Some years ago, I was walking through a Yorkshire mill town with a Christian friend. He pointed out a Unitarian chapel, and proceeded to tell me a deeply interesting story in connection with it illustrating the title of this paper.
The former minister of this chapel being a Unitarian, believed concerning the person of Christ that He was a good man, the example to humanity, its glory and boast, the very flower of the race, but only a man. As to the work of Christ, he confined this to example, culminating in His death, but in that death on the cross of Calvary he believed there was no atonement, and His shed blood had no efficacy for the removal of sin in it.
One Saturday morning he sat in his lodgings preparing his sermon for the following Sunday. He had chosen the opening verses of the Gospel of John for his subject.
He read of a Divine Person, called “the Word,” that this Person was “WITH God” and “was God,” and “WAS IN THE BEGINNING WITH God,” and yet “IN THE BEGINNING was the Word” (John 1:1-2).
He was arrested. Thoughts passed through his mind that he had never had before. Here was a Divine Person, uncreated, creating everything material (v. 3) sustaining everything, co-existent with God, and yet God Himself. He was arrested, interested, enthralled by the vast thoughts that took possession of his mind.
He read on, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” In these simple, profound, beautiful, words—their simplicity enhancing their profundity—be discovered that this Divine Person became a Man. Marvellous! That discovery revolutionized everything he had hitherto held concerning Him.
But he read more, “John bare witness OF HIM,” and the witness opened his hitherto blind eyes as to the work He did, “Behold THE LAMB OF GOD, which takes away the sin of the world” (v. 29). This Divine Person become man was witnessed to as “the Lamb of God.” A flash of light intuitively illustrated this title by all the Jewish types and shadows, all finding their fulfilment and substance in Him.
“Not all the blood of beasts,
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away its stain.
“But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Took all my guilt away,
A Sacrifice of nobler name
And richer blood then they.”
The title Lamb implied sacrifice, not merely an example to be followed; atonement, not merely a pattern to be admired. True in His obedience to death, even the death of the cross, He has left the believer an example that he should “follow His steps” (1 Peter 2:21), yet that very scripture is careful to guard the deep essential meaning of that death, for the writer adds, “Who His own self BARE OUR SINS in His own body on the tree” (v. 24).
What a revelation, a revolutionizing revelation was made to the young minister that memorable morning by the Scripture testimony he read!
He sat down believing—
1. Jesus was ONLY a man.
2. His death MERELY an example to humanity.
He rose up convinced that—
1. Jesus was the Eternal Word—“over all, God blessed for ever”—become flesh, a real Man, though never less than God.
2. His death was atoning, redemptive, substitutionary, for him, for his sins.
No wonder, all oblivious of time, the hours had fled in the contemplation of these wondrous truths. The young minister arose a new creature in Christ, converted, saved, forgiven. He was no longer a mere preacher of moral discourses, but a living servant of Christ, with a real message to give.
The dry husks of morality are insufficient to satisfy the hunger of the soul; the empty creed of half Christendom, in which the precious blood of Christ has no place, avails not to satisfy the conscience when aroused to a sense of its guilt.
Error may be subtle, alluring, fascinating, but it cannot meet the needs of the soul. Only a Divine Person can do that.
May I ask the reader a very vital question, What do you think of the Person and work of Christ? Upon your answer depends your eternal blessing. He died for you. Will you trust Him as your Saviour?
“If asked what of Jesus I think,