The Harmless Lord Jesus Christ

The Harmless Lord Jesus Christ I. Definitions. A. harm: Evil (physical or otherwise) as done to or suffered by some person or thing; hurt, injury, damage, mischief. Often in the set phrase ‘to do more harm than good’. B. harmlessness: The state or quality of being harmless; inoffensiveness. C. harmless: Free from harm or injury; unhurt, uninjured, unharmed. Now rare. 4. Doing or causing no harm; not injurious or hurtful; inoffensive, innocuous. II. (HEB 7:26) For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. A. Paul is in context contrasting the priesthood of Levi and the priesthood of Jesus Christ. B. Levitical priests were sinners and too often not harmless in the sense of causing harm. JOH 11:47-53. C. Jesus Christ is now harmless in the sense of being free from harm or injury. 1. He is out of the reach of sinners, “...passed into the heavens...” (HEB 4:14). 2. His sufferings and sacrifice will never be replayed in any form. No sinner can call him down to suffer harm again. HEB 9:25-28; 1PE 3:18. D. Jesus Christ is also harmless in the sense of not causing harm, as He ever was. ACT 10:38; JOH 10:32. 1. His chastenings of His people are therefore not harms He causes. REV 3:19. 2. The harms we suffer for our follies are self-inflicted. 2CO 6:12; PRO 1:29-32. 3. His yoke and burden for us is not harmful. MAT 11:28-30; 1JO 5:3. 4. No person was ever the worse because of Jesus Christ. Nothing that He did ever truly hurt men’s persons or lured them into something defiling. a. That He is harmless now in this sense demands that He was harmless also in His life on earth. To conclude otherwise would be to conclude His earthly character was deficient, but all that He did pleased God. JOH 8:29. b. He was and is the ultimate Man and perfect standard. EPH 4:13. III. Consider the words and actions of the harmless Lord Jesus Christ and be guided. A. Men marvelled at the grace in his lips. PSA 45:2 c/w LUK 4:22 c/w COL 4:6. 1. He bade men come to Him for rest unto their souls. MAT 11:28-30. 2. He preached good news and deliverance to the lowly. LUK 4:18-19. 3. He spoke to the unapproved folk and to women with words of conviction and of hope of salvation. LUK 5:27-32; JOH 4:7-26. 4. He spoke with open clarity and authority. JOH 18:20; MAT 7:29. 5. Yet he rebuked proud hypocrites like the Pharisees. MAT 23:13, 33. 6. He also rebuked and upbraided His disciples. MAR 8:33; 16:14. 7. He called Herod a fox. LUK 13:32. 8. By faith He cursed a fig tree, pleasing God. MAR 11:21 c/w JOH 8:29; HEB 11:6. 9. In all these things He was harmless. a. Good men speaking truth are often considered harmful by those who are exposed by the truth and hatred is gained by good works as well as by evil. b. Speaking truth is not harmful, except where one’s wounds are already opened to feel the sting of the medicine (in which case the real source of the discomfort is sin). PRO 27:5-6. 10. Godly men should conform to this varied harmlessness, learning discretion. JUDE 1:22-23. The Harmless Lord Jesus Christ 3-2-25 Page 1 of 2  B. By a parable He expressed His sovereign discretion over His workers, “...I do thee no wrong...” (MAT 20:11-16). If a man has received what He contracted for, no harm done. C. Children were safe and secure in His presence and blessed. MAR 10:13-16. D. Christ never represented a political threat to the powers that be. JOH 18:36. 1. He was no agitator or rabble-rouser. MAT 12:19-20. 2. He respected the limited authority of rulers. MAT 22:21; 23:2-3. 3. If rulers had not been so blinded by self-interest and ignorance, they would have let the harmless Man live. ACT 3:17; 1CO 2:7-8. 4. Even when they provoked and reviled Him, He did not repay in kind. 1PE 2:21-23. 5. He could have destroyed them all but His duty of love prevailed. MAT 26:51-53. E. He preferred saving men to destroying them and gave His own nation almost forty years to stave off their national suicide. LUK 9:54-56. F. His sheer power bowled men over backwards but no harm done. JOH 18:5-6. G. Not even His animated reaction at the temple could be considered harmful. JOH 2:13-17. 1. He was never violent. ISA 53:9. 2. This shows us that minor contact is not necessarily harmful and may even be absorbed or necessary. c/w MAT 5:39; PRO 23:13-14. H. Above all else, He came for love’s sake (JOH 3:16; 15:12-13) and “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour...” (ROM 13:10). Harmless. I. He accomplished more by loving meekness and gentleness in submission to the Father than all the kings and armies of history together ever did or could do, and He did so without inflicting injury or seizing upon men’s property or rights. And He left such a lasting impression that even worldly men might be awed by it: “I know men, and I tell you, Jesus is not a man. He commands us to believe, and gives no other reason than his awful word, I AM GOD. Philosophers try to solve the mysteries of the universe by their empty dissertations: fools: they are like the infant that cries to have the moon for a plaything. Christ never hesitates. He speaks with authority. His religion is a mystery; but it subsists by its own force. He seeks, and absolutely requires, the love of men, the most difficult thing in the world to obtain. Alexander, Caesar, Hannibal conquered the world, but had no friends. I myself am perhaps the only person of my day who loves Alexander, Caesar, Hannibal. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and myself founded empires; but upon what? Force. Jesus founded his empire on Love; and at this hour millions would die for him. I myself have inspired multitudes with such affection that they would die for me. But my presence was necessary. Now that I am in St. Helena, where are my friends? I am forgotten, soon to return to the earth, and become food for worms. What an abyss between my misery and the eternal kingdom of Christ, who is proclaimed, loved, adored, and which is extending over all the earth. Is this death? I tell you, the death of Christ is the death of God. I tell you, JESUS CHRIST IS GOD.” (Napoleon Bonaparte) IV. This Man, our Messiah, teaches us to be like Him. MAT 10:16; PHIL 2:14-15. A. You will do more good being like Christ than like any sinner, regardless of his greatness. B. His way is strait, narrow and leads unto life, even abundant life. MAT 7:14; JOH 10:10. C. He is “...holy, harmless...” (HEB 7:26). We are more likely to be harmless if first holy. The Harmless Lord Jesus Christ 3-2-25 Page 2 of 2