The Mind of Christ # 5

The Mind of Christ # 5

It would appear from the spirit and conduct of some, as if to be zealots for a creed or a church, were the true signs of discipleship, instead of the temper of Jesus; and yet an apostle has told us, that "if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His," (Rom. 8:9). Many had need study afresh the elemental principles of our holy religion, to learn in what it truly consists. And if they will allow Christ and His apostles to teach them, instead of fathers and doctors, councils and convocations, they would learn that the creeds and the ceremonies of the church are poor substitutes for the mind of Christ.

Therefore, my dear friends, I entreat you cultivate the Christian temper; seek for the Spirit of Christ, and be content with nothing short of the mind that was in Him. Let me entreat you to contemplate Him - first upon the throne of glory, adored by angels; and then upon the Cross of Calvary, despised, rejected, insulted, murdered by men; and when you have been filled with astonishment at the grace that induced Him thus to humble Himself, examine yourselves as to what you know of the holy and humble benevolence which dictated this wondrous, yes, this ineffably mysterious condescension. Confine your attention for a while to this one point of inquiry - let go everything else for a season; drop creeds, sacraments, sabbaths, ordinances, alms-deeds, and press right home to your conscience the question, "What do I have of the mind of Christ?"  Does my heart answer, does my disposition correspond, to the holy, meek, humble, forgiving, benevolent, patient, self-denying mind of Christ? Do men who know the beauty and glory of the original, as it is delineated on the page of the gospel, when they see me, say, "There is the image of Christ!" Or do they look skeptically on, and after standing in silence for some time, profess they can see little or no resemblance? Can you hold up your spirit and disposition to the world, and say, "Behold the mind of Christ?" Will Christ acknowledge your mind to be His mind? Oh, be satisfied with nothing short of a copy of Christ's heart into yours. You must go lower, lower, lower yet, in self-denying service for God and His saints.

I need scarcely point out to you again the intimate connection between the practical principles of Christianity, and the great doctrines of Christianity. Take away the incarnation of our Lord, His sacrifice upon the Cross, and His atoning death, and the gospel loses its glorious peculiarities. And if you blot out His Divinity, His atonement loses its efficacy, and His example its power. "If we take away His divinity," says Mr. Hall, "this great example dwindles into nothing. Rob Him of His Divinity, and you divest Him of His humility. It is this which renders His sacrifice of infinite value, His Cross so inexpressibly awful and interesting, and to His people so inefffably precious. The Cross of Jesus Christ is the appropriate, the appointed rendezvous of heaven and earth - the meeting place between God and the sinner. Deprive Jesus Christ of His Divinity, and all these momentous truths dwindle into inexpressible futilities. Doctrines meant to warm  and kindle our hearts, fill us with perplexity. When we look for a glorious mystery, we find nothing but the obscurity which makes men rack their invention to find out the meaning of those passages, which it is plain the apostle poured forth in a stream of exquisite affection and delight."

And never, never forget, my friends, that the Divinity of Christ, however firmly it may be held, is never properly felt, never rightly improved, nor truly enjoyed, until it is experienced to be a doctrine that fills the soul with a vivid resemblance to that holiness, benevolence, and humility, which were so conspicuously displayed by Him, "who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God - but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men - and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross."

~John Angell James~

(The End)