Lesson # 4 The Person of Jesus Christ (Fundamentals of the Faith by John MacArthur)

So this is lesson number four of John MacArthur's book, The Fundamentals of the Faith. Lesson number four is on the person of Jesus Christ. The memory verse was John 1, 1, probably the strongest verse anywhere in the Bible on the deity of Christ, but also verse 14.

The Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Among Us

It says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we saw his glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

So I'm just gonna read the first paragraph. It says, Jesus Christ is the central figure of all human history. There has never been anyone like him. He was regarded as a great teacher, a religious leader, a prophet, the son of God, even God himself.

The claims he made as well as those, as well as those that others have made about him have propelled him into the center of endless controversies throughout history. Pontius Pilate phrased the question perfectly when he said, quote, "'Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?'.

That's Matthew 27, verse 22. So before you can answer that question, you must first understand who Jesus is, and this lesson will introduce him to you.". So if we have time, we'll go over some of the different Jesuses.

That's not really something you hear a lot about. Paul talked about those who preach another Christ. So everybody has an opinion on Jesus. Some people aren't gonna wanna talk about it with you, but pretty much everybody you come across will have an opinion on Jesus.

And there's many different views of Jesus and many different Christs, really. So if we have time, we'll get into that. But you notice how it starts, the God who became man. So that tells you something about, is it obviously the standard Christian belief that God became a man.

Jesus Christ came into the world in human flesh, it says, he voluntarily set aside the independent use of his divine attributes and took on the form of a man. He was fully human, a man in every way, except that he was without sin.

This is referred to as the incarnation. Yes, Larry.

Grace and Truth in Christ

Well, just going back to John 1 .14, we saw his glory, glory is of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. And just thinking of that full of grace and truth, you know, there are a lot of preachers that I hear that are full of truth.

But not so much grace. And, you know, there's many out there that are full of grace, but not so much truth.

Hey, that's a good, where'd you get that line? I'm gonna have to use that. Where'd you get that?

Okay.

All right, Larry came up with it. That's good, it's true. Yeah, there's full of truth, but not a lot of grace. What do you think is more common? Full of grace and not a lot of truth, or full of truth and not a lot of grace?

Pretty monogamous in both ways, I think.

Yeah.

I hear a lot of kind of harsh speakers.

Yeah.

Well, I think that exists. Yeah, I think the other side is much, much more prevalent, at least in the area we live in, where, yeah, they're full of grace, but not a whole lot of truth coming out of their mouth, at least on the gospel, the ministry of the word, et cetera.

But yeah, that's a good point. I'm glad you brought that up.

Well, we gotta always remember that that's Jesus. Everything he did was full of grace and truth.

Right, here's the thing I would say about that, since you brought this up. And feel free to bring anything like that up. That's what Sunday school is all about. This is the time to do it. Jesus, yeah, you said full of grace and full of truth.

The scripture says that. Jesus, at times, though, spoke harshly, though, didn't he? Especially to the scribes and Pharisees. He never spoke untruth. So you can be full of grace and full of truth, and at times, as a preacher, speak harshly.

You cannot be full of grace and truth and be a preacher who speaks untruth. So that, I would point that out.

I think there are times where you need to be harsh with someone because they're not getting it or they're not willing to listen. They keep throwing back in your face. And I remember hearing about this man who was witnessing to his neighbor over and over, and his neighbor was always just really rude back to him.

And his neighbor ended up in the hospital where he was dying, and they knew that he was dying. And he knew he was dying. And so the man went to his neighbor to witness to him and out of love, sharing Christ with him.

And from his deathbed, he started reviling him again. And the man just looked at him and said, well, go to hell then! Turned around and walked out. And before he got to the door, the man was like, no, no, wait!

You know, and he led him to the Lord. But sometimes it took a kick in the shorts though.

Get it?

Yeah, it's always been my approach. I think this is the right approach. To be harsh, or to be intentionally harsh, knowingly harsh, that is something I would reserve towards people who are enemies of the cross, people that are actively opposing the gospel ministry.

