The Victorious Son of God

Introduction

There’s nothing like a good story. A narrative that captures your mind and heart as it pulls you in. This morning we are going to look at a story, a true story, that is meant to capture our minds and hearts, that is the story of the Bible. And by story I don’t mean something made up, again it is a true story. But it is a story, it is a narrative that pulls us in, teaches us and shapes us.

Although the Bible is made up of 66 individual books, it is meant to be understood as a unified whole. From beginning to end, the Bible is a continuous story that flows throughout each book, through thousands of years of history and into the future. And with this small quotation of the Old Testament here in verse 15, Matthew is opening the door of this grand narrative, he is inviting us into the storyline of Scripture, a story filled with ups and downs, hopes and fears, failure and victory, with Jesus as the climax and fulfillment of it all. The Bible is the story of the victory of Jesus.

So, what we are going to do this morning is unpack the storyline of the Bible focused on the theme of sonship that Matthew introduces here with this little quote.

1. Two Failing Sons of God

Verse 15, a quotation from the prophet Hosea, brings up this important theme of sonship. This isn’t just normal, earthly sonship, but speaking about a special, unique relationship with God the Father. And Matthew wants us to pick up on this theme, to think about sonship and why it’s important and how it had developed over the course of history. What did this special relationship before God look like in the Old Testament? Who did it apply to and what happened to them? How does that then relate to Jesus?

You could summarize the Old Testament storyline as a tale of two sons. Two special, unique relationships with God, but ultimately, two failing sons of God.

a. Adam

The first son, the first one to have this unique relationship with God was Adam. Adam was the first created man, our first ancestor. He had a special relationship with God because he had no physical father, he was God’s hand-made son. God crafted him with his own hands out of the dust of the earth and breathed his own breath into Adam’s lungs. And Adam was placed into the Garden of Eden, a paradise of God’s overflowing blessings. There was no sin, no death, no suffering. Everything Adam, and then his wife Eve, needed was there. He even walked with God, he talked with him in the Garden, face to face. And with this special relationship as God’s son, God called Adam to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, spread this Garden sanctuary over the entire world. Enjoy God and his abundance, he could eat of any tree he wanted, it was all good food that would never run out, all of it was his, except one. Everything he could have ever needed or wanted was available to him. The same would have been true for all his generations after him, eternal life in the Garden of Eden with God.

But what happened? Adam failed. He did not fulfill his calling to expand the Garden, he did not obey God and resist temptation towards the fruit from the one tree. He stood idly by his wife’s side while the serpent tempted her and then he followed her into eating the fruit as well. Adam sinned, he failed as the son of God and plunged the entire human race after him into sin; instead of bringing future generations into the Garden with him, he brought us into slavery to sin with him. The first son of God had everything, but he failed and was kicked out of the Garden forever and the relationship between God and man was radically changed. There was now separation between God and man due to sin. There was a change in the relationship, mankind needed forgiveness and restoration with holy and pure God.

From here the storyline of the Bible shifts to answering the questions, “How is God going to respond? How are we going to get back to Eden, back to the place of a restored personal relationship with God?”

b. Israel

Enter the second son, Israel. God chose the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to be his unique son, to have a special relationship with him. No other nation had this status or sonship. Israel was called by God to be his means of reconciling the world to himself. They were given written instructions, the law, as the means by which they were to live blamelessly before God. They were called to take the good news of God’s reconciling grace to all the nations, to be a light to the world. They were called to reverse what Adam had done, to bring the world back to God. They were God’s son, his special people, given a unique relationship that no other nation had. They were like Adam, they could have had everything they would have ever needed or wanted, the Almighty God of the Universe chose them; he promised them his infinite blessings and provision if they would just follow him. They were promised a land, a land like Eden, filled with all the blessings they could imagine. He called them out of their slavery in Egypt to be his son, he set them free so they would live before him and be blessed and then God would bless the world through them.

And that is what the prophet Hosea was speaking about within this quotation in Matthew. God is looking back on this calling when he set them free to be his special son. And God then goes on to recall what they then did with this relationship, this sonship: the next verse in Hosea 11 reads, “The more they were called, the more they went away.” God brought them out of their bondage, he heard their cries in Egypt, he set them free by the power of his mighty hand, out of Egypt he called his son. He brought them into the wilderness on the way to the promised land, the new Eden. Everything was going to restored through them. But as soon as they were in the wilderness what happened? They went away. They sinned. They failed. Instead of spreading the good news of the one true God, they worshipped other gods. They did not bring reconciliation and peace to the nations, they brought judgement on themselves. They did not restore Eden to the world, they were taken out of the promised land for their unfaithfulness. Like Adam, they failed as the son.

