His footsteps...

Contents

•CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Firstborn Among Many Brethren . . 1

II. The Child Grew— Jesus Increased .... 12

Chapter I. The Firstborn Among Many Brethren

IN the footsteps of Christ, the Firstborn, we, His brethren, are to follow.

There was a wonderful similarity between God and man as first created, for man was made after the similitude and in the image of God. By creation God gave to man qualities similar to His own.

Man is still to a certain extent like God in that he is a personal being, possessing consciousness, intellect, reason, and will. He is a spirit with the powers and faculties peculiar to spirit-beings. In this he differs from all animal creatures, rising far above them; in this he ranks with the angels, the blessed spirits created to dwell in the glory of heaven before the face of God. Yet it can not be said that this exalted position of man in the world of created beings constitutes the image and likeness of God as the Scriptures speak of it and describe it. For then man would still be like God, now that he has fallen into sin ; whereas the Scriptures tell us that the image of God has been lost by the fall. Man still has intellect, reason, consciousness, will, although impaired throughout by sin, nevertheless he is not like God. The devil too is a person with the same high faculties, and who would say that he possesses the sacred image. No, there must be something more in man to make him truly like unto God. He must in very truth possess attributes and qualities of soul similar to those of God Himself.

Man's exalted position as a created spirit, man's intellect, reason, consciousness, and will, are only the basis for the Godlike qualities which were created in him. It is impossible for the animals to possess the divine image, the similitude of God's qualities and attributes; they were created without the spiritual faculties, in which alone these qualities can dwell, they stand on a lower plane, far beneath man. Only the angels and the spirit of man can possess likeness to God. But as they can possess God-likeness, so also they can be without it and lose it. And some are without it, some have lost it. The devils have lost it altogether and forever; and man too by the fall gave up his priceless treasure.

Man was originally like God, according to the Scriptures, not merely in being a spirit, as God is a Spirit, He the creating Spirit, and man the created spirit; but in this that man's spirit possessed qualities similar to those of God who is a Spirit. As God was holy and sinless, so man was created holy and sinless; as God was righteous and true, so man was created righteous and true; as God was wise and good, so man was created wise and good. To be sure, these exalted attributes of God inhere in the essence of God, and are the fountain of all that is like them in the creatures of God; whereas these attributes in the creature do not subsist apart from the Creator, but are the work and creation of God, wrought in the creature for the Creator's glory. This difference is expressed by the Scriptures when they say, man was created after the image of God. He was not another God, nor another person of the Godhead. Man is not the image itself of God; the image itself of the Father is the Son. Man is made after the image of God, he is a creature possessing not the actual qualities of God Himself, but qualities like these; qualities coming indeed from God, but not as though they were poured out from the fulness of God into man; qualities produced and wrought in him by God in the act of creation, when God breathed His spirit into man, and thereby created the creature spirit which is man.

From the very beginning God's intention with respect to man was that he should follow in the footsteps of his Creator, from whom his body, life, and spirit, together with all his godlike qualities, had come. His holy intellect was meant to know the things of God and the mind of God; his holy reason was to think the tilings of God for the purposes of God; his holy heart was meant to love and cherish the things of God and God Himself; his holy will was meant to will and do the things of God from godly motives for godly ends. Being God's in holiness and righteousness, he was to give himself to God by unfolding in a glorious life of holiness and righteousness the powers and possibilities God had placed in his being.

The animals could have no such task, for they were fitted out with different faculties, pointing to a far inferior end. The task of man in his original holy statewas like that of the angels, but with a difference. They were to work theirs out merely as spirits in the celestial realms on high ; man was to work his out as an embodied spirit in the terrestrial home given him of God.

As the link between the lower and the higher creation, man stood with his face turned upward to God, while his feet rested amid earthly surroundings. Thinking God's thoughts, loving God and the things of God, doing the will of God willingly and with joy, his body with all its members was to glorify God, in the unity of his spirit; and, ruling as the visible head of the creatures of earth, all beneath his hand was in its measure likewise to glorify the Creator. The mission of man, as set for him in the beauty of holiness, thus had its own peculiar sphere, and likewise its own peculiar exaltation. As one star differs in glory from another, so the stars of creation, angel and man, were to have each its own glory.

