HEART OF CHRISTIAN FAITH

Some think of Christianity only on the horizontal plane: Man's relation to his fellow man. It's just a matter of morals and ethics.

But this is to miss the point entirely! Because ethics is the product of Christianity—not the process whereby one becomes Christian.

Such thinking stops with Jesus as Teacher.

He was a Teacher—the greatest in history . . . but if Jesus is nothing more than Teacher to us—then we have not begun to grasp what Jesus taught.

For everything He said pointed up two basic matters: Man's alienation from God by sin and His purpose to reconcile man to God by the sacrifice of Himself.

In Jesus' teaching the issue was not horizontal but vertical. Not man's broken relationship with man . . . but man's separation from God.

He spoke of a vicious malady: A malignancy in the human heart that defiled man. Jesus made it quite clear that this was the root of man's trouble, and He had come into the world to do something about it!

In short He had come to be a Savior—not simply a Teacher. His teaching was in order that men might realize their need of Him as Savior.

The Sermon on the Mount for example (as well as the Ten Com­mandments), was designed to serve a purpose much like a mirror. Man upon looking into the perfect law of God would see his sinfulness and turn to Christ for help.

Anyone who takes seriously the Sermon on the Mount will be led to despair if he takes Jesus only as Teacher. Because it is utterly beyond man's ability to fulfill. Only a Christ-enabled person can begin to live up to Jesus' ethics.

There's a subtle snare in the Jesus-as-Teacher line.   If He  is only teacher (nothing more), it is relatively easy to keep Him at arm's length so to speak. One can take an ACADEMIC interest in what He says and let it go at that.

Ironically to follow this line is actually to repudiate Jesus as Teacher for it "takes or leaves" the teaching depending on a person's feeling. He's in the questionable spot of honoring Jesus as Teacher while at the same time refusing to go along with all that He taught.

The heart and core of Jesus' message was His death. He came to die as a ransom for sin—to redeem man. He was the "Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."

To reject this is to reject the Teacher Who taught it!

This is central in Christian faith: Man is a sinner . . . Christ has the only adequate solution. HE IS THE SAVIOR!

"The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost . . ."