January 8, 2005

Cawson St. Church of Christ

Hopewell, Virginia

Mural Worthey

 

Significant Truths for 2006--#1

 

Introduction: Jesus and God

 

Last Sunday morning we discussed the condition of world as we begin 2006.  Over the next few weeks, I would like to name several significant truths that should guide us in this new year.  Preachers have a tendency to name everything as being important and significant, and I suppose they are, even little things are significant.  The religious leaders in Jesus’ day asked him what he considered to be the greatest commandment in the Law of Moses.  Jesus said that the first and great commandment is to love God with all your heart and the second is like it, namely, to love your neighbor as yourself.  Jesus added that upon these two commandments hang all the law and prophets.  (Matt. 22:37-40.)  It is not possible to name anything more important than these two commands.  Yet, I would like to discuss some other truths, significant truths, as we begin this new year.

 

Relationship between Jesus and God

 

Many misunderstand the relationship between Jesus and God.  It is evident in how they talk about world religions and spirituality.  Many other religious questions are settled when we grasp the relationship between Jesus and God.

 

Three time periods.  To see the overall existence and nature of Jesus, we must consider three time periods of his life.  Jesus is the name given to the son of Mary born in Bethlehem.  He was not known by this name prior to his birth.  The angel said to Joseph, “That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit and she shall bring forth a son and thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.”  (Matt. 1:20-21.)  One of the great differences between Jesus and all of us is that we did not have an existence prior to our birth, as Jesus did.

 

Several passages indicate his pre-existence.  The Gospel of John is filled with information about the nature of Jesus Christ.  John wrote, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  (John 1:14.)  Theologians call this the incarnation; that is, Jesus existed before his birth as spirit, as God, and he came to earth to be born of the Virgin Mary.  This is the reason that he was not born as other children were and are.  Others may claim a virgin birth, but they do not know what they are claiming!  That means that they had a prior existence and now have experienced an incarnation.  Jesus once prayed, “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”  (John 17:5.)  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.”  (John 1:1-2.)  Jesus said to the astonishment of the Jews, “Before Abraham was, I am.”  (John 8:58.)  Jesus existed before Abraham!!  The Jews exclaimed, You are not yet fifty years old and you claim to have seen Abraham?

 

You and I have no memory of having lived before our birth.  In fact, we cannot even remember the first few years after our birth.  Jesus remembered the glory that he had with the Father before he came to earth.  That is a remarkable truth about Jesus Christ.  No one else can make such a claim, because they did not exist prior to their earthly life.  This fact alone separates Jesus from all other religious leaders and self-styled prophets.  Mohammed did not exist before 570 AD.  Buddha (Siddhartha Guatama) did not live before 560 BC, even though he claimed many reincarnations.  Moses, the great lawgiver of the Old Testament, did not live before 1526 BC.  This means that all other religious leaders were mere men, but Jesus is God.  The Bible does not hesitate to call him God, or divine.  He possesses Deity.

 

The third great period of Jesus’ life is after his resurrection and ascension.  He continues to live today and serves at the right hand of God the Father.  The names during the three periods of his life are significant.  John called him the Word that became flesh; Jesus is the name of the child born of Mary.  It is biblical to call him Jesus after his resurrection, because we have known him on earth by that name.  But the Bible speaks of yet another name.  Paul wrote that due to the humiliation of Jesus Christ by his death on the cross, God has highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name.  But what is that name?  Paul wrote, “That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”  (Phil. 2:11.)  In fact, one easy way to remember the three great time periods of the Lord’s existence is by the name the Lord Jesus Christ.  In the Old Testament, prophets wrote about the coming Messiah, or Christ, the Anointed One.  So, Christ is the Old Testament designation; Jesus is the New Testament name; and Lord is the resurrected reference.  Word signifies his name and role prior to his birth.

 

“For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the living and the dead.”  (Rom. 14:9.)

 

The Nature of Jesus.  When the full impact of these truths about Jesus was felt, believers pondered more and more the real nature of Jesus.  He was obviously different.  The first Christian Councils were held to discuss what they should teach about the nature of Jesus.  How could God come to earth and live as a man?  Was he a man or God?  Because there is no one else like Him and because we have not experienced an incarnation, we find it difficult to grasp.

 

I like Paul’s conclusion:  “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh.”  (1 Tim. 3:16.)  This states a clear relationship between God and Jesus, even if we do not fully understand it.  Immanuel means God with us.  (Matt. 1:23.)  One thing that it makes clear is that Jesus would not sin as man does.  The Bible affirms this truth; Jesus did no sin.  (1 John 3:5, 1 Peter 2:22, Heb. 4:15.)

