Jesus Christ, The Son of God
Christianity differs from all religions, because it is
more than a religion—it is the life of the Son of God made living in man. Christ is Christianity and Christianity is
Christ. He is the supreme subject of
each book of the N.T. and fulfills all the promises of God in the O.T., from
His incarnation to His Second Coming as “Lord of Lords and King of Kings” They all wage war against the Lamb, and the
Lamb will triumph over them; for He is Lord of lords and King of kings—… (Rev.
17:14) He is the God-man Christ
Jesus in glory, exalted above all creatures, having “all power in heaven and in
earth” Jesus approached and breaking the silence, said to them, All authority
(all power of rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Matt. 28:18)
During His earthly ministry, He claimed to be God
incarnate (in human flesh). He is all
that He claimed to be, or He is less than the least. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning
and the End, says the Lord God. He Who
is and Who was and Who is to come, the Almighty (the Ruler of all). (Rev. 1:8) Before His claim can be
denied, there are some things that must be accounted for:
His virgin birth
His holy, sinless life
His many miracles
His vicarious death and His bodily
resurrection
I. The Deity of
Jesus Christ
In the beginning [before all time] was the
Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. (John 1:1)
The deity of Jesus Christ, or His God nature, is well
established in the N.T. Some of the
facts are:
A. He is called God by the Apostle John v. 1
B. He is called God by the Apostle Thomas
Thomas answered Him. My Lord and my God! (John 20:28
C. He is called
God by God the Father. But as to the Son, He says to Him, Your
throne, O God, is forever and ever (to the ages of the ages), and the scepter
of Your kingdom is a scepter of absolute righteousness (of justice and
straightforwardness). Hebrews 1:8
D. He claimed
to be God, in that He was with the Father before creation. And
now, Father, glorify Me along with Yourself and restore Me to such majesty and
honor in Your presence as I had with You before the world existed. (John 17:5)
E. He received
worship and only God is to be worshiped.
Angels refused worship. Man
refused worship.
And those in the boat knelt and
worshiped Him, saying, Truly You are the Son of God! ( Matt. 14:33) …I heard and saw the, I fell prostrate before
the feet of the messenger (angel….he said to me, Refrain! [You must not do
that!] I am [only] a fellow servant along with yourself and ….Worship God!
(Rev. 22:8-9) As Peter arrived,
Cornelius met him and falling down at his feet he made obeisance and paid
worshipful reverence to him. But Peter
raised him us, saying Get up; I myself am also a man. (Acts 10: 25-26)
F. He
forgives sin. Only God can forgive
sin. (The story of Him healing the
paralyzed man, “Son your sins are
forgiven [you] and put away [that is, the penalty is remitted, the sense of
guilt removed, and you are made upright and in right standing with God].” –the Pharisees were critical—Jesus knew it
and said, “But that you may know
positively and beyond a doubt that the Son of Man has right and authority and
power on earth to forgive sins— (Mark
2:5-11)
G. He is
Creator and Maker of all things. For it is in Him that all things were
created, in heaven and on earth. Things seen and things unseen, whether
thrones, dominions, rulers or authorities; all things were created and exist
through Him [by His service, intervention] and in and for Him. (Col. 1:16)
Only God can control the universe.
H. He is Sustainer of all things. He is
the sole expression of the glory of God [the Light-being, the out-raying or
radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of
[God’s] nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the
universe by His mighty word of power.
When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance
of guilt. He set down at the right hand
of the divine Majesty on high. (Hebrews
1:3)
I. He claimed
to have “all power in heaven and in earth”.
Only God has all power. Jesus approached and, breaking the silence,
said to them, All authority (all power of rule) in heaven and on earth has been
given to Me. Matt. 28:18
J. He walked
upon the blue waters of Galilee. The
winds and the waves obeyed His command.
He healed the sick and raised the dead.
He gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. He cast out demons and made the lame to
walk. He turned water into wine and fed
five thousand with the lunch of a lad.
II. The
Humanity of Jesus Christ
Is seen
in His human parentage And on going into
the house, they saw the Child with Mary His mother, and they fell down and
worshiped Him…. (Matt. 2: 11)
A. He developed
as a normal human being. And Jesus increased in wisdom (in broad and
full understanding) and in stature and years, and in favor with God and
man. (Luke 2:52)
B. He
was subject to all the sinless infirmities of the human nature:
* He
hungered. And He went without food for forty days and forty nights, and later He
was hungry. (Matt. 4:2)
* He
was thirsty. After this, Jesus knowing that all was now finished (ended), said in
fulfillment of the Scripture, I thirst.
