it would be the day of condemnation of all unbrotherliness (Matt. xxv.
31-46). This central idea--a new order of life in which men have come to
love and obey God as their Father, and to love and live for men as their
brothers--attaches to itself naturally all the various phases of the
teaching of Jesus, including his emphasis on himself; for he made that
emphasis in order that, as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, he might lead
men unto the Father.
III
Jesus' Knowledge of Truth
242. The note of authority in the teaching of Jesus is evidence of his own
clear knowledge of the things of which he spoke. As if by swift intuition,
his mind penetrated to the heart of things. In the scriptures he saw the
underlying truth which should stand till heaven and earth shall pass
(Matt. v. 18); in the ceremonies of his people's religion he saw so
clearly the spiritual significance that he did not hesitate to sacrifice
the passing form (Mark vii. 14-23); such a theological development as the
pharisaic doctrine of the resurrection he unhesitatingly adopted because
he saw that it was based on the ultimate significance of the soul's
fellowship with God (Mark xiii. 24-27); he reduced religion and ethics to
simplicity by summing up all commandments in one,--Thou shalt love (Matt.
xxii. 37-40); and at the same time insisted as no other prophet had done
on the finality of conduct and the necessity of obedience (Matt. vii.
21-27). His penetration to the heart of an idea was nowhere more clear
than in his doctrine of the kingdom of God as realized in the filial soul,
and as involving a judgment which should take cognizance only of
brotherliness of conduct. It would not be difficult to show that all these
different aspects of his teaching grew naturally out of his knowledge of
God as his Father and the Father of all men; they were the fruit,
therefore, of personal certainty of ultimate and all-dominating truth.
243. If the knowledge of Jesus had been shown only in matters of spiritual
truth, it would still have marked him as one apart from ordinary men.
There were other directions, however, in which he surpassed the common
mind. The fourth gospel declares that "he knew what was in man" (ii. 25),
and all the evangelists give evidence of such knowledge. Not only the
designation of Judas as the traitor, and of Peter as the one who should
deny him, before their weakness and sin had shown themselves, but also
Jesus' quick reading of the heart of the paralytic who was brought to him
for healing, and of the woman who washed his feet with her tears (Mark ii.
5; Luke vii. 47), and his knowledge of the character of Simon and
Nathanael (John i. 42, 47,) as well as his sure perception of the intent
of the various questioners whom he met, indicate that he had powers of
insight unshared by his fellow men.
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