Jesus Our Lord

We are in week three of our series “We Believe” where we have been studying our church’s statement of faith together. Just like an athlete has to practice the fundamentals of their sport in order to make them automatic when it’s important, we need to nail down the fundamentals of our faith, so that when people ask us about what we believe, we have a coherent answer. So if you missed either or both of our previous sermons on our statement of faith, check out our youtube channel. Our previous services are all online for you to enjoy whenever it works for you.

Well, let’s just dive right into this week’s teaching time and read the third line of our statement of faith together.

We believe our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, was born of the virgin Mary, is truly divine and truly human, yet is without sin.

What we believe about someone matters. If I believe that you are lazy, I won’t respect you. If I believe you are deceitful, I won’t trust you. If I believe you are hungry, I just might try to feed you. If I believe you are genuine and authentic, I will trust you more. And the same is true about God. If we believe God is good, we will trust him. If we believe that Jesus is a fictional character, it will change the way we live. If we believe that he existed, but was just a good man and a good teacher, then we may appreciate him, but we shouldn’t worship him. What we believe about Jesus matters and so in this third line in our statement of faith, there are five important aspects about who Jesus is that I want to look at with you today.

1. Jesus is our Lord

One of the ways we are defined - one of the ways that we are known by - is our relationships to others. Depending on who I am talking to, I may be known as Rebekah’s dad, or Abby’s husband, or Vanessa’s friend, or I may be your pastor. And while this identification obviously doesn’t tell someone everything about me, it does tell them something.

In the same way, one way to describe Jesus is to describe our relationship with him. So who is Jesus to you? I know most of you here and watching online today. Not all of you, but most. So I can say confidently that most people watching this would at least say Jesus is their saviour. He is the one, who, through his sacrificial death on the cross, paid the debt of your sin and now you know that all your sins are forgiven. He is your saviour. But is he your Lord?

Jesus as our Lord is something very different that his being our saviour. And most of us would claim that he is our Lord, but stop and think about it a bit more. I wonder if some of you look at Jesus like we look at the Queen. Yes, she is still our “head of state,”and on our money, but at this point, she is just a figurehead. Is Jesus your functional Lord, or just your figurehead Lord? Do you go to him with your decisions and ask him, or do you just go ahead and figure it will all wash out in the end? Do you actually try to follow what he taught us, or are you living in a way that says you’re the Lord of your life?

Luke 6:46–49 NLT

“So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say? I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house right on the ground, without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.”

Jesus is saying that when the foundation of our lives is our obedience to Jesus, we gain the fortitude to handle life’s struggles. Some of you have been coming to church for a long time now and you’ve gotten real good at listening to Jesus’ teaching, but not actually following it. Jesus didn’t come to gain listeners, he came to gain followers - and not followers in the instagram way where we simply observe people through perfected filters, but followers who are ready to give up their pursuit of riches, their pursuit of power, and their pursuit of comfort to obey Jesus.

Yes, we affirm that Jesus is our Saviour, but we also affirm him as our Lord - as the one who directs our lives and to whom we are accountable for the way we live.

2. Jesus is God’s only Son

Our creed also states that Jesus is God’s only Son. This is important because it connects the person of Jesus to the person called “The Son” in our statement on the trinity, that we looked at in week one. We believe that Jesus of Nazareth is God’s only begotten Son. I say begotten because the Bible tells us that when we put our faith in Jesus, we are adopted as his sons and daughters.

Ephesians 1:4–6 (ESV)

In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

But this isn’t about us. It’s about Jesus. And Jesus is God’s only begotten Son. So what does that mean? It means that the Jesus that the apostles interacted with, the Jesus who flipped the tables in the temple, the Jesus who touched and healed the leper, the Jesus who walked on water and who raised the dead boy back to life is of the same essence as God. Joan Osborne, a folk singer in the 90’s famously sang a song called “One of Us” where she wondered what if God was one of us? Well, that’s Jesus. As God’s only Son, he perfectly embodied the nature and essence of God as he lived and moved among the people of Israel .

Colossians 1:15–20 NIV

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

But how do we know that Jesus is God’s ONLY son. After all, Mormons believe that Lucifer and Jesus were spirit-brothers, with Jesus as the elder brother. So how do we know? I would start by looking at John 3:16, one of the most famous verses in all the Bible - the verse that spurs football teams on to victory every time a player sees the sign with it in the stands.

John 3:16 NIV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John, one of Jesus’ closest friends and apostles, under the power of the Holy Spirit as he wrote his gospel, attests to Jesus being God’s only Son. And so what does this mean for us? I would suggest two things: First, related to the idea that Jesus is our Lord, his sonship means we need to trust in Jesus because he is one with authority. After all, he says at the end of Matthew’s gospel

Matthew 28:18–20 (NIV)

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Jesus has all authority in Heaven and on earth because he is God’s only Son. Second, Jesus’s sonship means that when we get to know Jesus better through the Bible, we actually get to know God better because, as the Son, he is of the same essence as God the Father. We don’t just see a good man interacting with people, teaching them nice ideas and working miracles - we see God and learn his heart for us and witness the depth of his love for us, as he not only serves us, but he dies for us as well

3. Jesus was born of the virgin Mary

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this point because the next part fleshes out the idea more, but the idea that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary is a key theological doctrine. In case you aren’t familiar with the Christmas story, it says in Luke 1

Luke 1:30–35 NLT

“Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!” Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.

