02.03. THE BOARDS

THE BOARDS THE boards were of incorruptible wood. As such they were a perfect symbol of the incorruptible humanity of our Lord, a witness to its sinlessness. That our Lord was a sinless man is in the nature of the case. When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that God had chosen her to be the Mother of His Son, she was troubled, reasoned in her mind about it and was unable to understand how it could be.

She supposed this Son was to be obtained in a natural manner, that the child born of her should be begotten by some man chosen of God.

She was engaged to Joseph, not yet actually his wife. Even though Joseph should be permitted to act as the Father, she could not comprehend how, under the circumstances, such a child could be called the Son of the Highest, the Son of the living God. The angel explained to her that no man should be the father of her child, man should have no part in it whatever; on the contrary, that which should be wrought in her and born out of her should be by the direct act of the blessed and eternal God.

He said:

“The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, And the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee:

Therefore that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35) In giving the announcement to Mary that man should have nothing to do with her in this matter, that her conception should not be by man, but by the Holy Ghost, that the relation should be between herself and Almighty God alone, the angel announced this transcendent fact not only to her, but advertised it to all the ages since, and particularly to those who in this hour of a rank and fetid materialism are willing to ‘take the intellectual stultification of denying a virgin birth to Him who was, not only Son of Mary, but Son of God. In actual operation the pre–existent Son of God and God the Son in coordination with the Father and the Spirit, took of the substance or seed or cell of the Virgin Mary and fashioned, not a personality, but a human nature for Himself. This nature He assumed and took into indissoluble union with His unchangeable and eternal personality; as it is written:

“He took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed (the nature) of Abraham.” (Hebrews 2:16) That He was Virgin Born ought to be self-evident. If a natural father had begotten Him He would not have been, He could not have been, what Gabriel calls:

“That Holy Thing.”

He would have partaken of his sinful father’s sinful being:

“Sin in the flesh.” A sinful father could not have begotten a holy human nature. No human father ever has. A sinless father could not have begotten it because ––nature comes from the woman and personality from the father; as it is written:

“Levi was in the loins of his father (Abraham).” (Hebrews 7:9-10) Had even a sinless father begotten our Lord, He would have had a personality from that father.

Call it a sinless personality if you will––what then? Clearly enough our Lord would have had a dual personality. Personality as the pre–existent Son of God and HJs distinct personality as man. This would not only have made Him a dual personality in Himself, it would have added personality to Godhead, that Godhead which Scripture reveals as triune and fixed forever. To double the personality of the Son of God and add personality to Godhead would be the guilt and shame of a compound and excuseless blasphemy. No man, therefore, whether sinful or sinless, could have produced the humanity of Christ without the addition of personality. This is at once a demonstration and a proof that the humanity of Christ was not of a distinct personality other than His eternal, and unchanged and unit personality of Godhead. As a consequence the conception and birth of our Lord’s humanity was not that of a person at all, but a––nature. The nature of humanity comes essentially and characteristically from the woman––she is the mould of it.

Since the humanity of Christ was a nature and not a personality it could not have come from a man and must have come from a woman.

It did come from a woman.

It came from Mary as His Mother. As it could not be produced by man, other than with personality, without personality it could be produced only by the particular act of God.

It was therefore produced by the act of God.

Since it was produced by the act of God it was produced exclusively by His act. As it was produced by the exclusive act of God it was necessarily virgin born; that is––conception and birth without the agency of man. The humanity of Christ therefore was not an evolution, it was a new and direct creation from God.

Because of its origin Gabriel properly called it “That holy thing.”

Because it was holy it was sinless. The human life of our Lord Jesus Christ was necessarily sinless. The record of His life demonstrates it; as it is written:

“Jesus the Son of God tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) “Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.” (Hebrews 7:25) “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” (1 Peter 2:22) “In him is no sin.” (1 John 3:5) In the midst of those who knew Him intimately and from childhood, He flung down this challenge:

“Which of you convinceth me of sin?” (John 8:46) His life was unconcealed.

He was continually open to inspection.

Every eye watched Him, every ear was bent to listen, every word He spoke was weighed and analyzed, every step noted, and yet none dared bring the charge of sin against Him. For two thousand years He has been the object of intensive analysis.

He has been subject to the white light of an unparalleled investigation. The highways and lanes over which He traveled, the villages, towns and cities through which He passed, the well curb upon which He sat, the boat in which He sailed, the places in which He prayed, the water which it is reported He turned to wine, the very bread and fish (the kind He multiplied) have been brought into the light, subjected to this investigation and surrendered to this analysis. His words have been taken apart, put into the laboratory of critical chemistry, tested in respect to base, to combination and compounded parts, but not an accent, not an emphasis has been found out of place, not a sentence or a word that need be changed, not a thought nor statement that must be reversed or recalled.

