The Great Mystery of Christianity
By Calvin P. Bollman
We May Not Be Able to Explain It—Neither Can We Explain Life and Many Other Processes
CHRISTIANITY is not a code, but a life—the life of Christ in the heart of the believer. "I am crucified with Christ," says the apostle; "nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Gal. 2:20. The mystery of the incarnation began when, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, "divinity was clothed with humanity." It will be finished when the last redeemed human being stands perfect before God in His everlasting kingdom; for then the redeemed race will have been made partakers of the divine nature through the union of the human with the divine in the person of the Son of God. It was not for Himself, but for us, that the Son of God met and conquered sin in human flesh. It was not for Himself, but for us, that He endured temptation in the wilderness, and that throughout His earthly ministry He was tempted in all points "like as we are, yet without sin." His life here is far more than an example. It is even more than a demonstration of what human weakness united with divine strength can accomplish. It is the triumph of renewed humanity over the enemy of all righteousness. This victory is in Christ, and He gives it to as many as are in Him. Of her who was "highly favored" of the Lord, of whom it was said, "Blessed art thou among women," the angel declared, "She shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins." Matt. 1:21. "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4. To save from sin, therefore, is not merely to interpose between the sinner and the penalty for sin, but to save from the sin itself, that is, from the transgression, from sinning. This is plainly stated in Rom. 8:3, 4: "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Coupled with His stern rebuke to the Laodiceans (Rev. 3:14-22), the Saviour gives this precious encouragement: "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne." If it be asked how man can overcome, how this victory is brought to the human subject, we answer, By faith. "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 1 John 5:4. It is by faith we are justified. Says the apostle, "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. 5:1. It is by faith in Christ that we are made partakers of the divine nature. By Him, says the apostle, "are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 2 Peter 1:4. If it be asked how all this is accomplished, we reply that we can not tell. The Saviour Himself did not attempt to explain the new birth and the subsequent spiritual growth to Nicodemus. There are few things, even in the physical world, that we understand. We know that certain results follow certain causes; but why, we can not tell. It is related that when a German scientist once said to Thomas A. Edison, "The day is almost here when we can explain all the processes of nature," Mr. Edison replied by moving his little finger, and saying, "Explain to me why my finger moves in obedience to the will of my brain, and I will believe what you have just said." The new spiritual life begotten in the human heart by the divine Spirit when the will is surrendered to God, is no more mysterious than is the giving of life to inanimate clay in the beginning of earth's history. We do not know, possibly we never shall know, how God could speak matter into existence; how He could give life to lifeless things; how He formed man of the dust of the ground, and then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. We know that we exist. Reason tells us that back of us there must be a Creator. Revelation tells us that there was and is a Creator. That revelation fills a real want in our natures. It satisfies a longing in the human soul. It tells us also of a Saviour from sin, of a means of freedom from the galling, degrading bondage of Satan. The soul bound in sin cries out for liberty. God gives that liberty through Jesus Christ. The need is just as imperative and the supply is just as real as is the demand for the food God has placed within our reach. We appropriate and are nourished by the one. Why not appropriate and be saved by the other? The truth is that we are in a world—yea, in a universe—of mystery. So far as the ultimate is concerned, we know nothing, excepting what God has revealed; but this we may know by experience,—that there is power in the Lord Jesus Christ to save not only from sin, but from sinning. And this is "the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints: to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Col. 1:26, 27.