Doctrines and ordinances of the New Testament

Prefatory Note

It has been said that if Shakespeare were to stand among us we would all rise, as a tribute to his genius. If Jesus were to appear among us we would fall before him in worship, as Thomas did of old. This would be our fitting posture. This age has been prolific in lives of Christ, and in truth every age needs to study over again his life. What he was we are to be. What he said we are to believe. What he commands we are to do. What he thought we are to think over again.

Christian doctrines are simply Christ's conceptions expressed in an orderly way. Christian Ordinances are Christ's institutions for his church. The Christian life and the Christian church must rest upon the foundation of the New Testament teaching. On the mount of Transfiguration the disciples saw Jesus only. In this little work may Jesus only be seen, his voice only listened to. It is written that in the minds of our young people there may be clearness of thinking, that it may lead to a renewed study of the New Testament itself and to an acquaintance with the fuller discussions on these topics in the standard works of theology-

HlGHTSTOWN, N. J.

" To this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the t7'uth " — -Jesus

" Sound in faith "—Paul

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. God, His Existence and Nature 7

II. Man's Condition in Sin 14

Chapter I God, His Existence And Nature

If there is no God there can be no Saviour, no revelation, no guiding hand in the world, no future life. The Bible begins, not by proving his existence, but by assuming it. There must be a God before there can be a Bible or Christianity or church (Gen. I : i).

1. What is Meant by God? He is that personal being, intelligent, having all wisdom, goodness, and holiness, eternal in duration, boundless in all his qualities, who was before all things and is above all things.

It matters not by what name he be called, whether Jehovah by the Jews, or God by ourselves, provided there be a right view of his nature. Our views of God will largely influence our belief and life. If God be untruthful, as the people of India represent some of their gods to be, his promises cannot be depended on. If he cannot foresee events, he cannot control affairs among men.

2. Proofs of his Existence, a. Men are so constituted that they must believe that effects are produced by causes ; it is a foundation principle of our nature. The world and life and men began to be ; there must have been a cause ; that cause we call God. The existence of God throws light upon the creation, upon man' s existence, and satisfies the reason. However far we go back into the past, that First Cause lying back of all causes we call God. b. The evidences of design and adaptation call for a designer, one who thought these things over. The eye, with its adjustments, is finer than any telescope. The air and lungs are adapted to each other. The air is composed of three elements, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Who adjusted these unthinking gases together ? It must always have been so, or they must have mixed themselves by chance, or some one must have planned it. c. All peoples believe in some higher power. There has never been found a nation of atheists. The human mind is so made that it has always looked upward. Man is a worshiping creature. It cannot be that the instinct of the entire race, in all ages, would be deceptive.

3. His Personality and Qualities. We know that God is a person, not a power or force. A law cannot think. God has intelligence, will, planning power. He is self-existent ; it is unthinkable to regard him as beginning to be. God is the unbegotten being. He is almighty and all wise ; the universe widening under the telescope shows this. He is spirit as opposed to matter ; idolatry is, therefore, unreasonable. He has all knowledge and is everywhere present. He is one God, as opposed to many. It is impossible to think of two infinite beings. The same laws existing throughout the universe reveal one mind and this view satisfies the reason and makes polytheism unreasonable.

The crowning qualities of God are his holiness, justice, and goodness. The existence of a moral nature in us shows that there must be one, in a larger measure, in the author of our being. Many events in the Bible reveal his holiness. His patience and long-suffering, waiting for man to develop character, sometimes make men forget his holy character. God has constantly been manifesting himself in a clearer light. He revealed himself first as the Mighty God, finally as the Father. The New Testament presents him, not as a God who has love, but as a God who is love. We know

GOD, HIS EXISTENCE AND NATURE 9

that God is, though we cannot fully comprehend him. God is made known to us through Jesus Christ ; the more we know of Christ, the more we know of God (John I : 18).

4. Distinctions in the Godhead. From revelation we learn that there are distinctions in the Godhead whereby we say Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

This doctrine we should not know from nature or reason. Jesus speaks of the Father who sent him, prays to him in his earthly ministry, speaks of the Spirit coming in his name to carry on his work. The Father says I, Jesus says I, the Spirit witnesses to Jesus. The Father is worshiped as God ; Jesus was worshiped as God ; the Holy Spirit is clothed with the attributes of the deity. This distinction in the Godhead is called the Trinity. Though the word is not found in the Scriptures the teaching is plain. It is a teaching above reason, but not contrary to reason. In one sense there is a unity, in another sense there is a trinity. There are accepted beliefs about ourselves that we do not understand ; the union of body and soul is utterly incomprehensible. That there should be mysteries about God' s nature seems reasonable. If we could completely understand God he would not in reality be God.

