NO OTHER GOSPEL
‘I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.’
The right of interpretation is embodied for us in what we call dogma. Many of us do not see the need of dogma, just because we are too apt to miss the true secret of Christian authority. If you are tempted to treat it as one among many influences, perhaps the best and sweetest of all, but still only a moral force working in concert with other forces, then you will find yourself pulled up short by something in it which claims an absolute title, an original and unique authority. This holds ever aloof, supreme and solitary. What is this undying kernel which repels delusion? We know well it is the personality of Jesus Christ. His authoritative personality, His permanent claims, this it is which accounts for the permeating influence exercised over the world by Christianity.
I. The heart and core of Christianity.—Dogma simply puts into words this indissoluble and unique element, which makes it impossible to account for Christianity as an appendage or element of something else. Dogma declares that the Person of the Lord and Master of Christianity holds in it all that is wanted to explain its rise, growth, power, demands, promises. Christianity is Christ, and Christ is Christianity: Christ, to the Jews, a stumbling-block, to the Greeks foolishness, but to all who believe, Christ, the sole foundation, the Author and Finisher of the faith, the one Head, the one rock, the wisdom and power of God.
II. The danger against which St. Paul fought, in its simpler form sweeps in upon us through the great width and variety of our travelling. Our tours now take us so easily far outside the frontiers of Christianity that we rub shoulders with a dozen religions; and, by the sheer force of an unguarded instinct, Christianity slips somehow into a subordinate place in our imagination. We look upon it as one religion among many, and we talk as if it had grown as the others grow. Or here at home, without travel at all, we are terribly liable to the habit of letting Christianity sink down to the level of a social influence. Christianity does so much good, and does it so much better than philanthropy, that we see and feel what a loss to the general well-being it would be if this were withdrawn, we feel that we ourselves are the better for the influence it has had over us. All this is so true, only we are observing it as a phenomenon which impresses us favourably, and never once perhaps have we gone behind the phenomenon, and asked, ‘Whence does this excellent influence spring? What does it assert? Does it simply spring out of the belief that in Christ Jesus there is to be found an authoritative supremacy which nothing short of absolute allegiance of heart to the heart and will of God can ever satisfy? Is that the motive, the cause of these effects? If so, what am I about? Can I accept and face the influence, and not accept the challenge of the creed: ‘Whom sayest thou that I, the Son of Man, am?’
III. There is the challenge.—The creed is proclaimed aloud; we have heard it; what are we going to do? This will stand over against us with an importunate inquiry. Oh that with St. Peter our hearts may burn within us until passionate words break from our lips, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God’! God grant us that to-day, by the help of the Holy Ghost, we may deliver out our faith with a new emphasis, a new force of conviction. ‘Yes, it is true; I see it; this religion is no outgrowth of human relations; no! there is but one who can explain it; I see Thee and know Thee Who Thou art; Thou art the Christ, the Holy One of God!’
—Rev. Canon Scott Holland.