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Why was Christ born? Scripture gives us no less than ten compelling reasons why the Son of God took on flesh. While there are certainly more than ten reasons why Christ came to earth in human flesh, these will at least give a good introduction to what Scripture teaches about the incarnation of Christ.This series ran weekly on se7enty6ix.com between October and December 2010. You can read each week's entry separately by clicking on the title to the right. As always, I hope you find these articles as encouraging and helpful in their reading as I have in their writing. |
01. To save His people from their sins. [Matthew 1:18-25] | |
| 02. To demonstrate the love of God. [Romans 5:6-8] | ||
| 03. To destroy the works of the devil. [1 John 3:8] | ||
| 04. To give His life as a ransom for many. [Matthew 20:25-28] | ||
| 05. To fulfill the law. [Matthew 5:17] | ||
| 06. To bring judgment. [John 9:39-41] | ||
| 07. To establish an everlasting kingdom. [Daniel 7:13-14] | ||
| 08. To give us understanding. [1 John 5:20] | ||
| 09. To become our Great High Priest. [Hebrews 4:14-16] | ||
| 10. To glorify God. [John 13:31-32] |
| 00 | Introduction |
Christmas
in October? Sort of. Even though Christmas is just a
little more than two months away, we’re going to
think about it on each Wednesday between now and
then.
2. We can view the coming of Christ apart from the typical distractions around Christmas. Family dinners and parties and gift-giving are fine, but they keep us busy and wear us down. In mid-October, 'hustle and bustle' hasn't set in yet. 3.
We can think about Christ’s birth without the image
of a baby lying in a manger. While that tiny baby
was certainly Jesus Christ, His reason for coming
was not completed upon His birth. Jesus didn’t come
simply to be born.
So why did
Jesus come? Part of the answer to that question is
understood by thinking back to where the Bible
begins. Beginning with creation, we see Scripture
recording both what God has done and what He has
said to us. We see how we have sinned against Him
and that the result of that sin is death. And we
also learn very plainly from Scripture that we can’t
do anything about this sin problem on our own. We
can’t fix things with God.
This realization is part of what leads us to ask why
Jesus came. Thankfully, He tells us why in His Word.
Scripture shows us (at the very least) ten reasons
why Jesus came. We’ll look at each one briefly over
the next ten weeks, taking us all the way through
Christmas. My hope is that by putting all of these
reasons together we can come up with a more complete
picture of why Christ left the glory of Heaven and
took on flesh. So, starting next Wednesday, we’ll look week-by-week at ten reasons Jesus came to earth. We’ll do so by pointing to a passage of Scripture which plainly states a reason for Christ’s arrival and explain what it means. At the end of each week's post, I'll give the Scripture reading for the next week. That way, you can read ahead and think about what reason Christ gives for His coming. May our prayer be that we will grow in our understanding of Christ and that we will come to treasure Him more and more. posted October 20, 2010 |
| 01 | To save His people from their sins. |
Remember, the question we are considering “Why was
Jesus born?” The first answer given in the New Testament,
even before the actual birth of Christ, is that Jesus is
coming to “save His
people from their sins.” [Matt. 1:21] In fact, the name
‘Jesus’ actually means: ‘the LORD saves.’ So when the angel
says that the child will be named Jesus, he is revealing
that the child’s name is going to speak of His divine
assignment and inevitable destiny.
When we look at this passage in Matthew, we see
other hints of Christ’s mission as well. Verse 23 says that
His name will be called ‘Immanuel,’ which means ‘God with
us’. It’s what John meant when He said that
“the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us.” [John 1:14] The word he used for
“dwelt” is most literally translated as “tabernacled.”
This intentionally brings to mind images of the
tabernacle in the Old Testament—the tent (amongst all the
other tents) where the presence of God remained over the
Most Holy Place. By using that word in his gospel, John
wants us to understand that the Old Testament tabernacle is
a prefiguring of the Incarnation. In the same way that God
lived in a tent while His people lived in tents, Christ has
taken on the same flesh we wear to prove to us once and for
all that God is with us—and to make it possible for us to be
with God eternally in Heaven.
