THE GREAT MYSTERY OF INCARNATION

04 THE INCARNATION -- Looking Unto Jesus, Chapter 04, by Uriah Smith -- THUS the divine Son of God came into this world - born of a woman. The mystery of his glorious incarnation is among the wonders which the angels desire to look into. 1 Peter 1:11, 12. Here the skeptic grows facetious, and the ribald scoffer waxes merry over his innuendos concerning the miraculous conception and birth of the Son of Man. Could such overcome the vacuity of their minds long enough to bestow a serious and sensible thought upon the subject, they might be asked, on the hypothesis that a plan of redemption was to be devised, how they would propose to accomplish that purpose. Given this condition to be met, that a divine being is to come into this world on the plane of humanity, taking upon himself the nature of man, how would they have this change effected? Could there be a member of the human family not born of a woman? Could a divine being become a man among men without being born into this plane of existence? And to this end, what kind of woman would be chosen? Would it be any other than a pure and lovely youthful virgin, as the Scriptures assure us the virgin Mary was, who was the mother of Jesus? Let, then, all cavilers retire abashed before the unavoidable conditions of the case, and the divine condescension revealed in its accomplishment. Instead of seeking some point at which to jeer and mock, as skeptics do, as the turkey-buzzard scans the landscape, not for its honeyed fruits and flowers, but for some putrid carcass on which to prey, the Christian enters rather into the spirit of the song which the angels sang, and the declaration made by the heavenly messenger when he said: “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10, 11. Pressed with a burden of sin, and a longing desire for freedom from its power, the thoughtful penitent is only too glad to know that a way was devised whereby a divine being, to be called “Jesus,” because he would “save his people from their sins,” could come to his help - too glad for this, to be tempted to stop and indulge in ribald quibble over the means by which God chose to bring it to pass. {LUJ 25.1} And what a puzzling problem to a godless world is this same Jesus! Virtually the question concerning him, has ever been, like that raised by Pilate, “What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They look at his life, and find no flaw therein; no crevice in his character for the eye of suspicion to pry into; no spot on his garments for the tongue of slander, no lapse in word or deed for the sting of reproach. What can they do with that unimpeachable life, and yet justify their own course of action in rejecting him? If he was good, why not try to be like him? If his life was high and holy, devoted to deeds of kindness and mercy, why not follow in his steps, and make our lives a benediction to the needy, and a blessing to the world? Men rail at his earthly origin, as either fable or a crime, and yet pronounce him the best man that has ever lived, forgetting the inconsistency of supposing that from such a course would be likely to spring the most exalted character the world has ever seen. They pronounce him a most excellent man, of the very highest integrity and virtue, forgetting that if he was not what he claimed to be, which they will not admit that he was, then he was one of the most stupendous impostors that ever deceived mankind. Yes; what shall we do with Jesus, who is called the Christ? If he was what he claimed to be, no one will be found reckless enough to deny that every prompting of wisdom, every principle of the simplest understanding, demands that we accept and follow him as our Lord and Master; and he can be rejected only at our certain peril. But if he was not what he professed to be but was a most daring deceiver and impious impostor, asserting that he came down from heaven; that he was the Son of the Highest, holy, harmless, and undefiled; the way, the truth, and the life; the true vine and the true shepherd; the only way by which men could come to God, the only door into the heavenly fold; - if, putting forth such claims, he was all the while but a deluded, sinful, erring man, whence came his power to live the life he lived, and to attest his mission by the wonders he was able to perform? He was either the best or the worst of men. He could not be both at the same time. If he was the worst, how comes it that he was supreme in every virtue and every quality which links man with the divine? If he was the best, as even his bitterest foes are compelled to admit, why take a position concerning him, which makes him the worst? What shall we do with Jesus who is called the Christ? This question belongs to that class which never can be settled, till it is settled right; and he only settles this one aright who comes to him as a Saviour from his sins, takes his life for his example, his power for his strength, his righteousness for his merit, and his easy yoke and light burden upon his shoulders and upon his heart, and so finds rest unto his soul. {LUJ 26.1} Taking