Stott Christ the Cornerstone

Collected Essays of John Stott
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68359-341-6
Verlag: Lexham Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 400 Seiten

Reihe: Best of Christianity Today

What does it mean to say Jesus is Lord? The late Anglican pastor John Stott--named as one of the 100 most influential people in 2005 by Time magazine-was committed to the notion that Jesus' lordship has ramifications for all of life. Out of this conviction grew his contention that the whole mission of God includes both evangelism and social action. Christ the Cornerstone recovers several decades of his writings exploring the consequences of Jesus' lordship from the pages of Christianity Today, including the regular 'Cornerstone' column he wrote from 1977-1981. In them, he treats such diverse topics as Scripture, discipleship, the worldwide mission of the church, and social concerns such as the value of human life, care for animals, racial diversity, and economic inequality. Gain insight for today from the writings of a guiding light of evangelicalism.

John Stott (1921-2011) was one of the foremost Christian figures of the twentieth century. He was educated at Cambridge, studying French and theology for a double first, and then training to be an Anglican cleric. He served as rector of All Souls Church, Langham Place, in London for 25 years, where he carried out an effective urban pastoral ministry. He became known worldwide as a preacher, evangelist, and communicator of Scripture. A leader among evangelicals in Britain, the United States, and around the world, Stott was a principal framer of the landmark Lausanne Covenant in 1974. His many books, including Why I Am a Christian, Basic Christianity, Your Mind Matters: The Place of the Mind in the Christian Life, Between Two Worlds: The Challenge of Preaching Today, and The Living Church: Convictions of a Lifelong Pastor, have sold millions of copies around the world and have been translated into dozens of languages. Stott was honored by Time magazine in 2005 as one of the '100 Most Influential People in the World.'

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stott, John

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Chapter 1

CHRIST AND THE SCRIPTURES*

You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. (John 5:39, 40 RSV)

The two most important questions which must be asked and answered about the Bible concern its origin and its purpose. Where has it come from, and what is it meant for? Until we know whether its origin is ultimately human or divine, we cannot determine what degree of confidence may be placed in it. Until we have clarified the purpose for which its divine Author or human authors brought it into being, we cannot put it to right and proper use.

Both questions gain an answer from the words of Jesus to certain Jews, recorded in chapter 5 of John’s Gospel, verses 39 and 40: “You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (RSV). He was, of course, referring primarily to the Old Testament Scriptures. But if we concede that there is an organic unity in the Bible, and that God intended his saving acts to be recorded and interpreted under the New Covenant as much as under the Old, then these words may be applied to the New Testament also.

The Scriptures Have a Divine Origin

The divine origin of the Scriptures is clearly implied in our Lord’s statement: “It is they that bear witness to me.” The scriptural witness to him is a divine witness. Jesus has been advancing some stupendous claims about his relation to the Father. The Father has committed to him the two tasks of judging and quickening (vv. 21, 22, 27, 28). But how are Christ’s claims to be confirmed? They are confirmed, he says, by testimony, and the testimony he requires adequately to authenticate his claims is divine, not human. Self-testimony is not enough. “If I bear witness to myself, my testimony is not true” (v. 31 RSV). John the Baptist’s testimony is not enough. “You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth” (v. 33). No. He adds: “Not that the testimony which I receive is from man” (v. 34). “There is another who bears witness to me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to me is true” (v. 32). He is referring, of course, to the Father. But how does the Father bear witness to the Son? In two ways; first, in the works of Jesus, and second, in the words of Scripture. “The testimony which I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father has granted me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing, bear me witness that the Father has sent me” (v. 36). This is familiar ground to readers of the Fourth Gospel. “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father” (10:27, 38). “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves” (14:11).

Our Lord asserts, however, that he has from the Father an even more direct testimony than his mighty works. “And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness to me” (5:37). But these Jews were rejecting this testimony. “You do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he has sent” (v. 38). What is this witness? Where is this word? Jesus immediately continues, “You search the scriptures … and it is they that bear witness to me” (v. 39), and concludes this discourse with a specific example of what he means: “Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; it is Moses who accuses you, on whom you set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (vv. 45–47).

