The Freedom of Christ by Alfred Heidenreich

 The Freedom of Christ

By Alfred HeidenreichFirst published in The Christian Community Journal Sept.-Oct. 1956 On my recent journey to South America I repeatedly met people who said that they could not see that Christ was “necessary”. In a way, one can deal with this question fairly easily if one enlarges the conception of man’s fallen nature and awakens a picture of the sickness of sin which no mere teaching, even of the greatest Founders of Religions could take away. But in a sense, there is truth in the thought that Christ was not “necessary”. There is nothing in the scheme of things that made His coming inevitable, in the sense that spring necessarily follows winter and day follows night. No necessity of desire or natural law compelled Him to come. In fact, the New Testament has always said so. Christ’s coming was a deed of love, of grace, of utter freedom. “God so loved the world….” And therefore Christ and His deed can only be understood by an act of free loving cognition on man’s part, too. .It is providential that no conclusive historic evidence compels us to believe in His existence. One of the greatest authorities on early Christian history (Harnack) made it clear that all that is known about Christ in terms of documented history “can be conveniently written on a postcard”. He rightly excerpted the Gospels from the sources of purely historic evidence, for they are no history books in the way in which Caesar, Tacitus, or Pliny wrote history. And it is equally essential for true Christianity that no dogma or tradition should compel a human soul to believe in Christ. The Catholic position of demanding faith on authority is essentially pre-Christian.  The reality of Christ, the truth of His Being, the mystery of His Nature can only be apprehended by a free act of loving cognition. In the Act of Consecration of Man the worshipper sees before him the altar. The altar is, as it were, the physical half of the truth. It is an image of the empty tomb. Over and above the altar the worshipping soul can perceive the spiritual half of the truth; the Risen Christ. But no miraculous appearance will compel our senses to see Him. Only the free love of an actively worshipping soul will be aware of His presence and unite with Him, beyond the world of necessity in the land of freedom.Artworks -Resistance - by Marc ChagallResurrection - by Marc Chagall

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