He stands out among men absolutely human, yet of an order entirely new, sinless, God filled, compassionate, sympathetic, going among the outcast and the worthless, among those sick in body, sick in soul, in daily contact with leprosy of body and leprosy of mind, uncovering pollution and shame and iniquity at every step; and yet, even as the sun that reveals the mud, the mire, the slime and corruption, and is unstained by them, so He ate with publicans and sinners and shone more resplendently pure because of the contrasted evil and wrong revealed in them.

He spoke softly, gently, so graciously, that the officers sent by His foes to arrest Him as a disturber of the public peace, enthralled by the sound of His voice the accent of His words and the marvellous measure of His thoughts, went back to those who sent them and said:

“Never man spake like this man.”

There were times, however, when His words had in them the note as of distant thunder, and there was an up flash of flame, a light in His eyes as terrible as that which had flashed on Sinai. When He saw the multitude He was moved with compassion; they were to Him as sheep without a shepherd; they had been harried and skinned (such is the word in the original) by human wolves, they had been the prey of the avarice, injustice and tyranny of men; but when He spoke of a lost soul in hell, suffering, agonizing, tormented, His voice was cold, calm, emotionless, as the utterance of a judge, as hard as the decrees of eternity; forgiving a sinful woman taken in the act of a particular treason of sin, He poured forth a tidal sweep of anathema against religious formalism and hypocrisy, against false teaching and tradition as though indeed the day of unrestrained wrath and anger had come.

He is unique.

There never was anything like Him before. There has never been anything like Him since.

He is as a white rose surrounded by scarlet poppies. As a smile of love against a scowl of hate. As a song above discord. As a shaft of light in the blackness of a starless midnight.

He was pure, He was holy, He was sinless. Not even in death did His body see corruption. There is only one collocation of terms that expresses Him; and that is:

“Sinless perfection.” The boards of the Tabernacle were covered with pure gold. The gold was a distinct material from the wood. It was placed above it. Thus each board consisted of two materials. The twofoldedness of material in the boards is a symbol of the twofoldedness of our Lord. As the board was of two materials, He was of two natures. The nature of man. The nature of God. The wood is a symbol of His human nature. The gold symbolizes His divine nature. The two materials, the incorruptible wood and the gold, constitute, not two, but one board of the Tabernacle. The two materials were absolutely distinct. The wood never became gold. The gold never became wood.

They did not modify each other. The two natures in Christ are distinct. His humanity never becomes deity. His deity never merges into His humanity. They do not modify each other.

They were absolutely distinct and separate from each other; but while the two natures dwelt in Him and were distinct, He was not two persons but one; nevertheless, He was personally God and personally man.

He was actual man; as it is written:

“The man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5) He was very and true God. The Father owned Him as such. He said unto Him:

“Thy throne, O God, is forever and forever.” (Hebrews 1:8) And again it is written:

“Our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13) It is simple enough to see how the gold can be upon the wood.

It is a mystery beyond human solution how the two distinct natures could be united in the one person so that the two natures were never confounded nor the personality divided.

It is a mystery to mere reason but a sublime fact to God given faith.

He acted, He spoke; He thought as a man.

He was hungry, thirsty and grew weary as a man. He ate, He drank and He slept.

He was sensitive.

He could feel sorrow.

He wept human tears.

He died as generations of human beings before Him had died, and He was buried as the dead of human kind are buried. In all this He was real man. But He claimed to be God.

He said and said it without hesitation, said it simply as a fact to Himself, as a part of His individual consciousness, that before the foundation of the world was laid and therefore before the universe was sent upon its course, He sat side by side with the Father upon His throne in all the infinitude of His glory as God.

He said all the Father could do He could do.

He could give eternal life. He could raise the dead.

He would send some of the risen dead to partake of the Father’s favor and the Father’s glory forever. He would send others to endless punishment.

He said all judgment had been committed to His hands.

He affirmed Himself to be the way to God, the truth of God and the life of God.

He said He was the only way by which any man might come to God as a Father.

He invoked those who heard Him to believe on Him with the same faith and in the same manner as they believed in God.

He testified without the slightest abashment that those who saw Him saw the Father also, that He was His image both essentially and omnipotently.

He said an astounding thing coming from the lips of a man, He said this:

“Whatsoever things the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” (John 5:19) “Likewise” is same-wise, in the same way, with the same authority and the same power. The Father did them as Almighty God. To do them as the Father did them therefore was to claim Himself to be no less than the Almighty, Omnipotent God.

He put an accent and emphasis on the claim by declaring He had life in Himself––that is––self-existence.

Think you any other man in his senses would claim as He did and unqualifiedly to be self-existent?

All this He claimed while revealing Himself every day and in all things as actual man.

He supported His extraordinary claims by miracles. He performed His miracles as only God could perform them. He performed them by the simple exercise of His will.

He said:

“I will.”

He spoke and it was done, He commanded and it stood fast.

