Basic Christianity - Chapter 3 "The Character of Christ"

In the last Basic Christianity post, we began looking at the evidence that Jesus was in fact the sinless, perfect Son of God. This evidence, you will remember, consists in three things: the Claims of Christ; the Character of Christ; and the Resurrection of Christ. "No one argument is conclusive," John Stott says. "But the three converging lines point unfalteringly to the same conclusion." 

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Therefore, in this post, we will examine Evidence #2: The Character of Christ. We will divide this second piece of evidence into four points: What Christ Himself Thought; What Christ's Friend's Said; What Christ's Enemies Conceded; and What We Can See for Ourselves...

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I. What Christ Himself Thought. Jesus directly stated on one or two occasions that He was without sin. When a woman caught in the very act of adultery was brought before him (John 8:3-11), he issued a challenge to her accusers: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." Needless to say, no stones were thrown, and the woman's accusers slunk away. On another occasion, Jesus boldly defied those that opposed Him with these words, "Which of you convinceth (convicts) me of sin?" (John 8:46). Stott says, "They slipped away when He accused them. But when He invited them to accuse Him, He could stay and bear their scrutiny. They were all sinners; He was without sin."

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"Similarly," Stott continues, "by the very nature of His teaching, He placed Himself in a moral category by Himself... Jesus assumed His uniquenness unself-consciencely. He did not need to draw attention to it. It was a fact so obvious to Him that it hardly required emphasis. It was implied rather than asserted." Consider the following examples...

• All other men were lost sheep - He had come as the Good Shepherd to seek and to save them (Luke 19:10; John 10:11,14)
• All other men were sick with the disease of sin - He was the doctor that had come to heal them (Luke 5:31-32)
• All other men were plunged in the darkness of sin and ignorance - He was the light of the world (John 3:19; 8:12; 9:5)
• All other men were sinners - He was born to be their Saviour and would shed His blood in death for the forgiveness of their sins (Matt. 20:28; 26:28)
• All other men were hungry - He was the bread of life (John 6:35)
• All other men were dead in trespasses and sins - He could be their life now and their resurrection hereafter. (John 11:25)

"All these metephors express the moral uniqueness of which He was conscious."

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Furthermore, Stott points out "that although we are told of the temptations of Jesus, we hear nothing of His sins." Jesus Christ:

• never confesses His sins or asks for forgiveness, although He tells His disciples to do so.
• shows no consciousness of moral failure.
• appears to have no feeling of guilt and no sense of estrangement from God

This is remarkable for two particular reasons:

1. Jesus possessed a keen moral discernment. It is often recorded of Him that He read the inner thought and questions of the crowds that followed Him. "His clear perception," says Stott, "led Him fearlessly to expose the duplicity of the Pharisees. He hated their hypocrisy. He pronounced woes upon them as thunderous as those of the Old Testament prophets. Ostentation and pretence were an abomination to Him. Yet His penetrating eye saw no sin in Himself."
2. His self-conscious purity is unlike the experience of all saints and mystics. "The Christian knows that the nearer he approaches God, the more he becomes aware of his own sin.. Yet Jesus Christ, who lived more closely to God than anybody else has done, was free from all sense of sin."

II. What Christ's Friends Said. It is clear that Jesus believed Himself to be sinless, just as He believed Himself to be the Messiah and God's Son. But, some might argue, couldn't He have been mistaken? What about His disciples? Did they share His opinon of Himself?

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There are those who call Christ's disciples poor witnesses; biased men who presented Christ better than He really was. However, Stott says that "in this the apostles have been greatly maligned. Their statements cannot be so lightly dismissed. There are several reasons why we may confidently rely on their evidence..."

1. They lived in close contact with Christ for about 3 years. 
2. They were Jews who had been trained since infancy in Old Testament doctrines, one of which is the universality of human sin (Isaiah 53:6; Psalm 14:3): thus they would not easily attribute sinlessness to anyone.
3. Their tesimony is indirect: they do not set out to establish the truth that Christ was free of sin. Their remarks are asides. As they are discussing some other subject, they add almost as a parenthesis a reference to His sinlessness. For example, Peter speaks of Jesus as 'a lamb without blemish or spot' (1 Peter 1:19) who 'committed no sin; no guile was found on His lips' (1 Peter 2:22). John clearly states that all men are sinful and corrupt, but goes on to say that in Christ, who was manifested to take away our sins, there is no sin (I John 1:8-10; 3:5)).

