Christ Calls us to a New Humanity

Jesus Christ is calling us to a new humanity. His ethic is based in holy love. E. Stanley Jones develops this thought in The Christ of the Mount (1931).

Jones declares the summary thesis of Jesus' call to a new humanity in The Sermon on the Mount: "Reverence for personality is the basis of Jesus' teaching in regard to our duties to man" (p. 132).

Jones says that Jesus "believed that all men were of infinite worth apart from race and birth and color and money and social standing" (p. 133).

Jones speaks profoundly to the American mistreatment of African-Americans through slavery and subsequent segregation. His words may shock and offend, but he declares a call to holiness in human relationships that is thoroughly Christian.

"He that says to his brother 'N-----,' shall be in danger of the council of growing collective judgment, and he who says, 'Thou fool,' shall be in danger of the hell of fire of seeing the Negro surpass him in intellectual and moral character. 'Thou fool' comes back to you with terrific and terrifying force" (p. 137).

"Jesus has been called 'the great believer in man.' The common people heard him gladly because he did not treat them as common people. Three words were constantly upon his lips: the least, the last, and the lost" (p. 139).

"The Christians of the United States, knowing that the Negro has aught against them, should leave their gift before the altar and go and be reconciled with their Negro brother in a a thoroughgoing reconciliation and then come and offer their gift" (p. 140).

"The white races of the world, knowing that the colored races have aught against them for their snobbery and their exclusiveness and contempts, should go and be reconciled to their brother or else be prepared to pay the utmost farthing--a clash of color" (p. 141).

"The acceptability of our giving to God is determined by our way of living with man" (p. 142).

"Religion that gazes at stars while human needs are crying to it for solution will find itself demoted by the collective judgment of mankind. Religion that cannot discharge its moral and social obligations may be kept alive by means of artificial respiration, but not for long" (p. 143).

E. Stanley Jones highlights the reverence of Jesus Christ for all of humanity. Jesus calls us to a new covenant that embraces a new view of human potential through the transforming grace of God at work in our lives. "Reverence for personality is the foundation of the New Humanity" (p. 145).