QUIET HOUR

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 16 January 1926, Page 18

QUIET HOUR

WAS JESUS SINLESS?

(By Rev. A. D. Belden, 8.D., There are two great reasons for our belief in the sinlessness of our Lord. There is the testimony of the New Testament and the testimony of the New Humanity. In the New Test-A-ment we mark an entire absence ot any record of evil concerning Jesus, several positive and direct claims on His own part to sinlcssness, several distinct assertions by the Apostolic writers to the same effect, and above all what lias been called the impenitence of .Jesus—the utter absence from His language and consciousness of any trace of penitence or confession. He, whoso moral demands are the most stringent ever made upon humanity, Who was Himself more sensitive than all others to the exceeding sinfulness ot sin, Who produced in His disciples an unprecedented passion for holiness, never Himself confessed to a. fault noi led the way in confession or contrition. Such a paradox is not to be found elsewhere in history, and it can only nave one adequate solution—Jesus lma nought of which to be ashamed- Ho did always the things that pleased the Father. , ... The testimony of the new humanity harmonises with the Gospel record. Men in all centuries since have found in Jesus a Saviour from sin and to that result His sinlcssness has been vital. The common judgment of the saints throughout the ages has been that He, Who was tried in all points like as we are —yet without sin—has been able to succour them that are tempted, and. to that ability His being without sin was essential. ‘ Christ has been busy producing a new humanity —a humanity increasingly free from sin. This temple of a new humanity has been built upon the foundation of a Sinless Saviour. One flaw in the character ol our Lord and that temple would hays collapsed. Wb are face to face with a gigantic and continuous witness to the sinlessness of Christ in this constant testimony of the humanity whir- o in Him has become newly created. We feel it legitimate to claim this witness as the continued testimony of Christ’s own Spirit to His moral perfection. WHAT DOES “SINLESS” MEAN? We frequently hear complaint made of the term “sinlessness” as being too negative and implying merely abstention from evil. This word “sinlessness, ” however, is very far from being a negative term. It is the word “sin” which everywhere in the New Testament hears this “negative” implication. To sin is to miss the mark, but to be sinless is therefore to hit the mark. Sinlessness is achievement, conquest, victory. Consequently the picture of Jesus presented in the Gospels is not that of an ascetic. Jesus does not go through life simply abstaining from sin—.He goes about doing good. He is a warrior upon campaign. He has work to accomplish. We must put into that word “sinless” its true meaning. It means a world-moving, hell-shaking triumpn —a thrilling victory. Mark the story of. conflict in the wilderness, of stress and strain a: suceessive crises, the triumphant assertion, “I have overcome the world,” the glorious cry of relief from the cross, “It is finished,” and you cannor escape the positive nature of the moral achievement of Jesus. Christ is God s warrior fighting in the van of the fight, the deadliest fight and winning victory rumple!e and enduring. Christ really took upon Himself these me conditions that handicap us in our race, and so handicapped, He nevertheless won the race. Christ fought our fight and every time He entered into battle He came forth victor. He held His perfection by conflict and struggle,—by successful struggle. His perfection was moral and therefore we are able to hail Him as Saviour, believing that His victory is the earnest of the charm and inspiration of Leader who is risen from the ranks, notwithstanding His high origin and status.

THE DIVINE HIGHWAY.

(By Rev. G. H. Wright, A LA.) The' road has not quite the same meaning for us that it had for our forefathers; the development of ocean travelling and now the advent of aviation havd taken from its old-time fascination; the inn by the wayside where pilgrims rested, and the lumbering stage coach beloved by Dickens, are going or have gone now that the road is no longer the one line of communication between cities and towns. Something of its former glory may come back as motor traffic develops, but it will be :•

dusty glory. The Apish way. by 1 which travellers approached Rome j from the south, and the Great North! Road or Watling Street, running out] into the provinces from London, are I little remembered now that the raihvnv links up our centres of industry andj life. We think of travel and eoni-c iminieation in terms of the CanadianPacific or the trans-Australian lin-.s; these are now the arteries along whied on land our population moves. They all have their attraction; the travel instinct is strong within us. Years ago boys would watch the road, sometimes With hope they would yield to its call and make their way to the Rome or London at its end. We know the same feeling when we watch the express leave our station for the liner that : s going overseas. We- are all overlanders or voyagers in spirit, if not in body; as birds leave the nest and venture forth on their own wings, so youth takes the road, -seeking tho land of heart’s desire, and old age finds us still upon it. We nave not yet reached the goal. The road still leads us out; there is always a city beyond. I t is just here that - Christ faces existence and makes His great claim; lam the Way. OthPrs have made this claim, and whenever they pointed to truth and goodness men have found some of the joys of the soul’s journeying. We have read of the Indian woman whom a missionary saw measuring herself in prostrations along the ground, seven or eight hundred to the mile. She was moving .in this way to some shrine in the Himalayas, a thousand miles away. " Why was she going? She answered in two words: Uski darshan—“Vision of Him.” We all seek some vision, and it is the paradox of our faith that He who is the goal is also tho way to it. But His is the thoroughfare which runs through tho thick of life. In one sense it is a highway as wide as life itself, for any who will may travel thereon. It goes through the marts of trade, and the sanctities of the home, across tho battlefield and through the wards of suffering;. wherever men and women ara in ' need or bravely travel and aspire there iri His spirit they find the Christian way. In the days of Paul men spoke of Christians as those who belonged to tho Way. It was a distinctive manner of living, and those

who travelled on it said: Tiiis is the wiiy the Master went. Christ's way is through home and shop and ofitce, through hearts thar bind and tasks we share in common; it’s a road through the everyday, wherein we may glimpse and possess the fine sovereignties of life, for to those who journey on it are given the seeing eye. It starts right from where we stand, amid our needs, our life’s hungerings and thirstings, and it is divine, because it links these with their answer in Him Who is both the road and its end. It stretches out before us through the year its surroundings soon lost in the distances. Nor will it be the same for many; rough and smooth, up hill and down,'many ways we shall go on that one road. But, most of all, it will be the road of the Loving Heart, if it be His. Thus it will know victory, and lend us surely nearer our goal.