THE
DEITY OF CHRIST (part 2)
"The Word was God."--John 1:1
"That Christ is truly God is manifestly declared, in that
Paul attributes the same things equally unto Him, which he does unto the
Father, that is, divine power, as the giving of grace, the forgiveness of
sins, peace of conscience, life, victory over sin, death, the devil, and
hell. Now to give grace, peace, everlasting life; to forgive sins, to make
righteous, to quicken, to deliver from death and the devil, are not the
works of any creature, but of the Divine Majesty alone. The angels can
neither create, nor give these things. Therefore these works pertain only to
the glory of the Sovereign Majesty--the Maker of all things. It must needs
follow that Christ is truly and naturally God." –Luther.
In the preceding chapter, a rapid survey has been taken
of the more important scripture attestations (and more especially those
contained in the Old Testament), to the supreme Godhead of the Redeemer.
We proceed to complete the proof, by referring to a few
of the leading assertions of the inspired writers in the New
Testament, in support of the same cardinal truth of the Christian system. We
must refer the reader, who wishes more minutely to prosecute inquiry, to
those ampler treatises compiled by masters in Israel, wherein the faith of
the Church in the Divinity of her Lord has been nobly vindicated.
To begin with testimonies contained in the GOSPELS. We
shall not attempt to enter on the proof from miracles; although to these,
our blessed Lord Himself pointed, as special attestations to His divine
mission. When the Baptist sent some of his own disciples from the prison of
Machaerus with the query, "Are You He that should come, or do we look for
another?" what was the Savior's reply? With what proofs did He confirm and
authenticate His Messiahship in the eyes of these wavering and misgiving
followers? He stretched forth His hands on the surrounding groups stricken
with sin and suffering--the palsied with their tottering limbs--the blind
with their sealed eyes--the fever-stricken with their burning lips--the
demon-possessed with their wild and vacant stare--"He healed them ALL;" and
then, pointing the messengers to the masses thus restored by His omnipotent
touch and word--the closed eye opening to the light of day--the halting
cripple leaping with joy--the dull ear of the deaf unstopped--the fevered
couch emptied of its tenant--the wild raving maniac led gently as a
child--"Go," said He, "Go your way, and tell John what you have seen and
heard."
Let us, however, rather restrict ourselves to a few of
the direct statements contained in the Gospels and Epistles.
We may begin with another testimony of that same great
Forerunner to whom we have just alluded. "John bore witness of Him, and
cried saying, This was He of whom I spoke, He that comes after me is
preferred before me, for He was before me. He must increase, but I must
decrease. He that comes from above is above all."
More explicit still is the witness of the other John.
When he wrote his Gospel, the venerable Saint of Ephesus was the last
survivor of the apostolic band. Well might the eagle, with its strength of
wing and soaring flight, be deemed by the early Christians his most
appropriate emblem--reaching, as he did, altitudes attained by no other in
the regions of uncreated light and glory, as if basking in the very beams of
the unveiled Sun of Righteousness! "Impatient," says Augustine, "of setting
his foot on the earth, he rises, from the very first words of his Gospel,
not only above earth and the span of air and sky, but above all angels and
invisible powers, until he reaches Him by whom all things were made." Surely
if there had been no other proof in Scripture, this sublime epitome of the
teachings of the favored apostle (part of which heads this and the former
chapter), would of itself suffice to settle the question--"In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was
not anything made that was made."
What language could be more forcible or conclusive? "This
passage," to take the testimony of Griesbach among those of a hundred
scholars, "is so clear and so superior to all exception, that by no daring
efforts of either commentators or critics can it ever be overturned, or be
snatched out of the hands of the defenders of the truth." There is, in these
utterances of the beloved Disciple, nothing figurative--nothing parabolic.
They consist of a series of simple propositions--the articles of a creed,
which John, in an age when heresy was rampant, left as a sacred legacy to
the Church of the future as to the supreme divinity of the Incarnate
Word--the "Image of the Invisible God."
But we cannot linger on the testimonies of the Gospels.
