Introduction
Christ is the center of all God’s thoughts and purposes from eternity; therefore, He is necessarily the center and theme of the entire Scriptures, both of the Old and New Testaments. We read in Hebrews 1:1,2, God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spoke in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. “These last days” are the New Testament days, intimately linked with the entire present or Christian dispensation, as contrasted with the former or Jewish dispensation. All in that former period was “in many parts and in many ways”; everything was partial, fragmentary, and preparatory. The Old Testament Scriptures, while as perfectly inspired as the New, necessarily have the same characteristics as the truths which they reveal - indeed, both the Scriptures and the truths which they reveal are identical. We therefore naturally turn first to the New Testament for the complete revelation of the person of Christ, and after we have gleaned from its pages sufficient data from which to formulate the New Testament doctrine, we can turn with this light to the Old Testament, and, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, find its pages illumined with “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). This will be found equally true of the historical, the prophetic, and the poetic books.
- Matthew, Mark, Luke, John: narrative of the life, teaching, sacrificial death and resurrection of our Lord (in the Pentateuch: Genesis)
- Acts: history of the deliverance of the people of God from the bondage of Judaism into Christian liberty (in the Pentateuch: Exodus)
- epistles of Paul: the way of access into the presence of God is unfolded, and a full revelation of the doctrines of Christianity is given (in the Pentateuch: Leviticus)
- general epistles: application of Christian truth to the needs, difficulties and trials of our earthly pilgrimage (in the Pentateuch: Numbers)
- Revelation: gathers up the great moral lessons of the past and then directs our gaze forward into the glories of our eternal inheritance (in the Pentateuch: Deuteronomy)
The New Testament is divided, after the manner of the Pentateuch, into five distinct portions. The four Gospels give us a narrative of the life, teaching, sacrificial death and resurrection of our Lord, answering to the book of Genesis. In the book of Acts we have the history of the deliverance of the people of God from the bondage of Judaism into Christian liberty, answering to the book of Exodus. The epistles of Paul are the New Testament Leviticus, in which the way of access into the presence of God is unfolded, and a full revelation of the doctrines of Christianity is given. The general epistles of James, Peter, John and Jude are devoted to the application of Christian truth to the needs, difficulties and trials of our earthly pilgrimage, corresponding in this way to the book of Numbers, in which Israel’s journeyings through the wilderness are narrated. The book of Revelation, after the manner of Deuteronomy, gathers up the great moral lessons of the past and then directs our gaze forward into the glories of our eternal inheritance. Each of the five divisions presents the person of our Lord in a way appropriate to the theme of the division, and yet in perfect accord with the entire truth as to His person.
The Person of Christ As Revealed in the Gospel of Matthew
Matthew 1
The first four chapters of the first Gospel yield quite a complex view of our Lord. In the first chapter, He is spoken of as the Son of David, the Messiah; also as the Son of Abraham, the Seed in Whom all the nations of the world are to be blessed. This term also suggests the family of faith. “They which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham” (Gal. 3:7). He is also the Son of the virgin, suggesting the promised “Seed of the woman,” and declaring His miraculous birth, His sinless nature, and the fact that He was not in Adam. He thus inherited no sin, nor did death have any claim upon Him. This Son of the virgin is the One foretold by the prophet as Immanuel, “God with us,” which declares His Godhead. The name actually given to Him in fulfillment of this prophecy, is full of significance - Jesus, “Jehovah the Savior.” Jehovah, the name of the covenant–God of Israel, revealed in connection with the redemption out of Egypt, by its form seems to point forward to the future — the letter yodh being a sign of the future. That name therefore was the pledge that there should come the true covenant–Redeemer, who should save His people from their sins.
Matthew 2
Passing to the second chapter, we see the King of the Jews, born at Bethlehem in fulfillment of the prophet’s words. It is not however the homage of His own people that is rendered to Him, but of the wise men of the East, in answer to the prophet’s words, “Gentiles shall come to Thy light, and kings to the brightness of Thy rising.” (Isa. 60:3)
The flight into Egypt, and the subsequent residence at Nazareth, speak of the rejection of the Messiah by His people: “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (Jn. 1:11); He was the “root out of a dry ground,” although the “root of David”; “He was despised and rejected of men.”