And I think the scribes and Pharisees would be exhibit A. The problem, and then the people who are maybe in sin don't understand, Jesus was pretty gentle to those people oftentimes. The problem today though, is any disagreement at all, you can say the littlest thing, and it's not harsh, but you know, it's words today are violence.

And any disagreement or in expressing an opinion that somebody doesn't like, it's perceived as being harsh. That if you tell someone they're wrong, even though that's, you know, it happens every day, that's perceived as being harsh.

So everyone has a different definition sort of of what that even looks like. But yeah, Jesus called the scribes and Pharisees, yeah, brood of vipers. You know, how can you escape the damnation of hell?

Whitewashed tombs. Children of the devil, he called. That's pretty harsh, Larry.

But yes, they were the religious leaders of that day. And I think it was Dwight Moody who said that he believed in his day that about 40 of the congregation, they were the ones that needed the gospel.

So would those that think they're believers, that are deceived? I know I was there for most of my life. Deceived, I deceived myself. And you know, that they are the kind of Pharisees or, I mean, they're not leaders.

Right, yeah, another thing today, there are no, well, there are Christian leaders. But back then and throughout history, it was kind of understood that, okay, these are the leaders of the church, and then there's the flock.

But it's more common today where people, just members of the flock, think that they know just as much as anyone else. And leadership really isn't what it used to be, at least how it's perceived. Of course, everyone today has their own Bible.

They have a study Bible. They have notes. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that, it would be bad for a pastor to be seen as a pope where he can't be questioned at all. I mean, that would be one extreme, and that would be bad.

But when the pastor is challenged and questioned consistently by everybody, and everyone thinks they all know, and everyone's disagreeing on everything, and who's to say, and there's no clear voice of leader, that's another extreme that I think we have today where everyone is their own pope, sort of.

But okay, let's get back on track. The God who became man says, "'Jesus Christ came into the world in human flesh. "'He voluntarily set aside the independent use "'of his divine attributes and took on the form of a man.

"'He was fully human, a man in every way, "'except that he was without sin.'". And this is referred to as the incarnation. So number A, or letter A says, "'What does Philippians 2, verse 6 say about Jesus "'before he became a man?'.

"'Although he existed in the form of God, "'he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.'". And then B, according to Philippians 2 .7, what did Jesus do? Says, "'He emptied himself, "'taking the form of a bondservant "'and being made in the likeness of men.'".

So Philippians chapter two, Jesus emptied himself. What did he empty himself of? What's that?

His deity.

Okay, let's think through this for a moment. If Jesus, what's this saying? The God who became man. And by the way, that is a viewpoint that's out there. The word kenosis, some people interpret it that way, that he emptied himself of deity.

Others would say he emptied himself of his divine attributes. You want to change your mind?

No.

No, okay. Is it the same thing? Well, empty himself.

It's the same thing.

Yeah, you might be trying to say the same thing. So, okay, let me phrase it this way. When Jesus came to earth in the incarnation, was he both God and man at the same time? Or was he just a man and he wasn't God?

Okay, so you're not actually saying he came to this earth and he was no longer God. Because that's what I would understand that to mean. If he emptied himself of his deity, he was no longer divine. That's not what you're actually saying.

So, he set aside his divine attributes, or at least many of them. Did you have your hand up? Or was it going up?

Yeah.

I was just gonna say, I thought he kept his deity.

He did, right.

Emptied himself of everything but that.

Yeah, because God can't cease from being God. Like if Jesus is truly the God-man, he can't empty himself of his deity. And now he's no longer. There are people who teach that though. Kenneth Copeland is a very well-known televangelist.

And he taught, I don't know if he still believes or teaches this, but he taught way back when that Jesus, when he came to earth, yeah, he was just a man. Joel Osteen's wife, who was a preacher at Lakewood Church, she said that Jesus became God, or he became divine at his baptism.

