When God Became Man
- if you haven’t heard the recent debate about
Jesus, you’ve obviously had your radios and televisions turned
off
- Reverend Bill Phipps, the newly elected moderator
of the United Church, has publicly expressed his views that Jesus is
not God and he did not physically rise from the dead
- about Christmas he says, "All the biblical
stories surrounding the birth of Jesus evoke wonder and awe and majesty.
But as soon as you want to reduce them to literal fact, they lose
their power."
-
- it’s not every day you hear the head of
a denomination questioning the divinity of Jesus, but sadly, it’s
becoming more common
- but it serves to remind us of the audacity of
the story of Christmas: that God visited the earth in the person of
his Son
- in this enlightened age, who can really believe
such a story?
- it’s outrageous!
- we forget how startling a claim the Bible makes
when it talks about Jesus being the Son of God, lying in a manger
- and yet, I believe it’s true
- one of the most startling verses in the Bible
is found in John
- (John 1:14) The Word became flesh and made his
dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and
Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
- what a verse!
- that God became flesh and dwelt among us
- no wonder some people have a hard time understanding
and believing this!
-
- another verse says:
- (1 Timothy 3:16) Beyond all question, the mystery
of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the
Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed
on in the world, was taken up in glory.
-
- that God the Son took upon himself a real human
nature is a crucial doctrine of historic Christianity
- from very early periods in the church, people
struggled with this idea?
- how could Jesus Christ be both fully man and
fully God?
- some called into question his deity
- but some began to teach that Jesus did not have
a real physical body or a true human nature
- they argued that Jesus only "seemed"
to have a body, but in reality, he was a phantom sort of being
- but do you remember what John argued?
- (2 John 1:7) Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge
Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any
such person is the deceiver and the antichrist.
- in other words, if you deny that Jesus came in
the flesh, you’re of the Antichrist
- that’s pretty strong language!
-
- others began teaching another falsehood: that
Jesus did not have two natures, but rather one nature
- this single nature was neither truly divine or
truly human, but a mixture of the two
- this heresy is more subtle, but it allows people
to teach either that Jesus was a deified human or a humanized deity
- G. Campbell Morgan, wrestling with the mystery
of Christ’s incarnation, wrote:
- He was the God-man. Not God dwelling in a man.
Of such there have been many. Not a man Deified. Of such there have
been none save in the myths of pagan systems of thought; but God and
man, combining in one. Personality of the two natures, a perpetual enigma
and mystery, baffling the possibility of explanation.
-
- in AD451, the great ecumenical Council of Chalcedon
met and affirmed that "Jesus is truly man and truly God and that
the two natures of Christ are so united as to be without mixture, confusion,
separation, or division, each nature retaining its own attributes"
(R.C. Sproul, Essential Truths of the Christian Faith p.81).
-
- never forget: Jesus Christ was fully God and
fully man in one person, and will be so forever
- did you get that last part?
- Jesus is still fully man today, and will remain
so forever!
- (1 Timothy 2:5) For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus
- when Jesus left the earth, he ascended as a man
into heaven, and he remains a man today
- now, if your circuits are on overload, I’m
not surprised
- this truth is indeed mind-boggling and wonderful
-
- that’s what we celebrate at Christmas
- the real mystery of Christmas is that God became
flesh and dwelt among us
- God who created us became one of us
- the God of infinite powers and wisdom took upon
himself a human body; he thought with a human mind; he had a human soul
and human emotions
- as Mary held and nursed that little boy, she
must have been filled with awe: this was no ordinary child; he was God
incarnate
- Emmanuel; God with us
-
- the truth of the incarnation is something that
we could not exhaust if we devoted years to it
- but let me tell you what it means to us today
- I’m going to start very simple, but simple
truths are often the best truths
-
- IT MEANS THAT GOD LOVES US
- (John 3:16) "For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall
not perish but have eternal life.
- it's important to realize that most religions
are united in believing that God is in need of being appeased –
that he’s angry and we have to earn his approval
- but one thing sets Christianity apart: the teaching
that while we were yet sinners, God loved us so much that he gave us
his one and only Son
- (Romans 5:8) But God demonstrates his own love
for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
-
- think of the sacrifice that Jesus made in becoming
a man
- it boggles the mind to think that the creator
of the universe became a baby in need of care
- that he took upon himself a human body and thought
with a human mind
- that he worked as a builder for a living; that
he was subjected to the attack of his own creatures
- ultimately, that the very source of life died
for our sins
- what love! what a sacrifice!
- what else does it mean?
-
- IT MEANS THAT GOD KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT IT MEANS
TO LIVE THE HUMAN LIFE
- I really believe that in our zeal to emphasize
the deity of Christ, many of us minimize his humanity
- the Christmas hymn says, "The cattle are
lowing, the baby awakes; But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes"
- I want to ask Martin Luther, who wrote this beautiful
hymn, "Don’t you think the baby Jesus ever cried? Maybe Mary
remembers!"
