UNKNOWN, 1894

UNKNOWN, 1894

The attack on my lecture, which seems to me entirely uncalled for, is easily answered. The allegation is that I should have taught that Christ was only a channel of the grace of God to man. The answer is that the allegation is a deduction or inference, and that I never said nor thought anything of the kind. The omission of special reference in the lecture to the deity of Christ is explained by the fact that the subject of the lectures being ‘The Church’ Christ was spoken of in them naturally in that relation, assuming that my hearers were as assured as to the true deity of Christ as I am myself. Paul might have been arraigned on the same principle for omitting in the epistle to the Ephesians any statement of the deity of Christ or for ^[p. 99] saying to the Corinthians that to us (christians) there is one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ. I hardly need to answer the various questions raised in the letter as to the Lord’s words and actions here — they are an effort of the human mind to prove to itself the deity of Christ.. .. I have little doubt that in seeking to meet error on one side, error was plunged into on the other, and I judge it has arisen from want of appreciation of the Lord’s own statement of Himself in Luke 4 and the apostle’s testimony as to Him in Acts 2 and Acts 10. It was on this testimony that christianity was founded and by it the first thoughts of christians as to Christ were formed, but I grieve to say that this is dismissed, in the latter being said to be ‘the lowest character of testimony to the Son’. It is no wonder then that the truth of the real human identity of Christ is missed — the horn of salvation raised up in the house of David — the vessel of divine grace, so that there could be the anointing with the Holy Spirit and power, the going about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. Thus it was that the grace of God was presented to man in a Man, all in the pathway of obedience, and it is in Him as Man that the connection is maintained in the line of promise, and that risen and exalted, He (Christ) is given as Head to the church His body, the fulness of Him that fills all in all. That the One in whom all this was true was Himself in Person divine, the Son revealing the Father, who could while here being Himself divine speak, subject to the Father’s will, with the authority of God, and that abundant testimony was borne to Him by the Father, and by the works which He did is what every true christian sees and delights in, but nonetheless the truth remains that He was come from God and went to God, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself not imputing their trespasses. It seems to me that the first principles of the truth of ^[p. 100] Christ have not been learned in the Spirit. Paul brought out in testimony the truth that Jesus was the Son of God, but this does not set aside the first testimony of the apostles, and John’s gospel is given that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and while I reverently accept the second, I am not going to give up the first. The greatest proof to one of the deity of Christ is the fact that He was such a Man as could receive the Spirit without measure.