Matthew 3
Chapter three describes the preaching of John the Baptist in fulfillment of the prophet’s words, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.” We may be sure that “the Lord,” Jehovah, spoken of in these words, is none other than the Lord Jesus, whose way was prepared by John’s preaching of repentance. John’s description of Him as One mightier than himself, is confirmation of this. His baptism is not with water, the outward form, but with the Holy Spirit and with fire. This was accomplished at Pentecost, when cloven tongues of fire, the outward emblem of the Holy Spirit, came upon the apostles. The final baptism of fire still waits in the forbearance of God until the time for final judgment shall be ripe. Surely we can think of none but a divine person sending forth the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead.
We have next a greater testimony than that of John. As Jesus is baptized the heavens are opened, and God, the Father, from that excellent glory, proclaims that lowly One as “My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This divine witness is sealed by the descent of the Holy Spirit as a dove upon the Son of God. As the bird of love, sorrow and sacrifice, the dove is beautifully emblematic of the character and work of Him so designated.
Matthew 4
We pass in chapter four, by an abrupt transition, from visions of heavenly glory and the witness of divine persons, to the fasting and temptation of Jesus. But this testing only affords fresh evidence to the perfection of His character and the dignity of His nature. Pressed at every point to doubt God, to presume upon Him or to turn away from Him, He manifests His holy, obedient nature, which gave no response to Satan’s subtlest appeals. All that man naturally craves, and for which he has surrendered the place originally given him by God, was turned from by the Lord with the ever-ready answer from the word of God, “It is written.”
Conclusion
In these four chapters of Matthew we thus see our Lord as Messiah, the promised Seed of Abraham, the Son of the virgin, God, Jehovah, the King of the Jews and of the nations, the rejected One, the Lord, the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, the future Judge, the well beloved Son of the Father, the perfect sinless Man, sent forth upon His ministry of reconciliation.
From these introductory chapters in Matthew, we pass over the intervening portion which gives us the presentation of our Lord as the King of Israel, and will notice but one passage in the last chapter of the Gospel. After His resurrection, He appears to His disciples and says, “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” (28:18) Surely such words could never be used of a mere man. “Power belongeth unto God”; the omnipotent is God alone.
The Person of Christ as Revealed in the Gospels of Mark and Luke
Mark
In the Gospel of Mark the general theme is Christ the Prophet of God and the Servant of man’s need. In both capacities, He exhibits the tireless energy of One whose work was ever before Him. But no matter how lowly the service or ceaseless the activity, there are the shinings forth of the glories of His person. “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” tells us who He was, whom even the demons recognized. In the prophetic discourse given at the close of His life, He tells of the time when He shall “send His angels and gather together His elect.” (13:27) Surely none but a divine person could give His commands and be obeyed by those beings who “do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word.” (Psalm 103:20)
Luke
In the Gospel of Luke we are in a different atmosphere. He depicts the Son of Man, our Lord, in the perfection, lowliness and nearness to man to which He came, taking upon Himself flesh and blood. All is most beautiful; perfectly human, divinely gracious, but entirely without the slightest taint of that sin which makes such a tragedy of human life. His birth is announced to the virgin, and He is called “that Holy Thing.” (1:35) Most beautifully the spirit of praise is everywhere present. The offering of incense by Zechariah is symbolic of the worship that centers around this lowly Babe. Elizabeth praises; Mary magnifies the Lord; Zechariah’s dumb lips are unsealed to celebrate the covenant promises of God, so soon to be fulfilled; heaven is opened and the angels cry, “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace” (2:14); the shepherds praise and glorify God at the sight of the Babe in the manger; Simeon, as he clasps the Holy Child in his arms, says, “Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy Word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation” (2:29,30); Anna, the prophetess, joins in this chorus of praise. Surely all this witness has an unmistakable voice for us; it shows that He who is Man, is also the object of the praises of those in heaven and upon earth. No other babe ever called forth such praise or filled with such joy the hearts of everyone who took Him into their arms of faith.
