Sermon for Lord's Day May21, 2023 Jesus- Son of Man and Son of God

Throughout the text, I know it seems like as we slowly move through the text of scripture that we tend to, a lot of times, I think, lose sight of the timeline that is taking place before our eyes and before our ears as we read and see the Word of God.

But I think it's very important, as we mentioned several weeks ago, for us to recall and to remember, first and foremost, that this trial of Jesus was a sham and it was a farce. You've heard us repeat that the last two weeks.

The Sham Trial and the Son of Man in Luke 22

And what we read today, picking up in verse 66, contextually, what is taking place is they're trying to make right what is wrong. The Pharisees and the scribes, the Sanhedrin, are trying to have a quote-unquote official trial for Jesus when they've already had their farce trial and they've already perpetrated great sin against the Lord.

But as we look at this text today, I want us to notice particularly, in verse 69 today, Jesus said, But from now on, the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God. And then verse 70, So they all said, Are you the Son of God then?

And he said to them, You say that I am. You're taking notes today. I would like to put a header at the top of your notes. Here's what I put at the top of mine, Son of Man and Son of God, Jesus Christ.

And what we're going to look at today in brief as we enter into this text, I'd like for us as a body to consider the doctrine of the hypostatic union. The doctrine of the hypostatic union. Because this is what we see here in the text.

It's what we see throughout the text of the scriptures is the doctrine of the hypostatic.

Union.

And we'll explain a little bit more as we go there. But you'll notice throughout Luke's gospel and throughout the remainder of the other gospels, Jesus' favorite designation for himself in referring to himself is the Son of Man.

You'll read this repeatedly. As a matter of fact, I believe it's about 78, maybe 78 times in the New Testament. Jesus uses this title, Son of Man, for himself. Now don't get confused, though. The term Son of Man is very much a messianic term in and of itself.

This title, it's important for us to know this as well. This title was not unknown to the Sanhedrin. It was not unknown to the scribes and to the Pharisees. They knew the Old Testament like they knew the back of their hands.

That's the sad part about all this. They knew the Old Testament like they knew the back of their hands. And what was so offensive to them was that Jesus continually referred to himself as the Son of Man.

And toward the end of the message today, we're going to read, if you want to mark a spot, back over in Daniel chapter 7, we're going to be reading some of Daniel chapter 7 as.

Well.

But you'll see why this so incensed the Pharisees, why it made them so angry, why they got so upset, and why they accused Jesus Christ of blaspheming God. Now it is certainly true that in a very plain sense, in one very real sense as well, this term Son of Man, that Jesus used for himself, referred to his humanity.

But it is as equally true that this referred to his divinity as well. So we have the humanity of Jesus, and we have the divinity of Jesus. Again, what did they ask him there in the text? But from now on, Jesus said, the Son of Man, speaking of himself, will be seated on the right hand of the power of God.

And then they ask him the question, are you the Son of God then?

Okay?

Keep that in mind. So the theological terminology that we're using, this hypostatic union, is used to refer to Jesus' full humanity and Jesus' full divinity. If you're taking notes, please be certain of those terms.

Full humanity and full divinity. Again, this is called the hypostatic union. This is not a doctrine that the church should ever skimp out on. Theological doctrine, big theological terms, are not something that you as a Christian should go without in life.

You think you don't need to know these terms, but you very much do need to know these terms. Because it is very important when we consider the person and the work of Jesus Christ for you as an individual believer to understand what is meant by this term hypostatic union.

To understand and to know that Jesus was not 50 God and 50 man, but that Jesus was 100 man and Jesus was 100 God. Now, this again, this is not just for those in the ivory towers of intellectualism.

This doctrine is for us normal Christians and it will greatly, it will tremendously aid us in our worship of our great God when we understand and we know the fullness of what his word teaches about who he is.

Because guess what? You will never learn about Christ outside of the scriptures. The scriptures are where we know how we know who God is and what God has done. Very, very important. So the church in time past went through a period of hammering out the specific details concerning the two natures of Christ.

And it is not surprising, as a matter of fact, it is quite interesting when we consider the many heresies that came about from folks sometimes intentionally teaching false doctrine and sometimes in the case of Nestorius, maybe not intentionally doing it, but still doing.

