Foundations of Truth

Week Three – God the Son

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February 16, 2022

“I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore,”-Revelation 1:18

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Jesus Christ is a Man

• Born of a woman- Galatians 4:4; Matthew 1:18
• Born of a Virgin - Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:16-25; Luke 1:26-35.
• He had the nature of a man
  • Body- Matthew 26:12
  • Soul- Matthew 26:38
  • Spirit - Luke 23:46
• Grew and developed as a man- Luke 2:40, 52
  • Intellectually – “wisdom”
  • Physically – “stature”
  • Spiritually – “favor with God”
  • Socially – “favor with…man”
• He had the appearance of a man- John 4:9
• He had the limitations of man
  • Fatigue- John 4:6
  • Need of sleep- Matthew 8:24
  • Hunger- Matthew 21:18
  • Thirst- John 19:28
  • Subject to pain- Luke 22:44
  • Capable of death- I Corinthians 15:3
• Jesus lived as a SINLESS man – Luke 4:13; John 8:29; 46; John 15:10; John 18:38; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 1:19; 2:22; 1 John 2:1; 3:5

Why did Jesus need to be fully human?  (Adapted from Systematic Theology, Grudem)

1. For representative obedience – Romans 5:18-19; 1 Corinthians 15:45; 47
2. To be a substitute sacrifice – Hebrews 2:16-17
3. To fulfill the role of a mediator – 1 Timothy 2:5
4. To fulfill God’s Original Purpose for Man to rule over creation – Genesis 1:26-30; Hebrews 2:8-9; Matthew 28:18; Revelation 3:21; Luke 19:17; 19; 1 Corinthians 6:3
5. To be our Example and Pattern – 1 John 2:6
6. To be the Pattern for our Redeemed Bodies – 1 Corinthians 15:42-44; 49; Colossians 1:18
7. To be our Sympathetic High Priest – Hebrews 2:18; 4:15-16

Jesus Christ is God

• Scripture expressly declares Him to be God -Luke 2:18; John 1:1-3; 5:18; John 8:57-59; 12:45; 14:9; 20:28; Romans 9:5; I Timothy 3:16; Titus 1:3, 4; Hebrews 1:8; 3:1-4
• Scripture affirms His divine attributes
  • He is Omniscient - John 16:30; Colossians 2:3
  • He is Omnipotent - Revelation 1:8; Hebrews 1:3; Matthew 28:18
  • He is Omnipresent - Matthew 18:20; 28:20; Ephesians 1:23
  • He is Eternal - John 1:1, 15; 8:58; Hebrews 1:10-11
  • He is Immutable - Hebrews 1:11-12; 13:8
• His divine offices show Him to be God
  • Creator - John 1:3; Colossians 1:16
  • Preserver of all things - Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3
  • Forgiver of sins - Mark 2:5-11

Why did Jesus need to be fully God?

Only God is sufficient to pay the full penalty for the sin of all mankind and provide the kind of righteousness that would make us completely acceptable to God. – 1 John 2:2; 2 Corinthians 5:21

Passage for Meditation – Philippians 2:5-11

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Belief Statements:  Concise statements of truth that are taken directly from the text.

Example:  Jesus humbled himself in obedience to God the Father.

Application:  Am I living in humble obedience to God the Father?  Are there specific areas of pride and/or disobedience in my life?

Pray:  Thank Jesus for His obedience in going to the cross to pay for your disobedience.