What Think Ye of Christ?

Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. MATTHEW 22:42

Torrey was sure that everything turns on the person of Jesus Christ. “If a man really holds right views concerning the person of Jesus Christ,” he said in The Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Faith, “he will sooner or later get right views on every other question.” And the reverse was just as true: go wrong about Christ, and you will sooner or later go wrong about everything else. So the question Jesus put to the Pharisees is the question to put to every person in every age. What think ye of Christ?

Old words, new meanings

Torrey noticed something in his own day that has not gone away. When he was a boy, he said, to believe in the divinity of Christ meant to believe that Jesus was actually God. By the time he preached these sermons, the phrase could mean almost anything — that Jesus was a great man in whom the divine shone more brightly than in others. The subtlest way to spread error, he observed, is to keep the old precious words and pour a new meaning into them. So he refused to ask merely whether Jesus was divine. He asked whether Jesus is God.

The case from Scripture

His method was his usual one: gather the texts and let them speak. He arranged them under heads.

First, divine names are given to Christ. He is called God outright.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. JOHN 1:1

Thomas, confronted by the risen Lord, did not correct himself.

And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. JOHN 20:28

And the letter to the Hebrews applies to the Son words spoken of God.

But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. HEBREWS 1:8

Second, divine attributes are ascribed to Him: all power, eternity — before Abraham was, I am — and changelessness, for He is the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Third, divine offices belong to Him: upholding all things, forgiving sins, raising the dead, judging the world and giving eternal life. Fourth, passages the Old Testament says of Jehovah are applied in the New Testament to Jesus. Fifth, His name is coupled with the Father’s in ways that would be blasphemous if He were a creature. And sixth, He receives worship.

That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. JOHN 5:23

The claims of Jesus

The part of Torrey’s sermon that most repays reading is his list of what he called incidental proofs — the things Jesus said about Himself in passing that no mere man could say.

Jesus invited all the weary of the world to come to Him for rest.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. MATTHEW 11:28

Anyone who makes a promise like that, Torrey said, must be God, or a lunatic, or an impostor.

Jesus asked for the same faith that is given to God.

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. JOHN 14:1

Torrey set this beside Jeremiah’s curse on the man who trusts in man, and concluded that Christ was either God or a deceiver. Jesus demanded a love greater than the love of father and mother. He said that He and the Father are one, and that whoever had seen Him had seen the Father.

Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? JOHN 14:9

A real man

Torrey was just as insistent on the other side. His next sermon was titled Jesus Christ a Real Man, and it deserves to be read beside the first. Jesus had a human mother and grew as a child grows. He was weary, hungry and thirsty. He was tempted. He prayed. And Torrey noted that Jesus did His mighty works not by drawing on His own deity but through the Holy Spirit who came upon Him at His baptism — a point that connects this doctrine directly to his teaching on the Spirit.

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. HEBREWS 4:15

And then Torrey put the matter as plainly as anyone has. “A merely divine Saviour could not be a Saviour for me. A merely human Saviour could not be a Saviour for me.” Only one who is both God and man can bear our sins, because He is God, and bear them for us, because He is man.

For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. COLOSSIANS 2:9

What follows

Torrey’s conclusion was twofold. The first half was joy. The Saviour in whom we believe is God, and nothing is too hard for Him. He can save to the uttermost.

Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. HEBREWS 7:25

The second half was warning. If Jesus is God, then to reject Him is not a small thing. Many people think themselves good because they have not stolen or murdered, Torrey said, while they are guilty of the gravest sin of all: rejecting a Saviour who is God. And denying a fact does not change it.

Where care is needed

Torrey’s doctrine here is the faith of the church, and his arguments are good. His manner is sometimes another matter. He ended the sermon by comparing those who deny Christ’s deity to a husband who slanders a faithful wife, and then left an insulting word unsaid for his hearers’ consciences to supply. It is the kind of rhetoric that may have stirred a congregation during the First World War, but it wins few doubters today and grieves the Spirit of the One it defends.

The reader who shares Torrey’s conviction does well to argue as clearly as he did and more gently. Many who question Christ’s deity have never seen Him as He is shown in the Gospels. They need to be shown Him, patiently, rather than shouted at.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Answer Christ’s question for yourself in writing: what do I think of Christ? Is He to me a great teacher, or my Lord and my God?

2. Read John 14:1–11 slowly, noting every claim Jesus makes about Himself.

3. Thank God today both that your Saviour is God, for whom nothing is too hard, and that He is a man who knows your weakness from the inside.

4. Bring one temptation you face this week to the Christ who was tempted in all points, and ask for His help.

5. Think of someone who doubts that Jesus is God. Pray for them, and look for a gentle way to point them to the Christ of the Gospels.

A PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, You are the Word who was with God and was God, and You became flesh and dwelt among us. I worship You.

I thank You that nothing is too hard for You, and that You are able to save me to the uttermost.

I thank You that You were weary and tempted as I am, and that You understand me.

Let me confess You with Thomas as my Lord and my God, and honour You as I honour the Father. Amen.