(3) How does the matter stand to-day, as from our modem standpoint we examine the facts ? The most exacting criticism of the documents has not disallowed the Apostolic belief. The New Testament, read in the light of honest criticism, justifies, so far as documents can justify, the Apostolic doctrine of the sinless- ness of Christ. In bringing a human career lived out in the first century to be judged by the moral standard accepted in the twentieth we are applying a test the most severe imaginable. If we were judging a man in order to appraise his merits, this test were the unjustest in the world ; but in the case of the Son of Man, it is not so much unjust as inevitable. He, whom we Chris- tians worship as the Incarnate Creator, must be able to command the homage not of one age only, but of all ages. Let the moral * Domer, in British and Foreign Evangelical Eeview, xi. 586.
ST. JOPIN VIII. 46 401
standard of mankind be raised as high as you will, it must never rise above the standard of Christ ; His standard must always be the goal towards which the moral effort of the racfe is moving, and never a single advance in goodness must be unable to find its interpretation and justification in the complete goodness of the Son of Man. Applying, therefore, necessarily our educated twentieth - century consciences to the historic Jesus, is He stripped of His attribute of sinlessness ? Eationalists of the baser sort accumulate what they describe as immoral, or contradictory, or unreasonable teachings from the Gospels, but if we have the patience to examine their procedure we shall find that it violates every accepted canon of sound criticism and cautious interpreta- tion. Fairly examined, honestly interpreted, the teaching of Christ commands the deliberate approval of the general con- science of our age. Not even now would it be easy, even for an unbeliever, to find a better translation of the rule of virtue from the abstract into the concrete than " to endeavour so to live that Christ would approve our life." ^
r ^ What impression does He make on us ? His portrait is before us in the Gospels and other New Testament writings ; we can still follow His steps, hear Him speak, look into His eye, watch the development of His character, observe His behaviour under the most diverse and trying conditions, and test Him by all the standards we apply to our fellow-men. What is the result ? He stands faultless and unique among men, severed from them by the whole diameter of perfection. We see Him grow through a beautiful infancy and childhood into maturity, and then live a life and display a character in which we can find no flaw. He is pure truth and trust, honesty and honour, righteousness and reverence, goodness and mercy and love, sympathy and service and sacrifice. No excess or defect, fault of omission or com- mission, evil disposition or temper, selfishness or sinister motive ever mars the splendid beauty of His perfection. He fulfils all human relations, passes through all experiences, is seen in joy and in sorrow, under the whips and stings of malice and in the agony of crucifixion, and yet He never loses His poise and balance or gives way to any ill-temper, but is always pure sweet- ness and light. It is true that He shows indignation, but only such as is the expression of righteous wrath. As we watch this Man, there is nothing we would add to Him or subtract from
^ J. S. Mill, Three Essays 001 Religion, 255. ST. JOHN — 26
402 THE SINLESSNESS OF CHRIST
Him, no criticism we would pass upon Him, no finishing touch we could give to Him, but we are lost in admiration of Him as the one perfect and most beautiful personality in all the world.^
2. Christ Himself claims to he sinless. — By what standard was He judging Himself ? What was His conception of sin ? How was it with His spiritual organs ? Were they quick and sensitive, or were they sluggish and benumbed ? What was the state of His moral consciousness ? Before we can determine His claim to sinlessness these questions must be answered.
(1) Until this Man of Nazareth arose, sin had never been tracked to its roots. The analysis had often been attempted, but it had never proved conclusive and ultimate. Christ's analysis was an unveiling of its genesis. He probed behind ritual; He probed behind posture ; He probed behind feeling ; He probed behind thought, and His lance touched the innermost quick at the will. He pushed everything else aside as effects ; He discovered the cause in the will. This was His uniqueness as a teacher. ''Make the tree good, and the fruits will be good," and He addresses Himself to the regeneration of the roots. This Man, with the claim to sinlessness, unveiled the nature of sin and revealed its contents to the light as they had never been seen before.
(2) Christ's spiritual senses were far more finely perceptive than even the delicate organ of sight. Let us recognize how unspeakably refined His soul must have been to be capable of registering such exquisite distinctions. If a poor woman came near to Him in a spirit of faith. His soul thrilled with the presence, and He said, " Who touched me ? " If doubt and suspicion drew near unto Him, His soul was chilled with the presence, and " he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief." So refined and delicate was His spirit that He perceived evil thoughts that lay unexpressed in the hearts of those about Him. "He perceived the thought of their heart"; "He knew what was in man." His soul instinctively registered the presence of good and evil, just as a fine barometer registers the passing of a genial breeze or a chilling draught.