III. What Christ's Enemies Conceded. Some people may feel themselves on "safer ground" when it comes to considering what Christ's enemies thought of Him. After all, they were certainly not biased in His favor. We can read four of their criticisms of Jesus in Mark's gospel (see 2:1 - 3:6):

1. They accused Him of blasphemy. Jesus had forgiven a man's sins, and they considered this to be an arrogant invasion of divine authority. However, this begs a question. Stott points out, "If He were indeed divine, to forgive sins was His prerogotive."
2. They accused Him of evil associations. He dealt with publicans, ate with sinners, and let harlots approoach Him. "No Pharisee," says Stott, "would dream of such behaviour. He would gather his skirts around him and recoil from such scum. He would have thought himself righteous for doing so, too. He would not appreciate the grace and tenderness of Jesus who, though 'separate from sinners', yet earned the honored title 'friend of sinners'."
3. They accused His religion of being frivolous. He didn't fast as the Pharisees did, or even the disciples of His friend John the Baptist did. He was called a 'glutton and a drunkard' who 'came eating and drinking' (Matthew 11:19). "Such an attack hardly deserves a serious refutation. That Jesus was full of joy is true, but there can be no doubt that He took religion seriously," Stott tells us.
4. They accused Him of sabbath-breaking. He would heal people of their illnessess on the sabbath, and His disciples even walked through cornfields on the sabbath, plucking, rubbing, and eating corn, which the Pharisees forbade as tantamount to reaping and threshing. "Yet no one," Stott says, "can doubt that Jesus was submissive to God's law. He obeyed it Himself, and in controversy He refferred His opponants to it is the arbiter. He also confirmed that God had made the sabbath, and that He made it for man's benefit. But being himself 'lord of the sabbath' (Luke 6:5), He claimed the right to set aside the false traditions of men and to give to God's law its true interpretation." 

It is plain that all of these accusations are either trivial or question-begging. Therefore, when Jesus was on trial for his life, his enemies were forced to hire liars and false witnessess against Him. "But even then, they didn't agree with one another. In fact, the only charge they could manufacture against Him was not moral but political. And as the stately prisoner came before men for a verdict, again and again he was pronounced righteous. Pilate...publically washed his hands and declared himself 'innocent of this man's blood' (Matthew 27:24). Herod could find no fault with Him (Luke 23:15). Judas the traitor, filled with remorse, returned the thirty pieces of silver to the priests with the words 'I have sinned in betraying innocent blood' (Matthew 27:3-4). The penitent thief on the cross rebuked his confederate for his abuse and added, 'this man has done nothing wrong' (Luke 23:41). Finally, the centurion, having watched Jesus suffer and die, exclaimed, 'Certainly this man was innocent' (Luke 23:47)."

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IV. What We Can See For Ourselves. In conclusion, Stott reminds us that "in assessing the character of Jesus, we do not need to rely only on the testimony of others; we can make our own estimate. The moral perfection which was quietly claimed by Him, confidently asserted by His freidns and reluctantly acknowledged by His enemies, is clearly exhibited in the Gospels." Consider the following examples...

• Whether scaling the dizzy heights of success or plunged into the depths of bitter rejection alone, He is the same Jesus. He is consistent. He has no moods. He does not change.
• There is in Him no trace of the crank. He believes ardently what He teaches, but He is not a fanatic. His doctrine is unpopular, but He is not eccentric.
• There is as much evidence for His humanity as there is for His divinity. He gets tired. He needs to sleep and eat and drink like other men. He experiences the human emotions of love and anger, joy and sorrow. He is fully human. Yet He is no mere man.
• Above all, He was unselfish... Although believing Himself to be divine, He did not put on airs or stand on His dignity. He was never pompous. There is no touch of self-importance about Jesus. He was humble... He exhibited both the greatest self-esteem and the greatest self-sacrifice. He knew Himself to be Lord of all, but He became their servant. He said He was going to judge the world, but He washed His apostles' feet.

"Such a man is altogether beyond our reach. He succeeded where we invariably fail. He had complete self-mastery. He never retaliated. He never grew resentful or irritable. He had such control of Himself that, whatever men might think or say or do, He would deny Himself and abandon Himself to the will of God and the welfare of mankind. 'I seek not my own will', He said, and 'I seek not my own glory'. 

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"This utter disregard of self in the service of God and man is what the Bible calls love. There is no self-interest in love.The essence of love is self-sacrifice. The worst of men is adorned by an occasional flash of such nobility, but the life of Jesus irradiated it with a never-fading incadescent glow."

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"Jesus was sinless because He was selfless. Such selflessness is love. And God is love."

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Persevero,

Scribe