28 THE KEY OF MYSTERIES

flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life.' True faith in Him gives eternal life to the believer, for He says: 'Verily,1 verily, I say unto you, he that believeth hath eternal life.' To make this clear the Lord Jesus Christ proceeds to explain that true faith in Him unites the believer with His Saviour in a spiritual sense so closely that he may justly be said to find Christ the food of his spirit; as it is written: 'I 2 am the bread of life . . . This is the bread which cometh down out of heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: yea, and the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.' When the unbelieving Jews scoffed at this teaching, He repeated it again and again in similar language, and ended by saying: This 3 is the bread which came down out of heaven not as the fathers did eat, and died: he that eateth this bread shall live for ever.' Surely no attentive and reverent reader can doubt that here the Lord Jesus Christ claims certain divine attributes. We notice, moreover, that He also taught His disciples that He was about to lay down His own most precious life and submit to death by violence in order to give life to the world. This He did by making


1 John vi. 47. 2 John vi. 48-50, 51. 3 John vi. 58.
PROOF OF THE DEITY OF CHRIST 29

atonement for sin 1 and giving spiritual life to all who believe in Him.

(5) Our Muslim brethren believe, as do Christians, in the resurrection of the dead. This doctrine is most clearly taught in the holy Scriptures. We all acknowledge that none but the creator can restore the dead to life. Hence when we find the Lord Jesus Christ again and again teaching His disciples that He Himself will at the resurrection raise the dead, there can be no question that He distinctly asserts His divine nature, especially as He declares that He will Himself be the Judge of all men at the last day. The following verses from the Gospel (الإنجيل) will make this clear and evident: 'As 2 the Father raiseth the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son also quickeneth whom he will. For neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath given all judgement unto the Son . . . Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgement, but hath passed out of death into life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the Son also to have life in himself: and he


1 Cf. Heb. x. 1-10. 2 John v. 21-2, 24-9.