Passing from His infancy, we find this holy Child growing up in a perfectly natural way, and yet exhibiting the consciousness of a relationship with His Father which none but the Son of God ever had by nature. “Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” (2:49) These are the words of Him who, in the Psalms, said to God, “Thou didst make Me hope when I was upon My mother’s breasts.” (22:9) As the Child grew in wisdom and stature, developing into perfect manhood, we find this trust and consciousness of relationship to His Father marking all His ways. And so as we trace Him throughout the entire Gospel of the Manhood, we see the human and divine perfectly blended together in His perfect person. Nowhere do we see more tender sympathy; the contact of grace and compassion going out in love to the sinful and the lost; but through it all we see Him to whom it can be truly said, “Glory to God in the highest.”
The Person of Christ as Revealed in the Gospel of John
John 1 - 12
The Gospel of John is the distinctive Gospel of the Deity. There can be no question that the special theme of this evangelist is the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ. And yet nowhere shall we find more distinct statements of His humanity. Let us put side by side three verses from the first chapter: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1); “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (1:14); “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (1:29) In these three verses we have three great characteristics of our Lord:
1. He is God, and with God (a phrase which declares at once His oneness with God and His distinct personality).
2. He was made flesh, became absolutely Man.
3. He is the atoning Sacrifice, the One by whom sin is taken away.
Every chapter in this amazing Gospel sets forth some feature of the person of our Lord. In chapter two we read, “He knew what was in man.” (2:25) Here we have His omniscience. In chapter three, He is the only begotten Son of God, a relationship that is eternal and divine. In chapter four, we see the weary Traveler by the well of Sychar searching the heart of the woman and revealing Himself to her as Messiah, the Christ. In chapter five, we see Him as the One to whom all judgment has been committed, that all should honor the Son as they honor the Father; He is also the Giver of eternal life. In chapter six, He is the Bread of God which came down from heaven to give life unto the world. In chapter seven, He stands and cries, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (7:37,38) He was speaking of the Holy Spirit, whom He would impart to those believing upon Him. Again we ask, Who but a divine person could give the Holy Spirit? It is interesting to see the use made of the symbol of water in the three chapters. In chapter three, new birth is effected by the water, the action of the word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit; in chapter four, we have a well of water in the believer, satisfaction by the Holy Spirit through the word of God; and in chapter seven, it is the outflow of rivers in the same divine power. Thus life, communion and testimony, all come through the Holy Spirit from the Son of God.
In the eighth chapter, He who had in grace to the sinful woman said, “Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more” (8:11), declares to the Jews, “Before Abraham was, I Am.” (8:58) In chapter nine, having opened the eyes of the man born blind, He reveals Himself to him as the Son of God, the object of worship. In the tenth chapter, we see Him as the Good Shepherd, who has power to lay down His life and to take it again; who is the Giver of eternal life to His own, and who declares, “I and My Father are one.” (10:30) In chapter eleven, we have Him as the Great Shepherd of the sheep, who brought again from the dead Lazarus, and who reveals Himself as the Resurrection and the Life.
In the twelfth chapter, the close of our Lord’s public testimony before men, the evangelist, in commenting upon the unbelief of the people who refuse to acknowledge the Lord in spite of all the works He had done, refers to the passage from Isaiah 6. In this chapter the prophet beheld the Lord in His glory and majesty, before whose Presence the seraphim veiled their faces. In our chapter, the inspired evangelist tells us whose glory it was the prophet saw. It was none other than the glory of the Son of God which had just been refused by the unbelieving nation.
John 13 - 17
From chapters thirteen to seventeen, we have the special ministry of our Lord to His own. Abundant witness is here also given to His person. In chapter thirteen, we see Him girded as a servant; in chapter fourteen He declares, “He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.” (14:9) In this chapter also we have one of those remarkable, incidental confirmations of the dignity of His person. “If a man love Me, he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him and make Our abode with him.” (14:23) In scripture God is never associated thus with man; there is ever two thousand cubits between the ark and the people; and yet here, in the simplest way, the Father and the Son are associated together. In chapters fifteen and sixteen, He again speaks of Himself as the One who will send the Holy Spirit. In chapter seventeen, we are privileged to enter the sanctuary with Him and to hear the outpourings of His soul to the Father. This one chapter affords most absolute proof of the Godhead and humanity of One who could say, “I have glorified Thee on the earth” (17:4), as Man, and, “The glory which I had with Thee before the world was,” (17:5) proving His Godhead.