The Scriptures are, then, in the thought and teaching of Jesus, the supreme testimony of the Father to the Son. They are the word and witness of God. True, they had human authors. It was Moses who wrote, and the writings of Moses are the Word of God (vv. 46, 47, 38). Jesus undoubtedly believed the Bible to be no ordinary book, nor even a whole library of ordinary books, because behind the human writers stood the one divine Author, the Holy Spirit of God, who, as the Nicene Creed affirms, “spake by the prophets.” Because men spoke from God, or God spoke through men (for the process of inspiration is described in both ways in Scripture), the Bible is to be viewed not as a mere symposium of human words but as the very Word of God.

There are many grounds for this Christian belief. There is the Scriptures’ own unaffected claim. There is their astonishing unity of theme, despite the extremely varied circumstances of composition. There is their power to convict and convert, to comfort and uplift, to inspire and to save. But the greatest and firmest ground for faith in the divine origin of Scripture will always remain that Jesus himself taught it. The living Word of God bore witness to the written Word of God. His opinion of, and attitude to, the Scriptures is not difficult to determine. Three striking indications are:

He Believed Them. Let one example suffice. On the way to the Mount of Olives he turned to the disciples and said: “You will all fall away.” This categorical statement must have amazed and perplexed them. Had they not sworn allegiance to him and promised to be true to him? Had they not followed him these three years without thought of home and comfort and security? How could he assert with such definiteness and dogmatism that every one of them would desert him? The answer is simple. He continues: “You will all fall away; for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered’ ” (Mark 14:27). It is because the Scriptures had said so that he knew beyond peradventure or doubt that it would come to pass.

It is for this reason that the progress of events at the end of his career did not take him by surprise. He knew that what had been written about him would have its fulfillment. The word gegraptai, “it stands written,” was enough to remove every doubt and silence every objection. So, with an assurance and clarity that over-awed the Twelve, he repeatedly predicted both his death and his resurrection, because the Old Testament had depicted the sufferings and the glory of the Christ. So plain was it to him that he soundly rebuked the Emmaus disciples after the resurrection, saying: “O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:25–27).

No wonder he could say in his Sermon on the Mount, “Truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Matt. 5:18) and, again, later: “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). To him the Scriptures were unbreakable because they are eternal. It was impossible that one Scripture should fail or pass until it had been fulfilled.

He Obeyed Them. Even more impressive than the fact that Jesus believed the Scriptures is that he obeyed them in his own life. He practiced what he preached. He not only said he believed in their divine origin; he acted on his belief by submitting to their authority as to the authority of God. He gladly and voluntarily accepted a position of humble subordination to them. He followed their teaching in his own life.

The most striking example of this occurs during the period of temptation in the wilderness. The synoptic evangelists record the three principal temptations with which he must later have told them he had been assaulted. Each time he countered the devil’s proposal with an apt quotation from chapters 6 or 8 of the Book of Deuteronomy, on which he appears to have been meditating at the time. It is incorrect to say that he quoted Scripture at the devil. What he was actually doing was quoting Scripture at himself in the hearing of the devil. For instance, when he said, “It is written, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve,’ ” or “It is written, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,’ ” he was not telling Satan what to do and what not to do. He was not commanding Satan to worship God and forbidding Satan to tempt God. No. He was stating what he himself would and would not do. It was his firm resolve to worship exclusively, he said, and not to tempt God in unbelief. Why? Because this was what was written in the Scriptures. Once again, the simple word gegraptai, “it stands written,” settled the issue for him. What was written was as much the standard of his behavior as the criterion of his belief.

Moreover, Jesus obeyed the Scriptures in his ministry as well as in his private conduct. The Old Testament set forth the nature and character of the mission he had come to fulfill. He knew that he was the anointed King, the Son of man, the suffering servant, the smitten shepherd of Old Testament prophecy, and he resolved to fulfill to the letter what was written of him. Thus, “the Son of man goes as it is written of him” (Mark 14:21), and again, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written of the Son of man by the prophets will be accomplished” (Luke 18:31). Indeed, Jesus felt a certain...