Christianity & liberalism - Machen - III

Required reading 
Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example) - Read up to the paragraph beginning 'Certainly the Jesus of the Gospels is a real, a living Person.  But that is not the question.  We are going forward far too fast.  Jesus lives in the Gospels...'

My notes and thoughts
Today Machen continues his assertion that Christianity is built on doctrine.  Machen now turns from Paul to show that Jesus also supported doctrine.  Machen is forced to address this, as some Liberals propose rejecting Paul and the early church and going back to Jesus who was supposedly doctrine free: '...if doctrine is to be abandoned Paul must be abandoned; it may now be admitted that if doctrine is to be abandoned, even the primitive Jerusalem Church, with its message of the resurrection, must be abandoned.  But possibly we can still find in Jesus Himself the simple, non-doctrinal religion that we desire.'

But Machen argues that the liberals cannot hide behind such an argument: 'But when He gave an account of the meaning of the event [his death], no matter how brief that account may have been, He was overstepping the line that separates an undogmatic religion, or even a dogmatic religion that teaches only eternal principles, from one that is rooted in the significance of definite historical facts; He was placing a great gulf between Himself and the philosophic modern liberalism which today incorrectly bears His name.'

Even those who claim that they only believe the Jesus as presented in the Sermon on the Mount are defective in their understanding.  'The Sermon on the Mount, rightly interpreted, then, makes man a seeker after some divine means of salvation by which entrance into the Kingdom can be obtained.  Even Moses was too high for us; but before this higher law of Jesus who shall stand without being condemned?  The Sermon on the Mount, like all the rest of the New Testament, really leads a man straight to the foot of the Cross.'  I love that point.  The Sermon on the Mount devoid of the cross can only lead a man to despair - after all, who is able to keep from murdering someone if it includes getting angry with your brother?

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.