We must accept some teachings on the authority of Jesus Christ. These distinctions are real and eternal ; they are not simply different manifestations of the same person. They become manifest in the work of salvation. The Father sends the Son ; the Son dies for us ; the Spirit leads to Jesus. Jesus is God revealed, the Spirit is God revealing (Eph. 2 : 18 ; Matt. 28 : 19).

5. God' s Creative Work. The universe is God's handiwork. All nature bears witness to the Godhead (Rom. 1 : 20).

The study of the laws of nature should lead to a reverence for God. In whatever way God worked, whether by distinct creative acts or through long processes working out higher beings from lower, it was all God' s work. We do not throw

IO DOCTRINES AND ORDINANCES

aside the necessity for God if we happen to discover his ways of working. God the creator is God the upholder.

6. Man Made in God' s Image. Man is the highest creative act of God in the seen universe. There is a great gulf between living and unliving things. There is a great gulf between man and all other living things. There is in man a wideness in the intellectual powers, in the ability to trace events to causes, in the possession of a moral nature. Man was created in the image of God (Gen. I : 26).

Like God he has a personal consciousness, the power ot self-determination, activity in view of motives, a likeness in moral nature. In body related to the animals about him, he was in mind and character bound in kinship to God. He was made upright, not inclined to evil, inclined to good. He ought to have kept himself in harmony with God. It was not possible for any power outside of himself to force him to do wrong. If he had remained in harmony with God there would have grown up a character fixed in holiness. At his creation man delighted in fellowship with God. God, as a Holy Father, places no stumbling-blocks in a man's way, though he permits man to work out his own heart.

7. Man under God' s Government. God works in orderly ways. He has established laws for the physical world. He can control nature absolutely. God is not bound by his own laws, but he works through them. God has moral laws for moral beings. These laws represent what is fitting for creatures having relations with a supreme and holy God. These laws are not arbitrary, changeable at will, but represent God' s unchangeably holy nature. Every created being is under obligation to be obedient and holy. The will of God is made known partly in our moral nature. There is a law written on the heart (Rom. 2:15). There is a conscience that speaks for God, though sometimes indistinctly. There have been, in various ways, revelations of God' s will. The Bible is a record of these revelations.

GOD, HIS EXISTENCE AND NATURE I I

There is a growth in these manifestations of God' s will. The New Testament has a higher standard of requirement than the Old Testament. Some things once permitted are now forbidden. In the life of Jesus we have the highest revelation of God' s will. God requires not simply the outward conformity to the law, but the willing spirit. Every being in the universe is under the instant obligation to serve God. God is at once creator, upholder, father, counselor, friend, sovereign. Nature obeys God and asks no questions. Men are treated as moral beings ; they are placed under commands ; they are plied with motives ; they are counseled ; they are placed under holy influences ; penalties are affixed to violated laws (Isa. I : 18). God desires the welfare of all his creatures. God is a benevolent being to an infinite degree. It is the duty of every man to say, ' ' Thy will be done. ' ' God' s desires are man' s laws. Laws require obedience ; obedience brings blessings, disobedience brings penalties. This great God lives to-day. He is near to us, he thinks of us, he desires our welfare. How the thought of him should fill us with reverence and love, should drive away all wickedness from the heart and lead to holiness ! The sins of men cut him to the heart (Gen. 6 : 6). We may live to bring gladness to his heart (Heb. 11:5).

God has plans, wide and far-reaching. As a supreme intelligence he has plans and purposes worthy of himself. Men are consciously free ; God has respect to this human freedom. The two exist side by side — they do not destroy each other. We pray to God to influence ourselves and others. We cannot deny God' s sovereignty ; that would be to dethrone God. We cannot deny our own conscious free acting, in view of motives, for that would reduce us to the level of things moved by some higher power. We are most free when we gladly submit ourselves to the doing of God' s holy will. To be a slave of God is to have real freedom.

