Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Jesus is Human and Divine!

Romans 8:3 ESV

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

Why did Jesus have to take on human form?

Why do doughnuts have holes?

In the early 1900s William Barton delighted readers with parables published weekly in The Christian Century and other religious periodicals. Listen to this one: Now I entered the Kitchen, and would have passed through. But Keturah [Barton's wife] was there; so I waited: and she cast Divers Things into a Great Bowl, and did stir them with a Great Spoon. And I asked her, saying, What hast thou in the Bowl? And she said, Sugar and Spice, and all that's nice.... And she took the Dough out of the Bowl, . . . and she rolled it with a Rolling-Pin; and she cut it into round cakes. And in the midst of every several cake there was an Hole. And a great Caldron hung above the Fire, and there was Fat therein that boiled furiously. And Keturah took the round Cakes of Dough, and cast them into the Caldron; and she poked them with a Fork, and she turned them, and when they came forth, behold, I knew then what they were. And the smell of them was inviting, and the appearance of them was exceeding good. And Keturah gave me one of the Doughnuts, and Believe Me, they were Some Doughnuts. And I said, To what purpose is the Hole? If the Doughnut be so good with a part Punched Out, how much better had it been if the Hole also had been Doughnut! And Keturah answered and said, Thou speakest as a Fool, who is never content with the Goodness that is, but always complaineth against God for the lack of the Goodness which he thinketh is not. If there were no Hole in the Doughnut, then ... though the Cake were Fried till the Edges thereof were burnt... yet would there be uncooked Dough in the middle. Yea, thou shouldest then break thy teeth on the outer rim of every Several Doughnut, and the middle part thereof would be Raw Dough. And I meditated much on what Keturah had told me. And I considered the Empty Spaces in Human life; and the Desolation of its Vacancies.... And I pondered in my soul whether God doth know that save for these, our lives would be [brittle or unformed].... [We must not be] like unto one who rejecteth a Doughnut because he Knoweth not the Mystery of the Hole.

The Chalcedonian Creed“THEREFORE, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the Godbearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has handed down to us.”

(1) The Assuring Words of the Father

The baptism of Jesus

Matthew 3:16–17 ESV

16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

The transfiguration of Jesus

Matthew 17:5 ESV

He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

The confession of Peter - Matthew 16:16

The confession of the Jewish writers of Scripture - Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul - He is the Lord, He is God

(2) The Condemning Words of the Critics

John 10:28–30 ESV

28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

John 10:31–33 ESV

31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

(3) The Affirming Words of the Spirit

James 1:13–16 ESV

13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

(4) The Testing Words of the Deceiver

Matthew 4:1–11 ESV

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ” 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ” 11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

The wisdom of Jesus - The full obedience of Jesus

Jesus the second Adam, but in the desert not the Garden of Eden. Hungry but fully obedient. Tempted by the devil but unwilling to disobey the will of the Father.

(5) The Final Words of the Son

It is finished - Jesus was fully obedient to the Father

John 19:30 ESV

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

The exaltation of Philippians 2 - not the restoration of his deity but the permanent restoration of the fullness of his glory. This glory will blind Paul on the Road to Damascus. This glory will be revealed at His return in the Book of Revelation.

F. W. Boreham's sermon on 1 Timothy 3:16, another ancient hymn, is itself a virtual hymn about Jesus' humanity and divinity. With a series of contrasts, the preacher captures the antiphonal form of the text and prompts a sense of wonder at the mystery of God become flesh: He was born a tiny babe in Bethlehem-He was as human as that! Yet angels filled the air with heavenly song-He was as divine as that! He rested, tired and thirsty, on Samaria's well-He was as human as that! Yet He told the woman whom He found there that she had but to ask and He would give her the water of everlasting life-He was as divine as that! He slept, exhausted, in the bow of a boat-He was as human as that! Yet, when He rose and rebuked the angry waves, the[y] crouched like dogs at His feet-He was as divine as that! He wept with the sisters beside the tomb at Bethany-He was as human as that! Yet, He cried "Lazarus come forth!" and he that was dead left the sepulchre-He was as divine as that !