“What was a symbol in the time of Moses has become a
reality in Jesus Christ,” says Clowney. “The true and
abiding Tabernacle is not a tent of goat skins, but the
incarnate Lord. Even the glory cloud is but a symbol of the
presence of the Lord; Jesus is the Lord Himself, the true
Temple. (1)
But Christ’s birth was not enough, by itself, to
address the ongoing problem of sin. “God’s design was for
every Israelite to see his presence in the cloud and fire as
they moved to the Promised Land,” reveals Burns. “However,
one should not infer coziness between Israel and her Lord.
The separation of holiness and sin was always a paramount
consideration.” (2)
We see this echoed by Christ Himself during His
earthly ministry, when He told the disciples that “the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” [Luke 19:10]
Matthew later records for us that:
“Jesus began to show
His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many
things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be
killed, and on the third day be raised.” [Matt. 16:21]
Notice the emphasis on “must” in that verse—this is what
Jesus came to do. This is what the angel told Joseph. So forget all this nonsense that Jesus came to show us how to live a moral life, or that He was a good teacher and nothing more. Jesus didn’t reach the age of 30 and only then decide to start teaching like a rabbi and see if He could get some followers and make a name for Himself. No, Christ came—intentionally and deliberately and willfully came—to save His people from their sins.
“Jesus claimed to be God, and to Him it was of
fundamental importance that men and women believed Him to be
who He was,” says McDowell. “Either we believe Him, or we
don’t. He didn’t leave us any wiggle room for in-between,
watered-down alternatives. One who claimed what Jesus
claimed about Himself couldn’t be a good moral man or
prophet. That option isn’t open to us, and Jesus never
intended it to be.” (3)
Later, after the death and resurrection of Christ, Paul also recognizes
this fact. He tells Timothy:
“[This] is trustworthy
and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”
[1 Tim. 1:15]
___________________
(1) Edmund P. Clowney,
The Unfolding Mystery, 115 posted October 27, 2010 |
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| 02 | To demonstrate the love of God. |
There is much talk of ‘love’ in our world today. We hear it used
constantly by people who love their wives, love their kids,
love to shop, love to eat, love football, love money, and
love anything and everything in the universe. It’s easy to
say that we love. “We may posses love for another, but God
is love,” says Bridges. “Love is not merely an attribute of
God; rather, love is a fundamental element of His very
being.” (1)
So when the Bible speaks of love, it says that love is measured not in
words but in action.
“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in
deed and in truth.” [1 John 3:18] Lots of people can and
will say that they
love you. But where is the proof? How do you know for sure
that a person’s love is genuine? Love is proven by action.
The Bible teaches that God claims to love us—and while this is a good and
noble thing for God to say, we will inevitably wonder from
time to time whether that love is real. Does God really love us? Is
God’s love true? How do we know? As Packer points out, “the
New Testament always measures the love of God by the
greatness of God’s gift of Christ to die on Calvary.” (2)
Romans 5 says that the cross of Jesus Christ shows God’s
love.
We might, in some cases, consider dying for a person who we deem ‘worthy’
of it—perhaps because of what they contribute to society or
their own personal character. But this is rare. Rarer still
is the one who will die in the place of a hardened criminal
or savage murderer. And yet that is exactly—exactly—what God
did for us. He sent His only Son to die in the place of
hardened criminals and savage murderers. We are the
ungodly. [Romans 5:6]
“It is common for equals to love, and for superiors
to be beloved,” says Bunyan. “But for the King of princes,
for the Son of God, for Jesus Christ to love
man thus: this is
amazing, and that so much the more, for that man the object
of this love, is so low, so mean, so vile, so undeserving,
and so inconsiderable.” (3)
Think of how quickly humanity fell from perfection. God made us, saw that
it was good, and expressed His rule over us with one clear
command. He warned us that if we broke that command, we
would die. Adam and Eve ignored God’s warning and disobeyed
Him. As a result, they died. [Of course, it’s true that they
didn’t fall over dead immediately. But we know they died.