If anything in this world can be demonstrated and proved, He demonstrated and proved He was very God. And yet––He was but––one person. His personality did not begin with His humanity. To the Jews He said:

“Before Abraham was (not––I was, but) I am.” (John 8:58) His personal identity is seen in the remarkable use of the present tense, “I am.” That is to say, before Abraham was He not only existed, but existed as one who could bridge the distance from that hour, “before” Abraham to the moment in which He spoke with the present tense applied to Himself over the whole stretch of that existence––so that never in any part of it He should say––” I was,” but always––”I am.”

“I am,” that was the sacred name the Jew gave to God, and God officially gave to Himself, the name that blots out time with its sliding scale of past and future and records only one––eternal present. In saying “I am” in relation to Abraham, He was saying He was Himself no less than that God who is the eternal I am.” That this is what He meant and said in such a way that those who heard Him should know He meant it, is incontrovertibly proven by the action of the Jews.

They took up stones to stone Him.

It was not because He claimed pre-existence they would stone Him. It was not a new claim among them. They had no revolt against Him for that, but because in using the expression, “I am,” instead of saying what, if speaking naturally, He should have said: “Before Abraham was, I was,” He deliberately used the sacred name as a declaration that His being was eternally pre-existent, that never at any point was He less than “I am,” and was therefore equal to and identical in being with the eternal God.

Beyond all question He affirmed Himself to be the “I am” of Israel and thus identified Himself as that being who at the Burning Bush said to Moses:

“I am that I am.” On another occasion He said:

“I and my Father are one.” (John 10:30) The numeral adjective is neuter, therefore––one thing. A thing is a substance.

He said therefore that He and the Father were of one substance. The substance of the Father is––being.

Consequently He said He and the Father were of one being, that is––the same being. The being of the Father is––deity.

Thus He said He and the Father were––one deity. Deity is––God. With unmistakable absolutism therefore He said He and the Father were––One God.

He did not say––one person. On the contrary He said–– “I and My Father.”

He was one person, the Father was another and distinct person. As two distinct persons they were but ––One God. The Father was God. He as the Son was God, of the same being and substance as the Father and equally God; not two Gods, but one God and yet two persons and each person absolutely God; so that, in saying, “I and my Father are one,” He said, “as much as the Father is God, by so much as I am His Son and of His substance and being, I too – am God.”

Those who heard Him say, “I and my Father are one,” knew He was making this claim. That they knew it is proven in their action.

They took up stones to stone Him. When He asked why they thought to stone Him they gave Him a plain and logical answer. They said:

“Because that thou––being a man––makest thyself God.” (John 10:33) The people said He was––a man. And He was.

They said He made Himself to be God. He did.

He was God as well as man. He was not God and man.

He was the––Godman.

One personality, two distinct natures. This one personality and two distinct natures is continually revealed. It is definitely seen in the storm on Galilee.

He and His disciples were in a boat in the midst of the lake.

He was weary, and because of His weariness had fallen asleep in the hinder part of the ship.

Suddenly the winds broke from their leash.

They lifted the waters and flung them in giant waves from shore to shore where they broke and crashed and fell as in a baffled rage of white spume.

They cried and shouted, these waves, and then screamed as though full of fiendish delight at the very madness of their fury.

They tore the long, three-cornered sail from the quivering mast.

They poured the white, yeasty waves in their whiplashed return from the resounding shores into the hold of the ship.

Amid the tumult and tempest, even when the frail construction flung on the top of a breaking ridge of black waters threatened to capsize and engulf them all––the man Christ Jesus slept on.

What a spectacle. A tempest––tossed ship––a sleeping Christ in the midst.

Then the frightened disciples (frightened with a Christ in the ship) called to Him, aroused Him out of His sleep and reproached Him with His seeming indifference to their danger.

He awoke, He arose. But the thing that appealed to Him was not the storm, the wild might of it, the fast filling ship and the yawning, black mouth of death.

No! The thing that moved Him was the unbelief and fear of those who sailed with Him.

He turned and faced, not the blinding storm, but the trembling men, and said:

“O ye of little faith.”

Unbelief! That was more terrible to Him than the storm; that called for more rebuke than the tempest.

Then He faced the driving waters, the black clouds, the bellowing winds and said quietly:

“Peace, be still.”

Like wild beasts at the voice of the master, the winds slunk away and hushed their thundrous complaining, the waves became as smooth as a flawless mirror, and we are told:

“There was a great calm.” (Matthew 8:26) In that scene on Galilee He was a real man, as really human as the men in the boat with Him. In that same scene He was very God.

Consider, will you, in analyzing this miracle, that you have to reckon the force of the winds, the bulk and movement of the waters, the fact of gravitation, and over all the control that met the insistent demand of each and suddenly changed the operation of one set of forces and brought in others that nullified them; and this control expressed, not in any physical act, but by a fiat word, and you have a scenic demonstration that He who spoke the word was none other than very God. And yet, real man as He was and very God as He was, He was––

Only One Person. The Man Christ Jesus. Our Great God and Saviour.

Incorruptible wood––sinless humanity, perfect man, Gold above the wood––absolute, essential deity.

Two materials––one board.

Two natures––one person.