Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

His Deity and Incarnation.

“But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:2).

“Christ, who is over all, GOD BLESSED FOR EVER. Amen” (Romans 9:5).

“Fairer than all the earth-born race,
   Perfect in comeliness Thou art;
 Replenished are Thy lips with grace
   And full of love Thy tender heart.
 God ever blest, we bow the knee
   And own all fulness dwells in Thee.” (C. Wesley.)

“Lord of the heavens, Sovereign, Son for ever!
 Lord of the earth, Creator, Increate!
 Come in the likeness of our flesh, but never
 Tarnished by taint of sin, inviolate.
 Come to destroy the power of death, and sever
 Man from its terror in His mercy great;
 O let us kneel before Him! let us own Him
 King of our hearts, and on that throne enthrone Him.” (J. Boyd.)

Emmanuel.

God’s Sign to Men

“The Lord himself shall give you a sign; behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).

The condition of the nation of Israel as it was in Isaiah’s day is described in one vivid statement; “The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head there is no soundness in it: but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” History is repeating itself, and the state of humanity could not be more truly described to-day. As it was then, so it is now. The profiteer was busy (Isaiah 5:8); men and women piped and danced, eagerly following their pagan pleasure without a thought of God, or fear of His just judgments (Isaiah 5:11-12); crime abounded, for men had grown fearless in their godlessness, and gave rein to their wilful passions, sinning “as it were with a cart rope” (Isaiah 5:18); blinded by the god of this world, they called evil good, and good evil; they put darkness for light, and light for darkness; bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter (Isaiah 5:20), which thing the advocates of spiritism are doing to-day; men thought themselves wiser than God: wise and prudent in their own eyes, like those who dare to criticize His Word, and substitute their own thoughts for His (Isaiah 5:21); and there were those who were so corrupt themselves that their whole business in life was to corrupt others, hating all righteousness and loving only wickedness (Isaiah 5:23-24).

There were reformers without end; reconstructors; politicians with many promises of better days to come, until men were weary of them; there was a great pretence at honouring God, but the heart was far from Him; and God Himself was weary of their pretentious hypocrisy (Isaiah 7:13). Then it was that He proclaimed that He would intervene; for it was evident that apart from His intervention there could be no blessing or rest for men, or glory to His name from men.

God’s intervention was to be entirely of Himself: men were to have no part in it at all, except to receive the good that would result from it. Men cried out for a man, and still cry out for a man, and God replied, I will give you a Man, but He shall be one who owes nothing to man, whose very presence in the world shall be independent of man, for “a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son.” This was the sign. It was the sign of man’s utter impotency for his own redemption; it was the sign that there was no balm in Gilead, and no physician there. It was the sign that when there was no hope for men in themselves then God would undertake their cause; but it was also the sign that this should proceed from Himself alone and not from men — “a virgin shall conceive.” Impossible! cries the critic of God’s ways, and the poor blind infidel, wise in his own sight. Yes, it is impossible with men; that is the very lesson that God would teach by the manner of His intervention. It is impossible that men should devise or evolve any scheme or system of redemption, or deliver and uplift themselves from the damning effects of sin, or make themselves what they ought to be before the God who justly claims their fear. Their young men might see visions and their old men dream dreams, but dreams and visions cannot help them; they cannot set themselves free from the law of sin and death. With men it is impossible, but not with God.

He stepped into the scene of man’s utter ruin, and said, “Stand still, stand aside, and see the salvation of God”: and so in due time, Mary brought forth her firstborn Son, and he [Joseph] called His name JESUS.

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise; When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take to thee Mary thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS; for He shall save His people from their sins.”

“Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew 1:22-23).

“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. And the angel said to them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign to you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even to Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger” (Luke 2:8-16).

Thus came Emmanuel, not only apart from all the power of men, but also outside the abodes of men, lying in a manger. For the solemn fact had to come clearly into evidence, that (1) men could not produce the great Redeemer, in whom only rest for men and glory to God could be found, but (2) they did not want Him when He came.

Yes, but the virgin’s Son, lying upon the straw of a stable, was Emmanuel — God with us. He was “God manifest in the flesh, seen of angels” (1 Timothy 3:16). And from the lips of God went forth the command, “Let all the angels of God worship Him” (Hebrews 1:6).

Angels worshipped Him, but men were indifferent. Only a few, such as those dusky sages from the far off East and the lowly shepherds from the hills near by, were moved by this great event. The blind unbelief of the multitude could not recognize the sign that God had given; Emmanuel was no more to them than “the carpenter’s son,” and they were as good or better than He.

“He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came to His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:10-11).

God saw the contempt with which His Only Begotten was treated and spoke out from His eternal throne in consequence: “I will declare the decree,” we read; “the Lord has said to me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession” (Psalm 2:7-8).

