481. Is He Only a Man?

Is He Only a Man?

Rom_9:5 : ’93Christ came, who is over all.’94

For four thousand years the world had been waiting for a deliverer’97waiting while empires rose and fell. Conquerors came and made the world worse instead of making it better, still the centuries watched and waited, looking for a rescuer. They looked for him on thrones, looked for him in palaces, looked for him in imperial robe, looked for him at the head of armies. At last they found him in a barn. The cattle stood nearer to him than the angels, for the former were in the adjoining stall while the latter were in the clouds. A parentage of peasantry. No room for him in the inn, because there was no one to pay the hotel expense. Yet the pointing star and the angelic cantata showed that heaven made up in appreciation of his worth what the world lacked. ’93Christ came, who is over all. God blessed forever. Amen.’94

In former Christmas discourses I have dwelt chiefly upon the scene surrounding the Bethlehem caravansary. I shall now speak more especially of the character of that Being whose arrival on earth we this day celebrate. As to the difference between different denominations of evangelical Christians I have no concern. If I could, by the turning over of my hand, decide whether all the world shall at last be Baptist or Methodist or Congregational or Episcopalian or Presbyterian I would not turn my hand. But there are doctrines which are vital to the soul. If Christ be not a God, we are idolaters. If Christ be God, then those who reject the claim are blasphemers. To this Christological question I now devote myself and pray God that we may think aright and do aright in regard to a question in which mistake is infinite.

I suppose that the majority of you believe the Bible. It requires as much faith to be an infidel as to be a Christian. It is faith in a different direction. The Christian has faith in the teachings of Matthew, Luke, John, Paul, Isaiah, Moses. The infidel has faith in the freethinkers. We have faith in one class of men. They have faith in another class of men. But as the majority of you, perhaps all of you, are willing to take the Bible for a standard in morals and in faith, I make this book my starting point.

I suppose you are aware that the two generals who have marshaled the great armies against the deity of Jesus Christ are Strauss and Renan. The number of their slain will not be counted until the trumpet of the archangel sounds the roll-call of the resurrection. Those men and their sympathizers saw that if they could destroy the fortress of the miracles they could destroy Christianity, and they were right. Surrender the miracles and you surrender Christianity. The great German exegete says that all the miracles were myths. The great French exegete says that all the miracles were legends. They propose to take everything supernatural from the life of Christ, and everything supernatural from the Bible. They prefer the miracles of human nonsense to the glorious miracles of Jesus Christ.

They say there was no miraculous birth in Bethlehem, but that it is all a fanciful story, just like the story of Romulus said to have been born of Rea Silvia and the god Mars. They say no star pointed to the manger; it was only the flash of a passing lantern. They say there was no miraculous making of bread, but that it is a corruption of the story that Elisha gave twenty loaves of bread to a hundred men. They say the water was never turned into wine, but that it is a corruption of the story that the Egyptian plague turned the water into blood. They say it is no wonder that Christ sweat great drops of blood; he had been out in the night air and was taken suddenly ill. They say that there were no tongues of fire on the heads of the disciples at the Pentecost; that there was only a great thunderstorm, and the air was full of electricity which snapped and flew all around about the heads of the disciples. They say that Mary and Martha and Christ felt it important to get up an excitement for the forwarding of their religion, and so they dramatized a funeral, and Lazarus played the corpse, and Mary and Martha played the weepers, and Christ was the tragedian. I put it in my own words, but this is the exact meaning of their statements. They say that the Bible is a spurious book written by superstitious or lying men backed up by men who died for that which they did not believe.

Now, I take back the limited statement which I made a few moments ago, when I said it requires as much faith to be an infidel as to be a Christian. It requires a thousandfold more faith to be an infidel than to be a Christian, for if Christianity demand that the whale swallowed Jonah, then skepticism demands that Jonah swallowed the whale! I can prove to you that Christ was God, not only by the supernatural appearances on that Christmas night, but by what inspired men said of him, by what he says of himself, and by his wonderful achievements. ’93Christ came, who is over all.’94 Ah! does not that prove too much? Not over the C’e6sars, not over Frederick, not over Alexander the Great, not over the Henries, not over the Louises? Yes. Pile all the thrones of all the ages together, and my text overspans them as easily as a rainbow overspans a mountain top. ’93Christ came, who is over all.’94 Then he must be a God.

The Bible says that all things were made by him. Does not that prove too much? Could it be that he made the Mediterranean, that he made the Black Sea, that he made the Atlantic, the Pacific, that he made Mount Lebanon, that he made the Alps, the Sierra Nevadas, that he made the hemispheres, that he made the universe? Yes. The Bible says so, and lest we be too stupid to understand, John winds up with a magnificent reiteration, and says: ’93Without him was not anything made that was made.’94 Then he was a God.

The Bible says at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow. All heaven must come down on its knees. Martyrs on their knees, apostles on their knees, confessors on their knees, the archangel on his knees. Before whom? a man? No, he is a God. The Bible says every tongue shall confess’97Bornesian, Malayan, Mexican, Italian, Spanish, Persian, English. Every tongue shall confess. To whom? God. The Bible says Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Is that characteristic of humanity? Do we not change? Does not the body entirely change in seven years? Does not the mind change? Does not the heart change? Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. He must be a God.

