Seeking_Truth said:
I work in a christian preschool with very Godly people who love Jesus and know that He is real, yet it doesn't mean it is real for me.
I also have a hard time losing this thought:
"just because people believe something, doesn't make it true or a fact."
It seems I have only heard emotional arguements for the belief in God. I would love some facts.
PS- all I want it to believe. I want nothing more.
qt
Two Serious Mistakes have been made by men in taking or not taking Christ for
their example. It is difficult to determine which is the more evil and fatal of
the two. First, those who held up the perfect life of the Lord Jesus before the
uncoverted maintained that they must imitate it in order to find acceptance with
God. In other words, they made emulating Christ "the way of salvation" to lost
sinners. This is a fundamental error, which cannot be resisted too strenuously.
It repudiates the total depravity and spiritual helplessness of fallen man. It
denies the necessity for the new birth. It nullifies the atonement by
emphasizing Christs flawless life at the expense of His sacrificial death. It
substitutes works for faith, creature efforts for divine grace, mans faulty
doings for the Redeemers finished work. If the Acts and epistles are searched
it will be revealed that the apostles never preached imitating Christ as the way
to obtain forgiveness of sins and secure peace with God.
But in recent generations the pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme. If, a
century ago, the example which Christ has left His people was made too much of,
our moderns make far too little of it; if they gave it a place in preaching to
the unsaved which Scripture does not warrant, we have failed to press it upon
Christians to the extent Scripture requires. If those a century ago are to be
blamed for misusing the example of Christ in connection with justification, we
are guilty of failing to use it in connection with sanctification. While it is
true that the moral perfections which Christ displayed during His earthly
sojourn are still extolled in many places, how rarely one hears (or reads) of
those who insist that emulating Christ is absolutely essential for the
believers preservation and ultimate salvation. Would not the great majority of
orthodox preachers be positively afraid to make any such assertion, lest they be
charged with legality?
The Lord Jesus Christ is not only a perfect and glorious Pattern of all graces,
holiness, virtue, and obedience, to be preferred above all others, but also He
alone is such. In the lives of the best of the saints, Scripture records what it
is our duty to avoid, as well as what we ought to follow. Sometimes one is
puzzled to know whether it is safe to conform to them or not. But God has
graciously supplied us with a sure rule which solves that problem. If we heed it
we will never be at a loss to see our duty. Holy men and women of Scripture are
to be imitated by us only as far as they were themselves conformed unto Christ
(1 Cor. 11:1). The best of their graces, the highest of their attainments, the
most perfect of their duties, were spoiled by blemishes; but in Christ there is
no imperfection whatever, for He had no sin and did no sin.
Christ is not only the perfect, but also the pattern Man; and therefore is His
example suitable for all believers. This remarkable fact presents a feature
which has not received the attention it deserves. There is nothing so
distinctive in personality as racial and national characteristics. The greatest
of men bear unmistakable marks of their heredity and environment. Racial
peculiarities are imperishable; to the last fiber of his being, Luther was a
German, Knox a Scot; and with all his largeness of heart, Paul was a Jew. In
sharp contrast, Jesus Christ rose above heredity and environment. Nothing local,
transient, national, or sectarian dwarfed His wondrous personality. Christ is
the only truly catholic man. He belongs to all ages and is related to all men,
because He is "the Son of man." This underlies the universal suitability of
Christs example to believers of all nations, who one and all may find in Him
the perfect realization of their ideal.
This is indeed a miracle, and exhibits a transcendent perfection in the Man
Christ Jesus which is rarely pondered. How remarkable that the converted
Englishman may find in Christs character and conduct a pattern as well-suited
to him as to a saved Chinese; that His example is as appropriate for the
regenerated Zulu as for a born-again German. The needs of Lord Bacon and Sir
Isaac Newton were as truly met in Christ as were those of the half-witted youth
who said, "Im a poor sinner and nothing at all, But Jesus Christ is my all in
all." How remarkable that the example of Christ is as appropriate for believers
of the twentieth century as it was for those of the first, that it is as
suitable for a Christian child as for his grandparent!
He is appointed of God for this very purpose. One end why God sent His Son to
become flesh and tabernacle in the world was that He might set before us an
example in our nature, in One who was like unto us in all things, sin excepted.
Thereby He exhibited to us that renewal to His image in us, of that return to
Him from sin and apostasy, and of that holy obedience He requires of us. Such an
example was needful so that we might never be at a loss about the will of God in
His commandments, having a glorious representation of it before our eyes. That
could be given us no other way than in our own nature. The nature of angels was
not suited as an example of obedience, especially in the exercise of such graces
as we specially stand in need of in this world. What example could angels set us
in patience in afflictions or quietness in sufferings, when their nature is
incapable of such things? Nor could we have had a perfect example in our nature
except in one who was holy and "separate from sinners."
Many Scriptures present Christ as the believers Exemplar: "Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29),learn by
the course of My life as well as by My words; "When he putteth forth his own
sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him" (John 10:4)He requires
no more of us than He rendered Himself; "I have given you an example, that ye
should do as I have done to you" (John 13:15); "Now the God of patience and
consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ
Jesus" (Rom. 15:5); "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus"
(Phil. 2:5). "Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Heb. 12:1-2); "But if, when
ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable unto
God. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps" (1 Pet. 2:20-21); "He
that saith he abideth in him ought himself so to walk, even as he walked" (1
John 2:6).
Example is better than precept. Why? Because a precept is more or less an
abstraction, whereas an example sets before us a concrete representation;
therefore has more aptitude to incite the mind to imitation. The conduct of
those with whom we are in close association exerts a considerable influence upon
us, either for good or evil. The fact is clearly recognized in the Scriptures.
For example, we are enjoined, "Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a
furious man thou shalt not go: lest thou learn his ways, and get a snare to thy
soul" (Prov. 22:24-25). It was for this reason that God commanded the Israelites
to utterly destroy all the inhabitants of Canaan, so that they might not learn
their evil ways and be contaminated by them (Deut. 7:2-4). Contrariwise, the
example of the pious exerts an influence for good; that is why they are called
"the salt of the earth."
In keeping with this principle, God has appointed the consideration of Christs
character and conduct as a special means to increase the piety in His people. As
their hearts contemplate His holy obedience, it has a peculiar efficacy to their
growing in grace beyond all other examples. It is in beholding the Lord Jesus by
faith that salvation comes to us. "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth" (Isa. 45:22). Christ is presented before the sinner in the Gospel,
with the promise that whosoever believingly looks to Him shall not perish, but
have everlasting life (John 3:14-15). This is a special ordinance of God, and it
is made effectual by the Spirit to all who believe. In like manner, Christ is
presented to the saints as the grand Pattern of obedience and Example of
holiness, with the promise that as they contemplate Him as such we shall be
changed into His image (2 Cor. 3:18).