The Sacred Import of the Christian Name # 5

The Sacred Import of the Christian Name # 5

Alexander the Great had a fellow in his army who had his same name - but was a mere coward. "Either be like me," said Alexander to him, "or lay aside my name!"

You servants of sin, it is in vain for you to wear the name of Christ! It renders you the more ridiculous, and only aggravates your guilt! You may with as much propriety call yourselves "princes" or "kings", as "Christians," while you are so unlike to Christ! You are a scandal to His precious Name! His Name is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.

2. To be a Christian - is to deny yourselves and take up the cross and follow Christ. These are the terms of discipleship fixed by Christ Himself. He said to them all, "If any man will come after Me - let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." (Luke 9:23).

To deny ourselves, is to abstain from the pleasures of sin, to moderate our sensual appetites, to deny our own interest for the sake of Christ. In short, it is to sacrifice everything inconsistent with our duty to Him, when these come in competition.

To take up our cross, is to bear sufferings, to encounter difficulties, and break through them all - in imitation of Jesus Christ, and for His sake.

To follow Christ, is to trace His steps, and imitate His example, whatever the cost to us.

But this observation will coincide with the next head, and therefore I now dismiss it. These, sirs, and these only, are the terms, if you would be Christians, or the disciples of Christ. He honestly warned people of these terms when He first called them to be His disciples. He did not take advantage of them - but let them know beforehand upon what terms they were admitted. "Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them He said: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters - yes, even his own life - he cannot be My disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow Me, cannot be My disciple!" (Luke 14:25-27).

By "hating" is meant a smaller degree of love, or a comparative hatred. That is, if we would be Christ's disciples, we must be willing to part with our dearest relations, and even our lives, when we cannot retain them consistently with our duty to Him.

He goes on: "And anyone who does not carry his cross," and encounter the greatest sufferings after My example, "cannot be My disciple." The love of Christ is the ruling passion of every true Christian, and for his sake he is ready to give up all, and to allow all that earth or hell can inflict. He must run all risks, and cleave to Christ's cause at all hazards.

This is the essential character of every true Christian. What then shall we think of those crowds among us, who retain the Christian name - and yet will not deny themselves of their sensual pleasures, nor part with their temporal interest, for the sake of Christ? Who are so far from being willing to lay down their lives, that they cannot stand the force of a laugh or a sneer in the cause of Christ - but immediately stumble and fall away?

Are they Christians, whom the commands of Christ cannot restrain from what their depraved hearts desire? No!  A Christian, without self-denial, mortification, and a supreme love to Jesus Christ, is as great a contradiction as fire without heat, or a sun without light, a hero without courage, or a friend without love!

Does not this strip some of you of the Christian name, and prove that you have no right at all to it?

3. A true Christian must be a follower or imitator of Christ. "Be followers of me," says Paul, "as I also am of Christ." (1 Cor. 11:1). Christ is the model after whom every Christian is formed; for, says Peter, "He left us an example - that we should follow His steps!" (1 Peter 2:21). Paul tells us, that we must be conformed to the image of God's dear Son, (Romans 8:29); and that the same mind must be in us - which was also in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 2:5). Unless we partake of His Spirit, and resemble Him in practice; unless we are as He was in the world - we have no right to partake of His Name!

Here I would observe, that whatever was miraculous in our Lord's conduct, and peculiar to Him as the Son of God and Mediator, is not a pattern for our imitation - but only what was done in obedience to that law of God which was common to Him and us.

Christ's heart glowed with love to His Father! He delighted in universal obedience to Him; it was His food and drink to do His will, even in the most painful and self-denying instances! He abounded in devotion, in prayer, meditation and every pious duty.

He was also full of every grace and virtue towards mankind! He was meek and humble, kind and benevolent, just and charitable, merciful and compassionate towards all. Beneficence to the souls and bodies of men was the business of His life; for He went about doing good. (Acts 10:38).

~Samuel Davies~

(continued with # 6)