ว WHO WAS JESUS CHRIST? Frederick BY GEORGE F. SIMMONS. PRINTED FOR THE American Unitarian Association. BOSTON: JAMES MUNROE & co. 134 WASHINGTON STREET. AUG. 1839. Price 5 Cents. WHO WAS JESUS CHRIST? WHO WAS JESUS CHRIST? None but the fool and the sluggard can listen to this question with indifference. I invite you, reader, to attend me while I reply to it. And may the Great Fountain of Light shed his beams to illuminate our path, that we may not grope darkly, that we may not blindly stand, that we may not be swelled with ignorant vain-glory, or boast of aught but of that which springs from him. Who was Jesus of Nazareth? He was the Mediator of God's revelation to mankind. For God hath revealed himself. This we take for granted. And, at the outset, let us comprehend, as best we may, the meaning of that high declaration. When we speak of God, we mean the God of nations, the God of the storm and of the summer air, the Lord of life and death; we mean the Creator of the Universe, the Ruler of the distant stars; we mean the God of battles, that striketh down the proud. We mean, in short, the Infinite and Eternal Mind, whose nature no mortal can fathom, whose existence no creature can com prehend, who liveth and liveth the prime Source and Fount of being, and the heart of all that is. All this must enter into our minds, when we take upon our lips his sacred name, and say that he hath revealed himself to his children. This position we assume, without discussion; and also that the New Testament contains the faithful record of that revelation. Thus far does the whole Christian Church move on together; but no farther. For when I proceed to assert, as I do, that Jesus Christ was the Messenger and Son of God, immediately a large body separates from me, maintaining that he was God himself, that through no inferior instrument, but in his own essence, did the Great First Cause appear among men, and that Jesus of Nazareth was even he. Against this declaration, before which, could we fully comprehend it, our whole nature would sink confused, I steadily set myself and strenuously war. I maintain on the contrary, that Jesus was the Messenger and Son of God. This is my first position. Simply to establish it, the proof is so ample, that we can view only a small part. According to the scriptures, which we have assumed to be a faithful record of the revelation, Jesus constantly speaks of himself and is spoken of by others, as Sent from God the Father, as inferior to him, as dependent on him, as deriving from him all his power. Here are some of his own words. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." My Father is greater than I.” “All power is given unto me." 'I can of myself do nothing." I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." "Go to my brethren, and say to them, 1 ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." This is the constant enor of his language. 66 He always acted as a finite being, dependent on God. He was subject to the common wants of nature,-ate, slept, wept, and was pained even to agony. He frequently apdressed God in prayer, as at the grave of Lazarus and on the cross. The language used by others with regard to him corresponded with this simple view. The very names, "Son of God" (not "God the Son," nor any such dark appellation), "Christ," that is, the anointed of God ("God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power"), "Mediator " ("For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus") necessarily imply subordination. But, to go a step farther, which of the names that we find applied to him did he himself choose as his habitual designation? He chose one singular, and not given to him by any other person in the gospel narrative; and he chose it and attracted to it frequent and marked attention, for the very purpose, as it seems to me, of resisting that tendency to deify him, which he perceived to exist, and which has since proved so fatal. He called himself the Son of Man, to impress upon his hearers that he was an offspring of the human race, and the example of its capability, that he was a brother, a fellow-subject, and the universal model. Such was the human spirit formed to be. He was the Son of Man; and whatever more this may sig. nify, it is plainly a term of inferiority. The great Creaor we do not call by any such appellation. To go higher, we add that God himself is represented as declaring the doctrine which we advocate. "And lo, a voice from heaven, saying,— This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." |