The God-Man

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1

The Deists, who own a God but deny his Son, dare to go to God outside of Christ. But Jacob was taught better. God soon reveals the gospel to him. Here is a ladder by which God preaches to you. If you have a mind to climb from earth to heaven, you must get up by the Son of God. No one ever pointed out a proper way to heaven for us, but himself. When Adam and Eve fell from God, a flaming sword turned every way to keep them from the tree of life. But Jesus alone is the new and living way, not only to the holy of holies below, but into the immediate presence of God. And that we might know that he was a proper Savior, the top of it reached to heaven. If it had stopped short, Jacob might have said, ah! the ladder is within a little way of heaven, but does not quite reach it; if I climb to the top, I shall not get there, after all. But the top reached heaven, to point out the divinity and exaltation of the Son of God. Such a Savior became us; he who was God, God over all, blessed for evermore! Therefore, the Arian scheme is most uncomfortable and destructive - to talk of Christ as if he were a Savior who is not God is no Christ at all. I would turn Deist tomorrow if I did not know Christ was God. "Cursed is the man who builds his faith upon an arm of the flesh." If Christ is God, the Arians and Socinians, by their own thoughts are undone forever. But Jesus Christ is very God and very man, begotten (and not made) of the Father. May God, of his infinite mercy, write his divinity deep in our hearts!

George Whitefield Daily Readings, Randall J. Pederson, ed., Christian Focus Publications, 2010, excerpt from the May 18 reading.