Union and Unction

When a coin has been long in use, and its impression has become effaced, it is not easy to recall what it was like when it came forth new from the mint. We may also say that words in this respect are very much like coins; usage wears them and often entirely changes their meaning. Something like this has happened to the word “Christian,” though the change in the meaning of the word is due to a very different idea of the fact, a different view of what it means to be a Christian. In the early days of Christianity it was difficult to be a Christian, but nowadays people think it quite an easy and simple matter. In those days it meant very much to be a Christian, for it was a real test of life and character, but to some people in the present day it means practically nothing.

Christians love Christ, because He first loved them (1 John iv. 19). This love shows itself in loyalty. They respond to His call and realise they are not their own but His. His person is the Object of our worship; His sacrifice is the basis of our trust; His life is the standard of our example; His truth is the light of our conduct; His glory is the motive of our endeavors; His coming is the hope of our soul. Christ for us is our atonement; Christ in us is our power; Christ under us is our foundation; Christ around us is our protection; Christ before us is our hope.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Power; He gives the believer power with God in prayer and intercession. He also endues with power in relation to man, enabling the believer to show sympathy with man and do service for God. The anointing with the Holy Ghost is thus the essential feature and necessary equipment of the true Christian life.

The combination of these two elements must ever be kept in view – Union and Unction. The Christian is one who is united to Christ and anointed by Him. When we look at the New Testament we can see that in the Apostolic Church the Christian was not only united to Christ by faith, but was also an active, aggressive worker, fully consecrated and endued with power from on high.

The Power of His Resurrection

Saul of Tarsus, the promising pupil of Gamaliel, who seemed the coming man of Judaism, threw away all his prospects for the belief in Christ’s resurrection, turned his friends into foes, and exchanged a life of honourable ease for a life of toil and shame – surely common sense requires us to believe that that for which he so suffered was in his eyes established beyond the possibility of doubt. (Prof. Kennett)

It is a well-known story how that Lord Lyttleton and his friend Gilbert West left the University at the close of one academic year each determining to give attention respectively during the long vacation to the conversion of St. Paul and the resurrection of Christ, in order to prove the baselessness of both. They met again in the autumn and compared experiences. Lord Lyttleton had become convinced of the truth of St. Paul’s conversion, and Gilbert West of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If, therefore, Paul’s twenty-five years of suffering and service for Christ was a reality, his conversion was true, for everything he did began with that sudden change. And if his conversion was true, Jesus Christ rose from the dead, for everything Paul was and did he attributed to the sight of the risen Christ.

By One Spirit

From the earliest words of the Old Testament we are reminded of the presence of “The Spirit of God” (Gen. i. 2), and all through the Old Testament times we find the Holy Spirit at work filling men with power (Exod. xxxi. 3; Judges xiv. 6), and enabling the servants of God to do their Divine service (1 Sam. x. 10; 2 Sam. xxiii. 2). When we come to the New Testament the presence of the Spirit of God becomes still clearer as we read of His work, His influence upon such men as John the Baptist (Luke i. 80), and also upon our Lord Himself (Luke i. 35; John iii. 34). Still further revelation is given to us concerning the Spirit by our Lord. He is called the Comforter (John xiv. 25), the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, and His work includes such personal actions as teaching, reproving, speaking, and witnessing (John xiv. 26; xvi. 8, 13). We are thus led to the conviction that the Holy Ghost is God, for no less than God could do that which is attributed to Him, or occupy the position given to Him in the New Testament. He can be grieved by the sins of men (Eph. iv. 30). It is possible to blaspheme against Him (Matt. xii. 31, 32), and to lie unto Him is to lie unto God (Acts v. 4). Hence, in the Nicene Creed we have that remarkable fulness of statement of what the Holy Spirit is, who He is, and what He does.

(a) He it is Who unites us to Christ, and thereby makes us members of “the holy catholic Church” (1 Cor. xii. 13)
(b) He it is Who indwells every believer, and enables us to realize the “communion of saints,” i.e., the union and fellowship of all who belong to God.
(c) He it is Who applies to our souls the efficacy of the atoning Sacrifice whereby we are enabled to receive “the forgiveness of sins.”
(d) He it is Who will be the means of our resurrection hereafter, and for this reason we confess our belief in “the resurrection of the body” (Rom. viii. 11).
(e) He it is Who by His indwelling presence now gives us the pledge, foretaste, and guarantee of “life everlasting,” which will be ours in fulness in the world to come.