Philosophers say that the law of gravitation decides everything, and that the centripetal and centrifugal forces keep the world from clashing and from demolition. But Paul says that Christ’92s arm is the axle on which everything turns, and that Christ’92s hand is the socket in which everything is set. Mark the words, ’93Upholding’97upholding all things by the word of his power.’94 Then he must be a God.

Then look at what Christ says of himself. Now, certainly every one must understand himself better than any one else can understand him. If I ask you where you were born, and you tell me, ’93I was born in Chester, England,’94 or ’93I was born in Glasgow, Scotland,’94 or ’93I was born in Dublin, Ireland,’94 or ’93I was born in New Orleans, in the United States,’94 you being a man of integrity I should believe you. If I asked you how many pounds you could lift, and you should say you could lift one hundred pounds or two hundred pounds or three hundred pounds, I would believe you. It is a matter personal to yourself. You know better than any one else can tell you. If I ask how much estate you are worth, and you say ten thousand dollars or one hundred thousand dollars or five hundred thousand dollars, I believe what you say. You know better than any one else. Now Christ must know better than any one else who he is and what he is. When I ask him how old he is he says: ’93Before Abraham was, I am.’94 Abraham had been dead two thousand and twenty-eight years. Was Christ two thousand and twenty-eight years old? Yes, he says he is older than that. ’93Before Abraham was, I am.’94 Then Christ says, ’93I am the Alpha.’94 Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and Christ in that utterance declared, ’93I am the A of the alphabet of the centuries.’94 Then he must be a God. Can a man be in a thousand places at once? Christ says he is in a thousand places at once. ’93Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.’94 This everywhereativeness, is it characteristic of a man or of a God? And lest we might think this everywhereativeness would cease, he goes on and he intimates that he will be in all the cities of the earth’97he will be in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America the day before the world burns up. ’93Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.’94 Why, then, he must be a God.

Beside that he takes divine honors. He declares himself Lord of men, angels, and devils. Is he? If he is, he is a God. If he is not, he is an impostor. A man comes into your store to-morrow morning. He says, ’93I am the great shipbuilder of Liverpool; I have built hundreds of ships.’94 He goes on to give his experience. You defer to him as a man of large experience and great possessions. But the next day you find out that he is not the great shipbuilder of Liverpool, that he never built a ship, that he never built anything. What is he, then? An impostor. Christ says he built this world: he built all things. Did he build them? If he did, he is a God. If he did not, he is an impostor.

A man comes into your place of business with a Jewish countenance and a German accent, and says: ’93I am Rothschild, the banker, of London; I have the wealth of nations in my pocket; I loaned that large amount to Italy and Austria in their perplexity.’94 But after a while you find that he has never loaned any money to Italy or Austria, that he never had a large estate, that he is no banker at all, that he owns nothing. What is he? An impostor. Christ says he owns the cattle on a thousand hills, he owns the world, he owns the next world, he owns the universe, he is the banker of all nations. Is he? If he is, he is a God. Is he not? Then he is an impostor.

A man with military mien and royal bearing enters the White House at Washington. He says: ’93I am King William of Germany; I am traveling incognito; I have come over here for recreation and pleasure; I own castles in Dresden and Berlin.’94 But the President finds out the next day that he is not King William, that he owns no castles at Berlin or Dresden, that he has no authority. What is he? An impostor. Christ says he is the King over all, the King immortal, invisible. If he is, he is a God. If he is not, he is an impostor.

Strauss saw that alternative, and he tries to get out of it by saying that Christ was sinful in accepting adoration and worship. Renan tries to get out of it by saying that Christ’97not through any fault of his own, but through the fault of others’97lost his purity of conscience, and he slyly intimates that dishonorable women had damaged his soul. Anything but believe that Christ is God. Now, you believe the Bible to be true. If you do not you would have gone over and joined the Broadway Infidel Club, or you would go to Boston and kiss the foot of the statue of Thomas Paine. You would hardly come into a Christian church, where the most of the people are the deluded souls who believe in a whole Bible and take it all down as easily as you swallow a ripe strawberry. I have shown you what inspired men said of Christ. I have shown you what Christ said of himself; now if you believe the Bible, let us go out and see his wonderful achievements’97surgical, alimentary, marine, mortuary.

Surgical achievements: Where is the medical journal that gives any account of such exploits as Christ wrought? He used no knife. He carried no splints. He employed no compress. He made no patient squirm under cauterization. He tied no artery. Yet behold him! With a word he stuck fast Malchus’92s amputated ear. He stirred a little dust and spittle into a salve and with it caused a man who was born blind, and without optic nerve or cornea or crystalline lens, to open his eyes on the sunlight. He beat music on the drum of the deaf ear. He straightened a woman who through contraction of muscle had been bent almost double for well-nigh two decades. He made a man who had no use of his limbs for thirty-eight years shoulder his mattress and walk off. Sir Astley Cooper, Abernethy, Valentine Mott stood powerless before a withered arm; but this doctor of omnipotent surgery comes in and he sees the paralytic arm useless and lifeless at the man’92s side, and Christ says to him: ’93Stretch forth thine hand, and he stretched it forth whole as the other.’94 He was a God.

