First Presbyterian Church
Wichita Falls, Texas
April 3, 2011
WHO JESUS CHRIST IS
Jesus Christ -- The Center of Our Faith: Part 1
Isaac Butterworth
Hebrews 1:1-3 (NIV)
1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
Every summer when I was a child, my family would make the trip from Texas to New Jersey to see my dad’s parents. They lived in a fascinating two-story house in which all the bedrooms were upstairs. The room I slept in had a single bed, and above the bed was a picture of Jesus. You may have seen this particular print. In it, Jesus is shown full stature, wearing a scarlet tunic and a white mantle. In one hand, he holds a shepherd’s staff and in the other, close to his heart, a lamb.
As a child I took great comfort in gazing at this picture, and it helped me feel safe and secure, as though Jesus, the Good Shepherd, were watching over me as I slept. In some ways, I suppose, I thought of myself as that lamb, tucked under the arm of our Lord. Of course, no one knows what Jesus really looked like, but we can know a great deal about him and what he was and is like.
Over the next several weeks, I want us to get a ‘picture’ of Jesus -- not a visual image, of course, but a clearer understanding of what Scripture says about him. The difficult part will be limiting what we say, there is so much to be said. But, for today, let it be enough to say this: What we know of God, we know through Jesus. We see this through two fundamental claims the Scriptures make about our Lord.
I. Jesus Christ Is God the Son
First, Jesus is God the Son. This is the same thing as saying that Jesus is God, but it is more specific. When we say that Jesus is God the Son, we are saying that he is the second person in the Trinity. There is the Father. There is the Son. And there is the Holy Spirit.
The Athanasian Creed, which dates back to the sixth century, tell us: ‘In this Trinity none is before, or after another; none is greater, or less than another. But the whole three Persons are coeternal, and coequal.’
In other words, God the Son did not begin his existence on the night the angels appeared to the shepherds, ‘keeping watch over their flocks by night.’ No, since he is God, there has never been a time when he did not exist. ‘In the beginning was the Word,’ we read, ‘and the Word was with God, and’ -- listen to this part -- ‘the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made’ (John 1:1ff.).
Jesus himself testifies to this. In John 8:58, he says, ‘I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am!’ And, again, in John 10:30, he says, ‘I and the Father are one.’ And in John 14:9, he says, ‘...Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.’ In Hebrews 1:3, part of our text for today, we read, ‘The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.’
The witness of Scripture is plain: Jesus Christ is God the Son. He is divine. He is God. That’s the first affirmation of Scripture about our Lord.
II. Jesus Christ Is the Son of God
The second affirmation is that he is human. He is not only God the Son; he is also the Son of God. When the angel announced to Mary that she had been chosen to give birth to the Savior, he said to her: ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.’ Matthew and Luke then go on to tell us how Mary, although a virgin, carried in her womb the One whom the ancient prophet called ‘the Desire of ages’ (cf. Haggai 2:7).
Joshua Harris, in one of his books, puts it this way. He says, ‘God the Son, existing for all eternity, now became dependent, floating in the amniotic fluid of a female womb. The One by whose power the whole world is sustained, now nourished by an umbilical cord. The God-man would have a bellybutton’ (Joshua Harris).
The Gospel of John tells the story of Christmas in one simple verse. It says, ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us...’ (John 1:14). God assumed our humanity. And the Scriptures tell us that, as the Son of God, Jesus Christ is the representative human being, the second Adam.
All of humanity, the Bible says, is ‘in Adam;’ that is, we are in a state of condemnation because of sin. The Westminster Confession says of our first parents that, since they were ‘the root of all mankind, the guilt of [their] sin was imputed...to all their posterity’ (BOC 6.033). That’s us! God had made a covenant with with Adam, which the Confession calls a ‘covenant of works,’ by which God promised life to Adam and to all his descendants ‘upon condition of perfect and personal obedience.’
Of course, Adam was not perfectly obedient, nor are we. Therefore, ‘in Adam’ we are in death. We are ‘dead in [our] transgressions and sins’ (Eph. 2:1). But, in God’s mercy, he made a second covenant, a covenant of grace, in which he offers to us ‘life and salvation by Jesus Christ,’ who died for our sins. The Holy Spirit makes us alive to God and enables us ‘to embrace the grace’ offered to us by putting our faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus, as the representative of humanity before God, offers a life of perfect obedience.
So Paul can say in Romans, ‘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. 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’ ( 5:18f.). Through faith, we are no long ’in Adam’ and therefore ’in death.’ We are ’in Christ’ and therefore heirs of life.
So, what we know of God, we know through Jesus. He is God the Son, and he is the Son of God. He is both human and divine. Why is it important to believe this?
It is important to uphold the divinity of Jesus because, when we do, we make two essential affirmations. First, we recognize that Jesus is not simply an ‘ideal’ to which we aspire. Joshua Harris again: ‘If Jesus was merely a man like the rest of men,’ he says, ‘then an ideal is all that we have in him. Far more is needed by a sinful world. It is small comfort to be told that there was [once] goodness in the world, when what we need is goodness triumphant over sin.’ Jesus is not just an example of what we ought to be and do. He is our Redeemer. He is our Savior. The Apostle Peter says of Jesus that ‘salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12).
And that’s the second affirmation we make when we acknowledge the deity of Christ. We attest that Jesus is God, entering our world to rescue us from sin and to restore the whole creation as God’s Kingdom. Isn’t that what Paul says in Ephesians? That God ‘made known to us the mystery of his will..., to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.’
So, we hold to the divinity of Jesus Christ. We also hold to his humanity. And when we do, we confess our faith, ‘the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints’ (Jude 3). We express our belief (1) that Jesus came from heaven to earth to represent the human race before God, (2) that Jesus’ perfect obedience as a man made it possible for him to pay for our sins, and (3) that Jesus’ full humanity assures us that he understands our weakness. We will look into these matters in the weeks ahead.
But for now, let’s ask the question, What are we to do?
First, we are to put our faith in Jesus Christ, the One who is God the Son and Son of God, who alone can rescue us from the penalty, power, and presence of sin. The Westminster Confession says of God that ‘he freely offered unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in him, that they may be saved.’
While faith is required of us, it is not something we can generate in and of ourselves. We do not decide for Jesus. It is only by the workings of the Holy Spirit within us that we are able to come to Christ. Jesus said, ‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him’ (John 6:44). But when we are drawn, we need to come. We are to put our faith in Jesus Christ.
Second, we are to praise Jesus Christ. He is worthy to be honored above all. In the last book of the Bible, in Revelation, we read, ‘Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!’ (Rev. 5:12). And this Lamb, of course, is the Lamb of God, ‘who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29). We are to praise him.
And we are to pray to him. We are to pray to Jesus Christ, who prays for us. Hebrews 7:25 says of Christ that ‘he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.’ And in Romans 8 we are told, ‘Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is...interceding for us’ (v. 34). We are to pray to the One who prays for us.
And, finally, believing that Jesus Christ is both God the Son and the Son of God, we are called to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, calling others to repentance and faith. In our Presbyterian heritage we have what we call ‘the great ends of the church,’ that is, the great purposes for which the church exists. There are six of them. And do you know what the first one is? It is this: ‘the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind.’
Who is Jesus Christ? He is ‘God with us,’ and he is the representative man before God. He is both God the Son and the Son of God. He is the way, the truth, and the life, which is to say, what is true is this: He is the way of life for you. What we know of God, we know through Jesus.
