Expositions of Holy Scripture: the Acts by Alexander Maclaren
page 120 of 810 (14%)
page 120 of 810 (14%)
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healing and for strengthening. The Name, that is, the whole Christ,
in His nature, His offices, His work, His Incarnation, His Life, His Death, Resurrection, Session at the right hand of God--it is this Christ whose Name made that man strong, and will make us strong. Brethren, let us remember that, while fragments of the Name will have fragmentary power, as the curative virtue that resides in any substance belongs to the smallest grain of it, if detached from the mass--whilst fragments of the Name of Christ have power, thanks be to Him! so that no man can have even a very imperfect and rudimentary view of what Jesus Christ is and does, without getting strength and healing in proportion to the completeness of his conception, yet in order to realise all that He can be and do, a man must take the whole Christ as He is revealed. The Early Church had a symbol for Jesus Christ, a fish, to which they were led because the Greek word for a fish is made up of the initials of the words which they conceived to be the Name. And what was it? '_Jesus Christ_, _God's Son_, _Saviour_'; _Jesus_, humanity; _Christ_, the apex of Revelation, the fulfilment of prophecy, the Anointed Prophet, Priest, and King; _Son of God_, the divine nature: and all these, the humanity, the Messiahship, the divinity, found their sphere of activity in the last name, which, without them, would in its fulness have been impossible--_Saviour_. He is not such a Saviour as He may be to each of us, unless our conception of the Name grasps these three truths: His humanity, His Messiahship, His divinity. 'His Name has made this man strong.' II. Notice how the power of the Name comes to operate. Now, if you will observe the language of my text, you will note that |
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