So, that viewpoint is out there that Jesus was truly just a man, that he was not God. That's kind of what the liberals would say, that he was not God. And then people like the ones I just mentioned say, well, yes, he was God, but he emptied himself of his deity, but then he became God, either at his baptism or after the resurrection.

The truth, and what we're teaching, what John MacArthur's teaching, what this church believes, Jesus is, he's always been God, and he can't not be God. Because God can't cease from being God, right? So, what he emptied himself of was his divine attributes.

Remember when he mentioned his return, and he said that he didn't even know the day or the hour. Only the Father knows the day and the hour of his return. So, at that moment, Christ's omniscience, the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, he is omniscient, he knows all things, but in his incarnation, he didn't know all things.

At times, he could read people's hearts and know things that only God could know, but he didn't know everything in his person as a human being. He couldn't be everywhere all at once, right? He was limited.

So, wanna be careful in how we define that, because again, all these other views are definitely out there and believed and taught. Brad, you had your hand up.

So, he had certain limitations, but he didn't empty himself of all divine attributes. You know, like, he got hungry. He could appear in a room out of nowhere, sort of.

After the resurrection, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Right, yeah, I wouldn't say he emptied himself of all his divine attributes. I don't like using that type of language, all, because then you're committed to, like, everything.

Yeah.

But yeah, definitely limited. Yes, Mike.

Not how to exactly word this, but God the Father would work through God the Son, if you will, and give him certain deity heights, or however you wanna put it.

Okay.

When he saw fit, or, because he is, you know, God the Father. So, even though, you know, God, Christ, was there at the, the Earth was formed, and the universe and all that, and he became flesh, did he, you know, hold back certain things, certain powers from him that he got himself?

Right, yeah, in the incarnation, some things would have been held back, or he would empty himself of certain divine privileges, maybe you'd say, than that, because the attributes are still there. He still had that ability, and in his spirit, the Christ, the second person of the Trinity is omniscient, but in his incarnation as a man, while he walked this Earth, that was unique, that was different.

And it's okay if you say, well, I don't know how to phrase this, or I don't, you know, you need to really be taught, and this is a complicated subject. Anytime you're talking about anything related to the Trinity, and how one member works together with the other, this is some of the deepest stuff you're gonna get into, so.

Any other questions or comments? Have you thought about this before? It's not always something that we spend a lot of time getting into, but it's very important. All right, C, Jesus was fully human. Says, describe Jesus' human growth and development as a youth.

Luke 2, verse 40 and 52, he grew and became strong and increased in wisdom. Now, obviously, God does not increase in wisdom, right? But Jesus, the God-man, in his incarnation, he had to grow up. He was a little kid, he was a little baby at one point.

The baby didn't know everything, but he grew in strength and in wisdom. And there is some mystery here, admittedly. Next page, it says, what was Jesus' response when he was tired, Mark 4, 38? He slept, right?

The danger is overemphasizing the deity of Christ to the detriment of his humanity. Sometimes evangelicals, I feel like we're guilty.

Of that sometimes.

We focus so much on his divine nature, we don't really fully understand or appreciate his human nature. The liberals do it the opposite way. They focus all on the humanity of Christ and then neglect or deny his divine nature.

Well, it's both, okay? He was truly God, truly man. So as a man, when he was tired, yeah, he had to sleep. God, there's a Bible verse that says God's, God, what does it say? God does not get weary. Obviously, God doesn't need to sleep, but Jesus, the man, did.

What was Jesus' response to lack of food, Luke 4, verse 2? Yeah, he became hungry. How did Jesus feel after a journey, John 4, verse 6? He was weary, right? Number five, how did Jesus react when he was grieved, John 11, verse 35?

Jesus wept. And then six, what did Jesus say about himself in Luke 24, 39? He said, see my hands and my feet, that it is myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.

So Jesus was fully man, truly man. There's only one thing about Jesus in his humanity that separated himself, that he was completely different than us. And what was it?

No sin.