The two main sons of God in the Old Testament failed, they didn’t do what they were called to do. There was none who could bring peace and reconciliation and relationship with God to all. Adam failed, Israel failed. Eden is gone, a right standing before and with God is gone, and there is no one who can bring it back. The prophet Isaiah, dwelling on the repeated failures of mankind says, “there is none righteous, all like sheep have gone astray.” No one can stand before God as he calls. No one can follow him in purity and holiness as God demands and deserves. No matter how many gracious provisions God gives, all have gone astray. This is the universal condition of mankind, we are a part of this story, we all walk in the footsteps of the failed sons, that includes me, you, all people since Adam. All fall short, there is no son found that can restore the creation and mankind back to God.

2. One Victorious Son of God

Except one.

It is here when all hope seems lost that Matthew picks up the storyline and the theme of sonship, and he shows us the one victorious Son of God. The promised and long-awaited Savior and Messiah, the true Son, has come. Jesus Christ enters into history, into the storyline of the failed sons, he picks up the role of sonship, but he succeeds where all others have failed. And Matthew is very intentional in these first few chapters to weave all these sons together, to show Jesus as the victorious Son. Again, Jesus picks up the storyline of Adam and of Israel, he repeats it for himself, but he succeeds where they had failed.

Look at how Matthew shows us this. First, we are told back in chapter 1, verse 20, Jesus was conceived, not of man, but of the Holy Spirit, meaning his human nature was sanctified, purified by the Spirit of God; he did not have a sin nature like we do. He was fully man, but without being conceived into sin like us. In this way he was like Adam, without sin from the start. Adam was created pure, without sin, Jesus was conceived by the Spirit, without sin. But even though Adam was without sin, he still failed. He stood before the serpent, the devil, he was tempted, and he sinned. He failed in his sonship. Jesus, however, stands before the devil in chapter 4, he is tempted, but he does not sin. He overcomes the serpent and succeeds where Adam failed.

The nation of Israel was called out of Egypt to be God’s son. They were promised everything they would need but as soon as they get into the wilderness, as soon as hardship arose, they grumbled, complained, went astray. They turned away from God and sinned. They failed in their sonship. Jesus, too, comes out of Egypt, he too goes into the wilderness, again in chapter 4 at the start of his ministry. He too faces temptations and hardships of all kinds and yet he does not turn away from God. He trusts in his Father even when it hurts, even when it would be easier not to, he fully believes and follows God. He overcomes the wilderness temptations where Israel failed.

Adam stood before the devil and failed. Israel went into the wilderness and failed. Jesus did both at the same time and he won. And not just there, but his entire life was without sin, he neverturned from God although tempted in every way as we are. He knew suffering and hardship, loss and grief, pain and brokenness beyond what we ever could, and yet he never sinned, never turned away from God in any word, thought or deed, even when he was forsaken by him on the cross. Jesus was victorious where all others had failed, he is the only sinless Son of God. And more than this, he is the one who has taken his perfect, spotless, obedient, faithful, sinless, life, and placed it before God the Father. He laid down his righteous life as a sacrifice to be applied to the account of all who would come to him by faith. For all who recognize their need for a savior, who confess their sin and unworthiness before a holy God, for all say I am a failed son who is unworthy to stand before a perfect God. For all who believe Jesus Christ is their Savior, his life, his obedience, his perfect sonship becomes ours. Not that we become perfect, but that by faith we become adopted sons and daughters of God the Father, his beloved children, right alongside his perfect Son. God the Father sees us not as our sin deserves, but as forgiven, redeemed, paid for and restored to him by his spotless Son, by his merit alone.

This is called our justification. Meaning we are declared righteous by the Father, our standing before God is made whole, complete, perfect because we are given Jesus Christ’s standing. By faith we become children of God as we were created to be, the relationship that had been lost because of Adam’s sin has been restored through Jesus Christ and his righteousness. All that he earned by being the perfect son, he gives to all who come to him by faith. The total, complete and eternal security of the love from God the Father to God the Son becomes ours, we are perfectly secure and kept in the love of the Godhead because Jesus has brought us into that fellowship with him. That is something most of us need to keep reminding ourselves of: our complete and total secure embrace within the Godhead. For all who are his, Jesus has purchased our acceptance, given us the full and eternal love of God and we can never be cast out. Just as the Father never gets fed up with the Son, he never tires of being with him and for him, so too with us in Christ. By his victorious sonship, we are beloved sons and daughters forever.

And because we are fully adopted children of God, we become co-heirs with Christ, meaning we will inherit the glory that awaits the Son with him, eternal life with him in the new and better Eden, the greater Promised Land that he has earned. Jesus has won for us more than we can ever imagine and we receive it all simply by faith in him!

That is what Matthew wants us to see here, this entire storyline of the Bible that Jesus fulfills, the victorious son that makes us children of God. That is what we are to rejoice in, that is who we worship and whose birth we celebrate. That is who we follow in faithful obedience, not because we need to earn God’s favor, but because we have it already in Jesus Christ. We can rest in our life with him and before him and find joy in all things because of him. The victorious Son has come to give us abundant life with him and it will take an eternity to offer him all the praise he deserves.