CHAPTER V THE GOD-MAN* BY THE LATE JOHN STOCK
Jesus of Nazareth >was not mere man, excelling others in purity of life and conduct and in sincerity of purpose, simply distinguished from other teachers by the fullness of His knowledge. He is the God-man. Such view of the person of Messiah is the assured foundation of the entire Scriptural testimony to Him, and it is to be irresistibly in- ferred from the style and strain in which He habitually spake of Himself. Of this inferential argument of the Saviour we can give here the salient points only in briefest presentation. 1. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. We meet with this title in the Book of Daniel. It was used by Nebuchad- nezzar to describe that fourth wonderful personage who walked with the three Hebrew confessors in the fire (3:25), and who was, doubtless, the Lord Jesus Christ revealing Him- self in an assumed bodily form to His heroic servants. This majestic title is repeatedly appropriated to Himself by our Master. (See John 5:25; 9:35; 11:4, etc.) In His inter- view with Nicodemus He designated Himself, “The Only Be- gotten Son of God” (John 3 :18). When confronted with the Sanhedrim, Jesus was closely questioned about His use of this title; and He pleaded guilty to the indictment. (See Matt. 26:63, 64, and 27:43; cf. Luke 22:70, 71, and John 19:7.) It is clear from the narrative that the Jews unaerstood this glorious name in the lips of Jesus to be a blasphemous assertion of divine attributes for Himself. They understood Jesus to thus claim equality with God ♦Abbreviated and published by permission of the American Bap- tist Publication Society. 64
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