Eliminate from these the fact of His absolute Deity, and they become
incomprehensible. You try to quench the radiance which beams out on every
page. As it has been well said, "Reduce Him to a mere teacher like Plato, or
a Prophet like Isaiah, and it is as if the Gospels were emptied of their
meaning. The very substance of the doctrine is gone--the teaching of Jesus
is little more but a tinkling cymbal. All that sublime mystery which has
nourished the souls of saints in all time, is then rightly pronounced the
most defective portion of His teaching. If He is not God, the divinest side
of His doctrine becomes the most vulnerable. It can only subsist, if beneath
the formulas is felt the throb of a life which is truly of God."
Passing from the Gospels to the EPISTLES. Although not
directly a proof of absolute Godhead, let us begin with Paul's assertion,
"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich,
yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be
rich." "Though rich"--what could this mean on the supposition that Christ
was a mere man? His lowly birth--His manger cradle--the carpenter's home at
Nazareth--all these render the reference surely to His "riches"
inappropriate. He was, in earthly condition, the poorest of the poor; a
Galilean peasant; who had at times not where to lay His head! Moreover, on
the supposition of mere manhood, how could there be "grace" manifested by
Him in assuming our nature? Where would be the condescension in a man taking
upon him the common garb of humanity? The whole force of the apostle's words
is lost on such an hypothesis. But take the true view of this noble passage.
Regard the writer as speaking of the mighty stoop of Infinite Godhead, and
all becomes plain!
We may select as our next reference, that contained in
the same Apostle's Epistle to the Philippians, in which he clearly and
indubitably claims for Christ the possession of a nature and perfections
immeasurably superior to the most exalted and glorious of dependent
existences--in other words DIVINE. "Who being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God." "God also has highly exalted Him, and
given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under
the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
Stronger and more emphatic still is the Apostle's
language in another sublime passage, where he anticipates the very heresies
of later centuries, and controverts the erroneous views of those who would
assign to Christ no more than an exalted place in the ranks of creatureship,
making Him 'an inferior workman, creating for the glory of a higher
Master--for a God superior to Himself'--a passive instrument rather than an
original and originating agent. He vindicates His dignity and glory as Lord,
'in His creative power, His eternal existence, His heirship over the
universe--that universe, the theater on which He is to accomplish His
purposes and display His perfections…ascribing to Him, therefore, infinite
power, infinite wisdom.' "Who is the image of the invisible God, the
first-born of every creature. 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 are held
together."
It has been well observed, that "while the Epistle to the
Hebrews lays almost more emphasis than any other book of the New Testament
upon Christ's true humanity, it is nevertheless certain that no other book
more implicitly asserts the reality of His divine prerogatives." Let us
listen to the impressive exordium--"God, who at sundry times and in diverse
manners spoke unto the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days
spoken unto us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, by
whom also He made the worlds, Who being the brightness of His glory, and
the express image of His person, and UPHOLDING all things by the word of
His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right
hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as
He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For to which
of the angels said He at any time, You are My Son, today have I begotten
You? And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to me a Son? And
again, when He brings in the first-begotten into the world He says, And let
all the angels of God worship Him. And of the angels He (only) says, Who
makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a flaming fire. But unto the
Son, He says, Your throne, O GOD, is forever and ever."
We have already listened to the apostle John in the
opening of his Gospel. Let us now hear the same honored disciple in
the opening of his Epistles. We may repeat the introductory
words--"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have
handled, of the Word of life. (For the life was manifested, and we have seen
it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with
the Father, and was manifested unto us.)" Again, "And we know that the Son
of God is come, and has given us an understanding that we might 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 (the) eternal life."
