How sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?' Of course, if these Jews had no consciousness of bondage, there was no attraction for them in a promise of freedom.
That remark opens out two thoughts, on which I do not dwell. First, the ignoring of the fact of sin which is so common amongst us all to-day, makes it impossible to understand Christ and Christianity. Brethren, that great Gospel, and that great Lord who is the subject of the Gospel, have many other aspects than this. But this is the central thought as to it and Him, that it is the emancipation from sin, because He is the Emancipator. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach deliverance to the captives.' And wherever we find, as we do find in many quarters to-day, that the central fact of Christianity, the Death for the sin of the world, is deposed from its place, there the life-blood is ebbing out of the Gospel. Historically, the beginning of almost all heresies has been the underestimate of the fact of sin. As long as you dwell in the shallows of human experience, a shallow Christianity and a shallow Christ will be enough for you. But when once you get to understand the depths of your own need, and the depths of your brother's need, then nothing less than the Christ who died to solve the problem, insoluble else, of how to emancipate the soul and the worldfrom the tyranny of sin, will be enough for you. Once the waters of the great deep are broken up,' and the floods are out, there is nothing for it but the Ark. It is not enough, then, to speak of a human Christ; it is not enough, when a man's conscience has been roused, not to exaggeration, but to clear sight, of what he is--it is not enough, then, to speak of a pattern Christ, or of a teaching Christ. Ah! we want more than that. We want that which first of all I delivered unto you, how that Jesus Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.'
And, brethren, just as the ignoring of the fact of sin makes the understanding of Christ and His word impossible, so it makes real reception of Him for ourselves impossible. Many men are brought near to Jesus by other roads; thank God for it! There are a thousand ways to the Cross, but it is the Cross that we must clasp, if in any true sense we are to clasp Christ. And there is all the difference between the superficial, partial, and easy-going profession of Christianity which is so common amongst us to-day, and the life-and-death clutching and clinging to Him which comes when, and only when, a man feels that the tyrant whom he served as a slave is close behind him, and that his only chance of freedom is to hold fast by the horns of the altar of the Sanctuary, and to cleave to the Christ in whom, and in whom alone, we are free indeed.
