As the robe which Christ wore closest to Himself was curiously and strangely wrought without seam from head to foot; so all that Jesus Christ has left behind is singular, unique, harmonious; for, judge Him by the religious system which He has left, or judge Him by the code of morality which He has left, or judge Him by the record of that stainless character, and you find Him to be strange, singular, one in this world's history for whom no fellow has yet been found.
I. Judge Him by the religious system. It is unique. His power, who died, has wiped away the frown which the pagan priesthood painted upon the brow of God. The Gospel, which He puts into the hands of His disciples and ministers, proclaims the fact of God reconciled to the world. That which we have received is emphatically the ministry of reconciliation. We have access by one Spirit to the Father.
II. But none the less, when we view Him by the system of morality that He left, wherewith the world was to be clad, we have the same unique and harmonious character. If the religious system found its basis in the love of God to mankind, none the less does the morality find its basis in this the parallel love of man to man. He was as one who gathered the stray flowers which had been strewn by ages along the pathway of humanity to bind them into one cluster. But He did more. He gave a root to all these flowers; He planted them where they indeed could grow, when He laid the truth and the basis of all humanity in this, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself."
III. But more. If we may take that robe which He left behind as the emblem of the system of teaching, of worship, and of morality, even more have we an analogy in Scripture for taking it as representative of the holy character of Christ. Like the one thread which wove that seamless robe, love appears everywhere under the embroidered pattern. That love it is which forms, as it were, the very strength of His character, and becomes one with Him in all that He does, is identified with Him when He is most severe, is not severed from Him when He is most humiliated. It is the one thing which weaves the character together weaves it from the top throughout. This robe is a legacy to us. Unlike the envenomed robe which wrapt Alcides, this legacy has no fictitious righteousness which cannot become ours; but, clad in it, we may receive, not poison, but life-giving power.
Bishop Boyd Carpenter, Penny Pulpit,No. 696.