The Bible records the sad truth in Genesis 5, tracing Adam’s
line to Noah, ending each entry with the awful three word
phrase “…and he died.”]
And don’t forget that it didn’t take humanity very long to rebel fully
and completely against God. Just one chapter after the
events of the Fall, we see one of the first two children on
the planet murder his brother. When Romans 5 says we are
ungodly sinners, it is certainly not pulling any punches—but
it is not wrong. It is the accurate assessment of who we are
in the sight of God. It is for ungodly sinners like us that
God sent His Son to die. It was
“while we were still
sinners [that] Christ died for us.” [Romans 5:8]
___________________
(1) Jerry Bridges & Bob Bevington,
The Great Exchange, 270 posted November 3, 2010 |
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| 03 | To destroy the works of the devil. |
Last week, we briefly spoke of the Fall of Adam and
Eve in the Garden of Eden. This Fall was completely and
ultimately the responsibility of these two people: they
sinned and they bore the consequences. But the Fall was not
originally their idea. We see in Genesis that the serpent,
the Devil, came to Eve in the Garden and tempted her. When
John says that “the
devil has been sinning from the beginning” [1 John 3:8]
we know he speaks truth, because we see Satan at work with
the first two humans ever created.
Satan lured Eve with four deceitful words:
“Did God actually
say…?” [Genesis 3:1] The rest of his words simply flow
from this starting point.At the heart of each and every one
of Satan’s works is the implication that God has not spoken,
has not spoken clearly, does not judge consistently, or will
not hold us accountable. He uses the same tricks with us
that he did with Eve. Satan continues to sow these seeds of
discord and rebellion in the hearts of many, leading Paul to
state that “the god of
this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep
them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of
Christ, who is the image of God.” [2 Cor 4:4]
So Satan operates in darkness, in confusion, and in
accusation. He is the thief, Jesus tells us, who comes to “steal and kill and destroy.” [John 10:10] That’s what sin does, and
that’s what Satan sows the seeds of sin to accomplish. “Adam
wanted life on his own terms and in his own way—free from
the ‘restraints’ placed on him by the Father,” reveals
Ferguson. “Alas, Adam and Eve discovered that by snatching
for what they wanted apart from God, they lost both God
and what they wanted. Instead of experiencing life, they tasted
death.” (1) The wages of sin, as we know, is death. Sin
always leads to death (see Rom. 6:23 and James 1:13-15), and
death destroys any chance of life with God.
“Death is
an enemy, and it can be a fierce one,” Carson points out.
“Death is not normal when you look at it from the vantage
point of what God created in the first place. It is normal
this side of the fall, but that is not saying much. It is an
enemy. It is ugly. It destroys relationships. It is to be
feared. It is repulsive. There is something odious about
death. Never ever pretend otherwise. But death does not have
the last word.” (2)
1 John 3 says that
“reason the Son of God appeared” was to destroy the works of the
devil. But what does he mean by ‘appear’? We know that Jesus
didn’t just pop up out of thin air one day and start
preaching. Neither did He descend from heaven in a glorious
display of majesty. No, the Son of God was divinely
conceived by God in the womb of Mary and born as a human
being.
This is critical, because human beings are the ones
with the problem. Humans are guilty of sinning against God,
but since we are all sinners, none of us can atone for
ourselves, much less anyone else. The blood of animals is
innocent blood, but it is animal blood—it cannot permanently
substitute for human blood. What we need is a perfectly
sinless human who is willing to offer His blood on our
behalf. And this is what Jesus appeared in human flesh to
do. (For more on this, please read Psalm 24 and Hebrews
2:14-18.)
So when John says that Jesus, the Son of God,
appeared, he means that Christ became flesh. He was made
like His brothers in that respect, sharing in our flesh and
blood so that through His death He might destroy the works
of the devil. But that leads us to a very important
question: How does Jesus’ death destroy the devil’s works?