We may say in this connection that in a special way man, the holy, perfect creature of God, was from the beginning designed to follow in the footsteps of the Son of God, the Only-Begotten, the Firstborn of every creature. For the Son is the express image of God, as Paul writes, 2 Cor. 4, 4, "Christ, who is the image of God"; Col. 1, 15, "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature" ; likewise the letter to the Hebrews, 1, 3, "Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power." Not that the Son is a creature like the angels or man, only higher, and that therefore we should follow His footsteps and be like Him. He is the Only-Begotten, of the same essence as the Father. In Him shine forth all the glorious and blessed attributes of God, and He is thus the essential image of God. And we are created after His image, that His glory might be reflected in us. We were created for His glory, and therefore to be like Him. But He who is like the express image of God, like the Son of God in holiness and righteousness, will for this very reason bear the image of the Triune God. Yet when it comes to our unfolding the image of God created in us, it is not so much the Father nor the Spirit that is set before us, to whom we are to be conformed, as the Son, who is the express image of God; and our life when it unfolds in His likeness will be in the true likeness of Father, Son, and Spirit.

Yet all that should have been and could have been has not been because of sin. We who were created after the image of God have lost that image and have become like unto the enemy of God, Satan, who sinned from the beginning. The creature that once was holy is so no more, but has become unholy. The life that should have unfolded in the full glory of holiness has suffered a fearful blow, and now unfolds in sin and unholiness. The spirit of man turned from God, its Creator, and the Fountain of all its excellence and blessedness, and tried to stand by itself and to secure excellence and blessedness other than God has to give, and in ways other than God has designed. Man left the footsteps of the Only-Begotten Son of God and chose his own course, the path of sin and darkness and death.

Once the awful separation was made, there was no power in man himself to retrace his steps. The curse of God resting upon. him he himself can not remove; the spirit of unholiness to which he surrendered he can not shake off. The purity of holiness and sinlessness he once possessed he can not now of himself regain.

He can not give himself what he has not; he can not lift himself from the quicksands into which he has fallen. Being without light, he can not relight the flame now extinguished. When in the state of holiness he had the fountain of all help in God alone and not in himself, now in the state of sin much more will he find no fountain of help in himself. He is lost, sold like a slave, and bound with the chains of hell.

This awful state of sin has affected man in every part. His spirit is corrupt and unholy; his soul is the seat of evil passions and desires, his body, once the pure and perfect instrument of a holy spirit, is now the tainted and corrupted instrument of sin. Even the rest of the creatures of earth, intended for the dominion of man's holy hand now rebel against him who sundered himself in sin from his Creator. The demand now for man to follow in the footsteps of God, is like bidding a bird with shattered wings to fly. How can we walk the angel paths of purity and light, when we are engulfed in the mire of sin? It would be vain to picture the shining hights of holiness in God to him who lies in he dreadful night of iniquity. The memory of what he once was, and what in consequence he should now be, can only crush man's soul the more, and sink him into the deadly depths of despair. Let it be understood, therefore, that these pages are written not for the natural man, with an expectation that he might find in himself any measure of power for realizing what is here portrayed. There is no walking in the footsteps of the divine Master for him who lies still beneath the curse and power of sin.

But for this very reason the present chapter has received the significant heading, "The Firstborn Among Many Brethren." The purpose of God in creation has been crossed indeed by sin, but has not been abandoned on the part of God as impossible of realization. Where sin entered grace followed. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 5, 20. 21. The Only-Begotten has become the Firstborn among many brethren. He who was the image of God, and after whose image we were created, that we might be like unto Him, has prepared ways and means that we, who have lost His image in sin, may again recover it, and rise to unfold it for His glory in never-ending blessedness. The Son became flesh and dwelt among us; He took our sin and the curse of the law upon Himself, and removed it by his blood; He took the burden of the law upon Himself and worked out for us a perfect righteousness. Jesus Christ stepped into the breach and checked the deadly work of sin. The power that we had not in ourselves He had in Himself, and exerted it mightily in our behalf. His life and death built the great bridge of redemption down from the shining nights of heaven and holiness into the darkness and death of this sinful earth. And now that the way is made for our return, the Son hath sent His Holy Spirit to lead us up on high.

