"How sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?" Of course, if they had no
consciousness of bondage, there was no attraction for them in a promise
of freedom.
That remark opens out two thoughts, on which I do not dwell. First, the
ignoring of the fact of sin which is so common amongst us all to-day,
makes it impossible to understand Christ and Christianity. Brethren,
that great Gospel, and that great Lord who is the subject of the
Gospel, have many other aspects than this. But this is the central
thought as to it and Him, that it is the emancipation from sin, because
He is the Emancipator. "The spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He
hath anointed Me to preach deliverance to the captives." And wherever
we find, as we do find, in many quarters to-day, that the central fact
of Christianity, the Death for the sin of the world, is deposed from
its place, there the life-blood is ebbing out of the Gospel.
Historically, the beginning of almost all heresies has been the
under-estimate of the fact of sin. As long as you dwell in the shallows
of human experience, a shallow Christianity and a shallow Christ will
be enough for you. But when once you get to understand the depths of
your own need, and the depths of your brother's need, then nothing less
than the Christ that died to solve the problem, insoluble else, of how
to emancipate the soul and the world from the tyranny of sin, will be
enough for you. Once "the waters of the great deep are broken up," and
the floods are out, there is nothing for it but the Ark. It is not
enough then to speak of a human Christ; it is not enough, when a man's
conscience has been roused, not to exaggeration, but to clear sight, of
what he isit is not enough then to speak of an example Christ, or of a
teaching Christ. Ah! we want more than that. We want "that which first
of all I delivered unto you, how that Jesus Christ died for our sins,
according to the Scriptures."
And, brethren, just as the ignoring of the fact of sin makes the
understanding of Christ and His word impossible, so it makes real
reception of Him for ourselves impossible. Many men are brought near to
Jesus by other roads; thank God for it! There are a thousand ways to
the Cross, but it is the Cross that we must clasp if in any true sense
we are to clasp Christ. And there is all the difference between the
superficial, partial, and easy-going profession of Christianity which
is so common amongst us to-day, and the life and death clutching and
clinging to Him which comes when, and only when, a man feels that the
tyrant whom he served as a slave, is close behind him, and that his
only chance of freedom is to hold fast by the horns of the altar of the
Sanctuary, and to cleave to the Christ in Whom, and in Whom alone, we
are free indeed.