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Scripture Reading: 18, 1 Cor. 1:23, 1:24; 2:2; Luke 1:35; 2:11; Matt. 16:16; Rom. 1:4; Acts 2:36; John 20:31
In the following chapters we will consider Christ and the cross exclusively. Those who know the Bible know that Christ and the cross are the center and the reality of the Bible. If Christ and the cross were removed from the Bible, the Bible would be an empty book. The Bible is precious in its revelation of Christ and the cross. We will appreciate the preciousness of the Bible only when we know Christ and the cross.
In 1 Corinthians 1:23 Paul speaks of preaching Christ crucified. Paul did not determine to know anything among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified (2:2). He knew Christ as the totality of the power and wisdom of God (1:24), and he also knew the word of the cross as the power of God to those who are being saved (v. 18). The center of Paul’s message and work is Christ and the cross. All the apostles, who were sent by God to preach and work on His behalf, emphasized Christ and the cross. This is the message and work that God entrusted to the apostles.
Although we have been saved by grace, I am concerned that we do not know Christ or His cross adequately. In order for us to grow in life, to see the spiritual things and the spiritual way, and to be proper Christians, we must know Christ and the cross. A person who does not know Christ and the cross cannot do a spiritual work or service that satisfies God’s heart. In order to grow spiritually or do a spiritual work, such as preaching the gospel or administrating the church, we must know Christ and the cross.
Believers are poor and weak, and the churches are desolate and chaotic because believers and the Lord’s serving ones do not know Christ and the cross. Only by knowing Christ and the cross can believers be edified more in life and the church be established so that the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ will increase in the church (Eph. 4:13). Hence, we will spend considerable time in these chapters to consider the matter of Christ and the cross.
The Bible reveals Christ and the cross in ways that are beyond our thought. Without God’s mercy, without the Holy Spirit’s presence, and without a proper heart and a clear, strong spirit, we would feel that the Bible’s profound, central word on Christ and the cross is vague, mysterious, and unfathomable. Like those in John 6, who heard but could not understand the Lord’s words concerning eternal life, we would say, “This word is hard; who can hear it?” (v. 60). We must look to the Lord for a proper heart and a strong spirit in order to listen with our heart and receive with our spirit and then remember, muse upon, and turn this word into prayer.
In this chapter we come to the person of Christ, and we must ask, “Who is Christ?” All believers can answer that He is our Savior, and according to our human feeling and with respect to us, He is our Savior. However, according to God’s revelation and with respect to God, Christ far exceeds what we can say or know about Him.
The Bible reveals that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God and the Christ of God. In Luke 1:35 the angel Gabriel told Mary that the Holy Spirit would come upon her, and the power of the Most High would overshadow her; therefore, the holy thing which was born would be called the Son of God. In 2:11 an angel of God told the shepherds that a Savior, who is Christ the Lord, had been born to them in David’s city. Matthew 16:16 records that when the Lord Jesus came out to minister, the Father revealed to Peter that the Lord Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Romans 1:4 says that when the Lord Jesus came out of the resurrection of the dead, He was designated the Son of God in power. In Acts 2:36 Peter witnessed, saying, “Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you have crucified.” At the end of his Gospel, John says, “These have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name” (20:31). From the time of the Lord’s ascension, everyone who wants to be saved must believe that He is the Christ, the Son of God. These verses show that the New Testament emphasizes that the Lord Jesus is both the Son of God and the Christ of God. Although the Bible contains many titles for the Lord Jesus, there is not another title more important and crucial than either the Son of God or the Christ of God.
These two titles speak of the two statuses of the Lord Jesus. The Son of God speaks of His person, and the Christ of God speaks of His ministry. With respect to the Lord’s person, He is the Son of God. With respect to the Lord’s ministry and work, He is the Christ of God.
