The Divine Response
by James B Chapman
Chapter 6 - The Hand That Reaches Down
We of the Occident are accustomed to plain, unadorned speech, but in the Orient,
metaphors and pictures are used very liberally. It was therefore no matter of surprise to a little
group of Chinese Christians when one who had lived among them all his life, and who had never
traveled away from his own community, stood up and gave his testimony as follows:
"I found myself down in a deep pit, in the slime and mud at its bottom. My distress was
great, my plight was terrible, and the more I struggled, the deeper I sank in the mire. Then there
came one who stood on the solid ground above the pit, looked down upon me with unpitying eyes,
and said, 'The very fact that you are in trouble proves that you are a sinner. They who sin must
suffer, and the only virtue is in one's suffering without complaint. If in time you suffer the full
demerit of your sins, you may find a way out of this pit. But until then, there is nothing that can be
done for you, and nothing that should be done.' I recognized this as the voice of Mohammed, the
false prophet, and his words brought me no relief.
"But in time, the emissary of salvation by merit went his way, and in his place another
stood. This one looked down upon me, and said, 'Your trouble arises from your struggling. The
way to deliverance is the way of the renunciation of self. If you will quit struggling and just settle
down to your fate, you will become less and less miserable as you become less and less
contentious. In time you will be absorbed back into the great All-being, and then you won t be
unhappy any more because, as an individual, you will cease to exist. Salvation is by the way of
annihilation.' This I. recognized was the voice of Buddha, and neither did his words bring me any
help or any deliverance.
"By and by the prophet of Buddha went his way, and another came and stood on the solid
ground above me. This one looked upon me with eyes that were full of pity and compassion. There
were thorn wounds on His brow, blood and spittle on His face, marks of nails in His hands and
feet; and when the breeze blew His garment aside, I beheld the place where a spear had pierced
His side. I recognized this one as Jesus Christ. In measured words, and with gentle tones, He
called to me, 'Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' But to
me in the pit, these seemed but the words of one who mocks. So I made reply, 'Ah, yes, you
promise me rest if I come to you. But Thou art up there on the solid ground and I am here in this
muddy pit. You promise rest, if I will come; but seeing I cannot come, your promise means nothing
to me.' To indicate further the hopelessness of my plight, I reached up the hand in the direction of
the much-scarred One, even though I knew He was far beyond my reach. But to my surprise and
delight, He reached down and grasped my outstretched hand, and gently drew me from the mire
and the pit to a place right by His side. Immediately there crept into my soul such peace as I had
never known before. When I thought of my filthy garments, I thought of them with shame in the
presence of One so pure as He. But when I looked, my old garments had disappeared, and in their
stead I found myself clothed with linen pure and white. And that is how I became a Christian and
why I am one today."
May we not all recall the words of Paul in connection with this wonderful picture? "And
what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It is the hand of God in
Christ reaching down that splices out our reach sufficiently to bring about that touch that
transforms. It is not in any sense the merit of our reach that saves, but still our reach is a condition.
It is the hand that reaches down that lifts us up. "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we
should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:8-10).
