We’ve made it to the last mind-blowing reality of the doctrine of Christ, but as always… Let’s review:
- God came to earth.
- God became a man.
- God came to ordinary people.
MIND-BLOWING REALITY #4
GOD CAME FOR OUR BENEFIT
According to the Bible, the story of Jesus isn’t the story of a really good guy who was a really gifted teacher and provided a really great example of the way we ought to live.
The story of Jesus is the story of absolute purity and holiness CONQUERING sin. It’s the story of wickedness and death being pushed back, thrown down and OVERCOME by the unique God – Man who came from HEAVEN but was born on EARTH.
Jesus came to SET RIGHT everything that’s wrong – in our relationship with God, in our hearts, in creation and in the universe.
Unfortunately, we often fail to realize that when we sinned, our sin was an act of treason against a good and loving God. It was an all-out REVOLT against the authority of heaven and the rule and reign of a HOLY GOD. That rebellion plunged humanity and all creation into a spiral of death, decay and total disarray.
The result of sin was that we were immediately SEPARATED and ALIENATED from God. Fellowship with the Creator was broken.
The division didn’t stop with the vertical relationship between us and God, the division also got played out in the horizontal. Sin created division between Adam and Eve, between husbands and wives, parents and their kids, brothers and sisters, between friends, between people.
Sin literally TORE APART families, including the first family. It turned Adam against Eve, Eve against Adam, man against woman, woman against man, and brother against brother (Genesis 4).
Sin created division, hatred and animosity among people, races and ethnic groups. The division, race wars, genocide, actual wars and ethnic cleansing that continue to this day are all the legacy of SIN.
The Bible even tells us that all CREATION was affected by our sin. When we see earthquakes, rogue waves, tsunamis, hurricanes and tornadoes that wreak havoc and result in death, they’re all the result of CREATION ITSELF reeling from what we call “the fall” (Genesis 3).
According to Genesis 3:17 and Romans 8:20-21, because of our sin, our WORLD– the entire UNIVERSE, in fact – has been cut off from God and is now under a CURSE.
Has anyone looked at this world recently and wondered, “How and when will this broken, messed up world finally be made right? Who can save us? Who can fix us? Who can help?”
The good news is that God has always had a PLAN.
In the OT, God gave us glimpses of the plan. He gave us clues. But, His ultimate purpose remained a mystery. It was hidden. The prophets searched and searched seeking to understand how God would bring healing and hope into the catastrophic mess we had made.
Finally, the Bible tells us that at just the right time, God went public with the PLAN.
Galatians 4:4 is one of the most important verses in your Bible. It’s all about the miracle of the incarnation.
But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. 5 God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. 6 And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” 7 Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child,
God has made you his heir.
—Galatians 4:4-7 NLT
In Jesus, the eternal Son of God became MAN.
HEAVEN and EARTH came together in ONE PERSON — who was FULLY GOD and FULLY HUMAN.
What’s amazing is that Jesus didn’t come to CONDEMN the world. He came to SAVE IT (Cf. John 3:16-17). How?
By giving and sacrificing Himself in the PLACE of SINNERS like me and like you.
British scholar, John Stott, described it like this:
“The essence of sin is we human beings substituting ourselves for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for us. We…put ourselves where only God deserves to be; [but] God…puts Himself where we deserve to be.” [1]
That’s exactly what Jesus did on the cross!
God loved us so much that He did something for us that we couldn’t do for ourselves. He provided a BRIDGE that we can cross over in order to receive God’s forgiveness.
On the cross, Jesus became our SUBSTITUTE. He NEVER SINNED, but He was MADE SIN for us.
Jesus EXCHANGED HIS perfection for OUR imperfection, HIS obedience for OUR disobedience, HIS intimacy with the Father for OUR distance from God the Father, HIS blessing for OUR curse, HIS life for OUR death.
Jesus died FOR our sins, IN our place!
In the Christian classic, Knowing God, J. I. Packer made this statement:
“The measure of love is how much it gives, and the measure of the love of God is the gift of his only Son to become human, and to die for sins, and so to become the one mediator who can bring us to God.” —J.I. Packer, Knowing God[2]
The writers of the New Testament point to the cross as crowning proof of the reality of God’s amazing and extravagant love for you and me. In fact, Augustine once wrote,
“The cross was a pulpit in which Christ proclaimed His love to the world.”
—Augustine
Jesus paid the penalty for sin we rightfully should have paid. Through the blood He shed, He removed our guilt and absorbed the justice and wrath of God for guilty sinners like you and me! Because of everything He accomplished on the cross, Paul wrote the following mind-blowing words.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.2
For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law
of sin and death.
—Romans 8:1 ESV
Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, He reversed DEATH itself!
His resurrection gave us a sneak peak of the ultimate coming attraction when God MAKES ALL THINGS NEW – not just spiritually, but also PHYSICALLY.
Jesus’ resurrection is a reminder that because He lives we also live! Death will not write the final word of our story. Life, power and redemption will!
The Doctrine of Christ
Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man.
He was born of a virgin, lived the sinless, perfect life we could never live, and died the death we all deserved to die by offering Himself as a sacrifice for our sin
through His death on the cross.
Three days later He rose again, defeating sin and death!
Because of Jesus, there is now no condemnation for anyone who trusts in what He has done, but only life that begins now and lasts forever!
[1] John Stott, quoted by Tim Keller. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism . Penguin Publishing Group. Location 2961 of 4625. Kindle Edition.
[2] J.I. Packer, Knowing God, p 125 of 294, Kindle Ed.