But not then did He ask for the universal throne; or power to break the rebellious with a rod of iron; instead He dwelt among men full of grace. Emmanuel had come to reconcile the world to God, but His mission seemed to be a failure. He appeared in Jerusalem which He loved, riding upon the colt of an ass, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughters of Sion, Behold, thy King comes to thee, meek, and sitting on an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass” (Matthew 21). But that city, grown hoary in its presumptuous pride, despised the meekness of its true Messiah, and asked contemptuously, Who is this? Then He said, “I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought.” And the Lord, whose servant He had come to be, answered Him, for we read: “And now, says the Lord that formed me from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob again to Him, Though Israel be not gathered yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And He said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be My salvation to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:5-6).

And Israel will answer, too, in the day of His power, and will say: “Unto us a child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this” (Isaiah 9:6-7).

And the nations also shall own Him. “And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:3-4). His degradation by men was absolute; He sounded the depths of contumely and shame; but His glory will be as great as His humiliation, and every man that is saved will owe it to Him, for “there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” Every problem will be settled by His wisdom, every wrong righted, and the groaning creation shall reach the end of its travail and rejoice in the power and presence of EMMANUEL.

God with us.

As Moses kept the sheep of Jethro, the Midianite, in the back side of the desert, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God, and there he beheld a strange thing. Upon the rugged sides of that notable mountain there burned a bush with fire, but in spite of the fierce flames that enwrapped it that bush was not consumed. Wonder at this great sight moved Moses to turn aside to discover why this should be, when the voice of God arrested him, and he found that he was in the immediate presence of the great I AM.

Out of that bush God spoke to Moses, and told him of salvation for His people — free, great, and full. He revealed Himself as the Almighty Deliverer.

The rationalistic critic declares that for a bush to burn with fire and not be consumed is a physical impossibility, and so relegates this story, along with many another in Holy Writ, to the realm of legend and myth. But that which moves to ridicule the blind but presumptuous “wise and prudent” of the earth yields the most precious lessons to those who love God and His Word. In that burning bush there was foreshadowed the most extraordinary event that could happen in the history of time.

The flame of fire tells us of God; “For our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). And the bush tells us of men, poor, sinful rebellious men — dry, withered, and useless, by whom no fruit was yielded to God. If God, who is a consuming fire, and who must judge all iniquity, should at any time come down into the midst of the dry and fruitless bush of humanity (and He has a right to do this whenever He pleases), what shall the result be? Why, there can be but one result, we should say; the bush will be consumed. Such is the natural thought of men, and hence the desire to keep God at a distance. And in this thought we seem to be confirmed as we read the record of Sinai. There at that awesome mount, the same at which Moses had had his first interview with God, the law of God was given, and out from its cloud crested summit the lightnings flamed forth, and the thunders boomed and rolled, and as God spoke to the people they feared exceedingly and begged that they might not hear that majestic voice again, but that Moses would become a mediator for them.

Yes, it would seem to us, as we contemplate that sight, that men must be consumed if God comes into the midst of them. But such a thought is false, fundamentally and absolutely false, for God who is light is also love, as His “due time” has proved.

That due time arrived when the virgin daughter of David’s royal house brought forth her firstborn Son and “laid Him in a manger, because there was no room in the inn.” Here was a sight for the angels of God, a sight that moved the whole multitude of them to rapturous praise, for the name of that Babe was called EMMANUEL, which, being interpreted, is, “God with us.” The Babe in Bethlehem’s manger was the great antitype of the burning bush. “God was manifest in the flesh and seen of angels.” God was in the midst of men and they were not consumed.

But for what purpose was God in the midst of men? There could be only one reason for this great event. If He had desired to send some message of warning, entreaty, or command, a servant like to the prophets would have served the purpose, for at sundry times and in divers manners He thus addressed the fathers of old. If He had intended to make an example of sinners by executing His righteous judgment against them for their sins, an angel or two would have sufficed, as in the case of the guilty cities of the plain. But neither men nor angels would do for the purpose and will of God which was now to be unfolded; only Emmanuel, who came, saying, “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God.” When Emmanuel appears, men and angels stand aside, for every ear must be attentive to Him, for He comes to declare and bring to pass the intentions of divine and infinite love. “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world: but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17).

If sinners were to be saved God must come down to them to do it, and if God comes down to sinners He must come as their Saviour: His very nature demands this, and His wisdom has found a way by which it can be done, according to the righteousness of the eternal throne.

So Emmanuel’s name is JESUS. Blessed, precious name! Name of reproach and shame on earth, name of ignominy upon the cross, name above every name in heaven above, name that through endless ages shall thrill a universe with gladness, and blend in harmonious praise the joy of every creature within the limitless extent of the realm of the Redeemer-God.
“Sweetest Name on mortal tongue,
  Sweetest carol ever sung,
  Sweetest note on seraph song —
  Jesus! Jesus! JESUS!”

The world opened a stable door to receive Him, and thus advertised its contempt and hatred of Him, but He accepted in infinite meekness the place they assigned to Him, that He might open out before the eyes of the poorest and the least the priceless treasures of divine compassion and love.

And so He moved through this world “seen of angels”: they rejoiced in that goodness which dwelt in Him; the goodness of God by which He overcomes evil, even though men upon whom it flowed forth did not appreciate it. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, dried the tears upon the widow’s cheeks, kissed the children into the kingdom of God, and preached the gospel to the poor. God had visited men, for “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19).

