God the Son

Introduction

Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.

The Baptist Faith and Message, Article 2B

Tonight we move from the Father who “so loved the world,” to the Son that He gave.

This is who Article 2B is about.

Jesus Christ. The Son of God and Son of Man.

Jesus Christ. The King of the Ages.

Jesus Christ. Our Savior.

I will admit to you that I am fairly intimidated by the subject matter because how do you summarize Jesus—the 2nd Person of the Godhead—heaven’s jewel—in 35-40 minutes.

Put simply you cant.

Even John said:

John 21:25 ESV

Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

To borrow words from an old hymn—

If every man were a scribe by trade...

If the ocean were filled with ink...

And every stalk of a plant were a quill...

You would drain the ocean dry before you could exhaust yourself talking about Jesus.

But for tonight, we will simply focus on what the Faith and Message actually says about Christ.

And as we do that, we can break things down into these categories:

1. The Eternal Nature of Christ

2. The Birth of Christ

3. The Life of Christ

4. The Death of Christ

5. The Resurrection and Ascension of Christ

6. The Session of Christ

7. The Return of Christ

With there being seven parts to this talk, we will simply have an overview tonight.

My hope is by the end, your affections will be stirred to love our Lord even more than you already do.

Or—if you have not yet surrendered to Him, that this sketch of the Savior would beckon you to turn to Him in faith.

1. The Eternal Nature of Christ

“Christ, the eternal Son of God...” is how Article 2B begins.

Preexistence

When we speak of the eternal nature of Christ, we are saying that He is preexistent.

Jesus has always existed.

There was never a time when He was not.

He is begotten, not created.

Eternally brought forth by the Father—not made by the Father.

Christ preexists creation and the very foundation of the world—something we especially see in the Book of John.

John 1:1–2 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

Just prior to His crucifixion, Jesus prayed:

John 17:5 ESV

And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

As He confronted the Pharisees about their hard-hearted false religion, and they mocked Him when He claimed that He was present with Abraham, He said:

John 8:58 (ESV) “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

In a moment we will discuss Christ’s incarnation, but we can see from these Scriptures that He existed long before the manger in Bethlehem.

And this is one of the great indicators in the Bible that HE IS GOD.

No one but God is eternal.

No one but God WAS, IS and ALWAYS WILL BE.

We know He is truly God because He is truly the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end—the first and the last.

Creator and Sustainer

But this is not all.

As the Bible speaks of the eternal nature of Christ, it also speaks of Him being Creator and Sustainer.

When we speak of the eternal nature of Christ, we are saying that He is Creator and Sustainer.

He does not just preexist Creation—He made Creation.

John 1:3 ESV

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Paul elaborates in his letter to the Colossians in chapter 1:

Colossians 1:17 ESV

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

The work of Creation is the work of God alone.

If the Bible speaks of Christ creating in this way, the Bible is telling us that the Son is God.

Creation was not accomplished by the Father alone, but by the Father, the son and the Holy Spirit cooperating as the Triune God.

Joel Beeke

And since Christ created the world and rules the world, Christ is preeminent over all of Creation.

He is Lord. He is Sovereign. He is Infinitely Superior.

The world doesn’t recognize this.

But we do.

And we worship Him as such.

We know from the eternal nature of Christ that the man Jesus, born in Bethlehem, dying in Jerusalem, is far more than just a man.

He is Deity.

God of God.

2. The Birth of Christ

“In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.”

The Incarnation

When we speak of the birth of Christ, we speak of one of the most important and glorious moments in all of history, if not the greatest event in human history.

The birth of Christ is when God came to earth in human flesh.

John 1:14 ESV

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

This comes just a handful of verses after John tells us that in the beginning the Word was with God and the Word was God.

The Word, who is God, steps down into humanity and reveals the glory of God to us in the flesh.

The Christ who is born from Mary in David’s town is none other than the Lord.

This is what the angel told the shepherds:

Luke 2:11 ESV

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Doctrinally, this is what we call the Incarnation.

The Incarnation is the divine Son coming to earth and living in human form.

Paul describes it this way to the Philippians:

Philippians 2:7 ESV

but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

This is a distinctive truth of the Christian faith.

This sets us apart from those who practice Judaism or Islam.

We do not just say that God is One, but that God became a man.

Born of a Virgin

Now in order to understand how this was reality, we have to understand a doctrine inextricably linked to the Incarnation, and that is the Virgin Birth.

Jesus was not conceived of two human parents like you and me.

