What If Christ Had Not Come?
Henry Rogers, a brilliant lawyer of a few years ago, wrote a book entitled The Eclipse of Faith, in which he imagined that some powerful hand had wiped the influence of Christ out of our civilization, as a hand might wipe the writing from a chalkboard in a classroom. He imagined himself going into his library to discover that every vestige of Christ’s life and influence had wholly disappeared. He opened his law books which had contained the legal standards protecting children, the poor, and the innocent only to find that these laws had disappeared.
He turned to his histories of art and there found that some of the world’s greatest masterpieces, such as Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” Raphael’s “The Sistine Madonna,” Van Dyck’s “Christ and Tribute Money,” Rembrandt’s “The Prodigal Son” and hundreds of others had vanished. Only the frames remained for the canvasses had ceased to exist. In like manner he turned to his books of literature. There he found blank pages where formerly there had been the great writings of Dante, Milton, Goethe, Browning, Tennyson, Wordsworth, Longfellow, Whittier, and many others. Stories like Charles Dicken’s “Christmas Carol” were lost completely.
Next, he turned to the world of music and there found that the great hymns of the church had vanished. Among these were stirring hymns such as the 17th century German hymn, “Fairest Lord Jesus,” Isaac Watt’s “Joy To The World,” Charles Wesley’s “Hark The Herald Angels Sing,” Katherine Hanky’s “Tell Me The Old Old Story,” George Mattheson’s “Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go,” and, of course, the Negro spirituals such as “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?”
Then it was that Rogers realized that if Christ were not, the schools, the hospitals, the orphanages, the missions, and many other of our twentieth century benevolent institutions would all perish, and this lawyer cried out that he would not want to live at all in a world where Christ were not.
The Influence Of Jesus
In her anthology, Christ And The Fine Arts, Cynthia Pearl Maus includes the following beautiful tribute to the Lord:
“Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, and that a despised one. He worked in a carpenter’s shop for thirty years, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to a college. He never put His foot inside a really big city. He never travelled, except in His infancy, more than two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He had no credentials but himself.
“While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him, His friends ran away. One of them betrayed Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed on a cross between two thieves. His executors gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth, His seamless robe. When He was dead, He was taken down from the cross and laid in a borrowed grave through the courtesy of a friend. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone, and today Jesus is the centerpiece of the human race, and the leader of all progress.
“I am well within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that have ever ruled together have never affected the life of man upon this earth like this one solitary personality.
“All time dates from His birth and it is impossible to understand or interpret the progress of human civilization in any nation on earth apart from His influence. Slowly through the ages man is coming to realize that the greatest necessity in the world is not water, iron, gold, food or clothing . . . but rather Christ enshrined in human hearts, thoughts and motives.”
Most Important Of All
While it is true that Christ has had a tremendous impact upon our civilization in its laws, in its arts, in its literature, and in its general pattern of life, it is far more important that Christ has brought to the world a conception of eternal truth which will save men’s souls. Here are a few of the things which Jesus has taught us:
1. The sacredness of human life. Jesus respected the poor and healed the sick in an age when the poor and the sick were despised and neglected. It was the teaching of Jesus that eventually led to the overthrow of slavery and put an end to such practices as the exposure of unwanted infants.
2. The value of soul. Jesus said, “A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth” (Luke 12:15). He pointed out that spiritual matters are more important than physical concerns when He said, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal . . .” (Matthew 6:19, 20).
3. The nobility of womanhood. Until Jesus came woman had been mere chattel to be used and abused but never exalted as a creature equal with man in the sight of God.
4. The brotherhood of man. When Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan He was saying, in effect, that the lowly Samaritans were sometimes more noble than the exalted Jews. The same message is found in the opening words of Peter’s discourse to the household of Cornelius: “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34, 35).
5. The Fatherhood of God. In the story of the prodigal son Christ clearly pictures Jehovah as a loving Father yearning for the return of wayward mankind (Luke 15).
6. The perfect standard to live by. The pattern of Christian living as set forth in the Sermon on the Mount and in many another passage is the finest standard the world has ever known or is likely to know. Jesus said, “Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
7. A perfect example to follow. The Hebrew writer said, “For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Without Christ men would be like sheep without a shepherd, but with Christ we have only to follow in His steps if we would reach perfection itself.
8. The forgiveness of sins. The prophet Isaiah said, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him: and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquities of us all” (Isaiah 53:5, 6).
9. Freedom from the fear of death. In the words of the apostle Paul, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:54, 55).
10. The promise of eternal life. There is no more beautiful passage of hope in the entire Bible than the words of Jesus, “Let not your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3).
The Greatest Tragedy of All
The Holy Spirit guided the apostle Paul to write, “None is righteous, no, not one. . . . All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:10, 23). This applies to all of the people who have lived since the beginning of time. Jesus Himself being the only sinless exception. Sin came into the world through Adam and Eve, and its influence has contaminated one after another all of those who have lived. While not born depraved or lost, as some have erroneously believed, all people who live on the Earth long enough to reach a level of maturity sufficient for the making of moral decisions are contaminated by sin.
The only escape is to come to Jesus Christ, the Messiah who gave His life on the cross that His blood might cleanse us from our sins. Of the four billion people who now live upon the Earth, all of us are lost until we come to Christ for cleansing.
The greatest tragedy known to man is too have the opportunity of redemption in Christ and then fail to accept the gift of salvation. Until we come to Christ in penitent, obedient faith, Christ, for us, has not come. To spurn the greatest gift ever given is the greatest of all tragedies. Happily, each of us has the opportunity to accept the gift. There is no power on Earth that can prevent us from coming to Christ and salvation, if we wish to come.
Without Christ we could not be saved. With Christ the doors of Heaven swing wide. We don’t even like to think about a world without Christ.
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Batsell Barrett Baxter (1916-1982) was Chair of the Bible Department of David Lipscomb College (1956-1980), speaker of Herald of Truth (1959-1982) television program, and served as a minister for nearly 50 years. The above appears in the inaugural volume of Great Preachers of Today (1960).