Series: Growing Together in God's Grace
Dear friends in Christ.
Even though we are in the middle
of winter right now, let’s fast forward in our thinking to the summer time and
baseball season. Imagine with me that
today is the state championship game. It
is the bottom of the 9th inning, the bases are loaded, there are two outs. Le Sueur is just one hit away from winning
the title and the team’s weakest hitter is up.
The team’s best hitter is on the bench because he injured his ankle and
can’t play shortstop as he usually does.
But he has his uniform on so he can pinch-hit if he is needed. What would you do if this was your situation
and you were the coach? Without even
having to think about it, you would have your best hitter pinch-hit so that the
team would have a better chance at winning the title and going home
victorious. In a similar way, we have a
“pinch hitter” who stepped in and won salvation for all of us. We could never win salvation for ourselves,
so Jesus became our substitute and did that for us. In fact, as we study the lesson before us
this morning, we will take a close look at what the Bible tells us about Jesus
himself, how he was both God and man. As
we do this, we will seek to answer for ourselves the question, “Why is it
important for us to know that Jesus is both God and Man?”
To answer this question, we want
to take a look at the Scriptures and see why Jesus is God and man. We look first at 1 John 5:20 where we read,
“We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so
that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son
Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life." (1 John 5:20, NIV84)
and next we read 1 Timothy 2:5 where Paul tells us, “There is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,” (1 Timothy 2:5,
NIV84). Though there are many other
passages that we could include here today, from these two passages alone it is
clear to us why we know that Jesus is both God and man. Simply put, we know that it is true because
that is what the Bible teaches! Here and
in other passages we learn that Jesus is the Son of God who is both true God
and true man!
In our world we have special
electronic devices that are programmable and that can store, retrieve, and
process data. We call these special
devices computers. We call them
computers simply because this is the name that we have given to the devices
that we use to store, retrieve, access and process data and information in our
world today. Likewise, when the Bible
calls Jesus God, id does so because that is what Jesus is, and when the Bible
calls Jesus man, it does so because that is what Jesus is. As we confess in the creed, Jesus is both
true God and true man, and we know this not only because the Bible calls Jesus
both God and man, but because the Bible also reveals that Jesus has attributes
and actions of both God and man.
Take for example Matthew
8:23-27. This is the account of Jesus
stilling the storm on the Sea of Galilee.
You remember how he was tired when he got into the boat with his
disciples and how he fell asleep. When
the storm came up and the disciples were terrified that they would drown, they
actually had to wake Jesus up. But when
they woke him up, he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves and the storm
completely calmed down. Or again, John
11:38-44: you will undoubtedly remember how Jesus arrived at the home of Mary
and Martha four days after Lazarus had died.
When he went out to the tomb, Jesus was deeply moved and troubled in his
spirit, and even he broke down and wept at the place where Lazarus was
buried. Yet that wasn’t the end of it,
because it was there that Jesus gave the order to open the tomb. It was there that Jesus called in a loud
voice, “Lazarus, come out!” It was there
that Lazarus came forth from the tomb, because Jesus had raised him from the
dead and given his life back to him.
These are but a couple examples
of Jesus’ actions and attributes that show him to be both God and man, and
there are so many more in the Scriptures that reveal the same thing. These are but a few examples, yet these
examples show that Jesus is, indeed both God and man in one person; for in the
same way that we don’t call just any device a computer, we don’t call just any
person both God and man. When it comes to computers, they must have the
characteristics of a computer, such as a screen, a keyboard or keypad, some
form of internal memory storage and so on. They must also perform the actions
of a computer, such as being able to process the data entered into it, perform
mathematical calculations, perform word processing tasks, and in this day and
age, connect one to the internet. Well,
in the same way that all these actions and characteristics demonstrate what a
computer is, so also Jesus actions and attributes reveal him to be both God and
man, just as the Bible tells us.
But how did it happen that Jesus
became true God and true man in one person?
For us, this is a very easy question to answer because we know the
Scriptures so well and we hold their truth so closely in our hearts. We know and believe what the angel revealed
to Joseph in his dream when the angel said, “Joseph son of David, do not be
afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from
the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the
name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took
place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin
will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him
Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”" (Matthew 1:20–23, NIV84) We know the account of Luke 1 where Gabriel
says to Mary, “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to
give him the name Jesus." He will be great and will be called the Son of
the Most High…The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most
High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of
God." (Luke 1:31,32,35, NIV84)
We know this and believe this and
even cherish this in our hearts. Though
there are more and more people today, even Christians, who scoff at the idea
that this miracle could even happen, we know that it did, because the Lord
reveals it to us in his Word. We know
and believe and confess that it was through the power of the Holy Spirit that
Jesus was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary so that he could be born as
both true man and true God so that by his life, by his death, and by his
resurrection he could free us from our sins, make us his own by faith, and
deliver us finally to his heavenly kingdom forever.
This is why Jesus needed to be
both God and man in one body. It wasn’t
that he was like an actor who was playing two different rolls in a movie, he
was and is both God and man at the same time in one body. He had to be both God and man at the same
time so that he might be subject to God’s laws just as Paul tells us in
Galatians 4: “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a
woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the
full rights of sons." (Galatians 4:4–5, NIV84) As the God-man, Jesus was able to do what we
could not, as the writer to the Hebrews tells us, “For we do not have a high
priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has
been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin." (Hebrews
4:15, NIV84) Though Jesus is the Son of
God who established the Law for his people, when he was born as a human being,
he was subjected to God’s Law just like we have been all our lives, however,
because Jesus was without sin, he was able to do what we could not do. He was able to live a perfect, holy, sinless
life in our place. He was able to
completely keep God’s law, which is something that we have always failed to do,
and because he was able to keep God’s Law perfectly for us, he was also able to
apply that perfection and righteousness to us as our substitute, as Paul
assures us in Romans 5, “For just as through the disobedience of the one man
the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many
will be made righteous." (Romans 5:19, NIV84)
What a comfort it is to know that
because Jesus was both God and man, he was able to keep perfectly all of God’s
laws. Because Jesus was both God and man
he was able to be our substitute as the writer to the Hebrews reminds us,
“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so
that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is,
the devil—" (Hebrews 2:14, NIV84).
Had Jesus not been human, he could not have died, because God is eternal
and therefore does not die. To us,
becoming a man just so that he could die might not seem like the best reason,
but Jesus knew what he was doing, and in his great love for us, he did what
otherwise would have made no sense at all.
He became human so that he could die on the cross to pay the price of
our sins, and he was God almighty so that by his perfect and innocent death he
could bestow his righteousness upon us.
Just as john the Baptist reminded us when he said, “Look, the Lamb of
God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29, NIV84)
Because Jesus is both God and
man, he was able to step in and accomplish what we could not. He was able to win the victory for us by his
perfect life, his innocent sufferings and death, and by his resurrection from the
dead. If he had not been our substitute
we would still be lost in our trespasses and sins. But thanks be to God that Jesus stepped in as
our “pinch hitter” winning the victory for us, so that through faith in him we
would have eternal life.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
GraceEvangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
