SIR ROBERT ANDERSON
Secret Service
Theologian
THE HONOUR OF
HIS NAME
Chapter Eight
CHAPTER VIII To complete this brief review of Scripture
passages, it remains to notice the closing book of the sacred Canon. The
Gospels are linked so closely with the Hebrew Scriptures and the people of the
Covenant, that if the Book of Acts had been lost, the transi-tion to Epistles
to Gentile communities would have seemed a strange enigma. And if the Book of
Revelation had disappeared, that enigma would have been insoluble. Indeed a
mutilated Bible such as that would have supplied some justification for the
infidel's profane sneer, that God has been thwarted in His attempts to realise
His declared purposes for earth, and so He now intends to trans-plant His
people to heaven, and to wind up the affairs of earth by a bonfire!
But the
Revelation is the great stock-taking book of all the outstanding promises of
God; and in its pages all the dropped threads of history and type and prophecy
and promise, that lie scattered through-out the earlier Scriptures, are
gathered up and traced to their appointed consummation. And having regard to
the nature and solemnity of the book, the appearance of the "simple name" in
every chapter of it would afford no excuse for the familiar use of that name so
habitual to-day. As a matter of fact, however, its occurrences are few, being
limited to its use by the Lord Himself, and to certain passages where it is
employed in the following phrases
"The kingdom and patience of Jesus" (ch.
i. 9, R.V.).
"The testimony of Jesus" (chaps. i. 9, RX. ; xii. 1~ xix. 10;
and xx. 4.
"The faith of Jesus" (ch. xiv. 12).
"The martyrs of Jesus"
(ch. xvii. 6).
No Christian will attribute these striking phrases to the
caprice of the Apostolic writer, albeit they are found nowhere else in
Scripture. The character and purpose of the Apocalypse will perhaps supply a
clew to their significance.
That the present "Christian dispensation" is
the climax and fulfilment of all divine purposes of blessing to earth, is a
heresy by which the Latin Fathers prepared the way for the Romish apostasy that
calls itself the "Holy Catholic Church." This heresy has so permeated the
theology of Christendom that in the editorially added headlines to the latter
portion of Isaiah, in our English Bible, all the j udg-inents and woes are
assigned to the ~Jews, and the visions of earthly blessing are treated as
rhapsodies about the spiritual triumphs of "the Church."
So far from the
present dispensation being the fulfilment of the prophecies of earthly
blessing, it marks in the most definite way the postponement of their
fulfilment. God's revealed purposes for earth are connected with His earthly
people, and their realisation awaits the close of "the times of the Gentiles,"
during which earthly power, transferred from Jerusalem to Babylon twenty-five
centuries ago, remains in Gentile hands. Not until "the times of the Gentiles"
have run their course will the Kingdom be established upon earth. The
Pente-costal dispensation would have led up to that great event. But owing to
Israel's obdurate apostasy, that dispensation was interrupted. The murder of
Stephen was the answer given by their accredited leaders-the ecclesiastical
Jewish government-to the inspired Apostle's proclamation of a divine amnesty.1
Stephen was the messenger sent after the king to say, "We will not have this
man to reign over us." Then the Apostle of the Gentiles received his
commission, and through him were revealed the great "mystery" truths of the
present dispensation. Truths, that is, which till then had remained secret; for
nothing of them was disclosed in the Old Testament Scriptures. They are the
"mystery" of the reign of Grace, which is obviously incompatible with divine
government in righteousness openly declared; the" mystery" of the Church, the
body of Christ- a heavenly relationship with a heavenly glory; and the
"mystery" of that special phase of the Lord's "Coming" which will bring the
present dispensation to a close.
And at its close the interrupted
Pentecostal dis-pensation will be resumed. Its initial stage will include the
fulfilment of Joel's prophecy to which the Apostle referred in Acts ii. 16
ff~., and its course will be marked by persecutions more terrible than the
people of God on earth have ever known.
