If Christ Had Not Come..

John L.

“If I had not come........... “ - John 15:22.
Our lord is addressing His handful of followers. His theme is the aggravated guilt of the world that hated Him. He had brought light into this dark world in the person of Himself, but men had revealed their sinfulness by rejecting the light.

“This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil:—John 3:19.
If Christ had not come, they would not have been guilty of rejecting the light, but now that He had come to His own, and now that they had received Him not, their condemnation was certain.

“If Christ had not come.” Praise God, this is not true! It is merely a supposition. There is no reality in the “if.” Bless God, Jesus did come!

Nineteen hundred years ago this world lay wrapped in solemn, midnight darkness. It was not an atmospheric darkness only. A spiritual darkness brooded over the face of the world. For four centuries there had been no open vision. The worship of God, save here and there in a little remnant, was dead in the human heart. A voice was heard from Edom calling, “Watchman, what of the night?” and the answer came back, “The morning cometh, and also the night.” It was a long, silent night, with a spiritual darkness that could almost be felt.

But then the heavens were trembling with coming glory. Across the sky moved the first Christian missionary, the star of Bethlehem. Following its leading along the highways of Judea came the Wise Men, for true wisdom lays its tribute at the feet of Jesus.

At last the hour arrived, the clock struck, the veil of darkness was rent in twain, and Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, was here among men.
A little Child, a little star,
A stable road, the door ajar.
Vet in that stable, crude, forlorn, The hope of all the race was born.

A little Child. Is that all? Yes, that is all, but it is all sufficient. In this Child all streams of past prophecy converge. From this Child will radiate all the glowing lines of history. .

So He was born, and such a birth! So He lived, and such a life!

It was a short life Jesus lived. He lived not long but intensely. He went about, doing good. He gave sight to the blind, healed the sick, restored the afflicted and raised the dead. Always working, ever busy, unloosing the bonds of Satan, unwinding the serpent’s coils.

His path was a sorrowful one. His first bed was a manger; His last was a cross. His first companions were cattle; the last were thieves. His first pillow was of straw; His last was a crown of thorns. Born in another man’s barn, eating at another man’s table, sailing the lake in another man’s fishing boat, buried in another man’s grave.

His path at last led to the slopes of Golgotha, where Under an Eastern sky, amid a rabble cry,

This Man went forth to die for me. Thorn-crowned, His blessed head, Blood-stained, His every tread,
As cross-burdened on, He sped for me.

Now they reach the summit of Calvary. There sin begins its cruel work. It sharpens the nails and the spear point. It wields the deadly hammer. There “they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.”
Well might the sun in darkness hide,
         And shut his glories in,
         When Christ, the mighty Maker, died
         For man the creature’s sin.

Now He lies in the tomb, the hope of the world lying dead in a grave. At the mouth of the grave a great stone is rolled; upon the stone, the seal of Imperial Rome; before the sealed grave, a cordon of soldiers. Earth and Hell banded together to keep the lord in the sepulchre.

But praise God-
Death cannot keep his prey Jesus my Saviour!
He tore the bars away
Jesus my Lord! and up from the grave He arose as lord over death, conqueror of Satan, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

How the angels must have sung on that happy Easter morning: ‘This is He that liveth, and was dead, and behold He is alive forevermore.’

Yes, the text is only a supposition. There is no reality whatever in the words, “If I had not come.” That little “if” enshrines a baseless dream. Bless the Lord, o my soul, because Jesus did come!

Let us use that “if” as a window to let some light in upon the meaning of His coming. We might prize our blessings more if we were bereft of them. Let us suppose then that Jesus had not come, and that the blessings His advent brought were taken away. Without Christmas, what have we left? If Christ had not come, what then?

There Would Be No Forgiveness of Sins
In Ephesians 1:7 we read, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.” We have forgiveness, that is true, because Christ has come. However great, however many our sins may have been, they are all, every one of them, blotted out. In the Book of God there is not a single sin belonging to the old, rebellious life, against any man or woman in this world whose trust is in the Christ of the cross-not a single one, not even the shadow of one.

My sin-oh, the bliss of this glorious thought
My sin-not in part, but the whole-Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

But if Christ had not come no forgiveness. Think of it. Sin piled upon sin; transgression heaped on transgression; iniquity added to iniquity and together making a soul-crushing burden to be carried to the grave without hope of deliverance. Think of standing before an infinitely holy God on the day of judgment with a mountain of unforgiven sin towering above us as a witness to the justice of our eternal condemnation.

There Would Be No
Adequate Revelation Concerning the World to Come
In II Timothy 1:10 we read ‘that Christ by His appearing’
“hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”

By rising from the dead He revealed this glorious, stupendous fact that not only does the soul live after death, but that the body will one day rise up and join it. The heathen world believed that the soul lived on but never dreamed of a dead body raised to immortality.

Now suppose Christ had not come to reveal this fact: there would be no light beyond the grave. It is true that in the Old Testament there are references to the afterlife, but those faint gleams of light, not interpreted by the teaching of Christ, merely intensify the darkness surrounding the grave.

Beyond the sunset’s crimson bars, Beyond the twilight and the stars;
Beyond the midnight and the dark what? Continued midnight, unlighted gloom, if Jesus had not come.

If there were no certainty beyond the grave such as Jesus brought, then there would be no sure hope of Heaven. Think of life with the hope and certainty of Heaven blotted out.

Death Would Be Conqueror and Satan Victor in the Human Drama

Yonder is a mother whose bairn [child] Death, the robber, has taken. She sings to herself through her tears:
Two little feet went pattering by, Years ago.
They wandered off to the sunny sky, Years ago.
They crept never back to the love they left,
They climbed nevermore to the arms bereft,Years ago.
         And then Hope kisses that mother’s tears into jewels as she sings:
Again I shall hear the two little feet Pattering by
Their music a thousand times more sweet, In the sky.
I joy to know that a Saviour’s care Will keep them safe till I meet them there,
By and by.

There would be no hope for that mother or any other mourner, if Christ had not come. The earth that falls from the gravedigger’s shovel with hollow sound upon the coffin lid would be the death knell of all such hopes.
Oh, how terrible if Jesus had not come! All the joys and laughter, all the hopes and aspirations of life would end in an eternal cemetery. Thousands of years of human history would end in a hideous empire ruled over by the black angel of Death.

Think of it-a world without ‘Christ, a world without Christmas; therefore, a world without salvation and hope-no Gospel to preach, no Christ to exalt, no cleansing blood to recommend, no Christmas bells to ring; the hope of the’ world, the expectation of millions of believers, made to depend on the truth or untruth of one little word-the verity or falsity of an “if” -”If I had not come.”

But blessed be God, there is no “if.” Blessed be God at this Christmastime, Jesus did come. Out over the hills and plains of Bethlehem rings the song, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Into the ears of the wondering shepherds comes the angelic announcement, “For unto you is born this day...a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

Down from His royal throne, down from His dwelling of light, down from the streets of gold, down from the gates of pearl:
Joy to the world! the Lord is come;
         Let earth receive her King;
         Let every heart prepare Him room,
         And Heav’n and nature sing.
Sing of the pardon He brings.

Sing of the peace He bestows. Sing of the Heaven He reveals. Sing of the Gospel that saves. “The Son of man IS COME to seek and to save that which was lost.” Hallelujah, what a Saviour!