Green Lantern Can't Save You: The Agonies of Adoptionism

Andrew Slay

Superheroes Can't Save You • Sermon • Submitted a year ago

Philippians 2:5–11

Adoptionism

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Green Lantern Can’t Save You

Everyone desires rings.

Women- to represent their beauty and wealth.

Men-to represent their successes…normally in sports.

Rings symbolize power and are often used in stories like Lord of the Rings.

Another example of a ring representing power is DC’s comic “The Green Lantern.”

Green Lantern’s alter ego was Hal Jordan, a good, brave, compassionate, and honest guy.

Hal is a test pilot for the US Air Force and seeks to wield his courage to fly planes even after experiencing the loss of his Father in a plane crash.

Unbeknownst to Jordan…there is an Intergalactic Police: The Green Lantern Corps.

Beings that came from many different planets who had a ring of incomprehensible power that was controlled by the will of its bearer.

The ring bearer wields this power from “Oan energy” that comes from the original power source on the planet “Oa.”

Jordan and the Green lantern come into play when one of the Green Lantern Corps. Abin Sur, is dying and lands on planet earth.

To find a successor, he sends the energy of the ring’s power to find a human who is courageous and worthy to possess the ring.

The ring chooses Jordan and Jordan enters the Green lantern Corps and eventually becomes one of the founding members of the Justice league.

Now, there are two important things to remember about Green Lantern:

First, the secret to Green Lantern’s power is the ring.

Even though Jordan is courageous and strong, what makes him superhuman is the ring.

Without the power of the ring, Hal Jordan is just a man.

Second, the ring found and chose Hal Jordan due to his character, courage, and the strength of his will.

Not anyone could bear the ring…but only one who was worthy of such power and honor.

Because of Jordan’s courage to be a pilot despite seeing his Father’s death in a plane crash, he was the only one worthy to bear the ring.

And some people believe the same thing about Jesus.

Jesus was a courageous, strong, honorable human being who expressed faithful devotion and obedience to God.

Because of Jesus’ obedience, God adopted Jesus as his Son and gave him a “ring of power” in the Holy Spirit.

Through the Spirit of God, Jesus did amazing things until his mission was ended through his death on the cross.

This is known as the Green Lantern heresy and it probably one of the earliest heresies of the early church.

The Heresy

Adoptionism

Jesus was the son of God, not because he was of the same essence of the Father, or because he became incarnate, but because God adopted him as such.

At Jesus’ adoption, he was given the power of God through the Spirit.

There was nothing special or divine in Jesus, everything he could do was through the power of the Spirit of God…similarly to the Green Lantern and his ring.

The heresy began early in the second century by a group of Jewish Christians known as the Ebionites.

They taught that Jesus was just a man who was adopted by God because of his devotion and faithfulness to God.

They argued that Jesus was adopted at his baptism when God declared in Matthew 3:17 that Jesus was his “beloved Son in who he was pleased.”

The Spirit was then sent to Jesus to empower him for his ministry. Its important to note that the Ebonites did not believe the Holy Spirit was a personal being but a manifestation of the power of God…coming from a Jewish background, this allowed them to maintain their strict monotheism, deny the Trinity, and still follow Jesus as “Christians.”

The Ebonites said to follow Jesus, one must obey the Mosaic law. However, when letters like Galatians began to be dispersed throughout, Ebionism quickly died off.

Two other forms of adoptionism aroused through a man named Paul of Samosata who was a bishop of Antioch in the third century and the Unitarians in the 1500’s.

The Unitarians, led by Lelio Sozzini, denied the Trinity and said there is only one God, God the Father.

Jesus was a man who was endowed with divine powers at his adoption when he was baptized.

They believe Jesus died on the cross but not as a substitutionary atonement for our sin but as an example of what living for God is worth.

These views were also rejected to be false teachings and the Sozzinis were exiled.

Who Commits the Green Lantern Heresy Today?

Unitarians

The Unitarian church spread across Europe and came into America and is still prevalent today.

Presidents such as John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Harriet Beecher Stowe helped make Unitarianism popular in America.

Unitarianism shares a lot in common with the Batman heresy because they see Jesus as just a remarkable human being. However, differing from the batman heresy, Unitarians believe in miracles and that Jesus received power through the Holy Spirit and was adopted by God as his Son.