Another indirect class of evidences is furnished
conjointly, by passages, contained in gospels and epistles, in which
adoration is rendered to Christ. We know that worship or adoration is
given to God alone. We know, moreover, from various statements in the
Old Testament, how jealous the Divine Being is of giving His glory to
another. "It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only
shall you serve." When John, also, fell at the feet of the angel, and was
about to render him an act of homage, he was rebuked by the words, "Do not
worship me. …worship God." The very fact, therefore, of the Son
having adoration ascribed to Him, forms surely the strongest testimony, that
not only is He higher than any angelic being, but has a title to deity
itself. We have already heard our blessed Lord Himself claiming the
prerogative, "That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the
Father." "That at the name of Jesus," says the Apostle, "every knee should
bow." More than once in the apostolic benedictions, He is put on an equality
with the Father, as if entitled to receive parity of homage--"The grace of
our Lord Jesus, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit."
And if we pass from the Church militant to the Church triumphant in heaven,
described in the Book of Revelation; as an appropriate close to all, we
listen to the divine ascription of the "ten thousand times ten thousand, and
thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that
was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and
glory and blessing." No testimony or tribute to the Savior's supreme
Divinity can go beyond this, in its impressiveness and sublimity. We behold,
in wondrous vision, concentric circles of worshipers in the upper
sanctuary--"angels, living ones, and elders." They are represented as
gathered, in devoutest adoration, around a slain and wounded Lamb, gazing on
these mysterious symbols of suffering in a place where suffering is
unknown--The Rock of Ages furrowed with mysterious clefts and crevices! From
one of these circles (the inner favored group of redeemed humanity), there
comes the ascription which they alone are qualified to utter, "Worthy is the
Lamb that was slain." But the key-note thus struck by the white-robed band,
is taken up by teeming myriads, reaching to the outskirts of illimitable
space. All creation becomes vocal with the hymn to the same enthroned Lamb,
once more associated and identified with the Supreme God--"And every
creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such
as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing and
honor and glory and power, be unto Him that sits upon the throne, and unto
the Lamb forever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the
four-and-twenty elders fell down and worshiped Him that lives forever and
ever." "And the four living ones said, Amen. And the four-and-twenty elders
fell down and worshiped HIM THAT LIVES FOREVER AND EVER."
Such then, briefly and imperfectly summarized, are some
of the leading scriptural attestations to the Savior's Divinity; and we
would say to all readers on the retrospect, "As wise men, judge." Are we
prepared to bow with reverence before Him, and to say in words of more
emphatic adhesion and acknowledgment than those of Nathaniel, "Rabbi, You
are the Son of God, You are the King of Israel?" or, like one who loved Him
as her son, but adored Him as her God--"My spirit has rejoiced in God
my Savior? or with the once doubting, but now convinced and believing
Thomas--"My Lord and my God?" Let us seek to grasp and realize the full
grandeur of this Truth of truths; to have it more frequently before us as a
subject of devout contemplation--that the Christ of Nazareth, the Savior of
Calvary--He who bled for me as Man upon the cross, and pleads for me on the
throne, is the Mighty Jehovah; that He was before all things; that He reared
every arch and pillar in the Universe Temple. "Lift up your eyes on high,
and behold who has created these things, that brings out their host by
number--He calls them all by their names." Before these stars were made,
before these altar-fires were lighted in immensity, before man or angel or
seraph, throne or dominion or principality or power existed, this
all-glorious Being lived--one in essence and substance with the Eternal
Father.
Any lowlier view of the nature and dignity of Christ
would not suffice. It would be like blotting out the sun from these visible
heavens to attempt to erase the supreme divinity of Jesus from the creed of
Christendom. No angel, no creature could save me. The incarnation of the
highest archangel before the throne, and his voluntary substitution as a
sacrificial offering for my sins, would be a simple impossibility. No
creature of God can atone for the sin of a fellow creature. The fact of
creatureship would vitiate the work of such a surety. As a creature, though
the loftiest and purest, his life is not his own. He is himself a pensioner
on God's bounty. In dying for me, and forfeiting his life, he would be
forfeiting that which was not his to give.
Add to this, if Christ be no more than the first and most
exalted of angels, He would necessarily be devoid of the attributes and
prerogatives of Deity. Divest Him of these, and how dwarfed and limited
immediately become His capabilities, alike as Intercessor and King. If a
mere creature, even though on the pinnacles of creature-being, how could He
be omnipresent with His Church? He could listen afar, so to speak, to
the hum of the world's swarming population, as we do from window or balcony,
on some great festal occasion, to the multitudinous voices--'the loud
stunning tide' of the surging throng beneath, without being able to catch or
discriminate one articulate utterance.