The answer is found in understanding that, on the cross,
Jesus became sin for us. This is what Paul speaks of to the
Corinthian church:
“For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that
in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” [2
Corinthians 5:21]
Because we are Adam’s offspring, we are imputed (or
credited) with Adam’s sin—born with a heart that is
predisposed to sin; to rebel against God. But Christ, since
He was born of a virgin, is fully human but is not of Adam’s
line. He does not have a sin-tainted heart, and so He obeyed
God and did not fail in the way Adam did. Thus, He was able
to take the sin of His people upon Himself. He became
sin—for us. (For an explanation of this in Scripture, see
Romans 5:12-21.)
___________________
(1)
Sinclair B. Ferguson,
By Grace Alone,
19 posted November 10, 2010 |
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| 04 | To give His life as a ransom for many. |
“Our culture confuses a person’s role with a
person’s worth,” says Wingate. “In reality every person is
of intrinsic worth. A person’s success or failure is
measured by how well they do their job, not by the job they
are called to perform.” (1)
In our world, we equate a person’s position with their value. We consider
the President to be more important to a company than the
Vice-President. The quarterback is worth more to the team
than a left tackle. But what Christ reveals is that those
who the world considers ‘great’ aren’t the ones God
considers ‘great.’ The measure of greatness in God’s kingdom
isn’t money, power, fame, or authority—it’s service. And, as
we learned earlier in this series, God doesn’t just
say this, He
does it. He backs
up His words with action.
There’s a TV show on that features the heads of companies disguising
themselves and going to work for their own businesses at
entry level positions. At the end of each episode, the boss
reveals their true identity to their co-workers, much to
their shock and awe. They are surprised because it’s hard to
imagine someone in such a high position voluntarily leaving
that position to do menial work.
So think of Christ, the eternal Son of God, in perfect union and harmony
with the Father and Spirit, in the glories of Heaven—think
of Him leaving all that, humbling Himself and then
“made Himself nothing,
taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of
men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by
becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a
cross.” [Philippians 2:5-8]
The greatest of all chose to become a servant. He
backed up His words by His actions. We know all about ransoms from stories involving kidnappings. The prisoner is taken and then held until the ransom (usually money) is paid, at which point the hostage is typically released. What Jesus did was pay the ransom on our behalf. He made payment for our sins by means of His own blood. This is what Isaiah prophesied about centuries earlier when he wrote:
[4]
Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
“If God were to pardon sin without upholding His
righteousness He would cease to be God,” explains Murray.
“Merely to waive the penalty that sin deserves would be to
deny His perfection.” (2) So a ransom had to be paid, and
Christ is the one who paid it.
Christ took the wrath of God on our behalf. He became sin for us, and
then bore God’s wrath against that sin. This is the essence
of propitiation—the sinless blood of Christ is offered as a
sacrifice to God for the sin of His people, and God accepts
this sacrifice, unleashing the full fury and anger of His
righteous wrath against sin; sin that had been taken on by
Christ.
This is even more astounding when you consider that Jesus is the Lord of
the entire universe. He is the
only One who is
innocent. He is the
only One who has the right to judge. He is the sovereign
King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and yet He willingly laid
down His life to pay a ransom for us.
By the way, we need to be clear (for some have not been through the ages)
that Jesus did not pay this ransom to Satan. The Devil is
not the one who can
“destroy both soul and body in hell.” [Matthew 10:28]
That kind of power is the purview of God alone. We are under
the curse of sin and death, and while Satan is a vile
adversary, our eternal destiny has always been in the hands
of God—just like Satan’s is. Consider how Paul expresses this reason why Christ came: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.” [2 Corinthians 8:9]
___________________
(1) Kenneth Wingate, A
Father’s Gift, 155 posted November 17, 2010 |
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| 05 | To fulfill the law. |
God never intended for His people to be saved by
keeping the Law. For whatever reason, that seems to
be a popular conception of the old covenant, but
even a surface-level reading of the first five books
of the Old Testament will clearly show that God
redeems His people by His gracious intervention. He
acts for the sake of
His name,
and He makes His choices based on
His good
pleasure, not in response to Israel’s attempts at
obedience.
