Man has a destiny in glory. The wonder of that destiny has scarcely penetrated the fog of evolutionary speculations blanketing the past century.
Not a gradual ascent from an animal inheritance but vital union with Christ links man to the life abundant and his divinely intended spiritual heritage. God purposes for mankind a range of life and experience incomparably superior to that of the animal world.
Man by creation was fashioned for a life in society under God and for personal fellowship with God. Despite man’s forfeiture of his original inheritance through sin, the benefits of divine redemption are available to him. God’s grace calls “a new race of men” into being. Fallen men restored to spiritual life become the bearers of peace and joy and the purveyors of love and kindness in a world whose virtues are weary and worn. On this higher level life is incomparably superior to the day-to-day pursuit of selfish concerns in ignorance and disobedience of God; indeed, such a life of love for God and neighbor is fit for eternity. Its roots are already in the eternal order.
These great truths about the human predicament our disillusioned generation needs most to hear. Instead of detouring to carp at false theories of man, ought not the Church in this critical hour to rally its energies to the major positive exposition of the glories of God’s grace? Instead of preoccupation in debate over fossil remnants from which “manlike forms” may indeed have risen, ought not the Church to dedicate its devotion to the risen Christ who longs to restore the shattered image of God in men? Instead of absorption with the anatomical similarities of man and the anthropoids, is not consideration of the moral and spiritual dissimilarities of fallen man and Jesus Christ the Son of God more vital? Instead of the morphological reconstruction of fragmented animal bodies of an obscure past, should not the Church steep itself in the body of Christ to which reborn men belong, and whose risen and exalted Head yearns by the Spirit to instruct his followers in the benefits of man’s reconciliation with God accomplished by his death on the Cross. Instead of man’s at-one-ment with the bestial past, is not the prospect of his at-one-ment with God the more crucial problem? Instead of unraveling what preceds the First Adam, is not our prospect through the Last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45) more important?
The Church’s proclamation of the Gospel is never devoid of perils. There is the danger of making decision for Christ too easy, or even too hard. There is the peril of losing the personality of Christ in the personality of the pulpiteer. There are still other perils. One is the peril of distraction; contemporary alternatives (while essential to preaching if it is to bristle with relevance) absorb the center of interest, even if by way of critical analysis, while the realities of redemption and spiritual solutions struggle for the mere mention. That danger is particularly acute where clergymen minister to intellectuals, and where liberal emphasis on the social gospel has left its mark. Whatever the pressing problems of ancient philosophy and sociology, the New Testament everywhere gives centrality and precedence to the person and work of Christ. Even on Mars Hill the apostle Paul skillfully dethroned the false gods and proclaimed the living God as the agent of creation, redemption and judgment. This biblical example of centrality of the Lord of glory is profitable for preaching in our times.
Another danger haunts the congregations of evangelical churches eager to retain the Christian message as the center of reference. That is the danger of so overemphasizing the negative aspect of judgment upon sin that the positive message of the glories of the life of grace loses its place and power. The Church needs always to announce the conquest of darkness by Jesus’ resurrection from the grave. But schooling disciples in what to avoid for fear of judgment hardly supplies their best motivation for a life devoted to truth and goodness and therefore fit for eternity.
In his Republic, Plato complains against views that justify morality only because of the terrible future consequences of immorality. His follower, Socrates, believed that the good life needs justification totally apart from the question of a future judgment. The Christian will hardly consent to such unjustifiable removal of life from its total frame of reference; moreover, he recognizes that God himself defines the nature of the good. But the good life is good not simply because of its results; it is good even apart from those consequences, which crown the good life with eternity’s vindication.