The Son of God is the expression of God, the manifestation of God. As the Father, God is hidden. As the Son, God comes forth and is manifested among men. As the God who dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16), He is the Father. As the God who comes forth and manifests Himself to man, He is the Son. The Father is the source of the Son, and the Son is the expression of the Father. The Son is hidden in the Father, and the Father is manifested in the Son. Thus, when we speak of the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, we are speaking of the Lord as the manifestation, the expression, of God. John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”
Hebrews 1:3 speaks of the Son of God being the effulgence of God’s glory. This can be illustrated by the light from the sun. Sunlight is the effulgence of the sun, and we can see and contact the sun through its light. The sun is far from us, and no one has ever touched or come into contact with the sun itself. However, the light from the sun, as the effulgence of the sun, reaches us. This effulgence is the manifestation of the sun, the expression of the sun. Although God dwells in unapproachable light and no man has seen Him, God has been manifested in the Son for man to see and contact.
The Son of God is also the impress of God’s substance (v. 3). An impress is a seal. This indicates that the Son of God is the expression of God, the true expression of God. He declares nothing less than God Himself. Therefore, the Son of God said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9), and “He who receives Me receives Him who has sent Me” (Matt. 10:40). God is in the Son (John 10:38); therefore, God is the inner substance of the Son, and the Son is the outward expression of God.
The Son of God is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15); all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Christ, the Son (2:9). The Son of God is the embodiment of God; apart from Him man cannot see God. Indeed, apart from Him there is no God to us. God is hidden in the Son, and God is expressed through the Son.
John 1:1 reveals that the Son of God is the Word who was with God in the beginning and the Word who was God. Word in verse 1 is logos in Greek, which denotes the constant word. We all know that words are the expression of a person. If a person does not speak, we have no way of knowing him. Everything in a person is expressed through his word. John 1 reveals that the Son of God is the Word of God; the Son of God is the utterance of God and speaks forth everything that is in God. He has been with God from the beginning, that is, from eternity, because He is God. In the heavens He is the Word hidden in God. On the earth He is the manifested God, the Word who expresses God in order for man to understand and know God. The Son of God is the utterance of God, the manifestation of God.
There is a group of so-called Christians in the Philippines who are considerable in number and influence. However, they do not believe that Jesus is God. Once I was in Manila, and they made an appointment to speak with me. Of the four who came, two of them were quite eloquent. For this time, I also asked two brothers to be with me. Because we heard that they did not believe that the Lord Jesus is God, we asked them at the very beginning whether they believed that Christ is God. One of them replied, “Where is there a sentence in the Bible that says Christ is God?” I replied, “John 1:1 says, ‘The Word was God.’” He said, “Yes, the Word was God, but it does not say that Christ was God.” Upon hearing this, I was astonished and asked, “Then who do you say that the Word is?” He said, “The Word is God.” I said, “Please read verse 14, which says, ‘The Word became flesh.’” Then I asked, “To whom does flesh refer?” He said, “It refers to Christ.” Then I said, “If verse 1 says that the Word was God, and verse 14 says that the Word, who is Christ, became flesh, does this not tell us that Christ is God?” He said, “Undoubtedly, the Word was God before the Word became flesh, but when the Word became flesh, the Word changed.” I then asked, “Did the Word change in such a way that He was no longer God?” He said, “Certainly!” and then he asked, “Where does it say in the Bible that the Word was still God after becoming flesh?” I said, “The Word was God, and the Word became flesh. Was this One who became flesh God or not?” He could only respond, saying, “Your logic is wrong. The Bible does not specifically say that the Word was still God after becoming flesh.” After hearing this, we felt that we could not go on, and our talk ended inconclusively.
There are two verses in the Bible that prove the Lord Jesus is God becoming flesh, that is, that He still possessed the substance and nature of God even though He became flesh. Isaiah 7:14 says, “The virgin will conceive and will bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel.” Immanuel means “God with us” (cf. Matt. 1:23). This verse refers to the Lord Jesus, who, as the Word, became flesh and tabernacled among us by being conceived and born of a virgin (John 1:14). This One was God with us, and in His becoming flesh, there was no loss of His divinity. How can anyone say that He was no longer God after becoming flesh? As God become flesh, Christ was still God with God’s substance and nature.
Isaiah 9:6 says, “A child is born to us, / A Son is given to us; /...And His name will be called /...Mighty God, / Eternal Father.” This verse also refers to the Lord Jesus and clearly indicates that the child who was born to us and who became flesh was still the Mighty God. Although He was given to us as a Son in time, He was still the Father in eternity. The Son who was manifested in time is the Father hidden in eternity; as a child in the flesh, He was the Mighty God. Even though He was the manifested Son, He was still the Father, and even though He was a child in the flesh, He was still the Mighty God. He did not cease to be God simply because He became flesh.
