THE TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE

THE TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE

"Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call His name JESUS; for it is He that shall save His people from their sins. Now all this is come to pass, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, And they shall call His name Immanuel; which is, being interpreted, God with us." Matt 1:20-23

From the great mass of declaration in the New Testament concerning this subject, it will be sufficient to take four principal passages. These will again be divided into, first, annunciations to be reverently read, and received without attempted explanation; and secondly doctrinal declarations to be reverently considered. The annunciations are those of the angel to Joseph and to Mary. In connection with the latter it will be necessary also to read the brief historic statement concerning the fulfillment of the angelic message. The annunciation to Joseph was uttered in these words, "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call His name JESUS; for it is He that shall save His people from their sins. Now all this is come to pass, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, And they shall call His name Immanuel; which is, being interpreted, God with us." (Matt 1:20-23).

In the presence of this mysterious announcement, there can be no fitting attitude of the human intellect except that of acceptance of the truth, without any attempt to explain the absolute mystery. The annunciation reveals the fact that in the origin of the Person of Jesus there was the co-operation of Deity and humanity, each making its own contribution. The annunciation to Mary should be read in close connection with the statement of its fulfillment in history. "And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee: wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the  Son of  God." . . . "And she brought forth her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." (Luke 1:35; 2:7). This annunciation and declaration concerned one Person, spoken of in the former as the Son of God, in the latter as "her son." Here are not two Persons but one.

These annunciations are to be read and received without any attempt to explain the central mystery contained within them, which absolutely transcends all human understanding. They must be received, or else the whole superstructure of Christianity totters and falls. It is only by the way of the fact here declared, that it is at all possible to comprehend the great facts which are evident in the whole subsequent work of this Person. To deny the truth of this account of the initial crisis, is to be left to the contemplation of effects, for which no sufficient cause can he found. The stupendous and ever manifest combination in the Personality of Jesus of essential Deity, and proper humanity, is totally without sufficient cause, the moment men have ceased to have faith in the Scripture account of the miraculous conception. That initial miracle cannot be finally explained, but neither can the origin of any form of life be finally explained in the last analysis. Men have come up with explanations of the origin of mankind that take immense faith.

The doctrinal declarations to be considered are those of John and of Paul. That of John is in the introduction to his Gospel. "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us . . . full of grace and truth." (John 1:14) For the sake of the present consideration, the parenthetical declaration "and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father," is omitted. To rightly appreciate the meaning of this statement it is necessary to connect it with the opening words of the Gospel. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1) The passage from the 2nd to the 13th verse inclusive is a statement giving parenthetically the history of the Word from the beginning of the first creation to the beginning of the second. Omitting this passage, verses 1 and 14, read in immediate connection, contain a declaration of the most sublime facts concerning the Person of Christ, and a statement of His coming into relation with the human race in the mystery of Incarnation. In each of these passages there is a threefold statement, and they answer to each other. "In the beginning was the Word." "And the Word became flesh." "And the Word was with God." "And tabernacled among us." "And the Word was God." "Full of grace and truth." This is a statement of the mystery of the Incarnation, a setting in doctrinal form of that fact, announced by heavenly messengers to Joseph and to Mary.

The first statement is full of a majesty and sublimity which flings its light about the pathway, but which cannot be penetrated or perfectly comprehended. "In the beginning was the Word." The phrase "in the beginning" in this connection antedates any other reference to the ages to be found in the sacred volume. By it man is taken back into the infinite and unfathomable reaches of the unmeasuredable. The phrase with which the book of Genesis opens takes man to the beginning of the history of the present order, to those original movements of the Divine mind and power, by which material things originated. The phrase as John uses it, in these opening words, carries the mind yet again beyond those original movements of creation. By its aid the mind of man is introduced to the presence of the Self-existent God. Contemplating the unutterable splendor, whose very light darkens the understanding of the finite mind, the Word is found existing. A word is a means of expression. The word of man is man's method of self-expression. The Word of God is the name here used for that Person in the Trinity, Who is the Divine method of self-expression.

"The Word became flesh." The statement is appalling, overwhelming, out of the infinite distances, into the finite nearness; from the unknowable, to the knowable; from the method of self-expression appreciable by Deity Alone, to a method of self-expression understandable of the human.

In the inscrutable mystery of the Trinity the Son is ever the Medium of self-expression. By this awe-inspiring fact of Incarnation, the office of the Son is not changed. Its method is changed for the sake of man. The movement of the change no human intelligence can follow. It is darkly mysterious with the darkness of a blinding splendor. The conception is too mighty ever to have been born in the intelligence of man. "The Word which was in the beginning . . . became flesh." "The Word was with God." The natural home of the Eternal Son Who was the Medium of self-revelation of Deity was in close fellowship with the Eternal Father. "The Word tabernacled among us," that is, took up His manifest dwelling-place in proximity to the human race, as close as that which characterized His relation to the Eternal Father. He stooped into an actual identification with human nature, and by that stoop lifted human nature into the spaciousness of fellowship with God. He came down to be “with us” also.

This, however, let it be stated in advance, is not the doctrine of Atonement. In the Person of Jesus, God has come into new and mystic relationship with unfallen humanity; and in the life of Jesus, God in relation with unfallen humanity, tabernacles among fallen man. Something more will be necessary to make possible union between the members of a fallen race, and this new Head of an unfallen race. That something more will be accomplished by the way of the Cross to be considered in due course.

