ON such a sublime subject as this we cannot take less than the whole Bible for our text. Not that we shall do more than lightly touch upon certain portions of it.
So uniquely exclusive are the claims of Christ that to us He is either All in all or nothing at all. The jealousy of divine love is here apparent that it will not be satisfied with a mere percentage of our time, or our thoughts, or a portion of our selves. ALL it demands, and ALL it will ultimately possess. "Eventually, why not now?" The place that Christ is given in modern literature is that of an ALSO rather than an ALL. Suppose an allusion is made to the great religious leaders of the world. There you have the catalog: Buddha, Krishna, Confucious, Mahomet, Moses, and somewhere in the middle of the list, or maybe at the tail end, an allusion to Jesus. To the modern literary and religions world He is one of many. Know here and now that you cannot view Christ that way and retain your Christianity, or remain a Christian. You cannot say He is good. He must be BEST or you are not a Christian. You cannot say He is great. He must be GREATEST if you would remain a Christian. It is not sufficient if He be lovely. If He is not the LOVELIEST then you know not what Christianity means.
The supremacy of Christ in the Old Testament is a prophetic one. That supremacy lay enshrined in the promise that Eve's seed would crush the serpent's head. For about a thousand years that one verse was the Bible Prophecy of the race. We have Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Daniel and a host of others, but for many centuries the human race had just one little verse of prophecy. We have John's great Evangel and Paul's mighty exposition to the Romans, but all the evangel the race had then was contained in a sentence or two. Little do we appreciate the overflowing abundance of revelation with which we are blessed. Those sentences however were pregnant with as yet unuttered truths concerning the Coming One's supremacy. This verse was revelation. All succeeding prophecy and gospel was but added explanation.
The reader is familiar of course with the way Paul brings out the supremacy of Christ's shed blood in contrast to that of murdered Abel. The latter cried aloud for vengeance, but the former petitioned for peace. What marvel is this, that the blood of a murdered man may shield his murderers from the penalty of their crime! History gives us no comparison. Christ is supreme over all analogy!
Again, was not His unique supremacy shown forth in the ark? Ark, mind you, not arks. It was not one ark amongst many. You had no choice in the matter. It was the ONE ARK or NONE! Nor did that one ark have two doors--only one. And when Christ Himself was speaking He did not say "I am A door" as if He were one of many, but I am "THE door." He gave His hearers no alternative choice.
When the law was given it made a demand that none but the Supreme One could comply with. The types in their incompleteness required a sacrifice which none but He could offer. The prophecies are dumb without Him, and the Psalms lack music and meaning.
The New Testament opens with an account of His antecedents. Some of them we would gladly expunge from our records. If Rahab were in our family you would not find her name in the family Bible. Nor would we care to perpetuate the remembrance of Uriah's wife. Yet there they are and the remainder of the New Testament shows how gloriously supreme was Christ over all His antecedents.
Herod plots, but He is supreme over the enemies' plotting. Satan himself appears at a later date but He rises supreme over every bribe to leave the pathway of obedience. Again, thru Peter, does the Serpent hiss out his suggestion to avoid the cross, but He rises supreme once more and cries "Get thee behind me Satan!"
And then upon that mount where He was transfigured, we see Moses and Elias and Christ, but the first two dissolve and leave the Master supreme. The disciples, we read, "saw Jesus only." Reverse the words and you describe what He means to a world that sees in Him "only Jesus." Whether He is "Jesus only" or "only Jesus" is the difference between being and not being a Christian.
And now let us look at what seemed the eclipse of His ministry. The cross itself was like a burning glass that focussed a myriad scattering rays into a scorching point. The "fiery darts" of the adversary must have been showered upon Him by His envenomed antagonist. Not a possible weapon in all of Hell's offensive armory but was employed in this the last crushing attack upon the defenses of His soul. Listen now to that word "Father" as it comes from torture-wrung lips commending His spirit to His God. "Father" He cries, and rises in majestic supremacy over DOUBT. "I claim Thee as Father" cries the Suffering One "in spite of this cross, this darkness, and this pain."
Let us listen again. "Father, forgive them." Thus, did He rise supreme over MALICE. They had scourged Him, and mocked Him; their spittle smeared His blessed person; and they had nailed Him to the tree. "Now," Satan would suggest, "get even with them!" "Father, forgive" is the Sufferer's reply.
And that mystery of God's silence through it all! The heavens seemed as brass. They had opened before, at Jordan, and upon the mountain. God's voice had come proclaiming the divine sonship of the man. And now the man needed God as He had never needed Him before. And Heaven was dumb! "Father"--thus does He rise supreme over the silence of God.
If the Gospels reveal to us the story of His personal supremacy, the Epistles continue to reveal its rising tide. In Romans we have the righteousness of God in Christ rising superior to the unrighteousness of man, and the grace of God rising supreme over human sin. The lack of malice displayed upon the cross, and the spirit of forgiveness manifested, was not an unrelated episode. It was TYPICAL of God's redemptive purpose. Consider all the wars and murders, and lies, and uncleanness, and what a vast filthy ocean of sin it is. Yet over all this the justifying grace of God rises supreme. The supremacy of His wrath as revealed in Revelations is but auxiliary to the supremacy of His righteousness as displayed in Romans.
In Colossians the grace of God in Christ rises over the creature's enmity and hatred. He reconciles the universe unto Himself. In 1 Corinthians the life of God in Christ rises supreme over death in its every aspect. The supremacy of His life is such that it will quicken the Universe and expunge death from His domains. Lastly we remind ourselves of Philippians--the heart of the New Testament writings--and there we learn anew of Christ's supremacy. Then, in that scene of universal worship and praise, the Christ of God will not be one amongst many, the Supreme One of Calvary will be recognized as Lord in all His gracious and glorious supremacy "to the glory of God the Father."
He will be supreme THEN.
It is our privilege to recognize His supremacy NOW.
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