Right, no sin. So another thing, when Jesus was grieved at times, yeah, he did express anger. So anytime Jesus showed anger, or as they used to say, harsh, that was a righteous indignation. Well, because we have sin, when we express anger, that's not always, right?

Sometimes it could be, but it's not always righteous. So that's the big difference in his humanity, Jesus was without sin. Why was he without sin?

He was God.

Because he was divine, true. But this goes back to the virgin birth. Why did Jesus, why did he have to be born of a virgin? Well, to be the son of God, God had to be his father, not a man. But when a child is born into this world, we are born with what is called original sin.

We have that sinful nature. So a little baby from the very time it's born, growing up, there's always that bent in inclination towards doing the wrong thing. Jesus did not have that. So he did not have the sin nature, everyone else.

There was only one other man in all of history that didn't have the sin nature. Who is that? Other than Christ. There was a man other than Christ that did not have the sin nature.

Who was that? Adam.

When he was created, he did not have the sin nature. Of course, after the fall, he had it and then passed it on to all his progeny,.

All of us, the human race.

Okay, following along so far, this all makes sense. And really, don't be afraid to ask a question. Don't be afraid, well, I don't know if I'm gonna say it right. If you have a question, please ask it and don't worry about how it's phrased or if it might be wrong or I have the wrong assumption.

Because that's how you learn. You're not gonna learn if you don't ask and if we don't study it.

Larry.

The Humanity of Christ and the Eyewitness Testimony

Yeah, well, that last one, what did Jesus say about himself in Luke 24, 39? Handle me, you know, as flesh and bones. And that reminded me of 1 John, chapter one, verse one, where John says, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, you know, John was an eyewitness.

Which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled, concerning the word of life. Who was Jesus.

Good.

Yeah, you remember when Thomas, you know, Thomas doubted that Jesus truly rose from the dead. And Jesus appears in the room, locked doors and all, he just appears and he tells Thomas, handle me, you know, touch me.

And interesting how Jesus still had the nail prints and the scar in his side.

Why?

Because he was a man and that happened to him. That's without sin. That's the main thing. Okay, so we looked at number one, the God who became man. And now number two, the man who is God. It says, even though Jesus took on the form of a man, he was still fully God.

Consider the following marks of deity attributed to Christ. So let's look these up. Can I get a volunteer for Matthew 28, 18? Okay, Mary, 1 John one, one and two. Tanya, okay. I'm just gonna call on people.

Hebrews 13, verse eight, dad. Colossians two, two B and number three, Mark. Second Corinthians 5, 21. Linda, you had your hand up. Okay, Acts three, 14 and 15. Larry, you wanna get that? And then John 14, verse six.

Patrick, you wanna look that up?

All right.

So these are the attributes that he was sovereign, he was eternal, he was unchanging, he was immutable. All knowing, that is omniscient, perfect or sinless, holy and truth. Okay, the attribute of truth.

Notice that perfect or sinless and holy are not, they're different. So that tells you something that holiness is not defined as being without sin. Even though that's kind of the way most people would define it.

Okay, Matthew 28, 18, who has that?

Mary.

And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Okay, do we believe that, that all authority has been given to Jesus, not just in heaven, but down here? Do you believe that, that all authority has been given to him?

Okay.

Even the word all.

All, and all authority, like all of it.

Jesus has all authority. That means that every human being, not just every Christian, every church member, it's beyond that, every unbeliever, every politician, every king, every businessman, everybody everywhere has an obligation and a duty to obey the word of God and Jesus Christ.

Now, does everyone agree with that or recognize that or do it? No, but all the authority has been given to him. So it's the mission of the church. Part of our mission is to declare that and the Holy Spirit of God hopefully will convince and people will submit to the Lordship of Christ.

So that's what we're in the process of trying to do. And it's a hard job, but everybody from the schoolhouse up to the White House is to submit to the Lordship of Christ.

Larry.

And scripture does say that one day at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow.