It.

Either way, false doctrine is false doctrine. Jeremy, you and I were talking before church, right? A little poison will kill you just as much as a lot of poison. You can drink it fast and die fast, or you can drink little bits at a time and die slowly, but you will die.

False doctrine will destroy you. So just to give you a list of a few of the false doctrines that were taught, just a quick run through on this, but this is important. The first one that I'd like to mention to you is called Ebionitism.

E-b-i-o-n-i-t-i-s-m. Ebionitism. And what Ebionitism taught was this. Ebionitism taught that Jesus was not divine, but he was only a man and a prophet upon whom the spirit of God descended at his baptism.

Now, this was one of the first and early heresies of the church. But the sad reality is this, that this blended with all the other false doctrines or doctrines that are being taught in mainstream churches across our land.

Jesus was a man, a man. Jesus was a good man, a man. Jesus was a prophet, a man. He was the prophet, to be more precise, the a man. He was God in the flesh. He was more than just a man, he was more than just a good man, he was more than just a prophet, he was God in the flesh.

This heresy that I mentioned to you, that's propagated today, this is the heresy of Bethel Church. They say that the spirit of God descended on Christ at his baptism and so he lived as a man empowered by the Holy Spirit and they say, so you, if you do this as well, you can be like Jesus.

But the scriptures tells us there's none like our God. There is none like the Lord, God, anything that you can think of or imagine. So this Ebionidism taught that Jesus was not divine, that he was just a man empowered by the spirit of God at his baptism.

The next of the heresies that came about is a heresy called Docetism, D-O-C-E-T-I-S-M,.

Docetism.

And what the heresy of Docetism taught was this, that Jesus was only divine. Jesus was only divine and his body was a mere spirit or a phantasm. You see the danger in these ideas? Jesus was not a man, he was only divine, his body was just a mirage, it was a phantasm, it was a ghost.

The next of the heresies that came about in church history was the heresy of Arianism, A-R-I-A-N-I-S-M, Arianism. And what Arianism teaches, still this heresy is taught, Arianism teaches that Jesus was a superhuman creature, something like an angel, something between God and humans.

So something in between. Now you may ask, how in the world would anybody believe this kind of foolishness today? Well, ask the Jehovah's Witnesses. This is the heresy of the Jehovah's Witnesses. This is their teaching of Jesus Christ.

Now they're sending letters, they stopped coming to people's doors just a short time after I was at Kenny's house a couple of years ago. We had a good talk with them about this very issue. This is a great problem when folks look at Jesus Christ as a created being.

Because the scripture tells us that Jesus Christ was not a created being, that he was ever with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He is part of the divine trinity, the Godhead. The next of the heresies, just about three more here, the next of the heresies that were taught would be called, the next one would be Apollinarianism.

A-P-O-L-L-I-N-A-R-I-A-N-I-S-M, Apollinarianism. And so what they teach was Jesus had a human body and just a divine mind. So Jesus was a human body with the mind of God, but he wasn't fully God.

He was fully man, they say, but not fully God. Great issues come up when we hear this. The next of the heresies, Nestorianism, N-E-S-T-O-R-I-E-N-I-S-M, Nestorianism. Nestorius taught, again, whether intentionally or unintentionally, he taught Christ was two persons, not one person.

Again, very important when we consider the person and the nature of Jesus Christ, that we get this biblically right, that we are sound in our understanding of who Jesus Christ.

Is.

Nestorian taught Christ was two persons, divine and human, functioning in parallel to one.

Another.

In other words, we're instructing you today on the hypostatic union, what Nestorius may have called it was a moral union, there was a moral union of Christ. But really what you see, and the best way that I can explain this or illustrate this point to you is this heresy, if you've ever had a clogged drain and you had to go to Home Depot or to Lowe's and you have to get liquid plumber, right?

You get it and it's that bottle that's split in half. You got part of it on this side and part of it on that side, right? Two halves that make a whole, but that is not what the scriptures teach us about Christ.

