JUNE, 1894

JUNE, 1894

I believe the testimony of Scripture to be that Christ, while in Person divine, did not take here the place of God but of Man (Mark 10: 18; John 8:40) and of servant. He came not to be ministered to but to minister. Still being in Person divine, and He could not be less, Jesus could speak with the authority of God, as we see in John 2:19; John 8:58. But He spoke and did nothing from Himself, and in this place and state as Son of man in the power of the Holy Spirit which was in Him without measure. He spoke the Father’s words, and did the Father’s works. Thus God was manifested in the flesh. I believe this to be the Lord’s own account of Himself, and the testimony to Him of the Spirit. The miracles which He did as anointed with power attested His word and approved Him as man. But He could not be such a man without being God. He, existing in the form of God, emptied Himself, and took on Him a servant’s form, becoming in the likeness of men, and as Man ^[p. 90] humbled Himself in obedience. But at the same time it was the Person of the Son that did this and became identified with manhood. Now I would not be prepared to say that in becoming Man He did or could divest Himself of attributes that properly belong to His Person (see Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3), though when here in the place of man we do not see Him in the exercise of those attributes, but in the truth of the state and place He had taken. How this could be is beyond human power to say. I hardly conceive love to be an attribute of God, but rather what His nature is substantively.