The Fundamentals - 1917: Vol.2

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The Fundamentals On one occasion our Lord declared, “My Father is greater than all” (John 10:29) ; and on another, “My Father is greater than I” (John 14:28). But if our Lord was only a man, what need was there that He should tell us this ? •What should we think of any mere mortal who should stand up in our midst, and deliberately tell us that the Eternal Father is greater than he? Should we not question his sanity? Or should we not look upon the very comparison as a blasphemy ? For what can justify a creature in such a virtual likening of himself to God ? We are compelled to the conclusion that •there must have been some other element in our Lord’s nature, besides the human, which warranted Him in making so remarkable a statement. What danger was there that we should fail to recognize^ the superiority of the Eternal Father to the man Christ Jesus, if the latter was no more than a man? These words, generally.supposed to be a strong­ hold of Unitarianism, are, in truth, an indirect testimony to the orthodox faith. For what comparison can there be between the Creator and a mere creature, between Infinity and one who is “less than nothing and vanity” ? 11. Jesus demands of us an unhesitating and unlimited faith in Himself; such faith, in short, as we should only exer­ cise in God. We are to believe in Him for the salvation of our entire being; not merely as pointing out to us the way to heaven, but as being Himself the way. He puts faith in Him in the same category as faith in the Father. (John 14:1.) The spirit of His Teaching about the faith to be reposed in Him is given in His words to the woman of Samaria: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou 'wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water.” “Who­ soever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:10-14). Unless we exercise faith in His person and work,

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