The Crises of the Christ  | G. Campbell Morgan 

About the Book: The Divine Work of the Messiah

"The Crises of the Christ" stands as a landmark in Christian Theology and Christology. While many biographies focus only on the humanity of Jesus, G. Campbell Morgan—the "Prince of Expositors"—examines His life as the fulfillment of a specific Divine work.

Morgan argues that God’s method always involves "Process and Crisis." This book breaks down the life of Christ into seven monumental turning points, showing how each one was a calculated strike against the power of sin. If you are looking for a Bible Study that goes beyond the surface or a Daily Devotional that challenges your intellect and spirit, this volume provides the ultimate Life Breakthrough.

The Seven Crises: Pivotal Events in the Life of Christ

• The Birth: The mystery of the God-Man and the beginning of the new creation.

• The Baptism: The parting of the ways and the public seal of the Father.

• The Temptation: The kingly victory over the enemy in the wilderness.

• The Transfiguration: A glimpse of the coming glory and the King’s exodus.

• The Death: The unveiling of sin and the outshining of infinite grace.

• The Resurrection: The divine seal and faith’s permanent anchorage.

• The Ascension: The crowning of the Perfect Man and the new union with humanity.

About the Author: G. Campbell Morgan (1863–1945) — The Prince of Expositors

He was a man who lived in "The Book" until the Book lived in him.

George Campbell Morgan was a British preacher and scholar who arguably shaped modern Expository Preaching more than any other figure of the 20th century. A contemporary and close friend of D.L. Moody and F.B. Meyer, Morgan was famously called the "Prince of Expositors" for his uncanny ability to make the deep truths of the Bible clear to the common man.

A Life Devoted to the Word Morgan’s commitment to Scripture was legendary. It is said that he would read a book of the Bible 40 to 50 times before he ever began to study its Greek or Hebrew roots. This saturation in the Word allowed him to preach with a "divine authority" that resurrected dead congregations—most notably at Westminster Chapel in London, where his Friday night Bible classes attracted thousands of hungry souls.

His Spiritual Legacy Despite being rejected by his initial church board for "showing no promise," Morgan went on to cross the Atlantic 54 times, lecturing and teaching across America and the UK. He believed that the Church’s only hope was a return to the strong, verse-by-verse explanation of the Bible. Through "The Crises of the Christ," he invites us not just to admire Jesus as a historical figure, but to fall in love with Him as the active, working Savior who is still moving in our lives today.

About the Book

The Crises of the Christ by G. Campbell Morgan, D.D., is a reverent, richly biblical, and deeply illuminating study of Jesus Christ—written not as a mere biography, but as a spiritual and theological journey through the pivotal “turning points” of His redemptive mission. Morgan helps readers see the life of Christ as God’s purposeful, unfolding work: every moment moving toward redemption, every crisis revealing the glory, the love, and the wisdom of God.

Rather than focusing only on events for their historical interest, Morgan invites you to understand what each major moment in Christ’s life means—for the purpose of God, for the story of salvation, and for the life of every believer today. His writing is devotional in tone, yet strong in doctrine; warm in worship, yet clear in reasoning. It is the kind of book that not only informs the mind, but stirs the heart to adoration, repentance, confidence, and deeper discipleship.

Why This Book Is So Good

Morgan’s unique strength is his ability to combine biblical depth with spiritual clarity. He does not treat Jesus’ life as a series of disconnected stories, but as a single, majestic movement of God’s love toward the rescue of humanity. The “crises” he explores—such as the birth, baptism, temptation, transfiguration, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension—are presented as divine milestones that both reveal who Christ is and advance what Christ came to accomplish.

This approach makes the Gospel feel both grander and nearer: grander, because you see the sweeping unity of God’s plan; nearer, because you recognize that Christ’s work is not distant history, but living truth that shapes your faith now.

Readers also value Morgan’s tone: he writes with reverence, confidence in Scripture, and pastoral tenderness. Even when he addresses profound doctrines—incarnation, atonement, victory over sin and death—he does so with a warmth that strengthens worship rather than merely building arguments.