Many Unitarians also believe in universalism, which is the belief that all people will be saved no matter what they believe or how they live their life.

Because God is love, he would never allow his creatures to suffer in hell for eternity, therefore, in His love, God will save all people eventually.

However…you don’t have to be a Unitarian to commit the Green Lantern heresy...

If you like Jesus and believe he did amazing and miraculous things but you do not believe he is God, you commit this heresy.

If you believe Jesus died for sins but don’t know how or why and wonder if Jesus has the power to overcome the evil in the world you commit this heresy.

If you read biblical passages that speak of Jesus doing miraculous things by the Holy Spirit or through the Father and conclude Jesus is not divine but just has special powers through the Spirit of God, you commit this heresy.

What Does the Bible Say?

We must remember as we have learned the past few weeks that Jesus Christ is both coequal and coeternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

However, another crucial teaching about the person and work of the Son that cuts at the heart of the Green Lantern heresy is that Jesus was and is fully divine and yet was still dependent upon the Spirit of God.

Jesus Was Fully Divine

Philippians 2:5-8 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus…

Essentially, Paul is commanding us to adopt the same attitude that Jesus had.

Paul is commanding us to live and act like Jesus.

What we believe about Jesus matters because what we believe affects how we act.

Who, though he was in the form of God...

The word “form” communicates essence, so Paul is saying that before the Son took on flesh and became Jesus, He has always existed as God the Son and is of the same essence of the Father and Spirit.

Did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself...

Again, Jesus was fully God and coequal with the Father, yet he did not use his divinity to his advantage, but he “emptied himself in taking the form of a servant.”

This does not mean that the Son relinquished his deity and divine nature when he became a man…

This understanding is known as the “kenosis theory” and can also be labeled as a heresy…for if the Son emptied himself of his deity when he became human and was no longer fully God, we would be at the batman heresy.

Paul makes clear what he means by Jesus emptying himself in the next phrase...

by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form...

Paul describes how Jesus emptied himself in three ways:

He took the “form” of a servant.

Just as “form” means “essence” from above, Jesus took on the same nature and essence as a servant in becoming fully human.

He was born in the likeness of men..

He was born as a full human just like us.

He possessed the full “form” and nature of a human. Again, the Son was fully human, just like us.

Notice though, what Paul did not say...

He did not say Jesus emptied himself of his deity, he did not say Jesus stopped being God, but he said Jesus, being fully God, took on a full human nature when he was born…this is how he emptied himself and became a servant.

To summarize: Jesus did not empty himself by replacing his divine nature with a human nature, but Jesus emptied himself by adding a human nature along with his divine nature…

In one sense, it was “subtraction by addition.”

Use example from Bruce Ware of a beautiful Ferrari getting caked up with mud after a test drive…the beauty and power are still there but it is veiled by the mud now covering the surface…subtraction by addition.

he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Because Jesus took the form of a servant, he lived like a servant, obeying God the Father fully from his birth until his death.

Paul highlights that Jesus not only was obedient unto death, but was obedient to the most horrendous way to die....DEATH ON A CROSS.

So, in contrast to Unitarians and Adoptionists, Jesus did not become God due to his piety, but the Son always existed as God, one with the Father and Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ, Though Fully Divine, Depended on the Spirit of God

The fact that Jesus is the Christ points to his dependence upon the Holy Spirit.

Christ or Messiah means “anointed one.”

What is Jesus anointed with and why?

The Bible prophesies in Isaiah that the Messiah will be anointed with the Holy Spirit to carry out the Father’s plans.

Isaiah 11:1-3

Isaiah 61:1-2 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;”

Jesus read this text in the synagogue when he began his ministry in Luke 4:16, and declared he was the fulfillment of this prophecy…He was the anointed Messiah to fulfill Israel’s long awaited hopes and dreams!

Have you ever read the gospels looking for the power of the Spirit in Jesus’ ministry?

Here is a brief summary…through the Spirit Jesus...

was born, predicted and anticipated, baptized, identified, led by, taught by, directed through, empowered to do miracles, rejoiced, went to the cross, raised from the dead.

But if Jesus was divine and fully God why did he depend on the Holy Spirit?

