So Great a Salvation (Pt. 2)

Big Idea

Tension: How can God “help” the children of Abraham in their struggle against Satan, death, guilt, and temptation?

Resolution: By becoming a human himself to die in their place.

Exegetical Idea: God helps the children of Abraham in their struggle against Satan, death, guilt, and temptation by becoming a human to die in their place.

Theological Idea: The only way our sins can be defeated and atoned for is through the Incarnation of Christ.

Homiletical Idea: In order to save us, Christ became one of us.

Outline

Introduction: How can God save us? Have you ever met someone who you’ve shared the gospel with, or maybe they have a problem in their life. Maybe they’ve made a lot of mistakes, maybe they’re addicted to alcohol or pornography, maybe they are anxious or nervous, maybe they’re superstitious, and you share the gospel wtih them, and then in a moment of rare honesty, they say, “how could God really save me from this?”

Who does God help?

Helping - taking by the hand

Not angels

Not all men

What was Abraham known for? He was known for his faith (Gen 15:6)

But those who are the children of Abraham - both Jews and Gentiles - those who have faith in Jesus. (Galatians 3:7-9)

How we need to be saved

Satan

We need to be saved from the one who has the power of death - the devil

Satan’s power is death is not because he decides who has death and when, but rather, because he tricked humanity into death in the very beginning.

The only way this can happen is if death itself was put to death. (Is 25:7-8)

We see that Christ has indeed done this on the cross. He has died taking death to the grave, and he rose again to die no more. Satan’s chief tool in his arsenal is gone, it’s destroyed and defeated.

The fear of death

We also need to be saved from the fear of death, a lifelong slavery

You see, we all have, I think, in the back of our minds a dread that our life is limited. Have you ever wondered why you try to distract yourself so much? Because life is short. You can even see this in our culture because people are afraid of death. They don’t like to talk about it. We don’t like to say, “so and so died.” We talk about them passing, we talk about them going home, we talk about them being no longer with us. But we are afraid to say people “die.”

And if you are a Christian, you don’t have to pretend that people don’t die. Because death is defeated. So what if I only have 25, 55, 85 years here? There is eternity to look forward to.

The guilt of our sin

I think we also need to be rescued from the guilt of our sin. You know the Bible tells us that “There is none righteous, no not one.” Or as Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”

The reality is that God is a holy God. As Hebrews 12:40 will tell us, there is a holiness without which no one will see the Lord. And if you and I are to come before this holy God, we need to have our sins dealt with. They need to be removed; we need to be cleansed. We need, as the Bible says, “propitiation.” That word simply means, we need God’s righteous anger towards our unrighteousness removed.

The only way the Bible tells us that can happen is if we have a sacrifice or a substitute. We need someone to stand in the place of our sins. We need someone to stand in the gap.

This is exactly what Hebrews tells us that Christ does. He is a “merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God.” He is merciful, because he removes the stain of the worst sinner. He is faithful because he never stops forgiving. He is a high priest not because he finds an animal to be our substitute, but because he himself is our substitute. (Heb 9:11-14) He makes propitiation, he turns away teh wrath of God on our sins.

The weight of temptation

But not only this, we need someone who can not only help us from the guilt of sins already committed, but we need someone who can help us when we are tempted. We need someone who can guide us and protect us. We need someone who we can follow.

And this Christ himself did when he was tempted. Christ was tempted at the beginning of his ministry - when Satan brought every form of temptation against him. And he was tempted at the end of his ministry - when in his own soul he cried out, “Father, if you are willing let this cup pass.” When he poured drops of anxious blood.

This is why later on, Hebrews will call him a “sympathetic high priest” in Heb 4:15.

How is this possible? How can God do all this. After all, God himself is high and exalted. He is not tempted. God cannot die and rise again, so he can’t destroy the power of Satan or the fear of death. Furhter, God cannot die, so he can’t act as our high priest. ANd God cannot be tempted with evil. HOw in the world can God do this?

How Christ achieves that - only if he becomes one with us.

Just as the children share in flesh and blood - this just means “have the same nature.”

So he also “partook” of the same things. He indulged in the same things.

He “took hold of us”

He “had to be made like his brothers in every respect

John 1:14 - He “pitched his tent” among us, he dwelt among us, he became one of us.

Everything that we mean when we describe God is true of him. And everything that we mean when we dedscribe human nature is true of him. Salvation can only happen if he becomes our savior. Atonement can only happen by the incarnation.

This is why the early church rejected all forms of Arianism. Arianism is the doctrine and the belief that there was a time when teh Son of God did not exist, that the son was himself a created creature. Today, modern Arians include some Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, some forms of Pentecostalism, and liberal theology. If people do not believe that the Son of God is fully God and has always existed, they are heretics and they are not Christians.

BUt the early church also rejected all forms of adoptionism or docetism. Adoptionism teaches that Jesus was a divine spirit that made use of a human body, but he was not really human. Or it teaches that he only appeared to be human. But the early church Father, Gregory of Nazianzus was correct whe nhe said, “Whatever he has not assumed he has not healed.” If Christ did not have a human mind, then the mind is not healed. if Christ did not have a human spirit, then the spirit is not healed. if Christ did not have a human body then the body is not healed. If Christ was not fully a human then humanity is not fully healed.

The only way that you and I can be saved for our sins is if Christ Jesus became one of us and thank God! He did!

Application

Here is the rub - if this is true you can’t save yourself. I mean look at everything God has done for you, and you think you can save yourself by being a good boy or girl, by going to church, by donating extra to a food pantry? This is a hard grace. it’s not hard because you have to be good to earn it, it’s hard because you have to be at the end of your rope. Let me put it this way. If the core of your Christianity is the things that you do for God instead of what God has already done for you, then you’re not a Christian. Salvation is by grace alone. Stop trying to prove to God that you don’t need this. Who do you think you’re fooling anyways?

I would also say this by way of application. If you really believe this, then you’ll want to be where Jesus is. If you believe that Jesus is the only help in temptation, that Jesus is the only one who forgives, that Jesus is the only help from Satan, that Jesus relieves anxiety and fear of death, then you’ll want to be where he is. And Jesus has promised he is particularly with his church. When the church gathers, we sing of Jesus, and we speak of Jesus, and we dine with Jesus. If you really think that the only way for salvation is through the work of Christ in becoming one of us, then you’ll want to be those places where he has promised himself to be.