Jesus was 100 man and Jesus was 100 God. And the last of the heresies that we'll mention to you, the last is called monophysitism. That's the hardest one to say. M-O-N-O, mono meaning one, physitism, P-H-Y-S-I-T-I-S-M.

Kind of makes you feel like you're at Spelling Bee, doesn't it? So monophysitism, monophysitism, what is that? It is the union of divine and human natures resulting in a single divine nature. So they see it as a hybrid, a blending of the two.

They see Christ's human nature and Christ's divine nature being blended together into some sort of hybrid. And to go further with that false teaching, they teach that the human nature of Christ was extinguished at the moment of conception.

Dangerous, very dangerous. They teach the human nature of Christ was extinguished at conception. So the moment he was physically born, he ceased to be man and he started to be God. Big problems. The scriptures teach us contrary to this.

So, as we can see, in these definitions here, these are not what the scriptures teach about the hypostatic union. Another term that we might consider a simpler term when we consider the hypostatic union, the person and the nature of Christ, is Christology.

That's easier to say than the hypostatic union. But this is what we're looking at, Christology. Who is Jesus Christ? And I'm not asking who was Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is today. Because the scriptures tell us that he died for our sins.

According to the scriptures, he was buried. And according to the scriptures, he rose again. And he ascended and he ever lives, seated at the right hand of God the Father, where he lives to make intercession for us.

So Jesus Christ is not a was. He is not a has been.

He is.

He is, I am. Going further, as we see these definitions, we look at the term Christology. So here's what we're going to do. The question that we want to answer to you today from the scriptures is this, quite simple, simple question.

Is Jesus both human and divine? Is Jesus both human and divine? If you want to go ahead and write the short answer, here's the short answer. Capital Y, capital E, capital S, exclamation mark. Yes, Jesus is both human and divine.

Now, the longer answer is still yes. But here's how we know this to be true. And I know, I understand that in some churches across the world today, the congregation does not want to be bothered with large amounts of scripture text to prove what the Bible says.

They want some kind of funky illustration. They want something fun that the preachers had happen in his life. I don't have any of that to give you. All I have is the word of God. So we are not persuaded in such a way that you do not need the scripture.

We are persuaded quite the opposite, that you need the scripture more than you need life and breath. So with that being said, let's look at just a few Bible passages outside of this text as we try to understand this text that point us to the fact that Jesus is both fully divine and fully human.

Matthew 1 and the Virgin Birth of Emmanuel

If you turn over to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1, verse 18 through 21, or 18 through 23, really. This is what the word of God says. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was on this. It took place in this way.

When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. So we have the account of his natural birth. We have the account of his supernatural conception, right?

Fully divine, fully God, fully divine, fully man. Before they came together, she was found to be with a child from the Holy Spirit. After her husband Joseph, the scripture says this, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

But as he considered these things, this is what the Bible says, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying this, Joseph, son of David. Now again, it's easy to go by that. That's very important because what do we have in the Old Testament?

The promise of the Messiah would come through the seed of David. The angel says, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And then we have the scripture reference from Isaiah 9. Behold, the virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means, are you ready?

You probably know it, God with us. Fully man, fully God, Jesus Christ. Son of man, Jesus Christ, Son of God. Moving on, in John chapter 1, John chapter 1, we have as John's gospel account, we have this being written down, in the beginning was the Word.

You'll notice that term, or that word, Word, has a capital W in it there. It is the Greek word Logos. In the beginning was the Logos.

Who is this referring to?

Jesus Christ. And the Word, the Logos, was with God. Not created, not beginning, with God, from all of eternity. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word, the Logos, was God.

No distinction, no separation. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. In him, the scripture says, or I'm sorry, all things were made through him.

Who's it referring to?

Jesus, the Logos. And without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shined in darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. And we see, we can go on.

We see Jesus, we see Jesus' humanity traced back to Adam in Luke's gospel, and we see Jesus' humanity in the lineage in Matthew's gospel, making Jesus the descendant of King David. We see this. There are numerous, there is no shortage of undeniable evidence that Jesus Christ is the only begotten son of God, full of grace and truth.

And it may be that some of you are saying, why is the preacher pressing so hard on this issue?

We are believers. We know this.

