Where, in the old thought, was it possible to place Jesus? Those denominations under whose teaching Jesus has been accepted as both God and man are compelled to say that this is a doctrine which must be accepted and believed by what is styled an act of faith. Its present demonstration is impossible. As to all the queries advanced,—for example, how infinite being could be contained in mortal form; how infinite being could die on the cross while living at the same time in heavenly bliss and immortality; how God could die and yet for three days continue to govern the universe (unless, indeed, the universe is capable of governing itself apart from God!); how—greatest paradox of all—Jesus, as "very God and very man," with all the complexities and contradictions attendant upon such a belief, could be simultaneously both,—to all such queries the devout believer in the old thought can return but one sincere answer: "I do not know," and if pressed further, he can only fall back upon the self-contradictory but famous statement, "I believe, because it is impossible."
Granting, for the sake of the argument, that God could have become a mortal—or manifest Himself in mortal form—then, indeed, one might well expect such a life, with such thoughts, words, and deeds, as we find ascribed to Jesus of Nazareth. In all joy and reverence, let us all confess that the glory of God was revealed in Jesus the Christ. In the old thought, however, how aloof, apart, and inexplicable stands Jesus, called "Master" and "Lord"! There are deeds that he did which seem to be—and are— alien to mortal consciousness. Healing the sick, cleansing the leper, walking on the water, raising the dead—all this not only without material means but in defiance of all that mortals have held to be unbreakable laws—this, in the old thought, does not connect Jesus with the men and women of every-day existence; it separates him from them by a seemingly impassable gulf. True, "he that runs may read" that Jesus said his disciples should do the works he did, "and greater works:" yet, since none of these things, according to the old thought, can be made the data of any cosmos known to men, they are ascribed to the arbitrary action of that supreme power of whom all things may be believed, but concerning whom nothing can be proved.
Others, impatient at the seemingly inextricable mental tangle of creedal statement, have essayed to cut the knot that they were unable to untie. They will accept Jesus as a mortal, yes! As the best mortal who has ever lived, yes! As the greatest teacher of spiritual truth whom the world has ever known, yes! As the chosen messenger of God, yes! As God—no! On the one hand we have a concept of Jesus which is illogical, on the other one that is inadequate, for these latter believers in saving their logic have lost all that makes logic worth while. Arguing from the false premise of the immutability of material law, they are compelled, if they are to be consistent, either to assume a material explanation for all of the so-called miracles wrought by Jesus and his disciples, or to explain them as figurative, or to deny them pointblank. Immortality, from their point of view, is logically improvable; it rests merely upon antecedent probability at best—a position quite as possible to any devout Greek or Roman of the classic period as to the man of the present day. True, this teaching does not separate Jesus from the men and women of every-day existence, for it points to him as the example for all to emulate. Nevertheless, it presents Jesus as subject to the same limitations which it ascribes to all men; and with these limitations vanishes even the hope that Christ Jesus can be found the Saviour of the world.
