THE MESSIAHSHIP OF JESUS.

The Jews of the time of Jesus, and after, believed that in the writings of Moses and the prophets there were predictions concerning a great ruler and deliverer yet to come, called the Messiah in their language, the Christ in Greek. They expected him, as we have stated in a former chapter, to be a son of David, to restore the kingdom of David, to settle all difficult questions of doctrine and worship, and to abide forever (pages 22, 23). This expectation was embodied in the remark: of Philip concerning Jesus: "We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph" (Jno i. 45); and it is alluded to in the remark concerning Simeon, that he was looking for the consolation of Israel; and in the statement that the aged Anna "spoke of him to all that were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem" (Luke ii. 38). The same expectation and hope are more fully and beautifully expressed in the song of Zacharias:

Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel;

For he hath visited and wrought redemption for his people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us

In the house of his servant David

(As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since the world began),

Salvation from our enemies, and from all that hate us;

To show mercy toward our fathers,

And to remember his holy covenant,

The oath which he swore unto Abraham our father,

To grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies,

Should serve him without fear

In holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

                                                                               (Luke i. 68-75.)

When John the Baptist appeared on the banks of the Jordan, and with preaching of unprecedented power stirred the hearts and consciences of the whole people, we are told that they "were in expectation, and reasoned in their hearts concerning John, whether haply he were the Christ" (Luke iii. 15); and the leaders in Jerusalem went so far as to send to him priests and Levites to ask him pointedly this very question (John i. 19, 20). So when John had passed away, and Jesus engrossed the popular attention, during the whole of his ministry the great and absorbing question was, Is he the Christ? True, the question whether he was the Son of God became prominent also, and especially toward the close of his career; but the former was ever the foremost question of the two. In the course of our discussion we have reversed this order; for to us the question of his sonship stands foremost both in importance and in the order in which we most naturally consider it. Having settled this, we have prepared the way for the other question, and have made its settlement a very easy task.

The question of the Messiahship turns on the fulfillment in Jesus of the predictions concerning the Messiah. He claimed while he was living that there were such predictions, and that they were fulfilled in him, saying on one occasion: "Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they that testify of me." "Think not that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses on whom ye have set your hope. For if ye believed Moses ye would believe me; for he wrote of me" (Jno. v. 39, 45). After his resurrection, in conversations with his disciples he taught the same thing with greater fullness. When addressing the two on the way to Emmaus, "beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself;" and to the Twelve he said: "These are my words which I spake to you while I was yet with you, how that all things must needs be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms, concerning me" (Luke xxiv. 27, 44). This was also the leading theme with all the apostles when addressing Jewish audiences. Peter, in his second recorded discourse, after speaking of the sufferings and resurrection of Jesus, says: "But the things which God foreshowed by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled." . . . "Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel, and those who follow after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days" (Acts iii. 18, 24). Thus the Apostles spoke in Jerusalem at the beginning; and in Rome, at the close of the record of apostolic preaching, we learn of Paul that when he had gathered the unbelieving Jews of the city together in great numbers, "he expounded the matter, testifying the kingdom of God, and persuading them concerning Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets, from morning till evening" (Acts xxviii. 23). These citations show that it was the settled doctrine of both Jesus and the Apostles that many predictions in the Old Testament written concerning the promised Messiah were fulfilled in Jesus, thus proving him to be the Christ.

There is no attempt by any of the New Testament writers to cite all the predictions thus fulfilled. While the general terms which they employ imply that there is a large number of them, the number which they quote is comparatively small. Matthew deals more in this kind of argument than any other, but even he leaves the specifications chiefly to the intelligence of the reader. While Matthew cites many along the line of incidents in the life of Jesus, beginning with genealogy and the scenes of the infancy, the author of Hebrews cites chiefly those respecting his exalted dignity in heaven as the Lord of angels and the high priest for men. But Jesus, Peter and Paul, in their preaching, concentrate their attention on those respecting his death, resurrection and exaltation; and as these have been proved to be realities by our previous course of evidence, it is sufficient for our purpose now to show that these were characteristics of the Christ, in order to identify Jesus as that personage.

In his first sermon, Peter rested the whole of his argument for the Messiaship of Jesus on the fulfillment of two predictions by David. The first is quoted from the sixteenth Psalm, in the words, following the Septuagint: "Moreover, my flesh also shall rest in hope: because thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt thou give thy Holy One to set corruption. Thou madest known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of gladness with thy countenance." This is certainly a prediction of a resurrection from the dead; for if one's soul is not left in hades, and his flesh does not see corruption, it is because the soul and body are brought together again by a resurrection. But the Psalmist could not have been speaking of himself, as Peter correctly argues; for his flesh saw corruption, and his soul has remained in hades. The soul of Jesus, however, did not remain in hades, but returned into his body before the latter saw corruption; and this is true of no other eminent person; consequently, he is the person of whom the prophet spoke. He is the Christ of prophecy.

The second prediction is taken from the one hundred and tenth Psalm, in the words: "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool." This Peter had just proved by the testimony of the Holy Spirit had taken place with Jesus, and certainly no other human being ever sat on the right hand of God; consequently this is another proof that Jesus is the person of whom the prophets did write. Paul, in his sermon at Antioch of Pisidia, uses the former of these two predictions in the same way. He says: "As concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he hath spoken on this wise, I will give you the holy and sure mercies of David. Because he saith also in another psalm, Thou wilt not give thy Holy One to see corruption. For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: but he whom God raised up saw no corruption" (Acts xiii. 34-36). On these two predictions, then, together with many others which readily occurred to their hearers, these two apostles rested the argument for the Messiahship of Jesus, in connection with other and still stronger proofs that he was the Son of God; and these are sufficient to make out the case. Indeed, if the Jews, or any other people who believe in the prophecies of the Old Testament, are convinced that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to the right hand of God to reign as a king, they need no other or better proof that he is also the Messiah of the prophets. It is for this reason, doubtless, that the apostles, after proving the former proposition, paid comparatively little attention to the proof of the latter.

We are now prepared to close this part of our inquiry, with the conclusion that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that therefore the system of religion which he established in the earth is of divine origin and authority. The other questions of credibility with which we started out (page 1,2), having reference to the thorough reliability of the record which we have of his sayings, and of the revelations which the apostles claim to have received, remain to be discussed in Part Fourth.