What You’ll Gain as You Read

As you move through this book, you will:

• See Christ’s life as a purposeful redemptive mission, not merely a timeline of events.

• Understand key moments of the Gospel story with greater theological depth and biblical coherence.

• Gain a clearer grasp of why the Cross, the Resurrection, and the Ascension are not optional beliefs, but essential links in the work of salvation.

• Develop a more awe-filled view of Jesus—not only as Teacher and Example, but as God’s perfect Man and Saviour of the world.

• Be drawn into worship, because every chapter ultimately points to the beauty of God’s love revealed in Christ.
  
  

Who Should Read This Book?

This book is especially well-suited for:

1) Christians who want to go deeper in understanding Jesus
If you love the Gospels but want to see more clearly how each stage of Christ’s life fulfills God’s plan, this book will strengthen your foundation.

2) Bible study leaders, pastors, and teachers
Morgan’s structure and insights provide a rich framework for teaching the life of Christ with clarity and purpose. It’s full of sermon-ready themes and discipleship applications.

3) Readers who enjoy devotional books with strong doctrine
This is not dry theology. It is truth meant to awaken faith, worship, and holy living—ideal for thoughtful devotional reading.

4) Seekers and serious readers exploring Christianity
If you are asking why Jesus matters and what His life truly accomplished, Morgan offers a compelling, Scripture-rooted explanation of the Gospel.

5) Anyone who needs renewed hope
Because the book highlights Christ’s victory—over sin, Satan, and death—it speaks powerfully to believers facing struggle, guilt, weakness, or fear.

A Timeless Classic for the Heart and Mind

The Crises of the Christ endures because it does what the best Christian books do: it opens the Scriptures, exalts Christ, and reminds the reader that redemption is not a vague idea—it is God’s accomplished work, carried out through the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.

If you want a book that will deepen your understanding of the Gospel, strengthen your faith, and lift your eyes to the glory of Christ, this is a volume you will return to again and again.

About This Modernized Edition

This edition of The Crises of the Christ has been carefully modernized to make G. Campbell Morgan’s rich, Scripture-centered teaching clearer and more accessible for today’s readers—while remaining faithful to his original meaning, tone, and theological intent. The goal of this work is not to rewrite Morgan’s message, but to present it with improved readability, so the power and beauty of his insights can be received without unnecessary difficulty.

Throughout this modernized edition, the language has been updated where older phrasing, punctuation, or sentence structure might hinder understanding. Awkward line breaks, hyphenations, and minor errors introduced through scanned text have been corrected. Paragraphing has been standardized to match the flow of thought, making the book easier to read in both print and digital formats.

At the same time, special care has been taken to preserve what must not be altered. All Bible quotations have been kept unchanged as they appear in the source text. Morgan’s arguments, emphases, and progression of ideas have been retained without adding new content or inserting personal commentary. Where the original text uses emphatic capitalization or distinctive expressions to convey spiritual weight, this edition preserves that intent as consistently as possible.

The result is a reading experience that honors the original author while serving modern readers: a clean, consistent layout suited to a 6"×9" printed book and eBook platforms, with clear chapter and section headings and standard paragraph formatting. It is offered to help readers focus on what matters most—beholding Christ, understanding His redeeming work, and responding with deeper faith and worship.