The sacred Canon is closed, and
lloiy Scripture is the Word of God for His people upon earth to the end of
time. It contains teaching, as we know, that has proved definitely applicable
to the varying circumstances of the children of faith in ages past, and it has
special messages for us to-day. Is it credible then that it has no messages of
warning and comfort for the awful days that are yet to come? And where shall we
look for such messages if not here? The visions of the Revelation, though
limited to no one age, will have a special voice for the people of God in the
coming days of unpre-cedented trial-days of suffering and peril, when, as the
Lord Himself declared, there shall be "great tribulation, such as was not since
the beginning of the world, no, nor ever shall be." And with divine tenderness
and grace "the elect" of those awful days are linked with the Lord Himself by
the name of His humiliation-a name so redolent of memories of His suffering and
sorrow. They are called "the martyrs of Jesus"
-His own in a peculiar
sense. And they have "the faith of Jesus "-the faith that sustained Him on all
the path that ended with the Cross. And theirs is "the testimony of Jesus "-of
Him who gave His testimony before Pontius Pilate, when by a few qualifying
words He might have won His freedom, and enlisted the power of Imperial Rome to
protect Him from His enemies. And in keeping with all this, it is not as the
Apostle of the Lord that the Seer writes, but as "your brother and partaker
with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patience (which are) in
Jesus."'
Rev. 1. 9. By the words "which are in Jesus" the Revisers try to
give the force of the untranslatable Greek preposition. (The marginal note,
"Gr. in," so frequent in the R.V., is most mis-leading: witness the fact that
in Grimm's Lexicon the statement of its many meanings and uses fills between
seven and eight columns.) Here, as in kindred passages, the en is
"characteristic." The Lord is here presented, not in His glory, but as still
suffering, because His people are suffering; and with patience waiting, even as
they are waiting. Surely it is legitimate to trace a connection between the
words of 1 Tim. vi. 13 and "the testimony of Jesus" in these passages. The verb
used in Timothy is martu'reo, and here the noun is marturia. And surely both
clauses of the sentence "the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus"
(ch. xii. 17) must be read in the same way-" God's commandments and Jesus'
testimony." And so also "the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" (ch.
xiv. 12), "God's commandments and Jesus' faith."
Chapter Eleven
No one
who, with open mind, has followed this in-quiry respecting the use of the
Lord's personal name in the New Testament, can resist the conclusion to which
it leads. "The modern familiar use of the simple name 'Jesus' has NO authority
in Apostolic usage." Some Christians who recognise that the common practice is
unscriptural and wrong, adopt what may be described as the compromise of always
adding "Christ" to 'the simple name." Their motive is most praiseworthy, but we
do well t. consider not merely what depth of meaning "Jesus Christ" may have
with those who use it thus, but what it means to the vast majority of people
who hear or read their words. The infidel uses it as freely as the Christian.
And even with ordinary Christians, hallowed though it be, and redolent of holy
memories, it is re-garded (like "Jesus") as merely a personal name; and it
points, not upward to the Lord of Glory on the eternal throne, but back to "the
historic Jesus." 1 Some theologians indeed would have us believe that, even in
the New Testament, "Christ" is some-times used merely as a proper name-a
figment which indicates how entirely Gentile exegesis may be out of harmony
with Jewish thought; for with the devout Jew, as with the Hebrew Christian, it
was a divine title of great solemnity. We shall better realise its purport in
Scripture if for "Christ" we read "Messiah," and for "Jesus Christ," "Jesus the
Messiah." But it meant nothing in~Gentile ears, and Gentile converts needed to
be taught its sacred significance.
The majority of Christians who offend in
this matter may plead that their error is due to evil training or
thoughtlessness; but when once atten-tion is directed to the subject they would
do well to be guided by primitive practice and the teach-ing of Scripture. The
researches of Dr. Adolf Deissmann have established that in the Apostolic age,
speaking of Christ as "the Lord" was a full and definite acknowledgment of His
Deity. "In the time of St. Paul," he tells us, "'Lord' was throughout the whole
Eastern world a universally understood religious conception. The Apostle's
con-fession of his Master as 'our Lord Jesus Christ' . . was at once
intelligible in all the fulness of its mean-ing to every one in the Greek
Orient." And under the persecuting Emperors, as the same writer tells us again,
this confession "led to Christian martyrdoms." If speaking of Christ as "the
Lord" were fraught with similar perils to-day, Christians could scarcely be
more careful to avoid the practice than now they seem to be!