And yet, the Law is given to Israel by God with the
expectation that they will obey it. Precisely
because they have already been chosen by God, their
lives are now to reflect that truth through their
holiness (a word that means ‘set apart’ or ‘called
out’ for a sacred purpose). But they can’t do it.
They lacked the power to submit to the Law.
But, as Bridges points out, “the law does not lose
its authority just because people cannot keep it.”
(1) God’s standard of righteousness is never lowered
to meet the best efforts of humanity; instead it
stands in perfect judgment against us because of our
inability to keep it. In that sense, the law shows
us our sinfulness. “The downward spiral introduced
by the advent of the law reveals that the law did
not save Israel then and will not save anyone now,”
Meyer points out. “Humankind needs a Savior, not
more stipulations.” (2)
So Christ arrives and, doing what both Adam and
Israel failed to do before Him, obeys God perfectly,
and “being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to
the point of death, even death on a cross.”
[Philippians 2:8] Through this life of righteousness
(which included His obedience in death), Christ
fulfills the law by submitting to it and obeying its
commands. “In Scripture there is not a significant
distinction made between Christ’s life of obedience
and Christ’s death,” Piper explains. “For Christ’s
death is His crowning act of obedience—the
culminating act of obedience to the will of God such
that in it Jesus perfectly fulfills the law of God
imposed upon Him, such that He achieves a positive
righteousness for us.” (3)
What this means for us as Christians today is that
we are no longer bound by the Mosaic Law. The
statutes and regulations of the old covenant have
been surpassed by something greater: the indwelling
Holy Spirit and Christ’s law written on our hearts.
Unlike the old covenant, whose members consistently
broke it, the new covenant is unbreakable—not
because of our ability to keep it, but because God
has given us the faithfulness He requires by virtue
of our union with Christ. His perfect righteousness
is credited to us by faith and we, too, have thus
fulfilled the law.
“And you, who
were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, God made alive together with Him,
having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling
the record of debt that stood against us with its
legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the
cross.” [Colossians 2:13-14]
“Although the Christian is no longer “under the
law,” he is nevertheless not “without the law,” as
though it has nothing to say to him,” reveals Rooker.
“Because the Ten Commandments are expressive of the
character of God—and for that reason alone—they are
timeless and universally applicable.” (4)
So Jesus fulfills the Law entirely. He doesn’t
abolish it, or announce that God’s law was flawed in
some way and needs to be adjusted. Instead, He obeys
it, even to the point of His own death. By doing so,
He completes it and so it comes to an end. Although
there are several things from the Mosaic Law that
can still apply to believers today in terms of
morality and conduct, they apply because they
represent the character and nature of God, not
because they are binding in any legal sense. “The
law is fulfilled in Christ and must be interpreted
in light of Christ’s coming,” Schreiner reminds us.
“Hence, the focus in no longer on the law but on
Christ Himself.” (5)
___________________
(1)
Jerry Bridges & Bob Bevington,
The Great
Exchange, 90 posted November 24, 2010 |
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| 06 | To bring judgment. |
If we have a problem with the idea of God judging
us, then it’s because we don’t understand the truth
about God. He
will judge sin. He
must judge
sin. What else would we expect from holiness? How
else can a sin-less God respond in the face of
blatant sin?
Part of the work Jesus did while on earth was to
open the spiritual eyes of people to the truth of
God’s Word. He certainly opened physical eyes as
well, restoring blindness like He did for the man
born blind in John 9, but that was merely an
external symbol of what He could do internally: make
“those who do
not see [to] see.” [John 9:39]
But who are the ones who
think they
can see—but are actually blind? Jesus often had
harsh words for the people who claimed to be closest
to God. Their lips said one thing but their lives
told a different story. In fact, they were so
wrapped up in their outward observances of rules and
rituals that they failed to even recognize Jesus as
God’s promised Messiah. So Jesus says they are
guilty; they think they can see, but they can’t.
