It was thus that prophets, evangelists, apostles, and the Son of God
himself, presented the Divine scheme of human redemption. Christ is
the 'Branch' by which the vine may recover itself from its prone and
base condition: he is the 'Arm of the Lord' by which he reaches down
and rescues sinful men from the ruins of the fall: 'through whom,'
says Peter, 'ye believe in God' [that is, believe in God manifested
through Christ], 'that raised him up from the dead, and gave him
glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.' Says Paul, 'Your
life is hid with Christ in God.' Jesus himself proclaimed that the
believer should have within him 'a well of water, springing up into
everlasting life'--that is, he that believeth in Christ crucified, the
hard heart within him will be struck by the rod of faith, and in his
soul there will be a well of pure and living affection springing up to
God for ever. And again: 'Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on
me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me, and he that seeth me
seeth him that sent me'--that is, Christ was _God acting_, developing
the Divine attributes through human nature, so that men might
apprehend and realise them. God might have been as merciful as he is
if Christ had never died; but man could never have known the extent,
nor felt the power, of his mercy, but by the exhibition on the cross.
His mercy could have been manifested to man's heart in no other way.
And men cannot love God for what he truly is, unless they love him as
manifested in the suffering and death of Christ Jesus. 'I am the Way,
the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.' 'If
ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also; and from
henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.'