This is a great sight for us to turn aside and see, greater than that which Moses saw, as the substance is greater than the shadow. And in the presence of God made known to us, and brought nigh to us in Jesus, our souls can stay without a fear, (and not as Moses, who “hid his face and was afraid to look upon God,”) for “GOD IS LOVE.”

“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).

“WE LOVE HIM, BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US” (1 John 4:19).

“He Dwelt among us”

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us … full of grace and truth.” — (John 1:14.)

What an amazing fact is revealed to us in this short sentence. He who WAS when time was not, at whose fiat the pendulum of time began to swing, who set all the forces of nature into motion, and made the universe pulsate with life: Who is Himself personally the exact expression of the infinite thoughts and eternal glory of the Godhead — the ever-existing Word — He became flesh and dwelt among us, taking part in flesh and blood that He might come near to us without making us afraid: it is this that fills the souls of those who have received Him with wonder and worship.

He did not come as a king might come to visit His subjects in their cottage homes, speaking a kindly word to them, and then passing on and forgetting them; He dwelt among us. There was no aloofness about Him: He entered into the circumstances of life: He entered into the joys and sorrows of men, as well as into their houses. He came near to them, became infinitely accessible to even the poorest and the worst. He dwelt among us full of grace and truth.

We say with deepest reverence that He took men as He found them: He demanded no special treatment from them: He was full of compassion for their sorrows, He did not grow impatient at their ignorance and weakness, nor condemn them for their sins.

He was ready to set the TRUTH before a man of the Pharisees when he came to Him, and was so full of GRACE that He did not rebuke the cowardice that made him creep out in the darkness for that memorable interview.

His GRACE took Him to Sychar’s well to talk with a lonely and tired sinner there, and He poured the TRUTH into her soul so abundantly that she returned to her city a new creature, with Himself as her absorbing theme. And mark well His way in that story. The distance was great to where that solitary sinner sighed and sorrowed, yet no camel or ass bore him over the weary miles, for He was a poor man: He must take that journey, every step of it, on foot: and tired and hungry and thirsty He met her — met her as one wayfarer would meet another — and talked with her so gently that she felt neither restraint nor fear in His presence. How truly He “dwelt among us,” and how full of grace and truth was He in that dwelling: for let not His lowliness and the poverty of His circumstances, and the way in which He “dwelt among us,” hide from our souls the glory of His person. He was “THE WORD,” “THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON IN THE BOSOM OF THE FATHER.”

What a never-failing, ever-growing charm this Gospel of Gospels — the Gospel of the incarnate Word — has for our souls! How infinite are the heights in which it takes its rise, how deep are the depths into which it flows. Grace and truth are there in Him who dwelt among us, while He still dwelt in the bosom of the Father as the only begotten Son. He has brought the love of that bosom to us, and revealed it, not as something to be admired on the sabbath day in the temple, but as that which would labour seven days in the week, seeking no rest, in order to relieve the needs of men and fill their souls with joy. And TRUTH was in Him — He came from the highest height of God’s glory to reveal it; and GRACE also — He stooped to the deepest depth of our need to meet it; and He has filled the immeasurable distance between the height and the depth with the light of God’s love.

That which He declared here abides for us. What He was He is, and what He was the Father is: for He said, “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” How infinitely attractive to our souls has the Father become since He has been revealed to us so blessedly in JESUS, who dwelt among us.

“My Lord and my God”

“And after eight days, again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said Peace be to you.

“Then says He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side; and be not faithless, but believing.

“And Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and My God.

“Jesus says to him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” (John 20:26-29.)

The Unitarian objects to this incident being advanced as evidence of the Deity of our Lord. He contends that Thomas was an admiring enthusiast, and an Eastern withal, having a tendency towards the picturesque and the exaggerated in his speech, and that on this occasion he was betrayed by his feelings into saying what was outside the truth.

That this is an ill-considered conclusion is evident from the insight into the character of Thomas, which the brief record of him in the Scriptures gives us. That his affection for his Master was not less than that of the other disciples is proved in John 11:16, but that he was not of an hysterical or credulous nature is equally proved by John 20:25. When his brethren — and there were ten of them — declared to him that they had seen the Lord, he met them with obstinate unbelief, and looked upon them as a band of visionaries. His cold, hard reason kept a tight rein upon his fervour, and his answer to their glad news might have been framed upon the lips of a modern rationalist. “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I WILL NOT BELIEVE.”

As to faith and training he was a Jew, believing in one all-transcendent God, and to address a mere man as God would have been in his eyes a most heinous sin, a sin of which a devout Jew would be morally incapable. For proof of this take the case of Daniel, who chose to face the lions rather than perform an act which would, by inference, ascribe an attribute of Deity to a man. It was not the impulsive Peter, but this man, naturally stubborn and unimaginative, and religiously a stern monotheist, who was convinced as to who his Master really was, and his confession of the truth of this drew forth no rebuke. Instead, his faith was confirmed by the Lord’s reply “Because thou hast seen THOU HAST BELIEVED.”