8. Mistakes About God. a. Atheism, the denial of God' s existence, is a fearful mistake. It sometimes arises from the dislike of the heart to God* s holiness. Atheism does not drive God out of his world ; it simply closes the heart to his coining in (Ps. 14 : 1). b. Deism is the admission of God' s existence, but the denial of any special revelation from him. It finds no place for a divine Christ. If God be a Father and counselor, it would not be strange if he were to make his will more fully known than it is revealed in nature, c. Pantheism makes everything a part of God, thereby in reality denying the personality of God, the freedom of man, and the existence of sin. We are completely dependent upon God, but we are consciously separate from him. d. Agnosticism denies that we can be sure that God exists. It may be known that God is, even though it remains that God will always be unknowable in the fullness of his person, e. It is a mistake to put laws or forces in place of God ; they cannot think or love. A law is not a force in itself, it is simply God's method of working. It is a mistake to think of God as subject to the limitations that surround us. It is a mistake to think that we can entirely comprehend God' s laws or nature. There are in reality no false gods in the sense of distinct personal beings. There is one true God, but there may be many false conceptions of him. There is little probability that we shall have utterly wrong conceptions of God ; there is great danger that while admitting his existence we may live forgetful of his claims. Knowing about God, we must know him (Phil. 3 : 10). It is a mistake to think that there can be any conflict between the teachings of nature and revelation, for God is the author of both. Both must agree. We must not confound the inferences which men draw from their study of nature with the specific declarations of the written revelation.

SUMMARY.

The existence of God is presupposed in revelation.

1. God is the original, uncreated cause of all things.

2. The existence of God explains the existence of the world and

man, the adaptations in nature, the moral nature in man. Almost all men admit that God is.

GOD, HIS EXISTENCE AND NATURE 1 3

3. God is a person, intelligent, one, wise, good, patient,

almighty, everywhere present, eternal in his duration.

4. There is one God, a tri-une God.

5. God created all things; he is now the preserver and up-

holder of all things.

6. Man was created in the image of God ; he is the only crea-

ture that can look up into God's face.

7. God is sovereign ; his holy will is therefore our supreme law.

He upholds nature, he controls events, he guides his children, he hears prayer.

8. Atheism, Deism, Pantheism, Agnosticism, are mistakes.

We must know God, though we can never entirely comprehend his laws or his nature.

BOOKS FOR FURTHER STUDY.

Strong's "Systematic Theology," pp. 29-220; Pendleton's "Christian Doctrines," Chap. I., III., IV., VII., IX. ; Hodge's " Popular Lectures on Theology " ; Paley's "Natural Theology " ; Diman's "Theistic Argument"; Bailey's "Word and Works of God."

CHAPTER II man's condition in sin

There came a testing to the created man. The angels had been tested ; some stood, some fell (Jude 6). There must be a testing that character may be formed ; man must change his innocence into holiness. How long he stood in his integrity we may not know. God might have made a machine that could do no wrong, but he made a man with the conscious power of choice. To God's "You ought," he made reply, "I will not." He thus introduced sin into the world. Through voluntary transgression he violated God' s expressed law. He did not stumble into a mistake, he willfully did a wrong. It is not possible to explain clearly how sin arose, how it could spring up in an innocent nature. All sin is unreason and mystery. Of this we may be sure, that it did not have God for its author. Sin is sin because it is against God (James i : 13).

1. Man Became a Sinner. Through disobedience he changed his relationship to God. He broke away from his allegiance to God. His heart became a guilty heart. The act of sin could not be undone or forgotten. He remained a being who had consciously done wrong. His nature had become a sinful nature. There grew up in his heart an abiding dislike to God and a fixed disloyalty. There was a permanent alienation of the heart from God.

He could never again be more than a repentant sinner. The entire nature suffered, the intellect, the will, the judgment, the affections. The product of the work of man' s will was a sinful man. There ought to have been an upman's condition in sin 15

ward growth into a fixed holiness, a character like God' s own, but here was a fall. It was not a mistake, a fall upward, a necessary consequence of the limitations of man' s nature, but a fall downward, a disaster, a crime. He had changed innocence into sinfulness, a fellowship with God into a voluntary hiding from his presence. The will, which is the very man himself, was permanently alienated from God ; it did not side with God.

2. The Race Became Sinful. Adam did not stand alone. By virtue of his position he was the head and father of the race. A brick stands alone, by itself ; but trees, animals, and men are joined together in a race unity. As a result of this sin, the race of men as they grow into years of consciousness become sinners. There must be something back of the outward life that occasions this uniformly sinful experience. There is a nature, a disposition, that lies underneath and back of the outward life ; what is in the nature comes out in the life. There is a bias, a tendency toward sin, a nature that develops into a personal unrighteousness. No one is guilty of Adam' s sin ; he alone is responsible for that. Men are condemned, at last, for their own sin. But each one inherits a nature that develops into a personal sinfulness.