The Christmas story isn’t just the story of a young girl being obedient to God. It shows us that Jesus is BORN. He doesn’t just appear one day as an adult and then disappear. He became human and was born, just like you and I. Because he was born of a virgin, it attests to not only the miracle, but the reality that the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and she became pregnant with Jesus. The good news for us is that this event proves to us that Jesus is both truly divine and truly human together, which leads us to our point...

4. Jesus is truly divine and truly human

When we looked at the Trinity at couple of weeks ago, we had to allow for a sense of mystery with this doctrine. There is no way for us to fully understand the concept that God is one and yet three, even though that is how the Bible describes him. Similarly, there is a divine mystery in the person of Jesus Christ - how he is fully human and fully God. Where the Trinity required an ecumenical council to help figure it out in 325AD, the mystery that is Jesus required a fourth ecumenical council to be convened in 451 called the Council of Chalecedon. While they debated many different views of Jesus, what they came out with was a clear definition of Jesus as fully God and fully human. For the history buffs out there, let me read what they wrote:

Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach people 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 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.

Got all that? I know, it’s long. But it shows us how important it is to get this theology right. Here’s why this matters: It all comes down to the atonement. The atonement is the sacrificial death of Jesus that paid for the sins of humanity. And it is crucial for us to that for the atonement to “work” properly, Jesus had to be both fully human and fully God.

Hebrews 2:14–18 NIV

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Jesus had to be fully human in order to be a proper sacrifice for humanity. In the Old Testament, because the sacrifices were animal substitutes for humans, they had no power to free us from the spiritual captivity we were in. But because Jesus was fully human, he broke the power of Satan who holds the power of death. Because Jesus was fully human, our atonement is made sure - our salvation is guaranteed. Because Jesus was fully human, we need not fear death anymore.

But Jesus couldn’t only be human, because humans are finite creatures, not eternal ones. Because Jesus was to atone for all the sins of humanity for all time against an eternal God, only God himself could be a satisfactory sacrifice.

Hebrews 7:23–25 (NIV)

...but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Which is amazing, when you think about it. Instead of God making someone else bear the punishment for our sins, he bears it himself, in Jesus. God solved the problem of our sin and now, by faith in Jesus, we can be reconciled to him and enjoy the eternal and abundant life he offers to each one of us.

Only because Jesus was fully human and fully God could he be a satisfactory sacrfice for my sin and for you sin. But there is one more aspect to who Jesus is that is important for us to know and embrace - That Jesus is without sin.

5. Jesus is without sin

2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Because Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit, the sin nature that we all have - that propensity for sinning - isn’t present in Jesus’ nature. He is fully human, but he is fully human like Adam was before the fall. And in his life, by his daily devotion to the Father, Jesus remained sinless. Although he was tempted, maybe even more so than you and I are, he overcame every temptation by the power of the Holy Spirit. Which is why he was the perfect sacrfice for us.

In the Old Testament sacrificial system, you had to present a lamb that was without defect or spots. It had to be perfect in order to be an acceptable sacrifice. And that system was a shadow of the reality of Jesus’ sacrifice. Like the lambs offered on the altar of the temple, Jesus, the “Lamb of God” was spotless and unblemished and therefore was an acceptable offering for our sins.

Hebrews 9:11–14 NLT

So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever. Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity. Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.

We believe our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, was born of the virgin Mary, is truly divine and truly human, yet is without sin.

What we believe informs what we do. We believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord - that he is the one who directs our steps and the one to whom we are accountable in this life. Today, check your heart. Is there an area in your life, where you resist following Jesus? Is there an area that you want to be in control of, instead of trusting Jesus with it? Bring it before God and surrender it to your Lord today.

We believe that Jesus is both truly divine and truly human, yet is without sin. This means he is the perfect sacrfice for our sins. Which means, if you haven’t put your faith in Jesus to receive his forgiveness, then today is a good day to do that. And if God has been working in you to take that step of faith, I invite you to reach out and email me at [e-mail] so we can walk in this new faith journey together.

We believe that our Lord, Jesus the Christ, is without sin. That he was tempted, like we are everyday, but was able to overcome those temptations and bring glory to the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit -the same Holy Spirit who lives in each of you who have put your faith in Jesus. That means, he knows what it’s like when we are tempted and he helps us. That’s why Paul says

1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

Hebrews 12:1–3 NLT

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.

We believe that Jesus overcame sin and by His power, we can too.

We believe our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, was born of the virgin Mary, is truly divine and truly human, yet is without sin. At the very least, this should cause us to worship and praise God for who He is.

Pray.