Jesus Christ in incorruption.' Little
need be said explanatory of the force of this general expression. We
usually find that where Scripture reduces the whole qualification for
the reception of the divine gift, and the conditions which unite to
Jesus Christ, to one, it is faith, not love, that is chosen. But here
the Apostle takes the process at the second stage, and instead of
emphasising the faith which is the first step, he dwells upon the love
which is its uniform consequence. This love rests upon the faith in
Jesus Christ our Lord.

Then note the solemn fulness of the designations of the object of this
faith-born love. 'Jesus Christ our Lord'--the name of His humanity; the
name of His office; the designation of His dominion. He is Jesus the
Man. Jesus is the Christ, the Fulfiller of all prophecy; the flower of
all previous revelation; the Anointed of God with the fulness of His
Divine Spirit as Prophet, Priest, and King. Jesus Christ is the
Lord--which, at the lowest, expresses sovereignty, and if regard be had
to the Apostolic usage, expresses something more, even participation in
Deity. And it is this whole Christ, the Jesus, the Christ, the Lord; the
love to whom, built upon the faith in Him in all these aspects and
characteristics, constitutes the true unity of the true Church.

That Church is not built upon a creed, but it is built upon a whole
Christ, and not a maimed one. And so we must have a love which answers
to all those sides of that great revealed character, and is warm with
human love to Jesus; and is trustful with confiding love to the Christ;
and is lowly with obedient love to the Lord. And I venture to go a step
further, and say,--and is devout with adoring love to the eternal Son of
the Father. This is the Apostle's definition of what makes a Christian:
Faith that grasps the whole Christ and love that therefore flows to Him.
It binds all who possess it into one great unity. As against a spurious
liberalism which calls them Christians who lay hold of a fragment of the
one entire and perfect chrysolite, we must insist that a Christian is
one who knows Jesus, who knows Christ, who knows the Lord, and who
loves Him in all these aspects. Only we must remember, too, that many a
time a man's heart outruns his creed, and that many a soul glows with
truer, deeper, more saving devotion and trust to a Christ whom the
intellect imperfectly apprehends, than are realised by unloving hearts
that are associated