The Scriptures testify of Christ. Our Lord said, “They are they which testify of me.” Whatever else they may set forth, it is clear that the great subject of God’s revelation to man is Christ Jesus the Lord. In various ways, by many instruments, at different times, and under manifold circumstances, the divine glory of His person, His perfect manhood, His moral excellencies, His infinite perfections, His finished work, His fullness, and His offices are blessedly presented to us in the Scriptures of eternal truth.
In our Lord’s personal ministry, wherever He was, He declared the Father, and so perfectly showed in His ways and words the characteristics of Him who sent Him, that He could truly say at the close, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; “and His dealings with those around manifested that He was “full of grace and truth.” Instead of casting out any sinner who came to Him, He opened wide His arms, and said, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He plainly declared that He was the only Savior of sinners, and the Refuge and resource for His own loved disciples.
While constantly insisting on the divine authenticity of Scripture, and declaring that “the Scripture cannot be broken,” He was Himself the living expression of it. The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. In the sacred writings, as the fitting occasions came, He was presented as the woman’s Seed that should bruise the serpent’s head, the Seed of Abraham; and yet He could most truly say, “Before Abraham was I am;” the virgin’s Child, and yet, Emmanuel; the Son given, and yet the perfect Man. Scripture spake of Him as David’s son, and yet being David’s Lord; the offspring of David, and yet the root; Son of man, yet Son of God. There we read of Him as the Prophet that was to be raised up, the Priest after Melchizedek’s order, and the King who shall yet sit on the throne of His father David, and reign over the house of Jacob forever, of whose kingdom there shall be no end. Songs of triumph and of joy referred to Him; prophets testified by the Spirit of His sufferings, and the glories which should follow; and we know that “all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” Scripture also teaches us that in the man Christ Jesus eternal life has been manifested, divine love has been manifested, and God has been manifested. By Him God’s ways have been vindicated, His counsels and purposes have been and will be carried out, His word fulfilled, His truth established, His righteousness perfectly met, the holy demands of His throne fully answered. There we behold Jesus, when in the path of deepest suffering, even when forsaken of God, glorifying Him with perfect obedience, perfect love and perfect faith. There on the cross was the entire surrender of Himself, and a complete answer to every claim of divine justice on account of our sins All was divinely perfect, so that at the end of the solitary way He could say, “ I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.”
Again, when in company with the evangelists who were inspired to mark out for our comfort the footprints of His blessed path, He is sometimes brought before us as compassionately satisfying hungry thousands with a few loaves and fishes, with abundance of broken food left; and yet He deigned to accept the ministry to Himself of certain women of their substance. We look with wonder at Him at one moment, as the One who carried our griefs, weeping with the sorrowful and bereaved; and at another, raising the dead as “the resurrection and the life.” Again we see Him weary and asleep on a pillow in the hinder part of the ship, and when awakened by His distressed disciples, commanding the stormy wind to cease, and the raging waves to be still. Yea, in every page of the inspired narrative enough is recorded to fill our worshipping hearts with wonder, love, and praise.
Again, and again the written Word speaks of this spotless One, who was “separate from sinners,” as having once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God; who came into the world to save sinners, and died for our sins according to the Scriptures. In life we see Him resisting Satan, overcoming him in every temptation, casting out devils with His omnipotent word, and through death destroying him that had the power of death. Mighty Conqueror! In His life the repeated testimony from heaven was, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And God’s righteous estimate of His death was, that it entitled Him to the highest glory and honor; while the rent veil, the raising Him up from among the dead for our justification, and the gift to us of the Holy Ghost, most unquestionably show God’s entire satisfaction with His atoning work on the cross for us. If we look at Jesus in His life, there is everything to win our hearts; and in His death, there is everything to meet our consciences. The perfection and glory of Himself fills our souls with joy; the value of His finished work gives us rest and peace. It is to Him, as Son of man, all judgment is committed, and to His name every knee must bow, and every tongue confess that He is Lord; for He will yet, according to the working of His mighty power, subdue all things unto Himself.
Thus, whether we look at the typical days of olden times, at the many shadowy illustrations of a former dispensation, or at the Lord’s own ways and ministry in the days of His flesh-whether we view Him in His life or in His death, it is Himself of whom the Scriptures testify, it is Himself who engages our hearts, it is Himself that is ministered to our souls; and though some parts of Scripture appear to the natural man to be only dry records of history, or details of long-forgotten ordinances, they are often found to the soul under divine teaching to be rich in comforting or in instructive ministrations of Christ to the heart.
If in life our Lord emphatically endorsed the writings of Moses as concerning Himself, if He quoted the Psalms of David as the Holy Ghost’s testimony of Himself, and referred to the prophets as also having reference to Himself, the same was equally characteristic of His ministry to His disciples after He rose from the dead. He assured some that their mistake and folly arose from not believing all that the prophets had spoken, and He showed them that He Himself was the great subject of Old Testament revelation and ministry; for “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” On another occasion He also said unto His disciples, “that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me.” (Luke 24) Thus He not only authenticates the Old Testament writings as a whole, but assures us that their ministry is concerning Himself.
And after our Lord had ascended, and the Holy Ghost had come down at Pentecost, and formed the Church-the body of Christ-though there was greater power with the Word, the ministry had the same characteristics-the divine authority of Scripture, and their testimony concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. The books of Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets were quoted by the apostles as a divine revelation and a divine ministration of Christ, so that those who heard their preaching, or read their writings, must have known that it was not merely something about Christ, but the ministry of Christ Himself to the heart by a power which brings home the blessedness of Christ, that takes of the things of Christ, and shows them unto us. To their hearers they set forth His person, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and glorification; they spake of the gift of the Holy Ghost, His Godhead, personality, indwelling, and operations as the glorifier of Christ, as well as the abundant love of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; while our Lord’s coming again, His kingdom and reign, were constantly proclaimed. It was Christ they so presented to those to whom they ministered, that we are told that “they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ.” If Peter’s line of things was the kingdom and Paul’s the Church, they both enforced the divine authority of the word of God over the heart and conscience; and both set forth Christ. If Peter in his early sermons quoted from Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets, we find Paul reasoning “out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus,” he says, “whom I preach unto you is Christ.” He quotes from the Psalms when preaching at Antioch; and again we are told that he persuaded others “out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening.” (Acts 17:3;283Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. (Acts 17:3)
3And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. (Acts 28:3). 23)
It is scarcely necessary to refer to the epistles to trace how often the books of Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets are cited by the apostles in their inspired writings, and that too as positively ministering Christ to souls. Even a careless observer of these writings could scarcely fail to see that the great subject they present, whether occupied with the past, present, or future, is the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only is He to be seen as the light and glory of every page, but He is the all-attractive, all-sufficient Object set before us to meet us in every state, and to satisfy every need of our souls. Whether Peter, Paul, John, James, or Jude be the instrument, it is the blessed Lord of whom they write.
Nor is Christ less prominently set forth in the Apocalypse; for not only is the Lamb, and the value of His precious blood, often made to pass before our spiritual vision; but Christ as Son of man is seen judging the assemblies, and presented to each assembly according to its state, circumstances, and need. Though the book be a revelation for the most part of what had not been known before, yet the golden threads are so interwoven with the testimony of Moses and the prophets that the spiritual eye fails not to perceive that the many books of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, form a marvelous whole, which, though written by many instruments, must have emanated from an Omniscient and Almighty mind. How truly then do the Scriptures testify of Christ, and tell us that which is concerning Himself! and how clearly too it is manifest that the Holy Ghost, who moved men to write them, has therein been the glorifier and testifier of Christ!
H. H. S.
(To be continued, D. V)