What Are You a Christian For?
1 VERY good thing in this world has a right to exist. It is its own vindication. “The world owes me a living, at any «prate,’7 said a worthless idler once to Dr. Johnson. The shrewd old philosopher replied: “I am not so sure that it does.” This world does not owe house-room to any body or any thing, social, civil, or moral, which is of no possible value. At the very outset the religion of Jesus Christ was challenged by such sharp questions as: “What does this new Gospel mean? What reason has it for being? What are its fruits?” Jesus forewarned his followers that they must stand this searching test of practical results. “By their fruits ye shall know them. A tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.” One of his apostles reiterated the same idea when he reminded his fellow - Christians that they must “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason for the hope that is in you.” The evident meaning of this passage is that every Christian must have good and sufficient reasons for being a Christian. These reasons he must be willing to give to every one who either challenges his creed or who honestly seeks for enlightenment. The strongest of all vindications would be the practical fruits which Christianity should produce.
“What are you a Christian for?-’1 is a question which the unconverted often address to those who profess to be followers of the Lord Jesus. They have a right to ask it. Every auditor in my congregation has a right to put this question to me, as I stand in the pulpit. If I urge a man of the world to yield himself to the claims and control of the Lord Jesus he is entitled to
WHAT ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN FOR? Ill
know what Christ can do for him, and also what he is expected to do for Christ. In reply to his proper interrogatory, I would answer that I am a Christian for three reasons. First, for my own good. In the daily conflict with sin, I am sure to be overcome if I do not have divine help; and this Christ gives us. My evil appetites and ambitious and unhallowed desires are certain to rule me and to ruin me if divine grace does not hold them in check. I am “under condemnation” for past iniquities, and Christ’s atonement alone can deliver me from the just punishment due to me. In Christ I find pardon, peace, strength, and a hope of everlasting life. If there were not another person on the globe but myself, I ought to be a Christian for my own sake. Life is only pure when it is under Grod’s control; life is only happy when we can enjoy communion with God. Death is only safe when it is a departure, “to be with Christ, which is far better.”
A second answer to the question is: I am a Christian for the good of others. None of us can live entirely to ourselves and for ourselves, if we try. We touch others at too many points. If I reject the Gospel, I not only rob myself of its benefits, but my example is against my neighbor’s acceptance of the Gospel. Every impenitent sinner has a twofold guilt. He not only rejects Christ, but helps to influence others to reject him also. Taking a stand for Christ may lead others to come out on the Lord’s side.
Christ Jesus taught no more beautiful and beneficent principle than that” we are not our own. No man liveth to himself or dieth to himself. We are debtors. Every man is to look not on his own things, but also on the things of others. We are to bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of love.” Our Master set us an example of ineffable beauty in this regard. He “pleased not himself.” He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister to others. As the sun expends itself in giving light and warmth, so Jesus made his earthly existence one constant expenditure of blessings. That journey to the coasts of Canaan was probably just for the relief of one afflicted woman and her daughter. Never does my Saviour appear more lovable to me than when he girds the towel about his loins and stoops to wash his disciples’ feet. “So ought ye,” he sweetly says, “to wash one another’s feet.” This is the meaning of the phrase “Ye are the salt of the earth”; for the prime use of salt is not to keep itself, but to preserve other objects from putrefaction. Is it not about time for every Christian professor to feel that, if he is not a standing rebuke to rascality and falsehood, and if he has no antiseptic qualities, then he is a fraud himself? Is it not time, too, that the idea of absorbing Gospel every Sabbath and giving out none during the week should be regarded as a disgrace to his Christian profession? This question can not be pushed home too close to every member of Christ’s Church: “What are you here for? Who is the better for your influence, your gifts, your acts, and your example?” Our self-denying Redeemer gave the chief reason for his coming to earth to make men and women Christians when he said: “I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit.” That fruit is godly and beneficent living. No other religion in the universe ever had so sublime a purpose. If all who profess and call themselves Christians would simply live out their holy professions, the conversion of the world would soon be achieved. If even a single state or a single county were thoroughly Christianized in every house, every school, every place of business, and if Jesus shone out in the domestic, social, and civil life of that whole community, then the whole world would be attracted to look at so beautiful a spectacle. Then the whole world would see what men and women could be made Christians for. Infidelity would hang its foolish head before such a triumphant argument for the religion of Calvary and the Gospel. But until Christ’s representatives live out more thoroughly the teachings and spirit of their Lord there will be an abundance of that secret skepticism which steels the human heart against God’s glorious Gospel. It is for this very reason that so much of the headway gained by Sabbath eloquence is lost during the other six days of counteracting influence. One day of good preaching is no match for six days of inconsistent practice. God will never honor his Church with complete success until it completely honors him.
This brings me to the third answer to our question. The highest reason for being a Christian is for God’s glory. “Herein is my Father glorified” was Christ’s supreme argument for a Christian life. The Westminster Assembly only paraphrased this truth when they defined man’s chief end “to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” The supreme teaching of the parable of the Prodigal Son is to set forth God’s delight in saving lost sinners. “Even so is there joy in the presence of the angels of God over every sinner that repented!.” The rescuing shepherd is far happier even than the rescued sheep. It was for the joy set before him that my Saviour endured the cross and despised the shame. My salvation will be a jewel in his diadem. My life, if I live according to his beautiful teachings, will be a trophy of his cross. If Isaac Newton was so supremely happy at the completion of his great problem that he could not eat or sleep, what must be the rapture of Him who shall yet “see of the travail of his soul” and be divinely satisfied? 0 brethren, we shall understand what we wrere redeemed and sanctified for when we behold the glorified Lamb of God enthroned amid the praises of his ransomed hosts.