The Man Christ Jesus (part 7)

Father in heaven Lord, we thank you this morning for your goodness your kindness toward us We thank you for the grace that we have

Experienced by being born again by being found in Christ by being Adopted by you having all of our sins forgiven father.

Let us rejoice in that and let us Rejoice in that even as we think about the high price that was paid by the

Lord Jesus Christ Father just bless our time as we look to your word and we ponder things that are sometimes

Almost imponderable Lord bless our time in Christ's name. Amen Well, I thought

I might start With a not really a quiz this morning, but I want to read a few things and ask you

What you think might be wrong with them? Okay, what's wrong with this statement?

Jesus is the first Spirit child of God the

Father and the mother of God. What what do you mean a lot?

What what do you mean a lot what's wrong with that where'd the mother come from that's an excellent question

I'm not Phil Donahue But one day my hair will be as gray as his was

I think in his 30s Sorry with all due apologies to Phil Donahue wherever he may be

Yeah, what's wrong with that? Well, the whole concept is wrong Let's see. How about this one?

Jesus was a God in some sense before he came to earth What's wrong with that one?

He was fully God. I mean, this is this is just foolishness, right? How about this one

Jesus began Mortality as men do what's false about that?

Okay, we're sinners Other than that though, is there a big difference?

Men are born with a father. Okay, true Okay Okay, he was filled with the spirit before he was born.

Very true. Okay, how about this? Let me see if I can summarize this one.

The Savior did not have the fullness of deity at first But after he received his body and the resurrection all power was given unto him both in heaven and in earth

Although he was God yet, there were some things lacking which he did not receive until after his resurrection

Mmm, there was nothing lacking. Okay Now this might be a giveaway. I don't know in his pre -existence

Jesus was a God in some sense before going through his probationary state as mortal man

True or false. Can you tell me what religion that is?

These people are Christians what is wrong with you? I just pulled up some

Mormon teaching on Jesus as I mean, I mean they believe that he became

God and I think that is You know just so poisonous and we're we've been studying this doctrine of Jesus as a man the

The humanity of Jesus or as the book says the man Christ Jesus And I just thought what a bizarre concept to think that I mean, we've been studying how he progressed

How he learned obedience, you know in these different kinds of terms that are actually in the

Bible But what about the idea that he kind of grew into? Godhood That's just crazy talk, you know not to put too fine a point on it

So we got to last week We're talking about let's look at Hebrews 5 9

We talked about a little bit about the Garden of Gethsemane and the suffering that he went through there

We talked about and well, we're gonna speak some more about peccability and impact ability impact ability means that Jesus did not have the ability to sin

Now listen to that again. Jesus did not have the ability to sin that does not mean he didn't have the ability to be tempted and we're gonna talk about that peccability means he would have had the ability to sin so now let's look at Hebrews 5 verse 9 and you know on the

I'll just say right on the surface of this that this almost sounds Mormon So watch yourself think about how you address this verse here

Hebrews 5 9 Who would read that please? Go ahead wrong or sorry

Matthew being made perfect Did Jesus have flaws

No I'll just answer that one up front. No Listen, what where says he says the issue was one of character formation and faith maturity

And I want to I want to I wish

I had a diagram because I would show you what I'm talking about But we'll just see if I can do a diagram with my hands

You like that what Jesus had What Jesus was three?

Was he as obedient and faithful as any three -year -old could possibly be? Yes, is that the same level of faithfulness and obedience that he displayed at age 30?

No, so if we just view his his life here as Perfectly mature but growing in maturity so that the slope of the line goes up but so does the obedience so that the

There is no gap as he gets older as he matures physically as he matures

Mentally emotionally his obedience is still at a hundred percent, but the hundred percent gets greater

Because he has more knowledge and that's in a sense.

That's what we're talking about here Does that make sense to you are there questions about that? He never sinned

But his level of understanding of what was required of him grew as he grew so that his obedience

Was commensurate with that as he learned more he obeyed everything that he learned pretty

Yes in his humanity yeah, and that's that's what we're discussing is this idea of Jesus growing

I mean I don't want to be as crass as somebody was a few weeks ago and speaking with me

But let's just put it this way. This isn't about God just putting on a show and dragging around his body for 33 years this is

God coming in the flesh Setting aside the full exercise of his deity which meant he didn't know everything

He wasn't he could have been all -powerful and we'll discuss this more woman I I hope we can make this clear by the end of the hour he

Had to undergo everything as we do So, you know, he's not sitting there the newborn thinking, you know, this is kind of Limiting being the sovereign of the universe and being in this little tiny body

I don't think he had those kind of thoughts as a man as a boy as a baby

So we have to understand two natures in a single person fully divine fully human

So where let me continue what he says the issue was one of faith formation and faith maturity Such that he would be able in the end to obey the father's most difficult demand upon him and go to the cross

There had to be a level of knowledge and maturity that he had to grow into So it is true that Jesus died for our sins

His life prior to the cross prepared him to be able to Willingly obey and suffer in that most difficult situation

In other words Jesus of the age of five was not prepared to go to the cross

Where suggests that one thing we should learn is that? Obedience matters as We get older as our men as we mature in Christ we could say

You know it Let me phrase it a different way. You might hear a pastor that you know

Say that, you know, if the church is filled with hypocrites, then I might be the biggest hypocrite ever

Well, why would that be? because as You know as you go through seminary and you get a doctorate, let's just say randomly

See this way. It doesn't have to be about me You gain more and more knowledge, you know the two things

I learned in seminary I say this all the time two things. I learned in seminary and you go. What's that get my notepad out

You know, it's all the insights of the hypostatic unioners. Here are the two things one is how much time

I waste And number two is how much I didn't know and I still don't know

Those are the two things I learned in seminary you go. Well, you paid a lot of money for that Those are the two most important things that I learned if church is filled with hypocrites

And the more, you know, the bigger hypocrite you are why why would I say that because think of Roman seven language?

even as pretty prayed this morning I Don't do the things I want to do and I do the things what?