That is just the issue. Some don't communicate this. When we go out those doors into the world, when we talk with people who deny the deity of Jesus Christ, we need to be able to point them to the Word of God.

This is what the scripture says. Very, very important. Now, as well, I'd like to leave you with a few confessional statements from church history. They clearly articulate in very plain terms the person and the work of Christ, and I want to add this.

They do so according to the Bible. You know what you do when you don't have gold yourself? You go to somebody else that's got gold, and you mine it. You borrow it.

You use it.

You apply it. But you always cite your sources, by the way. If you don't cite your sources, it's called plagiarism, and there's a lot of preachers that get in trouble for that nowadays,.

And that's wrong.

But here, Ligonier Ministries is one who several years ago put out their statement on Christology, and here's how it reads. Ligonier's statement on Christology reads this way. We confess the mystery and the wonder of God-made flesh, and we rejoice in our great salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord.

With the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Son created all things. Does that sound like what we just read to you and John, right? The Son and the Father created all things, sustains all things, and makes all things new.

Truly God, you'll hear this terminology, fully God, fully man, truly God and truly man. Truly God, truly man, two natures in one person. So if I were to ask you ten minutes after the service, is God one nature in two persons, what would your answer be?

No.

Is God two persons with one nature? What is God? Two natures, one person. Very important. He was born of the Virgin Mary. He lived among us, crucified, dead, and buried. He rose on the third day. He ascended to heaven, and he will come again in glory and judgment.

For us, he kept the law. He atoned for sin. He satisfied God's wrath. He took our filthy rags, and he gave us his righteous robe. He, Jesus, is our prophet. He is our priest.

He is our king.

He is building his church. He is interceding for us, and he is currently and presently reigning over all things. Jesus Christ is Lord. We praise his holy name forever.

Amen.

That's a very good statement there. Another statement that I would like to share and communicate with you is the Athanasian Creed. Very good statement, because Athanasius, it's likely, historically, Athanasius didn't necessarily write this statement.

The statement came about probably a couple of centuries after his time, but it was in reference to what he stood against. This heresy of Arianism was really striking at the heart of the church. He was really trying to make inroads into the church, and what Athanasius did, Athanasius stood against the Arian heresy, and it came to the point where so many were jumping on board with this heresy that basically came down to this, that Athanasius determined that if nobody else stands for the truth of the word, I'm going to stand for the truth of the word, and the phrase was coined Athanasius Contramundum.

What does that mean? Athanasius against the world.

You know what?

The smallest minority in this world today, beside all the garbage and junk that's out there, you want to know that one of the biggest minorities in the world today, it's Christians who believe the Bible, or professed Christians who say they believe the Bible.

We not only need to believe the Bible, we need to know the Bible. You need to know what you believe, and you need to know why you believe what you believe so that you can communicate that when you're out in the world today.

But this Athanasian Creed addressed the Trinity, and it addressed the nature and the person of Christ. So let's look at that very quickly. The content of the Athanasian Creed stressed the affirmation of the Trinity, the first half of it, in which all members of the Godhead are considered uncreated and co-eternal and of the same substance.

Again, this is side stuff, but this is very, very good for us to know. Because what was going on concerning the Trinity, or concerning Jesus being fully God and fully man, there was an argument over one letter in one word.

And this word was homoousius. Now homoousius means of the same substance. Homoousius means of like substance. But there's that distinction. Now what was Jesus? Was Jesus like God, or was Jesus God? Jesus was God.

Stay awake just a couple of more minutes. We'll be through before you know it. Jesus is God. So the Athanasian Creed, they affirmed the Trinity, the dual nature of Christ is given central importance, and in the second half of the Athanasian Creed.

Here's where we see the focus on the person and the nature of Christ. Listen to the Creed. Anyone then who desires to be saved should think thus about the Trinity, about what is being said. I love these definite terms.

There's no trying to mingle or to fit in or to get somebody to like you so you can make a point. No, the truth and the fact is set straight, and you can believe it or you don't. And the difference between belief and unbelief is damnation.

It's heaven or it's hell. You either are right with God or you are not right with God. There's not two ways to get to heaven. You get to heaven by believing in the person and the work of Jesus Christ, or you do not go to heaven.

