Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

6. The Deity of the Lord as seen in the opening of the New Testament

It was not the business of earlier writers of the New Testament to prove that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. To them this great truth was not a matter of debate, it was their whole faith, and the standpoint from which they made their inspired-by-the-Holy-Spirit records. It has been said that just as the golden threads were inextricably woven with the blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen of the High Priest’s ephod and girdle (Exodus 18) so is the Deity of Christ woven into all that these men wrote; and that is true, yet the type is feeble and inadequate, as all material types of what is infinite must be. The Deity of Christ is more than interwoven into the Gospel records, it is the warp upon which all that is recorded in them is wrought; it is the root out of which all truth grows; it is the fountain from which all blessing flows. If it could be torn from these four Gospels they would be meaningless shreds, and the glorious faith of the Son of God would be compelled to take its place along with other vain, worldly philosophies, having some interest perhaps to scholars, but void of all saving value for sinners. Those who reject it, reject the only hope, the only way of deliverance for men, for all Scripture shows that if men were to be saved, God must come down to them to do it, and also, if God does come down to men, He must come as their Saviour. Naturally we should have thought otherwise but that is most assuredly the truth.

And it is with this that the New Testament opens. Upon the first page of it, in our Authorised Version, the Name of Jesus appears in capital letters, and it gives us the title and the great subject of the Book. That Name means Saviour, and He had come to save. The New Testament is the Book of God’s salvation, and it shows us that God Himself is the Saviour, and He only. He might delegate great works to His angel-servants, and speak in diverse ways to men by His prophets, but this work of salvation He must undertake Himself, or it would never be done.

Let us now consider this, “Fear not,” said the angel of the Lord to Joseph, “to take to thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins.” He did not say that He would save sinners, Jew and Gentile, though that is most blessedly true, and comes fully to light as the truth unfolds, but in perfect keeping with this first Gospel, to “save His PEOPLE.” The people of Israel were in view in the angel’s announcement, and the fulfilment of the Word of God by His prophets to them. They were Jehovah’s people, a people chosen of God as His own peculiar possession, even though they had departed far from Him. Their sins had separated them from Him, but He would not, He could not, abandon His rights in them, He would undertake their salvation. And Jesus was to appear to do this, because as the angel said, these people chosen of God were His PEOPLE. There are many Old Testament passages addressed to Israel which bind up their salvation with God’s personal intervention on their behalf and that prove conclusively that He only could save them. I will quote a few of them, “I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour” (Isaiah 43:3). “I, even I, am the Lord, and beside Me there is no Saviour” (verse 11). “There is no God else beside Me, a just God and a Saviour” (Isaiah 45:21). “All flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob” (Isaiah 49:2). “I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but Me; for there is no Saviour beside Me” (Hosea 13:4). It has often been said that the name Jesus carries divine glory with it; that it means Jehovah the Saviour; it is certainly clear from these great texts that none but God could save His people, and if any others pretended to be able to do this, their pretence only proved them to be thieves and robbers (John 10), but of Jesus, the angel said, “He shall save His people from their sins.” Then who else could He be but God?

The First Quotation From the Prophets

As we apprehend the force and meaning of the words of the angel of the Lord to Joseph we are prepared for the statement that follows, “Now 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.” When Mary brought forth her first-born Son the Saviour-Messiah had entered the world. He who had said to Moses, “I AM THAT I AM: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14), was not now sending a servant with a message but He had appeared Himself to be their Saviour. We are not asked to fathom this mystery of God-incarnate, it must ever baffle all intellectual investigation, but it does not stumble faith; for faith recognises that God will perform His word; if He had spoken of this by the prophet, what He had said must come to pass. And faith knows that when God moves He moves in a way worthy of Himself, to confound the wise and the proud and the mighty by that which is apparently weak and of no account. It was even so in this matter. He came into manhood and in great humility not to condemn and consume a sinful people, but to offer Himself to them as their Saviour Lord, though we know well that where grace is rejected judgment must fall.

