Chapter XXI
Christ the Example
JESUS CHRIST came into the world to bring men to the true knowledge
of God; for "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself."133 2
Corinthians 5:19 He came to reveal to men the kingdom of God,
- to enunciate its principles, to manifest its spirit, to reveal its
character. Of it He said: "My kingdom is not of this world."134 John
18:36 "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."135 John
3:3 And His apostles declared, "The kingdom of God is . . . righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost."136 Romans 14:17
"My kingdom is not of this world." Every kingdom, every State,
every government of men, is altogether of this world and of this world
alone. How then can anybody be of any earthly kingdom or State and
of the kingdom of God at the same time? Those who are of the Church
are of the kingdom of God, because the Church is the Church of God,
and not of this world. It is composed of those who are "chosen out
of the world." Those who are of the State are of this world,
because the State is altogether and only of this world.
And, indeed, were not "all the kingdoms of the world and the
glory of them" offered to Jesus for His very own? Why did He not take
them and rule over them and convert them and thus save them? He could
not, because to have taken them would have been to recognize "the
god of this world," by whom they were offered. 137 Luke 4:5-8 And
so it always is, the kingdom of this world is offered only by Satan;
and all who are Christ's will refuse it, as did our Example, and
as did Moses, His chosen forerunner and type.
Christ was and is the embodiment of the Church and of all Christianity.
Therefore, in the Word of Christ, in the very principles of the cause
of Christ, there is taught the separation of Church and State as complete
and as wide as is the separation between the kingdom of God and the
kingdoms of this world. And that is as complete and as wide as is
the separation between God and this world.
Accordingly, Christ says in another place, "Render therefore unto
Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that
are God's."138 Matthew 22:21 In that time the head of the Roman Empire,
the personification of the world's power, was Caesar. And in that
Roman world-system it was claimed that whatsoever was Caesar's was
God's; because to all the people of that world system Caesar was God.
He was set before the people as God; the people were required to worship
him as God; incense was offered to his image as to God. In that system
the State was divine, and Caesar was the State. Therefore that system
was essentially a union of religion and the State.
In view of this, when Jesus said, "Render therefore unto Caesar the
things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's,"
He denied to Caesar, and so to the State, every attribute, or even
claim, of divinity. He showed that another than Caesar is God. Thus
He entirely separated Caesar and God. He entirely separated between
the things which are due to Caesar and those which are due to God.
The things that are due to Caesar are not to be rendered to God. The
things due to God are not to be rendered to Caesar. These are two
distinct realms, two distinct personages, and two distinct fields
of duty. Therefore, in these words Jesus taught as plainly as it is
possible to do, the complete separation of religion and the State.
No State can ever rightly require anything that is due to God;
and when it is required by the State, it is not to be rendered.
Again: Jesus is the Example whom God has set to be the Guide to every
person in this world in every step that can be taken in the right
way. Any step taken by anybody in a way in which the Lord Jesus did
not go is taken in the wrong way. He hath left us "an example, that
ye should follow His steps."139 1 Peter 2:21 Whosoever saith that
he "abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked."140 1
John 2:6 And Jesus never, in any manner nor to any degree, took any
part in political matters nor in any affairs of the State. Jesus was
then, and is forever, the embodiment of true religion. Therefore,
in His whole life's conduct of absolute separation from everything
political, from all affairs of the State, there is taught to all the
world, and especially to all believers in Him, the complete separation
of the religion of Christ, and of all who hold it, from everything
political and from all affairs of the State.
So faithfully did He hold to that principle that when a man asked
Him only, "Speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with
me," He refused, with the words, "Man, who made Me a judge or a divider
over you?" Then He said to them all, "Take heed and beware of covetousness;
for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which
he possesseth."141 Luke 12:13-15 Oh, if only all who have professed
to be His followers had held aloof from all affairs of politics and
State, how vastly different would have been the history of the Christian
era! What a blessing it would have been to the world! What floods
of misery and woe mankind would have been spared!
And why was it that Jesus thus persistently kept aloof from all affairs
of politics and the State? Was it because all things political, judicial,
and governmental were conducted with such perfect propriety, and with
such evident justice, that there was no place for anything better,
no room for improvement such as even He might suggest? - Not by any
means. Never was there more political corruption, greater perversion
of justice, and essential all-pervasive evil of administration, than
at that time. Why, then, did not Jesus call for "municipal reform?"