The Virgin Mary had her own questions about this and here is how Gabriel explained it to her:

Luke 1:34–35 ESV

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

To use the language of the Apostle’s Creed, Jesus is One “who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary.”

This doctrine assures us that Jesus is both holy and human.

He is holy because He was not born with an inherited sin nature like us because He was conceived of the Holy Spirit.

But He is still born of a woman, letting us know He is truly human.

The Word took from the Virgin’s womb a human body to be a temple in which to dwell.

John Calvin

Obviously, Jesus being born of a virgin is a miracle.

It is a supernatural thing.

And it is a glorious thing.

On one hand, we know our Savior is without sin because He was conceived without sin.

On the other hand, we know our Savior can and does identify with us because He is fully human.

So then, we have a Savior who identifies with us, but He is not stained by sin like us.

If we find this doctrine hard to accept, we only need to listen to the words that Gabriel spoke to Mary:

Luke 1:37 ESV

For nothing will be impossible with God.”

If we believe God made man from the dust and woman from the bone of the man, it shouldn’t be a big leap for us to believe that God came to earth through a virgin’s womb.

And the implications of the Incarnation and the Virgin Birth are massive.

If Jesus were not born of a virgin, we have no real Savior.

He would just be a sinful man born of two human parents like the rest of us.

But if He is born of a virgin, everything changes.

I’ll turn to Calvin again:

Becoming a Son of man with us, He has made us sons of God with him;

By His descent to earth, He has prepared an ascent to heaven for us;

By taking on our mortality, He has conferred His immortality upon us;

By accepting our weakness, He has strengthened us by His power;

John Calvin

Without the Incarnation, we have no redemption.

Without redemption, we have no salvation.

Without salvation, we have no heaven.

Without heaven, we have no hope.

The Gospel is only true if Christ is born of a virgin and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

3. The Life of Christ

“Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin.”

Hypostatic Union

As we speak of the life of Christ, we have to make sure we understand who Christ was upon the earth and who He remains to be.

Jesus lived life on earth as fully man and fully God.

This is a doctrine that was fought for at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD.

Christ is fully man and fully God in one person.

One person with two unmixed natures.

Christ in the flesh is the eternally self-existent, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God.

At the same time, Christ in the flesh is a man who ate, slept, cried, taught and even eventually died.

The doctrine which explains Christ being fully man and fully God is called the hypostatic union.

Hypostatic comes from the Greek word hypostasis.

Hypo = under

Stasis = substance or essence

The term basically means “foundational reality.”

So what is the foundational reality of Christ’s life? What is the hypostatic union?

Jesus is One WHO—One Person, with Two WHATS—Two Natures.

He is One Person with Two Natures that are unmixed, unconfused and united.

Fully God and Fully Man

Colossians 2:9 ESV

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

A Human Life

And as this One Man with Two Natures, Christ perfectly identified with us (fully human) and yet He did not sin (fully God).

As you would expect from God in the flesh, His life was marked with absolute moral perfection, every step of the way.

As the Second Adam, He never disobeyed God like the First Adam.

But He was tempted.

He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness and tempted in His life just as we are.

But He did not sin.

Hebrews 4:15 ESV

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

In His life, filled with miracles and healing, but also sorrow and suffering, He did something no one else could ever do.

He kept God’s Law.

There was never a moment in which He transgressed the morality of the Ten Commandments.

There was never a moment in which He transgressed the Father in idolatry.

There was never a moment in which He transgressed neighbor and failed to love them as Himself.

“He honored the divine law by personal obedience,” as Article 2B says.

At every moment and at every turn, the perfect obedience of Christ’s life was on display.

4. The Death of Christ

The Faith and Message does not just tell us of the life of Christ, but also of the Death of Christ:

“in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.”

The Shedding of Blood for the Forgiveness of Sins

Jesus came to die.

Even at the beginning of His ministry, He was identified as the sacrificial Lamb by John the Baptist:

John 1:29 ESV

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

This is not something Jesus’ disciples easily understood during His ministry.

Matthew 16:21–23 ESV

From that time 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. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

The question is “Why?”

Why did Jesus tell Peter that he was a hindrance to Him for for saying that Jesus would not die in Jerusalem?

Why was it God’s purpose for His Son to be murdered?

The answer is found by understanding our sinfulness and God’s holiness.

God does not allow sin to go unpunished and He had told His people in the Law that blood would have to be shed for sins to be forgiven:

Leviticus 17:11 ESV

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

Gold told Adam that if he ate from the tree, he would surely die.

Sin brings death.

The wages of sin IS death.

