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1.3.6 - A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age
The Origin of Christianity
Jesus - Usefulness of the Law
The fact that Jesus thus maintained a conservative attitude toward the law does not indicate that he meant to exclude Gentiles from the kingdom of God. It is true that during the earlier part of his ministry he seems to have had only his own countrymen in mind [Matt 10:5, Mark 7:27], but before his death, when he realized that his Gospel would be rejected by the nation at large, he distinctly contemplated the entrance of foreign peoples into the kingdom [Matt. 8:11 sq., 21:43. Compare also Matt 28:19 and John 10:16, whose authenticity is less certain].
And yet even then he said nothing of an abrogation or neglect of the Mosaic law, for had he done so, we should certainly find some trace of his words, either in the records of his life or in the conduct of his followers. He perhaps thought of the Gentiles as worshipping and serving God in the same way that the Jews did, and as taking their place with the latter, or instead of the latter [Cf Matt. 8:12, 21:43, 23:37], in the existing household of faith.
But though Jesus thus remained throughout his life a genuine Jew, both in precept and practice, he nevertheless gave utterance to a principle which must revolutionize the prevailing conception of the law, and which must make possible an attitude toward it very different from that of the Jews in general.
If the law was a means only, and not an end in itself, the time might come when its usefulness would be outlived and when it would need to be done away in order that the higher end, which it was meant to serve, might be promoted and not hindered. That time did not come during Jesus' life, and he gave no clear indication that he expected it ever to come; but the subsequent history of Christianity would not have been what it was had not his principles made its coming possible.
It has been seen that the supreme condition of entrance into the kingdom of God, according to the teaching of Jesus, is the true spirit of sonship. To this one condition he adds no other. Even the passages in which he emphasizes the importance of a man's belief in, or attachment to himself, when rightly interpreted, are seen to involve nothing more or different.
It is significant that during the early part of his ministry, according to the account of Mark, who reproduces most accurately the true order of events, Jesus said nothing of the necessity of coming into fellowship with himself.
Only after the clear declaration of his Messiahship at Caesarea Philippi [Mark 7:27 sq and parallels] did he begin to bring his own personality forward and speak of a man's relation to him as determining in any way his character of destiny.
This reticence, however, remarkable as it may seem at first sight, was entirely in line with his course respecting the announcement of his Messiahship. Though he already believed himself to be the Christ, he began his ministry not with any reference to his own character or commission, but with the preaching of the kingdom of God, and he systematically refrained for a considerable period from declaring himself to be the Messiah, and even forbade others to proclaim him as such. The incident at Caesarea Philippi marked an epoch in his ministry, for it was then that he first distinctly acknowledged his Messianic calling to his disciples, and even then he charged them that they should tell no one else [Mark 7:30].
His first public admission that he was the Messiah seems to have been made only at the very close of his life, upon the occasion of his final visit to Jerusalem. Evidently Jesus had a purpose in thus concealing his Messiahship for so long a time. Conscious, as he was, of the difference between his own mission and work, and the ideal cherished by the majority of his countrymen, he doubtless feared that a premature declaration would arouse false hopes respecting his mission. Those false hopes would precipitate an immediate crisis, and would make it impossible for him to prepare his countrymen as he wished to prepare them for the coming of a spiritual kingdom.
Only when he realized that he was not to succeed in influencing any great number of the people, and that, on the contrary, his speedy death was inevitable, does he seem to have deemed it necessary to declare himself clearly, in the first place to his disciples, in order to prepare them for the impending crisis, and finally to the people at large. And so when he was executed, it was as a distinct claimant to the Messianic dignity.
Used by permission of the publisher.
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