in order to secure His condemnation at the last, the chief-priests were compelled to resort to bribery and falsehood. And ever since the bitterest opponents of His religion have been constrained to reiterate Pilate’s verdict with regard to Himself—“We find no fault in this man.”
It is difficult to estimate aright the holiness of Christ as an example to us. It is difficult to discover how far, or whether at all, the Divinity of Christ acted on the humanity in relation to His holiness. We believe, however, that the holiness of His humanity was altogether distinct from His Godhead; and though He “did no sin; neither was guile found in His mouth,” He was none the less exposed to temptation; but amid the vanity and vice which everywhere abounded and surrounded Him, He walked, and worked, and lived in the maintenance of that holiness which we may imitate; not a holiness resulting from the union of the Divine with the human, but a holiness belonging only to the latter. Had He yielded to temptation, the whole of His mission would have failed, His teaching would have had no force, His example would have perished with His fame, and His death would have had no saving merit whatsoever. But His holiness remained inviolate; and now it is the ground and the pattern of ours. It is not enough that you
be meek and lowly; it is not enough that you be simple and ingenuous; it is not enough that you be sympathetic and affectionate; you must be holy. “Jesu’s is a spotless mind.”
Brethren, suffer me to urge the exhortation of the text. O the dignity, the blessedness of this conformity to Christ! Will you seek it for yourselves. You and I are only Christians so far as we resemble Christ, not a bit farther. Jesus is Himself the perfect embodiment of His own teaching, the living, acting example of all those elements of character and conduct which fit intelligent and immortal spirits for the Paradise of God. Therefore, “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Seek it! exhibit it!!
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