by John H. Gerstner

When I studied at Harvard University in the 1940's, we had a very interesting professor, Dr. H. H. Cadbury, who used to attempt to introduce Christ to his classes. In attendance, he would have, in addition to the divinity school men, a number of the regular university stu¬dents; the latter were often totally ignorant of Christ. Far from dismaying the professor, this fact rather pleased him; for from these students he got what he liked to call "the virgin reaction" to Jesus. The theological students, having been acquainted with Jesus before, could only afford the philosophy of the second glance. But Dr. Cadbury, who himself had studied the texts hundreds of times, could always learn something from those who would give the fresh response of the newly introduced. Let us attempt to put ourselves in the position of these students and try to experience the initial response to Jesus Christ.

The Humanity of Christ
When we read the accounts of Jesus, we instinctively recognize Him as the perfect man. Matthew describes one whom we see to be the ideal Jew; Mark, the ideal Roman; John, the ideal son of God; and Luke, the universal ideal who is every man's ideal, and God's as well. Furthermore, every man who approaches Christ seems to feel the same thing--He is the ideal of that man. To the artist, Christ is the one who is altogether lovely. To the educator, He is the master Teacher. To the philosopher, He is the wisdom of God. To the lonely He is a brother; to the sorrowful, a comforter; and to the bereaved, He is the resurrection and the life. To the sinner, He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

"No one," said Watson, "has yet discovered the word Jesus ought to have said; none suggested the better word He might have said. No action of His has shocked our moral sense. None has fallen short of the ideal. He is full of surprises, but they are all the surprises of perfection. You are never amazed one day by His greatness, the next by His littleness. You are quite amazed that He is incomparably better than you could have expected. He is tender without being weak, strong without being coarse, lowly without being servile. He has conviction without intolerance, enthusiasm without fanaticism, holiness without Pharisaism, passion without prejudice. This man alone never made a false step, never struck a jarring note. His life alone moved on those high levels where local limitations are transcended and the absolute law of moral beauty prevails. It was life at its highest."

The virgin reaction of the world to Jesus Christ is, then, this: He is the ideal, the perfect man, the moral paragon of that race. I do not wish to gloss over the fact that not absolutely everyone has agreed with this verdict. I know that George Bernard Shaw spoke of a time in Christ's life when, according to Shaw, He was not a Christian. I know that some have thought that Socrates died more nobly than did Jesus, while others believe Christ to have been surpassed. But the overwhelming testimony of the world is to the perfection, the incomparable perfection, of Jesus of Nazareth. These few exceptions could be easily shown to rest on fundamental misconceptions of certain things that Jesus said or did. Moreover, those who do take exception usually think that some imagined fault is a failure of Christ to be a Christian, as Shaw said. It is evident that they know of no higher standard by which to test Christ than the standard of Christ Himself.

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This is part ten of John H. Gerstner's small book entitled Theology for Everyman, originally published in 1965 (Moody Press, Chicago). That book was subsequently republished by Soli Deo Gloria in 1991. It has since fallen out of print and we thought it would be good to revisit this book here on the blog. Over the next couple of months, we'll work our way through the book. Here is where we've been so far: Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3.