DIVINE SON OF GOD

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 72, 27 March 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

DIVINE SON OF GOD

HIS MATCHLESS PARABLES. a . This passage is taken from a sermon by an American Presbyterian, th® Rev. Tliaddeus Elmore Allen. No man ever has so puzzled others, no man ever was so unrecognised as our Lord Jesus Christ. All of the gospels record men's ignorance and wonder about Him. Only a few understood who He was, and what He was trying to do. The rest marvelled at Him, saying: "What manner of man is tlm?" or "Never man so spake," or "What is this, a new teaching?" and, finally: "We never saw it on this fashion." It is tragic to see how men missed the power of His divine personality, and misunderstood the heart of His message. "He came unto His own and His own received Him not." Even then men supposed Jesus to be many things. Nicodemus supposed Him to be a teacher, and his supposition was right, as far as it went. The Pharisees supposed He was a devil. The Roman authorities supposed He was a dangerous radical. Many supposed Jesus to be the reincarnation of John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the prophets. To us, in the clear light of the Gospels, and after the record of almost two thousand years, it seems difficult to realise that the very men who companied with Jesus, who lived in such close fellowship with Him, should not have know beyond all doubt that Christ was the divine Son of God. How could the twelve have been so slow of heart believe? We feel that if we had enjoyed three years of daily contact with Christ, had heard His matchless parables, seen Him give sight to the blind and raise the dead—we should have known Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God. - I wonder. May it not have been that the incarnation presented its own difficulties of belief. The very garment of Jesus's flesh—may it not have concealed as well as revealed His essential Godhead? Seeing a man, as the disciples did, was it not harder for them than for us—to see God too? The apostle Paul never saw Jesus in the flesh, so far as we know. And yet Paul understood Christ as God much better than any of the men who walked with Him, save perhaps John. Paal never supposed Jesus to be a mere teacher or an inspired prophet, or a local Messiah who would free the Jews from the Roman yoke.