The Great Mystery: The God-Man
“We need not wonder that mist and all its phenomena have been made delightful to us, since our happiness as thinking beings must depend on our being content to accept only partial knowledge, even in those matters which chiefly concern us. If we insist upon perfect intelligibility and complete declaration in every moral subject, we shall instantly fall into misery of unbelief. Our whole happiness and power of energetic action depend upon our being able to breathe and live in the cloud; content to see it opening here and closing there; rejoicing to catch, through the thinnest films of it, glimpses of stable and substantial things; but yet perceiving a nobleness even in the concealment, and rejoicing that the kindly veil is spread where the untempered light might have scorched us, or the infinite clearness wearied.
“I know there are an evil mystery and a deathful dimness — the mystery of the great Babylon — the dimness of the sealed eye and soul; but do not let us confuse these with the glorious mystery of the things which the angels ‘desire to look into,’ or with the dimness which, even before the clear eye and open soul, still rests on sealed pages of the eternal volume.” — JoHN Ruskin (“Modern Painters.”)
OW when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judza in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we saw His star in the east, and are come to worship Him. And when Herod the king heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ should be born. And they said unto him, Bethlehem of Judza: for thus it is written through the prophet: And thou Bethlehem, land of Judah, Art in no wise least among the princes of Judah:
For out of thee shall come forth a governor,
Who shall be Shepherd of My people Israel.
Then Herod privily called the wise men, and learned of them exactly what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search out exactly concerning the young child; and when ye have found Him, bring me word, that I also may come and worship Him. And they, having heard the king, went their way; and lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And they came into the house and saw the young child with Mary His mother; and they fell down and worshipped Him; and opening their treasures they offered unto Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. — Matt. 2. 1-12
And it came to pass, while they wete there, the days were fulfilled that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son: and she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were shepherds in the same country abiding in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock. And an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people: for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, Who is Christ the Lord. And this is the sign unto you: Ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying: Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace among men in
whom He is well pleased.
And it came to pass, when the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing that is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger. And when they saw it, they made known concerning the saying which was spoken to them about this child. — Luke 2. 6-17.
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth. — John 1. 14.
IV
The Great Mystery — The God-Man
efeee subject of the Incarnation is at once initial and fundamental.
All the significance of the crises that follow, grows out of this
first and most marvellous mystery. The Lord Jesus Christ is a Person infinitely transcending the possibility of perfect human comprehension. Nevertheless the Scripture declares certain facts concerning Him, which account for His glory and His grace, and without which He remains an ‘unsolved problem, defying every successive age in its attempts to account for Him. It should at once be admitted that no final words of explanation can be written concerning Him. And yet it is of the utmost importance that so much as has been revealed should be recognised, in order to a comprehension of the true meaning of His mission.
In the later letters of the Apostle Paul, notably that to the Colossians, it is evident that he is supremely anxious that Christian people should know Christ. In declaring this he expresses the thought in the words, “That they may know the mystery of God, even Christ.”1 He speaks of Christ as “the mystery of God.” It will be of value to understand, through all these studies, the New Testament use and meaning of the word “mystery.” That has been most lucidly stated to be “a truth undiscoverable except by revelation: never necessarily (as our popular use of the word may suggest) a thing unintelligible, or perplexing in itself. In Scripture a mystery may be a fact which, when revealed we cannot understand in detail, though we can know it, and act upon it.... It is a thing only to be known when revealed.’””2
In this sense Christ is the mystery of God. Perfect analysis and explanation of His Person is impossible. The fact thereof is declared as to the origin, and essential characteristics. These must be recognised, in order to a right understanding of the great subject of human redemption.
Having seen, that reconstruction in the region of destruction was utterly impossible, that there was no way, in the wisdom or power of man, for the encompassing of his own restoration, it was
1Col. 2. 2. 2Bishop Handley Moule, to be expected that the Divine method of redemption would be beyond perfect explanation to the sons of men. That which human wisdom cannot plan must necessarily be beyond its power perfectly to understand. Human intelligence is capable of appreciating anything that lies within the range of the working of human wisdom. The intelligence of one man may not be equal to the discovery of the method of transmitting words by electricity without use of wires. When, however, another human intelligence has thought the matter out, this man is able to comprehend the explanation given. It may therefore be argued that while man was not equal in his own wisdom to devising a plan of redemption, he ought to be able perfectly to comprehend the plan of God. Yet this does not” follow. In the first case, the whole movement is within the compass of human intelligence. In the second, all human wisdom had been utterly exhausted in its attempt to think of, or to discover a method of salvation, and had failed. The failure, moreover, must have continued through all the ages, for the Person of Christ, and the whole scheme of human redemption, are so transcendently marvellous as to demand for their explanation the recognition of their Divine origin. All this is to emphasise a fact that must not be lost sight of in approaching the contemplation of this initial movement of God towards man, that while the great facts are declared, they cannot be perfectly comprehended by human reason; and it is necessary therefore to approach them in the attitude of faith. These statements apply with equal force to the whole mystery of the life, and death, and resurrection of Jesus. The subject is therefore to be approached with holy and submissive reverence. The attitude of the mind in its approach, is defined in words spoken long centuries ago for the children of Israel, by Moses the servant of God. “The secret things belong unto Jehovah our God; but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”1 There are secret things which belong unto the Lord. There are revealed things, which God has made so plain that they may be comprehended, these “belong unto us and to our children.” It is the solemn duty of all who desire to know the Christ, that they should diligently study the things revealed, and reverently rest with regard to the secret things. The present study is devoted chiefly to the birth of Christ, as
1Deut. 29. 29.
