The whole of the Scriptures revolve round the Person of the Son of God. It has been put in a striking way as follows. The Pentateuch gives us the figures of Christ; the Psalms, the feelings of Christ; the Prophets, the foretellings of Christ; the Gospels, the facts of Christ; the Epistles, the fruits of Christ; Revelation, final judgments by Christ. Remembering how ancient are the Scriptures, how many are the different writers of the various Books, how they lived far apart from each other, both geographically and in time, it is astounding that such a statement can be made about one Person and one Book. It is absolute proof that there is a Master Mind behind the Book. And if GOD thus presents in such different ways and phases a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, it follows that such a presentation should command our deepest homage.
Indeed, when we come to see that the Book testifies of this wonderful Person, and the Person testifies of the Book, and that these testimonies stand or fall together, we conclude that we either must receive both the Book and the Person, or refuse both the Book and the Person. A little consideration will show the force of these remarks.
Take the case of the Bible prophecies concerning our Lord. He was to be born of a virgin. His name was to be Jesus, meaning Jehovah Savior. He was to be born at Bethlehem. He was to be called out of Egypt. He was to be brought up at Nazareth. He was to die a sacrificial death. The time about when that would take place was clearly indicated by the prophet Daniel. He was to rise from the dead. If any of these items had failed in their fulfillment, then it would show the Book was not inspired. But they and many others were all fulfilled to the very letter.
On the other hand, the Lord Jesus quoted many an Old Testament Scripture as authoritative. Did He not say, " It is written" (Matt. 4:4,6,74But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)
6And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. (Matthew 4:6‑7)) three times, quoting passages from Deuteronomy when resisting the Devil in the temptation in the wilderness? In the Sermon on the Mount we read, " Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law [the law, a term covering the five books of Moses], till all be fulfilled " (Matt, 5: 17, 18). This is a particular affirmation of the authority and inspiration of the Old Testament. A jot is the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet; the tittle, a little mark on a letter to distinguish it from another letter, so alike that a mistake might be made were the mark not there. Some people are afraid of the word verbal inspiration, but our Lord goes further, and tells us every letter and mark is authoritative.
As a very young believer I was thankful indeed for these thoughts. It is a tremendous thing to pin one's faith for time and eternity to one single Person. To believe that Jesus is the eternal Son of God is a very big thing indeed. But once this has been reached in the soul, all else falls into line.
At the same time there is much to learn in the full unfolding of the Person of our Lord as found in the New Testament.
Why is the Lord designated as the Word? Just as the spoken word reveals a man's mind and personality, so God has revealed Himself in and by a Person, who came near to men, living a perfect life before them, and above all dying a sacrificial death upon the cross in order that this revelation of God might be one of infinite grace and eternal blessing.
In these verses we read that Jesus from all eternity was God, that He was a distinct Person in the Godhead, the eternal Word; that as distinct in the Godhead, He was eternally so; that He was the Creator of all things; that in Him was life inherently, that is to say not conferred, but that He was the eternal source of life. He was ever living, and all life flowed from Him as the Source. This life was the light of men.
Then comes the stupendous statement that "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth " (John 1:1414And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)).
When I had the great privilege of being in the Holy Land, and walked the streets of Jerusalem, of Bethlehem, of Nazareth, on the shores of Galilee, I asked myself again and again, Do you really believe that the lowly Jesus, who walked this very country; who slept in a fisher-man's boat in a storm on that little lake of Galilee; who taught in the Temple; who died on the cross on that hill I gazed on; who rose from the tomb I visited, was the eternal Son of God? I could only answer with deep adoration that I believed in my heart of hearts that He was, " God manifest in the flesh " (1 Tim. 3:1616And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. (1 Timothy 3:16)).
But we must be careful. Every bit of light shed on Christ in the Scriptures we have to receive, weigh over, and cherish. But we have to be careful not to go beyond Scripture on such a theme. To do so is fraught with terrible danger. Many have made shipwreck in this way. We have to receive revelation. We have to refuse speculation.
One thing that stands in the way of the recognition of the Son of God are the carnal thoughts that some entertain as to Father and Son. They argue that a father must be older than his son. They think of the ordinary way in which children are begotten. This idea is very common among Mohammedans. When I was in India I met this objection very commonly.