 

Just because we do not and cannot fully understand the nature of Jesus does not mean that we should not believe the incarnation.  I do not fully understand the nature of man, much less the nature of Jesus.  We are fairly complex beings ourselves.  We have been made in the image of God, yet we are not divine.  We had no prior existence.  We are greater than animals in that we continue to live after death.  I do not understand that distinction fully, though I believe it.  Jesus clearly had a relationship with God that we do not have.  He is and was divine; we are not.

 

Some mistakenly suppose that this unique relationship and claim about Jesus is sufficient grounds for rejecting Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  Especially, if we add into the discussion the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, some mockingly and unbelievingly wave off Christianity as preposterous.  We should be cautious here.  While we acknowledge the complexity of the nature of Jesus Christ, we should not doubt the truth of it. Why do some doubt these truths and object to them?  Is it not because they see the powerful implications in the nature of Jesus?  If He is who He claims to be and the Bible presents him to be, then they should follow Him and not their world religious leaders.  There is nothing inherently wrong or contradictory in believing in the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).  It does not mean that we are pagans worshipping three gods.  There is nothing impossible about the incarnation.  If God wanted to come to earth in the form of man, could He not do that?  If not, why not?   As one author puts it, We should “allow God to be God.”  He can if he wants to come to earth and become our Savior.

 

Reject Father and Son.  There is such an inseparable connection between Jesus and God the Father that if one rejects the Son one also in the process rejects the Father.  Listen to these passages:

 

“For the Father judges no man but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.  He that honors not the Son honors not the Father which hath sent him.”  (John 5:22-23.)  The relationship is stated both positively and negatively.  To honor the Son even as we honor the Father says much.  It means that just as we worship the Father, we can and should worship the Son. It is interesting that John describes every being in heaven worshipping the Father in Revelation 4; and likewise in Revelation 5 he shows the same worship being offered to the Son.  The words expressing worship are very similar.  In both they offered praise to him that lives for ever and ever.  It is said that both are worthy to receive glory, honor and power.  (4:11, 5:12.)

 

“Who is a liar but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ?  He is antichrist that denies the Father and the Son.  Whosoever denies the Son, the same hath not the Father.  But he that acknowledges the Son hath the Father also.”  (1 John 2:22-23.)

 

The apostle wanted to make clear the inseparable nature of Jesus and the Father.  Jesus said, “The Father and I are one.”  (John 10:30.)  This is the reason that pluralism, the acceptance of all world religions as having equal value and validity, is false.  Note carefully that it is not possible to claim a relationship with God while rejecting the Son.  If one rejects the Son whom he sent, one also rejects the Father who sent him.

 

Guy Woods wrote, “God, without Christ, is simply not!  Such a being is utterly without existence.  The attempt to visualize God, without Christ, is to reduce him to a metaphysical abstraction, eventuating in pantheism, or atheism.  Voltaire, the famous French infidel, entranced by the unspeakable beauty in the Swiss Alps, shouted, ‘God the Father!  I adore thee, and then, as if ashamed of his outburst, immediately added that he did not worship the Son, an illustration of the conclusion which the apostle draws that it is impossible to acknowledge the Father without confessing the Son also.”  (Commentary on Peter, John and Jude, 249.)

 

Ever since Jesus came to earth, man will forever think of that divine relationship between the two.  One has rejected the Father if one rejects the Son.

 

Oneness and harmony.  Jesus said, “The Father and I are one.”  (John 10:30.)  No one can find the slightest conflict or disagreement between Jesus and God the Father.  (Such could also be said concerning the Holy Spirit as well.)  Jesus prayed that the cup of suffering be removed from him if it were possible, but he concluded the prayer by saying, Not my will but thy will be done.  (Matt. 27:39, 42, 44.)  Three times he made the request, but three times he fully submitted to the Father’s will.

 

This is one of the great differences between the pagan gods and the Trinity.  Their gods were often in conflict, zealous of one another, fighting and even killing one another.  The Trinity is not conflicted or like jealous, sensuous, and weak men.

 

The Father and Son are one in divine nature.  Their plans for redeeming man were united.  God was not angry with the Son when he died on the cross.  Jesus was bearing man’s sins on the cross, but God’s wrath was not against Jesus.  It was against our sins.  This is what Jesus said about his death and his relationship with the Father.

 

“Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again.  No man takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself.  I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.  This commandment have I received of my Father.”  (John 10:17-18.)  Therefore is based upon what was said before.  Jesus is described as the Good Shepherd who gives his life willingly for the sheep.  He is not like a hireling that flees when the wolf comes.  The love of God for Jesus is not solely based upon the death of Jesus.  God loved him before the cross.  Jesus was not forced by man or the Father to die on the cross.  He did it willingly.  This is what made the sacrifice valid and unlike all other sacrifices.  Jesus knew that the Father gave him the right to refuse to die on the cross.  There was nothing that made the Father or Son do it.  Man could have been lost forever.