What did he think he came into the world to do? What did he consider his
mission to be?
We cannot be in the least doubt for the answer; there was no confusion in
mission was we will easily find the answer—unparalleled by the thought of
any, absolutely unique, stupendous, but as unmistakable in meaning as
simple in the form of expression.
We will answer in his own words: “The Son of man is come to seek and to
save that which is lost.” “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners
world, but that the world through him might be saved.” “I came not to
judge the world, but to save the world.” More forcibly, if possible, than
in his words, his conception of his mission is shown by his work, his
living, and his dying. St. Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, gives us in
a simple statement the whole history; it is, in a line, the biography of
the God-man, “He went about doing good.”
That Jesus should have seen in the world evil that needed to be remedied,
that he should have tried to remedy the evil he saw, does not, in itself,
difference him from good and wise men who have observed the facts of human
reformers have recognized evil in the world, and many of them have
moral evil is, at its root, sin, and sin, considered as a quality in man’
s character, is a state of being that is out of harmony with God;
is, in his spirit, at enmity with God; in his life he breaks God’s law.
He loves evil because evil is in him; his life is wicked because his heart
is bad.
And Jesus comes to take away sin; to deliver men from it, its penalty, and
its power. Said the angel to Mary: “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for
he shall save his people from their sins.”
In the view of Jesus sin is the one evil; deliverance from sin is
of all possible evil; he recognized no evil that was in man’s
circumstances, as if his evil came out of fate or in some way invincible
by him; it is all of sin.
Wherefore Jesus does not set about bettering man’s circumstances, by
conditions of life; he works upon man himself. Whatever improves man’s
condition is, in the doctrine of Jesus, to be desired; but it is not
enough to make man comfortable; he must be made good. He teaches that all
that is truly good and needful will come to men who are delivered from
First, last, all the time, Jesus makes deliverance from sin the one thing
needful—the chief good.
As his manner was, he does not argue about it; he states his doctrine
positively13, “with authority,” as one knowing the whole truth of the
case. There is no qualifying word to tone down his statements and to leave
place for retreat from possible mistakes.
His doctrine he taught and illustrated14 in every possible way. It is in his
more formal discourses15, his briefest comments on men and things, his most
occasional conversations and most incidental remarks. His doctrine is in
all his efforts to do men good, as it is in every warning and every
promise.
And there is never a shadow of doubt, a suspicion of hesitation16. From his
first word to the last, from the beatitudes to the prayer on the cross, it
is always the same thing; man’s trouble is all in his sin; his only
salvation is deliverance from sin.
washed his feet with her tears, at Simon’s table, he said not a word
about her lost social position or of its possible restoration. He said, “
Thy sins are forgiven; thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”
When the four kind and loving friends of Capernaum—whose names we would
like to know—had brought their palsied neighbor to Peter’s house, and
had at last, with much trouble, through the broken roof laid him down at
the feet of Jesus, the first words were not about palsy and healing, but
about sin and salvation: “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.” This is what
the story of the penitent publican, crying out, “God be merciful to me a
the whole life and teaching of Jesus mean.
We must notice particularly that the mere conception of a divine
incarnation is not peculiar to the story of Jesus. The notion of
incarnation, the idea of the gods taking a form of flesh and manifesting
themselves to men, is in the traditions of almost every nation. It has
been said, hastily, I believe, that there are some races, at least some
tribes, so low in development as to have no idea of God whatever. It is
easy to be mistaken in such matters; it is difficult for a cultivated man
his religion. Perhaps the language difficulty is the least bar to
understanding in such a case; the differences between men are not measured
by differences in speech only. It is certain that the conception of God
is, in some form, in most nations. I believe it is in all. And in every
nation there is some sort of notion of divine manifestation20.