But He must be God--He must have the attributes of
omnipotence and omniscience, to enter into every separate home and take
cognizance of every separate heart, and have an ear for the music of every
separate prayer, and a hand to wipe every falling tear. As our Great High
Priest on the throne, He is said to wear the breastplate gleaming with the
names of all His covenant Israel. But how could He thus bear them, in the
sense of knowing each individual name, if that heart of His did not throb
with the pulses of Deity? How could He control the destinies of the Church
and of the world if "all power" had not been His of right? How could He be
"unchangeable" if His own will and purposes were dependent on a Higher?
Christ a mere man! Then what a mockery to say to slumbering millions,
"Awake, you that sheep, and arise from the dead, and CHRIST shall give you
life." Oh, if He be but a creature, though the highest in rank in the
heavenly peerage, I cannot confide to Him my eternal destinies. If He who
bowed His head on that cross be a mere man and no more, I cannot look to Him
as the Rock of Ages! A creature! as well pillow my head on the
unstable wave. But blessed be God, I can plant my foot upon the
living Rock of His deity. I can trust in Him, not as a prince, or as the son
of man, in whom there would be no stay--but I can "trust in the Lord
forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is THE ROCK OF AGES." Invoking Him as such,
I can with devout confidence of a gracious answer, join in the prayer, "O
GOD the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy upon us, miserable sinners!"
Indeed, independent of the imperative need of Deity to
qualify Him to be a complete Savior, we cannot read the record of His own
wondrous life, without seeing in it the element of supporting Godhead. What
but Deity could have upheld Him in His own trial hour? Look at His
temptations in the wilderness and the garden! What but the Rock of His
Godhead could have stood, as wave after wave rolled against it? Adam
was a pure and glorious creature. But when these same billows swept over
him, he was borne away like a reed on the waters. Satan was once a pure and
glorious creature (supposed to have been at the head of all created
intelligences), a chieftain and lord amid principalities and powers. The
billows of temptation in his case, also, came--he was driven with his
legions down into the fathomless abyss. If Christ had been only a creature,
how can we dare predicate of Him that He could have better withstood the
assaults of evil? But as these crested breakers surged against 'the Rock,'
we know how they receded, chafed and buffeted. The Prince of this world came
and had nothing in Him!
Reader, enter this glorious Cleft! Come, adore the
mystery of godliness, "God manifest in the flesh"--the Divine Being
who created by His word--who sustains by His providence--who, as the
God-man, redeems with His blood. Come, contemplate His nativity, with its
mystic star and shining hosts of angels, the silence of night made vocal
with celestial song. Come, behold His wondrous works. See, as we have just
been beholding, sickness taking wings at His word. See demons crouching
rebuked in His presence, and yielding reluctant admission to His claims. See
Him reading the inmost thoughts of an outcast sinner at the well of Samaria.
See Him claiming power to forgive sin by the palsied couch at Capernaum. See
the waves of His own Gennesaret having their turmoil quelled--rocking
themselves to rest at His omnipotent "Peace be still." See Death casting his
iron crown at the feet of the Lord of life--its fettered Victim bursting the
bands that swathed him.
Does the Socinian say, Who but man could shed these tears
at Bethany? Yes, we reply, but who, save God, could speak these words,
"Lazarus, come forth!" Come to the cross of Calvary. See the sun hiding his
face at the death-throes of his Almighty Maker, and earth heaving convulsive
to her core! See the mysterious Sufferer encircling with a halo of glory the
brows of a dying malefactor, and in the hour of His own deepest humiliation,
opening the gates of Paradise to the vilest and most miserable of sinners!
