Visions of the Lord Jesus Christ
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
The Four Gospels present the Lord Jesus Christ under four distinct aspects. The Gospel of John tells us of Christ, in His all-glorious Deity. The first chapter of the Gospel gives us a view of the Lord, under different and distinct names.
What the world needs today is a new vision of Christ; and, in Him, a new vision of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Men have been humanizing Christ, and deifying man, until they have all but taken from Christ His glory, and from man his need of a Saviour.
If Jesus Christ is only the Babe of Bethlehem and the Man of Galilee, He is not a Saviour.
If Jesus Christ is no more than the Great Teacher, with lofty ideas of ethics, He is not God's Son and our Redeemer If Jesus Christ is the world's greatest man, living merely ahead of His time, and thinking beyond His contemporaries He is not the Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, The Everlasting Father and The Prince of Peace.
We need to remember that if we rob Christ of His Deity we also rob Him of His Saviourhood.
We need to consider that if we take from Christ His eternity, we are taking from Him His eternal Sonhood.
We need to weigh this fact to make Christ no more than man, is to for ever make man no more than a sinner, lost and undone.
In the Bible, Christ is the Word, the Logos, in whom was life and from whom is light.
In the Bible, Christ is the Creator of the physical universe, and the re-creator of twice-born men.
In the Bible, Christ in the world, is the foreshowing and revelation of the Father in Heaven.
Jesus is the only One who is God's perfect revelation of the Father; He is the only perfect manifestation of Truth, and the only faithful expression of Grace, There is a time coming, when at the Name of Jesus Christ, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father. Let us bend the knee now, and worship at His throne.
I. CHRIST THE WORD (John 1:1; John 1:14)
Two things are before us in our two verses:
1. Christ the Word with God. There are those who have no knowledge of Christ as co-equal and co-existent with the Father. They sadly imagine that the so-called first Christmas day, when Mary brought forth her first-born Son, and laid Him in the manger, was the beginning of Christ's existence. These people know not that in the beginning Christ was with the Father. They know not that Christ came forth from the Father and came into the world. These people have never known that before the physical creation, was Christ the Creator. That Christ was the Word which said, "Let there be light and there was light." That Christ said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so." That Christ said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven * * and it was so." If someone argues that it was God who said these words, we reply, that the Logos was with God and the Logos, the Word, was God.
2. Christ, the Word, made flesh. He who walked among men is the same as He who was in the beginning with God. He who was made flesh and dwelt among us was the same Word who was with the Father and came forth from the Father.
The Logos, the Word, that was in the beginning, spoke, and the Logos, the Word, which was made flesh and dwelt among us, spoke. In the eternity past it was the same Word, the same God as was manifested among men. Do you marvel that it was said of Him, "Never man spake like this Man"?
In Christ, the Word, we beheld the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Consider Jesus Christ as He moved among men, speaking forth words of life and of power. The demons were subject to His word. When He spoke all nature obeyed. At His command the powers of darkness fell back.
Think of Christ, the Word, standing fearlessly before the maddened sea as with calm mien and unperturbed voice, He said, "Peace be still," and suddenly the winds and the waves fell back from before His command, and there was a great calm.
II. CHRIST THE LIFE (John 1:4, f.c)
The part of this brief verse, which we have to consider, is contained in four short but meaningful words. The words are these "In Him was life."
Jesus Christ was Life in the beginning. He possessed inherent life. His life was without beginning and is without end. The life which Jesus Christ possessed was the Author of life. In Him all life found its beginning, and from Him all life sprang. The life which was with Christ is the same life as that which indwells every regenerate child. We have everlasting life because we have Him. It was Paul who wrote, "When Christ, who is our Life, shall appear, then shall [we] also appear with Him in glory."
The Life which was Christ, and the Christ who was the Life is the security of all life. He said unto His disciples, and He says unto us, "Because I live, ye shall live also." Our "life is hid with Christ in God." No man is able to take our life from us, because no one is able to take His life.
What is more marvelous than life? It is vibrant with power; it is marvelous in its glory. Even vegetable and animal life is attractive. There is something about the growing fields of grain that amazes us; there is something about the fiery steed, or the dog, man's faithful friend, that entrances us. When we consider the life, however, that is human, its genius, its accomplishments, and its intelligence, we are amazed.
There is, however, another life, and that is the life which we have as newborn sons. How wonderful is that life! It is flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone.
There is one thing about life that almost startles us, Life only can beget life. In Him was life and from Him all life sprang. It was God in Christ who put within the acorn, life a life that was able to propagate itself, so that we can truly say, The mighty oak, the peer of the forest, was once enclosed in embryo in the acorn.
This power to transmit life, kind after its kind, was given only from God. After six millenniums of man's dominion upon the earth, he has never found out how to originate life, whether it be vegetable, animal, or human, apart from its own power of self-propagation.
III. CHRIST THE LIGHT (John 1:4, l.c-9)
We now come to a most interesting part of the description of Jesus Christ which is before us. The Life of which we have just spoken, was the light of men. Jesus Christ was Light, as well as Life.
Before God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven," He said, "Let there be light: and there was light." There was light because "in Him was life; and the life was the light of men." It was also the light of the creation, and it will be the light of the new creation. The Holy City, which shall come down from God out of Heaven, shall have no need of the sun, or of the moon, to give it light, for the Lord God giveth it light, and the Lamb is the Light thereof.