the crisis of Incarnation. There is always the danger of dwelling more upon the birth of the human, than of contemplating that birth as the crisis through which God became incarnate. It is in the latter way however, that the subject is now to be approached, and in the following order. First, the testimony of Scripture; second, the mystery as to the secret things; third, the mystery revealed.
I. From the great mass of declaration in the New Testament concerning this subject, it will be sufficient to take four principal passages. These will again be divided into, first, annunciations to be reverently read, and received without attempted explanation; and secondly doctrinal declarations to be reverently considered.
The annunciations are those of the angel to Joseph and to Mary. In connection with the latter it will be necessary also to read the brief historic statement concerning the fulfilment of the angelic message.
The annunciation to Joseph was uttered in these words, “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son; and thou shalt call His name JESUS; for it is He that shall save His people from their sins. Now all this is come to pass, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:
Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring
forth a son,
And they shall call His name Immanuel;
which is, being interpreted, God with us.”!
In the presence of this mysterious announcement, there can be no fitting attitude of the human intellect save that of acceptance of the truth, without any attempt to explain the absolute mystery. The annunciation reveals the fact that in the origin of the Person of Jesus there was the co-operation of Deity and humanity, each making its own contribution.
The annunciation to Mary should be read in close connection with the statement of its fulfilment in history. “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee, wherefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God.” ... “And she brought forth her first-born son; and she 50 THE CRISES” OF THE SC PRIS
wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”1 This annunciation and declaration concerned one Person, spoken of in the former as the Son of God, in the latter as “her son.” Here are not two Persons, but one.
These annunciations are to be read and received without any attempt to explain the central mystery contained within them, which absolutely transcends all human understanding. They must be received, or else the whole superstructure of Christianity totters and falls. It is only by the way-of the fact here declared, that it is at all possible to comprehend the great facts which are evident in the whole subsequent work of this Person. To deny the truth of this account of the initial crisis, is to be left to the contemplation of effects, for which no sufficient cause can be found. The stupendous and ever manifest combination in the Personality of Jesus of essential Deity, and proper humanity, is totally without sufficient cause, the moment men have ceased to have faith in the Scripture account of the miraculous conception. That initial miracle cannot be finally explained, but neither can the origin of any form of life be finally explained in the last analysis.
The doctrinal declarations to be considered are those of John and of Paul. That of John is in the introduction to his Gospel. “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us... full of grace and truth.”2 For the sake of the present consideration, the parenthetical declaration “and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father,” is omitted. To rightly appreciate the meaning of this statement it is necessary to connect it with the opening words of the Gospel. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”3 The passage from the second to the thirteenth verse inclusive, is a statement giving parenthetically the history of the Word from the beginning of the first creation to the beginning of the second.
Omitting this passage, verses one and fourteen, read in immediate connection, contain a declaration of the sublimest facts concerning the Person of Christ, and a statement of His coming into relation with the human race in the mystery of Incarnation. In each of these passages there is a threefold statement, and they answer to each other.
“In the beginning was the Word.” “And the Word became flesh.”
Lukes 9Sinary, John 1. 14. John 1. 1,
THE GREAT MYSTERY — THE GOD-MAN Sy
“And the Word was with God.” “And tabernacled among us.”
“And the Word was God.” “Full of grace and truth.”
This is a statement of the mystery of the Incarnation, a setting in doctrinal form of that fact, announced by heavenly messengers to Joseph and to Mary.
