the Divine government, should cringe at the mention of His conquering name, and perish at the touch of His conquering hand. We wonder, after all, if that is not the interpretation of Revelation 22:10, where Satan and his associates and all followers, find their fate in the pit, hurled thence by the mighty Son of God. O, His is a conquering Name! At its mention everything of earth is destined to bow: at its mention every saint and angel of heaven will fall on the face; and at its mention every devil in hell will fear and flee away; then “every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
His, then, is A GOD-GLORIFYING NAME.
It would be an interesting study indeed to run the Scriptures through and see in what respects the name of Jesus glorifies God. O, there are so many! Let me pick out three of these and with that finish. In that name men are saved from sin. “They shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” There is an eighth wonder in the world today, namely, the denial of sin. The denial of the most evident, the most potent fact of human experience and sane observation. SIN! It is the author of all sorrows; it is the occasion of all doom; it is the call for hell. The whole world is under its blight. Not one noble man has escaped; not one fair woman has gone unscathed. Discouragement, disease, despair and death lie over the earth like a pall. The name that is an antidote for sin, the man that can withdraw its sting, is the name, the man, that brings to God the greatest glory. In the Orient one of the commonest effects of sin is blindness, consequently when the disciples of Jesus saw one totally stricken by this affliction they addressed their Master, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he should be born blind? Jesus answered, Neither did this man sin, nor his parents”; the effect upon him is more remote, it has come down a greater distance, “but that the words of God should be made manifest in him.” And Christ healed him, and God was glorified. The blind are everywhere, the lame lie at many gates, the fevered are found under a multitude of roofs; the deaf, the dumb, the demonised; O, how sin has made havoc with the sons of men. Dwight Hillis spake truly when he said, “Long ago Cleopatra, the daughter of supreme beauty, received sin into her arms, counting it to be an angel of light; but alas, sin broke her heart, and soon she welcomed the viper to her bosom. It was sin that wrecked the palace of David. It was sin that ruined the genius of Solomon. It was sin that stole the purple from Alcibiades and gave him instead the robe of a slave. It was sin that, serpent like, crawled over the threshold of the palaces in Rome and left its slime within court and banqueting hall. Sin was the flame which blackened the Doge’s palace in Venice. Sin was the earthquake that toppled down the treasure houses of Florence. For Bacon sin was a worm in the bud of his heart. For Byron sin was moth and rust that consumed the mind. For Shelley sin was a vandal that grew by the rapine and murder of the poet’s soul.”
We are told that when the work of excavation was done in the streets, and the houses of Pompeii were uncovered, and the gathered treasures in bronze and marble and ivories and mosaics were assembled, in a museum, not one single object of them all had escaped some form of injury. The Winged Mercury had arms and legs broken, the white forehead of Venus had a black stain, every precious tablet was cracked to a greater or less degree, while the very rolls found in Pliny’s tomb had their writings too faded to read. This is only a type of the havoc sin has made in men. The chief products of the divine artist, broken, scarred, stained, are we all. And Christ came to replace, to heal, to cleanse, to save. No wonder the men who looked upon Him in the old day when He both recovered the sick and forgave the sinner, glorified God, saying, “We never saw it on this wise.” O, His is a God-glorifying name!
He glorifies God by transforming the saved. His work is not that of reformation only; it involves transformation. “For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren.” “We all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Henry Drummond, in his matchless booklet, “The Greatest Thing in the World,” speaks wonderfully of this transformation, accomplished while we behold the face of the transfigured Christ, and looking on Him, grow like Him in character. Horace Stanton says, “In the gallery of the Vatican at Rome, said to contain of art more genuine treasures than any other on the earth, there hangs a work which stands not only supreme above those others there, but, by the consenting judgment of three centuries and a half, at the head of all the oil paintings in the world—The Transfiguration, by Raphael. It was in the noonday of his life that he began it, and the sublimest conceptions of that peerless spirit are here displayed. A genius of amazing brilliancy, in imagination never yet surpassed, but tender, sensitive, and reverential, was portraying that single scene when the Saviour was manifested to the disciples in His future celestial light, the only time that earthly eyes had yet seen Him in His glory. And, as the artist bent his might upon it, the splendid vision rose; in drawing, grouping, and dramatic power, a work unequalled. It is called the grandest picture ever limner wrought. But, as the last lines were almost done, God called Raphael. And, over his shadowy bier, they hung this picture; its colours still wet upon the canvas, the last work of that lifeless hand. What a funeral was this—that graceful figure covered with the painter’s cloak, the throng of mourners kneeling weeping there; but over all, the breathing beauty and immortal radiance of that heavenly scene, which showed the lustre of the Transfigured Christ. As Raphael in art, so we in spirit, speech and life may delineate the transfiguration of our Lord. And, at our death, the lustre of Christ—crowned and regnant—shall fall on us, to give each his proper splendour. For, “as there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, though many stars may draw their radiance from that one central sun; so Christ’s glory shall be chiefest; and each of us will have a proper share, all unlike one another, though we all shall be like him.”
Yet once more, God receives glory in that Christ is Lord over death and the grave. He is our hope of a resurrection. When Lazarus lay dead and was revived—the great New Testament type of the resurrection of the saints—Jesus said to Martha, “Said I not unto thee, that if thou believedst, thou shouldest see the glory of God? So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hearest me. And I knew that thou hearest me always; but because of the multitude that standest around I said it, that they may believe that thou didst send me. And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth,” and the glory of God was revealed.
He is the Lord of life out of death; of victory over the grave. In His name saints shall conquer against the last enemy, and troop up in bodies incorruptible, powerful, glorious, spiritual. I have attempted at times, in speaking of the resurrection, to tell my auditors something of what the resurrection body will be. It was an impossible proposition! The most physically perfect man the world ever saw was Jesus on the day of the crucifixion. In His prime at thirty-three years of age, uncorrupted by sin, untouched by any infirmity of body, soul or spirit; and in that body, risen from the dead, one finds the model in the likeness of which all saints shall come forth.
Stanton tells us that, “In the museums of Europe, you see statues of Antinous, that young man of antiquity who was noted for his symmetry and grace. There is the Apollo Belvidere, an artist’s sublime conception of the godlike form. In Frankfort you visit Dannecker’s famous group of statuary, ‘Ariadne on the Panther.’ It is in a building especially erected for it. There is the lithe and agile beast. Upon his back the beauteous maiden sits. The drapery half reveals, and half conceals her fine proportions. The expression on her face most sweet. The crimson curtains, which surround the alcove, mellow the light, so that she almost seems to live. The group is mounted on a revolving pedestal. And, as it turns, you survey it from every side—matchless in its perfect beauty. The Antinous shows the ideal mould of man; the Ariadne the ideal form of woman. But who shall prove that, in the coming world, yea, in the millennium of this world, every man and every woman will not be as beautiful of face and figure as the Antinous and the Ariadne? Those Greek statues were largely representations of the living figures seen in the gymnasia. They were illustrations of the superb physiques of the actual persons of that day. Modern statues are largely copied from them. But surely the figures of the glorified children of God in the New Jerusalem, will be more beautiful than were those of the children of men in ancient Greece.”
“This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection, over these the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.”
It is a glorious prospect, and God Himself is glorified in the sure promise of Christ’s victory over death and the grave, and He will be in its final and unspeakable realisation.