A Center of Certitude
from A Place to Stand by Elton Trueblood
via Sentry Magazine, Vol. 21 No. 4, December 1995
The most pragmatic reason for seeing that Christ is the most dependable reality is the evidence of changed human lives. When we consider Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, we are in the realm of the empirical rather than the merely speculative. Saul said it was the Living Christ who had met him, and the person who seeks to deny this is confronted with the fact of a permanent change in Saul’s character. We cannot, of course, know whether a man is lying when he says ‘I believe,’ because belief is intrinsically internal and personal, but the evidence of changed lives is something which other people can observe. In Saul’s case, the change was so radical that it led to the production of some of the finest literature of the world, a literature which would not have been produced apart from the crucial encounter.
The evidence of lives changed by contact with Christ is so abundant that the full story can never be told; it is, indeed, of a kind not matched anywhere in any culture. The changed lives have come about, not primarily by a set of ideas or by acceptance of a doctrine, but by commitment to a Person...
The Christian takes his stand on the fact that lives can be made new through fellowship with Christ, and he knows of no other source of change and renewal equal to this. With George Fox, the Christian of each generation hears an inner voice which says, There is one, even Christ Jesus, who can speak to thy condition.’ We have learned that a mere inner direction, no matter how frantic or obsessive, is not sufficient for the new life we sorely need, for we do not have the power to save ourselves. My own life cannot be unified except by that to which I am devoted. But where shall I turn? A mere ‘ism’ will never suffice. Because persons are superior, in kind, not only to all things but even to all ideas, I need a person to whom I can give myself and thereby find myself. But not just any person will suffice...The Christian who uses the phrase ‘the mind of Christ’ is not using language in the same way as if he were to speak of the mind of Plato or Marx. We know something of the minds of these men because we can read what they wrote, but we mean something different in reference to Christ. We mean that Christ can be in us, and that His mentality can come to dominate ours. ‘Do you not realize,’ asks Paul, ‘that Jesus Christ is in you?’ (II Corinthians 13:5). Shocking as it sounds, it is really possible for a finite man, as he responds to Christ’s call, to have a measure of the spirit of Christ. The central purpose of the gospel is that Christ may be formed in us (Gal. 4:19) and that He may dwell in our hearts (Ephesians 3:17).
