I. A Divine Saviour.
It is not my business now to make any attempt to prove the divinity of our Blessed Redeemer, for I take it for granted that we all admit the great truths of Christianity. What I desire now to do is to point out that, if saved at all, we are saved by a Person, and that that Person is divine. The Lord Jesus Christ is a personal Saviour, and as a personal Saviour, saves us from the death of sin. It is as much a personal act as when a bold swimmer leaps into the ocean and saves a drowning man.
Now it is plain that everything depends on the nature and power of the person who saves us. If He be only man, then we can hope for nothing more than a man-made salvation. The salvation will not rise above the Saviour; but if He is divine, then we may rest on His divine omnipotence, and look for the power of God unto salvation. Thus the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ is a matter of life and death to us. The question is whether we are to save ourselves or be saved by our God. And this is the issue which He Himself raised when He said, “I give unto them eternal life.” [18b] The statement of that passage is that He, as a Person, holds His people in His own hand, and holds them with omnipotent strength because He is divine, for He and the Father are one. There, then, is both the foundation and the keystone of our trust. We may see all kinds of difficulties; there may be confusion, perplexity, and the cry of distress in every direction, but according to His divine power God has provided a divine Saviour, and in that Saviour we may rest, for He is the Son of God.