It is very clear we must not argue from the natural to the spiritual. It is clear from Scripture that the Father is the Father from all eternity, that the Son is the Son from all eternity, that the Spirit is the Spirit from all eternity. There never was a time when there was the Father and not the Son and the Spirit. We do well to take the statements of Scripture as they stand, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten of the Father from all eternity, and leave the mystery of it where Scripture puts it. How can a creature ever understand the Creator? Impossible!
There came a moment when the Son of God became flesh in Bethlehem, born of a virgin in a stable, and cradled in a manger. It was an event in an outward way that would stir no interest and sympathy save of the few immediately in the vicinity.
But what might mean little to earth was great to heaven. An angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds, as they were watching over the flocks by night, with a glorious message, " Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:1111For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:11)). 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 " (verse 14). A sign was given that the Child should be wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Many a babe could be found in swaddling clothes, but did you ever hear of a child being cradled in a manger amidst the cattle of the stall? The sign was surely unique.
Living in obscurity at Nazareth, our Lord began His public ministry when about thirty years of age. That wonderful ministry only lasted a brief time. What a wonderful three-and-a-half years it was! His life was unique. No life was ever like His. He healed the sick. He raised the dead. He cast out devils. The common people heard him gladly. They wondered at the gracious words that fell from His lips. He answered questions with a wisdom none could gainsay. He never apologized.
He never withdrew a single thing that He did. He never uttered a word He had to withdraw. His life was without reproach. Nay, every step He took, every word He spoke, was music to heaven. A stream of miracles followed Him wherever He went. He undid the works of the Devil.
And He went on to the cross of Calvary to die the sacrificial death, to be the Mediator, the Savior. The Christian religion is the only religion that presents a Savior to mankind. All other man-made religions appeal to the pride of man in that they put salvation before him as the climax of his own endeavors.
Speaking of the life of our Lord, it has been well said that if it were the mere imagination of the writers of the four Gospels, that were a greater miracle than the chronicling of the actual life that was lived before the eyes of men. Such a life could not be imagined. Man cannot rise unaided above himself. There is only one life, that was ever lived in this world, of such beauty, such faith-fullness, such wisdom, such love, such patience, such compassion, such purpose, as the life of our Lord. Even with His example before men, His life has not been remotely duplicated by anyone, and never can be. He was the eternal Son of God, who became Man, who died on the cross to satisfy the claims of Divine righteous-ness and enable God in all His holiness justly to save guilty sinners, such worms of the dust, as we are.
Even infidels have been constrained to offer their admiration of this matchless life. The late Theodore Parker, a well-known infidel writer in the United States, wrote: -
" Measure Jesus by the shadow He cast into the world; no, by the light He has shed upon it. Shall we be told that such a Person never lived? The whole story is a lie? Suppose that Plato and Newton never lived. But who did their works and thought their thoughts? It takes a Newton to forge a Newton. What man could have fabricated a Jesus? None but Jesus."
Jean Paul Richter says of Christ:-
"The holiest among the mighty, and the mightiest among the holy, lifted with His pierced hands empires off their hinges, turned the stream of civilization out of its channels, and still governs the ages."
Napoleon, who certainly was not a professed believer, said to his companions in exile in St. Helena:-
" I know men; I tell you that Jesus is no mere man-everything in Him astonishes me. Between Him and whoever else in the world there is no possible comparison. He is truly a Being by Himself. His ideas and His sentiments, the truths which He announces, His manner of convincing, are not explained by human organization, or by the nature of things. His birth and the history of His life; the profundity of His doctrines, which present the mightiest difficulties, and which is of these difficulties the most admirable solution; His apparition and His empire, His march across the ages and the realms; everything for me is a prodigy, a mystery insoluble, which plunges me in reveries I cannot escape, a mystery which is there before my eyes, a mystery which I cannot deny or explain. Here I see nothing human."
These are wonderful and unsolicited testimonies, extracted we may almost say from the Lord's enemies.
Thank God, His life on earth was human, but it was also Divine. The Lord was God and Man, one blessed Person. His Godhead was not abrogated but veiled, He was God undiminished. He was truly Man. He was human. His humanity never contradicted His Deity. His Deity never contradicted His humanity. There never was such a Person, nor such a life, nor ever will be.