TO THE CHURCHES COMPOSING ITS BODY:
DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS IN THE LORD:
In accordance with our custom we present you with this circular address. The subject we have chosen, is the Divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; and our appeal must be to the Sacred Scriptures. We refer you, first, to Heb. 1:8, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever." This passage, is found in the Apostle's argument, showing that Jesus is not only Messiah, but also true God. He sets out by ascribing to Him attributes which belong to no mere creature. He introduces creatures of most elevated rank but it is only to display, by contrast, the pre-eminence of Him "who is the brightness of His Father's glory and the express image of His person." Angels he held to be great in might and dignity, but he asks to which of them said God at any time "thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?" The Father enjoined the angels to worship the Son, and said of Him, "Thy throne, O God is forever and ever." The language here employed is applicable to no creature: its subject must be divine.
Brethren, if the divine majesty of Jesus was the subject which the apostle, inspired by the Holy Spirit, selected for the support and encouragement of his brethren when engaged in spreading the gospel among the nations, it surely is an appropriate subject for the present occasion, when our aim is to expand our views, to warm our hearts and to nerve our arms for efforts to diffuse his truth and exalt his name.
Upon a careful examination of the Scriptures, we do not find a single distinctive mark of Deity which is not applied without reserve to the Savior. He is "the true God and Eternal life," 1 John 5:20. He had glory with the Father "before the world was," John 17:5. "All things were made by him," John 1:3, "and for him," Col. 1:16, and "by him all things consist," 1:17. All that belonged to the Father belonged to Him. "All thine are mine" said he, John 17:10. He knew "the hearts of all men," Acts 1:24; John 2:24-25. All men were to '"honor the Son even as they should honor the Father," John 5:23. "All the angels of God" were to "worship him," Heb. 1:6.
Who is that mysterious WORD who was in the beginning "with God?" Who is styled the "Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, the first and the last, the Almighty? Who is he that knoweth "what is in man?" Who is present whenever "two or three are gathered together in his name?" Who is "mighty to save?" Who is at once the Ruler of heaven and of earth -- "the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords?" Who is to raise the dead and to judge the world? To all these questions there is but one answer. It is Christ, and he who is all that these questions imply, must be the great God "who is over all blessed forever." We thus see that the Scriptures clearly make the doctrine of our Lord's divinity a prominent revealed fact, the central object of our faith. They also point it out as the great basis of our hope. It is because he is DIVINE that he can be the "Eternal life." Nothing short of a divine Savior could be trusted by a guilty, self-condemned sinner. It is because we are assured that he is "able to save to the uttermost, all that come unto God by him," that we can say with Paul "we know whom we have believed, and are pursuaded that he is able to keep that which we have committed unto him against that day?"
The divinity of the Savior is the great centre or sun of the gospel system, to which all other revealed truths are suborinate. It is his diviriity that qualifies him to be an object or perfect confidence on the part of his people, and that gives him a right to own them and claim and receive their supreme homage. Remove this central truth, and the glory of the gospel is departed! You leave no foundation for the christian hope; you extinguish the light of salvation, and reduce the whole scheme of redemption to a confused chaotic mass of unmeaning statements.
Dear Brethren, let us thank God that the foundation of our hope is divine, and cannot be destroyed. The gates of hell cannot prevail against it. We do not present these thoughts on the Divinity of Christ because we think you do not believe in it, but to put you in remembrance of it, and to strengthen and encourage when dangers may assail you. It is vastly important that we should all solemnly and frequently reflect on the source of our confidence and salvation. But we ought not to overlook the love which brought so great a Savior to earth to die for such sinners as we are. A sense of his love should constrain us to love, honor and serve him whose we are and upon whom we depend for all the blessings of time and eternity. Nor should we forget that he is to be our Judge on that day when "every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father."
Finally, Brethren, let us so conduct ourselves in our Father's house, and in the affairs of his Kingdom that the world may believe that we belong to Jesus and "walk in Him." Farewell. ============= [From Campbell County Baptist Association Minutes, 1851, pp. 7-8. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall .]
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