The central truth of all truth is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ
The central truth of all truth
is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a man on earth and His life here
closed upon a malefactor’s cross. He is a man now at the right hand of the
Majesty on High, having been raised from among the dead by the glory of the
Father. But He who was man in humiliation on earth, who is still a man in
exaltation in heaven, and who will never surrender manhood is also God, eternal
in being and omnipotent in power. He was God before He took up manhood. He did
not cease to be God when He tabernacled among men. What He was, He, is, and shall
be forever.
The necessity of the Deity of
Jesus meets us first in relation to men being brought to God in righteousness.
No purpose of God for men could be realized if they were not brought to Him
righteously according to His eternal justice and holiness. How could this be
done; and who was able to do it? The question is not a new one. It
was asked by Job long centuries ago when he cried, "How should man be just
with God?" (Job 9:2) And the question was not one of passing interest,
engaging his attention for a moment merely; it received his most earnest
consideration, for he realized how vital a question it was. In the ninth
chapter of Job we find him testing one by one the suggestions that arose in
regard to it. Finally, apparently hopeless of finding an answer, he broke out
in that soul-stirring lament, "HE IS NOT A MAN, AS I. AM, that I should
answer Him, and we should come together in judgment. NEITHER IS THERE ANY
DAYSMAN BETWIXT US, THAT MIGHT LAY HIS HAND UPON US BOTH. Let Him take His rod
away from me, and let not His fear terrify me:then would I speak, and not fear
Him; but it is not so with me" (Job 9:32-35).
Do you perceive where he stood,
and can you interpret his feelings? He said in effect:"I know that I have
sinned against Him, and if He were a man, as I am, I could understand His
displeasure; I could estimate the extent of my offense, and I could go to Him
and make restitution for the wrong that I have done and so be at peace with
Him. But He is not a man as I am, and I cannot enter into judgment with Him. I
do not know where to begin the argument. I cannot measure the demands of His
justice. I have no ground upon which to stand before Him. The gulf between us
is immeasurable from my side. He is almighty, holy, and just, and I am weak, sinful,
and guilty. His very holiness is a terror to me; it makes me afraid."
Job could have hope only if a
daysman, or mediator, appeared in the case, fully qualified to take it up and
see how accurately he had gauged the situation. He must be one who can stand
between us—between God, infinitely holy and just, and the sinner, guilty and
conscience-stricken— and put his hand upon us both; and, says Job, I know no
one who can do it. I have felt the need of such an one, longed for him, sought
for him, but I have not found him.
Mark well the qualifications
that the needed mediator must possess. He must stand between God and the
sinner, and by so doing declare his willingness to take up the case, and he
must be able to put his hand upon both. I beg of you not to miss the meaning of
that. I might come to you and lay my. hand upon your shoulder and talk
familiarly with you, for we are equals. But I could not stand beside His
Majesty the King and lay my hand upon him, for it would not be proper even if I
had the opportunity. How much less could a man lay his hand upon God, or upon
the throne of God! We read of Uzzah, who held out his hand to steady the ark
which was a symbol of God’s throne and presence in Israel. The moment his
presumptuous fingers touched that throne of God he fell to the earth a corpse.
Learn from that solemn incident that no man can put his hand upon God or the
throne of God and live. Yet the mediator for whom Job cried in his despair must
be able to put his hand upon God. He must be God’s equal for none less could
intervene or be of use to Job or to us. But; he must also put his hand upon
men. He must be one of us, able to take our part and to identify himself with
our vast indebtedness. HE MUST BE GOD AND MAN.
It should be evident to us all,
as it was to Job, that such an One we cannot produce, for no man, even the
best, could exalt himself to Deity. The attempt to do so, which will be made by
the coming superman, the second beast Revelation 13, will be the climax of all
blasphemy and will result in that impious and devil-inspired false prophet
being cast alive into the lake of fire (Rev. 19). Men cannot bring forth the
needed mediator. Here they come to their wit’s end. They have no hope except in
God, the One whose glory has been challenged by their sin. But man’s extremity
is God’s opportunity, and the One whom Job could not find on earth has come
from heaven. Our part is to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.
The New Testament is the book of
the Mediator. In its first chapter there stands twice in capital letters, the
name of its great subject and true title, JESUS. "Thou shalt call His name
JESUS:for He shall save His people from their sins" (verse 21). "She
. . . brought forth her firstborn son:and he called His name JESUS" (verse
25). Jesus is Emmanuel, GOD WITH US. To cheer the faith of those who lived in
those dim days, the prophetic Scriptures had foretold His coming:"But
thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,
yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel;
whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Micah 5:2).
That word was fulfilled when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Then He appeared who
was able to speak to man on God’s behalf and to speak to God on man’s behalf,
for He is God and Man.
Being God, He knew according to
God’s perfect estimate the effect to the universe of man’s disregard of God’s
will, the extent to which man’s sin jeopardized the glory of God, and the
demands of the Eternal Throne in regard to the violation of its just decrees.
He knew how completely man’s self-will had made him the slave of sin, how great
the gulf was that separated him from God, and how utterly powerless man was to
rectify the awful wrong that he had committed. He knew the penalty that had to
be paid, the conflict that had to be waged, and the work that had to be done.
It was the will of God that every problem raised by man’s sin should be taken
up and settled in a way in which all God’s attributes should be glorified, and
salvation secured for us. The Son, coming to accomplish the will of God said,
"A body hast Thou prepared Me … Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it
is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God" (Heb. 10:5,7). He became man to
stand in our place before God, to take the bill of our terrible indebtedness,
and to fully meet it so that God Himself could write "Settled" across
the account. This involved for Him the sorrows of Calvary. There, as the holy
Substitute for men, He "gave Himself a ransom." The sacrifice that He
made has met all the claims of the throne, and He is now "THE ONE MEDIATOR
BETWEEN GOD AND MAN, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS." Only One who could estimate
things according to God’s own measure of them could do what He has done.
What a Saviour is Jesus! How
worthy is He of our fullest praise! He stooped to us that He might put His hand
upon us, degraded though we were, and He has done it tenderly and graciously so
that we are not afraid. There is no terror for us in His hand; we do not shrink
from Him. He has touched us with the touch of a man and bound us with cords of
love. Yet He was never less than God, and God has touched us in Him. He has put
one hand upon us, and the other is placed upon the throne of God. With the one
hand he has offered the fullest satisfaction to the righteous claims of God,
and with the other He has bestowed fullness of grace upon us. He brings us to
God and gives us a place in His presence without fear, in everlasting peace
established upon the infallible and immovable foundation of divine
righteousness. All this is secured for us by a divine Person for the eternal
glory of God.
Thus are we justified before
God, and all our fear is removed. We are free to behold the hand that has been
placed upon us, and to mark the fact that it is a nail-pierced hand. We know
the power of this hand, too, for it has smitten death for us, and will never
relinquish its hold upon us. As He is now a Man in heaven, even so shall we be
there:He the first-born among many brethren, we His associates identified with
Him in an everlasting oneness. He will never surrender that true humanity which
He has taken up, and as He is, so are we also who are His. The purpose of God
is that we shall be conformed to His own image. So we shall be, and yet we
shall never forget that He is "over all, God blessed for ever." (Rom.
9:5). Selected