CHRIST OUR EXAMPLE OF SACRIFICE
By V. H. Lucas
V. H. LUCAS
(Atlanta, Ga.) “For even Christ pleased not himself.” Rom. 15:3 These are marvelous words. They express a world of meaning. They reveal a perfect life. They were spoken of the lowly Nazarene. Christ lived not for himself. He sought not for the high places of this world. He condescended to men of low estate. He went about doing good, mindful of the temporal needs of the sick and the poor. He came into the world to save the whole man—body, soul, and spirit. He cared for the physical man, having a mission to the bodies of men. He opened the eyes of the blind; unstopped the ears of the deaf, and made the lame to leap for joy. He looked not upon His own needs, but, in His inconceivable glory, in His equality with God the Father, He looked upon the needs of others. With a great heart of sympathy, He beheld man's ruin, his utter helplessness, his need of a Saviour. He showed the dignity of honest human labor by His own willing service at the carpenter's bench. He even scorned not the company of publicans and sinners, and thereby gave a glory to work which had no glory hitherto. In His choosing, He took the post of a servant—“Not my will, but thine, be done,” He prayed. His humility was complete. He sought to redeem fallen man at any cost, and it culminated in His own death—the cruel, lingering, shameful death on the cross, reserved for the vilest of criminals. When differences arise between individuals, there is a proneness of each to become bitter and overbearing, and to thrust his own convictions and preferences upon the other; in the words of the text the great apostle teaches that the true remedy for this fault is to be found in self-denial and self-sacrifice, and the true inspiration for unselfishness is to be seen in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ—the sublimest example of self-denial and self-sacrifice the world has ever known. By the child of faith this cross is to be borne all along the pathway of life. To the Roman, and the pagan in general, the word “humility” spoke only meanness; but the Saviour shed a halo of glory around it, and gave it a new meaning, so that now it suggests to the Christian the deepest piety. In viewing how Christ “pleased not himself,” it is necessary to consider for a moment His original glory. Christ was not merely in fashion as God,—that is, in the appearance of God, or resembling God,—He was the very nature and substance of God. He possessed all power and dominion. Yet high as He was exalted, He emptied himself and took upon himself the form of a manservant. His humility was so great that the most abject slavery on earth would not compare with it. He lived a human life, and died a human death: God himself in humanity suffering the wrath of sin. The word of God teaches us that we should empty ourselves of all pride, vainglory, self-pleasing; that we should deny ourselves, seeking the needs of others, and in humbleness of mind esteeming others better than ourselves; for our Lord has made self-sacrifice our duty. He not only gives a sublime example of what self-sacrifice is, He enjoins it upon all. He not only shows us how to live, but He commands us so to live. Pleasing self is natural, even when to do so is injurious to ourselves and displeasing to God. Nothing so separates souls as self-pleasing. Among the followers of Christ, competition, be it ever so generous, can not be tolerated in these closing hours of time, except it be competition for the lowest place and the severest service. That restless battle for the mastery, that unfortunate strife for the chief place among our fellows and in the world's market, and even in our work for the Lord himself, is ever and always prejudicial to the Spirit of Christ, who “pleased not himself.” The worker for God must not put himself first, nor regard his own interest as the all-important thing to be sought; but rather become generously engrossed in the welfare and interest of others for whom his Lord died, if he would find inward joy and peace in his labors of love. Paul says: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live.” It is an evil day indeed for the people of God when in the last message of warning are to be found those who are self-pleasing, envious of one another, wrapped up in their own advancement, instead of being filled with a love for their fellow beings who have no life in Christ, and who are perishing in their sins. We live in a world that must be warned, and this warning work has been intrusted to us who are God's servants. The true people of God stand in this hour face to face with great problems. There are mutterings of discontent, there are threatenings of upheaval, in all the earth; evil is enthroned in high places; war and wickedness are on every hand; intemperance is mowing down great squadrons, and vice and corruption are surging in the hedges and highways. To fulfill the commission of Christ, we must be as He is in the world. In prophecy, parable, and prayer, in the clear, positive utterances of Christ, the world—the whole world—is embraced in the warning commission. From out the ruins of the fall, prophecy, scanning the coming ages, proclaims ultimate and complete victory through an incarnate Redeemer. Thus was given the keynote of prophecy, and the resounding prophetic harmonies, to which the true Church has marched through all the ages, have never fallen below this pitch. The Abrahamic promise rose from the individual to the nation, and from the chosen nation to all the families of the earth. The dying Jacob, through prophetic vision, looking past the waving scepter of Judah, saw the gathering of the people of God. In the parable of the leaven we read: “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” The Master taught His disciples to