He found a lad who had come out of the wilderness with five loaves of bread for a speculation. Perhaps the lad had paid five pennies for the five loaves, and expected to sell them for ten pennies, and so he would double his money. Christ took those loaves of bread and performed a miracle by which he fed five thousand famishing people, and the lad lost nothing, for there were twelve baskets of fragments taken up, and if the boy had five loaves at the start, I warrant you he had at least ten at the close. The Saviour’92s mother goes into a neighbor’92s house to help get up a wedding party. By calculation she finds out that the amount of wine is not sufficient for the guests. She calls on Christ for help, and Christ, not by the slow decay of fermentation, but by a word, makes one hundred and thirty gallons of pure wine.

He turns a whole school of fish into the net of men who were mourning over their poor luck, until the boat is so full they have to halloo to other boats, and the other boats come up and they are laden to the water’92s edge with the game, so that the sailors have to be cautious in going from larboard to starboard lest they upset the ship. Then there comes a squall down through the mountain gorge, and Gennesaret with long locks of white foam rises up to battle it, and the boat drops into a trough and ships a sea, and the loosened sails crack in the tornado, and Christ rises from the back part of the boat and comes walking across the staggering ship until he comes to the prow, and there he wipes the spray from his brow and hushes the crying storm on the knee of his omnipotence. Who wrestled down that Euroclydon? Whose feet trampled the rough Galilee into a smooth floor?

Let philosophers, anatomists, go to Westminster Abbey and try to wake up Queen Elizabeth or Henry VIII. No human power ever wakened the dead. There is a dead girl in Capernaum. What does Christ do? Alas! that she should have died so young and when the world was so fair. Only twelve years of age. Feel her cold brow and cold hands. Dead, dead! The house is full of weeping. Christ comes and he takes hold of the hand of the dead girl, and instantly her eyes open, her heart starts. The white lily of death blushes into the rose of life and health. She rushes into the arms of her rejoicing kindred. Who woke up that death? Who restored her to life? A man? Tell that to the lunatics in Bloomingdale Asylum. It was Christ the God.

But there comes a test which more than anything else will show whether he was God or man. You remember that great passage which says: ’93We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ.’94 The earth will be stunned by a blow that will make it stagger mid-heaven; the stars will circle like dry leaves in an equinox; the earth will unroll the bodies and the sky will unroll the spirits and soul and flesh will come into incorruptible conjunction. Day of smoke and fire and darkness and triumph. On one side, piled up in galleries of light, the one hundred and forty-and-four thousand, yea, the quintillions of the saved. On the other side, piled up in galleries of darkness, the frowning, the glaring multitude of those who rejected God.

Between these two piled-up galleries a throne, a high throne, a throne standing on two burnished pillars’97Justice, Mercy’97a throne so bright you had better hide your eye lest it be extinguished with excess of vision. But it is an empty throne. Who will come up and take it? Will you? ’93Ah! no,’94 you say, ’93I am but a child of dust; I would not dare to climb that throne.’94 Would Gabriel climb it? He dare not. Who will ascend it? Here comes One. His back is to us. He goes up step above step, height above height, until he reaches the apex. Then he turns around and faces all nations, and we all see who it is. It is Christ the God, and all earth and all heaven and all hell kneel, crying: ’93It is a God! it is a God!’94 We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ.

I am so glad that it is a Divine Being who comes to pardon all our sins, to comfort all our sorrows. Sometimes our griefs are so great they are beyond any human sympathy, and we want Almighty sympathy. Oh, ye who cried all last night because of bereavement or loneliness, I want to tell you it is an omnipotent Christ who is to come.

When the children are in the house and the mother is dead, the father has to be more gentle in the home and he has to take the office of father and mother, and it seems to me Christ looks out upon your helplessness and he proposes to be father and mother to your soul. He comes in the strength of the one, in the tenderness of the other. He says with one breath, ’93As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him,’94 and then with the next breath he says, ’93As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.’94 Do you not feel the hush of the divine lullaby? Oh, put your tired head down on the heaving bosom of divine compassion while he puts his arms around you and says: ’93O widowed soul, I will be thy God. O orphaned soul, I will be thy protector. Do not cry.’94 Then he touches your eyelids with his fingers and sweeps his fingers down your cheek and wipes away all the tears of loneliness and bereavement. Oh, what a tender and sympathetic God has come for us. I do not ask you to lay hold of him. Perhaps you are not strong enough for that. I do not ask you to pray. Perhaps you are too bewildered for that. I only ask you to let go and fall back into the arms of everlasting love.

Soon you and I will hear the click of the latch of the door of the sepulcher. Strong men will take us in their arms and carry us down and lay us in the dust, and they cannot bring us back again. I should be scared with infinite fright if I thought I must stay in the grave’97if even the body was to stay forever in the grave. But Christ will come with glorious iconoclasm and split and grind up the rocks and let us all come forth. The Christ of the manger is the Christ of the throne.

Autor: T. De Witt Talmage