CHAPTER THREE
THE CENTRAL CHRIST

There is, however, a sense in which Jesus, the Son of God, took the central place in this Pre-Creation Council, since everything depended upon His consent. The plan of the Father was glorious but fragile, for one sinner could bring it to ruin—indeed this is precisely what was done by Lucifer—and, unless there had been a way out of this difficulty, God could never have embarked upon the scheme at all. For, as Our Lord was to say later on to all who thought of beginning a new venture, "Sit down first and count the cost". And the cost of the Creation was to be the shameful death of One who should restore the Mystery of the Law of Love, broken by the disobedience of His Creatures, and should have laid upon His own back the sin of all and the punishment of all.

To this fearful adventure the Heavenly Father was calling His Beloved Son. If He were willing to be crucified, then the dead should live eternally, and, as it were, owe all to Him, and be in a special way His own spoil, wrested from the Enemy, and from among them should come His own personal possession, His blood-bought Bride (Revelation 19:7). We are shown a human parallel to this primeval scene in that betwixt Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah in Genesis 22. The actual description is bald in the extreme; but as we clothe the skeleton we can see some of its poignancy. How difficult for Abraham to disclose his purpose to Isaac, how deep the shock to Isaac at its first impact, how