Testimony of Christ Regarding His Divine Mission and His Doctrine — Part III: St. John and the Atonement

V.—Gospel of St. John. Testimony of Christ in regard to His Divinity.

Several times in the Fourth Gospel, Jesus calls himself “Son of Man”—an indication of His humility and of the subjection of His human nature to His Father; but He also affirms repeatedly that He is “Son of God,” and “Lord.”

“You call me Master and Lord: and you say well for so I am” (John xiii. 13).

“Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he may give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him … all my things are thine, and thine are mine” (John xvii. 1, 2, 10).

“Hereupon therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he did not only break the Sabbath, but also said God was his Father, making himself equal to God. Then Jesus answered and said to them… . As the Father raiseth up the dead and giveth life: so the Son also giveth life to whom he will. For neither doth the Father judge any man: but hath given all judgment to the Son… . As the Father hath life in himself: so he hath given to the Son also to have life in himself” (John v. 18-26).

“You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world” (John viii. 23).

“From God I proceeded and came: I came not of myself, but he sent me” (John viii. 42).

“I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world and I go to the Father… . I am not alone because the Father is with me” (John xvi. 28-32).

“Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am” (John viii. 58).

“And now glorify thou me, O Father, with thyself, with the glory which I had, before the world was, with thee … because thou hast loved me before the creation of the world” (John xvii. 5-24).

“Not that any man hath seen the Father, but he who is of God, he hath seen the Father” (John vi. 46).

“As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father” (John x. 15).

“All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine. Therefore I said, he (the Spirit of Truth) shall receive of mine and shew it to you” (John xvi. 15).

“Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father also… . Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me?” (John xiv. 9, 10).

“I and the Father are one. The Jews then took up stones to stone him” (John x. 30, 31).

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me” (John xiv. 6).

These declarations of Christ express the same truth as the words recorded in St. Matthew and St. Luke: “All things are delivered to me by my Father. And no one knoweth the Son but the Father; neither doth anyone know the Father but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal him.” This testimony is not less clear than the words of St. John in the prologue of his Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… . And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we have seen His glory as it were of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth… . No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

To sum up briefly: At the beginning of His ministry Jesus was regarded by His disciples as the “Christ,” i.e., the Messiah, but even as the Christ He had for them the values of God. After His Resurrection Jesus was the “Lord,” and finally St. Paul explicitly shewed that Jesus was the pre-existing Son of God. But the explicit declaration of Christ’s Divinity was accepted by all without demur, inasmuch as it corresponded with their implicit belief.

In view of the testimonies given above we can estimate the value of the three chief schools of Rationalist critics, which differ so profoundly amongst themselves in regard to “the Jesus of History.” With all three the miraculous, and generally the supernatural, is not rationally credible.

(a) The Liberal Protestant School.

Professor Harnack is the chief representative. According to him, the combination of such ideas as “God the Father, Providence, position of men as God’s children, infinite value of the human soul,” constitutes the whole gospel (Das Wesen des Christentums. English translation, “What is Christianity?” p. 70; Williams & Norgate). The power of healing was accomplished by suggestion. The doctrines of the Resurrection of Christ, Incarnation, Trinity, Visible Church, etc., are alien to the spirit and intention of Jesus. The Christ of Pauline and Johannine theology, even the Christ of the Acts, stands already at a great distance from the Jesus of history—an ethical teacher.

(b) The Apocalyptic School.

The “Christ” of the Gospels is not an earthly person, but one to be manifested in glory from heaven according to the picture in the Similitudes of Enoch (written about 100 B.C.). Our Lord on earth was not the Christ, but believed Himself to be destined to become the Christ on the Day of Judgment, which He regarded as immediately coming. “Jesus of History” was only an apocalyptic seer (Cf. “Principles of Christian Apologetics,” Chap. xvii.).

(c) Hellenistic School.

I have ventured to describe the teaching of Bousset in Germany and Kirsopp Lake in England as “Hellenistic.” In their view the idea of the “Jesus of History” underwent a twofold transformation:

(1) The historical Jesus became the Apocalyptic Christ—a transformation due to the community and not to Jesus. Jesus Himself preached only a “message of the Kingdom of God, and the duty of fellowship in righteousness and love and mercy and forgiveness.”

(2) The second transformation occurred in Hellenistic Churches such as Antioch, Tarsus, and Damascus. There the Pagan world was largely occupied with “mystery cults” involving sacramental and ceremonial elements. It was St. Paul’s genius, which, on a basis of old Jewish monotheism and apocalyptic beliefs and these new Hellenic ideas of religion, developed a doctrine of Jesus the Lord. The theology and sacramental system of the Catholic Church were founded on this basis. The “Jesus of History” was a dim figure of no original power as a teacher.

Notwithstanding Dean Inge’s statement (quoted elsewhere) that “the conflict of religion is not with science,” he writes: “Science has been the slowly advancing Nemesis which has overtaken a barbarised and pagan Christianity. She has come with a winnowing-fan in her hand, and she will not stop till she has thoroughly purged her floor” (Outspoken Essays, First Series, p. 160).

