The Character of Jesus

by Charles Edward Jefferson

“character” I mean the sum of the qualities by which Jesus is distinguished from other men. His character is the sum total of his characteristics, his moral traits, the features of his mind and heart and soul.

the character of Jesus. Neither professing Christians nor dogmatic statements are the door of the Christian religion. The

founder of Christianity says: “I am the Door.”

For after all, to be a Christian is not to be like other professing Christians, or to accept ecclesiastical propositions; to be a Christian is to admire Jesus so

sincerely and so fervently that the whole life goes out to him in an aspiration to be like him.

It was in 1835 that Strauss published his first edition of the “Life of Jesus,” and from that day to this the world has been studying the character of the Man of Galilee with an interest which has been constantly deepening, and with a zeal that shows no abatement. The Gospels have been subjected to a scrutiny which has been given to no other writings.

The libraries and the mounds and the tombs have been ransacked for manuscripts. The manuscripts have been brought together and carefully compared and each minutest variation has been noted and pondered.

character of the man who compels the heart to cry out, “Master!”

One of the notes of twentieth century life is discontent.

Bread and water, light and rest and peace and power

and joy, are these not the seven elemental blessings which make human life complete?

It would seem that he offers us all good things on condition

that we become like him.

The writers of history have confessed that he overturned the Roman Empire and has given to Europe and America a civilization unlike any which the world has ever known.

When we study his method, we discover that his supreme concern is for the rightness of heart of the individual man.

This moulder of empires gives himself to the task of moulding individual men.

He keeps his eyes upon the soul, and by changing this he alters the environment and also the currents of the blood down through many generations

environment is not a matter of brick and plaster but rather of human minds and hearts.

It is by the changing of the character of a man that we change the character of other men, and by changing the character of many men we change the character of institutions and ultimately

of empires and civilizations. When Jesus says, “Behold I make all things new,” he lays his hand on the heart of a man. It is out of the heart the demons proceed which tear humanity to pieces, and it is out of the heart that the

angels come which restore the beauty and pea...

Here then we find the supreme mission of the Christian clergyman: it is to help men to fall in love with the character of Jesus.

It is the character of Jesus which has unique and endless significance, and to this then every earnest mind and heart should turn.

He is the express image of the Father’s person.

The more we study him the richer is our knowledge of the heart of God.

It is a great day for the soul when Jesus stands before it for the first time as a man.

it is enough to say that the portrait does its work. It nourishes

faith in God. It keeps the fires of hope and gladness burning on the altar.

The masters of music and art and life reveal themselves only to those who in some measure share their spirit.

He was preeminently a man of prayer. His was the reverent heart and his look was ever upward.

The question is. Do we have as much as we need?

We have no copies of the New Testament that run back beyond the fourth century — and this also is a surprise.

It should never be forgotten that every one of his disciples, with one exception, laid down his life for Jesus, and that, too, after Jesus was dead.

let us remember that Christianity is rooted in a life that was lived upon the earth.

St. Mark’s Gospel from beginning to end. It is probably the oldest of all the Gospels, the shortest of them all, the most graphic of them all, and seems to come the nearest to Jesus as men saw him in the days

of his humiliation.

were writing not the biography of Jesus but the character of Jesus.

There is

something in his voice that pierces and cuts and thrills, a tone that they have never heard before. It is the note of authority, the note of strength.

the first impression of Jesus is the impression of authority, mastery, power, leadership;

he is a man of strength. And that, I think, is the teaching of all the Gospels: they give us repeated illustrations of the power of Jesus. He drew men to him. Wherever he went he was surrounded by a crowd. He goes down to

seashore, and the crowd is so great they push him into the water and he gets into a boat. He goes to the hilltop, and immediately the hillside is alive with people. He go...

surrounds him. Sometimes he dares not go into the city because of the tumult which his entrance will certainly stir up. Every city through which he passes is turned upsi...

draws to him great masses of men. It is noteworthy that widely differing classes of men are drawn: the publicans and sinners, the great unwashed crowd, they are ...

court of Palestine, he also is attracted, and the Roman centurion, he also is drawn, saying to Jesus; “I know what it is to command and so do you. There is an enemy in m...

word and he will depart.” Not only did Jesus draw men to him but he stirred them whe...

He was one of the giants of bygone ages who had come back to the earth carrying with him powers augmented by his sojourn in the realms of death.

he was a man of tremendous power.

He called forth a kind of reverence that has never been granted to any other man who has ever lived. He was so mighty that when men thought of

him, they thought of God.