The Scriptures teach that the sinful condition of the race springs from the race connection with Adam (Rom. 5). Reason also teaches that there must have been a moral estrangement from God to account for the race character of sinfulness. Everywhere we see the effects of heredity, the consequences of each life passing on to the next generation to help or to hinder. Sinfulness does not come from contact with each other, it is not contagious like a fever. If a man should grow up alone he would develop sinfulness. Underneath each life is a nature, this nature is weakened and perverted. Scriptures and reason show the existence of a holy God and a race of unholy men.

3. What is Sin ? The word rendered sin means a missing of the mark. Sin is a coming short of God' s requirements ; sin is transgression, a going beyond permissible boundaries ; it is iniquity, a lack of equity, of parallelism with God' s will ; it is a wrong, a distortion or twisting of the right. It is not a necessary step in man's development into holiness. It is not good in the making, a kind of imperfect goodness.

It is sin because it is a rebellion against God's law. It is lawlessness ; it finds its very existence in antagonism to God. It wrongs God of the obedience due to him. In itself and in all its tendencies wrong-doing is evil and injurious, though God may pardon the repentant sinner and overrule the evil so as to bring good out of it. Sin everywhere is evil, because it is against the will of a good and holy God. Sin means a broken law, a grieved God, an unholy nature, a guilty soul. There are sinful acts because there is a sinful nature. Not every sin is an outward act, envy and kindred sins may not pass outside the heart. Sins may vary in grade according to the light given (Luke 7 : 48). It is needful to have right views of sin. If it is only a mistake, or a disease, or a necessity of our nature, or a trifling thing, the necessity for a divine Saviour passes away.

4. Proofs of Sinfulness. The existence of wickedness in the world shows how widespread is the existence of sinfulness. Paul gives in Rom. 1 : 29-31 twenty-three kinds of wickedness. The Bible teaches that all men are sinners ; it makes no exceptions (Rom. 3 : 23). The best men are imperfect men. Jesus teaches that all have sinned. He came to save all, to save because they are lost (Luke 19 : 10).

He urges repentance upon all men because all have sinned. He teaches that all need a radical change in heart (John 3 : 7). The recorded experiences of the best men, Paul, John, Judson, show how keenly they felt the existence in them of sinful natures. If the holiest men acknowledge a deep sinfulness, how much deeper must be the wrong of other men ? Among the heathen nations is everywhere the confessed presence of sin, the need of its cleansing. If man's condition in sin 17

there be no sin among men a teacher may be needed but there is no necessity for a Saviour. Chief Justice Thompson, of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, declared that the doctrine of human depravity alone will account for the sinful conduct of men.

5. The Pe7ialty of Sin. God, with all his holy nature, is against sin. He must be, because he is holy. Sin would dethrone God if it could. There came upon the sinning man the penalty of exclusion from Eden (Gen. 3 : 23). There came the penalty of increasing sin, of a disturbed moral nature, of an accusing conscience. There came death, meaning far more than the separation of soul from body. Death means, when it has done all its work, the absence of God's favor, the loss of that spiritual and blessed life which God gives, a life which is life indeed (Rom. 6 : 23).

The Scriptures speak of a man living in conscious separation from God as dead in sins (Eph. 2 : 1). Men instinctively feel that sin deserves punishment. Wrong-doing deserves penalty, not to bring reformation, not to deter others, but for the wrong's sake. The penalty of sin must be borne as long as the sin endures. Jesus did not come to act as an accuser of men, to bring penalty, but to save men from their sins, their guilt and penalty. Holiness makes heaven ; sin unforgiven "makes hell. Jesus did not make sin or create hell ; the Bible does not, Christianity does not. Jesus makes manifest sin and its penalty ; he came to forgive sin, to remove it utterly, to save the life from loss here and hereafter (John 3 : 16).'

6. The Sense of Sin. Sin benumbs and deadens the soul. Paul speaks of blinded eyes. Men are indifferent to their sad and guilty condition. Men do not think of themselves as God thinks of them. To be indifferent is unreasonable and criminal. The sense of sin and guilt is the first step in God' s way of saving men. Jesus has no message but for the consciously lost (Matt. 9 : 13).

B

To know clearly by the mind, to feel deeply in the heart the uncleanness of sin is to bring salvation near. The right state of the heart is, "I have sinned, God be merciful to me the sinner." For this state of heart there is instant forgiveness and renewal (Luke 18 : 14). The mission of the Holy Spirit is to beget the sense of sin (John 16:8). Not deep feeling or remorse or penance of body or long entreaty is needed, but the felt uncleanness of sin, the inability of self to win salvation, the confession of sin — these are the essential prerequisites of the salvation that Jesus Christ brings. Jesus came to save conscious, confessing sinners.