It is remarkable that the Spirit of God has placed it on record that homage was offered by men to both Peter and Paul, and that they both immediately and vehemently restrained it. “Stand up: I myself also am a man,” was Peter’s command to Cornelius when that centurion prostrated himself at his feet (Acts 10:26). And when the people of Lystra brought sacrifices to offer to Barnabas and Paul, they, Barnabas and Paul, “rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you” (Acts 14:11-15). These were true men, and they would not permit any to think that they were more than men, nor would they, even for a moment, accept adoration, which was God’s alone. From these incidents in the lives of His servants we are taught by inference that Jesus was God when He accepted the adoration of Thomas: if not, what was He? Let the objectors supply the answer.

There is another incident in the Acts of the Apostles that might be well cited by way of contrast in this connection. “And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon. … And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration to them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. AND IMMEDIATELY THE ANGEL OF THE LORD SMOTE HIM, because he gave not God the glory; and he was eaten with worms, and gave up the ghost” (Acts 12:20-23). In his presumptuous and impious pride he accepted the adoration of the people, and immediately he was stricken by the stroke of a just and jealous God, his glory fled away, and he went down to the grave a loathsome mass of putrefaction. But Jesus, whom Thomas worshipped, was carried up into heaven, for we read that He led out His disciples “as far as to Bethany, and He lifted up His hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. AND THEY WORSHIPPED HIM, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God” (Luke 24:50-53).

It is John, who had been restrained from worshipping an angel (Revelation 22:8-9), who records the meeting of Thomas with his Master, and what a meeting it must have been. It seems as though it was for Thomas alone, for twice did his Lord address him by name. He discovered that the very thoughts of his heart were all read by the all-seeing eye of the Lord, and the wounds which he beheld in that incorruptible flesh were to him mute though eloquent witnesses to the fact that He was the One who had laid down His life but who also had taken it again. The scales fell from his eyes, his heart threw off its infidelity, the glory of the Only Begotten was no longer veiled from him, and as his soul was drawn out of the winter of his unbelief, he voiced the worship of his brethren in those true and memorable words, “MY LORD AND MY GOD.”

This meeting with Thomas is typical of the time, still to come, when the Lord will show Himself to the remnant of His people Israel, and when they shall say to Him, “What are these wounds in Thine hands?” (Zechariah 13:6). And as they look upon Him, they, as did Thomas, will recognize Him, and will cry, “Lo, this is our GOD: we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is the LORD: we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation” (Isaiah 25:9). They will believe when they see Him, but “BLESSED ARE THEY THAT HAVE NOT SEEN, AND YET HAVE BELIEVED.”

The Light and the Truth

“O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me to Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles. Then will I go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.” — (Psalm 43.)

Thus cried the Psalmist as his soul panted after God, and God has answered his cry. He had purposed to do so before time began, and that every one who sought Him might find their full joy in Him, and that in a way that never could have entered into any human mind. The way He has done it is told out in the gospel of John the Apostle: where we see the height from which the light and the truth have come, the greatness of the One who was sent forth to be both: the depths of shame into which He went to save us, and the triumphant way in which He leads us, not to God’s altars merely, but to His very home and heart. In John 1 we learn THE GLORY OF HIS PERSON, who said, “I am the light,” and “I am the … truth.”
“In the beginning was the Word” — HIS ETERNAL EXISTENCE.
“And the Word was with God” — HIS DISTINCT PERSONALITY.
“And the Word was God” — HIS PERSONAL DEITY.
“The same was in the beginning with God” — HIS ETERNAL COMPANIONSHIP WITH, BUT DISTINCTION FROM, THE FATHER.

The Word brings Him before us as the One in whom the wisdom of God’s infinite mind has found personal expression: hence we read of Him, —
“All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made” —

HIS CREATIVE WISDOM AND POWER.

Thus is the eternal glory of His Person told, and thus John introduces Him to our faith and adoration. Augustine wrote, “John, deservedly compared to an eagle, has opened his treatise as it were with a peal of thunder: he has raised himself not merely above earth and the whole compass of the air and heaven, but even above every angel host and every order of the invisible powers, and has reached even to Him by whom all things were made, in that sentence, In the beginning was the Word.’”

From the glory of His Person, He proceeds to THE GREATNESS OF HIS CONDESCENSION.
“The Word was made flesh” (verse 14) — HIS REAL AND PERSONAL INCARNATION.
“And dwelt among us” — HIS ENTRANCE AS MAN INTO ALL THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF MANHOOD.
“Full of grace and truth” — HIS SUITABILITY TO ALL THAT MEN ARE WITHOUT COMPROMISING WHAT GOD IS.

And in connection with His coming to tabernacle among us, a fresh glory bursts upon our vision: one that creatorial power could not reveal: one that never would have been revealed at all had it not been for the great purpose that was in the heart of the Father in sending Him forth.
And we beheld His glory, the glory as of “the only-begotten of the Father” — HIS UNCHANGING RELATIONSHIP IN LOVE, AND ONENESS IN NATURE WITH THE FATHER.