The Second Quotation From the Prophets

The coming of the wise men from the East to enquire where He was who was born King of the Jews, gave Jerusalem the opportunity of not only beholding its King but of seeing its God manifest in flesh. The chief men of the city were gathered together by Herod, the Idumean usurper, and they showed that they were well acquainted with the Scriptures that spoke of His birth. But in citing Micah 5:2 why did they omit that part of it that declares His eternal being and activities? The omission seems to indicate that they had no desire for a close acquaintance with their God, the idea was not acceptable to them; an alien tyrant seems to have been more to their minds than Jehovah their Saviour. But the prophecy which they quoted not only foretold the place of His birth and the dignity of His office, but the glory of His person. Micah wrote:

“They shall smite the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek” — an extraordinary prophecy; but actually fulfilled when they took the reed that they had put in His right hand as a mock sceptre and smote Him on the head, (Matthew 27:30), — “But thou Bethlehem 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 [or the days of eternity]” (chapter 5:1-2).

Who could have conceived this great thing, that He whose goings forth were from eternity, who in divine, creative energy had cast the stars before Him as a golden pathway for His glorious feet, should have come forth in obscure Bethlehem, born of an obscure virgin mother, in all the apparent weakness of human babe-hood; to be the Servant of the Godhead and to tread the filthy streets of those eastern cities in His search for the diseased, and distressed and devil-possessed; and to go forth at last bearing His cross to Golgotha to save His people from their sins? What goings forth were these! Yet these were the ways of divine love, made known in the Son of Man, who came not to be ministered to but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many. It was the only way if God was to be known as the Saviour, and if Jesus was to make good His title to that glorious name.

The Third Quotation From the Prophets

Passing over other quotations from the prophets that do not bear on our subject we come to chapter 3. John the Baptist was a man full of the Holy Spirit, and by the guidance and power of the Spirit he bore testimony to Jesus. He refused to talk of Himself; his mission was to “prepare the way of the LORD,” according to the prophecy of Isaiah 40:3. And of Him whose forerunner he was, he said, “He that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear, He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: whose fan is in His hand and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner, but He will burn up the chaff with Unquenchable fire” (chapter 3:11-12). With the Lord close upon his heels, this faithful forerunner declared his own limitations; he could baptise the people with water; he could bring them down into that which signified death, but at the same time he proclaimed the might of his Lord, He would lift them into the sphere of life and endue them with the power and intelligence that belonged to that life, or — dread alternative — baptise them with fire. He would gather His wheat into the garner and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Israel was His floor; and He the Lord would discriminate between His wheat and the chaff. Who but the Lord could do this? It is written, “The Lord knows them that are His.” He had come in grace, the Lord in whom is salvation, but He had come to a recalcitrant nation, a remnant only of which would receive Him; and since He is a just God as well as a Saviour, His judgment must fall on the rebellious. “For the day comes, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea all that do wickedly shall be stubble: and the day that comes shall burn them up says the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch” (Malachi 4:1). “The Father … has committed all judgment to the Son: that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father” (John 5:22-23). “What a fact of immeasurable greatness was the presence of the Lord God in the midst of His people, in the Person of Him who, although He was doubtless to be the fulfilment of all the promises, was necessarily, though rejected, the Judge of all the evil existing among His people” (J.N.D.).

The Fourth Quotation From the Prophets

The next quotation from the prophets which has a definite bearing on our subject is in chapter 4. John had been cast into prison. He had been a burning and a shining light in the darkness, but as the stars fade away when the sun rises, so he passed out of sight that all eyes might be fixed upon the One who was greater than he; “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zebulon, and the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: the people which sat in darkness saw a great light; and to them which sat in the region of the shadow of death light is sprung up.” The quotation is from the 9th chapter of the prophecy and it declares the greatness of the One in whom this great light shone, and we must not fail to notice this. “Unto us,” says the prophet, “a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be on His shoulder: and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Father of Eternity. 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.”

