“The Unaccountable Man” by J. D. Jones

Notes taken from Chapter 2 of Paul’s Certainties by J. D. Jones. This chapter contains the sermon “The Unaccountable Man” The chapter title refers to that moment in Christ’s ministry when he returned to his hometown and the people began to wonder, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” (Matthew 13:54).

“The impression produced by Jesus upon the Nazarenes was exactly the same impression as that produced by Him wherever He went. He struck every one as an extraordinary, unique, unaccountable Man.”

“Starting from the purely human standpoint, Christ is to this day the world’s unaccountable Man. Every one else can be explained and accounted for, but Christ remains the mystery and marvel of the world.”

“Christ refuses to be classed, and cannot be accounted for as you account for ordinary men.”

“The world has been blessed with many great and wise teachers. I will give the name ’ prophet ’ not simply to Mahomet ; I will give it to the great sages of the East, Confucius and Buddha ; I will give it to the great philosophers of Greece, Socrates and Plato. But when men class Jesus Christ as a teacher with Socrates, they are simply ignoring and glossing over the facts.»

“Christ’s words to this day embody our highest ideas of wisdom. To them men turn as the one and only rule of conduct. Not one jot or tittle of them has grown obsolete or out of date. There they stand, so charged with Divinest wisdom, that even a skeptic like John Stuart Mill admits that he knows no better way of attaining to a noble character than by so living as that Jesus shall approve the life.”

“In all the world’s literature I can find no record of any one taking upon himself to do what Jesus did. Other sages argue to their conclusions—Jesus issues laws. Others suggest—Jesus commands.”

“Since the world began it was never heard that a man was ’saved’ by Plato or by Socrates. But there are ten thousand times ten thousand ready to affirm they have been ’saved’ by Jesus Christ.”

“There is but one way of accounting for Jesus Christ, for His wisdom, His authority, His mighty works, and that is by  accepting the verdict of the Church throughout the centuries, that in Jesus we have the only begotten Son of God, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God. That explains everything.”

“People tell me that it is hard to believe in the divinity of Christ ; it is harder still not to believe in it.”

“And if Christ be divine, what is your attitude towards Him?»