The first statement is full of a majesty and sublimity which flings its light about the pathway, but which cannot be penetrated or perfectly comprehended., “In the beginning was the Word.” The phrase “in the beginning” in this connection antedates any other reference to the ages to be found in the sacred volume. By it man is borne back into the infinite and unfathomable reaches of the unmeasurable. The phrase with which the book of Genesis opens takes man to the beginning of the history of the present order, to those original movements of the Divine mind and power, by which material things originated. The phrase as John uses it, in these opening words, carries the mind yet again beyond those original movements of creation. By its aid the mind of man is introduced to the presence of the Self-existent God. Contemplating the unutterable splendour, whose very light darkens the understanding of the finite mind, the Word is found existing. A word is a means of expression. The word of man is man’s method of self-expression. The Word of God is the name here used for that Person in the Trinity, Who is the Divine method of self-expression.
“The Word became flesh.” The statement is appalling, overwhelming. Out of the infinite distances, into the finite nearness; from the unknowable, to the knowable; from the method of self-expression appreciable by Deity alone, to a method of self-expression understandable of the human.
In the inscrutable mystery of the Trinity the Son is ever the Medium of self-expression. By this awe-inspiring fact of Incarnation, the office of the Son is not changed. Its method is changed for the sake of man. The movement of the change no human intelligence can follow. It is darkly mysterious with the darkness of a blinding splendour. The conception is too mighty ever to have been born in the intelligence of man. “The Word which was in the beginning... became flesh.”
“The Word was with Ged.” The natural home of the Eternal Son Who was the Medium of self-revelation of Deity was in close fellowship with the Eternal Father. “The Word tabernacled among us,” that is, took up His manifest dwelling-place in proximity to the human race, as close as that which characterised His relation to the Eternal Father. He stooped into an actual identification with human nature, and by that stoop lifted human nature into the spaciousness of fellowship with God.
This, however, let it be stated in advance, is not the doctrine of Atonement. In the Person of Jesus, God has come into new and mystic relationship with unfallen humanity; and in the life of Jesus, God in relation with unfallen humanity, tabernacles among fallen man. Something more will be necessary to make possible union between the members of a fallen race, and this new Head of an unfallen race. That something more will be accomplished by the way of the Cross to be considered in due course.
“And the Word was God.” The final declaration is that of the supreme Deity of the Word, and thus the Person of Christ is safeguarded from any interpretation which would place Him in infinite superiority to the human race, and yet in inferiority to essential Deity. He was God, and yet in His Person there was not all the truth concerning God, for He was with God. He was with God, and yet by no means inferior to the Eternal Father, for He was God. The unity of Deity is marked by the word “God.” The diversity is marked by “the Word.” The God Who created, the Word was with. In the revelation of Incarnation, the phrase answering this final sentence is “full of grace and truth.” This teaches that in the grace or loveliness, and truth or righteousness of the Man seen of John and the rest, there was an outshining of the essential facts of the love and the light of Deity.
In the statement of Paul the same great truths are affirmed in other language. From the passage in Philippians, in which the humiliation and exaltation of Christ are so splendidly set forth, let the words be taken which deal immediately with this fact. “Who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a Servant, being made in the likeness of men.”! In this passage there is first stated the eternal fact concerning Christ, “existing in the form of God.” Then follows the attitude of the mind of the Eternal Word, in the presence of the call for redemption.
1Phil. 2. 6, 7.
He “counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped.” Then follows the sublime act, through which He came to the level of those needing succour. He “emptied Himself taking the form of a Servant, being made in the likeness of men.” Carefully note three facts in the compass of this brief passage. First, it declares the eternal verity concerning Christ. He existed in the form of God, on an equality with God. Second, it reveals the position He took, when He came for the redemption of man. He took the form of a Servant in the likeness of men.
In these two there is a contrast. Take the extreme statements, and He is seen as passing from the form of God to the likeness of men; and taking the nearer contrast, He is seen as passing from the Sovereignty of equality to the submission of subservience.
The third fact is the revelation of the attitude of mind, and the act of will, by which this change was wrought. In the presence of a great need He did not hold to, or grasp His right of equality, but for the accomplishment of an Infinite purpose, abandoned this. The action of the will is declared in the sublime and all-inclusive declaration that He emptied Himself. The Eternal Word stooped from the position of an Infinite expression to the limitations of human life.
It is now of the utmost importance to understand what is involved in the declaration that He emptied Himself. There is no warrant for imagining that He emptied Himself of His essential Deity. The emptying indicates the setting aside of one form of manifestation, in which all the facts of equality with God were evidently revealed, for another form of manifestation, in which the fact of equality with God must for a time be hidden, by the necessary submissiveness of the human to the Divine. That which the Eternal Word set aside was a form, and this in order that another form might be taken. It is evident, therefore, that a very great deal depends upon the meaning of the word form.
