Christ and the Scriptures

There is a vital, yea, an inseparable link between the Word Incarnate and the Word Inspired, between Christ and the Scriptures. “In the beginning was the Word,” is the great opening declaration of the Fourth Gospel. Before there was a bright angel in heavenly courts above, or a living creature in the fair earth below, He, the Eternal Son, the Word at whose fiat all things came into existence, was there. And it is of Him eternal, uncreated, possessed of full Deity, then incarnate, obedient, sacrificed, and now glorified, that the inspired Word, the Sacred Scriptures, breathed from God, tell.

The inspired Word, from first to last is full of Christ, and Christ, throughout the entire path of His obedience, service, and suffering here, was full of the Word. He was the supreme Believer in and Lover of the Book of God. He received it in its entirety as He found it, in the full confidence that it was the Word of God, and He called it so (Mark 7:13). He was the Man whose delight was in the Law of the Lord, and He meditated therein “day and night” (Ps. 1:2). His ear was awakened morning by morning to hear as a disciple (Isa. 50:4, R.V.), so that He knew well how and what to speak, as a word in season to the weary. And the Word of God was His constant study. It was “His custom” to read it for Himself and to others in the synagogue at Nazareth, His village home for thirty years (Luke 4:16). Little wonder if “doctors” of the law in Jerusalem were astonished at His knowledge of the Book, and the answers He could give to their questions on its contents, when a boy of twelve (Luke 2:42, 47). He had more understanding than all His teachers, because He meditated on God’s testimonies (Psa. 119:19).

And when the great adversary in the days of His temptation thrice assailed Him, and was thrice foiled and discomfited, it was because He lived by every Word that proceeded from the mouth of God, and had the right word at the right moment, as the “sword of the Spirit,” to meet him with (Mt. 4:3-11) on his own ground. Yes, blessed be His peerless Name, our Lord was the Man of the Book, and esteemed its words more than His “necessary food” (Job 23:12). In His public ministry He spake to the people “the Word of God,” and they “pressed upon Him” to hear it (Luke 5:1). He had no questions, such as are raised by some in our time, as to its reliability. In the last hours of His agony and untold sufferings on the Cross, it was to “fulfil” the Scriptures that He asked for the vinegar to drink, and at last bowed His head in death.

Blessed Redeemer, who would not love and reverence and obey the Word Thou did’st love and own and honour so well? And on that bright Easter day’s journey toward Emmaus, after He had come forth from the grave a Conqueror, it was the Book as it were anew in His hands, that He expounded to the two sad fellow-travellers on the road that Lord’s Day afternoon, “in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” What a Scripture reading that was, to be sure, with Christ Himself as Expounder and Theme, and “all the Scriptures” the text book! Little wonder their heart “burned within them” as they walked. It is the Christ of the Scriptures, Jesus, our Lord and Lover, Jesus as Sacrifice, Redeemer, Saviour and Lord, we go to the Book of God to find, to see, to adore, and to worship. And none ever go to the Sacred Book, subject to the guidance and teaching of the Spirit, with a true desire to find Him there, in vain. Nor will any true lover of the Lord, who reveres His person and owns His claims, ever neglect or lightly esteem that Word, which was His delight, and which He has left to be the Guide and Counsellor of His people “all the days,” till they see His face in glory.

To neglect the Sacred Word as the food of the soul, and the subject of daily meditation, is to lose sight of Christ. And to miss seeing Him, is to lack the true motive for all real Christian life and acceptable service.

The Person and the Word

Christ is the Everlasting Word,

Incarnate, and Divine,

Through whom the Father is declared,

In whom all virtues shine.

To Him the Spirit ever leads,

Of Him He witness bears,

And faith receiving of His own,

All grace in fulness shares.

The written Word, from first to last,

All perfect and inspired,

Unfolds the virtues of the Son

By Christ-won hearts desired.

And gazing on His beauty there,

Transfigured day by day,

They walk and talk of Christ Himself,

Along the heavenward way.

J.Ri.

Article series: Our Glorious Lord