“Jesus Christ, the living Word, became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. He Who is true God became true man united in one Person forever. He died on the cross a sacrifice for our sins according to the Scriptures. On the third day He arose bodily from the dead, ascended into Heaven, where, at the right hand of the Majesty on High, He now is our High Priest and Mediator.”
Preaching through the “Essentials of Our Faith”, we encounter the Person of Jesus for the very first time with these words: “Jesus Christ, the living Word, became flesh…” There is much for the believer and the one seeking God in these few words: First, that this “Jesus” is the Christ of God, the long-expected Jewish Messiah Who would save God’s chosen people from their enemies; second, that this same “Jesus” is the living Word of God, all of the Holy Scriptures incarnate, come to life on Earth in human flesh; and, third, that this “Jesus” – Who was born a little more than 2,000 years ago in a land called Judea, a province of the Roman Empire, while a king named Herod the Great was ruling Judea and an emperor who called himself Caesar Augustus was ruling most of the known world – that this same “Jesus” existed as someone or something else before He was born, since it says, “Jesus Christ… became flesh…”
Going back to the idea of being God’s Messiah, if you want to open your Bibles to Psalm 2 you can see something of what the Jews were expecting as they waited for their deliverer. Psalm 2… (pg. 432)
“Why are the nations so angry? Why do they waste their time with futile plans? The kings of the Earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the LORD and against His Christ. [“Christ” is the Greek word for “Messiah”, which in Hebrew means, “anointed one”.] …
“But the One Who rules in Heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them… For the Lord declares, ‘I have placed My chosen king on the throne in Jerusalem, on My holy mountain.’
“The king himself proclaims the LORD’s decree, saying: ‘The LORD said to me, “You are My son. Today I have become your Father. Only ask, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, the whole Earth as your possession.”’”
If you’ll keep the Psalm open in front of you you can see that in their Messiah – their Christ, their anointed one – the Jews were expecting someone who would be their king, an unconquerable military leader, and ?someone whom God would make to be “His Son”. And the Bible tells us, and this Second Essential affirms, that this Jesus, Who existed with God – as God – before God began creating anything, came into the world to be this king: God with us, but human flesh; and God’s words – the fullness of His divine heart and mind – miraculously born into humanity through a virgin, named Mary, from a little Galilean village called Nazareth.
The Essential goes on to enumerate several miracles that are essential to our faith as Christians, if we’re going to call ourselves “Christians”: That Jesus’ birth was a miracle, that is, that the only male involved in His conception was God the Father through the dynamic ministry of God the Holy Spirit; ?that Jesus’ execution on a Roman cross was not a travesty of justice but God’s plan since the beginning to – Himself, in Jesus His Christ – serve the death penalty for humanity’s sin; and, ?that Jesus didn’t – in fact, couldn’t – stay dead, but that He conquered death and showed that – as God’s King – His Kingdom had authority, even over the Land of the Dead itself!
In our modern day there is much skepticism regarding such “miracles” as these. For instance, people say that, likely, Mary became pregnant by some secret boyfriend or a charming Roman soldier… But that’s not a new claim. The Gospel of Matthew records for us that that’s what everyone who heard about Mary’s pregnancy thought! And because of that, Mary’s fiancé, Joseph, could have sentenced her to death because of it. But Matthew records that “Joseph was a righteous man”, and so chose to have her “put away quietly” so as not to disgrace her. (See Matthew 1:18-25) It wasn’t until an angel visited Joseph in a dream that he became convinced that Mary’s “story” of her divine pregnancy was true!
Today scoffers will say that human beings are all basically “good” people, so that God needing to send someone to be sacrificed for our sins is cruel and foolish, and that what happened to Jesus was merely one of the many recorded injustices of Roman rule.
And yet the entire book of Leviticus addresses willful sin and unintentional sin and even sin that people can be completely ignorant of: And how each of these types of sin – even committing acts we didn’t know were wrong! – require a sacrifice to atone for it.
And the Old Testament prophets go on and on about the sinfulness of humanity and the need for a redeemer… Turn in your Bibles to the Prophet Isaiah, 53… (pg. 570) Verse 4 says: “…we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for His own sins! But He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins…” And, hardly a human screw-up, farther along in v. 10 Isaiah goes on to say, “…it was the Lord’s good plan to crush Him and cause Him grief. Yet when His life is made an offering for sin, He will have many descendants…”
You can hear skeptics claim that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, but that His followers merely took His dead body from the tomb and hid it. But that’s nothing new. The Gospel of Matthew records that ancient critique, and reveals that the Jewish priests who had sentenced Jesus to death were the first ones to come up with it! And how they even bribed those who’d been set to guard Jesus’ tomb to spread it around! Dr. Luke in his gospel goes out of his way to show how after rising from the dead that the Lord Jesus was more than a disembodied spirit, and yet more than merely a physical man: He was able to eat, be touched, that His wounds were still visible, and yet that He could appear and disappear at will! (See Luke 24:13-49) The apostle Paul even writes that “more than 500 of His followers at one time” saw the Lord risen and alive!
And yet, even after seeing Him, watching Him, listening to Him, and even touching Him after He was raised from the dead, Matthew records that “some of them doubted.” (Matthew 28:16-17)
The Bible goes on to tell us that “the same One Who descended is the One Who ascended” (Ephesians 4:1-10) back into Heaven and perfect unity with the Father, with all authority over Heaven and Earth, and that from there He intercedes for us, and sometimes confronts us (as He did the apostle Paul on that “Road to Damascus”), and exercises His absolute authority so that all things work together for our good, so that we grow up and grow holy and grow perfect until we are – finally – just like Him!
Magic tricks, once we learn the trick, make us smile and laugh at our limitations and ignorance. As we grow and interact with the world we begin to understand, more and more, the mechanics that make our mysterious machines function. God gives us understanding (we call it “science”) behind the wonders of His universe… Likewise, I believe there will come a day when – in the new Heaven and the new Earth, outside the confines of Time and Space in Eternity, face-to-face with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit – we will be given comprehension of the workings of miracles, and we’ll laugh and find joy in our limitations and ignorance.
Until then, our Daddy in Heaven calls us to live by faith, believing that – and let’s join in reading the Second Essential together: “Jesus Christ, the living Word, became flesh through His miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit and His virgin birth. He Who is true God became true man united in one Person forever. He died on the cross a sacrifice for our sins according to the Scriptures. On the third day He arose bodily from the dead, ascended into Heaven, where, at the right hand of the Majesty on High, He now is our High Priest and Mediator.”
Ascription of Praise
To the God of all grace, Who calls you (and me!) to share His eternal glory in union with Christ, be the power forever!
(1 Peter 5:10-11)