upon himself our nature, he brought himself into a position where he can call us brethren. Hebrews 2:11. He can therefore be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, for he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin; and having been thus tempted, he is able to succor them which are tempted. Hebrews 4:15; 2:18. He came down to pass with us through the school of life and show us the way. He comes down among his pupils to work out in their presence the intractable problems by which they have been hopelessly baffled. He planted his feet in every spot which we can be required to tread. He was in all points tempted like as we are, and in all points was a victor in our behalf. He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. He made himself of no reputation. He was despised and rejected of men, because they would not deny the carnal heart, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. They saw in him no form nor comeliness nor beauty, because the ways of virtue, purity, and peace, which only he could sanction, they would not follow. The darkness would not comprehend the light. His path did not lead to honor, luxury, or riches, and men turned their faces away from him. “A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” is not such a one as the world esteems. He was wounded, bruised and chastened; but it was for our transgressions and iniquities; and these are the stripes he bore by which we are healed. He had travail of soul, and resisted unto blood, striving against sin. (See Isaiah 53; Hebrews 12:4.) In all these experiences we are to “consider him,” and learn from him, lest we become weary and faint in our minds. “Wherefore,” says Paul, “in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17); nd the assurance of chapter 4:15 naturally follows: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” {LUJ 28.1} Thus Christ left a life for our example. He taught us to do well, and then, if we suffer for it, to take it patiently; “for,” says the apostle Peter, “even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did not sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” 1 Peter 2:20-22. His character and relationship as creator he did not lose by coming into this world on the great errand of redemption: hence this sinless life, lived in our behalf, may, by faith in him, be appropriated as his own, by any of the class he came to redeem, who are all his creatures. This life manifested here in our nature vindicates the government of God, and clears his throne from all charges of inconsistency in demanding of men, or as if he demanded of men, more than they could do, and condemning them for not meeting requirements which it was impossible for them to perform. This is very clearly stated by Paul in Romans 8:3, 4: “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.” God’s throne is charged with guilt. It is claimed that no man could keep the law God had laid upon him, by any possible power in himself or at his command; that it was not just that man should be required to keep such a law, and he never should have been condemned for breaking it. The law, as the apostle says, was “weak through the flesh;” that is, the flesh, man’s carnal nature, basely yielded to temptation, and broke the law; but there was no power in the law to redeem; and so, though ordained to life, that is to keep men in the path of obedience which is the path of life, it has no power to bring them back when they stepped over into the way of death; therefore, so far as the law only was concerned, man was then doomed to death. But God sent his own Son into the world to show that the whole trouble lay in the base surrender of the flesh to sin, and not to any injustice in the law. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh to demonstrate before all parties in the controversy that is was possible for men in the flesh to keep the law. He demonstrated this by keeping it himself. On our plane of existence, and in our nature, he rendered such obedience to every principle and precept, that the eye of Omniscience itself could detect no flaw therein. His whole life was but a transcript of that law, in its spiritual nature, and in its holy, just, and good demands. He thus condemned sin in the flesh, by living himself in the flesh and doing no sin; showing that it was possible for man thus to live. It was a complete and triumphant vindication of the fact that God is not unjust in his demands; that he required of man nothing more than he could do, nothing more than he should have done, and for the not doing of which he was justly condemned. If Christ here, as a man, could keep the law, fulfilling perfectly the Father’s will, man could have done so too, and therefore stands speechless before a throne which is shown to be a throne of equity, before a law which is shown to be holy, just and good, and before the blameless life of Christ, which is shown to be possible in a world like this, and in a condition vastly worse than that in which Adam was placed, when he basely yielded to temptation. {LUJ 29.1}

WHO IS YOUR REDEEMER?