The Greek word morphe, only occurs in one other place in the whole of the New Testament. In speaking of an appearance of Christ after resurrection, Mark says, “After these things He was manifested in another form unto two of them, as they walked, on their way into the country.”! Taking this use of the word for the sake of illustration, it is evident that the change was not in the
*Mark 16. 12, essential nature or personality, but in the method of manifestation. To the men who walked to Emmaus the same One came, but in a changed form, so that they did not recognise Him, until He willed to reveal His identity. This of course by comparison with the subject now under consideration was but a small change, and yet it serves to illustrate the larger fact..
In the coming of the Eternal Word to the earth for the purposes of redemption, He did not lay aside the essential fact of His Deity. He simply changed the form of manifestation. It would seem clearly evident that the Son of God had for ever been the One in Whom God took form, and therefore the One through Whom God was revealed. The Son is always the manifestation of the Father. What the form, what the manifestation was in the past, it is impossible to declare, for it is beyond the comprehension of the finite and the limited. This alone is certain that He was the Word, the Speech, the Method of communication of the Eternal God. For the redemption of man He laid aside that form, whatever it may have been, and took a new form for manifesting the same God, a form upon which men might look, and through which, in the process of time, they might come to know the Eternal God. If it were possible for a moment to penetrate the mysteries of the past, the Son would be seen within the mystery of the Trinity, as the perpetual Medium of Divine expression, just as the Spirit is the perpetual Medium of Divine consciousness. In the coming to the level of man, and in the taking of a form possible of comprehension by man, it was necessary to bring the illimitable into the range of the limited. He passed from the heavenly to the earthly, from the infinite to the finite, that is, as to the form of expression. This is impossible of final explanation. It is however a mystery revealed, upon which the whole superstructure of Christianity depends. It would seem as though the eternal heavens were for a period emptied of the manifestation of God, though never of His presence, while for the work of redemption, God was manifest in the flesh.
The Word passed from government to obedience, from independent co-operation in the equality of Deity, to dependent submission to the will of God. By the way of the Incarnation there came into existence a Person in all points human, in all essentials Divine. In all points human, that is to say, fulfilling the Divine ideal of human nature, not descending to the level of the degradation of humanity, resulting from sin. The Man of Nazareth was perfect as Man. He was moreover perfect as God lacking nothing of the powers of essential Deity, save only the heavenly form of manifestation.
II. At this point the temptation is to ask questions. These may be asked, but they cannot be answered. Here is the sphere in which faith becomes operative, for here the mystery is seen as to its secret things which belong to God. How can there be united in one Person, perfect and complete Deity, and perfect and complete humanity? It is impossible to reply to the “how.” Will not these things, however, so contradict each other as to make both impossible: The only answer is that they did not, and that through all the life of Jesus, there were constantly manifested the essential and absolute nature of Deity, and the undoubted facts of humanity. There are no essentials of human nature that cannot be discovered in the story of this Person. His spiritual nature is evidenced by His unceasing recognition of God. His mental capacity is manifest in the marvellous majesty of His dealing with all problems. His physical life is seen moving along the line of the purely human in its hunger, its weariness, its method of sustenance, and its seasons of rest. The human will is seen, but always choosing, as the principle of activity, the Divine will. The emotional nature is manifest in the tears and the tenderness, the rebuke and the anger, gleaming with soft light, flaming as the lightning. The intellectual nature is seen so perfectly balanced, and so wonderfully equipped, that men marvelled at His wisdom, seeing, as they said, that He had never learned.
Yet, moreover, the essentials of Deity are seen. Such wisdom, that the ages have failed to understand perfectly the deep meaning of His teaching. Such power, that through weakness He operated towards the accomplishment of works that were only possible to God. Such love, that attempts to describe it, but rob it of its fairest glory.
And yet again, in this Person, is seen the merging of the Divine and the human, until one wonders where is the ending of the one and the beginning of the other. Denouncing and proclaiming doom upon guilty Jerusalem, the voice is yet choked with emotion, and the face is wet with tears. That is surely human. And yet it is essentially Divine, for while the expression of the emotion is human as all tears are, the emotion expressed is Divine, for none but God can mingle the doom of the guilty with the tears of a great pity.
