Scripture is not given to us merely to make us know something about God
in Christ, nor only in order that we may have faith in the Christ thus
revealed to us, but for a further end--great, glorious, but, blessed be
His Name! not distant--namely, that we may 'have life in His name.'
'Life' is deep, mystical, inexplicable by any other words than itself.
It includes pardon, holiness, well-being, immortality, Heaven; but it
is more than they all.
This life comes into our dead hearts and quickens them by union with
God. That which is joined to God lives. Each being according to its
nature, is, on condition of the divine power acting upon it. This bit
of wood upon which I put my hand, and the hand which I put upon it,
would equally crumble into nothingness if they were separated from God.
You can separate your wills and your spiritual nature from Him, and
thus separated you are 'dead in trespasses and in sins.' And, O
brother! the message comes to you: there is life in that great Christ,
'in His name'; that is to say, in that revealed character of His by
which He is made known to us as the Christ and the Son of God.
Union with Him in His Sonship will bring life into dead hearts. He is
the true 'Prometheus' who has come from Heaven with 'fire,' the fire of
the divine Life in the 'reed' of His humanity, and He imparts it to us
all if we will. He lays Himself upon us, as the prophet laid himself on
the little child in the upper chamber; and lip to lip, and beating
heart to dead heart, He touches our death, and it is quickened into
life.
The condition on which that great Name will bring to us life is simply
our faith. Do you believe in Him, and trust yourself to Him, as He who
came to fulfil all that prophet, priest, and king, sacrifice, altar,
and Temple of old times prophesied and looked for? Do you trust in Him
as the Son of God who comes down to earth that we in Him might find the
immortal life which He is ready to give? If you do, then, dear
brethren! the end that God has in view in all His revelation, that
Christ had in view in His bitter Passion, has been accomplished for
you. If you do not it has not. You may admire Him, you may think
loftily of Him, you may be ready to call Him by many great and
appreciative names, but Oh! unless you have learned to see in Him the
divine Saviour of your souls, you have not seen what God means you to
see.
But if you have, then all other questions about this Book, important as
they are in their places, may settle themselves as they will; you have
got the kernel, the thing that it was meant to bring you. Many an
erudite scholar, who has studied the Bible all his life, has missed the
purpose for which it was given; and many a poor old woman in her garret
has found it. It is not meant to wrangle over, it is not meant to be
read as an interesting product of the religious consciousness, it is
not to be admired as all that remains of the literature of a nation
that had a genius for religion; but it is to be taken as being God's
great Word to the world, the record of the revelation that He has given
us in His Son. The Eternal Word is the theme of all the written word.
Have you made the jewel which is brought us in that casket your own? Is
Jesus to you the Son of the living God, believing on whom you share His
life, and become 'sons of God' by Him? Can you take on to your thankful
lips that triumphant and rapturous confession of the doubting
Thomas,--the flag flying on the completed roof-tree of this Gospel--'My
Lord and my God'? If you can, you will receive the blessing which
Christ then promised to all of us standing beyond the limits of that
little group, 'who have not seen and yet have believed'--even that
eternal life which flows into our dead spirits from the Christ, the Son
of God, who is the Light of the world, and the Life of men.