No confession short of that of “the Son of the living God” will do. People may have high and honorable thoughts of Jesus. They may speak of Him as “a good man,” or as “a prophet,” as Elias or Jeremias—but nothing of this kind will do; nothing less than the faith which apprehends and receives Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God. The reason of the need of this faith is simple. Our state of ruin in this world, ruin by reason of sin and death, calls for the presence of God Himself among us, and that, too, in the character of conqueror over sin and death. And He whom God has sent is such an One. He is the Christ the Son of the living God, the living God in flesh, come here for the very purpose of bringing back life into this scene of death, destroying the works of the devil, and putting away sin. This is the One whom our condition demands. Such is our ruin, that nothing less than this will do for us—and if we can, in our thoughts, do with anything less than this, we show that we have not discovered our real condition in the presence of God. All acceptance of Christ short of this is nothing. It is no acceptance of Him.