It was not the greatness of the miracle, considered simply by itself, but its relation to the gospel, that made our Lord’s resurrection from the dead the central fact of the apostles’ testimony.  It was, so to speak, the hinge on which the whole work of redemption turned.  Our Lord’s expiatory death for the sins of the world and his resurrection from the dead were both alike parts of one indivisible whole.  It was not his claim to be the promised Messiah alone that was involved in the fact of his resurrection.  His completion, as the Messiah, of the work of man’s redemption was also dependent on that great event.  “If Christ be not risen,” says the apostle, “then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain;” and again, “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” 1 Cor. 15:14, 17.  We need not wonder then that the apostles, in their testimony to the people, insisted so earnestly on this one great fact in our Lord’s history; for by it God sealed him as the Prince of life.

8.  The character of Jesus of Nazareth, as drawn by the four evangelists, is the highest possible proof of the authenticity and credibility of the gospel narratives.  Of this it has been justly said, “The character is possible to be conceived, because it was actualized in a living example.” (Nature and the Supernatural, p. 324.) The inapproachable excellence of Christ’s character places it high above all human praise.  The reverent mind shrinks instinctively from the idea of attempting to eulogize it, as from something profane and presumptuous.  We do not eulogize the sun shining in his strength, but we put a screen over our eyes when we would look at him, lest we should be blinded by the brightness of his beams.  So must every man look at Jesus of Nazareth with reverence and awe, who has any true sense of what is great and excellent.  What is now to be said of this character is not eulogy.  It is part of an argument for the reality of the events recorded in the gospel history.  Here it is important to notice not only the character itself, but the manner of the portraiture, and its power over the human heart.

The character of Jesus is perfectly original.  Nothing like it was ever conceived of by the loftiest minds of antiquity.  Nothing like it has appeared since his day, in actual life, or even in the conceptions of the most gifted writers.  As there is one sun in the firmament, so there is one Jesus Christ in the history of the world.  His character has a human and a divine element; and these two interpenetrate each other, so as to constitute together one indivisible and glorious whole.  Jesus could not be, even in idea, what he is as man, unless he were God also.  And what he is as God, he is as God made flesh, and dwelling as man among men.  It is the God-man which the gospel narratives present to us.  If we consider the qualities which belong to our Saviour as man, we notice the union