JESUS HIMSELF

Those are the very words of Scripture, and they come from Ephesians 2:20 where it says, “Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.”  We can say it another way, which is a favorite of mine, “Christianity is Christ,” yes, “Jesus himself!”  The uniqueness of Christianity is the uniqueness of Christ; that is exactly true.  We can say it this way:  when we are right about Christ, eventually we can be right about everything; therefore we focus on “Jesus himself.”  The British preacher Dr. G. Campbell Morgan put, as they say, all his eggs in one basket when he declared, “When God spoke to humanity in Jesus, He said the last thing He has to say.”  It’s all in “Jesus himself.”

I will also freely admit to you those two words forcefully declared themselves to me when I read a sermon from Charles Spurgeon with that very same title.  Jesus is the whole message and marrow of the gospel.  Paul said it other ways, “we preach Christ,” in I Corinthians 2:2 and “Christ is preached” in Philippians 1:18—it was “Jesus himself.”  But oh, if we could only stay with that simple truth—it’s not religion or ritual, it’s “Jesus himself.”  It’s just that plain, so that we do not have to have a great theological education to understand Christianity.  There are no double meanings, and there is not a mysterious maze—it’s Jesus.

“Looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2).  With that we turn and focus on Him alone.  If you want to know the way to God, the wisdom of God, and the wonder of God, it’s all exclusively in Him.  He is the source and the soul of our salvation, looking to Him face to face by faith, and there is the deepest truth of Christianity.  And He himself is at the heart of His own sacrifice.  Let Peter tell you, “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (I Peter 2:24).  Peter understood for he had heard Jesus Christ say, “Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15)  Jesus did what He did, willingly died for me, because He is who He is!  For He “loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)  It must be echoed again and again, He, “Jesus himself,” gave Himself for me!  That is the summary in a sentence, but all the books ever written could not exhaust the full meaning.  The historian H. G. Wells said, “Christ is the most unique person in history.  No man can write a history of the human race without giving first and foremost place to the penniless teacher of Nazareth.”  Even Napoleon Bonaparte admitted, “Between Jesus and whomsoever else in the world there is no possible comparison.”

Everything starts with Him and stops there too! And He, himself, is able to save us. So when we think of the cross, let us realize that He “… by himself purged our sins” (Hebrews 1:3). And the landmark book called Basic Christianity, by John Stott captures it. Skillfully he points out, “The most striking feature of the teaching of Jesus is that He was constantly talking about Himself … This self-centeredness of the teaching of Jesus immediately sets Him apart from the other great religious teachers of the world. They tend to be self-effacing. He is self-advancing. They point people away from themselves, saying, ‘This is the truth, so far as I understand it; follow that.’ Jesus said, ‘I am the truth; follow Me.’ No other religious founder who dared to say such a thing would be taken seriously.”

Here is what Jesus believed—to believe in Him to save us is our most important duty, and a failure to believe in Him is our greatest sin!  Jesus tells us plainly He Himself has the chief and central place, and furthermore, He openly claims it for Himself.  Jesus is not the greatest—He is the only!  Someone described it correctly, “Jesus Christ was breathtakingly self-centered.”  He never apologized for it.  He was and forever is the main attraction.  Not His teaching, not the church, not the truth He taught, but He, Himself—so you find the self-centered teaching of “Jesus himself.”  Then, listen to Him say without any element of hesitation:

To know Me is to know God; To see Me is to see God; To believe in Me is to believe in God; To receive Me is to receive God; To hate Me is to hate God; and To honor Me is to honor God!

He gathered His disciples around Him and, “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27)  And then when Jesus talked about the Spirit of God, He said, “He shall glorify me” (John 16:14).  Jesus claimed that the main work of the Holy Spirit was to open our minds to Him so that we would focus exclusively on “Jesus himself.”  Jesus Christ Himself—the one who claimed He could forgive sin and He could give life and He could give eternal hope.  These are what is sometimes called “the claims of Christ,” and it is impossible to separate them from His person.

So, let’s carefully think this through; if Jesus was not telling the truth, He would be history’s great deceiver and biggest liar!  If it is not true, this is egoism carried to rampant historical megalomania.  That’s what some scholars have, in fact, called it.  He would, in fact, be a deliberate imposter or be absolutely delusional in character.  We have a choice to make, He is one of these:

He is a crazy lunatic, He is a corrupt liar, He is the conquering Lord.

It is lunatic, liar, or Lord—which is it for you?  Settle it, please!

The Oxford scholar C. S. Lewis has hit the nail on the head.  He wrote, “A man who was merely a man and who said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn’t be a great moral teacher.  He’d be either a lunatic … or else he’d be the devil of hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was and is the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.”

The great preacher Spurgeon, whom I also quoted earlier, said, “If you want to know what God has to say to you, see what Christ was and is.”  The Bible says of Him, “he offered up himself” (Hebrews 7:27), and then, “he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:26)  So then, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the single object of our faith.

“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 45:22).  He does not say, look to the church I started, or look to the cross on which I died, or look at the life I lived, or look to the empty tomb from where I was raised.  He does not say, look to the sacraments, the bread and the wine—but this, “Look to me.”  So we hear Him say, “Come to me … and I will give you” (Matthew 11:28), and we would add, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

Jesus Christ Himself is the sum and the substance of the gospel, and we cannot faithfully do our work unless Jesus Christ is our constant theme and forever our focus.  Paul said, “I am determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (I Corinthians 2:2)  We cannot exhaust the subject of Jesus Christ Himself.  Listen to an old saint say, “Jesus Himself moves my heart, awakens my conscience, satisfies my desires, calms my fear, and gives me peace—Jesus Christ Himself!”

Others have spoken more eloquently than I can speak—let me borrow from them to tell you about Him.  “Jesus himself” is the light to my eye, honey to my taste, music to my ear, and joy to my heart.  He is:

• wisdom for our ignorance,

• strength for our weakness,

• righteousness for our guilt,

• mercy for our hopelessness,

• salvation for our souls,

• the answer to our questions, and

• the eternal glory for our future.

All of it is in “Jesus himself!”  Therefore, read it, “Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said to them, peace unto you all” (Luke 24:36).  And “Jesus himself” prays to God the Father about us and says, “Father, I want them with me—these you’ve given me—so that they can see my glory.” (John 17:24, TLB)  “Jesus himself” waits for us to see Him in His full glory.

So, we keep looking to “Jesus himself” as our all in all—He is our focus, He is our force, He is our foundation, He is our future.

“Jesus Christ himself” Ephesians 2:20