As long as wc remain what sin has made us, we can only walk in darkness, and sink down at last in eternal death. But the Spirit of God brings us Christ's redemption, removing our sin by His blood, clothing us in righteousness by His holy life. Thus we who turned from God, and forsook Him to seek the center of our being in ourselves and to go our own dark way, are brought back to God. justified, cleansed, adopted as His children, regenerated, and returned to communion with Him. Faith in Christ gives up self and sin, and opens the heart again unto God; and into the believing heart the Spirit of God pours out all that Christ has prepared for us. Washed in His blood, clothed in His purity, we are again like Him, and being like Him God is well pleased with us, and calls us sons. But as in Paradise man who- had received the image of God was to unfold this image in a life of holiness for His glory, so now when man is justified and regenerated, when he returns to God through Christ, and the Spirit of God enters his heart to dwell therein, the great task set before him is that which was his in the beginning, the unfolding of the image of God in all his life here and hereafter for the glory of the Triune God. "Put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Eph. 4, 24. "Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him." Col. 3, 9. 10.

The Scriptures abound in admonitions unto holiness; entire chapters are devoted to its elucidation and inculcation.' But every single passage in these chapters takes for granted the restoration of man in justification through faith to a position and condition in which he can again be and live holy. Not a single line presumes that the unchanged sinner is able to meet the demands of holiness. Nor do the Scriptures teach that all we need to be able again to conform our lives to the image of God's Son, is the mere act and fact of regeneration; and that when we are once justified and regenerated, we can take care of ourselves, and unfold by our own natural ability a life of holiness and purity. On the contrary, as we confess: I be r lieve that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Christ, so we must confess: I believe that I can not by my own reason or strength be conformed to Christ in holiness and walk in His footsteps. It is God which worketh in us both to will and to do; it is the Holy Spirit who must renew and sanctify us and lead us in the footsteps of the Firstborn. But He leads us as living members of Christ, as loving brethren of the Firstborn. As the flower unfolds beneath the sun's warm rays, so the Christian life unfolds beneath the quickening rays of God's Spirit shining into our hearts through the Word and Sacrament; as the fruit forms, develops, and ripens under the benign influence of nature's light and warmth and moisture, so the fruits of the Spirit grow and ripen under His gracious influences.

Our task, however, of following in Christ's footsteps as His brethren by His help is not now altogether identical with the task as set for man in Paradise. The circumstances and conditions have changed. We are now in a world of sin, and sin still has its seat within us. Man as first created dwelt in a world of heavenly purity and beauty, and knew no sin. Sin with its temptation approached man in Eden from without, we have the temptation of the flesh, the devil, and the world about and within us. These are different circumstances and conditions, and in as far as they are taken into account our task has changed. But the change does not affect the essence of the matter. The end to be reached is still the same, that we may be conformed to the image of His Son; and although we must now work ourselves up through many difficulties and hindrances, the grace of God does not let us lack anything. From Him we may freely take grace for grace; when we stumble, He lifts us up; when we faint, He gives us strength. And He will bring us unto perfection at last.

It belongs to this all-sufficient grace of God, adapting itself to the changed circumstances in our position, that the image of His Son, to which we are to be conformed, is now for us, who are still in the midst of sin and in the vale of tears, not the merely divine image of the Son as the Only-Begotten of the Father. Our eyes are dark, our hearts are dull, our life of faith so weak and small. Heaven seems so high, its holiness so unattainable for us when viewed across the mighty expanse. But behold, the Only-Begotten has become the Firstborn among many brethren. He who is the express image of God has shown us this image in the form of man, in the life of a brother, who was tempted in all things as we are, who bore all our infirmities, who learned obedience down to the lowest possible humiliation. What infinite condescension that "Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow in His steps." By living the earthly life He lived from the manger to the sepulchre, He provided not only redemption for us to embrace, but also a divine earthly pattern for us to follow. He has shown us in a living figure what our life should be on earth according to God's intention.