7. Mistakes as to the Conditio7i of Men. It is a mistake to believe that sin works any change in the essence of the soul. It is a fixed wrong attitude of the soul toward God. It needs to be placed in a new relation, that of love. It is a mistake to think that any man comes into life in the same condition in which Adam was created, with no tendency toward sin. All men feel the effects of the wrong-doing of the head of the race. It is a mistake to think that the expression "total depravity" asserts that any man, not a Christian, is as bad as he can be. It asserts that the heart is wrong and that all the acts of the life are those of a man who is a conscious wrong-doer. It is a mistake to think that the origin of moral evil can be satisfactorily explained. There are facts in the universe which cannot be ignored by any man, yet which no man can explain. One of these facts is the existence of sin and evil, notwithstanding the existence of an all-powerful and an ever-loving God. This is a mystery, and all attempts to explain it satisfactorily are futile, but as a fact it must be faced and we must live in recognition of it. Apart from the question of how evil came to exist, we have the question of how to escape from the power of evil. This question is a practical one to all men. Just at this point Jesus meets us with his gospel, and sets before us the way of deliverance.

MANS CONDITION IN SIN 1 9

SUMMARY.

The origin of sin is a mystery.

There came a personal temptation to the created man.

1. By a voluntary transgression against God's plain command he

became a sinner. The alienation of heart became permanent. This act of wrong-doing is fittingly called a fall.

2. By connection with Adam the entire race became involved in

transgression, though each one must give account for himself.

3. Sin is failure, transgression, iniquity, not good in the making.

4. Wickedness in the world shows sinfulness which is taught by

the Bible and conscience.

5. There must be a penalty upon sin. It involves the death of

the body, and estrangement from God.

6. There ought to be a deep sense of sin. The especial work of

the Holy Spirit is to work out the feeling of sin so that Jesus may be sought.

7. Sin is an attitude of the soul, its origin a mystery.

BOOKS FOR FURTHER STUDY.

Strong's "Systematic Theology," pp. 254-358 ; Pendleton's "Christian Doctrines," Chap. XI.; Julius Miiller's "Doctrine of Sin." For deep experiences of sinfulness, see biographies of Jonathan Edwards, David Brainerd, Adoniram Judson. For the different theories on the relation of Adam to the race see the table, p. 334, Strong's "Theology."

CHAPTER III JESUS god's remedy for sin

Sin drove man from Eden and brought conscious guilt into the soul. God's curse followed man's sin, but God had thoughts of mercy. There was a Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13 : 8). The coming of Jesus was no sudden impulse of God's love, but the unfolding of God's plan laid before the foreseen sin of man. The Bible does not reveal a man seeking after God, but a God seeking after man. Christianity reveals a seeking God anxious for men. Other religious faiths reveal burdened men seeking after God.

1. Old Testament Sacrifices. From the first there were altars, sacrifices, priests. Among all nations sacrifices have been found. These revealed the conscious guilt, the sense of separation from God, the deserved death, the substitution of one life for another.

Sacrifices were God' s appointment for sinful men. They could not take away moral stains, for they were dumb animals (Heb. 10:4). They did bring sin to remembrance and utter prophecies of something better to come. The book of Leviticus, full of sacrifices of various kinds, was full of hopes and meaning to the Old Testament people. They were a gospel in picture form. There were offerings for sin committed in ignorance, for sin in general. The entire Old Testament was a preparation for Jesus, deepening the sense of sin and giving hope of forgiveness. The altar gave way to the cross, the lamb to Jesus, the forgiveness in symbol to forgiveness in reality.

2. The Incarnation of Jesus. Incarnation means a coming in the flesh. There was an eternally pre-existing life

JESUS GOD'S REMEDY FOR SIN 21

of Christ. He said, when thirty-two years old, "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8 : 58). There was a voluntary laying aside of his glory, a self-limitation of his powers (Phil. 2 : 7). He came by birth into a fellowship with the human race. He was not man alone, he was not God alone, he was a God-man.

Jesus became a true brother of each man, knowing what was in the interior of the human life, and also one with God (John 2 : 25 ; 10 : 30). He came to bear witness to the truth, to reveal God, to become an efficient helper of tempted men, to make an offering for sin. From the first the cross was before him (John 3:14). He was fitted to be a Saviour. He was one with us, without sin, subject to the innocent limitations of human nature, and one with God. He became a mediator, a middle-man. Jesus was the revelation of what God is, a prophecy of what man may become through him.

3. Jesus a Saviour. Jesus was a teacher of morals, the highest the world has ever seen. He performed wonderful works, showing his supreme authority over nature. He uncovered the true meaning of the Scriptures. But his great work was that of giving his life as a ransom for sin.