An able and reverent writer has said; “His was the glory of the only-begotten, come fresh from the splendour of uncreated light. Every idea but that of pure Sovereign Deity in this part of the argument is trifling and profane.”

The same writer, speaking of this wonderful epithet, “Only Begotten Son,” said; “When the evangelist would affirm the perfect and eternal intimacy and union between the glorious Persons in the Godhead, and the unspeakable and infinite endearment of our Lord to the Father: when he would convey the loftiest possible idea of the majesty of evangelical truth: when he would impress the minds of his readers with a deep sense at once of the inscrutableness of the Divine nature, and the certainty of the manifestations of God in Christ, he declares; ‘No man’ (nemo), no being of created mould, ‘has seen God at any time; THE ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON, who exists in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him’ (ver. 18): when, again, he would illustrate the benevolence of God with the highest splendour, he says, ‘In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that GOD SENT HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON into the world, that we might live through Him.’ And, finally, when our Lord would represent unbelief as the last extreme of human guilt, He finds no stronger argument than that conveyed in this appellation, ‘He that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the NAME OF THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD.’”

We pass from the glory of His person and the greatness of His condescension to the PERFECTION OF HIS LIFE.
“I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do” (17:4) — HIS ABSOLUTE DEVOTION TO THE WILL OF GOD.
“I am the light of the world: he that follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (8:12) — HIS PERFECT MANIFESTATION OF GOD, THE ONLY SOURCE OF LIFE AND LIGHT FOR MEN.
“Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them to the end” (13:1) — HIS UNCHANGING LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS TO THOSE WHOM HE HAD CHOSEN OUT OF THE WORLD.

How great the blessing that comes from the consideration of the fulness of light and truth in the lowly life of this glorious Person: of His suitability to meet the condition and need of every sinner whom He sought: of His patience toward their ignorance: His sympathy toward their sorrows: His mercy toward their sicknesses, and His grace toward their sins. What witness to His fulness is borne by Nicodemus, the Sychar sinner, the Bethesda cripple, the storm-tossed disciples, the hungry multitude, the guilty adulteress, the blind beggar, the stricken Bethany sisters, and all who were not too utterly blinded by their love for their own evil deeds to behold His glory. It was thus amid weariness and hunger and thirst, despised and rejected by men, that He laboured amongst them that the Father’s heart might be made known, His words declared, and His works performed: and He that has seen Him “has seen the Father.” He is the light and He is the truth.

HIS SUFFERING AND THE SHAME THAT MEN PUT UPON HIM.
“And one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand” (John 18:22).
“Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber” (verse 40).
“Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged Him” (19:1).
“And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe. And said, Hail, King of the Jews! and they smote Him with their hands” (verse 2).
“They cried out, Away with him, crucify him” (verse 6).
“Then delivered he Him therefore to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus, and led Him away” (verses 15, 16).

Thus He, whose glory the Gospel unfolds before us, was smitten, scourged, mocked, buffeted, execrated, and crucified.

Along this path of sorrow and shame the Man of sorrows trod His stedfast way to accomplish the will of God. Rising up above all the contumely and the hatred wherewith the men, whose very breath was His, hated Him, He took up the question of God’s glory in regard to sin, and became the bearer of it.

HIS GREAT SACRIFICE.

“And He bearing His cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha” (19:17).

He upholds “all things by the word of His power,” we learn from Hebrews 1:3: but heavier than the universe was the burden that He carried that day, for then and there He was “THE LAMB OF GOD WHICH BEARETH AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD.”

“They crucified Him and two other with Him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst” (verse 18).

“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, IT IS FINISHED: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost.”

How incomparable the dignity of the holy Sufferer amid the shame of that cross! How triumphant that word ere He gave up His life! The will of God accomplished: the prince of this world utterly confounded: the great sacrifice made that would fill the universe with the glory of the light and the truth that He went even into death to fully manifest.

One more passage from this most solemn chapter we must quote: —

“One of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water” (verse 34).

The last act of man’s hatred brought out the love of God in all its fulness.
“The very spear that pierced His side
  Drew forth the blood to save.”

And now through the infinite, eternal, and ever-abiding efficacy of that blood, we are in the light, i.e., we are brought to full revelation of what God is that our joy may be full. “If we walk in the light, as He is IN THE LIGHT, we have fellowship one with another” (IN THE TRUTH). And the never-failing basis of both is “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

As we consider the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are not surprised at anything that may flow therefrom. We are assured that God must have had some great purpose in sending Him forth, and in this we find that we are not deceived, for when risen from the dead the Lord sends this message to His disciples; “Go to MY BRETHREN and say to them, I ascend to MY FATHER AND YOUR FATHER, TO MY GOD AND YOUR GOD.” He has brethren now, to whom He can declare His Father’s name, and lead them, not to a Jewish altar upon which smokes an impotent sacrifice, but having Himself sanctified them for ever by His one offering, He leads them to the Father that they may worship Him in spirit and in truth. We accept in deep humility this place and relationship which eternal love first planned, and then made possible, and while we find our joy in fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ, we own Him who leads us into it as our Lord and our God.

