"Every man knows that the sun is the true light, feels it to be such, and without hesitation affirms it to be supreme. There is no debate as to whether the sun or the moon is the light of the world. Imagine a dark night, and an observer who has never seen the sun: a star suddenly shows itself, and the observer hails it with delight; presently the moon shines with all her gentle strength, and the observer says: ' This is the fulfillment of the promise; can ought be lovelier, can the sky possibly be brighter?' In due course the sun comes up; every cloud is filled with light; every mountain is crowned with a strange glory; every leaf in the forest is silvered; the sea becomes as burnished glass, and secrecy is chased from the face of the earth: under such a vision, the observer knows that this is the true light—the sovereign, all-dominating flame. It is so in the revelation of Jesus Christ. When the eyes of men are opened to see Him in all His grace and wisdom and sympathy—in all the sufficiency of His sacrifice and the comfort of His Spirit—the heart is satisfied, and every rival light is lost in the infinite splendor of God the Son."—JOSEPH PARKER.
PRACTICABLE BECAUSE REVEALED
While the fact that the Will of God includes and conditions all His creation is a most blessed one, yet it is not sufficient to prove its practicability. One person may be deeply interested in the history of another, but this fact is of little practical use to the one in whom this interest is taken, unless it is made known. I may have plans which are the very best possible for my children, but the first conditions of their being carried into effect by these children is that I should make them known to them. In the very nature of the case, the Will of God for every human life must be the best; and because of His intimate acquaintance with, and interest in, every part of the being He has created, it must be possible to do that Will if it can be known.
That this Will may be discovered by every human being is the distinct claim of Christianity. The central verity of Christianity is Christ, and He is the revelation in a Person of God's Will for man.
Moreover, the perpetual method of God with man is that of revealing to him immediately the Divine intention and purpose concerning him. We say, therefore, that the Will of God is practicable because it is revealed.
In the life of Jesus there was a perfect unfolding of the thought that was in the heart of God when He said, "Let Us make man in Our image" (Gen. 1:26). He was indeed the "image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15); "the very image of His substance" (Heb. 1:3). "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). This is John's testimony concerning Him. It is a sad commentary upon the blindness of the human heart through sin, that the vast mass of the people who came into contact with Him during the years of His sojourn upon the earth, saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him. And that persists today. But through the process of the centuries, and by the teaching of the Spirit, some men are coming to understand the wonderful glory and beauty of His Person and character, and are now recognizing that all perfection of life, individually, socially, religiously, finds in Him its first and chief expression.
Individually, He yielded Himself wholly to the claim of God, and then faced life's duties and responsibilities with a courage and devotion that transmuted the common things of the passing days into service so sacred, that it contributed to the final glories of the ages to come. He toiled upon the earth as a man, interested in the flowers of the field, and the birds of the air, and the children of the street. Gentle and strong, trusted of the weakest, feared of all tyrants, He moved without strife of words, or lifting up the voice in self-advertisement, through the divinely marked program of the waiting years, to the cross of ultimate pain, which He made the center and source of all healing for wounded and broken humanity. He was the ultimate illustration of the possibilities of individual life conditioned ever and only in the Will of God.
In all social relationships His action was such as to reveal God's Will in an entirely new light to men, thus revolutionizing human thought and human society, Without staying for a single illustration, let the mind dwell for one moment on His unvarying attitude towards women; and then remember how, since the years of His human life, woman the world over has lived in a new realm, for the day of her final emancipation dawned with His appearing. His obedience to government was exhibited in the paying of tribute, and was startlingly proved by the fact that when they would encompass His death, His enemies had to fall back upon a religious charge, having no civil one to prefer against Him. His attitude of tenderness towards all sinners incurred the condemnation of the religious enthusiasts of His day, who had so misread the heart of God as to imagine that love was for the good, and nothing but stern anger and vindictiveness for the fallen.
Religiously He gave us a radiant revelation of the truth so hard for men to learn, that true religion is not an addendum to life, but is life itself. With Him God was first; and there was no second. The critics of the ages may be challenged to discover a single action of His life as chronicled that was not true to the key-word of that life, "I must be about My Father's business." (Luke 2:49)
In that perfect life God revealed His Will for every human being. It was not the life of an angel visitor. Its glory lay in the fact of its humanness, and that fact brings it within the realm of the possible to every son and daughter of the human race.
Not only once in a person has the Will been revealed; it is perpetually and immediately revealed to all such as desire to know it. The work of the Holy Spirit is always that of indicating to man the intention and purpose of God for him.
This may be stated in another way. The Holy Spirit is to "take of the things of Christ and reveal them to men"; (John 14:26) and this is infinitely more than explaining the doctrines concerning Him. It is the showing to individual souls of the way in which, under all the circumstance of life, Christ would think, or act, or speak. Jesus was, and is, the "Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world," (John 1:9) and thus He is perpetually the revelation of the Divine Will to men.
It does not necessarily follow that when the light falls upon the spirit of man, he understands the source of the light. The light is the first fact; the understanding of the source follows. The little child may play with the golden sunshine, and yet have no knowledge of the sun. That will come in the process of the years. Let any person, if it be possible, go back in life to that moment when the conscience first detected the difference between right and wrong. That shining of the light of right was the outshining of the glory of Christ's perfection upon the spirit, and the consequent revelation of the Will of God. All this was not then understood, but enough was understood to make man responsible. If in that moment the right was chosen, Christ was obeyed, and the Will of God was done. If the wrong was chosen, the light was insulted, and the government of God rebelled against. Thus God does reveal His Will to man, and man chooses between obedience and disobedience. The measure and clearness of personal revelation depends upon this act of man. To obedient souls the light becomes perpetually brighter, for he "that doeth the will shall know of the teaching." To those who disobey, the light dies away, until they stumble in darkness upon the mountains, and imagine God does not reveal His Will to man; whereas the truth is, that having "loved the darkness rather than the light," (John 3:19) they have become blind.
To the soul new-born the Will of God is revealed again, not as a perfect and final program of life, but in a claim demanding immediate obedience, and then by successive revelations concerning the pathway of life. So that a man may say, as he steps out upon his new life,
"One step I see before me,
Tis all I need to see."
When Saul of Tarsus was apprehended of Jesus Christ, he was not told that he was to become the apostle to the Gentiles, the mightiest missionary of the Cross, the greatest theologian of the Church. Jesus said to him, "Rise, enter into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." (Acts 22:10) The next step was marked. Taking this, another was revealed; and so ever on, until at last, saying, "I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith"—(2 Tim. 4:7) he passed to the place of perfect light and perfect life.
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