John 18 - 21
The entire scene in Gethsemane, at His trial and at the crucifixion, shows One who, along with the dignity of His divine person, had the capacity to suffer and to die. At His resurrection He shows Himself to be the last Adam, and gives also unmistakable evidence of His deity. No wonder the evangelist closes his record with what must have been an exaggeration if his subject had been less than divine: “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written.” (21:25)
The Person of Christ as Revealed in the Book of Acts
We come now to the second general division of the New Testament, the book of Acts. The scene is changed; our Lord has ascended into heaven, and according to His promise has sent down the Holy Spirit. The main testimony as to Himself, therefore, is that He has risen, has given the Holy Spirit, and is Lord of all. In his discourse at Pentecost, Peter ascribes the divine and manifest power of the Spirit to the ascended Lord. “He hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear” (2:33). “God hath made that same Jesus (the lowly Man), whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (2:36). Stephen (chapter seven) speaking by the Holy Spirit, declares he saw the Son of Man at the right hand of God in heaven, and addresses Him in prayer. Paul is converted by the revelation of Jesus Christ in glory, receives back his sight from the once-rejected Nazarene, and straightway begins his life-long ministry by proclaiming Him as the Son of God; he preaches “that This is very Christ” (9:22). Peter (chapter ten), proclaims Him as the Judge of quick and dead. It is in His name that miracles are wrought and persons are baptized. The Church of God has been purchased by “His own blood” (20:28), an expression which at least seems to connect the value of Deity with the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. Throughout the entire book the exalted Jesus is seen as sovereign Lord and Master, addressed in the language of prayer and of praise.
The Person of Christ as Revealed in the Epistles of Paul
In the epistles of Paul, we find the most full and convincing testimony as to the Lord. In Romans He is of the seed of David according to the flesh, but declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness and the resurrection from the dead (1:4). In the ninth chapter the apostle uses even stronger language in speaking of Him, “Of whom as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever” (9:5). In First Corinthians He is associated with the Father in a way that suggests His humanity, Lordship and Deity: “To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and we by Him” (8:6).
“Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). The riches which He had were those of divine glory; the poverty into which He came was that of His humiliation, even unto death. The passage strongly resembles the one in Philippians 2, the classic, we might say, of the humiliation. Here from “the form of God”, our blessed Lord in seven downward steps of self-emptying, reaches the death of the Cross, and by the glory of God, is elevated into the place of supremacy, in seven stages, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth”. Who is He who thus commands the adoration of the entire universe?
In Galatians our Lord is spoken of as the Son of God, revealed in Paul (1:16), sent forth by the Father, and yet “made of a woman” (4:4). Ephesians shows Him as the center of all God’s purposes: “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth” (1:10). In resurrection, He has been set over all things as Head to His Church, “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all” (1:23). “That He might fill all things” (4:10) - an amazing combination of human sufferings, divine power and omnipresence.
The special glory of the epistle to the Colossians is in the preeminence given to the person of Christ. He is “the image of the invisible God” (1:15), the expression of absolute deity; He is also “the Firstborn of every creature” (1:15), or of all creation, the Chief and Head over all that which He has brought into being. Notice the cluster of glories suggested by the various prepositions here used. “By (literally “in”) Him were all things created”; “by”, “for”, “before”; “By Him all things consist” (1:16,17). He is also the Firstborn from the dead and the Head of the Church (1:18). No wonder “all the fulness was pleased to dwell in Him” (1:19); no wonder also that the divine value and efficacy belongs to the work of reconciliation which He has accomplished 1:20,21). What words could be stronger than those used in the second chapter: “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (2:9).