"And the 'Word was God." This is a cold hard fact revealed to mankind that many find difficulty accepting. The final declaration is that of the supreme Deity of the Word, and thus the Person of Christ is safe-guarded from any interpretation which would place Him in infinite superiority to the human race, and yet in inferiority to essential Deity. He was God, and yet in His Person there was not all the truth concerning God, for He was with God. He was with God, and yet by no means inferior to the Eternal Father, for He was God. The unity of Deity is marked by the word "God." The diversity is marked by "the Word." The God Who created, Who spoke things into being, the Word was with. In the revelation of Incarnation, the phrase answering this final sentence is "full of grace and truth." This teaches that in the grace or loveliness, and truth or righteousness of the Man seen of John and the rest, there was an outshining of the essential facts of the love and the light of Deity.

In the statement of Paul the same great truths are affirmed in other language. From the passage in Philippians, in which the humiliation and exaltation of Christ are so splendidly set forth, let the words be taken which deal immediately with this fact. "Who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a Servant, being made in the likeness of men." (Phil. 2:6-7) In this passage there is first stated the eternal fact concerning Christ, "existing in the form of God." Then follows the attitude of the mind of the Eternal Word, in the presence of the call for redemption. He "counted not the being on equality with God a thing to be grasped." Then follows the sublime act, through which He came to the level of those needing help. He "emptied Himself taking the form of a Servant, being made in the likeness of men." (Phil 2:6-7) Carefully note three facts in the compass of this brief passage. First it declares the eternal truth concerning Christ. He existed in the form of God, on equality with God. Second, it reveals the position He took, when He came for the redemption of man. He took the form of a Servant in the likeness of men.

In these two there is a contrast. Take the extreme statements, and He is seen as passing from the form of God to the likeness of men; and taking the nearer contrast, He is seen as passing from the Sovereignty of equality to the submission of subservience. He was with God and came down to be with men.

The third fact is the revelation of the attitude of mind, and the act of will, by which this change was wrought. In the presence of a great need He did not hold to, or grasp His right of equality, but for the accomplishment of an Infinite purpose, abandoned this. The action of the will is declared in the sublime and all-inclusive declaration that He emptied Himself. The Eternal Word stooped from the position of an Infinite expression to the limitations of human life.

It is now of the utmost importance to understand what is involved in the declaration that He emptied Himself. There is no warrant for imagining that He emptied Himself of His essential Deity. The emptying indicates the setting aside of one form of manifestation, in which all the facts of equality with God were evidently revealed, for another form of manifestation, in which the fact of equality with God must for a time be hidden, by the necessary submissiveness of the human to the Divine. That which the Eternal Word set aside was a form and this in order that another form might be taken. See Mark 16:12. It is evident, therefore, that a very great deal depends upon the meanings of the word form.

The Greek word only occurs in one other place in the whole of the New Testament. In speaking of an appearance of Christ after resurrection, Mark says, "After these things He was manifested in another form unto two of them, as they walked, on their way into the country." (Mark 16:12) Taking this use of the word for the sake of illustration, it is evident that the change was not in the essential nature or personality, but in the method of manifestation. To the men who walked to Emmaus the same One came, but in a changed form, so that they did not recognize Him, until He willed to reveal His identity. This of course by comparison with the subject now under consideration was but a small change, and yet it serves to illustrate the larger fact.

In the coming of the Eternal Word to the earth for the purposes of redemption, He did not lay aside the essential fact of His Deity. He simply changed the form of manifestation. It would seem clearly evident that the Son of God had forever been the One in Whom God took form, and therefore the One through Whom God was revealed. The Son is always the manifestation of the Father. What the form, what the manifestation was in the past, it is impossible to declare, for it is beyond the comprehension of the finite and the limited. This alone is certain that He was the Word, the Speech, and the Method of communication of the Eternal God. For the redemption of man He laid aside that form, whatever it may have been, and took a new form for manifesting the same God, a form upon which men might look, and through which, in the process of time, they might come to know the Eternal God. If it were possible for a moment to penetrate the mysteries of the past, the Son would be seen within the mystery of the Trinity, as the perpetual Medium of Divine expression, just as the Spirit is the perpetual Medium of Divine consciousness. In the coming to the level of man, and in the taking of a form possible of comprehension by man, it was necessary to bring the illimitable into the range of the limited. He passed from the heavenly to the earthly, from the infinite to the finite, that is, as to the form of expression. This is impossible of final explanation. It is however a mystery revealed, upon which the whole superstructure of Christianity depends. It would seem as though the eternal heavens were for a period emptied of the manifestation of God, though never of His presence, while for the work of redemption, God was manifest in the flesh.

The Word passed from government to obedience, from independent cooperation in the equality of Deity, to dependent submission to the will of God. By the way of the Incarnation there came into existence a Person in all points human, in all essentials Divine, in all points human, that is to say, fulfilling the Divine ideal of human nature, not descending to the level of the degradation of humanity, resulting from sin. The Man of Nazareth was perfect as Man. He was moreover perfect as God, lacking nothing of the powers of essential Deity, except only the heavenly form of manifestation.