DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9552#0203
TO THE CHRISTIAN" PUBLIC.
173
upon the application of the term " Saviour " to Jesus, as
to adduce it as a proof of the doctrine of the atonement..
especially when Jesus himself declares frequently, that he
saved the people solely through the inculcation of the
word of God ? John, ch. xv. ver. 3 : " Now ye are clean
through the word which I have spoken unto you." Ch. v.
ver. 24 : " He that heareth my word and believeth on
him that sent me, hath everlasting life." Ch. vi. ver. 63 :
" The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and
they are life :"—wherein Jesus represents himself as a
Saviour, or a distributor of eternal life, in his capacity of
divine teacher.
Jesus is of course justly termed and esteemed a
Saviour, for having instructed men in the Divine will
and law, never before so fully revealed. Would it de-
grade Jesus to revere him as a Divine Teacher, because
Moses and the Prophets before him delivered to the
people divine instructions ? Or would it depreciate the
dignity of Jesus, to believe that he, in common with
several other prophets, underwent afflictions and death ?
Such an idea is indeed unscriptural, for God represents
the Christ as a Prophet equal to Moses, {Dent. ch. xviii.
ver. 18.) Jesus declares himself to have come to fulfil the
law taught by Moses : (Matthew, ch. v. ver. 7 :) " Think
not that I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil ;" .>md3 strictly
commands his disciples and the people at large to obey
whatever Moses had taught. Ch. xxiii. vers. 2,3:" Say-
ing, the Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat : all
therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe
and do ; but do not ye after their works : for they s?»y,
and do not."
173
upon the application of the term " Saviour " to Jesus, as
to adduce it as a proof of the doctrine of the atonement..
especially when Jesus himself declares frequently, that he
saved the people solely through the inculcation of the
word of God ? John, ch. xv. ver. 3 : " Now ye are clean
through the word which I have spoken unto you." Ch. v.
ver. 24 : " He that heareth my word and believeth on
him that sent me, hath everlasting life." Ch. vi. ver. 63 :
" The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and
they are life :"—wherein Jesus represents himself as a
Saviour, or a distributor of eternal life, in his capacity of
divine teacher.
Jesus is of course justly termed and esteemed a
Saviour, for having instructed men in the Divine will
and law, never before so fully revealed. Would it de-
grade Jesus to revere him as a Divine Teacher, because
Moses and the Prophets before him delivered to the
people divine instructions ? Or would it depreciate the
dignity of Jesus, to believe that he, in common with
several other prophets, underwent afflictions and death ?
Such an idea is indeed unscriptural, for God represents
the Christ as a Prophet equal to Moses, {Dent. ch. xviii.
ver. 18.) Jesus declares himself to have come to fulfil the
law taught by Moses : (Matthew, ch. v. ver. 7 :) " Think
not that I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil ;" .>md3 strictly
commands his disciples and the people at large to obey
whatever Moses had taught. Ch. xxiii. vers. 2,3:" Say-
ing, the Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat : all
therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe
and do ; but do not ye after their works : for they s?»y,
and do not."