One Lord, Jesus Christ

“To this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord” (Rom. xiv. 9). “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am” (John xiii. 13).

We see then how the Creed concentrates our attention on the Person of Christ as the Object of our faith. Christianity is best understood as “devotion to a Person,” and that Person a Divine One, and the devotion is the trustful dependence on Him and whole-hearted surrender to Him. Having thus learned to trust in a Person, we are at once led to know all we can about Him, and especially the most important facts of His manifestation which are brought before us in Holy Scripture.

It is necessary to fix our attention first of all on the fact of our Lord’s Death, which is central in Scripture, Prayer Book, and all history. The meaning of the Death is best stated in one word, “Sacrifice.” It was a sacrificial Death, not the death of a martyr or merely of an example, but of One Who gave Himself for a sacrifice. He died, “the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet. iii. 18). “Who His own self bare our sins in His Own Body on the tree” (1 Cor. xv. 3). For this reason we call the Death an Atonement, because it was caused by sin and was for the purpose of putting an end to sin.

The atoning work having been accomplished, our Lord “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High” (Heb. i. 3). He has nothing more to offer, for there is no need of anything beyond that one “full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world,” offered on Calvary. The Lord is our High Priest on the Throne, a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. In and through His heavenly Priesthood we have “access into the Holiest,” and can “draw near in full assurance of faith” (Heb. x. 19,22)… When we realize the power and blessing of our Lord’s heavenly Priesthood and His Divine advocacy on our behalf, we realize the completeness, assurance, and guarantee of our redemption, and can rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (1920)