Whatever may be said of the works and teachings of Jesus, His mission culminated in the great fact of His suffering upon the cross. Indeed, if it did not consist in this, His works and teachings were incidental to, and in anticipation of, the cross. This was the one thing He had to do. Many other things He may or may not do. But this He had to do.

In this day, when the meaningless cry is heard everywhere," Back to Christ and His teachings," it is well that there be clear thinking just here. If He expressed the love of God toward mankind, when, by His touch and teaching, He put new content into old teachings, new life and health into dead and diseased bodies; by his suffering upon the cross, He expressed God's eternal hatred for sin. But more, He met the final issue of sin. He went to the extremest limits of sin's consequences. "He who knew no sin, was made sin for us." 3 "He bore our sins in His body upon the tree," says Peter. When in the death agonies He exclaimed, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" He was in a place of utter abandonment, God-forsaken, sin-cursed, with all nature in revolt against Him. He was suffering alone the consequences of the sins of a world. He was paying the penalty. He was purchasing liberty, life and immortality for a world. No man ever has or ever can die as He died. abandoned by God, could 3 II Cor. 5:21,

4

At most, a man suffer condemnation 41 Peter 2:24,

only for his own sin. Jesus, upon the cross, drank the essence of a world's sin in order to redeem that world. Well may we sing:

Jesus, my Savior, on Calvary's tree,

Paid the great debt and my Soul he set free;
Oh, it was wonderful, how could it be?
Dying for me. Dying for me.

Approaching the cross, in that greatest of all prayers, Jesus said, "Father, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do." 5 In His last breath upon the cross He made the statement, "It is finished." 6 So far as He was concerned, He had taken the place and performed the work assigned to Him to do in heaven's plan for the salvation of men. His resurrection, ascension, coronation, the sending of the Holy Spirit, the establishment of the church, and the Spirit's message

these are all in the hands of the Father; and are to be wrought out in the councils of heaven. This brings us to the next thought— the Message. The coming of the Word into the world may be veiled in mystery, in the incarnation. The mission may pass into the realm of the incomprehensible, in the suffering upon the cross. But, standing in the light of the cross, we have a feeling that the message is clear. The dazzling beauty and the effulgent glory of the sun may forbid its analysis; but this need not make us stumble when walking in its light.

5 John-17:4.

6 John-19:30.

Standing in the light of that cross, John said, "(and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth." Here is an individual, who " dwelt among men," with a halo of glory round about Him, "full of grace and truth." That is John's adorned statement. Stripped of its adornment, the statement is, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth."

The Word of God; that is, the thought, purpose, plan, intention, will, of God. It was this that became incarnate; and dwelt among us "full of grace and truth." The message springs out of the fullness of the "grace and truth." It did not come so directly out of what Jesus did and taught as out of what He was.

He did and taught many, many things of which we have no record. Much that He did and taught, we cannot do and do not teach. Of His recorded teachings, much as to the message was intended by Him as in no way final. It is not what He taught; it is what He was.

He

He taught no theory of the atonement. He was the atonement. He taught no theory of the resurrection. He said, "I am the resurrection." He had no theory of life. He was Life. He left no specific message. He was the message. had no theory of the gospel. He was the Gospel. He was "grace and truth." Grace, mercy, pity on the one hand; truth, righteousness, justice on the other. Mercy and justice meet in Christ the Lord.

7

Paul says, "God set Him forth. . . to show that He (God) might be just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus." That was the great accomplishment of Jesus. In Him, God is at once, all righteous and all merciful. He is "just and a justifier."

I repeat it, Jesus left no specific message. He was the message.

This is what Jesus left, in His last moments before leaving the earth. This was specific and final. He left a charge (command) and a promise to His chosen apostles. He promised them the baptism of the Holy Spirit; and the abiding presence and power of the Spirit to guide them into all truth. He repeated this promise and charged them to remain in Jerusalem for its fulfillment in a few days.9

8

The apostles returned to Jerusalem and assembled in the upper room. There they waited. After ten days Jesus redeemed that promise.10 The Spirit came upon, and entered into, the apostles. He guided them into all truth. He endued them with all power necessary to the proper direction of the things of the kingdom. Through them, He enters into the lives of all Christians.

He gave to them a full message a message full of grace and truth, for He revealed Jesus unto them. Jesus was the full message. He took of the things of Jesus and showed it unto them.

7 Rom. 3:25-26. 8 John-16.

9 Acts-1: 4-5.

10 Acts - 2.

They proclaimed that message as long as they lived, and wrote it when ready to die. In the providence of God, it has come through the centuries to us, and we have it substantially as they proclaimed it.

That message is Jesus the Christ. Not any theory about Him, but Christ, the babe in Bethlehem; Christ in the agonies of the cross; Christ in the tomb; Christ triumphant in the resurrection; Christ regnant on the throne; Christ in faith, in repentance, in confession and in baptism; Christ supreme in the heart; Christ dominant in the life; Christ in Mystery, in Mission and in Message; Christ full of grace and truth.

May the twentieth century find men- full orbed men to proclaim this full message until the whole world shall be filled with this full message of grace and truth.