(John 19:28)
* He was weary.
And Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, tired as He was from His journey,
sat down [to rest] by the well… (John
4:6)
* He wept. Jesus
wept (John 11:35
* He
was tempted. For we do not have a High Priest Who is unable to understand and
sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities and
inability to the assaults of temptation but One “Who has been tempted in every
respect as we are, yet without sinning.
(Hebrews 4:15)
Jesus is man and yet He is more than man. He is not God and man, but the God-man. He is God in human flesh, His two natures,
are bound together in such a way that the two become one, Having a single
consciousness and will.
III. The Virgin
Birth of Jesus Christ
Is
without parallel in human history. It
was by the virgin birth that God became man, one perfect Person but two
natures: one nature being that of Almighty God, the other being that of man—man
without sin (Hebrews 4:15)…as we just read.
The union of the two natures became the God-man Christ Jesus.
A. The first hint of the virgin birth is found
in Gen. 3:15 The One to defeat Satan was to be born of “the seed of the
woman.” This is a biological miracle;
there is no “seed of the woman.” From
this, we are to understand that One was to be born of a woman without a human
father. And Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I have no [intimacy
with any man as a] husband? Then the angel
said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High
will overshadow you [like a shining cloud]; and so the holy (pure, sinless)
Thing (Offspring) which shall be born of you will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:34-35)
B. Isaiah prophesied that a “virgin would conceive, and bear a son and shall call His name Immanuel
– God with us –“ ( Isaiah 7:14)
C. Again Isaiah
prophesied saying, Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given” (Isa.
9:6-7) This means that God gave His only
begotten Son who was with Him from eternity, and the Child Jesus was born of a
virgin. God gave His Son “unto us”.
D. According to prophecy, He was to be born in
Bethlehem. But you Bethlehem Ephratah, you are little to be among the clans of
Judah; [yet] out of you shall One come forth for Me Who is to be Ruler in
Israel. Whose goings forth have been
from of old, from ancient days (eternity).
(Micah 5:2)
IV. The Death
of Jesus Christ
Is
mentioned more than 120 times in the N. T., and is spoken of many times by the
Prophets in the Old Testament.
A. The death of Jesus Christ was vicarious. Just as
the Son of Man came not be waited on but to serve, and to give His life as a
ransom for many [the price paid to set them free. (Matt. 20:28) He was
God’s substitute for sinners. (II
Cor. 5:21) On the cross Christ was made sin for the sinner. By faith in Him, the sinner is made righteous
with the righteousness of God.
B. The death of Jesus Christ was natural. By a natural death – His spirit and soul were
separated from His body. [They did not
break His leg because they saw that He was dead…they did pierce His side and immediately blood and water came
(flowed) out. And he who saw it (the eyewitness) give this evidence, and his
testimony is true; and he knows that he tells the truth, that you may believe
also… (John 19:31-37)
C. The death of
Jesus Christ was unnatural. For the wages which sin pays is death, but
the [bountiful] free gift of God is eternal life through (in union with) Jesus
Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23) By an
unnatural death: “He was sinless, “Did no sin” and “had no sin” “knew no sin”—before
He could die, He has to be “made sin for us.”
(I Peter 2:22, I John 3:5, II Cor.
5:21) Therefore, His death was unnatural.
D. The death of Jesus Christ was
preternatural. And all the inhabitants of the earth will fall down in adoration and
pay him homage, everyone whose name has not been recorded in the Book of Life of
the Lamb that was slain [in sacrifice] from the foundation of the world. (Rev.13:8) By this is meant that the
death of Jesus Christ was not an afterthought with God; it was the forethought
of God.
E. The death of Jesus Christ was supernatural. (John
10:17-18) Jesus said, “no man taketh life from me”. Then He said, “I lay it down of myself (supernaturally). “I have
power to take it up again.” (supernaturally). This He did on the cross, and three days and
three nights later, He took life up again when He arose from the dead. Only God in the form of man could die a
vicarious, natural, unnatural, preternatural and supernatural death!