In addition to the life itself as thus set before us for us to follow as brethren of Christ, we have the stainless record of this life in the Word. The image of the Son shines no longer in the distant heavens, like a star too far away for sinful men to see clearly, nor is it seen through the ever-thickening clouds of mere human description and the imperfect portrayal of men long dead and gone ; it unfolds all its mild radiance in our very presence, every beam unbeclouded, undimmed, in all its pristine perfection. The Firstborn is among His brethren to-day living and breathing in the Word. There we see His thoughts and hear His words and behold His deeds. Like a faultless flower His young life unfolds. With perfect devotion He yields Himself to His Father's business. With unflinching firmness He conquers the bitter foe. And thus step by step, till we reach the end, and see Him who is to lead many sons unto God bow his pale brow in death. What task can the Christian set for himself greater than this, to follow his Master step by step? Here the flesh, which we can not wholly shake off, will hinder full perfection; but the day approaches, when all Christ's brethren who have followed in His footsteps shall be made forever like Him in the full perfection of holiness.

Chapter II. The Child Grew— Jesus Increased

tJA S the child Jesus grew from infancy to youth, Af| and as the youth Jesus increased unto full manhood, in true human development of body, mind, and spirit, perfect and sinless throughout, so we are to grow and increase, and the spiritual life which Jesus gives us through His Spirit is to develop and unfold itself in the course of our earthly life, from the infancy of faith up to full manhood and conscious power. This development of the new man born in us is undoubtedly a following in the footsteps of the Firstborn.

Jesus was true man; as an infant, as a child, as a youth, as an adult, He was in all things like unto us, the only difference being that in Him there dwelt no sin. He possessed not merely a human body, or certain human faculties, but our entire human nature; He was as much a human child as any child that is born of woman. To be sure, He was sinless, and the effects of sin that deprave and mar our human nature, hurting our bodies, harming our minds and faculties, debasing our spirits, left Him untouched. But we dare not say that for this reason He is too exalted to be an example for us ; on the contrary, if any measure of sin and sinful imperfection had been found in

Him, that would have been the very thing rendering Him unfit to be an example for others. For whatever of sin would have been found in Him would have been the thing we should not follow and copy in ourselves. And because sin cannot be confined in one corner of a person's nature, but like a deadly blight spreads at once over the whole and taints every part, therefore any blot of sin in Jesus would have dragged His entire person down from its lofty hight, and He could not have been the Savior of man in any way, neither our substitute, nor our example. The very sinless perfection'of Jesus makes Him the example in whose footsteps we are to follow.

Jesus, however, was not merely man, but the God-man, all the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in Him. The child whose perfect development is to be our pattern of growth was born not of the will of man, but conceived by the Holy Ghost. His human nature was therefore filled with all the excellence of the divine nature. He who was born of the virgin Mary was at the same time the eternal Son of the Father. And yet we dare not say that for this reason He is too far above us and too different from us to be our example, and that therefore it is useless to speak of our following in His footsteps. Man was originally created after His image; he was so constituted that his life should have been an unfolding of the divine image. The Son of God, the express image of God, in all the excellency of His divine qualities was the original example for man, the perfect creature, created after His image, to pattern after and copy in the measure rendered possible by his creation. That purpose of God with regard to man remains unchanged to-day. Therefore, for us to say or to think that the God-man is too high for us, or too different from us, to be our example and pattern because He is God, is simply a refusal on our part to become and be what God intended.

But we must say more. Jesus, the God-man, exhibits Himself as our pattern, now that we have fallen into sin, not as a purely divine person, but as a divine person who is at the same time perfectly human. He walked the earth not in the majestic glory of divinity, but in the deep humility of the flesh. He was made like unto us, although He remained divine. The glory of the God-man is veiled in the flesh during the period of His voluntary humiliation; and not till His earthlylife was finished was the veil removed and the majesty of divinity fully revealed. Therefore, if the Son as the Only-Begotten of the Father is already our pattern, much more then the Son as born of the virgin Mary. Now that He is our brother indeed, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, we dare not think Him too high and too different from us for us to follow in His steps. Such imagination would now be doubly sinful.

