that 'doctrine' finds its rightful place.  We are however concerned here with

the essential place that Christ occupies in the great doctrines of the

Scripture.  Think of the revelation of the name of God given to Moses, and

think of the exceedingly difficult thing it must have been for Israel either

to understand or for Moses to explain.

'Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me

unto you' (Exod. 3:14).

The human mind as it is at present constituted and limited, seems to

cry out for an expansion of this all comprehensive title, and it is here that

the Saviour gives concreteness to this abstract title.  First, in John 8:58,

He identifies Himself with the Lord of Exodus 3:14, saying 'Before Abraham

was, I AM', and then in different sections of this gospel, He reveals that in

this one title is enshrined 'all the fulness', saying:

'I

am

bread of life'

'I

am

light of the world'

'I

am

'I

am

true and living way'

'I

am

good Shepherd'

'I

am

true vine'

'I

am

resurrection and the life'.

A sevenfold condescension, bringing the all sufficiency of the title I

AM down to the level of our feeble grasp.  Volumes have been written

concerning the Being and the Nature of God, but it is the glory of the New

Testament to lead all who seek to know the living God to see His glory 'in

the face of Jesus Christ'.  Scattered through the Sacred Pages we read such

revealing passages as:

'No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in

the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him' (John 1:18).

He is 'the Image of the invisible God' (Col. 1:15); He is 'the Express

Image of His Person' (Heb. 1:3), or as the passage could be paraphrased, 'the

Character of His Substance', or 'the Exhibition on the plane of the manifest

of all that can be known at present of God's invisible reality'.  And here we

would wish to correct a misunderstanding which a somewhat condensed sentence

in Life through His Name may have induced.  In The Prize of the High Calling

(chap. 5.2) we have debated at some length the meaning of the expression 'The

form of God', where we have shown that 'form' indicates essential nature, and

'fashion' or 'to be on equality' indicates modes of being, the mode or

relationship being changeable.  In the book entitled Life Through His Name

(Chap. 5, Equality of the Father and Son) we wrote:

'He left the riches that He had (2 Cor. 8:9); He divested Himself of

the form of God'.

In our mind we had the term 'equality' with which this section is

headed, and the gracious humiliation of John 13:4 where He 'laid aside His

garments', but it might remove all ambiguity if the reader would substitute

the following expansion of the sentence thus, 'He left the Riches that He had

(2 Cor. 8:9), which were the necessary accompaniment of His divine nature,

and voluntarily Divested Himself of the glory that was His by right, and

clothed Himself with humility, stooping to the fashion of a man and the

status of a slave'.  It is not every reader who would misconstrue our