"The people answered Him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth forever: and how sayest Thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?" John 12:34.
What a question for a poor sinner to essay to answer! Tread softly here, 0 my soul, and let it be with unshod feet, for thou art on very holy ground. "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father"; therefore guard thy words with jealous care. And, when thou hast said thy last syllable, think not that in knowledge thou art more than a child standing ankle deep in the great sea, and whose eyes behold but a little of those mighty waters that roll away and wash the shores of many a far-off land.
For there are things revealed in the Scriptures which, in their fullness, no creature can comprehend. How should he, seeing they are infinite? And the receiving of them necessarily involves the subjection of the mind to God, against which the proud mind of man rebels; and in that rebellion lies the root of nine-tenths of the infidelity of the day. What an immense, nay, what an awful loss, were the truth of God to be trimmed and shaven down until the mind of man was able to measure to an inch, and weigh to an ounce, all that God has been pleased to reveal! It must shrink and shrivel up exceedingly before that could ever be.
To the dissenting Jews, the Son of man, there standing in their midst, was no more than the carpenter's son. Some might hold Him for a prophet, and others regard Him as "a man sent from God," whose credentials were sufficiently attested by the miracles which He wrought. And the thoughts of thousands of so-called Christians in this day rise no higher than that, if indeed as high. Christians they are not, save in name; for it is of the very essence of the Christian faith that this Son of man was God manifest in flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). In Him dwelt, and dwells, all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9). Whosoever he be who confesses not that, is no Christian at all.
How unspeakably precious is this! "God has been manifested in flesh" (J.N.D. Trans.). How? When? In the Person of the Son of man. God has come nigh to us. God has spoken to us, not through the prophets as in olden times, but He Himself has spoken; He has been here. We gaze upon the Son of man, we listen to His words, and we behold God manifest in flesh. He who would have been forever unknown and unknowable, save as creation revealed Him, and the prophets made Him known, has been manifested in flesh. For the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
Finite we are, and how sensible of this we become when dealing with that which is infinite and eternal. Who can go back to "the beginning" of John 1:1? It is easy to think of the beginning of creation, easy to conceive a time when created things were not, when you might have searched the boundless fields of space for sun, moon, and stars, and searched for them in vain. Nor is it impossible to comprehend a time when God in the fullness of the Trinity dwelt alone in sublime solitude—the all-sufficient, self-existent One. But let your thoughts explore those remote recesses of eternity until, weary of wing, they falter and stop and can go no further, then this Son of man was—not indeed as Son of man, but as the eternal Word. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Eternal existence, distinctness of being, and Godhead are thus ascribed to Him who became flesh and tabernacled among us-Son of man, Son of God, the Christ, "who is over all, God blessed forever" (Rom. 9:5).
In a magnificent passage in Colossians 1 The Holy Spirit declares the creatorial glories of Him who for the glory of God and our blessing became Son of man. "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible 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" (subsist). And if the same Spirit speaks in simpler strains through John the Apostle, yet they have a beauty all their own, and an emphasis to which nothing could add force. "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." John 1:3. Thus the material universe and all created intelligences in it are the creatures of His hand-He the Maker of all and the Sustainer of all, and all of them formed for His glory, and to sound forth His praise.
And we must guard with no less jealous care the true and sinless humanity of Him of whom we speak. A real Man was He who suffered hunger (Matt. 4:2) and thirst (John 4:7), who grew weary (John 4:6) and wept (John 11:35) and prayed (Luke 9:28), and who never used the attributes of deity, which were ever His, to shelter Himself from the consequences of the position which He in profound grace had taken up. "Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Phil. 2:8. If obedience to God, and dependence on Him, should ever mark men, He, having become man, was always under all circumstances obedient and dependent. When tested in the wilderness He repelled every attack of Satan by the Word of God (Luke 4), thus honoring those ancient scriptures which men nowadays in their presumptuous daring treat with such ignorant disdain. In all this He is our great Exemplar. Oh! how perfect were His ways here below! How full of moral beauty! What a sight for angels to behold (1 Tim. 3:16), and for the eye of God the Father to rest upon! Pause here, my soul, and wonder and worship.
It is a fathomless mystery, this union in one blessed Person of God and man! Can we explain it? Can we comprehend it? Never! It were easier far to pour the ocean into a tiny shell, or to bind leviathan with a straw. But the heart taught of God receives it, and cherishes it as one of the most sacred mysteries of our most holy faith.
"His glory-not only God's Son-
In manhood He had His full part-
And the union of both joined in one
Form the fountain of love in His heart."
And remember, O my soul, that this great mystery is no suited subject either for cold and curious speculation, or heated and acrimonious debate. If others embark thereon, refuse thou to follow them. Weary not thyself in seeking to comprehend the incomprehensible, or to compass that which cannot be compassed by any creature; but cultivate a lowly, reverent spirit that receives with meekness what God has been pleased to make known in the Scriptures of truth; so shalt thou be built up and blessed.
"The higher mysteries of Thy fame
The creature's grasp transcend;
The Father only Thy blest name
Of Son can comprehend. Worthy,
O Lamb of God, art Thou
That every knee to Thee should bow."