The fully human Son (Part 2)

Announcer:  Welcome to Sword of the Spirit; Written and presented by Colin Dye, senior minister of Kensington Temple and leader of London City Church.  Sword of the Spirit is a dynamic teaching series equipping the believers of today to build the disciples of tomorrow.  We pray that you find these programs inspiring and a catalyst in deepening your knowledge of God, your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and your intimacy with the Holy Spirit.

Colin Dye: Hello and welcome to the Sword of the Spirit, a school of ministry in the Word and the Spirit, our topic is: “Knowing the Son” and we’ve begun to discover that while Christians truly believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and carries the very nature of God Himself, He is also fully human.  The Bible says that the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us that means God has come down to this earth; He’s become part of humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.  He is flesh, and you know when the Bible uses that term, flesh, it’s speaking about the frailty of human flesh.  He really, really became human.  That meant He suffered and experienced all the full range of human emotions.  He knew what it was to be sorrowful, He knew what it was to be happy and joyful.  He experienced everything that we experienced but there is one important exception to this, Jesus is fully human but He is also sinless.  He is the first man on the planet since Adam and Eve that was here sinless and of course, in all the tests and trials that Jesus experienced, He never committed sin.  The Bible says He committed no sin and there was no deceit in His mouth.  Never did Jesus have a wrong thought or a wrong action.  He never spoke a wrong word He always pleased His Heavenly Father and this is so important to us because that makes Jesus qualified to be our Savior!  If you want to go to somebody to help them with your problem, go to somebody who knows how to deal with it.  Go to somebody successful and Jesus Christ can teach you how to live a life that pleases God, because He has lived that life that pleases God.

The Bible says He who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  Yes, Jesus was completely and fully sinless and that’s why He qualified to be our Savior.  Now in today’s teaching we’re gonna go deeper into the teaching of the sinlessness of Jesus Christ, we’re going to see just how important it is to understand that Jesus Christ has conquered sin and therefore qualified to be our Savior, the One who is the sinless One, is the One who became our Savior because He was totally sinless.

One Peter 2, verse twenty-two, He who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth.  One John 3, verse five, and you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him, there is no sin.  And so this is the doctrinal assertion of the early church concerning Jesus.  The epistles declare that Jesus was sinless, what about the example of His life in the gospels.  There is no specific claim that Jesus was sinless in the gospels.  Now, I’m not saying that they didn’t believe it but they didn’t actually specifically state it because they didn’t need to state it!  They just told us about Him and said, “you make your own conclusion” and it’s very clear that the way Jesus is presented in the gospels, that there are plenty of pointers to His absolute perfection and there is nothing that contradicts this idea at all that Jesus is sinless.

For example, it never makes any confession of sin; it’s a testimony of all the saints of God down through the ages that the closer you get to God the more conscience you become of your sin.  And one of the marks of spirituality, certainly for us is that we confess our sins and yet we never find Jesus confessing His sins; so either you must be the most arrogant self-righteous person that ever lived, or He is sinless, and the gospels presents us with the choice that takes us in the direction of the latter alternative.

Never makes any confession of sin, in fact He calls people to repentance without ever needing or revealing any need for Himself to repent.  Even Mary, the mother of Jesus speaks about God being her Savior, acknowledging that she needs forgiveness, acknowledging that she needs repentance.  The sinlessness of Mary is not a doctrine taught in the Scripture.  It’s the sinlessness of Jesus and if you want to know historically how that doctrine came in, it was because people wanting to preserve the purity and the wonder and the majesty of Jesus.  And so they came up with this idea that in order for Jesus to have been born pure then the, the vehicle that brought Him into the world must also have been born pure.

And so you have what they, what the Roman Catholics teach about the Immaculate Conception of Mary.  That she was conceived without original sin.  And as much as I sympathize with every desire to show how perfect and sinless, Jesus was, in this instance they’re totally mistaken because Mary needed to be saved just like anybody else.  So we don’t need to go to those extremes to defend this, because the gospels present Jesus sufficiently in all His glory and splendor.  And his majesty and His purity without us having to struggle to fine human doctrines to try to add to what God has said and what God has done.

So, Jesus finds, we find Him calling people to repentance without needing any repentance Himself.  He submits to John’s baptism to fulfill righteousness not to signify repentance.  He says, “John, let it be so.”  John said, “This shouldn’t be, I shouldn’t be baptizing You, You should be baptizing me!”  And Jesus said, “Yes but let it, let it be so because it is right to fulfill righteousness.”  It wasn’t a sign that He was repenting and turning away from sin, He had no sin to turn away from.  The Father said, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!”