- I hope you won’t find it disrespectful to
talk of Jesus as a crying baby, as experiencing hunger and fatigue,
as a young child who had to learn how to walk, and sometimes fell
- if Christina could understand, I would tell her
that Jesus knows what it’s like to be a three-year old child
- imagine! God, the one who created this world,
knows from firsthand experience what it’s like to be a three-year
old child
-
- but Jesus also knows what it’s like to be
an adult
- Jesus prayed as we do
- he felt compassion for people; he slept; he grieved
over the death of a friend; he wept
- he experienced the rejection of friends; he knows
what it’s like to experience excruciating pain
- when we are hungry, weary, lonely, he understands,
for he has gone through it all himself
-
- as our great High Priest, the Bible teaches that
Jesus is able to sympathize with us
- (Hebrews 2:18) Because he himself suffered when
he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
- (Hebrews 4:15) For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who
has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.
- (Hebrews 4:16) Let us then approach the throne
of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace
to help us in our time of need.
- Jesus experienced every kind of temptation a
person can have, and yet was without sin
- when you are tempted, your great High Priest
is able to sympathize with your struggle – and give you victory
over the temptation as well
-
- YOU MIGHT NOT BE AWARE OF THIS, BUT JESUS’
INCARNATION ALLOWED HIM TO BECOME OUR GREAT HIGH PRIEST
- the concept of high priest is removed from us,
but Hebrews describes who a high priest is and what he does:
- (Hebrews 5:1) Every high priest is selected from
among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God,
to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
- a high priest represents us in matters related
to God, and he offers gifts and sacrifices for sins
- a high priest had to specific qualifications:
he had to be "selected from among men," and thus able to represent
them before God
- and he had to be called by God
- to truly represent us, he had to be one of us
-
- the Bible teaches that men and women are alienated
from God by sin
- we needed someone to come between God and ourselves
and to bring us back to him
- to be ideally qualified, this person had to be
able to represent us to God and to represent God to us
- now who would be able to do both?
- only one person has ever fulfilled this requirement:
- (1 Timothy 2:5) For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus
- to act as our mediator, Jesus had to be fully
man as well as fully God
-
- can you see what would happen if these things
weren’t true?
- can you imagine what would happen if God didn’t
love us enough to die for us?
- can you imagine if Jesus wasn’t able to
sympathize with our struggles and temptations?
- can you imagine if we didn’t have Jesus
to represent us to God?
-
- THE FACT THAT JESUS BECAME A MAN IS IMPORTANT
IN OTHER WAYS AS WELL
- the Bible teaches that Jesus fulfilled God’s
original purpose to rule over creation
- that he lived as a human to be our example and
pattern in life – to show us how we should live our lives
- he showed us that human life is not inherently
bad – that physical nature is not something we should look down
at
- he showed us the pattern for our redeemed bodies
– what our resurrection bodies will be like – by rising from
the dead in a new body that was imperishable and raised in glory
-
- BUT I WON’T LOOK AT THESE THIS MORNING,
SIMPLY BECAUSE I WANT TO FOCUS ON ONE MORE WAY THAT THE INCARNATION
IS SIGNIFICANT FOR US TODAY
- I attended a funeral yesterday
- I’ve never seen this happen before, but
the son of the deceased gave a theological lecture on his church’s
teachings
- one thing he said is that Adam’s sin has
nothing to do with us today – that we’re not guilty because
Adam sinned thousands of years ago
- I was surprised – first because I’ve
never heard the subject come up in the middle of a funeral service before
-
- but I was also surprised for another reason
- the Bible teaches that we are counted guilty
because of Adam’s sin
- (Romans 5:12) Therefore…sin entered the
world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death
came to all men, because all sinned
- this might be hard to understand, but God thought
of us all as having sinned when Adam sinned
- (Romans 5:18) Consequently, just as the result
of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of
one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all
men.
- (Romans 5:19) For just as through the disobedience
of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience
of the one man the many will be made righteous.
-
- when Adam sinned, God thought of all who would
descend from Adam as sinners
- in a sense, Adam was our representative in the
Garden of Eden
- we inherited not only guilt from Adam, but also
a sinful nature
- and don’t worry – you might think it’s
unfair that God holds you responsible for Adam's sin
- but trust me, you’ve sinned a few times
yourself, for which God holds you personally responsible
-
- Jesus became our representative and obeyed for
us where Adam had failed and disobeyed
- (Romans 5:18) Consequently, just as the result
of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of
one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all
men.
- (Romans 5:19) For just as through the disobedience
of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience
of the one man the many will be made righteous.
-
- Jesus became the second Adam
- just as we inherited guilt and sin from Adam,
we inherit righteousness from Christ
-
- in becoming a man, Jesus became the perfect
substitute sacrifice
- if Jesus hadn’t have been a man, he couldn’t
have died in our place and paid the penalty that was due to us
- (Hebrews 2:17) For this reason he had to be made
like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful
and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make
atonement for the sins of the people.
- unless Jesus was fully man, he could not have
died to pay the penalty for man’s sins
- he couldn’t have been a substitute sacrifice
for us
-
- [CONCLUSION]
- think of it this morning
- think of what it means that the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us
- it means that God loves us
- it means that God the Son knows exactly what
it’s like to live the human life
- it means that he is perfectly qualified to act
as our great high priest
- that he was able to cancel the power of Adam’s
sin
- that he was the perfect substitute sacrifice
for us
- this is what it means that God became man