As Borchert explains: “Both the blind man and the
Pharisees here stood uncovered in the presence of
Jesus. The blind man’s eyes were opened, but the
lives of the Pharisees were clearly declared to be
blind. Their guilt was confirmed.” (1)
See, the Bible teaches that we all have at least
some knowledge of God. Even those who have never
heard the gospel are accountable because God’s “eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever
since the creation of the world, in the things that
have been made. So they are without excuse.”
[Romans 1:20] Even more accountable are those who
have heard the message of Christ and deliberately
reject it, as the writer of Hebrews details:
[26] For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge
of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice
for sins, [27] but a fearful expectation of
judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the
adversaries. [28] Anyone who has set aside the law
of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two
or three witnesses. [29] How much worse punishment,
do you think, will be deserved by the one who has
spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood
of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has
outraged the Spirit of grace? [30] For we know Him
who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And
again, “The Lord will judge His people.” [31] It is
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God.
[Hebrews 10:26-31]
When Jesus says that their
“guilt
remains,” He is saying that they are still under
the judgment of God; a judgment that He came to
bring. But how does Jesus coming to bring judgment fit with everything else we’ve
talked about in this series? How can He come to save
people and
bring judgment? Because rejecting Christ’s gospel is
the same as subjecting yourself to judgment. If we
reject God’s means of peace, there is no other
option but to receive His punishment. There is no
‘middle ground’ or ‘gray area’ when it comes to
judgment. God has provided a way out, but
it is the only way, and rejecting His provision
always ends by receiving His wrath. “We cannot set
the terms of our relationship with God,” says Duguid.
“The terms of the covenant are not negotiable…You
can accept the covenant relationship on His terms
and receive its benefits, or you can refuse it and
face the consequences.” (2) Since He is God, He gets
to set the rules. And it should be noted that God
keeps those rules as well. When His own Son took on
sin for His people, God did not suddenly decided
that sin shouldn’t be punished or that the penalty
should be lessened—no, sin was punished and the
penalty was death. It was true for Christ, and it
will be true for us.
In that sense, the full and final judgment of Christ
is yet to occur. Many people reject Christ as the
only way to God. They refuse to accept the help and
hope He offers. They turn their backs on His blood
and harden their hearts against the truth. God’s
Word is clear: anyone who enters eternity in such a
state will find themselves bearing God’s wrath
forever. Listen to what Jesus said:
[22] The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,
[23] that all may honor the Son, just as they honor
the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not
honor the Father who sent Him. [24] Truly, truly, I
say to you, whoever hears my word and believes Him
who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into
judgment, but has passed from death to life. [John 5:22-24]
So Jesus is the one who will judge people, and
according to His own words, the only criteria He
will judge people on is whether or not they honor
Him. How do we honor Him? By hearing the word and
believing—placing our faith and trust in Christ
alone.
Make no mistake: Christ will judge. He came to bring
judgment, and there is no escape from that day. You
and I will each stand before Him and be judged. In
that moment, our only hope of life is our faith in
Christ. Not our good works, not our religious
heritage, not our Sunday school attendance pins or
giving records or years of service. No, our only
hope is Christ alone. If He is the object of our
faith, we will be saved.
___________________
(1)
Gerald L. Borchert,
New American Commentary Series: John 1-11, 326 posted December 1, 2010 |
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| 07 | To establish an everlasting kingdom. |
Empires rise and fall in the blink of an eye. Rulers come
and go like the ever-flowing tides. Throughout the ages,
this world has seen mighty kingdoms—Egyptian, Babylonian,
Greek,
Persian, Incan, Spanish—but where are they now? Most
are gone completely; others are mere shells of their former
reign. Perhaps the only constant is that no one group or
empire has been able to rule for very long in the scope of
human history.
This is why God’s promises to establish an eternal kingdom
are often met with skepticism or disbelief. How can anyone
rule forever? But
this problem is resolved if the one who rules is also the
one who has all of the authority and power. Every earthly
empire has fallen because it either become corrupt from
within or was attacked by a stronger power from without. But
if a kingdom had no evil or corruption, and if no force
could oppose it, then it could stand forever. This is
exactly what God has promised will happen.
In Daniel 7, we see the image of the Ancient of Days (God)
presenting total authority to “one like a son of man.”
