Jesus is the Son of God. For many of you this may be a ridiculous statement. After all, a man being God? What god would do such a thing? Yet the Bible cannot be clearer: Jesus Christ was the Son of God. The entire Old Testament pointed to him. The entire New Testament is about his life and his church. To deny that Jesus was the Son of God is to deny that the Bible is God’s word. Somebody actually asked Jesus: “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” “I am,” said Jesus “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of Heaven.” Mark 14 v 61 - 62 Or as Jesus asked his disciples: “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Matthew 16 v 16 But what does this mean? Why did God become man? The fact that Jesus became man is the single most important fact in the entire universe. As Paul writes about Jesus: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!” Philippians 2 v 5 – 8 Let’s just think about this for a second. God, who holds the entire universe in his hands, was constrained to a human body. God, all powerful, became a baby, dependent on two human parents for survival. God, the Creator of the human body, had his hands nailed to the cross by hands he created. God, who is above and beyond all understand, had to learn how to read. God, owner of everything in the entire universe, the inventor of wood, had to earn a living as a carpenter and then through the charity of others. God, to who all glory, praise and worship is owed became a physical man capable of feeling pain, hurt and tiredness. God, who has legions of angels to do his bidding, allowed himself to be beaten, mocked and then crucified. Why is this encouraging? Because he humbled himself for us! God became Man for the sole purpose of providing salvation. Think of love which that required! But it’s more than that: God had to become man for man to ever have a chance of reconciliation. “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men – the testimony given in it’s proper time.” 1 Timothy 2 v 5 Through Jesus humility, through his blameless life and then through his death on the cross for our sins we have been given the gift of salvation. We are able to be in a loving relationship with God! How was Jesus a sacrifice? Jesus was a man. As such, he was subject to God’s law laid down upon all men. Yet Jesus was also God which meant that he could be blameless under the law. Jesus then had a perfect record of righteousness. But he died on the cross and took the punishment for our lawlessness. Jesus, with his blameless life, took the punishment for all the sin and evil in the world. As Jesus cried out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark 15 v 34 God turned his back on his own dear Son because the Son took the punishment for us all. And then God raised him from the dead to prove that the ransom had been paid! Death is the curse that sin brought into the world. Yet death did not hold Jesus because Jesus’ sacrifice had broken sin’s curse. As Paul writes: “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 1 Corinthians 15 v 55 Jesus conquered sin and therefore death. But again Jesus’ death is greater still: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5 v 17 – 21 Jesus – the sinless one – was made a sinner in the sight of God for the sole purpose that we might become the righteousness of God. What love can compare to this? What glorious truth can compare? That God became man to do this for us. That God became man to save us from our sins. And more than that: those that believe in him get made anew. They become a new creation - capable of loving God and willing to love him. Willing to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Final thoughts I close with a great explanation from Paul on why Jesus Christ is the most important person in human history: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. 21Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.” Colossians 1 v 15 – 23 First of all thanks to Tom Johnson who stopped me writing a very different post that was really quite horrifcally bad. He also suggested the major theme of this post. And there's no picture for this post because I refuse to show any picture of Jesus - it breaks the 2nd commandment. Also no pictures of a cross because that too can lead to idoltary.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
November 2013
Categories
All
|