In the world there was darkness over the deep, when God said, "Let there be light: and there was light." Once more, there is darkness upon the earth, and the Light shone in the darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not. That Light, which was on the earth, was the true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. How strange it is that men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil; this is their chief condemnation. We remember how Christ said, "I am the Light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life."
In John 1:4 we read, "The Life was the light." In the verse just quoted we read, where Jesus said that He was, "The Light of life."
Once more, Christ said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the world." Since the Lord Jesus went His way, the world has been once more in darkness. The only lights that now shine are saints, who are luminaries shining in the present darkness and awaiting the coming of the Lord, who like the sun in righteousness shall soon arise.
IV. CHRIST THE CREATOR (John 1:3; John 1:10)
Our third verse says, "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made." This verse places Jesus Christ before the creation just as plainly as the first verse places Him there. If all things were made by Him, He was before the all things. If without Him was not anything made that was made, then He was with God in the first verse of the Bible, which reads, "In the beginning God ["Elohim"], created the Heaven and the earth."
Our tenth verse says, "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him." This verse is in line with the third verse. Whether it be the physical earth or the cosmos, He is its Creator and Maker. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read, that Jesus Christ, the Son, made the world. In Colossians, we read concerning our Lord: "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."
Away, forever, with that doctrine of men, falsely called science, which is promulgated under the name of evolution and which takes both God the Father, and God, the Son, as well as God, the Holy Spirit, out of His own creation.
We prefer to take our place with the four living ones, and with the four and twenty elders, who give glory and honor and thanks to Him that shall sit upon the throne. We prefer to join the four living ones, and the four and twenty elders, in falling down before Him as we worship the One that liveth for ever and ever. We prefer to join the four living ones, and the four and twenty elders, in saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created."
V. CHRIST IN THE WORLD (John 1:10-11)
How it thrills the soul, as we think that Christ, who was the Word, for ever God, and for ever with God, was in the world. How it stirs the heart, as we consider that Christ, who was the Life, came unto His own. How it grips the spirit, when we think of Christ, the Light, entering into the world of darkness. Can anything be more inspiring than to read, "He was in the world"? Can anything be more illuminating than to read, "He came unto His own"?
What, are we to understand that the very God of very God, the Creator, came down to dwell with the creature even so, He came. He came forth from the Father; forth from the glory of the throne of God; forth from the adoration of the angelic hosts, who worshiped Him day and night, and He came down to the world of sin, and of shame, of suffering, and of sorrow.
Saddest of all things sad, "He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." Strangest of all strange things, "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not."
When the Christ was born the angels shouted forth His praise, and the Heavenly bodies bowed in obeisance to His coming, but there was found no room for Him in the inn. We wonder if the world has had a change of heart. With shame we answer, No.
VI. CHRIST IN THE NEW BIRTH (John 1:12-13)
Mid the shadows which shrouded the rejection of the Son of God, there is a ray of light. We read, "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His Name." What shame is theirs who reject Him, but what transcendent glory is theirs who receive Him, and believe in His Name!
It may seem but a little matter to bend the knee before the matchless Son of God, and to crown Him Lord and Christ. It may seem but an insignificant thing to open the heart and to receive Him as one's sacred guest. It may seem unworthy of weight, with child-like faith, to believe on His Name, and yet those, who do these things, become the sons of God.
He who created worlds and threw them into space; He who created man and placed him upon a created earth, once more steps forth in the majestic sweep of created power, and creates anew those who put their trust in Him. John 1:11 says of these that they were born of God.
VII. CHRIST DECLARING THE FATHER (John 1:16-18)
The verse now before us plainly declares that the Son of God, who came forth from the Father, and came into the world, has declared the Father unto us. These words mean no less than the fact that Christ was God, manifest in the flesh, for only God could declare God in the sense that Christ declared Him. Our next study is to be upon this verse and other Scriptures which elucidate it, under the theme Christ, the manifestation of the Father.
AN ILLUSTRATION
"Son Gazing"
We should see beautiful things not only in nature as Newton saw-in the sun, but we should see the beautiful things in Christ Jesus, the Son of Righteousness.
Dr. Tucker says: It is said of Newton that he had fits of gazing at the sun. At one time he gazed so long that when brought back into his room he was found to be quite blind. Wherever he looked he saw nothing but the sun. Eyes shut or open it was the sun only. The long gazing at the sun had so impressed it on the retina of the eye that nothing else was there.
Would it not be wonderful if believers should intently gaze upon Christ that they could see no one else just the Son and the Son only!
Just as at the Transfiguration, when His face was like the sun and His garments glistening, they
"Saw no man save Jesus only."
Son gazing is a wonderful occupation for the believer. When John saw One whose "Countenance was as the sun shining in its strength," he fell at His feet as one dead. Excess of light and glory brought John into humiliation. It always means prostration and humiliation and a cry for sanctification, to see Him!
If only we would gaze at the Son till we could see no one but the Son! If only on the retina of the inner eye, He could be so impressed that wherever we look, it would be but to see the Son! If only we could say: The Son, I see the Son only!
We could not gaze upon Him now with undimmed eye. We are yet in mortal state. Paul saw for a moment His glory, "A brightness above the sun," and was blinded. We shall see Him one day as He is. Now we gaze by faith and the result is found at 2 Corinthians 3:18 :
"But we all, with open face beholding, as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
Son gazing is a wonderful occupation for the Christian. Let the eye be blind to all else but Him. I see "Jesus Only," is a cry of Christian triumph!