Going on. This is what is written in the Athanasian Creed. But it is necessary for eternal salvation that one also believe in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully. The incarnation is Jesus being born.

We read that in Matthew's Gospel, right? In the Athanasian Creed it says this, this is the true faith that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's son, is both God and human equally. Debbie, is Jesus part God and part man?

No.

Bill, is Jesus fully God and fully man?

Yes.

According to the Scriptures. Not what I'm telling you, but according to the text of the Scripture itself. But the Creed goes on to say this. It expands this. It defines this beautifully. He is God from the essence of the Father.

The same substance. Not like substance, but the same substance. He was begotten before time. And he is human from the essence of his mother born in time. Before time and in time. He's completely God, completely human, with a rational soul and a human flesh.

He is equal to the Father as regards his divinity. And he's less than the Father as regards his humanity. That is a beautiful explanation of the hypostatic union there going on. Although he is God and human, yet Christ is not two.

He is one.

However, not by his divinity being turned into flesh, but by God's taking humanity to himself, he is one. Certainly not by the blending of his essence. You see how they're addressing all these issues, these false doctrines?

Not by the blending of his essence, but by the unity of his person. For just as one human is both rational soul and flesh, so too the one Christ is both God and human. We all know the text in Philippians, right?

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not think it proper to be equal with God. But he made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and came in the likeness of flesh.

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, right? Even the death of the cross, wherefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.

Of things in heaven, of things in the earth, and things under the earth. This idea of that when Jesus, they addressed this issue, and again, this is still in the little God's doctrine taught in so many mainstream churches.

This is the Bethel doctrine, that Jesus laid aside his Godhood. No, what Jesus did was took upon him, cladded to his God. He was not to meet form or fashion. He suffered for our salvation. He arose from the dead.

He ascended to heaven. He is seated at the Father's right hand. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead, and at his coming all people will rise bodily and give accounting of their own needs.

Those who have done good will enter eternal life, and those who have done evil will enter into eternal fire.". And then the statement says, this is the Catholic faith meaning universal. One cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully.

Can you be made right in God's sight on a half-true gospel? Sadly, no. Well, what if I'm well-intentioned? Well, intentions don't make you right with God. Are you right with God? Are you believing in the Christ who is fully God and fully man?

Or are you trusting that your scattered information here and there will make it so that God shows pity and mercy on you so that you can be invited into the kingdom of God? Friends, that will never happen.

God sent his son to die for your sin. That he became that propitiation for your sin. That he took upon him the wrath of God for your sin. That he suffered, was buried, and rose again. That he perfectly kept the law of God.

And that the only thing that you need to do to be saved is simply this, just believe on Jesus Christ. Forget about what you think. Forget about your strength. Because you and I are nothing. But Christ is all and in all.

Christ's Authority Before the Sanhedrin

Jesus. Moving to the text to try to get to close here. In verse 66 and 67 in our text. Notice the term used here speaks of what the council did. It's a very strong term. It basically states that they demanded.

Their terminology in verse 66. The terminology used, they led him away to their council and they said, if you are the Christ, tell us. This language in the Greek is very, very strong. They are demanding.

They are taking upon themselves to command the Lord of glory to give them an answer and to give them an explanation. Friends, we are not called to command God. We cannot command God. Because we are finite.

And God is infinite. We are sinful. And God is holy. We do not cause things to happen. There is nothing that we do or say to activate or to actuate the power of God in or on somebody or something else in our lives.

My friend, God moves when he chooses to move. He acts when he chooses to act. Because he alone is God. But they were demanding of him, give us an answer. And in reference to what just happened a few hours before, I'm going to use this term.

I wrote it in my notes and I wrestled with whether or not to say this, but it's just plain speech. In essence, what took place just hours before this, these idiots is what they were, these stupid men.

They were asking the one who himself is omniscient, the one who is himself omnipotent, they were asking God Almighty to demonstrate that he is who he said he was. And now here's a very important question for us to make note of here and a point for us to take to heart and to know this.