Right, yep. All authority. Okay, any questions or comments on that? Jesus Christ is sovereign. He is the only potentate, I think. Paul writes to Timothy, the King of kings and Lord of lords. All right, his eternal nature, 1 John 1, 1 and 2.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life, the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifest to us.

Okay, so Jesus is eternal. He's the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He's God, so from everlasting to everlasting. And he has life in himself. So the only way to have eternal life is to have it in Christ because he's the only one who has eternal life.

This is the thing about the people who think there's other paths to God, other ways to be saved, other paths to eternal life. I preached a sermon at a memorial service and taught Jesus is the only way.

And someone came up to me afterward and said, you know, that's not, there's other paths. And he mentioned this Egyptian book of the dead and that's a path to eternal. Well, does the Egyptian book of the dead, is that eternal?

Or whoever wrote it, are they eternal? That they have life, are they God? They have life in themselves? No, only Jesus, there's only one God and there's only one entity or one person who has life in himself and that is God.

Okay, the next one, he is unchanging or immutable. Hebrews 13, verse eight.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

All right, he is the same. Now he does different things, but he in his person and in his nature, he does not change. Is Christ incarnate today? Does Jesus have a human body today, right now? Yeah, he has his resurrected glorified body.

So what does that tell you? And I don't know that I understand all this, but we think of heaven as a spiritual place. Well, yeah, I guess it is, but there's something physical in heaven because the resurrected body of Jesus has some physicality to it and he's in heaven.

So it's not purely spiritual as in non-physical. And again, I don't know that I understand all that, but yeah, he changes not. Okay, Colossians 2, verses, this is 2B. You don't have to guess, I guess, where it picks.

Let's read verses two and three or where you think B picks up.

I'll start at the beginning.

All right.

To that their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the knowledgement of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So we would just say Jesus knows all things. He knows everything. That's his omniscience. And so does everyone know what 2B means? When you see the B, that usually means you're picking up halfway through the verse.

I don't know, maybe that's in your bulletins today. I've done that before. I'll just quote half a verse. So when you do that, it's verse 4A or 4B. So that's what that means if you don't know. Some people are real sticklers, and if you quote a verse, you need to quote the whole verse or they get upset.

Some people don't like this A and B stuff, but verse, keep in mind, chapter divisions and verse divisions are artificial. They weren't in the original manuscripts. A man came up with those. So it's perfectly legitimate to only quote part of a verse.

Well, that's what I say anyways.

If you wanna disagree, go ahead, but it's still legitimate.

All right.

Yeah, yeah, what's not legitimate is to take it out of context to make it say something else. But as someone once pointed out, not to get off topic, but somebody said this to me, and it was kind of a revelation, not a revelation from God, but they said any verse that you quote is gonna be out of context, meaning out of its context, because you're only quoting that verse and not the stuff before and after.

I thought, you know, that's a good point. Anytime we quote a verse, by definition, we are removing it from its context. But that's not wrong. It's wrong to take a verse out of context when you're leaving something out that would hinder the meaning.

Like if I say, well, I'm gonna get myself in trouble here. If I say somebody said, this guy said, and then I repeat this terrible thing. Well, somebody just quotes me in that terrible thing and leaves out, hey, so-and-so said, and they just quote me as if I said it.

Yes, I did say that, but they removed the context that no, that's what this other guy was saying, right? So obviously, you can cut things out to make it seem like the opposite of the truth. So that's the problem with taking things out of context.

All right, the next one is 2 Corinthians 5, verse 20. Yeah, sorry.

If Jesus has still got man in him, does he ever not have man in him?

Okay, so if Jesus had man in him, is he ever, would there ever be a time when he wouldn't or doesn't have man? From this point, from the incarnation on, I would say no.

Ever?

He is the God-man.

So when he comes back in the clouds, he's still gonna be our man?

Well, he's fully man. He's truly man, but he's still truly God. So from the incarnation, when he was born in Bethlehem, or nine months earlier, when he was conceived, he, from that moment on and forever, is an always, remember, he changes not.