And Dr.
Deissmann's researches may enable us better to understand the narrative of The
Acts. "That God hath made this same Jesus whom ye crucified both Lord and
Christ" was the Apostle Peter's proclamation at Pentecost. "Both Lord and
Christ"; but whereas the special testimony to the Jew was that He was the
Christ, to the Gentile the emphasis rested on the truth that He was Lord.
Accordingly we read that in Jerusalem the Apostles "preached Jesus as the
Christ" (Acts v. 42, R.V.). But when, after the disciples were driven out by
the Stephen persecution, they came into contact with Gentiles, "they preached
the Lord Jesus" (Acts xi. 20). And to the Corinthians the Apostle Paul declared
with emphasis, "We preach Christ Jesus as Lord" (2 Cor. iv. 5, R.V.). 1 The
writings of the Apostle Peter exemplify how this consideration influenced him
in naming the Lord. In his First Epistle, addressed expressly to Hebrew
Christians-" the elect who are sojourners of the Dispersion," the Lord is eight
times named as "Jesus Christ"; whereas in his Second Epistle, addressed to
Gentile believers-" to them who have obtained like precious faith with us"
(i.e. with us Hebrews)-that name is never used once, save in the Apostolic
formula of the opening words. And in that same sentence the Lord is designated
"Our God and Saviour Jesus Christ," and again, "Jesus our Lord." Three times we
find "our Lord Jesus Christ," and three times "our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ."
In studying the Epistles in this connection we need to take
account of the Revised Text; for in very many occurrences of "Jesus Christ" in
our A.V. the reading of the R.V. is "Christ Jesus." And in not a few passages
where the Revisers have retained "Jesus Christ," MS. authority is conflicting.
Dean Alford's version, for example, reads "Christ" in 2 Cor. iv. 6, and "Christ
Jesus" in Phil. i. 6, and so elsewhere. In fact the right reading is doubtful
in nearly half the passages where "Jesus Christ" occurs in our Authorised
Version. The distinction has a doctrinal significance. For "Jesus Christ"
speaks to us of the Lord as a person, whereas "Christ Jesus" is what some
writers term "the official Christ "-the Christ in His relationships with His
people.' Compare, for example, "the man Jesus Christ" in Romans v. 15, with
"baptized into Christ Jesus," 2 ~ ch. vi. 3. So again in 2 Cor. xiii. 5, if the
text adopted in both our versions be accepted,3 it must be rendered "that Jesus
Christ is among you," just as in 1 Cor. xiv. 25 the Apostle speaks of God being
among them. Scripture does not speak of a Christian being in Jesus Christ4 nor
of Jesus Christ being in a Christian, whereas "in Christ," or "in Christ
Jesus," represents truth which is as clear as it is precious.
Many Bible
students might find results which would surprise them in studying the use of
the name "Jesus Christ" in the New Testament. For instance, in all the Four
Gospels it occurs only five times,8 including its use by the Lord Himself in
John xvii. 3. And it is used but seven, times in Acts, and never once in the
incidental or the narra tival fashion so common with us to-day. As regards the
Epistles, on account of the element of different readings, above noticed, a
complete analysis of the passages where it is used' would involve too serious a
digression. Suffice it then to say, first, that in the Apostolic writings, the
use of one or another of the Lord's names or titles has always some definite
significance, and it is not, as with us, due merely to euphony or caprice. And
secondly, all who believe in the divine inspiration of Holy Scripture must
recognise that even the most formal and solemn of mere human utterances are
upon a different and lower plane. And therefore in a matter such as this it
behoves us, not to copy the language of the Word of God, but to be governed by
its precepts, and by the example of those whose ways and words were con-trolled
by the Lord's personal presence and teaching.