[Dan 7:13] Remember that in the time of Daniel’s vision,
authority was held by men like King Nebuchadnezzar of
Babylon, but even his kingdom was limited. The kingdom given
to this ‘son of man,’ however, is “an everlasting dominion.”
[Dan 7:14]
Jesus claims that He is the fulfillment of this vision. In
fact, when asked directly whether or not He is the Christ,
Jesus says: “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated
at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of
heaven.” [Mk 14:62] The reaction of His audience was to
condemn Him to death: they knew that He was applying the
prophecy of Daniel to Himself.
In fact, Jesus refers to Himself as ‘son of man’ more often
than with any other title. While this could simply mean that
He is a human (and not God, as in the case of its use in
Ezekiel), it could also convey the meaning expressed in
Daniel: the divine being who has His dwelling place with the
Ancient of Days. “With this name Jesus intends to
distinguish Himself from and position Himself above all
other humans,” explains Bavinck. “The name also undoubtedly
implies that He was truly human, yet it simultaneously
expresses the fact that He occupies an utterly unique place
among all humans.” (1)
“When people heard Jesus use the term ‘son of man’ for
Himself, they had to decide which type of ‘son of man’ He
was,” explains Duguid. “Technically He was both, but it took
faith to believe He was like the ‘son of man’ in Daniel.”
(2) Now, after the resurrection of Christ, we know that He
is the true Son of Man, the one who declared “All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”
[Mt 28:18] and of whom Scripture testifies: “God has
highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is
above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father.” [Phil 2:9-11]
All authority has been given to Christ and will be His
forever. Chester explains it like this:
“We do not invite people to make Jesus their King—we
tell people that Jesus is the King and He will rule
all of us forever. We do not invite people to meet Jesus—we
tell people that they will meet Jesus as their conquering
King. We do not ask people to live better lives and make the
world a better place—we command people to repent and submit
to the coming King.” (3)
___________________
(1) Herman
Bavinck, Reformed
Dogmatics, Volume 3: Sin and Salvation in Christ,
250 posted December 8, 2010 |
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| 08 | To give us understanding. |
There was one point during Jesus’ ministry that He
asked His disciples who other people were saying that He
was. They responded by saying that people were claiming
Jesus was a prophet of God; a messenger in the tradition of
Elijah or John the Baptist. Then, Jesus asked them directly:
“Who do you say that I am?” Peter spoke up and said, “You
are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
What’s interesting to note is Jesus’ response. He
doesn’t pat Peter on the back and say “good job” or
congratulate him on solving the mystery. Instead, Jesus
says, “Blessed are
you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed
this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” [Matthew
16:17] As Ware rightly says: “The Father is the sovereign
Revealer of truth to those whom He chooses and the
Withholder of that revelation from others, as He so
chooses.” (1)
The truth that Jesus was teaching to Peter (and to
us) is a very important one because it reveals that any true
understanding of Christ comes from God alone. “Use your
reason, use your intellect; do so honestly, and you will
come to the conclusion that there is a limit to reason,”
explains Lloyd-Jones. “And then wait. It is at that point
that God in His infinite grace and kindness meets us in
revelation.” (2) The writer of Hebrews puts it this way:
[1] Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by
the prophets, [2] but in these last days He has spoken to us
by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things,
through whom also He created the world. [3] He is the
radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His
nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His
power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at
the right hand of the Majesty on high, [4] having become as
much superior to angels as the name He has inherited is more
excellent than theirs.
[Hebrews 1:1-4]
What John is telling us then, is that because Jesus is the
Son of God—indeed, is God Himself—He is able to give us a
genuine understanding about God that we did not have before.
The people of God in the Old Covenant knew God, and knew
many things about God from the Scripture. But the fullest
and best revelation of God was yet to come; we see God’s
‘final word’ (so to speak) coming through Jesus Christ.
