The Godhead of Christ.
I. On a certain most important occasion, Christ Himself asserted His Godhead in a manner which could not possibly be misunderstood. He allowed Himself to be put to death on a charge of blasphemy. At a most solemn juncture, and under the most solemn circumstances, He accepted a title, the acceptance of which, as He well knew, would be considered and treated as blasphemous. The conclusion is inevitable. If Christ be God, the whole procedure is in accordance with the facts of the case, and with the position He assumed. If Christ be not God, I must leave you to form your own opinion of His character.
II. A denial of the Godhead of Christ involves consequences from which we should most of us shrink consequences which affect the nature and the character of Deity itself. (1) On the supposition that Christ was a mere man, or a created being, who allied himself with human nature, the further supposition becomes inevitable, that in the bygone eternity God dwelt in a lonely and uncompanionable isolation. (2) The denial of the Godhead of Christ limits and impairs the Divine capability of manifesting love to man. If Jesus Christ were just a perfect man, and not the eternal Son of the Father, what did it cost God to part with Him? nothing, that I can see. The self-sacrifice consisted in the surrender of His Son. (3) If Christ be not God, I cannot avoid the inference that God has done everything in His power to transfer my affection from the Creator to the creature. I read in the Bible that God is a jealous God; and that the honour which is His own He will not permit to be given to another; and what has He done? In those Scriptures, which are the revelation of His mind and will, He has taken all the grand titles which belong to Himself, and has laid them upon Christ. Everything is done to make the tendrils of my human affection twine round Jesus Christ. The heart must be chilled towards God, which does not recognise in Jesus Christ the eternal Son of the eternal Father.
G. Calthrop, Penny Pulpit,new series, No. 798.
References: Mark 14:64. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxviii., No. 1643.Mark 14:67. J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College,p. 219. Mark 14:67-72. A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve,pp. 469, 489; H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Man,p. 338. Mark 14:72. Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts,p. 83; Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 212.Mark 15:1. W. Hanna, Our Lord's Life on Earth,p. 485; H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Son of Man,p. 343.Mark 15:2-5. Ibid,p. 349. Mark 15:15. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. viii., p. 150. Mark 15:15-20. Beecher, Sermons,1870, p. 104.Mark 15:17. Expositor,3rd series, vol. iv., p. 200; J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College,vol. i., p. 266. Mark 15:17; Mark 15:18. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iv., p. 224.Mark 15:20. Christian World Pulpit,vol. v., p. 232.Mark 15:20; Mark 15:21. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxviii., No. 1683.