He was identifying with us in our condition and He was fulfilling the righteousness of God.  I think in some ways the baptism of Jesus was a consecration on Jesus part.  He was saying, “Father, here I am, I am coming to do Your will, I consecrate Myself, I separate Myself unto You and Your purpose for My life.”  And it was a preparation for His public ministry amongst other things, but it certainly was not a sign that He was a sinner.

We find Jesus showing acute sensitivity and resistance against sin!  Matthew 16, verse twenty-three, turn to Peter and says, “get behind me Satan, you’re an offense to me, you’re not mindful of the things of God but the things of man!”  O no, He resists evil, He fully resists temptation, we see it in the gospels, “get behind me Satan!”  We also find Him saying, “Satan, it is written it is written,” He resists the temptations.  He condemns hypocrisy in others and doesn’t receive any criticism that He Himself was hypocritical.  Nobody could say, “Jesus, You say one thing and do something else.”  Even His enemies acknowledge that a He was faultless.  You’ll find Him urging other people to be as perfect as God without involving Himself in that same exhortation.  He differentiates Himself from His evil hearers, “you being evil,” He says.  He’s a never accused of not living up to His teaching.  He makes astonishing claims that would be arrogant if His moral status didn’t match them.  It’s one thing to say something, He talked the talk but He also walked the walk.

As I say, His enemies didn’t accuse Him or couldn’t accuse or charge in sin in any way.  It’s a very powerful statement about this in John’s gospel.  John 8 verse, forty-four, you are of the father you’re Devil and the desires of your father you want to do.  He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him, when he lie’s, he speaks a lie, speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of lies.

So we find that he is totally, constantly exposing, error, heresy, lies and darkness and others.  How could He do this unless He Himself was shining with moral truth and moral purity?  He claimed to do the will of God in a way that it was unthinkable to do otherwise.  “My food is to do the will of God, the One who sent Me.”  He also claims to be one with the Father and no sinner can claim to be at one with the Father.  You see, He is totally united with God and lining up in His lifestyle with that great claim in His life.

And so the early church refers to Jesus as being the sinless One, the spotless One.  And we find that everywhere in the epistles, He’s called Holy, Righteous.  And , the sinlessness of Jesus is clear in the  Bible doctrine of salvation, particularly in Paul’s teaching of salvation.  Just as I said earlier, that the book of Hebrews was showing that a Jesus had to be fully human in order to be a High Priest to mediate for us.  So Paul in two very powerful scriptures in Second Corinthians 5 and Galatians chapter three showed that Jesus had to be sinless for His death to be acceptable and to be effective.  Second Corinthians five, verse twenty-one, for He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  So in other words first of all, Jesus had to be sinless in order to be our sacrifice and for God to lay upon Him our sin.  And if He were a sinner He would be dying for His own sin, not for the sins of others.  But more importantly, or not more importantly but in addition to this, we find that the righteousness that Jesus had, is given to us as a gift by faith.  That’s what it means to be declared righteous; it means that our condemnation is lifted because Jesus carried the condemnation for us as our substitute sacrifice.  And also, the righteousness that we fail to have, we are given as a free gift from God!  And so He was made sin with our sinfulness that we might be made right, righteous with His righteousness.

And so in, in both these ways to qualify to be our sacrifice or the sacrifice on our behalf, and to qualify to be our righteousness, Jesus had to live a holy and righteous life, a sinless life.  Galatians three, verse thirteen says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.  He became a curse, it doesn’t mean to say that He was a curse He wasn’t a sinner.  He took the sinners place but He wasn’t a sinner.  He took our curse; He didn’t become a curse in the sense that He carried a curse in His own life.  No, He carried our curse in His body.

So, this shows us that Jesus had to be a fully, had to be fully sinless for His death to be an acceptable and an effective sacrifice.  We should think carefully, and when we think carefully about this, we discover that Jesus could only be made sin if He was without sin, He could only be made a curse if He was not under a curse Himself.