Come and See

“Thou art permitted to speak for thyself” [Acts 26:1]. This is what the Gospel desires, and for three reasons:

Hearsay evidence is often erroneous. In this very books of Acts we find glaring instances of the danger of hearsay. The Church was regarded as an obscure Jewish sect, with some peculiar ideas of “one Jesus.” There was a smattering, a second-hand smattering of knowledge; and, unfortunately, we find the same only too prevalent to-day. There is sadly too much second-hand religion, religion gathered only from common report, ordinary conversation, and literary tradition. Very frequently the Bible is condemned without having been read, very often St. Paul’s Epistles are criticized without having been studied. It is simply astounding to find error about the Gospel, and even about simple Bible facts, in many whose position and education warrant something vastly different. There is error, because there is no real knowledge; error, because hearsay evidence is so often erroneous. But we may go further and say that

Christian testimony is only partial. Paul here gives his own testimony, and there can be no possible doubt that the well-known change in his life had a great effect on his hearers, and was a fact they could not get over. His conversion and subsequent life counted for something, and it was as though he said, “I experienced this; deny it, and you say I lie.” St. Paul’s character was questioned by any who dared to deny the change. Yet when we have said all that we can for the power of this, it remains true that Christian testimony is only partial and incomplete. While Christians are what they are, there will always be slips and failures and sins, and I pity the man who takes his Christianity from Christians only. There is no doubt that we Christians ought to show much more of the Christ-life than we do, and may God pardon us for so often being stumbling-blocks instead of stepping-stones. Yet, such testimony, however real, can only be partial, and this leads us to say that

Personal experience is always sure. This was the goal of the Apostle; to this he was trying to lead his hearers; for this purpose he gave his own testimony. He desired Agrippa to test Christianity for himself; not only to hear of Paul’s Christ, but to have his own Christ, confident that Agrippa would find Christ what he himself had found Him. The primal necessity is to get our religion direct from Christ, not to ask this man or that man, not to follow this book or that book, but to go direct to the Book of books and find Christ for ourselves. When Nathaniel questioned whether any good thing could come out of Nazareth, Philip did not preach, or argue, or denounce; he simply said, “Come and see.” Read the Word for yourselves: see who He is, and what He asks, comply with His demands, surrender the life, and the result will be similar to that of the Samaritans: “Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”

Esau and Jacob

An anecdote from Dr. J. Vernon McGee:

Dr. Griffith Thomas was approached one day by one of his Old Testament students. The young man said, “Dr. Thomas, I am struggling with Malachi 1:2-3: ‘I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.’ How is it that God hated Esau?”

Dr. Thomas answered, “I find that passage rather difficult as well. Only, my struggle is with how God could find it to love Jacob.”

Of One Being With the Father

The perfect blending of grace and truth, although unique, is not absolutely conclusive proof of anything more than exceptional Manhood; but as we continue to read the story of Jesus Christ in the Gospels we are soon brought face to face with a truly unique element. He is seen to be entirely without sin.

Pilate and Herod, who were incarnations of cleverness and cruelty, could find no fault in Him.

One of His earliest followers said of Him that He “did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.”

The universal history of the highest and noblest saints shows that the nearer they approached the infinite holiness of God the more conscious they became of their own lack of holiness, and yet in the case of Jesus Christ there is not only the absence of sin, but from time to time declarations of His own holiness and meekness.

Christianity as a religion is unique in its claim to deliver from sin, and its claim is based on the sinlessness of Christ.

Either Jesus Christ was God, or else He is not a good man.

We find ourselves face to face with the problem of how to account for the Person, life, and character of Jesus of Nazareth. [T]he ordinary factors of life cannot possibly account for Him. Everything in Him is at once perfectly natural and yet manifestly supernatural. He is unique in the history of mankind.

He must be considered. He demands the attention of all true men. The supreme question today, as ever, is “What think ye of Christ?”

Full of Grace and Truth

Grace by itself might easily lead to weakness and mere sentimentality. Truth by itself might easily be expressed in rigour, sternness, severity. But when grace is strengthened by truth, and truth is mellowed by grace, we have the perfect character and true life of man. It is the union of these opposites in Jesus Christ in perfect balance and consistency that demands our attention. Other men are fragmentary, one-sided, biased. He is complete, balanced, perfect. Ordinary men often manifest unequally one or other of these two elements; Jesus Christ manifested them both in harmony and exquisite proportion. There is no weakness, no exaggeration or strain, no strong and weak points, as is the case with the rest of mankind. Still more, there are certain elements and traits of character which are not found elsewhere, such as absolute humility, entire unselfishness, whole-hearted willingness to forgive, and the most beautiful and perfect holiness. Nor must we overlook the wonderful blending of contrasts which are seen in Jesus Christ; the combination of keeness and integrity, of caution and courage, of tenderness and severity, of sociability and aloofness. Or we may think of the elements of sorrow without moroseness, of joy without lightness, of spirituality without asceticism, of conscientiousness without morbidness, of freedom without license, of earnestness without fanaticism.

[H]ow it is that no better man has since appeared, after nineteen centuries? Why should not evolution lead to a still higher type? Yet Jesus Christ continues to tower high above humanity. The acutest examination only confirms the truth of John Stuart Mill’s well-known statement that Christ is “a unique Figure, not more unlike all His predecessors than all His followers.”