The How and Why of Jesus the God-Man

Philippians 2:5-11 & 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

1. Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
2. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
6. Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
7. From Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi we encounter the word “kenosis,” which is usually translated “emptying.” Jesus, in the very form God, therefore completely equal with God, of His own accord, took the form of a servant. Jesus then became human, He who is “the exact imprint of his nature.” (see Hebrews 1:3)
8. Paul is attempting to express in human terms and to human minds the greatest enigma of them all. We are not surprised that we humans can never quite grasp the full meaning of “how” God became human.
9. The “why” comes next then. Why would it be necessary that God become human? Paul speaks of this, in general terms and as an aside, in his second letter to the church at Corinth. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
10. Numbers of other passages in both testaments bear witness to this central and core doctrine.
11. In the Hebrew, to celebrate Passover a lamb without spot or blemish only could be used as the sacrifice, and the blood of the animal warded off sin and judgment. It must be enacted once a year.
12. Jesus, sinless His entire life, becomes the perfect sacrifice for sin. And once for all. At the cross Jesus, our Passover Lamb, takes all our sin upon Himself.
13. Only the sacrifice of the God-Man would suffice.

Paradoxes of the Bible #3

Grace versus Works

(see Ex. 20:1-17, Mt. 5:17-20, Ephesians 2:1-10)

1. Find a quiet place without distractions.
2. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace.
3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
6. The Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, is easily broken and broken by everyone.
7. Originally, there was one law, which was quickly broken; it seems we humans are drawn to law breaking. (see Genesis 3)
8. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes it clear that the breaking of the Law is not merely in actions, but also is of the heart and mind. Indeed, all have sinned.
9. Works, good works, we are all called to, but these do not save us. The Law is a reminder that we are all law breakers.
10. Is there nothing to be done? Are we all doomed to an eternity in hell, separated forever from fellowship with our Creator?
11. The whole of the Bible is the account of how we will have all our sin removed, thus opening the way into fellowship with God, both now while on the planet, and also for eternity.
12. The Law is the beginning, the acknowledging that we are law breakers. It is not an accusation, but the initial revelation that we are utterly helpless and unable to cover our own sin. This is where we all start, seeking forgiveness.
13. Then, and only by the working of the Holy Spirit, do we have an interest in Jesus. Suddenly we are drawn to the Son of God, and that of Jesus dying on the cross. That grizzly image, now it means something else to us. We see Jesus taking our sin upon Himself, shedding His blood to cover our sin.
14. Now then comes the new birth, totally and completely the work of the Holy Spirit. Being unable to do a single thing, by the greatest of miracles, our sin is completely removed, all sin, past, present, and future. This is why we sing, Amazing Grace.

Paradoxes of the Bible # 1

Jesus: The God-Man

The Deity of Jesus: part 2

(Isaiah 7:14, 9:6; John 1:1-18; Colossians 1:15-20)

1. Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
2. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer

4     Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.

5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
6. Reread it. From memory, determine the central points.
7. The mystery surrounding Jesus will never be understood this side of heaven. We are not arrogant enough to suppose otherwise.
8. Jesus came to us as fully man and also fully God, and both at once. We have nothing to compare this with.
9. The Logos (Word) to the Greek mind was the reason behind all that the universe is. In John 1:1 the Apostle John identifies this reason, this Word, as Jesus.
10. John, writing to the Graeco-Roman culture, makes an absolute and incredible claim that Jesus of Nazareth, born of a human being, is at once God, thus the God-Man.
11. Such a position challenges every spiritual or religious worldview extant, both then and now.
12. Not a re-incarnation, not an avatar, not a highly evolved spirit, but a real human being and God, both at once.
13. This Logos is not less than the Father, no, both are One, as Jesus makes plain in John 10:30, “The Father and I are one.”
14. Indeed, the Apostle Paul states that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” and that “in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” (verses 15 & 19 of Colossians 1) What a mammoth leap for Paul, a trained Jewish rabbi, to accept.
15. Jesus then, both God and man at once. This reality cannot be grasped; it must be revealed by the Holy Spirit.

Paradoxes of the Bible #1

Jesus: The God-Man

Jesus the Man: part 1

1. Find a quiet place without distractions.
2. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace.
3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
5. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
6. Nothing is more core to Christianity than the humanness of Jesus. If Jesus is God only, there is no death on the cross, but then merely a trick, a misperception, a lie, and worse, no atonement for sin.
7. From the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, we see the human nature of Messiah as evidenced in Psalm 2 and 22. From Isaiah 7 we see a person born of a virgin, a miracle yet a birth of a human being.
8. Moses instructed the people to kill a lamb without blemish, take the blood and place it on the posts and lintel of the doors so no death would come to that house. Jesus is our Passover Lamb.
9. In the Greek Bible, the New Testament, and in a way we do not understand, God is born, the Word, becomes flesh.
10. We see so much of the real man in Jesus. He is begotten of God (John 3:16), tempted (Matthew 4:1-11), hungry (Matthew 4:2), thirsty (John 19:28), tired (John 4:6), angry (Mark 3:5), sighing deeply (Mark 8:12 & John 11:33), crying (John 8:35), and dying (John 19:28-34).And the list could go on and on.
11. No doctrine has been more attacked than the humanness of Jesus with the lone exception of the deity of Jesus. The reality is, if Jesus were not fully man, His death on the cross is meaningless and of no effect.
12. If Jesus is God and not the God-man, then there is no actual death. It must be that He is both God and man at once.
13. This is beyond reason from the human standpoint; it must be revealed and believed.