Over the years, some scholars have wondered whether Jesus absolute sinlessness meant that it was impossible for Him to commit sin.  Now, this is expressed in the two, the discussion goes around these two kind of phrases.  Either, it was not possible for Jesus to sin or it was simply possible for Him not to sin.  Now think about that, it’s a very, very important thing.  And it’s been a puzzle that theologians have puzzled about for centuries.  And  we’re not going to be able to resolve that puzzle today but simply, let me say these things.  The New Testament asserts that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are and yet He was completely sinless remember that.  He was tempted in every way as we’re tempted yet He was completely sinless.  Others have gone on to say, “well how could Jesus be fully human if He was not in some way predisposed to sin in the way that we are, or at least how could He be made fully human if it was not possible for Him to sin?”  We’re into some very, very deep areas when we think about these things, but remember this; this is what we are clear on in the scriptures.  The New Testament never suggests that Jesus had to become identical with humanity in its fallen nature to redeem it from sin.  He didn’t have to become a sinner in order to save sinners; in fact, He had to make sure that He didn’t become a sinner in order to save sinners.

And so however closely He identified with us, it was short of Himself actually becoming a sinner.  Instead, it suggests that Jesus was another Adam, truly human as God intended for all humanity to be but without the Adamic nature, the nature that Adam had after he fell, the post Eden Adamic fallen nature.  But even as Adam demonstrated, perfect unfallen humanity possessed a freedom to sin when faced with real temptation.  So I will dodge the question, as to whether it was possible for Jesus to sin, because it’s a very deep theological question.  But I will say clearly that it’s my conviction that Jesus had the freedom to sin.  Jesus could have said no to the Father, He had that choice.  Just as Adam had the choice, but He chose to obey God and to go God’s way.  So Jesus had the freedom to sin when faced with real temptation, in other words the temptations were real.  How could he be tempted in every way that we are if He didn’t have the freedom to yield if He so chose to but He chose God’s way and God’s will every time.

So the true wonder of Jesus sinless humanity is that He alone did not succumb to the temptation to say no to God.  He said yes and that yes is spoken from within humanity, which is the key to our salvation.  Mankind, humanity said no to God in Adam and we’ve all demonstrated that we’ve followed the steps of Adam.  Every one of us has turned to our own way we all have said no to God and yes to ourselves.  But there is another humanity that has come, His name is Jesus.  He’s the second Adam, and not just the second, the last one.  No more coming now because Jesus has finished the work and He heads up a new humanity for as in Adam all die so in Christ, all shall be made alive and in this new humanity, there is a yes that is resounded from out of human flesh for all eternity.  And that yes was spoken by our second Adam, the last Adam who was unlike the first Adam, tested and tried in terrible circumstances where as the first one was tested and tried in ideal circumstances.  And unlike the first, Adam who failed the second Adam succeeded.  And yet, He is Adam, He is human and out of that humanity he’s spoken a yes to God on behalf of all His sons.  Now we are the sons of the second Adam and we say yes to God.

Well, let’s talk about the Son-ship of Jesus.  Now the Bible reveals many facets of God’s nature through the names by which He introduces Himself to His people.  And through the names and titles with which people speak to Him to address Him and in the same way the fully human and fully divine nature of  God of, God the Son of Jesus Christ is seen here in these titles.  And there’s so many of them, I’m going to read them all; He’s Jesus, He’s the Christ, He’s the Son of David, He’s the Son of Abraham, He’s the King of the Jews, the Nazarene, the Lord, He’s a God who says My beloved Son.  He is the Son of God.  He is the Lord your God.  He is the Teacher, the Son of man, the Bridegroom, the Lord of the Sabbath, the Son of the Living God, the Profit, the King, the Rabbi, Jesus the Galilean, the Holy One of God, the Son of the Most High God, the Carpenter, the Son of Mary, the Brother of James, Josses, Judas and Simian and all His sisters, the Son of the Blessed, the Chosen of God, the Lamb of God, the Savior of the World, the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the I am, the Door of the Sheep, the Good Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, the Way, the Truth and the Life, the True Vine, My Lord and My God, the Holy One, and the Just, the Prince of Life, the Prince and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Passover, the Head of the Church, the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, the Author of Salvation, the Apostle and High Priest, the Captain of Salvation, the Lord of Glory, the Chief Shepherd, the Word of Life, the Faithful Witness, the First Born from the dead, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Amen, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the root of David, the Faithful and True, the Bright and Morning Star. Hallelujah, let’s give Him a praise offering right now, that’s who You are Jesus, we worship You!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!