In part, this neglect of the glory that halos the life of the believer results from overpreoccupation with the significance of Christ’s death and insufficient attention to his work as the risen and ascended Lord. Not only does he indwell his followers to comfort, guide and encourage them, but he seeks an identification whereby his life becomes their life, and their life becomes Christ living in them (Gal. 2:20). Literally hundreds of times the phrase “in Christ” or “in the Lord” occurs in the New Testament epistles. The believer lives and moves and has his being in the risen Lord. So decisive is the overthrow of the old self that, while his identity remains unchanged, the believer reflects the radiance of another personality, since his spirit is interpenetrated by Another. The life that resides in Christ is mediated to his followers; indeed, he is present in them as the living center of their new being. He animates their desires, purifies their joys, and enlivens their hopes. “Union with Christ” means that Christ is indeed the head, not of each simply in isolation and solitude, but within a society or fellowship, for the body Christ heads is the community of faith. Instead of “the lonely crowd” in which to seek a place of identification with one’s fellow man, Christ escorts the believer into the true solidarity of human life within a social existence of regenerate believers.
H. R. Mackintosh, that influential Scottish theologian of a recent era, pointedly declared: “All redeeming influences are streaming out from Christ’s risen power to fill the life of the believer. He is not to be separated, whether in thought or prayer, from God Himself” (The Doctrine of the Person of Jesus Christ, p. 55). Having personally displayed a dynamism more powerful than sin and death, Christ waits to vitalize our lives in relation to God and all else.
It would indeed be a great era in the history of the Church if in the century after Darwin the vision of our depleted generation could be fixed anew upon the risen and ascended Christ, and our spirits linked anew in spiritual life to the Lord of glory who by the Spirit transforms tangled lives to orderly service of God and fellow men. Perhaps the fact that scientific enterprise so largely focuses attention upon the unobservable past itself somewhat reflects the rebellion that shuns the invitation to man’s present encounter with the biblically-revealed God. It is an easy evasion to concentrate on pre-history, and thus to snub the incarnate God. It is easier still, and equally unfruitful, to utter visionary forcasts of a remote future when the zenith of the evolutionary process will lead finally to an absolute moral union of the human and the divine—because of our faith in man or nature rather than in God.
The incarnate and risen Christ already now clothes humanity with the glory of God. The new world to come already now holds the promise of a divine radiance for redeemed man. The One who is the goal of human perfection has already appeared within the sweep of history to live the life of peerless virtue. The prospect of new life in Christ exists already for those who avail themselves of the benefits and blessings of redemption. In a world of changing relationships and shifting perspectives such a union promises to outlast all others. It calls the lost sons of God back to their proper destiny and to the future heritage of the saints.
Maintaining the biblical perspective will preserve the Church from preoccupation with man at the anatomical or morphological level so central to contemporary evolutionary discussion. Man’s relation to nature is not simply that of the capstone of creation, although he is indeed to have dominion over the creatures. Man’s relation to God pictures him as intended by creation for a distinctive divine sonship, for personal communication and fellowship with God, and destined for life in the eternal order. The essential aspect of man’s existence is therefore his moral and religious destiny, although resurrection of the body as a doctrine of revealed religion cautions us also against indifference to the physical life. The whole personality, indeed, stands in a unique and decisive relationship to the Creator-Redeemer God. This fact lifts him to superiority over all other creatures of earth. Man is made for more than the laboratory and observatory, and the study of the secrets of nature. He is made for the closet of prayer to hear the heartbeat of God. He is to be a veritable temple of the Holy Spirit, and a participant in the promises of God.
In sharing Christian faith, he shares also the Christian hope that reaches beyond the conditions of earthly existence. The nature of a man’s hope, in fact, always reflects the inmost character of his spirit. How does he conceive of the eternity to come and his role in it? What relation does he postulate between the forgiveness of sins and ultimate victory over the power of sin? The twice-born man will be absorbed in the thought of the consummation of the kingdom of God. He will cherish the Lord’s return with an awareness of the present nearness of the Bestower of benefits. He knows that the resurrection of the dead is linked to that return, and the prospect of the Church made perfect. He will face death with simple readiness and meet it joyfully, knowing that he passes into an eternal order where the permanent significance of the Redeemer is assured. He is confident that righteousness will triumph and evil will be finally judged, that the fate of the godless will ultimately be sealed. He knows that while those who “have fallen asleep” in the Lord face new conditions of existence, they view the horizons of eternity with unblemished joy. Until he himself joins them he has one great passion: so to voice and to display the blessings of serving the one true God that the lost multitudes about him sense and turn from the emptiness of life outside the orbit of Christ’s grace, to share man’s glorious destiny.
