Who Jesus Is
It is of far-reaching importance and vital consequence to recognize that the Person of our Lord cannot really be known and understood apart from the Cross. It is equally of consequence to realize that the Cross is only really understood and adequately appreciated when the Person of Christ is discerned. These two work hand-in-hand and are mutually dependent.
In the days of His earthly life His disciples and the people wanted a Crossless Christ. They could see no place for the Cross. It was a contradiction of all their hopes and expectations. Whenever He referred to it a dark shadow crept over them, and they were offended. Indeed, they revolted quite positively against the idea and suggestion.
Running parallel to this inability to discern the meaning and the value of the Cross was, on the one hand, His continual reference to His own essential Person as Son of God, and on the other hand, their total inability to recognize Him. Only in fleeting flashes of illumination did one or two of them see Him as such, and then, it would seem from their behavior, that they lost the realization, and the general clouds of uncertainty wrapped them around again. The state and position in which we find them when He has been crucified indicates how the reality of His Person has failed to possess their innermost life. But the interesting and significant thing is that the Lord all the time indicated that this twofold inability would be removed when actually the Cross was an accomplished fact. The eighth chapter of John's Gospel is a strong example of this. In it Jesus is concentrating everything upon the question of His Person.
"I am the light of the world ... The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest witness of thyself; thy witness is not true. Jesus answered ... My witness is true; for I know whence I come, and whither I go; but ye know not whence I come, or whither I go. They said ... where is Thy Father? Jesus answered ... Ye know neither me, nor my Father; if ye knew me, ye would know my Father also ... He said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world ... They said therefore unto him, Who art thou? Jesus said unto them, Even that which I have also spoken unto you from the beginning." (8:12-25).
Then comes the statement which is the turning point of everything.
"Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then ye shall know that I am he." (8:27).
(But read to the end of the chapter.)
By something more than implication Jesus had laid down the same principle with Nicodemus. Nicodemus was groping in the shadows as to the Person of Christ. "We know that thou art a teacher come from God..." Jesus pointed out that, in order to "see," something must take place by which a new faculty is obtained; a new birth is necessary. Then He led Nicodemus on to the Cross, using the same phrase as is in the chapter eight: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so much the Son of Man be lifted up" (John 3:14). The law enunciated is that it will be the Cross which discloses Who Jesus is.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 2 - "Union with God Secured for Man in Christ")
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