So if sin is going to be forgiven, there must be a death to satisfy the justice of God—the One whose Law has been broken.

Hebrews 9:22 ESV

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

In the Old Testament, according to the Law, sacrifices would be made in atonement for sin, but those sacrifices had no power to forgive sins in and of themselves.

The sacrifices according to Old Testament Law were a shadow of things to come:

Hebrews 10:1 ESV

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

They pointed forward to an atoning sacrifice that was to come—a sacrifice that can make perfect those who draw near.

Hebrews 10:10 ESV

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

His death on the Cross is the perfect sacrifice for our sins—the only sacrifice acceptable to God the Father.

As Old Testament saints offered their sacrifices, they were looking forward in faith, trusting in the sacrifice to come.

Propitiation

The question that all this leads us to ask is how did the death of Christ result in the salvation of sinners?

The answer comes from the word propitiation.

Propitiation is Jesus’ work on the Cross to satisfy God’s righteous demand against sin.

Speaking of Christ, Romans says:

Romans 3:25 ESV

whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

God is wrathful toward sin.

Rightfully so.

It is not a kneejerk reaction to iniquity, but a settled disposition toward sin.

God’s holiness demands that sin must be punished and justice for transgression must be satisfied.

With His propitiating sacrifice, Christ met the demands of God’s righteous judgment against sin.

He took the punishment.

And now, with God’s wrath satisfied, the blood of Jesus atones for sin and the guilt of man is canceled.

This is the love of God on display.

1 John 4:10 ESV

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

He is the sacrifice that sees God’s justice satisfied and God’s children justified.

In fact, we can say that with God the Father giving the Son to die, and God the Son laying down His life for His sheep, God is both the just and justifier.

Romans 3:26 ESV

It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The righteousness of God demanded a perfect sacrifice for sin in blood.

And God’s mercy led Him to provide that sacrifice in the death of Jesus.

So then, at the Cross mercy and justice meet.

Justice in His wrath poured out.

Mercy in the sacrifice of the Son given.

Just and the Justifier of those who come to Him by faith.

This is how Christ has atoned for the sin of His Church.

Atonement is God’s overcoming sin through Christ’s obedience and death to restore believer to a right relationship with God.

Christ has died in the place of His people to achieve this.

And now this is our boast.

Like the Apostle Paul, we say:

Galatians 6:14 ESV

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

5. The Resurrection and Ascension of Christ

The Essential Resurrection

If our salvation is a door, that door swings on two hinges—the death of Christ that we just spoke of—and the Resurrection of Christ, followed by His ascension.

Article 2B says, “He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God...”

God’s power raised Christ from the grave.

And that fact is the basis of our hope.

And it is the proof of Christ’s victory over and Satan and death.

If Christ does not raise, Jesus is just the victim of a crime of conspiracy.

But in resurrection, Christ is revealed as the true Savior and Lord.

This doctrine is essential to Christianity.

The Apostle Paul says that without it, we have no Christianity.

1 Corinthians 15:14–17 ESV

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

But we praise God that Christ is raised.

His body was literally resurrected.

The very body He had before His crucifixion was brought up from the grave.

Thomas was even able to touch Jesus’ wounds as a balm to his doubts.

The resurrection of the Lord Jesus establishes the truth of Christianity...It declared Him to be all that He has ever professed to be, and so it establishes the truth of all His teachings and the truth of the whole Christian society. The great fact that Jesus rose from the dead is the central fact of the evidence of Christianity.

John Broadus

The resurrection is also the center of the faith of the Apostles and their preaching ministries.

In Acts 2, Peter preached that Christ who was crucified, was also resurrected—saying it was impossible for death to hold Christ (Acts 2:24)

Before the Sanhedrin in Acts 4, Peter and John said, “Jesus Christ the Nazarene—whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead” (Acts 4:10)

The Apostles, Luke and Mark all confirmed the resurrection in the four Gospels.

And Paul says that it is the matter of first importance He preached to the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 15:3–4 ESV

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

Paul goes on to say that not only were the Apostles witnesses to this, but so were 500 people that Jesus appeared to at once on once occasion.

And just as the resurrection was central to the faith and preaching of the Apostles, it must be central to us.

The resurrection is our great hope.

We believe that one day we will be resurrected as well, in the manner of Christ, given resurrection bodies like His.

And we believe this because He has risen first.

Romans 8:11 ESV

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Ascension

But when we speak of Christ’s exaltation, we do not just speak of His resurrection but also His ascension.

