DO you take it upon yourself to examine your doctor as to his knowledge of the human frame, or his ability to discern its ailments and prescribe their remedy? No. You are content to know what his examiners thought of him when he passed before them, and you judge of this by the diploma they granted him. Then you carefully inquire what his patients have to say of him, especially those that have ailed the most. Lastly, if you feel you can trust your case in such hands, you give good proof of it, either by going to him or by calling him in to see you, and thus you avail yourself of his personal skill and acquired experience.
You are burdened with sin. You dread its final consequences, but you can no more struggle yourself free from it than you can shake off a cancerous growth from some vital part of your body. But a report has reached you of the ability and willingness of Jesus the Son of God to meet the need of a sinner like yourself. No matter how aggravated your case, no matter how “far gone” you may feel yourself to be, you have heard that Jesus is just the One for you.
But, you ask, who can adequately guarantee to me the trustworthiness of Jesus to meet a case like mine?
Only one was found equal to such a task. The Father knew Him. The Father loved Him. To use our figure, the Father could safely commit every sin-stricken patient to Him, and in the end the Father’s pleasure in man’s blessing abundantly prospers in His hands. His divine excellences, His absolute fitness for the wondrous work given Him to do, were once known only by the Father. But how blessedly, how charmingly, were those excellences brought to light before our very eyes as He walked in lowly grace through this sin-infested, plague-stricken world!
Was there ever a case so desperate that He was not equal to it? Not one. When did He turn His face away from any human misery, or coldly pass by a needy one that desired His help? Never! Did the devil enslave and oppress the human mind; did the sense of sin overwhelm and crush the soul; did disease wreck the body, Jesus was equal to all, and as equal in willingness as in power. Alleluia! Even death fled before Him.
The Father could look on with delight and audibly express His good pleasure in that blessed Man. The Spirit could descend from the opened heaven and rest upon Him. Even more than this has since been brought into evidence. There has been a full answer in heaven to all Christ’s services on earth. But who that witnessed those conferred glories, who that saw those celebrations, could be entrusted with a testimony to us about them? Who could bear to us the Father’s thoughts about Him?
Only One.
The same Holy Spirit that came upon Him here below, as co-witness of the Father’s delight in Him, has, since His return there, been sent from heaven to make known the honors and glories which the Father counts Him worthy of.
“Behold the Lamb with glory crowned
To Him all power be given;
No place too high for Him is found,
No place too high in heaven.”
What glorious “diplomas” are His! And He lives to give us the full benefit of His every divine and every human qualification. He lives in the place of power to serve His people in the place of weakness.
But let us look at the other side. Can the “Great Physician” produce any witnesses able to give personal testimony to His healing, saving, recovering power?
Instantly ten thousand times ten thousand voices are raised to answer the challenge. From every kingdom on earth, from every station in life, from every stage of moral degradation to which it was possible for man to sink, comes the testimony of countless witnesses of the Savior’s worth. Nor is any one of these myriads of witnesses contented that he has told all he ought to tell of what the Savior has done for him.
Give them one language and one opportunity of putting their hearts and voices into one song, and they will exclaim with one accord―
“Glory, glory everlasting
Be to Him who bore the cross,
Who redeemed our souls by tasting
Death, the death deserved by us.
Spread His glory,
Who redeemed His people thus.”
“Our gracious Master and our God,
Assist us to proclaim―
To spread through all the earth abroad―
The honors of Thy name.
“Jesus, the name that charms our fears,
That bids our sorrows cease;
‘Tis music in the sinner’s ears,
‘Tis life, and health, and peace.”
Could my reader join that song? Have you come into personal contact with that living Savior? Can you from your heart say―
“His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood avails for me”.
Do you know its cleansing value for yourself? It is not enough to know about the Savior; you must personally make His acquaintance.
If you have been “healed by His stripes,” you cannot fail to have been comforted by the love that brought Him to the place of death to serve you. Yea, He sought you out that He might serve you: He followed you till He found you.
Join, then, in the heaven-taught chorus of praise to His name. Join it, not only by the confession of the lip, but in the devotedness of a life given up to His service. Not only “tell” others, but “show” them what great things He has done for you. Remember this. Your answer to the question, “What think ye of Christ?” will be found in your everyday history.