May the grace of the risen Saviour increase our faith, through the intercession of Mary, whose faith never wavered for an instant, even beneath the Cross of her Son! I. Jesus Christ asserted frequently and clearly to the Jews, that he was God, and required them to believe him. So his disciples understood him, who believed; so the Jews understood him, who did not believe, but accused him of blasphemy and condemned him to death. {43} The great sign, the miracle, the proof, to which he appealed to justify this declaration, was his resurrection on the third day after his death. He declared himself to be the proper and only begotten Son of God. He that does not believe this, he says, "_is already judged, because he believeth not in the Name of the only-begotten Son of God._" [Footnote 5] [Footnote 5: John iii., 17.] [Transcriber's note: The USCCB reference is John iii., 18.] This title of only-begotten which he gives himself, shows that he does not merely claim to be a child of God by grace and adoption, but by nature. This nature he declares positively is not his human nature, but distinct from it, that it came from heaven, and was in heaven as well as on earth. "_No man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven_." [Footnote 6] [Footnote 6: John iii., 13.] He confesses that he is man; but asserts that he is more than man, that he came from heaven. He asserts also that this superior nature which is joined with his humanity is eternal. "_Before Abraham was--I am_." [Footnote 7] [Footnote 7: John viii., 58.] Not I was; but _I am_, the word by which God made known his eternity to Moses. And finally he declares that this super-human and eternal nature is identical with that of his Father, is the Divine nature itself. "_I and my Father are one_." [Footnote 8] [Footnote 8: John x., 38.] {44} His disciples who believed in him, understood him to teach his divinity. "_My Lord and my God_." [Footnote 9] was the expression of the faith of Thomas. "The Word was God," [Footnote 10] that of John. [Footnote 9: John xx., 28.] [Footnote 10: John i., 1.] So the Jews understood him, who did not believe. "_The Jews answered him: for a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and because that thou, being a man_, MAKEST THYSELF GOD!" [Footnote 11] [Footnote 11: John x., 33.] The Jews understood then perfectly well, that in calling himself the true, proper, and only Son of God, the Christ and Saviour of the world; and in working miracles, forgiving sins, and preaching salvation, in his own name, and by his own authority, and not as a mere prophet--he asserted his own true and proper divinity, and made himself God. {45}