Christ: His Deity

Christ: His Deity The Seamless Robe
There is one item in the account of the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that is seldom, if ever, referred to in any depth, namely, His seamless robe. In John's Gospel it says, "...the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout" (John 19:23).
In the Bible, garments speak of conduct or of a display of character. A good example is "be clothed with humility" (1 Peter 5:5). What precious truths about Jesus can we learn as seen in His seamless robe?
Our Lord was flawless and absolutely beyond reproach in His character. He is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens" (Hebrews 7:26). There is no seam dividing His meekness from His anger, His gentleness from His firmness. His authority from His winsomeness, or His mercy from His sincerity. He is uniquely beautiful in His character. The robe is all one piece!
We see Him compassionate, but inflexible; full of truth, yet full of grace; come to save, yet come for judgment; eating in the upper room, yet sitting at the table with publicans and sinners.
All is done with uniform consistency. Nothing is ever out of perspective. Power is without pride, knowledge is without superiority, and authority is without arrogance. Yes, His robe is woven on the loom of eternity.
John last saw that seamless robe in the hands of gamblers near the cross. How he must have been stirred when he was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day and saw Jesus "clothed with a garment down to the foot" with the name upon it "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS" (Revelation 1:13, Revelation 19:16).
As we, His redeemed, are "clothed ...with the garments of salvation" and covered "with the robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10), let us fall at His feet during this time of resurrection remembrance to worship, praise, and cry out to God for an experience of "the power of His resurrection" in order that we might be genuine reflectors of the wondrous character of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Birth of Christ
An artist once drew a picture of a wintry twilight, the trees heavily laden with snow, and a dreary dark house, lonely and desolate, in the midst of the storm. It was a sad picture indeed. Then, with a quick stroke of yellow crayon, he put a light in one window. The effect was magical. The entire scene was transformed into a vision of comfort and good cheer. The birth of Christ was just such a light in a dark world.
Remember the words of John William Hart: "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men." That Light is more than enough to lend comfort and direction to your life!

Christianity and Its Three Great Pillars
The Reverend Charles H. Spurgeon once said, "Christianity rests on three great pillars, the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Incarnation alone could not redeem sinful men. But apart from the Incarnation there could be no propitiatory sacrifice that would avail to put away sin. God became man in order to die. We cannot, therefore, make too much of the mystery of the union of the human and the divine in Him who was both Son of God and Son of Mary. In Him we have the Daysman for whom the patriarch Job longed, one who can lay His hand upon both God and man (Job 9:33) because He combines the natures of both in one glorious Person. Bethlehem, Calvary, and the empty tomb, all alike should stir our souls and draw our hearts out to God in wonder, love, and praise. Our Matchless Christ
To many, Jesus Christ is only a grand subject for a painting, a heroic theme for a pen, a beautiful form for a statue, and a thought for a song; but to those who have heard His voice, who have felt His pardon, who have received His benediction, He is music, warmth, light, joy, hope and salvation, a Friend who never forsakes, who lifts us when others try to push us down. We cannot wear Him out; we pile on Him all our griefs and troubles. He is always ready to lift us; He addresses us with the same love; He beams upon us with the same smile; He pities us with the same compassion.
There is no name like His. It is more inspiring than Caesar's, more musical than Beethoven's, more patient than Lincoln's. The name of Jesus throbs with all life, weeps with all pathos, groans with all pains, stoops with all love. Its breath is laden with perfume.
Who like Jesus can pity a homeless orphan? Who like Jesus can welcome a prodigal back home? Who like Jesus can make a drunkard sober? Who like Jesus can illuminate a cemetery plowed with graves? Who like Jesus can make a queen unto God out of a lost woman of the street? Who like Jesus can catch the tears of human sorrow in His bowl?
There is no metaphor with which to truly express Jesus. He is not like the bursting forth of an orchestra; that is too loud and it may be out of tune. He is not like the sea when lashed into a rage by a storm; that is too boisterous. He is not like a mountain wreathed in lightning, canopied with snow; that is too solitary and remote.
He is the Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon, a gale of spices from heaven. The Brightness of His Glory
Jesus Christ, by His constant designation as the Son, must not be considered as belonging within time and space. Take as an illustration the sun and its rays. Does the radiance of the sun proceed from the substance of the sun itself or from some other source? We all know that it proceeds from the substance itself. Yet, though the radiance proceeds from the sun itself, we cannot say that it is later in point of time than the existence of that body, since the sun has never appeared without its rays. It is for this reason, says Chrysostom, that Paul calls Christ "brightness" (Hebrews 1:3), setting forth thereby His being and His eternity from God. The fact that Jesus Christ, the Word, is presented as a separate personality from God the Father does not mean that He is less eternal, less infinite, and therefore less God and less responsible for the creation of the world, than God the Father.

Christ, the God-Man
A professor of theology once asked his students to get a sheet of paper and divide it into three columns. In the first column they were to write every passage where Christ is spoken of as God-Man; in the second column all the passages where Christ is spoken of as God alone; and in the third, all the passages where Christ is spoken of as man alone. The papers were badly balanced. The first and second columns filled right up, but as to the third column, no one found a passage speaking of Christ as man alone. There just is no such passage.

