The Christ of God

In the presence of ever-increasing denials of the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ, how good it is for the souls of the saints to reassure themselves of the fact that He whom they worship and confess as Redeemer, and own as Lord, is indeed “the Lord of Glory” (1 Cor. 2:8); “He who is God over all, blessed for ever” (Rom. 9:5, R.V.), and “our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ” (Tit. 2:14, R.V.). He never was, never will be, never can be anything less than Son of God, and God the Son. It was such a confession of His Name that His question, “Whom say ye that I am?” as He stood in the midst of His little band of His first disciples, drew from Simon Peter in the glowing answer, “The Christ of God” (Luke 9:20), and later from Thomas, His once-doubting follower, the words of adorning worship, “My Lord, and my God” (John 20:28).

It must be well-pleasing to God to hear His Name confessed, His claims rehearsed, and His glories extolled by the lips of saints on earth, where once He was “despised and rejected of men,” and where, for claiming equality with God, men “took up stones to stone Him” (John 10:31), and at last crucified Him as a blasphemer (Luke 22:70-71). God seeks a full confession of His Deity, His Eternal Godhead before all worlds (John 1:1), when He lay as an infant on His mother’s breast, as He lived among men in the form of a servant, as He rose from the dead in victorious power, and as He now lives enthroned in majesty on the eternal throne as “Jesus the Son of God” (Heb. 4:14).

For He who became flesh (John 1:16), is now, and ever will be Man—sinless, spotless, and unblemished Man—yet He never ceased or could cease to be God, or relinquish any part of His Deity. Who always was and is God, as well as Son with the Father. He is ours as such, for ever. And in Him is our Life. He is our Lord, Head of the Church His body, and Head over all TO the Church. In whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9). He is God’s and ours (1 Cor. 3:23), as we are His, to be loved and led, to be cherished and fed, all the way and all the days, until we see Him as He is.

Of Him let us sing to God, and testify to man the full-orbed confession of our faith in His eternal, full, and absolute Deity, His equality with God, His true and perfect Manhood, and His perfect wisdom and knowledge. Weeping at Lazarus’ grave, in token of His sympathy with the sorrowing sisters, calling, with the voice of His Divine power and majesty, the dead man back to life. And at last, rising from His own tomb as Victor over death and hell. Who can doubt His Godhead or deny His power, in the face of an empty sepulchre and an occupied throne? Let us thank God for a Divine and perfect Redeemer and Saviour. And let us sing with heart and voice, in heavenly chorus, in the very face of the devil’s latest denials of our Lord’s Divine glory and His excellent majesty—

In Him most perfectly expressed,

The Father’s glories shine,

Of the FULL Deity possessed,

Eternally Divine!

J.Ri.

Article series: Our Glorious Lord