JESUS AND THE TEACHINGS OF HIS TIME.
ONE of the most groundless, and infamous charges that has ever been made against our Saviour and His work upon the earth is that put forward by the apostles of the “higher criticism,” to the effect that the teachings of Jesus were moulded by the customs and the prevailing thought of His time. The purpose is to rob Him of His divinity, to rob His teachings of their influence upon human hearts, to hide the Saviour from a perishing world, and blind men’s minds even to the need of a divine sacrifice for them. If they can prove that Jesus Christ thought after the manner of His time, they make Him a mere human, and Himself in need of a Saviour. If they could prove that He saw “with the eyes of His age,” they make Him one who could not even interpret aright the law of God, much less exemplify its teachings in His life. If He thought and taught after the manner of His times, He never could have been the power that He was and has been to lift men out of their surroundings, out of their environments, out of the teachings of their times—out of themselves. Because He did not so teach, He has become the magnet that has lifted souls out of the most adverse conditions and enabled them to perfect characters reflecting the glory of God. Because He did not so teach, His teachings have so laid hold of the hearts of men and women, and even children, that they have faced threatened death in multitudinous forms rather than turn aside from the living pathway of eternal truth. But turning aside from an argument of contingencies, let us listen to the teachings of Jesus Himself in this regard, and also note whether He reflected the customs of His times. He says of His teachings: “The word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” John 14:24. Then are the words of the Father also tinctured with the human teachings of the times of Christ? It would have to be so if Jesus’ teaching were tinctured with the thought and teaching of His time, while at the same time He was teaching the very words of the Father. Surely, not even a “higher critic” will be so bold as to make such a terrible charge. Nevertheless it is all involved in the charge they bring against Jesus and His work. Again He says: “I have given them Thy word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” And He reiterates it: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” John 17:14-16. How much does this passage teach that either Jesus or His followers were conforming to the world, or teaching as the world taught? The world hated them because they were not doing as it did and teaching as it taught. If the charge of the “higher critics” were true, the opening clause of the last quotation should have read: “I have given them My own words modified by their own thoughts and teachings.” He also should have said: “The world loves them, because they are conformed to it and moulded by its thought. . . . They are of the world, even as I also am, influenced by its teachings and its customs.” The whole animus of such teachings is directly contrary to the character, the business, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Had Jesus been teaching in harmony with the teachings of those times, or been influenced by them, His teachings would have created neither stir nor astonishment. But what is the fact in the case? “When Jesus had finished these words, the multitudes were astonished at His teaching; for He taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” Matt. 7:28, 29. This shows that there was a complete opposition between His teachings and the teachings of His time. It was this very fact that filled the scribes and Pharisees with hatred against Him; and it was this fact that inspired them to persecute His followers, dispersing them from Jerusalem, and following them even beyond the boundary of Palestine. Christ could have escaped the cruel death He suffered, and His followers could have escaped their persecutions, had they been willing to conform to the teachings and customs of their time. The record declares concerning Christ that He “emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.” Now the query arises, Having emptied Himself, by whom, or by what was He filled? If His teachings were in consonance with, and moulded by, the teachings and customs of His time, then it was with the teachings and the customs of His time that He was filled, rather than the words, and will, and instructions of the Father. Concerning this, the Word declares of Christ: “Lo, I am come; in the roll of the book it is written of Me: I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart.” Ps. 40:8. That purpose to do the will of the Father, without any regard whatever to other influence, filled the entire life of Jesus Christ. “I am come down from heaven,” said Jesus, “not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.” John 6:38.5 Filled with this fulness, and maintaining this uncompromising attitude, Jesus Christ went about the mission which brought Him to this world. He healed the sick; He raised the dead to life; He cast out demons; He cast out from the temple of God those who would turn it aside from the purpose God designed it should accomplish. Teaching as He did, living as He did, and dying as He did, He became the long-looked-for Redeemer of the race. Emptied of self, He was filled with the fulness of God, and we are complete in Him, and in Him alone.