We will refer to but one passage from Paul’s pastoral epistles, 1 Timothy 3:16. The whole connection is striking and interesting. The apostle had been speaking of the order which becomes the house of God, and how Timothy should conduct himself in that which is the Church of the living God. God has an established order for His Church, the place where His honor dwelleth. Never more than today has there been the need to know the importance of that order. The Church is “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim.3:15), not surely the teacher of the truth in the sense of origin, but the maintainer and exhibitor of that truth. The figure seems to remind us of the House of God of old, the tabernacle, where the “ground” or foundation upon which the boards and pillars of God’s habitation rested was the silver sockets of the redemption paid by the children of Israel. The four pillars which separated the Holiest from the Holy place supported the veil (Ex. 26:31,32). It is of this veil the verse in Timothy seems to speak. “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”. The one manifest in the flesh exhibits the glories that belong to the house of God. If Luther said that justification by faith was the doctrine of a standing church, may we not add that when the church fails to exhibit and to maintain the truth of the person of Christ, it ceases to be the pillar and ground of the truth. “A fallen church” we may well call it.
The glories of Christ are the special theme of the epistle to the Hebrews. Christ is above angels, above Moses, the leader and law-giver, above Aaron the high priest, above all the sacrifices, covenant and sanctuary of the law. Chapter one describes the glory of His person in a seven-fold series: Heir of all things; Creator; Effulgence of God’s glory; the very Image of His being; the Upholder of all things; the Purger of our sins; now seated at the right hand of God. In this same chapter, we have a seven-fold series of scripture quotations in testimony of this glory.
If the first chapter speaks of His glories, the second tells of His humiliation, made a little lower than the angels, taking hold of the seed of Abraham, suffering under temptation, enduring the pains of death, making priestly propitiation by the sacrifice of Himself and associating with Himself in the family of God the “many sons” whom He is bringing to glory. As risen from the dead, He has been manifested as Priest in the power of an unending life, after the order of Melchizedek, the absence of whose genealogy and death makes Him a fitting type of the Son of God - “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever” (13:8). “A body Thou hast prepared Me” (10:5) reminds us that He, in whom all these glories centered, was also Man, with a bodily life which He could offer up in sacrifice to God.
The Person of Christ as Revealed in the General Epistles
1 Peter
The fourth general division of the New Testament refers to the pilgrim character of the people of God, rather than to their heavenly position. But here too we find abundant testimony to the glories of Him of whom we speak. Peter tells us of the unblemished Lamb, “foreordained before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet. 1:19,20), and of the One who, in the days before the flood, before His incarnation, went by His Spirit and preached to the disobedient, through Noah, to those who are now the spirits in prison (1 Pet. 3:19). This passage teaches the pre-existence of our Lord.
1 John
The epistle of John, like his Gospel, dwells upon the person of Christ. He is that eternal Life which was with the Father and was manifested to us (chap.1). If one denies Him, the Son, he has not the Father (chap.2). He that believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God (chap.5). He closes his epistle with this confession of the person of Christ: “We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life” (1 Jn. 5:20).
Jude
Jude, verse 21, tells us to be looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Could we think of using such language of any but a divine person?
The Person of Christ as Revealed in the Book of Revelation
In the book of Revelation, chapter one discloses Christ to us in His majesty and glory, as the Ancient of Days, the First and the Last, the living One, who once died but is now alive forevermore. In chapter five, we see Him as the Lamb in the midst of the throne of God, receiving the book of the divine counsels from the hand of God, and sharing with Him the praise of all creation: “Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” (5:13) When heaven is opened and the Lord comes forth with the armies of heaven as the mighty Victor, chapter 19, upon His head are many crowns. He is the Faithful and True, the accomplisher of all God’s purposes, who is to lay at His Father’s feet an eternally ransomed creation. Three times in this chapter is His name spoken of: “He had a name written that no man knew but He Himself” (19:12), suggesting that ineffable name of the Eternal Son. His name is also called “the Word of God” (13), the revealer of God. He is also King of kings and Lord of lords (16), the Prince of the kings of the earth. As our eye rests upon the glories of the heavenly city, God’s dwelling place forever, the throne that is there is the throne of God and of the Lamb. The light of heaven, the lamp from which God’s glory is displayed, is the Lamb. Thus God and the Lamb are forever associated together.