Contents

About the Book 5

About This Modernized Edition 8

About the Author 9

INTRODUCTORY: THE SUBJECT AND THE SCHEME 11

PRELIMINARY: THE CALL FOR CHRIST—MAN FALLEN 15

Chapter 1 — MAN DISTANCED FROM GOD BY SIN 18

Chapter 2 — MAN IGNORANT OF GOD THROUGH SIN 28

Chapter 3 — MAN UNLIKE GOD IN SIN 37

Part 1 — THE BIRTH 49

Chapter 4 — THE GREAT MYSTERY—THE GOD-MAN 52

Chapter 5 — THE MEANING—GOD WAS IN CHRIST 65

Chapter 6 — SIGNS TO THE SONS OF MEN 74

Part Two — THE BAPTISM 79

Chapter 7 — THE PARTING OF THE WAYS 81

Chapter 8 — LIGHT ON THE HIDDEN YEARS AT NAZARETH 93

Chapter 9 — THE VISION OF JOHN 104

Part Three — THE TEMPTATION 113

Chapter 10 — INTRODUCTORY 116

Chapter 11 — THE FIRST TEMPTATION 123

Chapter 12 — THE SECOND TEMPTATION 132

Chapter 13 — THE THIRD TEMPTATION 142

Chapter 14 — FINAL 153

Part Four — THE TRANSFIGURATION 161

Chapter 15 — INTRODUCTORY 165

Chapter 16 — THE MASTER HIMSELF 172

Chapter 17 — THE CELESTIAL VISITORS 180

Chapter 18 — THE DAZED DISCIPLES 188

Chapter 19 — THE THINGS THAT REMAINED 196

Part Five — THE CRUCIFIXION 204

Chapter 20 — THE APPROACH 208

Chapter 21 — THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST 220

Chapter 22 — SIN UNVEILED; GRACE OUTSHINING 231

Chapter 23 — THE KINGLY EXODUS 241

Chapter 24 — THE REPRESENTATIVE CROWDS 250

Part Six — THE RESURRECTION 262

Chapter 25 — PERFECT VICTORY 266

Chapter 26 — THE DIVINE SEAL 274

Chapter 27 — FAITH’S ANCHORAGE 282

Part Seven — THE ASCENSION 292

Chapter 28 — GOD’S PERFECT MAN 294

Chapter 29 — MAN’S WOUNDED GOD 302

Chapter 30 — THE NEW UNION 308

Part Eight — THE ANSWER OF CHRIST—MAN REDEEMED 315

Chapter 31 — MAN RESTORED TO GOD BY CHRIST 318

Chapter 32 — MAN KNOWING GOD THROUGH CHRIST 323

Chapter 33 — MAN LIKE GOD IN CHRIST 332

INTRODUCTORY: THE SUBJECT AND THE SCHEME

The authoritative literature concerning the history of the Lord Jesus Christ is contained within the New Testament. He is the supreme Subject of the whole library. Every book derives its value from its testimony to His Person, His teaching, or His work. The perfection of the whole is created by its unity in Him.

The first four books chronicle His deeds and His words during the brief span of a lifetime lasting for a generation. The rest of the New Testament is occupied with the subject of His deeds and His words through all subsequent generations. The Book of Acts is the first chapter in that history of the Church, which is the history of the deeds of Christ by the Holy Spirit through His people. The Epistles contain the teaching of Christ by the Spirit, through chosen men, for the guidance of His Church until His second advent. The last book contains a prophetic vision of the final movements which shall firmly establish His reign over the whole earth.

The Old Testament foretells His coming, and chronicles for these days the methods by which the hope of His advent was kept alive, and indeed burned ever more brightly through the processes of the past. The New Testament is the history of that advent, and the new message of hope under the inspiration of which men move through the confusion of conflict towards the certainty of ultimate victory.

The history of the New Testament is at once the story of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, and the account of the accomplishment of the mission of the Christ. These are phases forming one perfect story. The life of Jesus was the carrying out of the mission of the Christ. The work of the Messiah was accomplished in the orderly life of Jesus.

In this connection it is interesting to notice the opening and closing verses of the New Testament. Matthew the evangelist places Jesus in His relation to the race. "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham." The reference is not to the whole of the New Testament, nor even to the whole of the Gospel, but to the genealogy which immediately follows. The use here of the word "Christ" declares the appointment of this Man to definite service. It is rather a title than a name. By His name "Jesus" He is indicated as united to the race, coming through the chosen people. By the title "Christ" He is identified as the One Who comes to fulfil the promises of the past, by the accomplishment of Divine purposes.

The last verse of the New Testament reads, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with the saints. Amen." Here there is prefixed to the name "Jesus," the title "Lord." The Revised Versions, both English and American, have relegated the word "Christ" to the margin. Some ancient authorities, however, include it. The essential value of this comparison of verses is not interfered with, whichever view may be taken.