Just weeks after the resurrection, Luke says that this happened:

Acts 1:9 ESV

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Now that He is ascended, Christ is exalted at the right hand of God forevermore.

And there at that position, He has been given the name above every name—the name of Lord.

And He is glorified in the presence of His Father. His prayer in John 17 is answered.

He has returned to the glory He had before His coming to earth.

Joel Beeke says that as the ascended Lord, He is now the “preeminent citizen of the heavenly city and the Mediator of all its blessings.”

The ascended Christ is now in position.

He waits for His return when the earth will dissolve and then be recreated in perfection as the New Earth, where God’s people will dwell forever.

The ascension bridges our present world and that of the age to come.

Robert Letham

The ascension is the connector from this age to the next.

6. The Session of Christ

But before we jump to the Return of Christ, we must pause.

Often evangelicals skip over the “Session of Christ,” but they shouldn’t.

Christ’s ascension leads to His session.

When we say Christ’s session we mean this:

(Christ’s session is) Christ’s current state of being seated at the right hand of God.

Here is how the Baptist Faith and Message speaks of the right hand. It is :

where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man.

The same Jesus who lived, died and resurrected...

...The same Jesus who is fully God and fully man...

...Is seated at the right hand of the Father.

Christ, in His session, is honored as the Divine Mediator and glorified Priest-King.

This was promised to Him in Psalm 110:1

Psalm 110:1 ESV

The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

The day in which Christ’s enemies will be His footstool is coming, but even now, He sits at God’s right hand enthroned in His exalted position.

Christ’s first act in session was to pour the Spirit out on the Church at Pentecost.

Acts 2:33 ESV

Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

Christ is also our Mediator and kingly High Priest.

He is seated at the right hand of the Father—showing His saving work is finished.

And with His work of dying and resurrecting and ascending completed, he is now exercising His priestly duties of hearing prayers, forgiving sin and fulfilling His role as the One True Intercessor between God and man.

All of the grace that comes to the citizens of the Kingdom that He rules, comes from Him and through Him.

When you pray to Christ, understand that you pray to Him in session.

The God-Man hears your words.

The God-Man is the Mediator of grace to your soul.

Christ your Savior continues to work for your good and His glory from the Father’s right hand.

7. The Return of Christ.

And finally, we wrap up tonight with the Return of Christ.

The Faith and Message states, “He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission.”

One day, Christ’s current session will end and He will return with glory on the clouds.

This event—the return of Christ— is mentioned over 380 times in the New Testament.

The first time Christ came, it was as a Lamb, but when He returns, He will do so as a Lion.

He will come back and claim His church.

He will complete His mission.

He will bring all things to consummation.

He will judge the world.

And He will be revealed fully and finally as the Lord of all creation.

His return will not be in secret.

It will be bodily.

It will be visible.

It will be glorious.

And it will be triumphant.

Revelation 1:7 ESV

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

Unbelievers may not look for Christ’s return and even mock the idea of it, counting God to be slack in His wrath.

But the Church should be the opposite.

We look for and long for the return of Christ.

We do this because we know that when Jesus comes back, the One who bore the sins of many, will give complete salvation to those who hope in Him.

We do this because we long to see the One who rules the Church demonstrate His power to subject all things to Himself.

We do this because we agree with the early church father Ambrose, who said:

It will be as when two admirable person, two lovers meet together, their eyes sparkle, they look on, as if they would look through one another.

Ambrose

This is how it will be when Christ comes back for His Church.

We will look upon His glory and sparkle with His glory and we won’t be able to look away from His glory and beauty and excellency.

And even now, while we wait for His perfect rule over opposition-less nations to be established, Chris is with us and rules in our hearts.

Article 2B concludes by saying:

He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.

Conclusion

The first edition of the Baptist Faith and Message was voted on and instituted in the Convention in 1925.

The man who probably had the largest hand in all of that was EY Mullins.

In his book, The Axioms of Religion, Mullins summed up all we have talked about tonight like this:

Jesus Christ was born of the virgin Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit. He was the divine and eternal Son of God. He wrought miracles, healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead. He died as the vicarious atoning Savior of the world and was buried. He arose again from the dead. The tomb was emptied of its contents. In his risen body He appeared many times to His disciples. He ascended to the right hand of the Father. He will come again in person, the same Jesus who ascended from the Mount of Olives.

EY Mullins

Brothers and sisters—this is your creed.

For doctrine such as this we should be willing to contend and defend and even to die.

We write these things in blood.

Compromise on these doctrines is compromise on the Gospel.

For Christ is the Good News of God.

And there is no hope outside of Him.