8 – Jesus Christ, The God-Man Saviour

We have already demonstrated that, in order for Christ to legally qualify to be our substitute and representative, His divinity had to be united to our corporate fallen humanity that needed redeeming.  It is in the incarnation that these two distinct opposite natures were united together in one person and Christ became the second Adam.  This is the in Christ motif, the central theme of Paul’s theology.

1 Corinthians 1:30:
It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

Ephesians 1:3-6:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

According to W.W. Prescott, a nineteen century preacher, this truth constitutes the very heart of the Christian message:

“Now what does it mean to us that Jesus Christ became the second head of this human family?  It means this:  Just as, when Adam was created, all the members of the human family were created in him, so also when the second man was created ‘according to God in righteousness and true holiness,’ all the members of that family were created in Him.

It means that, as God saw in Adam all the members of the human family, so he saw in Christ, the second father of the family, all the members of the divine-human family; so he saw in him all his sons, all his daughters, all his descendants; all that belong to the family.

That is to say that Jesus Christ was the representative of humanity, and all humanity centered in him, and when he took flesh, he took humanity.  He took humanity and he became the father of this divine-human family, and he became the father by joining himself in this way to humanity, and the flesh which he took and in which he dwelt was our flesh, and we were there in him, he in us, just as what Abraham did, Levi did in Abraham, so what Jesus Christ in the flesh did, we did in him.

And this is the most glorious truth in Christianity.  It is Christianity itself, it is the very core and life and heart of Christianity.  He took our flesh, and our humanity was found in him, and what he did, humanity did in him.”  (W.W. Prescott, “The Divine-Human Family,” 1895 General Conference Bulletin, pp. 8-9).

Because Christ was both God and man, He was not only unique but also a paradox.  What He was as God, contradicted what He assumed as man.  This is the great mystery of the incarnation which our finite human minds cannot fathom, but which we by faith believe, because the Word of God declares it.

The following chart shows the distinction or paradox between Christ’s divine nature, which was His by native right, and His human nature, which was our corporate sinful nature that He assumed at the incarnation in order to be the Saviour of the World.

JESUS CHRIST AT THE INCARNATION
Two Distinct Opposite Natures United in One Person

In order for Christ to legally qualify to be our substitute and representative, His divinity had to be united to our corporate fallen humanity that needed redeeming.  It is in the incarnation that these two distinct opposite natures were united together in one person and Christ became the second Adam.  This is the in Christ motif.

The Paradox

AS GOD, CHRIST WAS:	AS MAN, CHRIST WAS MADE:
1. Son of God Luke 1:35: The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”	1. Son of Man Luke 19:10: For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
2. Self-Existing John 1:4: In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.	2. Of a Woman Galatians 4:4: But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law....
3. Spirit John 4:24: God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.	3. Flesh John 1:14: The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
4. Equal with God Philippians 2:6: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;...	4. A Slave of God Philippians 2:7: ...rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
5. Sinless 2 Corinthians 5:21: God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.	5. Sin 2 Corinthians 5:21: God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
6. Independent John 10:18: “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.  I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.  This command I received from my Father.”	6. God-Dependent John 5:19, 30: Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.  ...By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”
7. Immortal 1 Timothy 1:17: Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever.  Amen.	7. Mortal Hebrews 2:14-15: Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
8. Lawgiver James 4:12: There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy.  But you — who are you to judge your neighbor?	8. Under Law Galatians 4:4: But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,....

JESUS CHRIST IN THE RESURRECTION
The Two Natures Became One, Sharing The Same Eternal Life

On the cross our corporate condemned human life died eternally in Christ (the wages of sin).

2 Corinthians 5:14:
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

In the resurrection God gave the human race the eternal life of His Son.

1 John 5:11-12:
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.  Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

All that we are, as a result of the Fall, Christ was made at the incarnation; that through His life, death, and resurrection all that He is we were made in Him.

2 Corinthians 5:17:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:  The old has gone, the new is here!

This constitutes the good news of the gospel.

By Nature We Are:

1. Spiritually dead, but, in Christ, were made spiritually alive.

   Ephesians 2:5:
   ...Made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.

2. Sinners, but, in Christ, were made righteous.

   2 Corinthians 5:21:
   God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

3. Sinful, but in Christ, were made holy and blameless.

   Ephesians 1:4:
   For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

4. Condemned, but, in Christ, were justified to life.

   Romans 5:18:
   Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.

5. Sons of man, but, in Christ, were made sons of God.

   1 John 3:1:
   See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

6. Hell-bound, but, in Christ, were made to sit in heavenly places.

   Ephesians 2:6:
   And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,...

7. Mortal, but, in Christ, were made immortal.

   2 Timothy 1:8-10:
   So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner.  Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.  He has saved us and called us to a holy life — not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.  This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

8. Poor, but, in Christ, were made rich.

   2 Corinthians 8:9:
   For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

9. Lower than the angels, but, in Christ, were made joint heirs.

   Romans 8:17:
   Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

   Hebrews 2:5-11:
   It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking.  But there is a place where someone has testified:  “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, a son of man that you care for him?  You made them a little lower than the angels; you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet.”  In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them.  Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.  But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.  In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered.  Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family.  So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

Surely, every believer who realizes this truth will join Paul in exclaiming:

2 Corinthians 9:15:
Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!