antees by affirming that his power and that
of his Sovereign are one, but in many cases he must have actual power on
the spot. If a commissioner is sent to reduce a mutinous army or a large
warlike tribe in rebellion, or to define a frontier in the face of an
armed claimant, he must in such cases be no mere lay-figure, whose
uniform tells what country he belongs to, but he must be a man of
audacity and resource, able to act for himself without telegraphing for
orders, and he must be backed by sufficient military force on the spot.
It comes therefore to be a question whether the work on which Christ was
sent was a work which could be accomplished by a man however fully
equipped? Jesus though nothing more than human might have said, if
commissioned by God to say so, "The promises I make, God will perform.
The guarantees I give, God will respect." But is it possible that a man,
however holy, however wise, however fully possessed by the Holy Spirit,
could reveal the Father to men and adequately represent God? Could He
influence, guide, and uplift individuals? Could He give life to men,
could He assume the function of judging, could He bear the
responsibility of being sole mediator between God and men? Must we not
believe that for the work Christ came to do it was needful that He
should be truly Divine?

While therefore it is quite true that Christ here rebuts the charge of
blasphemy in His usual manner, not by directly affirming His Divine
nature, but only by declaring that His office as God's representative
gave Him as just a claim to the Divine name as the judges had, this
circumstance cannot lead us to doubt the Divine nature of Christ, or
prompt us to suppose He Himself was shy in affirming it, because the
question is at once suggested whether the office He assumed is not one
which only a Divine Person could undertake. It need not stumble our
faith, if we find that not only in this passage but everywhere Jesus
refrains from explicitly saying: "I am God." Not even among His
Apostles, who were so much in need of instruction, does He definitely
announce His Divinity. This is consistent with His entire method of
teaching. He was not aggressive nor impatient. He sowed the seed, and
knew that in time the blade would appear. He trusted more to the faith
which slowly grew with the growth of the believer's mind than to the
immediate acceptance of verbal assertions. He allowed men gradually to
find their own way to the right conc