What the Gospels Prove

It is asserted by some who hate the truth that Jesus is the Son in the Godhead, that the Gospel of John alone declares it. This is false: the fact is stated very definitely in the other Gospels, but what is even more arresting and equally convincing is that this great truth is woven into the very texture of them all. Just as the gold was woven with the blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen into the ephod of the High Priest (Ex. 28), and could not be separated from it without destroying the whole fabric, so the Gospels must be reduced to torn and meaningless shreds if there is taken out of them the words and works in which the Deity of Jesus shows itself. To take this away is to tear the sun from the spiritual heavens, and to take away His true humanity is to rob us of the atmosphere by which the light of the sun reaches us.

The Gospel of Matthew opens with — “Jesus Christ the Son of David, the Son of Abraham,” but before we reach the end of the chapter we read, “His Name shall be called EMMANUEL, which being interpreted is, GOD WITH US” (verse 32).

“Thou shalt call His Name JESUS,” said the angel of the Lord to Joseph when explaining to him that the child that Mary would bring forth was conceived of the Holy Ghost. And this name is of infinite preciousness to us because it is His personal, human name: the name which tells us of His grace and tenderness, His lowly life, His sorrow, and His death: but this name also carries with it divine glory, for it signifies JEHOVAH THE SAVIOUR. Yes, the very name of His humiliation, that which was written in derision on His cross, declares to us the greatness of His person and the love of His heart: He is Jehovah the Saviour.

This name of eternal sweetness to all who believe, was given to Him because He would “save His people from their sins.” They were “His people.” The great I AM THAT I AM who spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, and sent him to deliver Israel, His people, from Egyptian slavery, had appeared Himself to deliver them from a greater bondage. He had come to lead them into a more glorious liberty with an outstretched arm of power: but He had come in this lowly form so that they might not be afraid of Him: He had come to be the Lamb of God: the Son of Man lifted up: to suffer for their sins: and finally to take from their hearts that strange perversity that made them hug their chains and prefer their misery and bondage to God’s mercy and care. He must be wilfully blind who does not see that He must be Divine and yet a man, a man who must Himself be sinless if He was to save others from their sins, a Divine Person having life in Himself if He was to impart life to others and bring them out of the bondage of death.

The wise men came saying, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him.” Did ever a star in the heavens flame forth at the birth of a child either before or since? These princes brought their gifts, gifts such as nobles from afar would bring to a king, but “when they saw the young child with Mary His mother,” they recognized first His divine glory and they “fell down and worshipped Him.” Then they acknowledged His kingship and brought out their gifts; gold and frankincense and myrrh. They worshipped God and gave gifts to the King. How great is this mystery of love! The One “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting,” who was “to be Ruler in Israel,” had come forth out of Bethlehem Ephratah (Micah 5:2), but in such meek and lowly form that the world passed heedlessly by, yet to the anointed eye His glory shone: the glory of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

In the Holy-Ghost-inspired record “the young child” always has the precedence of His mother. Five times in chapter 2 we read of “the young child and His mother,” in striking contrast to that blasphemous system, Rome, which paints her pictures of “Madonna and Child.” But had He not been greater than the mother that bare Him, the Spirit of God would not have thus given Him the precedence, for He it was who founded the law which said, “Honour thy father and mother”: and it may be here remarked (though this belongs to Luke’s Gospel and not Matthew’s), that when the aged Simeon came into the temple and took “the child Jesus” in his arms, recognizing in Him “God’s salvation,” he blessed Joseph and His mother, not the child Jesus (Luke 2:34). Had Jesus been as those other children gathered in the temple that day, what more natural than that Simeon should have blessed Him? But this could not be, for the lesser cannot thus bless the greater.

It will be noticed that whenever the angel of the Lord addresses Joseph, who, being the husband of Mary, was the young child’s legal guardian, he never makes the mistake of calling Jesus “thy son.” The people make this mistake, and their mistake is recorded for us in Luke 4, but the Scriptures guard this matter with the utmost care, and in this connection the prophetic word is quoted regarding the sojourn in Egypt; “Out of Egypt have I called MY SON.” Turning aside to Luke’s Gospel again, it is important to notice that when Mary, only dimly recognizing who He was, or forgetting it for the moment, seemed to question His loyalty and obedience to Joseph and to her, saying, “Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing,” He replied at once, “wist ye not that I must be about MY FATHER’S business” (Luke 2:49).

It has been said by some who will seek out any subterfuge to break down the truth that Jesus is not of the first man, who came out of the dust, and sinned, and goes back to the dust again from which he came, but is the Second Man, the Lord out of heaven, that He did not realize His Sonship to the Father until His baptism. This passage exposes that falsehood, and shows us clearly that as He emerged into a responsible age the Lord knew who He was, from whom He came, and what His business was. The fact that He was the Son of the Father was publicly declared from heaven by the Father’s voice at His baptism ( Luke 3:17), where for the first time the truth of the Trinity appears.