Come to His own grave, the sepulcher at Golgotha--behold the crowning proof
of His divinity, when "declared to be the Son of God with power, by His
resurrection from the dead." See Him standing as the God-man with His vacant
sepulcher behind Him--with all the chains and bonds and missiles of Satan,
meant for His destruction, now gathered as trophies of victory. Come, see
the pictures drawn of His future universal reign, by psalmists and
prophets--"the Great jubilee of pardoned humanity," when welcomed as Prince
of Peace, King of kings and Lord of lords, to the throne of universal
empire--Midian, Ephah and Sheba--(the Bedouins of the desert--the children
of the far east), hastening on dromedaries with their gold and incense--the
ships of Tarshish, the symbols of the civilization of the west, bounding
over the waves with their costly offerings of fidelity and adoration. The
glory of Lebanon on the north, and of Ethiopia in the south, is laid
tributary at His feet--the wealth of the material creation, beautifying and
adorning the place of His sanctuary--His dominion extending "from sea to
sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth."
That dominion secures deliverance, redemption, peace--the
numbers of His spiritual adherents--the members of His Church, are likened
to doves flying to their windows--flocks of living souls, "whose wings are
covered with silver, and their feathers with yellow gold," speeding for
shelter and repose into the clefts of this mighty ROCK--and yet room for
all! See kings and princes casting their crowns and scepters before Him,
esteeming it an honor to be servants and vassals of a Mightier--His name
enduring forever--continuing long as the sun--"the whole earth filled with
His glory" the voice of a great multitude heard in heaven--increasing until
it is like the voice of many waters--deepening into the voice of mighty
thunderings, saying, "Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigns."
And then, as the Drama of Time is in the act of closing,
behold Him coming "with clouds" (clouds, the invariable symbol and emblem of
deity,) every eye seeing Him--behold Him seated "as the Ancient of
Days"--His garment "white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure
wool,"--His throne like the fiery flame, and wheels as burning fire;
thousand thousands ministering to Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand
standing before Him. Yes! let the Unitarian take His Gospel without Godhead
in it--let Infidelity attempt to reduce the Person and mission of the
adorable Immanuel to that of the mere Founder of a new system of divine
philosophy, a new Head of a religious school--be it ours to pay a nobler and
truer homage to Him who is unveiled to us in sacred story as "the Word,"
"the Life," "the Light," "the Truth," "the Omnipresent," "the
Heart-searcher," the "Beginning and the ending," the Creator of worlds, the
Redeemer of souls--the Wonderful--the Adored of angels--the appointed
judge--the enthroned King--the I AM of eternal ages! Be it ours to testify
that the struggles and toils of 1800 years have not been made, to defend and
vindicate a monstrous delusion--that thousands of crowned martyrs now in
heaven have not shed their blood to uphold a lie. Be it ours to see in Him,
the Creator who has plenished the universe with worlds--the glory of
illimitable Godhead enshrined in a human tabernacle--aye, and better still,
be it ours to be able to say in reverential faith, as we fall adoring at His
feet, "This God shall be our God forever and ever!"
We would only imitate the example of the Psalmist, and in
conclusion, call upon all creation to rise and do homage to this its
Incarnate Maker. Praise Him in the heavens! Praise Him in the heights. 'O
Sun of this great world, both eye and soul,' reflect His glory! Moon! take
your silver lyre--strike your harp in the praise of your God! Stars, gather
your brilliant gems as a coronal for His brow! Floods, rise and thunder
forth His praise. Every flower that blooms, come and waft your fragrance
around the rose of Sharon. Lisping infancy, come with your Hosannahs.
Penitence, come bathed in tears. Sorrow, come in the extremity of anguish to
this Divine Sympathizer, this living God yet your Brother. Youth, come with
your green ears of consecration. Manhood, come in your strength. Old age,
come leaning on your staff. Come, saints and prophets of olden time! Come,
noble army of martyrs! Come, you heavenly hosts! cherubim and seraphim,
gather in to the universal homage! Let the Church triumphant echo back the
strains of "the Church throughout all the world"--"YOU ARE THE KING OF
GLORY, O CHRIST--YOU ARE THE EVERLASTING SON OF THE FATHER!"