It is with great reluctance that we make some observations on reported comments of one, Dr. James Lyle Cameron, in Lisbon, on the subject of our Lord's death on the cross. This Surgeon seeks to prove His "true humanity" by medical analysis of His sufferings and death. It would seem better to ignore his remarks and cover them with silence but for the increasing attempts in many quarters to account for things on a purely natural and material basis. All this is to be deplored and utterly rejected by the child of God; His Word alone is to answer all questions; and where It is silent, so should men be.
Dr. Cameron seeks to account for the Lord's death by attributing it to certain natural causes which he describes. Thus while apparently honoring the Word of God he denies it; he says that the Lord Jesus died as a natural result of crucifixion, while Christ Himself said, "I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself." John 10:17-1817Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. (John 10:17‑18). Each of the four gospels tells us that He Himself gave up His spirit, and Luke says it was after' He had commended it to His Father. Oh, why should men add to God's Word? Why should we not rather bow in reverence and adoration, and acknowledge that He who knew no sin laid down His own life for us after those three hours of darkness. Surely as far as man was capable of it, he was guilty of His murder; he did all he could to take His life from Him, and God will not hold him guiltless. But the fact remains that "Jesus cried with a loud voice"—not the way of one dying on a cross—and delivered up His spirit to His Father. He voluntarily laid down His life; man could not have taken it without His own act.
Again, Dr. Cameron greatly errs in attributing His cry of "I thirst" to certain natural results of crucifixion which would produce an "insatiable torturing thirst." No doubt our blessed Lord did thirst, but in John's gospel we read, "Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled saith, I thirst." In John's gospel He is presented to us as the Son of God and accordingly He surveys the whole scene and sees one more Old Testament scripture yet to be fulfilled -"In My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink"—and so says, "I thirst." Let us never lend ourselves to anything that would detract from His deity—that glory that shone through the human veil—while seeking to establish His real humanity. And let us have the unshod foot of deep reverence when we speak of that blessed One in His sufferings and death.