Same yesterday, today, and forever. So he's always man, he's always God. Now, the challenge, I guess, would be, well, was he man before the incarnation, if he's the same? Well, when Jesus did appear in the Old Testament as a man, he did appear as a human being, but this is God is outside of time, that Jesus was the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world.

So this kind of gets beyond my comprehension, but I would just say this for certain, that no, there will never be a point where Jesus is no longer a man. Yes, dad?

One of the things that confused people, I noticed, in the past, people would try to explain what you just said, that Jesus is 50 man and 50 God. He's equal man, equal God. Well, it's not 50 -50, it's 100 -100.

Right, right.

Yeah, Jesus is not a composite being, or God is not made up of, okay, God is 33 father, 33 son, and 33%, no. Jesus is not 50 -50. Yeah, he's 100 man, 100 God. He's one person in two natures, and the two natures are perfectly joined together in what theologians call the hypostatic union.

But obviously, at some point, you can't really comprehend the depths of all of this. What we cannot comprehend is that the scripture teaches he was a man, and he was God. And you have to kind of leave, there's some things you have to leave to the Lord.

All right.

Who had that verse, 2 Corinthians 5, 21?

When we made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

All right, so Jesus is perfect, or he is without sin. He who knew no sin became sin, or God made him sin. Now, did Jesus become a sinner on the cross? No, but all the sins of humanity were imputed to him.

So he became a curse. He became sin in that sense, although he himself never actually sinned. But he became sin. Again, this is another thing that would be a little hard to understand, but this is the exchange that God offers.

All of your sin was placed on the person of Christ, and he died for your sin. Now, Jesus was not a sinner, he was what? He was righteous. So in exchange, he takes all your sin, deals with it, and in exchange, gives you all of his righteousness, which is the greatest deal ever, if you trust him by faith.

Mike, you had your hand up.

Yeah, you hit it on the last point there,.

Where he did no sin, he wasn't sin,.

But he paid the price for everybody's.

Yes, dad.

Jesus had no sin, because if Jesus had any sin, then there would have to be somebody to die for his sins.

Right, right.

Yeah, he could not be the spotless lamb, the perfect sacrifice, if he had sin. Of course, if he had sin, he wouldn't have been God, because God, if we say God is omnipotent, God is all-powerful, God can do anything, well, God can't sin.

So yeah, Jesus wouldn't have been God if he could sin.

Yeah.

I often thought about the statement when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane and praying, and says that his sweat became like drops of blood, and he was in agony, and I had always thought that because he knew what he was going to bear, it was, you know, I mean, he didn't say, Father, if it be your will, let this pass from me.

Right.

But, you know, if it is according to your will, do it. And so I always thought that, because he knew the sin he was going to bear, because he knew all the scourging, the whippings, the pain, the suffering he was going to go through, that that's why.

But I recently heard someone else say for, since before time began, the fellowship, the love that he shared, the relationship that he shared with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and he knew that when he was nailed to the cross and he bore our sin, he knew that the relationship would be broken.

Right.

First time in eternity that he was going to be separated from the Father and from the Holy Spirit, and that's what agonized him more than bearing the sin or the pain and suffering he was going to go through was that broken relationship.

Yeah.

And when he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Right, Jesus knew of the intense physical pain and suffering he had to deal with, but he also understood the spiritual becoming a curse and being forsaken, he understood that pain. And we would agree that that pain was worse for him.

But remember, he's still a man, that other pain was still, he was still not looking forward to that except that he wanted to obey the Father. This is one of my favorite hymns, My Savior's Love, number 512.

You know, oh, how marvelous, how wonderful in my soul shall ever be. There's one line in it, you know, I hate disagreeing with a line in one of my favorite songs, but I don't know that I fully agree with this.

In the second line, he says, for me, it was in the garden, he prayed not my will, but thine. He had no tears for his own griefs, but sweat drops of blood for mine. Very poetic, great verse, I just don't think it's true.