Christ, the Mirror of Deity
In the Rospigliosi Palace in Rome is Guido Reni's famous fresco, "The Aurora," a work unequalled in that period for nobility of line and poetry of color. It is painted on a lofty ceiling, and as you stand on the pavement and look up at it, your neck stiffens, your head grows dizzy, and the figures become hazy and indistinct. Therefore the owner of the palace has placed a broad mirror near the floor. In it the picture is reflected and you can sit down before it and study the wonderful work in comfort. Jesus Christ does just that for us when we try to get some notion of God. He is the mirror of Deity. He is the express image of God's person. The Creator before the Creature
When you say to a child, "Give me a glass," he knows what you are talking about. The word "glass" is associated in his mind with an object. Philosophers like Kant tell us that before we have the phenomenon, i.e., that which can be seen or felt by the senses, we have the noumenon, i.e., that which is conceived of by intellectual intuition. In other words, the object's image is first formed in the mind, and then it is produced as an object. We see a table. It is beautiful. We admire it, but more than that, we accept the fact that behind that object there was a concept in the mind of someone. Or consider the Empire State Building. Before it was erected, it took form in the mind of an architect who transferred his thoughts to paper as a blueprint. Only then could the building be put up for everybody to see. John tells us that Jesus Christ existed before the beginning of the world. The Creator was before the creature. A Difficult Question
A Jewish soldier had been attending services where he heard of the character and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. He went to his rabbi and said, "Rabbi, the Christians say that the 'Christ' has already come, while we claim He is yet to come." "Yes," assented the rabbi. "Well," asked the young soldier, "when our Christ comes, what more than Jesus Christ can we expect?" What, indeed, since Jesus Christ was fully God?

Glory with the Father
To recognize all that lies within another person, you must possess as much or more. A layman cannot possibly appreciate all the qualities and recognize all the abilities of a medical doctor. It takes a medical doctor of equal stature to recognize them. That is why, before a person is permitted to practice medicine, he is submitted to a professional state examination. In a similar way, only God the Father could recognize and appreciate all that was in God the Son. Jesus Christ could not find that recognition while here on earth among men and will never be fully recognized and appreciated by mortal man.

Immanuel, God with Us
Count Zinzendorf, the founder of the Moravians, was converted in an art gallery in Dusseldorf while contemplating a painting of Christ on the cross which had the inscription, "I did this for thee. What hast thou done for me?" This picture had been painted by an artist three hundred years before. When he had finished his first sketch of the face of the Redeemer, this artist called in his landlady's little daughter and asked her who she thought it was. The girl looked at it and said, "It is a good man." The painter knew that he had failed. He destroyed the first sketch and, after praying for greater skill, finished a second. Again he called the little girl in and asked her to tell him whom she thought the face represented. This time the girl said that she thought it looked like a great sufferer. Again the painter knew that he had failed, and again he destroyed the sketch he had made. After meditation and prayer, he made a third sketch. When it was finished, he called the girl in a third time and asked her who it was. Looking at the portrait, the girl exclaimed, "It is the Lord!" That alone makes the coming of Christ meaningful to the world-not that a good man came, not that a wise teacher came, not that a great sufferer came, but that God came-Immanuel, God with us. The Incomprehensible Christ
In a company of literary gentle-men, Daniel Webster was asked if he could comprehend how Jesus Christ could be both God and man. "No, sir," he replied, and added, "I should be ashamed to acknowledge Him as my Savior if I could comprehend Him. If I could comprehend Him, He could be no greater than myself. Such is my sense of sin, and consciousness of my inability to save myself, that I feel I need a superhuman Savior, one so great and glorious that I cannot comprehend Him."

Jesus Christ Is God
"I know men," said Napoleon in exile on the island of St. Helena to Count Montholon, "I know men, and I tell you that Jesus was not a man! The religion of Christ is a mystery, which subsists by its own force, and proceeds from a mind which is not a human mind. We find in it a marked individuality which originated a train of words and actions unknown before. Jesus is not a philosopher, for His proofs are miracles, and from the first His disciples adored Him. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires but on what foundation did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an empire upon love, and at this hour millions of men would die for Him. I die before my time, and my body will be given back to the earth, to become food for worms. Such is the fate of him who has been called the great Napoleon. What an abyss between my deep misery and the eternal kingdom of Christ, which is proclaimed, loved, and adored, and is extending over the whole earth!" And turning to General Bertrand, the Emperor added, "If you do not perceive that Jesus Christ was God, I did wrong to appoint you general!"

One with the Father
A Chinese Christian woman was preaching Christ to the scholar of a market town. He heard her courteously and after a little while said, "Madam, you speak well, but why do you dwell on Jesus Christ? Let Him alone. Instead of Jesus Christ, tell us about God." Whereupon she replied, "What, sir, should we know about God if it were not for Jesus Christ?" How true, and this is precisely the meaning of the second clause of John 1:18.