The New Testament opens with a declaration, introducing the Man Jesus, and declaring His appointment to service. It closes with a benediction, which announces the crowning of Jesus as Lord, consequent upon His accomplishment of the purpose appointed; and the use of the word "grace" as the portion of the saints reveals the glorious issue of that work.

He came for a purpose. The purpose is realized. He was anointed of God for the doing of a work. The work is accomplished, and He is now the Lord through Whom the grace of God is expressed towards, and becomes operative in, such as are subject to Him. Thus between the opening words of Matthew, and the closing statement of John, there lies the story of His life and the account of His mission.

The literature of the Church has been enriched by many lives of Jesus. Some of these have emphasized the facts of His humanity, while others have emphasized the truth of His Deity. All have been of value. They have, however, been largely devoted to the contemplation of the Person of Jesus, rather than to a consideration of the accomplishment of a Divine work. It is to this particular aspect of the life of Jesus Christ that the present volume is devoted.

Interest in Jesus Himself is of preeminent importance. The mystery of His Person, the graciousness of His teaching, the beauty of His character, the wonder of His deeds—all these are of such value that it is impossible to attend to them too closely, or to write too much concerning them. It is, however, of equal importance that this wonderful life should be seen as that of the anointed Servant of God, the Christ, Who in all the details of the passing days was working a larger work, and towards a mightier issue than a mere contemplation of the human life might seem to suggest. Indeed, the beauty of the life itself is only fully appreciated when it is seen as related in every part to this mighty movement of God towards the redemption of man.

Here, therefore, attention is to be fixed, not so much upon the words of His lips, or His working of wonders and signs, as upon His uttering of a Divine word, and His accomplishment of a Divine work.

It is for this reason that the volume is entitled The Crises of the Christ. In all the works of God there is to be discovered an unvarying method of process and crisis. The process is slow, and difficult to watch in its progress. The crisis is sudden, and flames with a light, which, flashing back upon the process, explains it; and forward, indicates a new line of action—which after all is the continuity of that which has preceded it.

This might certainly be illustrated by reference to the observation of natural phenomena. The story of the earth, as read by scientists, is the story of slow movements, and of mighty upheavals. The history of the butterfly of many hues is that of the pupa, dormant to all appearance, which through crisis emerges into the flower of the air. The crisis is not an accident, not a catastrophe in the sense of disaster, but a stage in an orderly method.

This method, it may be said in passing, is also to be seen in God’s revelation of Himself to men, the history of which is recorded in the Divine Library. In the great song of Isaiah, which assuredly is Messianic in value, there is an indication of this method, and perhaps the key to the interpretation of the whole Scripture, as a Divine revelation. The first lessons concerning God that men had to learn were of Him as the "Wonderful Counsellor." Then through long centuries there was unfolded the fact that He is the "Mighty God." Then in the mission of Christ, in which are included the days of His earthly life, and these years of the application of His work, men are learning that God is the "Everlasting Father." And yet again, in an age that has not yet dawned upon the world, but which must surely come, men will know Him as the "Prince of Peace."

In each case the process has been slow, but the lesson once learned, the crisis has initiated a new movement, and commenced a new process. This same method obtains in the work of the Christ, and in that method the crises, rather than the processes, form the subject of the present consideration.

Of these there are seven: the initial crisis, that of the birth of Jesus; then, secondly, the baptism; thirdly, the temptation; fourthly, the transfiguration; fifthly, the crucifixion; sixthly, the resurrection; and seventhly, the ascension. These are not at equal distances as to time, but they follow in orderly sequence, and in their entirety contain the whole story of that work by which redemption has been wrought for the race. Each of them ushered in a new order of things in the work of Christ, crowning that of the past, and creating the force for that which was to come.

All these lie between two facts which must be considered. The first is that of the ruin of the race, which created the necessity for the work of the Christ. The second is that of the redemption of the race, which issues from the work of the Christ. A preliminary section of this volume will be devoted to the ruin which called for Christ, and a final section to the statement of that redemption which constitutes His answer to the call.

Thus, with reverence, and a deep sense of its transcendent wonder, let the great subject be approached.

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