pray: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Through His servants Christ operates on this sinking world. “As my Father has sent me, even so send I you.” Our mission is to warn this dying world of its rapid dissolution and impending doom, that out of its sinking multitudes a people may be gathered, from every kindred and tongue and nation, for Christ and eternity. How many professors of Christ there are whose one aim is to be saved themselves, to get to heaven. They love to sing the songs of salvation, and talk of the golden harps and the glittering crowns. They seem to expect to recline on the banks of the river of life, under the shade of the tree of life, and rest forever. What will they rest from? What have they ever done? Working with Christ for the salvation of our fellow beings who are perishing in their sins, is better than trying to get to heaven. The man who is not trying with Christ to save his brother is not saved himself. Several years ago during a heavy storm off the coast of Spain, a dismantled merchant ship was observed by a British frigate, drifting before the gale. Every eye and glass on the frigate was fixed upon the helpless ship. A canvas shelter on the deck, almost level with the sea, suggested that there might yet be life on board. Instantly the order sounded to put the ship about, and a boat, manned by gallant men at the risk of their lives, put off over the mountain billows after the drifting wreck. Reaching it, they cry aloud, and from the canvas screen creeps out what proves to be the body of a man, so shriveled and wasted as to be easily lifted on board. In tender pity the rough sailors rub the chilled and wasted form. About to pull away, the saved man moves and moans and whispers, and as they listen they catch the muttered words, “There is another man.” The saved would save his fellow man, though himself almost in the throes of death. To do the work of God and live out the self-sacrificing life of Christ, in saving those around us, is the supreme mission of the disciple. Getting to heaven is easy when the time comes to go. Elijah had no trouble in getting to heaven. The Lord provided the chariot and the horseman. Elijah's trouble was with Ahab and Jezebel. To do God's will requires faith, courage, and self-denial. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Our whole life is to be religious. In every walk we are to follow in the steps of Him who in His life glorified our common pathway, by pleasing not himself. In the labor of these remnant hours of time the follower of Christ must be no echo, no creature of public sentiment, but a man who makes and molds Christian sentiment by his connection with Christ. He must know peoples, and manners, and customs—but more, he must know God, and know his fellow men by a conscious fellowship with Christ. He must revere the teachings of the word of God, and love the man who lives next door, even him who is cursed with sin. He will be alive to the value of the souls of men, whether clad in robes or rags. He will have a genuine love for humanity, and, like Paul, he can say: “I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren.” He will see God in everything. To Christ God was everything. To His followers this is so also. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” So also the earth: the mountains, flinging from their gleaming crests the dawn; the sea, sleeping in delicious calm, or chafed by tempests, plunging in wild grandeur on the echoing shores; the lily of the valley, blossoming in quiet beauty,—all these declare the perfection of God. All these things speak for God to hearts of faith. But the world's eyes are blind. Their ears are heavy. Their hearts are hard. Their understanding is darkened. God must speak by a plainer word in these last days. He must speak “unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.” That form, divinely fair, moving through the walks of men as a man, giving sight to the blind, feeding the hungry, and all the time speaking words of truth, is the example for our following. The great Captain of our salvation has led the way. He has gone out before us. His heart of164love and humility has gone into the highways and hedges, wherever humanity sins, suffers, and dies. The disciple is not above his Lord. “Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.” The sacrifice, the toil, the patient waiting, the victories of the disciple of Christ in these solemn hours of closing probation, will be recounted with joy, and hearts will thrill and be profoundly moved when the welcome “Well done” is accorded to the worker for lost souls! But to be successful in this winning work we must be men and women of action. The man of God to-day is a man of faith—the faith of Jesus; he has a sweep of vision that takes in the world that now is, and the world which is to come. Sin, death, the doom of the impenitent sinner, are terrible and awful verities—the dark background he must portray to the world of to-day; but in the foreground is Christ, salvation, eternal life, and glory, shedding their inspiring light. He is in touch, and has fellowship, with the One who, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, expounded unto the disciples the things concerning himself. He believes that though heaven and earth pass away, God's word will not pass away. Shall we not all search our own hearts and lives to see if the Spirit of the Lord be in us or no? If with any one it be not so, in vain for him did Christ refuse to please himself; in vain was the costly ransom paid; in vain was that body broken and that blood poured out on the cross; in vain is the sacrifice unto death made for us. Unless we possess this Spirit, we must not think that we are among the sheep which Jesus will truly know as His own when He comes to gather them into the eternal fold. “Be ye holy; for I am holy.”