The only teaching common to the three schools is the à priori rejection of the miraculous and Supernatural character in religion.¹ (Cf. Kyrios Christos, by Wilhelm Bousset. Göttingen, 1921. Also Landmarks of Early Christianity, by Dr. Kirsopp Lake, and the Beginnings of Christianity, by Kirsopp Lake and Foakes Jackson).

VI.—The Atonement.

Modernists assert that the doctrine of Atonement is not found in the Gospels, but is Pauline in origin. Against this assertion note the following:

(A) Synoptic Gospels.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, wherefore He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, He hath sent me to heal the contrite of heart” (Luke iv. 18; Mark i. 38).

“I am not come to call the just but sinners” (Matt. ix. 13; Mark ii. 17).

“The Son of Man is come to save that which was lost… . It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (Matt. xviii. 11, 14).

“The Son of Man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a redemption for many” (Matt. xx. 28; Mark x. 45).

“The Son of Man shall be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and the third day he shall rise again… . Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink?” (Matt. xx. 18-22; Mark x. 34).

“This is my body which is given for you. Do this in commemoration of me… . This is the chalice, the New Testament in my blood, which shall be shed for you” (Luke xxii. 19, 20; Matt. xxvi. 28; Mark xiv. 24).

(B) Gospel of St. John.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep” (John x. 11).

“My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give them life everlasting” (John x. 27, 28).

“I am the light of the world: he that followeth me walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John viii. 12).

“I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me although he be dead shall live: And every one that liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever” (John xi. 25, 26).

“Amen, amen, I say unto you: he that believeth in me hath everlasting life. I am the bread of life” (John vi. 47, 48).

“Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine and you are the branches: he that abideth in me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit for without me you can do nothing” (John xv. 4, 5).

“No man cometh to the Father but by me” (John xiv. 6).

“God so loved the world as to give His only-begotten Son, that whoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John iii. 16).

“I lay down my life for my sheep” (John x. 15).

“Greater love than this no man hath that a man lay down his life for his friend” (John xv. 13).

“And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John xii. 32).

Thus clearly and openly did Christ teach the doctrine of the Redemption.

(C) St. Paul.

“All have sinned and do need the glory of God. Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation through faith in his blood” (Romans iii. 23-25).

“For as by the disobedience of one man, many were made sinners: so also by the obedience of one, many shall be made just” (Romans v. 19).

God “spared not even his own Son: but delivered him up for us all” (Romans viii. 32).

“Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered himself for us an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odour of sweetness” (Eph. v. 2).

These words of St. Paul explain the popular appeal made by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the propitiatory character of which is well expressed in the following lines:

“And now, O Father! mindful of the love That bought us, once for all, on Calvary’s tree, And having with us Him that pleads above, We here present, we here spread forth to Thee The only offering perfect in Thine eyes, The one true, pure, immortal sacrifice.”

(D) Sacraments instituted for the application of Redemption.

“Going therefore teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost” (Matt. xxviii. 19).

“And taking bread he gave thanks and brake and gave to them saying: This is My Body, which is given for you. Do this for a commemoration of Me” (Luke xxii. 19). The Eucharist presupposes the Sacrament of Orders.

“Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins you shall forgive they shall be forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain they are retained” (John xx. 22, 23).

(E) Good Angels: Evil Spirits.

(1) Good Angels.

“Thinkest thou that I cannot ask my Father, and He will give me presently more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. xxvi. 53).

“Angels in heaven” (Mark xii. 25).

Angels guard children: “their angels in heaven always behold the face of my Father, who is in heaven” (Matt. xviii. 10).

“There shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance” (Luke xv. 10).

“Angels … shall separate the wicked from the just” (Matt. xiii. 49).

“The Son of Man shall send His Angels” (Matt. xiii. 41).

“Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the Angels of God” (Luke xii. 8).

(2) Evil Spirits.

“He cast out the spirits with His Word” (Matt. viii. 16).

“Unclean spirit” (Matt. xii. 43).

“He gave them power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils” (Mark iii. 15).

“This kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting” (Matt. xvii. 20).

“If I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the Kingdom of God come among you” (Matt. xii. 28).

“Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not” (Luke xxii. 31).

Satan “prince of this world” (John xvi. 11).

Notes

Footnotes

1. Dr. Major, principal of Ripon Hall, Oxford, the leader of English Modernists, speaking in Philadelphia, described Christ as “the supreme unveiling of the Divine nature under human conditions in the person of Jesus.” Unitarians would accept this statement. Speaking at Harvard University, Dr. Major alluded to a second class of dogmas as historical, such as that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died and was buried, rose from the dead on the third day. “The christian religion might survive without these dogmas.” (Cf. Church Times: Jan 8th, 1926 p. 29.) ↩