No one can read the New Testament without seeing that its central and
most conspicuous fact is the death of Jesus. Take, for instance, the
gospels, and you will find that over one-quarter of their pages are
devoted to the story of His death. Very strange is this indeed, if
Jesus was nothing but an illustrious teacher. A thousand interesting
events of His career are passed over, a thousand discourses are never
mentioned, in order that there may be abundant room for the telling of
His death. Or take the letters which make up the last half of the New
Testament; in these letters there is scarcely a quotation from the
lips of Jesus. Strange indeed is this if Jesus is only the world's
greatest teacher. The letters seem to ignore that He was a teacher or
reformer, but every letter is soaked in the pathos of His death. There
must be a deep and providential reason for all this. The character of
the gospels and the letters must have been due to something that Jesus
said or that the Holy Spirit inbreathed. A study of the New Testament
will convince us that Jesus had trained His disciples to see in His
sufferings and death the climax of God's crowning revelation to the
world. The key-note of the whole gospel story is struck by John the
Baptist in his bold declaration, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh
away the sin of the world." In that declaration there was a reference
to His death, for the "lamb" in Palestine lived only to be slain. As
soon as Jesus began His public career He began to refer in enigmatic
phrases to His death. He did not declare His death openly, but the
thought of it was wrapt up inside of all He said. Nicodemus comes to
Him at night to have a talk with Him about His work, and among other
things, Jesus says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness
so shall the Son of man be lifted up." Nicodemus did not know what He
meant--we know. He goes into the temple and drives out the men who
have made it a den of thieves, and when an angry mob surrounds Him He
calmly says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up." They did not know what He meant--we know. He goes into the city
of Capernaum, and is surrounded by a great crowd who seem to be eager
to know the way of life. He begins to talk to them about the bread
that comes down from heaven, and among other things He says, "The
bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life
of the world." They did not understand what He sai