The prophets of old had come before the people with “Thus says the Lord” on their lips, for in times past, and in divers manners, God spoke to the fathers thus: but in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus stood forth and said, “I SAY UNTO YOU,” and those who heard Him were astonished at His doctrine, for He taught them as One having authority (Luke 7:29). This authority was the authority of the Lord, for this He declares Himself to be, having power to exclude from the kingdom of heaven all those who do not do the will of His Father which is in heaven. See how intimately He connects the kingdom of heaven with Himself. Some whose lips had owned Him, but whose hearts had not yielded to His Father’s will, will desire to enter that kingdom: He will say to them, “Depart from ME”: and He will say this, as being able to look behind the profession and all that is external, and read the heart, which none but God can do (Luke 7:21).

Later on in the Gospel He stretches out His hands to mankind and cries, “Come to Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Luke 11:28). He knew the miseries, the burdens, the toilings, and the sins of the world: every groan and sigh and tear He noticed, and knowing all, He proposed to relieve all. What man, however mighty in influence, great in intellect, or broad in his sympathies, would dare to make such an appeal as that to men? But Jesus made it, and still makes it: and a countless host of ransomed saints will bear eternal witness to the fact that His deed is as good as His word. The Speaker is the Son, eternal, infinite, omnipotent: the mighty Creator who opens His hand and satisfies the needs of every living thing: the fountain of life and of mercy whose compassions fail not: hence He is able, being in Himself sufficient for the whole creation and every man within it, to remove every burden from every human soul and satisfy every craving within every one of them.

He is the Son into whose hands the Father has delivered all things, whom only the Father knows, and who knows the Father and reveals Him to whomsoever He will ( Luke 11:27). He showed Himself to be the Master of the elements when He rebuked the winds and the waves and hushed their raging to a great calm (Luke 9:26): He had power on earth to forgive sins, which is God’s prerogative (Luke 9:6). He claimed the absolute allegiance of the hearts of His disciples, before father or mother or son or daughter, which only God can claim (Luke 10:37). He declared Himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath (Luke 12:8), plainly indicating that though the Son of Man, He was the One who had ordained the Sabbath for His people. As Creator of the abundance of earth and sea, He multiplied the five loaves and two fishes so that a multitude were fed to satisfaction, and twelve basketfuls remained ( Luke 14:15-21). He walked triumphantly upon the heaving waves at midnight, and by his power enabled His servant Peter to do the same ( Luke 14:25-31). He unmasked the Pharisees by the question of all questions. “What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He?” “The Son of David,” was their ready reply. Then He quoted the Scriptures which they knew so well. “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” He asked, “If David, then, call Him Lord, How is he His Son?” They were silenced, for they had no answer to this great mystery. The whole Gospel of Matthew is the answer to the question: and we glory in the knowledge of this great mystery: the Son of David and Son of Man is the Son of God, and though His enemies refused His rights as David’s Son, He has been raised up and made Lord of all. He sits at the right hand of God on God’s very throne, and none but God could do that: and He is coming back again to the very place where His enemies cast Him out of His inheritance. He is coming back as the root and offspring of David, David’s Lord and David’s Son.

The Gospel closes with His place in the Godhead fully declared, for all nations are to be baptised in the Name (not “the names,” the word is in the singular) of THE FATHER AND THE SON AND THE HOLY GHOST.

Finally, when the dispensations of time have served their purpose and run their course, and God shall dwell with men in a redeemed creation, every intelligent creature will rejoice in a Triune God fully revealed —
as FATHER, the source of all blessing for men:
and SON, the One who brought the blessing to men:
and HOLY GHOST, who by His power makes the blessing good in men:
“THAT GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL.”

The Necessity of the Deity of Jesus

The necessity of the Deity of Jesus meets us first in relation to men being brought to God in righteousness, for no purpose of God in regard to them could be realized if they were not brought to Him righteously, and established before Him according to His eternal justice and the holiness of His nature. How could this be done, and who was able to do it? The question is not a new one. It was asked by Job long centuries ago when he cried, “How should man be just with God?” (Job 9:2). And the question was not one of passing interest, that engaged his attention for a moment merely; it received his most earnest consideration, for he realized how vital a question it was. In the ninth chapter of his book we find him testing one by one the suggestions that arose in regard to it, and finally, apparently hopeless of finding an answer, breaking out in that soul-stirring lament, “HE IS NOT A MAN AS I AM, that I should answer Him, and we should come together in judgment. NEITHER IS THERE ANY DAYSMAN BETWIXT US, THAT MIGHT LAY HIS HAND UPON US BOTH. Let Him take His rod away from me, and let not His fear terrify me; then would I speak and not fear Him: but it is not so with me.”

