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النشر الإلكتروني

THE DIVINE CHARACTER OF CHRIST.

LESSON XLVIII.

"If David then calleth him Lord, how is he his son."Matt. 22: 45.

"He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."-John 14: 9.

1. God is a spirit, having neither beginning of days, or ending of life. It was difficult therefore for a Jew to understand one of their own countrymen, when he claimed to be that God.

2. This arose from the misapprehension of the sense in which it was claimed. There was no misapprehension in the mind of the Jew, as to the term "Son of God." They understood it just as Christ used it, as a figure of speech signifying "God again."

3. That our Saviour used the term with this meaning is evident, in that he used the terms Father and Son interchangeably. The difficulty arose in seeing how he could be either. This difficulty would have been removed, by a right understanding of their own Scriptures.

4. They should have ceased to look at his organic being, for the claim was not made in reference to this. Christ claimed that for a certain number of years he had been officially manifesting God to the world. They should have looked, therefore, for the evidences of God in a manifestive sense.

5. When they beheld Christ healing incurable diseases, raising the dead, and commanding the waves, they should have asked whose power is this, here displayed? It cannot be the power of man. Unfortunately their wicked hearts led them to ascribe this power to Satan, the great destroyer.

6. It would seem far more natural to ascribe such power, in doing good, to God; especially as the life of the individual was spotless, while thus engaged. The same may be said of any other godlike attribute which Christ possessed. 7. Christ made the modest claim that he could not do these things of himself; but that God, who was in him, was working, through him, to do these things. This claim ought not to have been incomprehensible to a people believing in

the inspiration of the Scriptures, and in many supernatural agencies with men.

8. That Christ claimed to be God only in a revealed sense, is still more manifest from his own explanation of his claim. They had accused him of blasphemy in the use of the term. 9. "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said ye are gods? If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, and the Scriptures cannot be broken, say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest,' because I said, I am the Son of God ?"

10.

Whenever men bowed in worship to his revealed nature, Christ gave his sanction. "Ye call me Lord and Master, and ye say well, for so I am." Peter said, "Thou art the Christ of God." Jesus replied, "Blessed art thou Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father in heaven.”

11. But when the young man mistook his person for an organic God, calling him "Good Master," Jesus replied, "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God." It would be just as much idolatry to worship any part of Christ's organic being, as to bow down to any other form or image.

12. Christ's human nature is not brought forward as worthy of worship. This is only our example. Still there is a clearly defined sense,

in which men should worship Christ, even as they worship the Father. "And when he bringeth his first begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the angels of God worship him."

13. Christ was not divine, by virture of being miraculously conceived. The account given in part by Matthew, but more fully in Luke, may show a new creation, through procreation, and that the issue possessed the uprightness of our parents in the garden. They too were direct from the creative hand of God, without being divine.

14. Neither was he divine, because he was an extraordinary prophet. Some of God's prophets lived so near to him, that they were represented as walking with God, or seeing him face to face, but they were not divine.

15. He was divine just when, and where, and in that sense, that he was officially appointed to manifest God to man.

QUESTIONS.

1. How is God defined?

What difficulty met the Jew, when God became Saviour?

2. From what did it arise?

Did the Jew understand the force of the term "Son of God."

What is the meaning?

3. How did our Saviour use the term? From whence the Jew's difficulty?

How would it have been removed?

4. What should they have ceased to do? What did Christ claim? Matt. 11: 27.

In what sense should they have looked for God?

5. What did they behold?

What should they have asked?

What negative conclusion was apparent?

What unfortunate conclusion was reached?

6. What would seem more natural?

What additional circumstances?

What more?

7. What modest claim did Jesus make? John 7:16; 10: 25.

8.

What assurance? John 10: 29.

What was the belief of the Jew?

Ought Christ's claim to have stumbled them?

In what sense did Christ claim to be God? How is this evident?

What had they accused him of?

What had Christ said? John 10: 30.

9. What saying of the law did Christ quote? Why did God pronounce these men gods? What did Christ say of the Scriptures?

What comparison did he claim?

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