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IV.

JESUS CHRIST IS MAN.

HE perfect humanity of Jesus is taught in both the Old Testament and the New. His being man, implies not merely the possession of a human body, but of a human soul also.

That the Lord Jesus Christ was a man, appears from the fact of his human parentage. In the promise to Eve, he is spoken of as her " seed."' Moses announced to Israel, "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me."" In the prophecy of Isaiah, it is said of the Messiah, "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." God said to Jeremiah, concerning the Messiah, “ I will raise unto David a righteous Branch." The first verse of the New Testament reads as follows: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." Read the whole chapter; also the first and second chapters of Luke.

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Jesus possessed the mental and moral constitu- . tion of man. In his childhood, "he increased in

wisdom and stature." As a created being, he was limited in knowledge. “Of that day and hour knoweth no one,* not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father."

He was obedient to his parents. "And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them."

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He acknowledged his dependence upon God, and his subjection to him, by prayer, by obedience, by submission to his will, etc. "He went up into a mountain apart to pray." 4 "He continued all night in prayer to God." Other instances of his habit of prayer will occur to the reader. "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." " " I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."" "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." "The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." "The Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak." 10 "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" 11 "I live by the Father." 12 "My Father is greater than I." 13 Father hath sent me." 14

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Jesus fully recognized his humanity by the frequent application to himself of the title, “The Son of Man."

Such also is the testimony of the apostles in regard to his humanity. "Then shall the Son also himself be subject unto Him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all."1 "God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law." "God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things.' "He committed himself to him that judgeth righteously." *

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Jesus was the subject of temptation, and of mental suffering. "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil."" "He himself hath suffered, being tempted."

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was in all points tempted like as we are.

man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief."

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He was the recipient of divine spiritual iufluence, and a subject of spiritual growth. "The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord." "Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee." 10 "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power." 11 "Jesus increased in favor with God

The entire humanity of Jesus was necessary to his Mediatorship. "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."1 "Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."?

These statements in regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, and others like them, made by himself and by others, cannot be fairly interpreted otherwise than by accepting his entire humanity, — the possession of a created soul, essentially human, as well as of a human body.

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V..

JESUS CHRIST IS GOD.

HERE is much in the prophecies of the Old Testament, and in the statements of the New, that teaches the preëxistence of the Lord Jesus, his exalted character and position, his elevation above ordinary humanity, his rulership, the extent, character, and perpetuity of his kingdom, etc., that is often adduced as evidence of his divinity,1 of his Godhood. While all these are consistent with his divinity, they do not by any means prove it; for they may be true without it. The angels are superhuman, and they existed before men; but they are not God. Some of these passages will be referred to hereafter.

In the New Testament, divine attributes and works are sometimes ascribed to "the Lord," where it seems probable, but is not absolutely certain, that the writers intended by this term to designate the