CHRIST AS REDEEMER -- Looking unto Jesus, Chapter 3 by Uriah Smith "But these are not all his ways. Had no disloyalty invaded his peaceful, happy realms, these perhaps, would have alone remained forever the channels of his glory. But a world plunged in sin, but yet within the scope of mercy, opened a new theater for the display of attributes till then slumbering in the divine bosom. God’s attitude to those of his creatures who had been caught in the snare of sin, became the marvel of heavenly hosts, and the relation Christ assumed toward a world of lost humanity, overtopped all other displays of the divine nature the universe had seen. Love and mercy, justice and truth, blossomed forth into those fair combinations and vast proportions, before which unfallen seraphs and the hosts of the redeemed will ever wonder and adore. {LUJ 18.1} The words of John, first quoted, lift the vail into this marvelous realm of redemption: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” The lamb is a symbol of sacrifice; and in calling Christ by this title, John indicates the method by which the work of taking away the sin of the world is to be accomplished. Nothing but a sacrificial lamb could do it; not an earthly lamb: for it is written that the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin, but it must be such a one as John here designates - the Lamb of God. Nothing but the height of sacrifice could reach the case. No created being would answer. It must be one in whom divinity itself was enshrined. {LUJ 18.2} [NO PAGE NUMBER] PICTURE When John spoke these words to the Jewish people, that nation had had, for fifteen hundred years, daily set before them a vivid picture of sacrifice for sin. In sacred, solemn service, the blood of lambs had flowed upon their altars, and the smoke of consuming victims had ascended as grateful incense to heaven - grateful, because an evidence of penitence on the part of men. The shedding of blood, the evidence of forfeited life, was essential to an effectual sacrifice and offering for sin; for the apostle declares expressly that “without shedding of blood is no remission.” Hebrews 9:22. Remission (literally, a “sending back again”) refers to the removal or putting away of sin; and a moment’s glance at the situation, will show the philosophy of the statement, and the reason why blood alone avails for this purpose. {LUJ 19.1} The Author of the universe is not the author of confusion. Government reigns through all his realms,; but government is maintained by law; and law, to be law, must have its penalties. The penalty pronounced against sin was death. “Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Ezekiel 18:20. Such was the unalterable fiat that went forth against disobedience to God’s just and holy law. The sentence commends itself to the sense of justice, common to every unbiased heart. With reference to one who would take the sweet gift of life which he had done nothing to merit, and prostitute it and all its privileges to the base and unnatural work of hurling defiance into the very face of the giver, and making war on his will and all his ways, God could certainly do no less than to consider such a life forfeited, and withdraw the precious boon. So the sentence of the Old Testament, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die,” is echoed in the New: “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23. {LUJ 19.2} It is life, then, which the law demands of every transgressor. But what has this to do with the declaration that “without shedding of blood is no remission”? The book of Leviticus explains. The blood is the life. In Leviticus 17:14, we read: “For it [the blood] is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh; for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof.” In verse 11 we further read: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” The presentation of blood, therefore, was the evidence that life had been taken, to meet the demands of the law, and that thus its claim that “the soul that sinneth [transgresseth the law], it shall die,” had been satisfied. But if the sinner were left to meet this demand himself, if the blood that made remission were his own blood, where would be his life? His sin indeed would be remitted, or destroyed, but it would involve him in the same destruction; he must perish with his transgression. {LUJ 20.1} When man had thus brought himself into this helpless and hopeless condition by disobedience to the command not to eat of the forbidden tree (a prohibition which involved every principle of God’s law), it was then that the Saviour interposed in his behalf. Christ alone, as being above law, was available for this work. Every created being was subject to law, and therefore could meet its demands only on his own behalf. The law demands perfect obedience, and no being subject to law could render more than that. But on Christ, whose very nature was the law, the law had no demands to make. He therefore could pay a debt in behalf of others. He, as creator, could meet the demands of his own law in behalf of any of his own creatures. But, as we have seen, he is the creator of all, and hence could meet the demands of the law in behalf of all. {LUJ 20.2} This would not jeopardize his kingdom; for the integrity of his government would be preserved; his own honor would remain untarnished; and the majesty of the law would be maintained. Christ could thus present to the law a life unforfeited to its claims - a life equivalent to that of every created being; and the sinner by being permitted to plead that offering made for the cancellation of his sin, by