Chris' Corner -- Sunday, April 18, 2021
After listening for a while to a Ph.D. theologian and former professor of philosophy at a famous religious college, perhaps I was able to see why he recently declared he was no longer a Christian.
He had been saying there are no religious theologians who could stand toe-to-toe and argue the real questions the educated philosophers of our day were asking. He painted this picture with a broad brush, making it sound like (at least in my thinking) he might be one of the few who were able to do this. Sometimes there’s just too much education in the way men think and not enough in the things God’s word teaches.
Someone may say I don’t have enough education to qualify in making such comments. And I might agree if it were not for the things that can be learned from the Master Teacher, Jesus Christ, and the study of His textbook, the Bible.
We should never take our eyes off of the greatest teacher that ever lived, nor turn our ears away from the instructions that were precisely written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. If we were to say we are no longer Christians, we would be turning our back on Jesus Christ, the Creator, God Incarnate, Lord, Savior, King, and Judge of all the earth.
Jesus Christ, the Master Teacher, did not use the difficult words or complicated subjects of His counterpart teachers of the day. And yet, those who heard Him said, “No man ever spoke like this Man!” (John 7:46). The Lord used stories (parables) and word pictures in teaching the mysteries of the kingdom. He spoke in familiar terms, easily understood words and illustrations, to teach spiritual truths—things people had not known previously. Luke 4:31–32 says, “Then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths. And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.”
Jesus was/is the Master Teacher because He trusted in and preached the Word of God and not the teachings of men. He often rebuked the religious leaders, telling them they were in error, not knowing the Scriptures (Matthew 22:29; Mark 12:24). In contrast, “He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45).
Our Christian duty is to follow in the steps of our Master, teaching the Scriptures precisely as He wanted them taught. They are perfect, no matter what some may say. Paul wrote, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe” (1 Corinthians 1:18–21).
No teacher in history has had a more profound and lasting effect on humanity than Jesus Christ, the Master Teacher. He taught to change the hearts of men and women to conform to the will of His Father (Matthew 22:37-40; Romans 12:1, 2).