This association of God the Father and His Son is confirmation of the strongest character of the equality of the divine persons. When Paul opens his epistles with the salutation, “Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” he puts the Father and the Son side by side. Could we associate an angel or a man with God the Father? Could we say, Grace and peace from God the Father and Isaiah or Jeremiah or the apostles or the noble army of martyrs? No, into that holy fellowship of the divine family, none can intrude.
The Person of Christ as Revealed in the Old Testament
When once we have learned the nature of our blessed Lord as fully revealed in the New Testament, we can turn back to the Old and find it radiant with His glories. The veil was upon the face of Moses, and is still upon the hearts of unbelieving Israel, but where there is faith the veil is removed and the glories of Christ are manifested.
Typical Persons
Many of the historical characters of the
Old Testament were in one way or another types of our Lord. In Isaac, we see Him as the Son of the Father, given up by Him in sacrifice, received from the dead in a figure, and for whom a bride was secured - type of the Church united to Christ.
In Joseph, we see the Son sent forth by His Father, rejected by His brethren (Israel), raised to the throne of glory during His rejection, associating with Himself a Gentile bride, the Church, and finally made known to His brethren, whom He delivers out of the great tribulation. In David, we see the man after God’s own heart, suffering but exalted; and in Solomon, we have a picture of the millennial glory of the true King of Israel.
Sacrifice
The Old Testament is filled with the doctrine of sacrifice. We can but enumerate some instances - the coats of skin with which our first parents were clothed; Abel’s offering; the passover, the sheltering blood of the Lamb; the Levitical offerings - burnt, peace, sin,trespass and meal.
The Priesthood
Aaron the high priest was evidently a type of Christ. The garments of glory and beauty with which he was adorned, all set forth some of the varied characters of our Lord. The inner garment of white linen tells of His spotless purity; the robe of blue of His heavenly character, and the ephod of His priestly service. The varied colors woven together in this priestly garment are peculiarly significant. Red speaks of His world-wide dominion; purple, of His Messiahship; blue, of His heavenly position; white again, of His purity; while the gold, woven with all these, tells of His deity.
The Tabernacle
This building was in many ways an evident type of Him who tabernacled amongst men. The curtains, with their materials and colors, we have already looked at in connection with His priestly garments. The covering of goats’ hair suggests His prophetic office; that of rams’ skins, His devotedness unto death; and the outermost covering of badger or seal skins, speaks of His separation from the world.
Prophecy
We cannot even enumerate the many glorious prophecies as to our Lord. A few characteristic passages must suffice: in Isaiah 53, we see Him as a Sufferer; in Isaiah 63, as the King and Victor; in Isaiah 50, we have before us One who can clothe the heavens in blackness, and yet who meekly yielded Himself in obedience to God. “He wakeneth My ear to hear as the learned” (Isa. 50:4). He gave His back to the smiters, His cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. He hid not His face from shame and spitting. In Daniel, we see Him as Messiah, the Prince; in Micah, as born at Bethlehem and yet the Eternal; in Zechariah, as the One against whom Jehovah called His sword to awake, the Man who was His Fellow.
The Psalms
The Psalms are rich in the praises of Christ.
We see Him in the 2nd as God’s King in Zion; in the 8th, as the Son of Man set over all the works of God’s hands; in the 16th, as the Man of faith, who ever trusted in God; in the 22nd, as the Sin-Bearer - “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me”? In the 23rd we see Him as the Great Shepherd, leading His flocks into the green pastures of heavenly blessedness, and in the 24th, as the Chief Shepherd appearing in glory, for whom the gates lift up their heads. Psalm 40 shows Him as the burnt offering; in Psalm 45, He is addressed as God. Psalm 69 presents Him as the trespass offering; Psalm 72 shows His world-wide kingdom. Perhaps the most amazing of all the testimonies from the Psalms is that of the 102nd. It is the prayer of the afflicted One, pouring out His soul in strong crying to God. “I said, O My God, take Me not away in the midst of My days”. This is the cry of the suffering Man. God’s response is “Thy years are throughout all generations. Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure...But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end”. The suffering Man is none other than the everlasting Jehovah!
