There are two sides to the person of Christ. He was God manifest in flesh.
“The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14).
The Word was the Eternal Son, and the Eternal Son became man. He was thus God and man—a union of extremes which was not possible in any other, and rendering His person so unfathomable, so incomprehensible, that He Himself said,
“No man knoweth the Son but the Father.” (Matt. 11:27).
But it is essential that we hold fast both His true divinity and His as equally true humanity. For had He not been true man, He could not have been a sacrifice for sin; and had He not been God, His sacrifice could not have been available for all. Satan knows this, and hence, in every age, he has sought to undermine the one or the other of these truths, insinuating doubts sometimes concerning His humanity, and sometimes concerning His divinity. But it is the glory of the person of Christ that He is both divine and human, that He is, in His one person, both God and man. This truth lies at the foundation of, and indeed gives its character to, redemption.
How vast a field is thus opened for our contemplation! Following Christ in His pathway down here, from the manger at Bethlehem to the cross at Calvary, we see the unfoldings both of the human and divine. As we behold Him, His lowly guise, “His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men” (Isa. 53:14); as we mark Him in companionship with His disciples, and see Him weary and resting, eating and drinking, weeping with those who wept (John 11), and sleeping, too, on a pillow in the hinder part of the ship (Mark 4:38), we cannot doubt that He was man. It was, indeed the proofs of His humanity which, meeting their eyes, confounded His adversaries, and blinded them to His higher claims.
On the other hand, the evidences of His divinity are no less clear to the anointed eye. Who but God could cleanse the leper, open the eyes of the blind, raise the dead to life, and control the wind and the waves? Hence He said to Philip, in answer to his demand to show him the Father,
“Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works’ sake.” (John 14:10, 11).
What He was, what He is declared to be in the Scriptures, is, if possible, still more conclusive,
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” (John 1:1, 18). He is said to be “the brightness of His (God’s) glory, and the express image of His person.” (Heb. 1:3). In another epistle He is described as
“The image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things, were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” (Col. 1:15-17).
Consider moreover His own words, and who can doubt that He claims to be divine?
“He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” (John 14:9).
“I and My Father are one.” (John 10:30).
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58).
We cannot too often bless God for the four gospels, in which are blended these two aspects of the person of Christ. Hence they are the profoundest of all the Scriptures—because they contain the unfoldings of a divine-human life. No doubt the narratives are simple on their surface; but as we are led on by the Spirit of God we begin to discover that there are depths of which we had never dreamed, and into which we must gaze, and continue to gaze, if we would behold the treasures that are therein contained. And the more we are familiarized with their contents, the more shall we be impressed with the majesty of the person of Christ as the God-man; God manifest in flesh. And it should never be forgotten that there can be no stability where there is any uncertainty as to the person of our Saviour. What strength it gives to the soul to be able to say (to quote the language of another)—
“The pillars of the earth rest upon that Man who was despised, spit upon, and crucified!”
It is the knowledge of what He is, no less (if not more) than what He has done, that draws out our hearts in confidence, adoration, and praise. For indeed He “is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.” (Rom. 9:5).