The Scriptures give us only a mere outline of the human development of the God-man; but there is enough for us to study reverently that we may copy after it. Nor need we go off into all sorts of speculations prompted by our own ambitious wisdom.

The child Jesus grew like a true human child. His little limbs became stronger day by day, His infant bodv developed all its members of flesh and blood. And as His body grew, so also His mind and spirit.

The senses unfolded their activity more fully day by day. The mind opened and began to perceive, to know, to think, to reason, to desire, to love, to choose, to will, to act. The spirit developed in like measure; Jesus "waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon Him." "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man." He began to know Himself, the world about Him, the God above Him; and this knowledge of His spirit, as it unfolded and increased day by day, was true and pure and unclouded, every measure of it which He attained. He began to desire and love likewise, without a shadow of selfishness, His heavenly Father, His earthly parents, His neighbors and companions, and all the gifts and blessings and graces of God. He began to choose and to will, and this again in the same way, with the same purity and strength; His choosing was ever directed Godward, His willing ever in conformity with God's will. And thus His life unfolded in human action; at first the actions of a child, then those of youth, and finally those of full manhood; and every action was, from inception to completion, and in every stage of His earthly life, the unstained work of obedience to God.

We have no full and detailed record of the thoughts, words, and deeds of Christ to illustrate this gradual and flawless development of the child Jesus unto manhood. Only brief lines are furnished us to mark the progress, and they must suffice.

The stage of childhood is marked by growth in wisdom. The little one learned as children learn; and doubtless this was like the learning of Timothy at his mother's and grandmother's knee. Jesus learned from His mother's lips what she could teach Him from the Scriptures. Into the pure, bright, young heart sank the everlasting truth of God, and the child's spirit was filled with heavenly wisdom.

The stage of boyhood is marked by a definite amount of wisdom, and by actions in accordance with this wisdom. We presume that the full meaning of the Jewish Easter festival was made known to the boy of twelve now if not already before, and with His penetrating eye He undoubtedly saw more in the festival than Mary or Joseph could see. The Bible account concerning the paschal lamb was full of the deepest meaning for Him. A peculiar fascination held the boy when at last He stood in the temple at' Jerusalem. And the first words that we have from His lips declare His clear knowledge of God as His true Father, and of a peculiar "business" or work which His Father meant Him to perform, and to which He meant without question or hesitation to devote Himself. We are unable to trace the development that lay back of this utterance and action of Jesus, but there is no doubt as to the development itself and as to the degree of wisdom attained.

As we find a definite degree of wisdom at this stage, so also a definite course of action: "He was subject unto them." Not that Jesus had not been subject to Mary and Joseph heretofore. Concerning His previous life the holy record declared that He waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him. He therefore possessed the wisdom of obedience befitting a child of His age, and for this very reason too the grace of God was upon Him. It could not have been otherwise. But when the child began to leave the days of childhood behind, when His wisdom began to know whence He was and what He had been sent for, His obedience to Mary and Joseph became more than it had been hitherto. He now submits and subjects Himself voluntarily to those of whom He knew that He was far above them. He calls God His Father about whose business He must be, and yet He obeys His mother and His foster-father in perfect love and submission. He executes that part of His Father's business which consisted in childlike obedience, and executes it with a fuller knowledge than hitherto of what this obedience means. This obedient subjection undoubtedly marks a stage in the development of the Son of man.

There is nothing to hinder us from presuming a like development for Jesus in other directions and relations. But the Scriptures say no more about His early years, and therefore we must refrain from attempting further portrayal.

We meet Christ again when He has grown to full manhood and is now thirty or nearly thirty years old. And again we see how His spirit has unfolded far beyond what once it saw and felt and did in Jerusalem and in Nazareth. He now knows the full truth in regard to His person and His work, and more than this, He knows that the great hour has arrived, and He goes forth from the quiet home in Nazareth to perform the mighty work of redemption. He stands on Jordan's banks; He goes out into the wilderness alone; He returns to Galilee; He begins to preach, teach, and work miracles, to gather and train His little band of disciples: in a word, to do the mighty work that was finished on the cross. What a stupendous advance from the child and the boy of twelve. He has now grown and increased indeed and come to the full stature of manhood.