V. The
Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus
said, “I am the resurrection and the
life.” (John 11:25) The resurrection of Jesus Christ was the
doctrine of every disciple, the faith of every true believer, the courage of
every martyr, the theme of every sermon and the power of every evangelist. Luke tells us that we have many infallible
proofs of His resurrection. To them also He showed Himself alive after
His passion (His suffering in the garden and on the cross) by [a series of]
many convincing demonstrations [unquestionable evidences and infallible
proofs], appearing to them during forty days and talking [to them] about the
things of the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:8)
*He
appeared first to Mary Magdalene after His resurrection. (John 20:11-18)
* He
appeared to the women returning from the sepulcher (Matt.28:5-10)
* He
appeared to Peter (Luke 24:34)
* He
appeared to the Emmaus disciples (Luke 24:13-31)
* He
appeared to the apostles, Thomas not present
(Luke 24:36-43)
* He appeared to the apostles, Thomas present (John
20:24-29)
* He appeared to the seven by the Sea of Tiberias (John 21:1-23)
* He appeared to over 500 brethren (I Cor. 15:6)
* He was
seen of James (I Cor. 15:7)
* He was
seen again by the 11 apostles (Matt.28:16-20 Acts 1:3-12)
* He was
seen of Stephen, the first martyr (Acts 7:55)
* He was
seen of Paul on his way to Damascus (Acts
9:3-6 I Cor. 15:8)
Many of these eye witnesses died martyrs’ deaths
because they preached the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They were glad to die for a living
Christ. They had the “infallible
proofs.”
When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane,
all of His disciples “forsook Him and fled (Matt.
26:56) From this time until after
His resurrection, the disciples lived in fear.
They did not believe that He would rise from the dead (John 20:9) Had Jesus not come from the dead, the cross
would have been the end of Christianity.
After the death of Jesus, we see His disciples dejected, discouraged and
defeated. The death of Jesus meant but
one thing to them: the end. How do we
account for the great change that came into their lives three days and three
nights later? The only logical
explanation is that they had the “infallible proofs” that He had risen from the
dead and was alive forevermore. They saw
Him, touched Him and ate with Him.
Now, look at some “infallible proofs” according to
circumstantial evidence:
* The
change that came into the lives of the disciples after the resurrection—from
fear to unlimited courage. The rejoiced
in persecution (Acts 5:40-42) They chose death, with faith in the
resurrected Christ, rather than to deny that faith and be delivered. (Hebrews
11:35)
* The
early church began to worship on the first day of the week, the day of the
resurrection. It was not a law—it was
spontaneous (Acts 20:7). For almost 2000 years, the church has
worshiped on the first day. For the
Christian, every Sunday is Easter.
* The
early Christians went everywhere with the word of the resurrection. (Acts
8:1-4)
* The
empty tomb—for if Jesus is not alive, what happened to His body? The Roman guards were paid to say, “His
disciples came by night and stole Him away while we slept!” (Matt.28:12-13). First the disciples lacked the courage. Had the disciples stolen His body, then how
do you account for the fact that they are suffered, and most of them died a
martyr’s death? In the face of death,
one of them would have revealed the hiding place of the “stolen body” to save
his own life. Second, no one was ever
arrested or tried for stealing the body of Jesus. It is evident that the governing officials
did not believe the story of the guards.
Third, the guard could have been put to death for sleeping while on
watch. Fourth, if they were asleep, how
could they have known that it was the disciples who “stole” the body? Fifth, had the enemies of Jesus moved the
body, they could have produced it and brought a quick end to Christianity, and
they would have!
* The
grave clothes found in the empty tomb are proof of the resurrection (John 20:1-10) Had friend or foe stolen
the body, they would not have removed the grave clothes, since He had been dead
three days and nights. When John saw the
grave clothes and recognized that they were folded the same as when they were
wrapped about the body, he knew that a miracle had taken place. Jesus came out of the clothes, they collapsed
without disturbing the folds. They were
left in the empty tomb as “infallible proof”, and when John saw and understood,
he believed that Jesus had come from the dead.
VI. The Ascension
and Second Coming of Jesus Christ
After
forty days of instructing His disciples, the risen Christ ascended up on high,
is seated at the right hand of the Father (Heb.10:12) Two men brought the message of His Second
Coming to the apostles: “This same
Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner.” The message of the 2nd
Coming of Jesus is so important that it is mentioned over three hundred times
in the N.T.
* He is
coming to take His church to be with Him
(I Thess. 4:16-17, John 14:16)
* He is
coming to judge the nations. (Matt. 25:31-46)
* He is
coming to save Israel (Rom. 11:25-26)
* He is
coming to sit upon the throne of David (Luke 1:31-33, Isa. 9:6-7)
* He is
coming to bring righteous government to this earth (Heb. 1:8)
Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth again. “Even so, come Lord Jesus (Rev. 11:20)
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