Who is Jesus Christ?

The central truth of all truth is that concerning the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was man on earth and His life here closed upon a malefactor's cross, and He is a man now at the right of the Majesty on High, having been raised again from the dead by the glory of the Father. But He who was man in humiliation on earth, who is still a man in exaltation in heaven, and who will never surrender manhood for ever is also God, eternal in being and omnipotent in power. He was God before He took up manhood, He did not cease to be God when he tabernacled amongst men, and what He was, He is, and shall for ever be.

There are, then, two sides to the person of Christ. He was God manifest in flesh. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). The Word was the Eternal Son, and the Eternal Son became man. He was thus God and man — a union of extremes which was not possible in any other, and rendering His person so unfathomable, so incomprehensible, that He Himself said, "No man knows the Son but the Father" (Matt. 11:27). But it is essential that we hold fast both His true Divinity and His as equally true humanity. For had He not been true man, He could not have been a sacrifice for sin, and had He not been God, His sacrifice could not have been available for all. Satan knows this, and hence, in every age, he has sought to undermine the one or the other of these truths, insinuating doubts sometimes concerning His humanity and sometimes concerning His Divinity. But it is the glory of the person of Christ that He is both Divine and human, that He is, in His one person, both God and man. This truth lies at the foundation of, and, indeed, gives its character to, redemption.

This powerful statement is the grand finale of John’s introduction of his Gospel which deals specifically with the greatness and glory of the Person of the Son of God. In the opening verses John makes clear that He is the “the Word” and as such He is no one else than the eternal God (John 1:1). John then had explained what He has become (and still is), namely a true man. The Word became flesh and dwelled among us (John 1:14). He is what He always was and will never cease to be – God. He was not, what He has become and still is now – a true man. Now He will be forever both: God and man in one person. We will never fathom the mystery of that wonderful person.

The blessed Lord in assuming manhood took all that was necessary for manhood, spirit, soul, and body; the spirit of a man, the soul of a man, the body of a man—in other words a human spirit, a human soul, a human body—full complete manhood. And yet, united to Deity there was but one indivisible Person. Such is the teaching of Scripture, such the mystery that our Lord declares none can know but the Father.

We must believe that He is very God, for this is clearly taught in the Word; we must believe that He is very Man, for this is clearly taught in the Word—very God and very Man, yet one blessed Person, Godhead and humanity united indissolubly and indivisibly and forever. Blessed Mystery, before which faith falls with adoring worship.

What we have just alluded to is brought before us in relation to another beginning, spoken of in the first chapter of John's Gospel. It is a beginning that conducts our thoughts into eternity, where the WORD was. Here we read of the eternal existence of the Son of God as the eternal Word, distinct in His Personality as the Son, being Himself God and withal distinct in His Person in eternity. Then we read of the Word becoming flesh, and dwelling among men full of grace and truth. He is the One Who brought the creation into being, for without Him was not anything made that was made; yet the eternal Word became Man to manifest the grace and love of God, and to bring to light all the thoughts of the Father's heart.

He is the Eternal Word—“God over all, blessed for ever”—uncreated, yet creating all things, self-sustained, and sustaining all things by the word of His power, never less than God. Mystery of mysteries, “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14); that is to say, this Divine and glorious Person stooped down and became a Man in order that He might die on the cross of Calvary to perform a Saviour’s part.

And who was that Child? He was the Word become flesh, of whom it is written, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the WORD WAS GOD." (John 1:1.) He was "the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of every creature: 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 ["in"] Him all things consist."* He was the One in whom "all the fulness was pleased to dwell." (Col. 1:15-19); He was the "Son whom God hath appointed the Heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds … the brightness of [the] glory, and the express image of his Person, and upholding all things by the word of his power." (Heb. 1:2-3.) On the other hand, as born into this world, He was the Seed of the woman, the Seed of Abraham, and the Son of David. All these glories, and many more, for He was a divine Person who had deigned to become flesh, circle around, and shine out from, that holy Babe whom Mary gave into the arms of Simeon. Let us gaze to the full, and reverently, upon this divine mystery; for the more we gaze, the more will our hearts be bowed with adoration in the presence of God's unspeakable gift, before such unfathomable grace and such knowledge-surpassing love.

Right through Scripture the Godhead of Jesus is maintained. He is the Eternal Son in the Unity of the Godhead - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, One God, blessed forever. He claimed equality with the Father. He received unquestioned the worship of His disciples. His omnipotence proclaimed His Godhead.

The Son, in Taking up Manhood into His Being, Voluntarily Took the Place of Submission and Dependence

He took up humanity into union with deity in His Person; yet His incarnation did not in the least detract from His deity nor His eternal relationship as Son to the Father but only gave to His humanity His infinite perfection. Each of His two natures retained its own proper character without any confusion. His human nature as well as His divine nature possessed each their excellent characteristics and both united to form His glorious Person as incarnate Son. Scripture never divides the Person nor confounds the natures. They are united in His Person by a unique and inscrutable bond. He is the God-man He is God in all that God is and He is Man in all that man is, apart from sin. Such is the Son of God come in flesh — the God-man — that He might manifest the Godhead in the flesh and by His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, might redeem us unto God.

As the incarnate Son He ever kept and will keep eternally (1 Cor. 15: 28) that place of a perfect Man in complete dependence, entire submission and implicit obedience to His Father's will and yet in it all He ever acts in His own Person as Son from eternity, who voluntarily took His place in manhood (being one with the Father in His will and purpose in it) that He might manifest unto us the Father and accomplish His will and the desire of His heart in our redemption to the praise of the glory of His grace. As incarnate Son He continually displays absolute submission to the will of the Father, yet this sacred service was and is equally the exercise of His own will, which was and always is uniform with that of His Father both in His deity and His perfect manhood.

Now Christ is the One who fulfils all these types, whether of Priest, King, or Prophet. Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness. We may not pretend to bottom the deep glory of His Person. but while He is in His eternal and essential glory the Son, He has become in being and nature Man; as such has died and risen again, and is officially designated as the Christ, i.e., the Anointed One, Priest, King, and Prophet. Moreover, in the perfection of His Manhood — though ever Son — He will fulfil all the duties and responsibilities of His glorious offices by the power of the Holy Ghost. Without controversy, great is the mystery.