The attempt to represent the gods in stone, in metal, in wood, or even in
rude drawings and paintings, comes after a traditional belief has long
held its place in men’s thoughts of their manifestation in some visible
It is not always a human form; it is generally not a human form, except as
it is part of the conception: as in the eagle-headed Belus of Babylon, as
in the winged bulls, with the head of a man and the feet of a lion, that
Layard found in the ruins of Nineveh. These composite images represented
ideas of the gods, not facts concerning them. Thus the image found in the
ruins of Nineveh represented strength, swiftness, courage, intelligence.
traditions of divine manifestation, of incarnation.
All the mythologies23 tell us of incarnations; but the idea of divine
incarnation in the story of the evangelists differs, not in some
incidents, but in all essentials from all others. One unique fact, as has
simply a man who, as to his appearance, had absolutely nothing that was
to Jesus.
We might speak of the limitations that go with other conceptions of gods
thought has been illustrated elsewhere. It may answer now simply to remind
you that Vishnu is Hindustanee, Isis and Osiris Egyptian, Odin and Thor
Scandinavian. Not one of them has relations to the whole human race. But
Jesus, who calls himself “the Son of man,” is of all, and belongs to
all.
But the most notable difference to be considered now, that which alone
in the end he proposed to accomplish. The gods became incarnate and
appeared to men, or dwelt among them, to do many and very different
things; Jesus to do just one thing, and to do what no other ever proposed
to do, or so much as thought of doing. He, “the Son of man,” was of all
and for all, and he proposes an end that concerns all. The evil he would
remove from all is not a Hebrew trouble; it is in the human race.
innumerable incarnations. But for what end? Always to work some prodigies;
to do some strange things on the plane of men’s lives; to do things
affecting men’s circumstances, not men’s character. He comes to do
something in a limited sphere; something for his people, Hindustanee
people, not for the whole race of man. Vishnu, when he comes in mercy,
comes to remedy external conditions; he delivers from pestilence32, famine,
enemies.
In mythology the very conception men had of the coming of the gods grew
out of their circumstances. Thus in India the conception of evil itself
was determined34 by conditions peculiar to India. With them evil grew out of
famine.
The evil Jesus considered was peculiar to no people and to no country; it
did not grow out of natural conditions; it was in man himself, and it was
sin.
Among warlike nations the gods came down to take part in mere national
matters; they fought the battles of their friends and punished their
enemies. Your Homer tells you all this in the story of the siege of Troy.
Virgil tells you the same thing; your classical authors are full of it.
The poor Indians and negro tribes tell of such incarnations.
It was this very human conception of divine incarnation that filled the
national imagination and sustained the national hopes before Jesus came.
they could not use him for their ends; it is a conception that to this day
lingers in Hebrew thought and hope. They looked and prayed for a divine
warrior-king who would lead their armies, restore their nation, and give
How incredible the idea that the evangelists have only given us a
reflection of popular sentiment, the outgrowth of national traditions!
incarnation the evangelists describe. The nation resented unto death the
conception Jesus had of his mission to men; before such a king as Jesus
they preferred the Cæsar they hated; they put to death the man who only
sought to save them from their sins because he disappointed them in their
Speaking in a general way, the gods of the nations, when they become
incarnate, come to do a man’s sort of work. They work upon the outside of
life; they seek to deliver man from external evils and to improve his
thought they needed a divine man to do; the evangelists tell us what the
divine Man thought men needed that he should do. When the gods of
mythology become incarnate they work in the realm of circumstances; Jesus
speaks only of the man himself, his heart, his character, and seeks only
to make him good.
Here is, therefore, the essential difference: his conception of evil, and
back of that, of course, his conception of man himself.
As we have seen, in the thought of Jesus the evil and the good, the woes
externals, but internals; not in circumstances, but in character. Jesus
does not, therefore, dwell upon poverty or wealth, sickness or health,
enemies or friends, contempt or favor, servitude or freedom, early death
or long life. He is not concerned about any circumstances whatever that
merely determine man’s external life; he is concerned about man himself.
If there be any real good or any real evil the good and the evil are
inside, not outside the man.
