Jesus had defeated his enemies in debate. They had come to him with a series of crafty questions designed to discredit him as a public teacher and to secure some ground for his arrest. To each of these questions he had given a reply by which his foes had been unmasked and condemned. He then asked them a question. It was intended not only forever to silence his foes, though it accomplished this, for henceforth no man ventured to meet him in public discussion; nor yet did Jesus desire further to humiliate his enemies. In the presence of the people he had already shown them to be ridiculous, contemptible, impotent, and insincere. His real motive was to ask a question, the answer to which would embody the chief of all his claims, namely, the claim that he is divine. It was of supreme importance that this claim should be made at exactly this time. He knew that the rulers had been unable to find a charge on which to arraign him before either the ecclesiastical or the civil court. He realized that they would dare to make no other attempt in public, but he clearly foresaw the fact that, through the treachery of Judas, he would be arrested and, before both these courts, would be arraigned on the charge of blasphemy. His enemies would accuse him of claiming to be not only the Messiah but also divine. On this occasion, therefore, in the presence both of the rulers and the people, he made the defense which never can be broken or forgotten as he definitely demonstrated from Scripture that the Messiah was described by the inspired writers as a divine Being. All that Jesus claimed for himself, as recorded in the Gospel of John, was included in the answer which was implied by the question which he now asked. Even for the present day it involves the supreme problem in the sphere of philosophy and religion. This problem concerns the person of Christ. Is he to be regarded as Man or God, or at once God and Man? Where is he to be placed in the scale of being; or, as Jesus voiced the problem, how could David speak of the coming Messiah as both his son and his Lord? There was but one answer. There can be but one. The Messiah was to be divine. The son of David is also the Son of God. The incarnation is the only solution of our most serious difficulties in the realm of religious belief. By his question Jesus not only silenced his enemies; he also showed their insincerity in condemning him to death and their rejection of the inspired Scriptures in their unwillingness to believe the testimony concerning the person of the Messiah. Jesus unquestionably claimed to be the divine Saviour of the world. The ideal Man is also the incarnate God. G. The Warning Against The Scribes. Ch. 20:45-47