The book of Proverbs
Divine wisdom is speaking, the wisdom of God. He was before all creation. “....Then was I by Him, as One brought up with Him; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him....and My delights were with the sons of men” (8:30,31).
Beloved in Christ, this is the person who is revealed to us in the Word of God. Let us make more of Him. Let Him be more to us in our daily life, in our intercourse with others; let Him be the center and the theme of all our preaching.
The Person of Christ in Relation to Other Doctrines
All Scripture doctrine gets its value from the truth of the person of our Lord. We will but mention a few of these doctrines more manifestly deriving their significance from the great foundation fact.
The Doctrine of the Atonement
It is the altar which sanctifieth the gift; the person of Christ gives value to His atoning work. Had He not been perfectly Man He could not have been the substitute for men, nor have died; had He not been divine, His sacrificial death would not have had the infinite value and efficacy that goes with His Godhead. Indeed, had He not been absolutely divine, we may well question the possibility of His having borne the awful load of our guilt. The true and complete nature of atonement is not seen in the mere bodily sufferings or even the death of our Lord; still less was the mockery, rejection and scorn to which He was subjected by man the basis of His atonement. The real value of that work was due to His having borne the wrath of God, to having been forsaken of Him. This forsaking was absolute. Had man been thus deserted, he would have exhibited the evil of the heart away from God, and have been cut off forever from the presence of God in the outer darkness, the portion of the lost. But with the Son of God, when thus forsaken, His heart was as absolutely loyal to God as when He stood upon the Mount of Transfiguration. His whole being in all its human divine perfections was thus engaged in the mighty work of atonement. Thus that work is of eternal value, sufficient for the guilt of all mankind, did they but turn in faith to Him. It is well to remember that our blessed Lord suffered for sins in order that He might bring us to God. Could we conceive of the possibility of souls being brought to God in such a way that they were not also brought to Christ? Can we ever forget, even in the bliss of heaven, the One who has brought us there? Is He not therefore God, who has brought us to Himself?
The Headship of Christ
Our Lord, as risen from the dead, is
Head to the Church; in the millennium, He will be displayed as Head over Israel and over all the nations of the earth. He is also Head and Lord over all creation. In each of these relationships, His personality is that which gives character to the position.
His Priesthood and Advocacy
The priest is the mediator between
God and man. The advocate maintains man in communion with God. How appropriate and necessary it is that our Priest should be able to lay one hand upon the needy worshiper and the other upon the very throne of God! He can thus sympathize with and succor the weak, without the sacrifice of a single divine attribute.
His Coming Again
The entire New Testament, after the ascent of our Lord into glory, places His coming again before the hearts of His people as the great hope which is to control their lives. It is this hope which separates them from the world and makes them pilgrims. All wait for the coming of God’s Son from heaven. It is His full person which gives sweetness to this blessed hope. It is “this same Jesus” who shall so come; and it is the Son of God who has prepared a place for us in the many mansions, who will come and receive us unto Himself.
The Eternal Conditions
We have already seen that all judgment has been committed to the Son. When He shall come in His glory, sitting upon the throne of His glory, all the nations shall be gathered before Him for judgment (Matt. 25). When the great white throne is set up, He that judges the dead, both small and great, is the Son of Man. Thus, He is the Judge of the quick – the living – and the dead. How unutterably solemn is the thought that He who gave Himself for the sin of the world, declares most unmistakably the awful and eternal doom of those who refuse His salvation.
The Doctrine of Inspiration
The written word of God has for its theme the living Word, and the living Word bears witness to the perfection of the written Word. It is He who has said, “The Scripture cannot be broken” (Jn. 10:35), and who has declared that not one jot or tittle shall pass from the law until all be fulfilled (Matt. 5:18). He has put the stamp of His approval upon the entire Old Testament, saying, “That all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning Me.” (Luke 24:44) Thus, the truth as to the person of the Son of God is witness to the infallible inspiration of the entire Scriptures.
The Doctrine of Justification by Faith
All the value of the work of Christ, the blessedness of forgiveness, peace with God, acceptance, is made available to man and received by faith alone. This faith, however, is directed toward His person rather than His work. Scripture constantly speaks of faith in Him. Therefore, all our blessings stand or fall with His person.