Even though most of these names and titles are only used once or twice in the New Testament, we can learn a so much a from them and it would be a good study just to study all of these in their specific context.  Nearly all of these names and titles have an Old Testament background.  That’s why in the Sword of the Spirit series, I spend so much time in every topic, digging into the Old Testament.  Showing the foundation of our New Testament Revelation, that the Old Testament is, is the gospel in embryo.  The New Testament is the full body of that, the Old Testament is the body, is the gospel in shadows, in types in pictures.  But the full substance and the realities in the New Testament, in the Old Testament, the, the, the gospel is in kind of bad form, in the New Testament is in blooming form, it’s, it’s full, and, and, and, and, and complete.

So we need to go back to the Old Testament and to find the background for many of these New Testament titles.  We can learn so much about the nature and mission of Jesus as we look at all those names and titles.  And a but we need to consider their backgrounds carefully if we’re going to appreciate all these insights.  But there are four titles, which are used with great frequency in the New Testament, four titles above these others, which I used very frequently.  Number one, the Christ, number two the Son of man, number three, the Lord, and number four, the Son of God.  These teach us a great deal about the unique character and calling of Jesus.  Now it may be an oversimplification but you can think that these titles point either to His full humanity or His full divinity.  It’s boldly true that the title the Christ and the Son of man focus more on His humanity and that the title, Lord and the Son of God, stress His divinity.  And so we have a perfect balance here.  These four major titles, two are stressing His humanity, Jesus the Christ and Jesus the Son of man and two demonstrate and stress His divinity, the Lord and the Son of God.

So we’re going to begin to look at Jesus the Christ, the title Christ.  The Greek word Christos, Hebrew word, Messiac means the anointed man.  It’s the equivalent to the Hebrew term the Messiah, the anointed man, this shows that Jesus was a man who was specially anointed or set apart for a specific task.  The Christ is Jesus most widely used title and the fact that the first believers were soon described as Christians, illustrates for us the importance to the way that we know the Son has the Christ.

Let’s spend a brief time looking into the Old Testament here, the Old Testament looks forward to a Messianic age.  It promises a, a wonderful time for God’s people, a time when Messiah would come.  And would be a golden age of glory and of blessing.  And a, a I’ve given you many Old Testament scriptures that predict that this Messianic age, the age of the Messiah.  But it’s interesting and maybe a little surprising that the word Messiah or the title is used prophetically only in Daniel chapter nine.  Where it says, verses twenty-five to twenty-six, know therefore and understand that from the going forth and of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah, the Prince there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.  So this is the time, when only time when the title Messiah is used prophetically to describe someone who is coming.  A, a, other times it’s relating to those who are anointed in that day in generation.  People who are anointed for particular purposes but there is One who is called the Anointed in a very clear and a relevant way and surprisingly this one is a pagan king by the name of Sirius, Sirius, a foreign king.  And He is anointed by God, as, as God’s anointed to fulfill a specific task and from this anointing that was upon Sirius, we find there were five messianic principles that we can draw when we understand this term, He was especially chosen by God, Isaiah forty-one verse twenty-five.  I’ve raised one up from the north and he shall come from the rising of the sun and he shall call on my name, he shall come against princes through, as the water as the potter treads the clay.

He was appointed to serve and accomplish a redemptive purpose towards God’s people, Isaiah forty-five verses eleven to thirteen go on to talk about that, He was appointed to execute God’s judgment, He was given dominion over the nations in all His activities the real agent was God Himself.  Now these are five prophetic principles concerning Messiah ship, or at least Sirius is a prophetic picture carrying these Messianic principles that tell us something about Jesus.  When Jesus came He came as the One chosen by God to accomplish a redemptive purpose to execute God’s judgment and to be given dominion over the nations and in all His activities, Jesus was an agent for God, God was the One who was acting through Him.

And so we have at the close of this session some principles that we’re going to pick up later on in the next session to see how these things were taken up in Jesus life.  But for now let’s notice this, that here we have a picture in the Old Testament of One who is powerfully anointed to bring redemption to God’s people.  Deliverance and judgment and One who acts on behalf of Almighty God, that’s the Messiah and His name is Jesus and we’re going to see His glory more and more in our lives.  Well God bless you as we come to an end of this session and we’ll come back next time to pick it up from here.  So till then, God bless you.

That brings to an end today’s teaching on “Knowing the Son,” and I pray that throughout these programs God will give you greater and greater revelation concerning Jesus Christ the Son of God, we’ll be back next time with more teaching on “Knowing the Son.”

Recommended reading

Dye, Colin. Knowing the Son
Kensington Temple, 2008