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Polycarp paraphrases this: "Everyone that doth not confess that Jesus Christ hath
come in the flesh is Antichrist; and whoso doth not confess the mystery of the cross is of
the devil". Here is the basis of all truth: that God so loved . . . . . that He gave His only
begotten Son. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us" (Rom. 5: 8). There are many today who, having not received the love
of the Truth, deny this fact.
No.7.
The Glory of Christ.
pp. 166 - 170
Christ is the Truth. Those who have received the love of the Truth desire to know
Him, and to know Him more and more. Something of the importance of this knowledge
can be gained from Paul's statement in Phil. 3::
"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:
for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may
win Christ . . . . . that I may know Him . . . . ." (7-10).
That I may know Christ: the word is ginosko, to obtain knowledge. Yet surely, there
is no one who had a greater knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ than Paul. How is it, that
this man, with the tremendous knowledge of Christ he obviously had, desired to obtain
further knowledge of Him? It is possible Paul had actually seen, even met and spoken to
the Lord during His ministry on earth: there are some who take the Apostle's words
`though we have known Christ after the flesh' (II Cor. 5: 16) to mean nothing less. But
over and above such a possibility, he had met the risen Lord on the Damascus road, he
had been given visions and revelations. If Paul's knowledge of the Lord was not
complete, whose can be? The answer can only be that the knowledge of Christ is infinite:
with all that is implied in such a statement.
Who was, and is this One who claimed to be the Truth? Was He merely a good man,
very good man, Who `lived before His time'? There are many who would so say. Was
He the "Firstborn of all creation" in the sense some would have us believe, i.e., He was
created by God by Whom creation was effected: the first created being? Was He of
some indeterminent nature neither really God, nor really man: a god? Or was He indeed
God incarnate, God with us?
This is a subject which has many times been dealt with, both more capably and more
fully than we can hope to do. Yet it is a subject of the very greatest importance, and we
make no excuse for our own contribution.
There are one or two preliminary remarks we believe to be necessary. In considering
the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His relationship with the Father, we are dealing
with the self-revelation of the Almighty God and with His nature. He is infinite: we are