Do you perceive where he stood, and can you interpret his feelings? He said in effect: “I know that I have sinned against Him, and if He were a man as I am, I could, having the feelings of a man, understand His displeasure: I could estimate the extent of my offence, and I could go to Him and make restitution for the wrong that I have done, and so be at peace with Him. But He is not a man as I am, and I cannot enter into judgment with Him. I do not know where to begin the argument, and I cannot measure the demands of His justice. I have no ground upon which to stand before Him: the gulf between us is immeasurable from my side: He is almighty, holy and just, and I am weak, sinful and guilty: His very holiness is a terror to me: it makes me afraid.”

Only could Job have hope if a daysman, or mediator, appeared in the case, fully qualified to take it up: and see how accurately he had gauged the situation; He must be one who can stand betwixt us — between God, infinitely holy and just, and the sinner, guilty and conscience-stricken — and put his hand upon us both: and, says he, I know no one who can do it. I have felt the need of such an one, longed for Him, sought for Him, but I have not found Him.

Mark well the qualifications that the needed mediator must possess; He must stand between God and the sinner, and put His hand upon both: and I beg of you not to miss the meaning of that. It is recorded that when David would bring the ark to Zion, that ark being God’s throne in Israel, and the symbol of His presence there, Uzzah put forth his hand to steady it, and the moment his presumptuous fingers touched that throne of God he fell to the earth a corpse. Learn from that solemn incident that no sinful man could put his hand upon God, or upon the throne of God, and live. The mediator for whom Job cried in his despair must be able to put His hand upon God, He must be God’s equal, pure as God is pure, holy as God is holy, great as God is great; none less could intervene, or be of use to Job or to us. But he must also put His hand upon men: He must be one of us, yet sinless or He would need a mediator Himself: He must be able to take our part and to identify Himself with our vast indebtedness, able to answer for the enormity of our guilt, and remove it. HE MUST BE GOD AND MAN.

It should be evident to us all, as it was to Job, that such an one we cannot produce, for no man, even the best, could exalt Himself to Deity: the attempt to do so, which will be made by the coming superman, the beast of Revelation 13, will be the climax of all blasphemy: and will result in that impious and devil-inspired personage being cast alive into the lake of fire (Revelation 19). Men cannot bring forth the needed mediator: here they come to their wit’s end: they have no hope except in God, the One whose glory has been challenged by their sin. But man’s extremity is God’s opportunity, and the one whom Job could not find on earth has come from heaven, and our part is to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

The New Testament is the book of the Mediator. In its first chapter there stands twice over in capital letters the name of its great subject, its true title, JESUS. “Thou shalt call His name JESUS; for He shall save His people from their sins” (verse 21). “She brought forth her firstborn Son; and he called his name JESUS” (verse 25): and Jesus is Emmanuel; GOD WITH US.

Being God, He knew according to God’s perfect estimate what the effect to the universe of man’s disregard of His will was; how and to what extent God’s glory was jeopardized by man’s sin: what the demands of the eternal throne were in regard to the violation of its just decrees. He knew how completely man’s self-will had made him the slave of Satan, how great was the gulf that separated him from God: how utterly powerless he was to rectify the awful wrong that he had committed. He knew the penalty that had to be paid, the conflict that had to be waged, the work that had to be done. It was the will of God that every problem that man’s sin had raised should be taken up and settled in a way in which every attribute of His should be glorified and salvation secured for us, and He, the Son, came to accomplish the will of God. He said, “A body hast Thou prepared Me. … Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God” (Hebrews 10:5-7). He became man to stand in our place before God: to take the bill of our terrible indebtedness, and meet it to the full, so that God Himself could write “Settled” across the account. This involved for Him the sorrows of Calvary: and there, as the holy Substitute for men, He “gave Himself a ransom for all.” The sacrifice that He made has met all the claims of the throne, and He is now “THE ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MAN, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS.” But only one who could estimate things according to God’s own measure of them could do what He has done.

What a Saviour is Jesus! How fully worthy is He of our fullest praise! He stooped to us that He might put His hand upon us, degraded though we were, and He has done it tenderly and graciously, so that we are not afraid. There is no terror for us in His hand, we do not shrink from Him. He has touched us with the touch of a man, and bound us with the cords of love. Yet he was never less than God, and God has touched us in Him. He has put one hand upon us and the other is placed upon the throne of God, and He is the one mediator. With the one hand He has offered the fullest satisfaction to the righteous claims of God, and with the other He has bestowed fulness of grace upon us. He brings us to God and gives us a place in His presence without fear, and in everlasting peace, a peace established upon the infallible and immovable foundation of divine righteousness, secured for us by a divine person for the eternal glory of God.

Thus are we justified before God, and all our fear is removed, and we are free to behold the hand that has been placed upon us, and to mark the fact that it is a wounded hand: a hand that was nail-pierced for us when He identified Himself with us, as we stood subject to the judgment of God, that He might save us. We know the power of this hand too: it has smitten death for us and will not relinquish its hold upon us for ever. As He is now a man in heaven, so shall we be there; He the first-born among many brethren, we His associates identified with Him in an everlasting oneness. He will never surrender that true humanity which He has taken up, and as He is, so are they also who are His. The purpose of God is that we should be conformed to His own image. And so we shall be, and yet never shall we forget that He is “over all, God, blessed for ever more.”