Let us consider some Scriptures concerning the person of Christ our Saviour. In Rom. 1:1-4 we read of "the gospel of God . . . concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead." In Matthew also He is said to be the "Son of David, the son of Abraham" (1:1), and then to have been begotten of the Holy Spirit_before He is announced as the Saviour. It is the person that attracts the gaze before we can consider His work. It is otherwise with the sinner. As a rule he first learns the value of the work of Christ before he considers the truth of His person. The blessed Lord Himself, in His conversation with Nicodemus, first declares the mysterious dignity of His person, and then proclaims His rejection and death:"No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:13-15).

There are, then, two sides to the person of Christ. He was God manifest in flesh. "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). The Word was the eternal Son, and the eternal Son became man. He was thus God and man_a union of extremes that was not possible in any other, and that rendered His person so unfathomable, so incomprehensible, that He Himself said, "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father" (Matt. 11:27). But it is essential that we hold fast both His true divinity and His as equally true humanity. For had He not been true man, He could not have been a sacrifice for sin; and had He not been God, His sacrifice could not have been available to all. Satan knows this, and hence, in every age, he has sought to undermine the one or the other of these truths, insinuating doubts sometimes concerning His humanity, and sometimes concerning His divinity. But it is the glory of the person of Christ that He is both divine and human, that He is, in His one person, both God and man. This truth lies at the foundation of, and indeed gives its character to, redemption.

How vast a field is thus opened for our contemplation! Following Christ in His pathway down here, from the manger at Bethlehem to the cross at Calvary, we see the unfoldings both of the human and the divine. As we behold Him, His lowly appearance, "His visage … so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men" (Isa. 52:14); as we mark Him in companionship with His disciples, and see Him weary and resting, eating and drinking, weeping with those who wept (John 11), and sleeping, too, on a pillow in the rear of the ship (Mark 4:38), we cannot doubt that He was man. It was, indeed, the proofs of His humanity which confounded His adversaries and blinded them to His higher claims.

On the other hand, the evidences of His divinity are no less clear to the anointed eye. Who but God could cleanse the leper, open the eyes of the blind, raise the dead to life, and control the wind and the waves? Hence He said to Philip, in answer to his demand to show him the Father:"Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; or else believe Me for the very works’ sake" (John 14:10,11). And what He was, what He is declared to be in the Scriptures, is still more conclusive. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." "No man hath seen God at any time:the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" (John 1:1,18). He is said to be "the brightness of [God’s] glory, and the express image of His person" (Heb. 1:3). In another epistle He is described as "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn 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 consist" (Col. 1:15-17). Consider moreover His own words:"He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). "I and My Father are one" (John 10:30). "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). Who can doubt that He claimed to be divine?

We cannot too often bless God for the four Gospels, in which are blended these two aspects of the person of Christ. Hence they are the most profound of all the Scriptures because they contain the unfoldings of a divine-human life. No doubt the narratives are simple on their surface; but as we are led on by the Spirit of God, we begin to discover that there are depths of which we had never dreamed, and into which we must gaze_and continue to gaze_if we would behold the treasures that are contained therein. And the more we become familiarized with their contents, the more we shall be impressed with the majesty of the person of Christ as the God-man, God manifest in the flesh. And it should never be forgotten that there can be no stability where there is any uncertainty as to the person of our Saviour. What strength it gives to the soul to be able to say_to quote the language of another_"The pillars of the earth rest upon that Man who was despised, spit upon, and crucified!" It is the knowledge of what He is, no less (if not more) than what He has done, that draws out our hearts in confidence, adoration, and praise. For indeed He "is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen" (Rom. 9:5).

(From Unsearchable Riches.)