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Life is in the blood, and by shedding His blood Christ gives life to us. As serum is often injected for the cure of disease, so, by the application of His blood, Christ saves us from sin’s deadly disease, and from death. The whole universe is a body. Every limb is connected with the whole body, so if there is pain in one part the whole body feels it. If serum is used in any particular part the whole body feels the effect of it. In this way, though Christ was crucified in this world, which is a single part of this seen and unseen universe, yet the whole universe was affected by His death. And though for the salvation of the world He was crucified in a single place (Jerusalem), still the whole world shares in His sacrifice. And as the spirit is in the whole body, so God is present in His whole universe. Saint Bonaventura has written: “His centre is everywhere, but His circumference is nowhere.”
Christ was made a sinner for our sakes and died the sinner’s death. The story is told of a good man who went to live among a band of evil men, in order to save them from their evil lives. Many thought that this man of God must be one of the band, and when a great crime had been committed, suspicion that he was connected with it fell on him. He was arrested, and when he was sentenced to death he received the verdict with joy. The band knew that he was altogether innocent, and after his death the thought that the man of God had died for their sakes so affected them that many of them gave up their evil ways and deeds. Thus did Jesus. His power is always active, and when sinners are influenced by His wonderful love, and repent, turning their hearts to Him, then He uproots the evil from their souls, and gives them new life, and they become new creatures like Himself.
In 1921 there was a jungle fire in the Himalayas. While most of the people round were busy putting it out, I noticed several men standing looking into a tree. I asked, “What are you looking at?” They pointed to a nest full of young birds on a tree whose branches were already alight. Above it a bird was flying wildly about in great distress. They said, “We wish we could save that nest, but we can’t get near it for the fire.” I watched, and a few minutes later saw the nest catch fire. I thought, “Now the mother-bird will fly away,” but no! I saw her fly down, spread her wings over the young, and in a few minutes she was burnt to ashes with them. I had never seen anything like it before. Then I said to those standing by, “We are amazed at this wonderful love; but, please think that when such astonishing love is seen in this little creature, how much more wonderful must His love be who has created such an unselfish nature. The same infinite love brought Him down from heaven to become man, so that by giving His own life He might save us who were dying in our sins.”
The proof of the truth of Christ’s claims is based on the experience of countless believers. Every experienced Christian is a witness to how necessary, how fitted to his every need and how life-giving is His presence with us.
In 1922, when I was travelling in Palestine with a friend, I went to see Jacob’s well, and was refreshed by drinking its sweet, fresh water. But an hour or two later I was again thirsty. Then those words of our Lord came forcibly home to my mind, that “whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:13–14).
I had just drunk of Jacob’s well and was again thirsty, but I can say with all humility and thankfulness, that in the twenty years since I gave my heart to Him, and drank of that water which He gave me, I have never been thirsty, because He really is the Fountain of Life.
Referring to the fact that in the personality and words of Christ there is also to be found Spirit and Life (John 6:63), Dr. Parker has well said: “Measure the religious doctrine of Jesus by that of the time and place He lived in, or that of any time and place. Consider what a work His words and deeds have wrought in the world. Remember that the greatest minds, the richest hearts, have set no loftier aim, no truer method than His of perfect love to God and man. Shall we be told such a man never lived—the whole story is a lie! Suppose that Plato and Newton never lived. But who did their wonders and thought their thoughts? What man could have fabricated a Jesus? None but a Jesus.”
Mere moral philosophy—metaphysics, intellectualism, or civilisation—can give no help in overcoming sin and unbridled passion. If God’s grace and power is not given us, then worldly education and culture, instead of helping, merely invent new means and methods for committing sin, and for helping us to destroy one another. It is therefore urgently necessary that, for being saved from sin and its evil consequences, we should put ourselves into the hands of Him who can give us full and free salvation.