being permitted to present that blood, the blood of Christ, offered to the law for remission, as if it were his own, could thus secure the destruction of his sin, and yet live. This clearing of the sinner was no concession to sin in itself considered; for the awful penalty paid, showed its terrible nature, and that it was not regarded as a slight and trifling thing which might be quietly ignored. That provision for forgiveness was not lightly passing by, or licensing sin on the part of the sinner; for the condition on which the ransom price was to be appropriated, and the benefit of grace secured, was such as to work in the heart of the penitent an abhorrence of sin, and in his life a cessation of its practise. {LUJ 21.1} The offering of Christ was no infliction of blind vengeance on the part of God, to give vent to wrath he knew not how otherwise to appease; but it was an “unspeakable gift,” prompted by infinite love. Christ declared this to Nicodemus: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. It was no arbitrary infliction of injustice and cruelty upon the innocent, that the still stubborn and unrepentant guilty party might unjustly escape the legitimate consequences of his deeds; for the offering was voluntary and self-sought on the part of Christ. The Father simply accepted his proposition of self-immolation, instead of condemning him to it. Christ gave himself for us. Hebrews 7:27. The innocent, of his own will, consented to take the place of the guilty, to pay that which the law demanded to cancel guilt, that the guilty, by a proffered union with himself, might be accounted innocent. He made his soul an offering for sin. Isaiah 53:10. He “through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God.” Hebrews 9:14. He who was without sin became sin, that we who had sin might become without sin. This glorious truth the scripture expresses in the following assuring language: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Corinthians 5:21. {LUJ 21.2} It would have been indeed a marvelous sight had Christ come down to accomplish this work in his own pre-existent nature and condition, as a representative of the Godhead in majesty and power; but then mankind would have feared to approach him. They would have stood aloof in awe and veneration. Their spirits would have melted at his overpowering presence. The contrast between himself and them would have been too painful. They would have viewed him as one afar off, and would have seen a gulf separating them from him, so wide as to paralyze all their efforts to pass it. His example would have seemed too high for them to attempt to follow. Christ did not therefore see fit to come in that manner. He did more. He must come nearer to man than that. He would not only reach down his arm, but he would come down himself. He would not approach man simply as a visitant from another realm, but as one from his own country and of his own kind. He would not save him as the Son of God only, but also as the Son of man. {LUJ 22.1} It would have been a vast descent for him to take upon himself the nature of angels. But he would not limit himself to this, but would compass the entire descent to man’s low estate. To this the apostle plainly testifies: “For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.” Hebrews 2:16. That is, he assumed the nature of the children of men, that he might, as the margin reads, “lay hold” of them. Thus he humbled himself, and took upon him the form of a servant, by consenting to take the fashion of puny, mortal, sinful man (Philippians 2:8). In the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3), he reached down to the very depths of man’s fallen condition, and became obedient to death, even the ignominious death of the cross. He “was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.” “As the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil,” and thus deliver them who were subject to bondage. Hebrews 2:9, 14, 15. He who was exalted became abased, that we might be exalted; he who was rich became poor, that we who are so poor might be made rich; he who was immortal became mortal, that we who are mortal might become immortal. The brightness of heaven exchanged for the darkness of earth! The riches of heaven surrendered for the poverty of earth! The essence of being, inherent life, exchanged for the cold clods of the tomb! How could the Lord of life, he to whom the Father had given to have life in himself, come down in mortal garb, and die for men? How could immortality become mortality? {LUJ 23.1} When Christ left heaven to die for a lost world, he left behind, for the time being, his immortality also. but how could that be laid aside? That it was laid aside is PICTURE AND TEXT sure, or he could not have died; but he did die, as a whole, as a divine being, as the Son of God, not in body only, while the spirit, the divinity, lived right on; for then the world would have only a human Saviour, a human sacrifice for its sins; but the prophet says that “his soul” was made “an offering for sin.” Isaiah 53:10. But how this could be done, is a question like a hundred other questions that might be asked concerning this heaven-devised transaction, the answers to which the finite mind could never grasp. The nature, though not the manner, of this marvelous event, Paul partially reveals in 1 Timothy 3:16: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” “The Word,” says John, “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. Again we read: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death” (Hebrews 2:9), that is, that he might suffer death. {LUJ 23.2}