Why did He not organize a "Law and Order League"? Why did He not disguise
Himself and make tours of the dives and the gambling-dens, and entrap
victims into violation of the law? And why did He not employ other
spies to do the same, in order to get against the representatives
of the law evidence of maladministration by which to arraign them
and to compel them to enforce the law. Thus, He could reform the city,
regenerate society, and save the State, and so establish the kingdom
of God? Why? The people were ready to do anything of that kind that
might be suggested. They were ready to cooperate with Him in any such
work of "reform." Indeed, the people were so forward and so earnest
in the matter that they would have actually taken Him by force and
made Him King, had He not withdrawn Himself from them.142 John 6:15
Why, then, did He refuse?
The answer to all this is, Because He was Christ, the Saviour of the
world. He had come to help men, not to oppress them; had come to save
men, not to destroy them.
The government under which Jesus lived was corrupt and oppressive;
on every hand were crying abuses - extortion, intolerance, and grinding
cruelty. Yet the Saviour attempted no civil reforms. He attacked
no national abuses, nor condemned the national enemies. He did not
interfere with the authority or administration of those in power.
He who was our Example kept aloof from earthly governments - not because
He was indifferent to the woes of men, but because the remedy did
not lie in merely human and external measures. To be efficient, the
cure must reach men individually and must regenerate the heart. Not by the decisions of courts, or councils, or legislative
assemblies, not by the patronage of worldly great men, is the kingdom
of Christ established; but by the implanting of Christ's nature in
humanity through the work of the Holy Spirit. As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name; which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God.143 John 1:12-13 Here is the only power that can work the uplifting of mankind.
And the human agency for the accomplishment of this work is the teaching
and practicing of the Word of God. - Desire of Ages, chap. 55,
par. 12. |
Now Christ is the true Example set by God for every soul in this world
to follow. The conduct of Christ is Christianity. Conformity to
that Example in the conduct of the individual believer - this and
this alone is Christianity in the world. The conduct of Christ,
the Example, was totally separate in all things from politics and
the affairs of the State. Christianity, therefore, is the total separation
of the believer in Christ from politics and all the affairs
of the State, the total separation of religion and the State in
the individual believer.
Accordingly, Jesus said to His disciples forever, "Ye are not of the
world but I have chosen you out of the world."144 John 15:19 And to
His Father He said of His disciples forever, "They are not of the
world, even as I am not of the world."145 John 17:16 Every
Christian in this world, then, must be in the world as Christ was
in the world. "As He is, so are we in the world." 146 1 John 4:17
"It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master."147 Matthew
10:25 The Master was always, and in all things, and by fixed design,
completely separated from all affairs of politics and the State. And
it is forever enough "that the disciple be as his Master."
The following passage from a sermon by the late Thomas Hewlings Stockton
presents an infinity of truth, and is worthy to stand forever in letters
ablaze with eternal glory:
There was one sacrifice too great for Christ to make. He
was willing to leave the throne of the universe for the manger of
Bethlehem; willing to grow up as the son of a poor carpenter; willing
to be called the friend of publicans and sinners; willing to be watched
with jealous eyes, and slandered by lying tongues, and hated by murderous
hearts, and betrayed by friendly hands, and denied by pledged lips,
and rejected by apostate priests and a deluded populace and cowardly
princes; willing to be sentenced to the cross, and to carry the cross,
and be nailed to the cross, and bleed and groan and thirst and die
on the cross. But He was not willing to wear an earthly crown
or robe, or wield an earthly scepter, or exercise earthly rule. That
would have been too great a sacrifice. He did, indeed, endure the
crown of thorns and the cast-off purple and the reed, and the cry,
'Hail, King of the Jews!' But this was merely because He preferred
the mockery to the reality; so pouring infinite contempt on the one,
not only by rejecting it in the beginning of His ministry, but also
by accepting the other at its close. |
This is the Christianity of Jesus Christ, as respects the great question
of religion and the State. And, as in all the instruction from God
from the beginning of creation down, it calls always for the complete
separation of religion and the State in all things and in all people,
in order that the Christian may enjoy infinitely higher things.
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