How great are the glories of this fivefold name! too bright indeed for mortal eyes, if it were not in Jesus that they shine, but in Him they reach us as softly and sweetly as the dawn, “Unto us a child is born, to us a son is given.” Here is meekness, gentleness and love. We are not afraid of a babe; we do not shrink in terror from a son, “Fear not,” said the angel to the Shepherds, “for, behold I bring you 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 His Name — the name of that Babe upon whom the Shepherds looked with wonder and whom the wise men worshipped — has a five-fold glory. Can we discern it in the Gospels? I think we can, indeed it pervades them and diffuses its fragrance from every page of them. His name shall be called WONDERFUL. The devil owned it when he was compelled to leave Him, having utterly failed to allure Him from the path of righteousness, (chapter 4:11). The people confessed it when they were astonished at His doctrine. (chapter 7:28); the soldiers who were sent to take Him confessed it when they said, “Never man spake like this man,” (John 7:26); the people confessed it again when they said, “He has done all things well” (Mark 7:37); His disciple confessed it when they asked, “What manner of man is this?” (Matthew 8:25); the devils confessed it when they said, “What have we to do with Thee, Jesus of Nazareth?” (8:29); and the Father proclaimed it when from the excellent glory He said, “Thou art my Son [even] the Beloved, in Whom I greatly delight.”

COUNSELLOR. “Learn of Me,” He said, “for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest to your souls” (chapter 11:29), and “Whosoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, which built his house upon a rock, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house: and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock” (chapter 7:24).

THE MIGHTY GOD. This is the name of God as the Omnipotent One, the mighty EL, the Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, Who disposes of men as He will and is the strength and refuge of those that trust in Him. This is the central glory of the five-fold name and it shone from the lowly Nazarene when He stilled the storm on the midnight sea (chapter 8:26); thrust back and controlled the power of death (8:23); multiplied the loaves and fishes to satisfy the hungry crowds (14:15); claimed the undivided allegiance of the hearts of men (4:18:22; 19:21); forgave the sins of those that sought Him, (9:2); and said “Come to Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest” (11:28).

THE FATHER OF ETERNITY. Our minds can travel back through the ages of time, but they halt at the frontiers of eternity; it is too vast for us to scan, yet this fourth beam of this all-glorious name carries us into Eternity whether we will or not, and tells us that every age of it proceeded from Him, and that He controls them with all their issues. If I may be permitted to go outside our Gospel I will quote from Colossians 1 where it is said of “The Son of the Father’s love” (verse 13), “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist” (vv. 16-17). And turning back to our Gospel I read of this Creator-Son, “No man knows the Son but the Father” (11:27), and there shines a beam too bright for creature eye, a glory that no man has seen or can see.

THE PRINCE OF PEACE. There is not much said about peace in Matthew’s Gospel, it belongs more to Luke’s and the latter part of John’s, but the reason is not far to seek. As the Prince of Peace He sent forth His messengers preaching peace in every house into which they went, but the people were not worthy of that peace for they rejected the Prince of it, and the peace they would not have returned to those who carried it (10:13), and the Prince of Peace had to say in view of this stubbornness and blindness, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace but a sword” (10:34). Nevertheless He was the Prince of peace, and Peter proclaimed this when He told the first Gentiles that ever heard the gospel, “The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ; (He is Lord of all)” (Acts 10:36). And all who owned His Lordship entered into peace then as they also do even to this day.

The glory shone in vain for Israel then, for they stumbled at the lowliness of their great Messiah, but the day is surely coming when it will dispel their darkness, and lift the veil that covers them and open their wondering eyes and they shall say in that day, “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). Then of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, and He will establish His kingdom with judgment and justice for ever. And He will swallow up death in victory and wipe away tears from off all faces, for He is the Saviour of His people, JEHOVAH-JESUS.

Thus we see Him in the early chapters of Matthew, who is the Son in the glorious Trinity (chapter 28:19), co-equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost, enter into the world as man, yet Emmanuel, to be the Saviour of His people, and their Ruler, who was not a child of days, but the Lord of Eternity; and as their all-discerning and righteous Judge, and the One who will drive before His victorious feet all darkness and the power of death and fill His kingdom and the whole earth with the light of the knowledge of God which shines even now in His face for all who believe.