Entrenched Criminals And The Christian Conscience
Far more powerful than ever recognized is the influence which Christian conscience has upon society. It is a guiding light and a preserving salt that must be exercised and maintained in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds.
In the affairs of the nation this has no reference to partisan politics or party affiliations. Rather it is an attitude of heart, mind and action by which men seek to know and articulate the mind of Christ in the affairs of personal and national life.
It is the conscience enlightened by Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit; and it sees issues, not from the point of expediency, but in the light of righteousness, and therefore leads to effective action.
Not only is the welfare of society at stake but the very life of the nation is involved in issues of right and wrong. It is a repeated declaration of moral and spiritual principles that helps to clarify thinking and produce wise policies at national and personal levels.
The Christian citizen has a grave responsibility to society. But unfortunately his convictions too often stem from other than Christian principles so that the end result is not clarification but confusion. Yet when criminality takes the spotlight and then walks off unscathed, can there be question for the Christian?
Not only Christians but all citizens should be deeply concerned about the failure of Congress to enact needed labor legislation. This concern is a three-pronged affair composed of two parts indignation and one part fear.
There is justified and righteous indignation at the disclosures made before Senator McClellan investigating committee in which evidence was produced that some of the largest unions in the nation are controlled by men associated with hoodlums and gangsters.
The fact that James Hoffa successfully thumbed his nose at Congress, the United States government and the people as a whole, is something for which we should be ashamed. This was not democracy in action; it was triumph of the worst elements in society in a place where justice unhindered by personal or partisan considerations was to be expected. Entrenched criminals are making a laughing stock of our government.
Because of that which was disclosed and because nothing was done about it, prong number two of indignation can be leveled directly at Congress. The constitutionally elected and responsible representatives of the people were fully aware of the situation and its grave implications for the nation’s welfare; but for varying personal and political reasons, they failed to take remedial action.
Should there develop any of those aspects of potential national disaster that are inherent in this unbelievable situation, the blame will rest squarely upon the shoulders of those members of Congress who knowingly evaded their responsibility.
At this point we are confronted with the third prong of our dilemma, viz, the danger to national security.
The Teamster’s Union, headed by one drunk with power and defiant toward Congress and the people as a whole, is one of the vital cogs in national security. Add to this the fact that the East Coast Longshoremen’s Unions is controlled by out-and-out racketeers (for which cause they were expelled from the AFL), while Harry Bridges’ West Coast Longshoreman’s Union was expelled from the CIO because of Communist infiltration, and we are confronted with the actuality that our country’s transportation is being hazarded via the whims of criminals and Communists.
Failure on the part of Congress to pass remedial legislation has been attributed to several causes, the most frequently mentioned being the fear of loss of votes.
This we believe to be a fallacy of the first water. No matter how much labor leadership may bluster and threaten there is little evidence to show that labor leaders control the votes of labor as such. The average union member is a loyal American citizen and anxious to guard his own independence. Furthermore the volume of letters which Senator McClellan and other members of this committee have received would indicate that rank and file union members, and their families, long for legislation which will free them from the domination and exploitation of men using their positional power for personal gain and criminal purposes.
Punitive anti-labor legislation is not indicated, nor should it be contemplated; but there is desperate need for controls which will protect all of America—labor, capital and the average citizen. An anti-monopoly law for the unions would be no more anti-labor than the Sherman Act (anti-trust) is anti-business. What is important is that the sinister grip of criminals should be recognized and adequately legislated against, regardless of where those criminals are found.
There is an effective way to meet the present problem. For one thing, the American voter should voice his conscience clearly in the months to come. The 66th Congress will convene on January 7, 1959, and by that time those who compose that body should have no illusions either of the wishes of their constituencies or of their moral obligation in the question at hand.
Statesmen of which there are many, will make an honest effort to remedy this alarming situation in contemporary American life. And while politicians continue seesawing with indecision, righteous indignation may prove to be the tonic that will sharpen blunt consciences and help produce effective action.
Who but the Christian citizen can articulate such a voice for righteousness?