And I'll try to say this calmly. God is not obliged to act when we or anyone else commands him to act or to do so. Some have been foolishly led into believing that's what prayer is, us demanding of God to do a certain thing, to do this or to do that.

No, prayer is a humble beseeching of our heavenly father. And we're taught in the catechisms, right? What is prayer? It's asking God for those things that he has promised to do. That's what prayer is.

But what they were doing, they were commanding of God. And God is not obliged to act when we or anyone else commands him to do so. We do not release, and I'm using this terminology specifically because it's what permeates the minds of many Christians today.

We do not activate or in any way, shape, form, or fashion cause the power of God to be put on display. Yet, here these men are demanding of our Lord, demanding an answer from our Lord. And what was Jesus' response to them?

Jesus' response to them was simply this, even if I told you, you won't believe me. I can make a statement to you. I can tell you, yes, I am he. You're not going to believe me. And then he said, and if I ask you a question, you won't answer me back.

He goes on. What happens here is Jesus' answer harkens back to Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus. Remember when Jesus, Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. Nicodemus said to Jesus, how can these things be?

Because Jesus had been talking, you must be born again. Nicodemus is asking, how can these things be? And Jesus answered, are you a teacher of Israel? And yet you do not understand these things. Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and we bear witness of what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.

These are the words of Christ to Nicodemus previously. He said, if I had told you earthly things, and you do not believe, how would you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? So what Jesus was getting ready to say in his next breath, in his very next breath here in the text, just following verse by verse, what he was getting ready to say in his very next breath was an unequivocal statement.

It was a statement that there was going to be no doubt about what he was saying. It was one of those statements that there was nothing left in the grave. There was nothing left to be confused about. What Jesus was doing here, he wasn't speaking in a parable anymore.

He was not speaking in a parable. He wasn't being mysterious. He wasn't being unclear. Here, Jesus declares that he and the Father are one. Again, we see it illustrated in John 17. That would be another section of scripture for you to read throughout the week.

John 17, Jesus continues to praise, Father, make them one as we are one. So Jesus declares that him and the Father are one when he said to them, because they asked him, are you the son of God then? And he said to them, you say that I am.

Jesus declares him and the Father are one, Yahweh and Adonai. Psalm 110 reference right there. The Lord, Yahweh, said to my Lord, Adonai. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

So we see Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, standing before the Sanhedrin as he confirms with this statement what the psalmist spoke hundreds of years before in Psalm 110. J .C. Ryle said this, our Lord's confession deprived his enemies of every excuse for unbelief.

Now I know, again, it may not be super exciting, a message like this. The detail may not be super exciting, but guess what? There's not a one of you here today that are going to be able to leave and you can say we did not hear of Christ.

We did not hear of Christ the Lord. We did not hear of the work of God. We did not hear concerning the nature and the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, you are guilty. And you will leave today believing or not believing.

You will leave here knowing Christ or not knowing Christ. Our Lord's confession deprived his enemies of every excuse for unbelief. The Jews can never plead that our Lord left their forefathers in ignorance of his mission and kept them in doubt and suspense.

Ryle went on to say, here we see our Lord telling them plainly who he was and telling them in words which would convey even more to a Jewish mind than they do to ours. Again, because they knew the Old Testament scriptures like the backs of their hands.

They knew it.

They had put it to memory and to mind and to heart. Their hearts were hardened by prejudice. Their minds were darkened by judicial blindness. The veil was over the eyes of their inner man. They heard our Lord's confession unmoved and they only plunged deeper into their sin.

This is what Jacob referred to this morning to us in Sunday school when he read the passage in Romans. Wrath upon wrath is keeped up. Sin upon sin is keeped up. John Calvin said, Jesus affirms that he is the Christ.

Not for the purpose of avoiding death, but rather to inflame the rage of his enemies against him. Though at that time he was exposed to contempt and almost annihilated, by his mean garb he announces that at the proper time he will at length come with royal majesty.

That they may tremble before the judge whom they now refuse to acknowledge as the author of salvation. The meaning therefore is this, Calvin said, that they are widely mistaken. If from his present appearance they form a judgment of what he is, because it is necessary that he should be humbled and almost reduced to nothing before he appear adorned with the emblems of his royal power and with magnificent splendor.