The God Man 275 figuratively called eating His flesh and drinking His blood, we have no life in us (John 6:53) ; but if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever (51). Those who have given themselves up into the arms of Christ by faith receive eternal life from Him, and shall never perish. (John 10:28.) They are as much in the arms of Jesus as in the arms of the Father; and their safety is as much secured by one as by the other (compare 28, 29, 30). In fact, in this, gracious trans action the Son and the Father are one (30). Well might the Jews, with their views of His origin, take up stones to stone Him for these claims, saying as they did it, “We stone Thee for blasphemy, because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God” (33). Our Lord’s vindication of Himself, by a reference to the language of Psalm 82:6, is an illustra tion of the argument from the less to the greater. If in any sense the Jewish rulers might be called gods, how much more properly might He, the only begotten Son of the Father, be so designated? “Without Me ye can do nothing,” is in short the essence.of the Saviour’s teaching about Himself. (See John 15 :l-5.) This is the sum of the Gospel message: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and ye shall be saved. It was a demand repeatedly and earnestly pressed by the Saviour, and incul cated by His apostles; and we say deliberately, that to exercise such a faith in Jesus as He required and the Gos pel enforces, would, with Socinian views, be to expose our selves to the terrible anathema: “Cursed is the man that trust- eth in man, and that maketh flesh in his arm” (Jer. 17:5). How could my soul be safe in the arms of a mere man ? How dare I trust my eternal redemption to the care of such a Christ ? And on what principle did Paul say ? “I can do all things through Christ who strengthened! me” (Phil 4:13). And how can Jesus be “All in all” to true believers of every nation? (Col. 3:11.) - -
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