The message and ministry of Jesus point to one inescapable,
irrefutable fact: “He
is the true God and eternal life.” [1 John 5:20] This
reality is so clear to John that he can also make this
statement with full authority and confidence:
“God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the
Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not
have life.” [1 John 5:11-12]
The point is that what God did through the person and work of
Jesus Christ is so unique, so magnificent, so wonderful,
that all of eternal life is wrapped up in Him. The law and
prophets and fulfilled in Him. In other words,
“all the promises of
God find their Yes in Him.” [2 Corinthians 1:20] He is
truly the Light of the World and He illuminates our hearts
and minds, giving us the best understanding of the true God.
___________________
(1) Bruce A.
Ware, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit, 49 posted December 15, 2010 |
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| 09 | To become our Great High Priest. |
Throughout the Old Testament, a system of priests
was necessary to mediate between the holy God and sinful
people. God instituted this priesthood through the line of
Levi and it continued throughout the entirety of the old
covenant. One of the priests’ main functions would be to
offer animal sacrifices to God on behalf of the people as
atonement for sin. This culminated once each year when the
High Priest would enter into the Holy of Holies—the place
where God’s glory dwelt—and offer the blood of a lamb for
the forgiveness of sin.
This went on for hundreds of years. But there was a
fundamental flaw in the system. Even though God instituted
it, He was clear that it was not a permanent solution for
the problem of humanity’s sin. Why not? Two reasons: first,
each priest had to first make a sacrifice to atone for their
own personal sin. They were not perfect. Second, the blood
used was from an animal, and while it was innocent blood, it
could not substitute for human blood. Blood represents life,
and the shedding of blood results in death. And
“without the shedding
of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” [Hebrews
9:22]
Christ, however, solves both of these dilemmas. He lives a
sin-free life and therefore has not atonement to make for
Himself. He can enter into God’s presence on the basis of
His own perfect righteousness. And because He has innocent
blood—which is also human blood—it is accepted by God as the
necessary sacrifice to atone for the guilt of human sin.
“Because of Christ’s saving work, it is now possible
for those who believe on Him to approach God directly,”
Boice and Ryken explain. “The people of God could not do
this before Christ’s death. They needed to approach God
indirectly, asking a priest to intercede for them. But now
the way is open for everybody.” (1) Jesus meets the
righteous requirements for entering God’s presence, and
since His righteousness is credited to His people, they
share that same access to the Father.
This is, in part, what Peter means when he refers to all
Christians as “a royal
priesthood.” [1 Peter 2:9] It’s not that we have the
right to enter God’s presence by our own merit, but we can
approach God directly—based on the merit of the one true
High Priest; the one true Mediator:
“For there is one God,
and there is one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all...”
[1 Timothy 2:5-6]
Sadly, this is one of the areas where the Roman Catholic
Church has traditionally misunderstood the nature of
Christ’s work. “If Christ has done everything necessary as
our great high priest to wash away our sins, cleanse our
consciences and bring us to God, why do we need an
additional human priest to be inserted into the
process—unless there is something unfinished or inadequate
about Christ’s priesthood?,” asks Galea. “Why create a class
of indispensible human priests to stand between us and
Christ, when the New Testament knows nothing of the idea?”
(2)
The reason we no longer need a system of earthly priests to
mediate for us is two-fold: one, Jesus accomplished once and
for all the work required to give us access to God (which He
shares with us through our union with Him) and, two, Jesus
still fills the priestly role, and will do so eternally.
“He is able to save to
the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since
He always lives to make intercession for them.” [Hebrews
7:25] Since there was nothing lacking in Jesus’
qualifications as either High Priest or Passover Lamb, and
since death therefore has no claim on Him, He remains our
forever High Priest.
“Our approach in worship is not to an earthly
sanctuary, for we enter God’s presence with Jesus Christ,
our heavenly High Priest,” says Clowney. “The blood of
Christ, sprinkled on the very throne of God is the assurance
of our pardon. Our worship is not less supernatural than the
experience of Israel in the wilderness. It is infinitely
more so. We have emerged from the shadows into the reality.”
(3)
___________________
(1)
James Montgomery Boice & Phillip Graham Ryken,
Jesus on Trial,
112
posted December 22, 2010 |
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