Let us note, too, Jesus never places man’s moral evil, which is the one
evil he recognizes, in mere ignorance of truth, as if instruction and
merely changing man’s opinions could remedy the evil; he always places it
Jesus calls sin, that something that is sin because it antagonizes the
pure will of God. And Jesus teaches that the very constitution of man’s
nature is such that no bettering of his external conditions can bring any
real help whatsoever46; that so long as man is out of harmony with God there
can be for him, neither in this world nor the next, any real good. This he
profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”
Jesus took very great pains to teach men that in themselves, and not in
their circumstances, was their real evil and their real good. He used
almost every form of speech to teach them to think of a man as a man, and
not as the sport of circumstances.
For poverty Jesus did not care; for wealth he had no respect. The story of
great worldly success; who was what most men long and strive to be—rich
and great. But he was a man out of harmony with God—rich in purse,
bankrupt in soul. Jesus, in the face of all human opinion, plainly calls
such a man “a fool.”
The drama of the rich man and Lazarus turns the light of both worlds upon
the question of man’s chief and only good, and emphasizes, by the despair
of the prince in hell, his verdict upon the case of the prosperous and
self-satisfied barn-builder, in whose thoughts and plans neither his own
soul nor the God who made him had any place.
Always—whether speaking of his own personal work or in instructing his
conditions. He did not care for conditions, except as they connected men
with influences that made them good or evil; he cared for men only. Hence
he always stressed character and nothing else.
Character, in the teaching of Jesus, is all; it is both test and measure
of what a man is, and there is no other test or measure for which man
ought to care, for which God does care.
ideas of Jesus were not borrowed from the men of his time and race.
Summing up what is here presented as to the conception Jesus had of his
mission to men, a conception as unique as his own character: only one
thing he hated and sought to destroy—sin; only one thing he loved for man
and sought to bestow—goodness.
Only one thing his true disciples hate—sin; only one thing is worth
striving, living and dying for—goodness: which is another name for
Christ-likeness.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
ambiguity
|
|
| n.模棱两可；意义不明确 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
repentance
|
|
| n.懊悔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
condemn
|
|
| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
deplored
|
|
| v.悲叹，痛惜，强烈反对( deplore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
miseries
|
|
| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
doctrine
|
|
| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
peculiar
|
|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
violation
|
|
| n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
salvation
|
|
| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
sanitary
|
|
| adj.卫生方面的，卫生的，清洁的，卫生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
remains
|
|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
positively
|
|
| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
illustrated
|
|
| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
discourses
|
|
| 论文( discourse的名词复数 )； 演说； 讲道； 话语 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
hesitation
|
|
| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
penitent
|
|
| adj.后悔的；n.后悔者；忏悔者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
prodigal
|
|
| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
savage
|
|
| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
manifestation
|
|
| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
tangible
|
|
| adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
grotesque
|
|
| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
mythologies
|
|
| 神话学( mythology的名词复数 )； 神话（总称）； 虚构的事实； 错误的观点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
stature
|
|
| n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
incarnate
|
|
| adj.化身的，人体化的，肉色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
specialized
|
|
| adj.专门的，专业化的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
legendary
|
|
| adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
supreme
|
|
| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
mythology
|
|
| n.神话，神话学，神话集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
condescended
|
|
| 屈尊，俯就( condescend的过去式和过去分词 )； 故意表示和蔼可亲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
pestilence
|
|
| n.瘟疫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
wrath
|
|
| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
abounded
|
|
| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
prey
|
|
| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
dense
|
|
| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
scourges
|
|
| 带来灾难的人或东西，祸害( scourge的名词复数 )； 鞭子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
longing
|
|
| n.（for）渴望 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
dominion
|
|
| n.统治，管辖，支配权；领土，版图 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
utterly
|
|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
patriotic
|
|
| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
labors
|
|
| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
blessings
|
|
| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
alienates
|
|
| v.使疏远( alienate的第三人称单数 )；使不友好；转让；让渡（财产等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
whatsoever
|
|
| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
outweigh
|
|
| vt.比...更重，...更重要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
judgment
|
|
| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
disciples
|
|
| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
amazement
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |