THE TRIUNE GOD: GOD THE SON
The Baptist Faith & Message • Sermon • Submitted
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THE TRIUNE GOD: GOD THE SON- ;
THE TRIUNE GOD: GOD THE SON- ;
Our Baptist Faith & Message on the doctrine of God states,
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.—Baptist Faith & Message 2000
On Christ, who is God Himself, our Baptist Faith & Message 2000 of God the Son,
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.—Baptist Faith & Message 2000
What we are going to look at tonight is God the Son, the Great High Priest. As Christians, we bear the very name of that Great High Priest, for we are known as little Christs ().
As with last week, our goal is to worship God the Son as we learn about Him. We read in about the worship of God:
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands,
saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”
And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”
And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.
We fall down with the four living creatures, the elders, and all of creation in worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ. And since we have the biblical command to love the Lord with our minds, we will increase our knowledge of Him (). We begin, then, our worship of God the Son.
I. CHRIST IS GOD- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
I. CHRIST IS GOD- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
Christ is the eternal Son of God.
The first aspect of our BF&M is the Christ is the eternal Son of God. That is, He is the second person of the trinity, He is God. We cannot debate this, it is not a matter of interpretation, and contrary to the beliefs of many false teachings, it is a fact of Scripture. Jesus is God. We see glimpses of the Trinity all throughout the Old Testament, in God speaks in a plural of Himself. In and following, we see the Lord appear to Abraham with 2 others, in we see the Triune God displayed at the baptism of Jesus.
Were we to take the time, we could examine the Gospels for proof after proof of Jesus’ divinity. He is God, eternally so.
II. CHRIST’S BIRTH- ; ; ; ; ; ; and
II. CHRIST’S BIRTH- ; ; ; ; ; ; and
The second focus of our BF&M is one the birth of Christ. Our statement reads,
In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
Jesus, the eternal Son of God, did truly become a man by physical birth. The Scriptures teach that Jesus did really and truly become man. He became a living soul just as Adam did.
“It is completely incomprehensible to us how God can reveal himself and to some extent make himself known in created beings; eternity in time, immensity in space, infinity in the finite, immutability in change, being in becoming, the all, as it were, in that which is nothing. This mystery cannot be comprehended; it can only be gratefully acknowledged. But mystery and self-contradiction are not synonymous.” —Herman Bavink
Our opening Scripture from Philippians tells us that Jesus took “the form of a bond-servant” (). He truly become a man. He was born, not much unlike the hopeful birth of my son, Calvin.
And lest we forget the humiliating byproduct of Christ’s incarnation, let us worship God for His incomprehensible humility. Mark Jones writes,
“There has never been a greater humiliation of a person than that of Jesus. No one has ever descended so low because no one has ever come from so high.”— Mark Jones
The very first statement in this section on God the Son is, Christ is the eternal Son of God. What wonders the incarnation brings!
III. CHRIST’S LIFE- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
III. CHRIST’S LIFE- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
Moving on in a linear progression, we come next to Christ’s life. The BF&M records,
Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience...
The next section of the life of Jesus covers His life, how He lived in relation to God and others (remember the two great commandments in ). Jesus does several things with His life:
Jesus perfectly reveals God-
Jesus perfectly does the will of God-
Jesus took on Himself human nature with its demands and necessities- ; ; ; ;
Jesus identified Himself completely with mankind-
Jesus never sinned- ;
Jesus honored the Law with perfect obedience- The Gospels
IV. CHRIST’S SACRIFICE- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; , ; ; ; ; ; ; and 12:10-11
IV. CHRIST’S SACRIFICE- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; , ; ; ; ; ; ; and 12:10-11
We could examine all of these references, and they would produce much heartfelt worship for the sacrifice of Jesus our Lord. However, one passage in particular stands out as the most graphic description of the death of our Lord: Isaiah chapter 53. It is called the Torture Chamber of the Rabbis. The focus is on the substitutionary death of Christ. Though the whole chapter bears this important subject, we will focus on :
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
Just as the sacrifices were placed on altars to make atonement for the sins of Israel, our Lord Jesus was placed on the altar of God, and though He did no sin, He became sin for us and took our place for the punishment of God. , , and all connect the death of Christ to the Old Testament sacrifices. They were, as Paul reminds us, shadows of the Good that would come. Because Christ sacrificed Himself for our redemption, we have the unique privilege to preach the Gospel to all.
