Called To Follow In His Steps

The Scriptures reveal that Christ Jesus is to have a "little flock" associated with Him in the great work of bringing to pass the message of the heavenly host, and that they must walk the same narrow way as He trod; they must meet evil as He did—on Christ's terms, by Christ's way, and at Christ's cost. This is the mystery of Christ of which the Scriptures speak in many figures, types and shadows so that we may understand the close unity which exits between Head and members in sacrifice, and also in Kingdom power.

It was at Pentecost that the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus was first made known, for once Atonement had been made by Christ Jesus ascending into the presence of God (antitypical Most Holy), the Holy Spirit came upon the waiting disciples with creative power to transform them into His likeness as new creatures in Him. This is why we see in their writings clear instruction concerning the same method of meeting evil by the force of love alone, as a necessary preparation for our future work—a method to be adopted collectively and as individuals.

Let us now consider Christ's attitude towards evil as our pattern in the development of His likeness ready for the fuller life of the Kingdom, when peace will be on earth and good will among men.

Christ's Terms

He asks nothing less than full consecration, which means that we are to be "dead" with Him. His was a sacrificial death, and we are called to be made conformable to that death, by filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. Weymouth renders this thought as "I fill up in my own person whatever is lacking in Christ's afflictions" (Col.1:24) which demonstrates that the sacrificial sufferings were not completed with Christ, the Head. They are continued in Christ, the Body, throughout the Gospel Age, just as the anointing flowed down from the Head to the Body from Pentecost onwards. It is only by full consecration and entry into Christ that we can understand this apparently strange way of meeting evil, coupled with faith to believe that all such are being qualified thereby to bring peace on earth in due time.

Christ's Way

The Apostle Paul had learned well the way of Christ when he witnessed the non-violent resistance of the first Christian martyr, Stephen. He was falsely accused, but he did not meet evil with the weapons of his persecutors, "and all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel" (Acts 6:15) for it was lighted with the Holy Spirit. Later, he was stoned, but manifested the same disposition saying "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" (Acts 7:60) and we also read "Saul (standing by) was consenting unto his death." (Acts 8.1) His death seemed unavailing and powerless to accomplish good, but what a mighty force it was when later Saul heard the Voice of Jesus on the Damascus road: "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest" (Acts 9:5), for he immediately linked up events with the death of Stephen and the "havoc of the church" which he created by his zeal, wrongly directed. Little wonder, then, is it that we find Paul clearly defining Christ's terms in these words "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good" (Rom.12:21). These are the terms of the One who "loved righteousness, and hated iniquity" (Heb.1:9), realising as He did that it was not yet God's time to restrain evil in the world at large; the Gospel Age is the period in which Christ, Head and Body, is to resist evil by non-violent methods, and thereby to receive their training for the Day in which evil will be suppressed. Christ's terms, then, are simple and plain; we are not to force them on others, but to realise that only the Body-members can fully understand their implications, and the peaceable fruit of righteousness which will be the outcome of suffering for His sake without resistance.

Christ's Cost

This method is costly when judged by human standards. It entails sacrificial death, as in the case of Jesus, but if faithful unto death we shall be raised in the power of the First Resurrection—already in course of completion—with the Divine nature of the Kingdom. Then, and then only, will it be possible to bring about what good-intentioned men are now striving by their own efforts to accomplish—peace on earth, good will towards men. Man feels it nothing less than criminal to stand idle in the present chaos; he is impelled to do all in his power to crush collective evil whatever the means, but this is because he does not understand God's Divine Plan of the Ages. The Kingdom cannot come by man's efforts, but by God in the hands of Christ, the great Mediator—the One who has resisted evil by non-violent methods throughout the Gospel Age (Christian Era), first the Head and then the members. Man will never be able to cause wars to cease; it is God who will do this in His own time and way, for "He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth" (Psa.46:9,10).

Selected BSM Dec. '45