other fact alone remains to be considered in this preliminary period. That fact is the subsequent growth and development of Jesus into the maturity He had at the age Growth: Physical, of thirty, when He began His public minIntellectual, Social, istry. This perfect development has been

and Spiritual Luke 2:51-52

fully accounted for in the two comprehensive statements of Scripture which cover the entire eighteen years in this part of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

With Mary and Joseph, Jesus lived in Nazareth. He was subject to the authority of His home-life there. Probably He lived a quiet life, attracting little attention in a public way to Himself. But the many things already mentioned concerning Him, and doubtless many more, His Mother pondered in her heart. "And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God With the simple statement of these necessary facts, and no more, the sacred Records have swept over those eighteen years of the Savior's life, and brought Him to the age of thirty years, ready to begin the active work of His public ministry.

PART II

THE DIVINE SAVIOR

INTRODUCED TO THE WORLD

THE LOVE OF GOD IN JESUS CHRIST

CALL AND RESPONSE OF DIVINE LOVE

"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the Temple.

Also I heard the Voice of the Lord, saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?""

"Then said I, 'Here am I; send Me.'" "Then said He (Christ), 'Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God.'" Isaiah 6:1,8, and Hebrews 10:7-9.

MINISTRY OF DIVINE LOVE

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified." Isaiah 61:1-3; Luke 4:18-19.

.

PURPOSE OF DIVINE LOVE

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Ephesians 3:17-19.

REFLECTION OF DIVINE LOVE IN A CHRISTIAN LIFE

"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is Love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God." 4:7-15.

1. John

CONSUMMATION OF DIVINE LOVE

"Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My Glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world." John 17:24.

CHAPTER III

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST OPENLY ESTABLISHED

"And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God." John

the Baptist, in John 1:34.

"But to us there is but

are all things, and we by Him."

one Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom
1. Corinthians 8:6.

"He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no
sin." I. John 3:5.

"I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Philippians 3:8.

"I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." The Ethiopian Treasurer, in Acts 8:37.

Jesus Christ, as set forth in Chapter I, above, was seen to be both God and Man. In His Divine Nature, the Lord Jesus was, from all eternity, the Son of God. In His Divine capacity, He appeared to the ancient world as Jehovah, who was enthroned in Heaven, keeping His covenants with Israel, and doing His sovereign will in the earth, as if both the visible and the invisible worlds belonged to Him. In His Human Nature, the Christ of the ancient world was yet a Hope, and an Expectation. He was to be the Seed of Abraham, and the Royal Son of David. He was to be the Messiah, a great human Deliverer, and Savior, and Benefactor. In Him, both as Jehovah and as Messiah, the ancient Jews were required to believe. In this way, faith was required of them both in the Divine and in the Human aspects of their ultimate Savior.

That was the ancient faith of Israel. But the Christian, accepting the facts analyzed above in Chapter II, has seen the Divine and the Human of the promised Savior combined in the Person of Jesus Christ the Lord. As already seen, He had a perfect human development up to the maturity of thirty years. It will be seen that He was divinely infallible. In all of His Life-Work. the Lord Jesus, Who was both God and Man, never hesitated, never guessed, never doubted, and never erred, either in point of fact or of judgment. The beginning of that remarkable career of certainty and service is the matter of central interest in the present chapter. The first stage in His public ministry was that in which the Divinity of Jesus of Nazareth was openly declared and established before the world.

The point of view in this chapter may be seen clearly in this way. Suppose that the Son of God had been born into the world,

as described already in the previous chapter. Suppose, too, that He had grown up to maturity, as He did in fact, comparatively unknown outside of a limited circle of wondering friends in Nazareth. Suppose, further, that Jesus Christ was really a Divine Person sent to save the world. Suppose, finally, that He, at the age of thirty years, had appeared before the world, ready for such a life-work as would be expected of the Son of God. The first natural and necessary thing then would have been an open declaration and establishing of His Divine Nature before those among whom He was about to inaugurate His public ministry.

In other words, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was just ready to step forth before the world upon a stage of activity the most wonderful and effective the world has even seen. He was to astonish men by His miraculous achievements. He was to confound them by His divine wisdom. He was to bless them with His heavenly benedictions. He was to attract them by the winning power of His perfect love and sympathy. And above all else, He was to challenge in them a faith in Him as Savior that would unite them abidingly to Himself. Naturally, therefore, the Lord Jesus would have desired, as He stepped forth upon such a stage of action, an adequate "introduction" to the world-audience to whose interest and faith He was about to address Himself. Naturally, also, He would have desired, when He had stepped out upon that stage, to have it known, with immediate assurance, that He really was the Son of God, and the Divine Savior of the world.

Such an introduction, and such an assurance, would have been the next logical step in the Life-Work of the Son of God. That is exactly what one may find in the Gospels. Those things were the primary interests in that first period of the Lord's public ministry, covered by this chapter. The central purpose of the facts recorded was to have the true nature of the Divine Savior set forth, established, and accepted. The present chapter will consider the principal means by which those results were accomplished.

I. The Preliminary Preaching of John the Baptist Such a central purpose evidently was in the mind and heart of John the Baptist, whose privilege and honor it was to make the first immediate announcements of the Christ to the world. John, at the beginning of Christ's public ministry, introduced Him to the world. John knew, and he wanted all men to know, that he was presenting to them a Divine Savior, the Son of God.