history of the race. It would be ante cedently probable that His life would be the most celebrated by subsequent literary effort, and His incarnation re garded as the great watershed of his tory. Of all human institutions, the one based upon His lengthened shadow should be the most persistent. Indeed, His existence and manner of life. His teachings and His Church have been the most uplifting and powerful forces in the subsequent history of the West ern World. And within the Church, myriads and myriads of believers have testified that He has abundantly served as the Living God to their receptive hearts. The Meaning Of The Deity Of Christ Theologians have expressed it as follows: Christ and the Father are of one essence. The New Testament puts it this way: “In Him was life and the life was the light of men.” David wrote in the Psalms, “With Thee is the fountain of life. In Thy light shall we see light.” This connects Christ with the very essence of Divin ity. For the very designation of the Father as Jehovah makes use of a He brew root which denotes life. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Life. The Lord Jesus then, shares a designation common to the persons of the God head. This means that the three per sonalities of the Godhead—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each share in the common life of God. Thus in the deep est sense possible, Jesus Christ may be said to be the only true and living God. He was that from eternity past, before the creation of things in heaven or things on earth, and will remain the same forever. Praise His name we share in that eternal life now. By virtue of His Deity, He possesses all of the characteristics or attributes of God. Because of His Divine Life, He also shares the glory of God’s dwelling in light. Thus He could be transfigured before the disciples and appear with such radiant splendor to John on Pat- mos. His truthfulness makes His Word as dependable as that of the Father. Hence He could frame and uphold the (continued on next page) 9
onciled to God. However, the self-de ceptive factor is not all that is involved in the denial of Christ’s honored place. There is a natural resistance to the thought that a flesh and blood individ ual who shared the commonplaces of our lot could be God incarnate. Evidence For the Deity of Christ Nevertheless, there is abundant evi dence that He was no less than the eternal God when He walked the dus ty roads of Judaea and the sparkling sands of Galilee. The lines of Biblical testimony are many. On a recent broad cast, Dr. M. R. DeHaan stated that the New Testament identifies Jesus with the Jehovah of the Old Testament. Dr. Adolph Saphir made the same iden tification many decades ago. In Isaiah 30:27 for example, the Christ who will return in judgment is none other than Jehovah. Christ claimed to be God. “I and my Father are one,” He said. Those who met Him were persuaded that He was more than man. Peter confessed, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” The Centurion insisted, “Truly, this was the Son of God.” John used our Lord’s miracles to prove that He was the Living Word who made all things — testifying to the verity of the prophecy that He was to be Immanuel — God with us. In deed, upon whom could we expect the Spirit to descend as a dove and remain until He was able to impart Him to others? Only upon the One who was absolutely worthy. Further, the apos tles understood that by His resurrection He was proved to be Lord, and the Son of God with power. Indeed, the book of Revelation pictures Christ as glorified and seated with the Father on His resplendent throne. He initiates the outpouring of wrath upon a sin cursed and rebellious earth in the final day prior to His second coming. Only the Son of God Himself could be “given all judgment.” If Jesus were God incarnate we should expect, in advance, that He would be regarded by the many as the greatest man who ever lived and His teachings as the clearest, most im portant, and most meaningful in the
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