Revelation 21:5-8 And he that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.… The Church of Christ has been from its foundation a society for the promotion of the reform of mankind. You may not, perhaps, be willing to recognise this at first, for two reasons. First, so much has been accomplished. Remember the state of things in the world before Christ came. A world in which men and women were bound down in cruel bondage, in which there were no hospitals for the sick. How completely Christianity has changed the whole course of life. But there is another reason why you may find it very hard to identify the Christian religion with reform. It is because the reform which the Christian religion works is based on the life, the teaching, and the death of one man, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. (1) How true a reformer Jesus was in His life. He shared the fate of all reformers — "He was despised and rejected of men," etc. Like , like Savonarola, Latimer, and John Huss; like many another in Church and State, He was killed by the people. Your true Reformer is no demagogue; he does not flatter the people: he tells them the truth. (2) Notice Christ's aims and His methods. His aim was not that of most reformers. He did not seek in the first place to make men happy, but to make them holy. As to His methods. In the first place, Christ began from the centre and worked towards the circumference. He did not come into the world with any elaborate scheme for the regeneration of society: He had no scheme for making men wake up some fine morning and find themselves all happy and good. Our Lord took people as He met them, singly, and got hold of their wills, and changed and converted them. This is the reform which alone can make other reforms beneficial. (2) A second part of Christ's method was that the reform was thorough and complete, extending to the body, soul, and spirit. (3) The methods of reform adopted by Jesus Christ were gradual. He Himself compares His influence to the leaven, etc. So it has ever been with the influence and teaching of Christ. (4) The stimulus or motive which Christ used is something very different from what many reformers have used, Fear, self-interest, jealousy have, alas! often been prominent motives. With Christ you have two motives put forward — "The love of God and the love of man." (C. L. Ivens, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. |
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