We must know assuredly that the Lord Jesus is God. He has God’s life and nature as well as His divinity and glory; He is God Himself. He is God coming forth, God manifested among men. He is not only God in Himself but also God becoming flesh. God has been manifested in the flesh in order for us to know and contact Him. The hidden God, the Father, could not be known or contacted without being manifested in the flesh as the Son.
Thoughts that are hidden within men must be spoken forth as words in order to be understood by others. Similarly, the hidden Father had to be manifested in the Son in order to be known and touched by us. The Lord Jesus is indeed the Father coming forth in the Son. God is not only the hidden Father but also the manifested Son. When a person’s thoughts become words and come forth as words, others touch his thoughts in his words. Similarly, when a man encounters the Son, he touches the Father. Thus, he who believes into the Son believes into the Father who sent the Son (John 12:44). The Father sent the Son for His expression. Without the coming of the Son in the flesh, we would have no way of knowing the Father. Thankfully, the Son has come, and we can know the Father through the Son.
Christ, which is Christos in Greek (Matt. 1:16), is the equivalent of Messiah in Hebrew (John 1:41; Dan. 9:26), and it refers to the Lord Jesus as the anointed One (Luke 4:18; Heb. 1:9). In the Old Testament God anointed those whom He wanted to be prophets, priests, or kings and those to whom He wanted to entrust something related to the accomplishment of His will (Exo. 28:41; 1 Sam. 16:13). Those who were anointed by God were His anointed ones. Every anointed one in the Old Testament is a type of the Lord Jesus as God’s anointed One. The Lord Jesus is the true anointed One of God, the Christ of God.
As the Son of God, Christ was anointed by God to become God’s Christ, His anointed One. In other words, God’s Son, as God’s anointed One, was entrusted and sent by God to do His work and fulfill His plan. In the Godhead He is the Son of God with God’s life to express God’s glory; in God’s plan He is also the Christ of God to do God’s work and fulfill God’s will. According to what He is, He is the Son of God who expresses God; according to what He does, He is also the Christ of God to fulfill God’s plan. Through Christ as the Son of God, we know God. Through Christ as the Christ of God, we see God’s plan. In the Son of God we have God Himself; in the Christ of God we share in God’s plan.
As the Son of God, Christ possesses God’s divinity, which is eternal; as the Christ of God, Christ carries out God’s eternal plan. In eternity without beginning, the Son of God was with God and was God. For the unfolding of God’s eternal plan, the Son was appointed as the Christ of God. In His person the Son of God existed in eternity without beginning, and in His work to carry out God’s eternal plan the Son of God is also revealed as the Christ of God.
The Son of God speaks of His being God’s manifestation with God’s life to express God; the Christ of God speaks of His being God’s anointed One who is entrusted by God to accomplish His plan. Both God and God’s plan are focused on the Lord; in Him we see God’s person and God’s work. God’s life and nature as well as His deity and glory are expressed through Him, and God’s work and purpose are fulfilled through Him. He expresses God and fulfills God’s plan; He is the Son of God and the Christ of God. The Lord whom we believe in, love, and serve is both the Son of God and the Christ of God.
If anyone asks, “Who is the Lord Jesus?” it is not enough for us to reply, “He is the Son of God, God’s expression.” This is because He is not merely the Son of God but also the Christ of God, God’s anointed One. He not only has God’s life and nature to express God, but He also has been entrusted and sent by God to fulfill God’s plan. We should not merely believe that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God, we must also believe that He is the Christ of God. As the Son of God, He expresses God Himself; as the Christ of God, He fulfills God’s plan. In Him we can know God and see God’s plan. Apart from Him, we cannot meet God or share in God’s plan. In Him there is God, and through Him there is the accomplishment of God’s plan. Both what God is and what God is doing are in Him. He is what God is, and He does what God does; He is God accomplishing God’s plan. This is the Lord whom we believe in, the One who is God Himself and who has accomplished God’s plan. He expresses God and fulfills God’s plan.
