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Chapter 1
149
remain a mystery. That which is revealed, is for us and for our
children, but let every human being be warned from the ground of
making Christ altogether human, such an one as ourselves; for it
cannot be. The exact time when humanity blended with divinity, it
is not necessary for us to know. We are to keep our feet on the Rock
Christ Jesus, as God revealed in humanity.
I perceive that there is danger in approaching subjects which
dwell on the humanity of the Son of the infinite God. He did humble
Himself when He saw He was in fashion as a man, that He might
understand the force of all temptations wherewith man is beset.
The first Adam fell; the second Adam held fast to God and His
Word under the most trying circumstances, and His faith in His
Father’s goodness, mercy, and love did not waver for one moment.
“It is written” was His weapon of resistance, and it is the sword
of the Spirit which every human being is to use. “Hereafter I will
not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and
hath nothing in me”—nothing to respond to temptation. On not one
occasion was there a response to his manifold temptations. Not once
did Christ step on Satan’s ground, to give him any advantage. Satan
found nothing in Him to encourage his advances (
Letter 8, 1895
).
(
Matthew 27:54
;
1 Timothy 3:16
.)
But although Christ’s divine
glory was for a time veiled and eclipsed by His assuming humanity,
yet He did not cease to be God when He became man. The human
did not take the place of the divine, nor the divine of the human.
This is the mystery of godliness. The two expressions “human”
and “divine” were, in Christ, closely and inseparably one, and yet
they had a distinct individuality. Though Christ humbled Himself to
become man, the Godhead was still His own. His deity could not
be lost while He stood faithful and true to His loyalty. Surrounded
with sorrow, suffering, and moral pollution, despised and rejected by
the people to whom had been intrusted the oracles of heaven, Jesus
could yet speak of Himself as the Son of man in heaven. He was
ready to take once more His divine glory when His work on earth
was done.
There were occasions when Jesus stood forth while in human
flesh as the Son of God. Divinity flashed through humanity, and was
seen by the scoffing priests and rulers. Was it acknowledged? Some
acknowledged that He was the Christ, but the larger portion of those