Jesus did not need the Holy Spirit because he was not divine but he relied on the Spirit so he could live an authentic human life.

If Jesus exercised his divine attributes constantly, he would not have lived a real human life.

In emptying himself, he fully submitted himself and his divine attributes to the Father’s will.

He did this so he could identify with us in every way…So he can sympathize with us as our great high priest!

Why is this Important?

We have already established the last few weeks that if Jesus was not fully God he could not save us…but there are two things that are necessary for our salvation that would not be possible if Jesus was just “adopted” like the Green Lantern...

First, The Spirit-Anointed Man Became the Spirit Giver

One of the main purposes of Jesus’ mission that is often overlooked is that he came to give the Spirit of God to men.

This was prophesied in the Old Testament:

Numbers 11:29; Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 36:25-27; Joel 2:28-29.

He made this clear to Nicodemus in John 3, yet Nicodemus, a teacher of the law, could not understand this truth.

We are often like Nicodemus…we downplay the person and work of the Holy Spirit.

Yet, Jesus said it is to our benefit that he goes away, for if he does not leave us and ascend to the Father…the Holy Spirit will not come.

This is key, the new covenant promise of the giving of the Spirit to the hearts of man is directly tied to Jesus’ atonement...

The new covenant cannot be initiated without the blood sacrifice…therefore, the coming of the Spirit cannot be fulfilled if the Spirit-anointed one does not go to the cross.

So, to fulfill the Father’s will and provide us with all the blessings and promises of the new covenant, Jesus went to the cross, paid our sin debt, so that he could redeem us from our sin and give us his Spirit.

Again, Jesus told the disciples in John 16 it was better for them that he left and sent the Spirit…but how could having the Holy Spirit be better than Jesus himself???

Have you ever thought.... “I would be able to follow Jesus better if he was actually here…?”

NOPE…stop cappin..cause that playwright don’t fit the acting....that answer don’t produce Christ like action but only the indwelling Holy Spirit fits the caption…that transaction was paid by Christ and by the Spirit it was applied, for it was on the cross where Jesus died and the Father’s wrath was satisfied, its the holy Spirit who opens our eyes...its our heart that He revives...and supplies us with everything we need to reside at the Father’s side

Its the Holy Spirit who provides us with all the power we need to thrive and survive the Christian life to finish the race and win the prize

Lebron James Analogy

Do you believe this? Do you believe that if you are in Christ, the Holy Spirit dwelling inside you is the same Spirit that rose christ from the dead?

Do we live in this power??? Stop making excuses for your sin Christian!!

Think about it…Jesus does not just give you his power like the Green Lantern was given a ring…no, he does not just give you his power, but he gives you HIS PRESENCE.

What blessing and advantage we have over Moses, Ezekiel, and all the Old Testament Saints!

Second, If Jesus was just a mere human empowered by God, he could not have defeated Satan, Evil, and Death

Jesus came to defeat the powers of the evil one and destroy the devil’s works (1 John 3:8).

He shared in flesh in blood, becoming a human just like us, so that he would destroy the one holding the power of death (Hebrews 2:14).

These passages show that because Jesus was fully man, fully god, and empowered by the Spirit he had the power to defeat Satan, Sin, and Death.

Jesus, empowered by the Spirit, will return one day as the rightful king to pour out God’s vengeance on all who do not trust in him…which includes Satan and his demons.

On this day, Jesus will right every wrong and restore peace on earth as he will reign as king forever…and as believers, we will reign with him as his co-heirs.

Jesus was not a man who became a god due to his piety…he did not receive the power of the Spirit like a ring of authority to do mighty things…No…Jesus is the divine Son of God who has always existed in eternity with the Father and the Spirit.....he, the one who shared the same form of God humbled himself and took on the form of man....He became a servant and in full dependence on the Holy Spirit was obedient to the point of death…even death on a cross.....and it is this Jesus who was given the name that is above every name....so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, to the glory of God the Father!

This is the Jesus who can save you....this is the Jesus who can keep you…this is the Jesus who has given His Spirit to help you overcome sin, temptation, and defeat the attacks of the evil one as you grow in holiness.

And this same Jesus is offering you life today…calling you to repentance today....calling you to a deeper trust in him today....so how will you respond?

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