I Believe in Jesus Christ, His Only Son, Our Lord

Tuis is the creed of St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, of Savonarola and Huss, of Luther and Melancthon, of Wycliffe and Knox, but long before its majestic sentences were formulated, its substance, and especially this clause, was steadfastly believed.

“TI believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our ‘Lord.” It is the voice of John the Baptist, who said: ‘I saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and it abode upon Him, and I saw and bare witness that this is the Son of God.”

“7 believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.” It is the voice of the guileless Nathanael, whose heart was read, as he sat beneath his favourite sycamore, and who acknowledged that Jesus of Nazareth was “‘ King of Israel and Son of God.”

““I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.” It is the voice of Thomas, who loved even

to death, but could not believe, but who, as he ‘Al 4 — (2516)

saw the marks of the wounds, was convinced of the omniscience of the Risen Saviour, and was compelled to exclaim, ““My Lord and my God.”

“I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.’ It is the voice of Peter, to whom it had been revealed, not by flesh and blood, but by the Father Himself, that Jesus was the Christ, “the Son of the living God.”

“I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.” It is the voice of John, the Beloved Apostle, who leant on the bosom of the Lord in tenderest fellowship, and said: “We have an understanding to know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ.”

But the wish is sometimes expressed for the evidence of a man of absolute integrity and finely balanced mind, who should investigate the claims of Christ, as it might be investigated by a committee of experts. If such an one could have lived in that distant first century, and left his opinion to be opened by us to-day, and if it corroborated the Creed — how reassuring and strengthening to our faith! But there is on record just such a verdict. There was a young man, who was a student in the great University at Jerusalem, during the time when Jesus of

Nazareth was working His wonderful miracles, and who afterwards became a member of the High Council. He knew everything that could be said by the enemies of Christ in opposition to His claims, because he was the close friend of Annas and Caiaphas; indeed, he made it the object of the opening years of his brilliant career to extirpate the nascent religion which was known as the ‘“‘ Way” of the Crucified. He met the followers of Christ in debate, put them to the torture, breathed out threatenings and slaughter, which he executed even in strange and distant cities. So far from being prejudiced in favour of Christianity, he was strongly antagonistic to it; but notwithstanding all, he became so convinced of the undeniable claims of Jesus of Nazareth, that he turned completely round, and lived to be the chief Apostle of His Divine Sonship. Though he knew all that could be said against this doctrine, he embraced and preached it, with his wide, logical, and practical mind, meeting inveterate opposition, sacrificing every advantage which birth and position could confer, and affirming always that the life which he lived in the flesh was a life of faith on the Son of God, who, as he said, “loved me and gave Himself for me.”

His opinions are contained in his letters, which are preserved in our Scriptures, and have influenced the foremost minds of every age. Rénan, Strauss, and Baur, though they do not class themselves as Christian disciples, admit that the four first Epistles of the New Testament were written by Paul, before the year A.D. 60, that is, 27 years after the Resurrection, and upon those pages we find the definite and repeated statement of the former opponent of Christianity, that its Founder most certainly lived, died, rose again, and was the only begotten Son of the Father, who was “Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”