"What would Jesus do ~"is the
deplorably irreve-rent formula by which some people would have us settle every
question. Some years ago, if the news-papers may be trusted, the servants in
the house of a certain English peer, where Socialism had found a lodgment, were
encouraged to speak of their noble master by his Christian name. But surely,
even in the degradation of such a home, the language of the servants' hail
would not be, "What would George do?" but "What would he have us to do?"
And in this matter we have not merely the example of the early saints: we have
words of definite guidance from the Lord Himself. "Ye call Me Master and Lord,
and ye do well," has been already quoted; and surely this ought to be enough
for all who either love or fear Him. But we need to be reminded also of His
words recorded in John v. 22, 23-most explicit and solemn words, bearing
directly on the question here before us. They are usually read as though they
meant no more than that we should honour not only the Father but the Son also.
But language could not be more definite and clear. The divine prerogative of
judgment has been delegated to Him in order that He, the Son, may receive the
same honour that is rendered to the Father.' His words can have no other
meaning. And every one of us must settle it with his conscience, in view of the
judgment-seat of Christ, whether this is compatible with the manner in which He
is commonly named to-day, not only in ordinary conversation, but in Christian
pulpits and Christian literature.
The fact so definitely noticed in
preceding pages, that throughout the Epistles the Lord is named occasionally as
"Jesus," or "Jesus Christ," is seized upon by many as an excuse for
carelessness and indifference in this matter. It is not for such that this
appeal is intended; and yet even such as they would do well to study the
opening verses of 1 Corinthians, as illustrative of Apostolic thought and usage
in this respect. I quote from the R.V. The Apostle addresses the Corinthians as
"sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that call upon the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Then, following the "salutation" from the Lord
Jesus Christ, he thanks God for the grace given them in Christ Jesus, "even as
the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: so that ye come behind in no
gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall also
confirm you unto the end, that ye be unreprovable in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ. God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His
Son Jesus Christ our Lord." And then the practical teaching of the Epistle
opens with an appeal to them in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. In many a
Christian book of two hundred pages that title of glory will not be found as
often as here it occurs in less than. tlvo hundred words!
This chapter may
fitly close by calling attention to a precept which the Revised Text has
recovered for us: "Sanctify Christ in your heart as Lord." Some Christians who
are eager to confess Him before men are often restrained by fear of giving
offence. Here then is a mode of confessing Him which is both effective and
inoffensive. And if they accustom themselves to name Him, only and always, with
the reverence which is His due, the habitual con-fession of the lips will help
them to sanctify Him as Lord in the heart, and to own Him as Lord in daily
life.'
1 A document that has reached me since this chapter was written
supplies a striking commentary upon my words on page 58. A paper read before
the Victoria Institute by one of the, most eminent of the Irish Bishops gives
the following inswer to the question, Where is the basis of truth to be found
7- "We must find it, not in the mere book, but in the revelation which the book
contains. All along the ages the source of power has been, not the mere letter
of certain documents, but the person-ality and influence of Jesus Christ. . . .
The wonderful character of our Lord . . . it is this which makes Jesus Christ
the most vivid personality in history or in literature."
Such thoughts as
these are expressed with far more enthusiasm by Renan the infidel. But is not
this what the Apostle meant by "knowing Christ after the flesh?" A vivid
personality in history and literature may possibly be a permanent basis for
"the Christian religion," but not for the faith of Christ. It will not bring
peace to a conscience awakened to the dread realities of sin and judgment to
come. Christianity is based upon the revelation of the Christ who lived and
died, but is now enthroned in glory-a revelation which comes to us, not in "a
mere book," but in holy writings, God-breathed by the Divine Spirit. No clear
and fearless thinker can find any intelligent compromise between this "simple
faith" and sheer agnosticism.
Chapter Ten
Literature | Photos | Links | Home