V. CHRIST’S RESURRECTION- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
V. CHRIST’S RESURRECTION- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and
He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion.
Christ was born, lived a righteous life, died a horrific death, and was buried. But as we will celebrate again this Easter, He did not stay in the grave. He rose from the dead!
Paul describes this as an essential part of the Gospel in . Christ was victorious over death, an enemy that no human being has come close to conquering. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the inspiring factor of the Gospel.
Douglas Groothius, author of the massive tome Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith, wrote,
“The resurrection of Jesus is at the center of the Christian worldview and Christian devotion. The Gospels do not end with the death of Jesus but speak of an empty tomb, of his appearances and of a commission by the risen Jesus.”—Douglas Groothius
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a key concept, not only of our faith in the Scriptures, but in our justification and the mediatory role of our Savior. In we learn that the resurrection was for our justification, and as a living Savior He is able to stand before God the Father and make intercession for us, as we learn about in . And the resurrection naturally leads us to Christ’s ascension.
VI. CHRIST’S ASCENSION- ; ; ; ; and 7:55-56
VI. CHRIST’S ASCENSION- ; ; ; ; and 7:55-56
He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man.
The ascension of Christ speaks of His exaltation, where after completing the work God the Father had given Him, He reigns awaiting for the day in which He will claim His kingdom, fully rule and reign in the earth and cosmos, and enjoy life with His bride, the Church. As the ever-living Savior, ascended to the right hand of God where He makes intercession for us and is our Mediator. He mediated the wrath of God, that is He the divine go-between, if you will, between sinful humanity and the holy God. There is much more that could be said, but we move on to Christ’ Coming.
VII. CHRIST’S COMING- ; ;
VII. CHRIST’S COMING- ; ;
He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission.
VIII. CHRIST’S
VIII. CHRIST’S
One of the promises we find in God’s Word is that Jesus is coming. We learn in that Jesus is coming to claim His kingdom. He is reigning now, but soon He will return to reign completely. The end of all things is near, as the Scriptures teach us, and Christ is coming. Paul calls it the blessed hope in . It is a sweet longing of every Christian as we contemplate the day in which Jesus returns. is a terrifying reminder of the results of the coming of Christ for those unsaved. We must work while it is day, says our Lord in , because Jesus is coming.
IX. CHRIST’S LORDSHIP- ; ; ; *Ephesians- in Christ
IX. CHRIST’S LORDSHIP- ; ; ; *Ephesians- in Christ
Finally, we see Christ’s Lordship. The BF&M reads,
He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.
Consider . In this passage, Jesus confronts Paul for persecuting the Church, but notice what Jesus says.
and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,
Jesus connects Himself with the Church. Now, the Holy Spirit indwells us, as we will see in the next sermon, Lord-willing. But Jesus is so connected with His people (remember ) that He is considered to be persecuted, not the Church. That is why there is a repeated phrase in Christ, used throughout Scripture but especially in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.
But we also see that Christ is the ever present Lord. refers to Him as the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is Lord, ever present, always here for the church.
We serve an unimaginably good, gracious, and lovely Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to end our time with several questions from J. I. Packer. He asks the following questions,
Have we ever formed the holy habit of contemplating Jesus in solitude, allowing Scripture passage after Scripture passage to show us his many-sided glory and to draw us out in the many-angled adoration that is our proper response?
Do we cultivate awe in the presence of the one who calls us who believe his brothers and sisters, and who once took the place of each of us under the unimaginably horrific reality of divine retribution for our sins?
And do we often make a point of telling ourselves, and telling him, how lost we would be without him?
Or are our minds as Christians always on other things?
Does this mark our lives? Is Jesus our focus?