III. "I HAVE GLORIFIED THEE ON THE EARTH: I HAVE FINISHED THE WORK WHICH AST Sunday we studied together the Godhead of Jesus, as shown in Creation. We saw how the shadowy suggestions of the Old Testament become in the New the clearly revealed truth. "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made: all things were created by Him and for Him." Accepting this doctrine in its simple fulness, we were led to see in it a double lesson-the duty of the creature to the Creator-the trust of a child in the Father. This morning we come to consider the Godhead of Jesus as shown in Redemption. Turn to the 17th chapter of S. John. Happy they who, in the stillness of the upper chamber, listened with bated breath to this melody of perfect prayer. Happy we for whom the loving hand of one of them has so transcribed it here, that we seem to possess for ever, not the words only, but the actual tones which our Saviour uttered in that solemn hour. Look particularly at verses 4, 5: "I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." "I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do." It is plain that our Lord speaks here somewhat in anticipation; and yet hardly so, for He was even now in the presence of the end-the end whose consummation was so soon to be proclaimed under the darkness of Calvary-"It is finished." That task fulfilled, that trust discharged, was the work of our Redemption. We could desire therefore no plainer statement of the Godhead of Jesus in Redemption than this, which claims at once the glory of the one and the achievement of the other. Let us divide our argument into three allegations—that the Deity of Christ is shown Ist. In the fact of the Redemption. 2nd. In the manner of the Redemption. 3rd. In the claims of the Redeemer. Ist. The Godhead of Jesus is shown in the mere fact of the Redemption. Of course the fact must be admitted-He hath redeemed me and all mankind; and He hath redeemed us by His death, that death being a freewill offering for our sins. Now, no mere man can make, or ever could make, his death an offering for others; for this plain reason, that his death is a debt, which, whether he will or no, he is forced to pay for himself, and himself alone. True, the world's heroes and holy saints have often gone near to compass the superhuman sacrifice; and have not hesitated to lay down their lives for others before the time. The fierce array of the battlefield, the billows of the raging sea, the tottering walls of the burning homestead, the siege of the famine-stricken town, the poisoned lower levels of the mines-these and all the other scenes of peril, sudden or sure, which ever threaten man, have found men ready, if chance offers, for a Christlike |