It would seem as though there were no adequate naming of this Personality, but that created by the combination of the two names in one. He was the God-man. Not God indwelling a man. Of such there have been many. Not a man Deified. Of such there have been none save in the myths of pagan systems of thought; but God and man, combining in one Personality the two natures, a perpetual enigma and mystery, baffling the possibility of explanation. It may be asked how, if indeed He were God, He could be tempted in the realm of humanity, as other men are tempted? It may be objected that had He been God, He could not have spoken of the limitation of His own knowledge concerning things to come. When asked to explain these things, the only possible answer is that they do not admit of explanation, but they remain facts, proving His essential humanity; while on the other hand are the incontrovertible proofs of His Deity, in the activity of raising the dead, and in the matchless wisdom of His teaching, and supremely in the revelation of God, which has taken hold of, and influenced the whole conception of Deity during the passing of the centuries since His life upon earth.
This mystery and revelation uniting God and man in a Person is the centre of Christianity, and is without parallel, and without possibility of explanation by analogy.
It has been objected that this is the creation of the imagination of man. This however is to presuppose the possibility of an exercise of the imagination, to which it is wholly unequal. Imagination can only rearrange known facts. The poems of the poet may be new, and the picture of the artist also, but in each case upon examination they will be found to be new, in their combination and representation of old facts. The union in a Person of God and man was something undreamed of, unknown, until it broke upon the world as a fact in human history.
Il. In the Gospels there are three expressions descriptive of
Jesus Christ, which are suggestive of the double fact in His Personality, a contemplation of which will aid in the study of the revealed mystery. The first of them, the Son of God, indicates the Deity of Jesus, and yet perfectly describes His humanity. The second, the Son of Man, indicates His relation to the race, and yet ever suggests that separateness from it, which was created by the fact of His Deity. The third, the Son, always suggests the union of these facts in the unity of His Person. An examination of the four Gospels, and a selection from them of the passages in which these titles occur, reveal certain facts of interest concerning them.
Taking them in order, the terms, the Son of God, occurs in Matthew, nine times; in Mark, four times; in Luke, six times; and in John, eleven times. The title in Matthew is never used by Christ Himself, six times it is the language of men, and three times that of devils. In the Gospel of Mark it is never used by Christ, but by men twice, by devils twice. In the Gospel of Luke it is never used by Christ, but by an angel once, by a man once, and by devils four times. In the Gospel of John the title is on five occasions used by Jesus, and six times by men. It is interesting to note that in the three Gospels dealing principally with the humanity of Jesus, He is never recorded as having spoken of Himself as the Son of God. In the one Gospel of His Deity, He is recorded as having used the expression five times. About one of these there is a doubt, for it is not at all certain whether the words “He that beiieveth on Him is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God,”! do not form part of John’s commentary, rather than of the actual discourse of Jesus. Four times that are certain, indicate a method andareason. Twice He so described Himself in answering His critics,2 once when He brought comfort and light to an excommunicated man,3 and once when He would succour two broken-hearted women, whose brother Lazarus He was about to raise from the dead.4
The term, Son of Man, occurs in Matthew thirty-two times, in Mark fifteen times, in Luke twenty-six times, and in John twelve times. In the first three Gospels, the title is always recorded as having been used by Christ of Himself, and never by angel, by man, or by demon. Of the twelve occasions in John, ten are from
Yohn 3. 18. John 5. 25; 10. 36. 3John 9. 35. {John 11. 4.
the lips of Christ, twice only was the expression used by men, and then in the spirit of criticism and unbelief, “We have heard out of the law that the Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest Thou, the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”!
The last of these expressions, the Son, the greatest of the three, without either qualifying phrase, and therefore suggesting both relationships, occurs in Matthew four times, in Mark once, in Luke three times, and in John fifteen times. Without a single exception the phrase is used by Christ Himself, never by angel, or man, or demon.
This rapid survey shows that Christ’s favourite expression for describing Himself is the one which veiled His glory, the Son of Man. He most often described Himself in a way in which men never describe Him, save when repeating His own language, they in doubt ask what He meant. He also used, and He alone, the expression, the Son, suggesting in the light of the other two expressions, His relation to the Divine, and His relation to the human. The expression which declared His essential glory only passed His lips, in all probability, four times.
The. value of this examination of the use of the descriptive phrases may thus be stated. He was the Son of God, but that great fact never passed His lips, save when some pressing circumstance made it necessary that for rebuke or comfort He should declare the Eternal relationship which He bore to God. The title which He seems to have loved best, was that which marked His humanity, and His relationship to the race, the Son of Man. Occasionally, and always under circumstances of special need, He spoke of Himself as the Son.
These very titles suggest the essential fact concerning Him. At the birth of Jesus of Nazareth there came into existence One Personality, such as, with reference to the duality of its nature, had never had existence before. The Son of God came from the eternities. ‘The Son of Man began His Being. The Son combining the two facts, in one Personality, commenced that mighty work which He alone could accomplish, bringing to its carrying out all the forces of Deity, in union with the capacities of humanity.
Yohn 12. 34.