e of another race. To be of another race and be
human would require a new creation and would be a new and distinct
humanity.

Our Lord Jesus Christ was sinless. He was, therefore, of a new and
distinct humanity. In incarnation, God did not take the humanity of
Adam into union with himself, the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ
was the repudiation of the humanity of Adam. By that incarnation God
was saying: "I have tried the old humanity. I find nothing in it
that responds to my claims. At its best it is sinful, only sinful
and fit for judgment--the end of all flesh is come before me--and
that end is death."

The humanity of Christ is, therefore, not an evolution, but a new
creation; it is not an invitation to the natural man, but a
condemnation of him. It does not say to him, "Follow me, imitate me
and you will be like me"; it says: "I am from above, ye are from
below. I am from heaven and God--ye are from the earth. My humanity
is as distinct from yours as the heavens are from the earth."

Such a man is not an example, a copy to be set before men.

And never, not once, do the apostles so set him before the natural
man. Always they set him before the natural man as the man who came
into the world--not to live as an example--but to die as a sacrifice
for men; as one who was fit to die because he was free from the
stain and penalty of sin.

But in order that the death of Christ should be of infinite value,
he must himself be an infinite person. The value of a deed depends
upon the person who does it. The quality resides not alone in the
act, but in the actor. The value of the death of our Lord Jesus
Christ is not to be measured by its duration, but by himself--by
what he was in himself; it does not depend upon the length of time
in which as a substitute he suffered the punishment of those whose
place he was taking, but the essential quality of his person. Did
our Lord suffer but a moment of time on the cross, the value of his
suffering as a satisfaction to the law, government and being of God
would be infinite.

An infinite person is God.

Always as such do the apostles present our Lord Jesus Christ. Their
testimony to his deity rings out like the blast of far-sounding
trumpets. In terms that are precise, and so strong and clear that he
who runs may read, they proclaim that he is God of God, very God of
very God.

As God the Son, in co-operation with God the Father and God the
Spirit, he who is presented to us