That I don't want to do Jesus never would have prayed like that Jesus never lived in Romans 7.

He never thought. Oh, if only I did this more or I wish I could put off that sin

None of those kind of struggles but as he grew in knowledge as he grew in awareness as he grew in his

The information he was given by the Holy Spirit as he studied the Word of God. He grew in obedience always fully obedience

So, how can you say that he was made perfect because he reached that point where he was ready to go to the cross

But as where says, you know one thing we should learn is obedience matters God strengthens us think about that He strengthens us as we obey him

And I really like this that he said he said where says there are no little obedience is

Wait, we'll just think about that. The opposite is when we preach the gospel of people. What do we tell them? One sin no matter how major no matter how minor is

Enough to send you to hell well the reverse of that is There's no such thing as a little obedience

There's no, you know obedience that that really isn't that significant Obedience matters in that God can work through those things to strengthen us

Where says this he says every opportunity given us by God either to obey or disobey is an opportunity for that character formation and strengthening of faith that can prepare us for greater challenges of faith in the future

Do you ever see that t -shirt? True true story. I used to have this.

I don't remember if I bought it or somebody gave it to me I don't remember but it was kind of like I it it the idea of it was, you know that And I can't remember exactly what it looked like But it was something like, you know a shirt that you would wear to the gym where you're like growing in Muscles so that you could take on more

Stuff is a Christian like shirt. We'll think about it this way as You grow

Spiritually you are able to serve more you're able to bear more you go. Well, then I don't want to grow spiritually

What are we to be doing? What is our life about two things really? evangelization which you'll hear about during the sermon or which you already heard about and Being let's see if you've ever heard this phrase before being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ Well, what is that That's sanctification.

Well, how are we conformed into the image of Christ? Is are we just kind of like? Flow brought in this stuff for the for the kids here the other week, you know

It's kind of like this advanced play -doh stuff, you know But are we just kind of like play -doh passive there while God just kind of shapes and molds us and we do nothing

What does the Bible say about sanctification? How about does this ring a bell for you work out your salvation with fear and?

Trembling what does that mean? He doesn't mean work out your Salvation meaning if you work harder

God will save you he's talking about your sanctification Make your calling an election.

Sure. What does that mean? That means live obedient lives so that You'll know for sure for yourself

That these things are so but as we stretch our spiritual muscles

God strengthens us So and it's in that same kind of way that Jesus was strengthened as he grew in knowledge

So that he could then suffer all the more the difference between us and him, of course is not only did he never sinned but also

You know, there may be some of you who think and I know there are people in the church this local body and I'm sure many other bodies who just think you know, what if I Do this if I study that if I work this hard if I learn this much then

I'm gonna be more responsible. I Don't want more responsibility. I'm fine where I am Jesus never would have had that idea as He grew he never said gee.

I don't really know if I'm ready for that next step or not. It was like More and more and more and more why because at every step he wanted to obey the

Father now, let's talk about Jesus resisting temptation and What that meant and we'll even take a look we'll we'll ask ourselves, you know

How difficult was it and I think the answer might surprise you a little bit Hebrews 4

Verses 14 and 15 and when somebody read that, please Hebrews 4 verses 14 and 15 and I'm so encouraged as I read this because I just think

You know one of the things that was asked last Sunday night And for those of you who weren't here last

Sunday night Hopefully you'll grow to a point where you'll want the responsibility and accountability of being there on Sunday night.

So Sorry, sorry shameless plug We were asked

The elders were asked, you know What was probably the me what we thought was the toughest book to preach in the

Bible and some said revelation But the wiser among us said Hebrews Hebrews and then we heard, you know pastor

Mike was contemplating teaching Hebrews It was pretty by the way. He said Hebrews And I think that's going to be a very encouraging study when we get there here whenever that is

So Hebrews 4 verses 14 and 15 when somebody read that Bruce Now does that sound a little bit encouraging to you?

It sounds encouraging to me Why? You know just on the face of it.

Why is that encouraging? It's exactly right. I mean, we like to play the self -pity card, you know, nobody knows the trouble

I've seen Is not the name of an old song Nobody knows.

Oh, never mind. You don't need to hear me sing. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Well, is that true? I would just say let's look at verse 15 again for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize

What does that mean? Means he understands he identifies with our weaknesses Well, how can that be but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are?

He gets it He understands the difficulties of life And yet without sin now, we're gonna discuss

Christ's ability to resist sin Some say he could not sin that he was impeccable.

That's what it means Others say that he was peccable. And by the way, there's no K in there

It's two C's impeccable John Wolvard Scholar who was from DTS Dallas Theological Seminary says the point of view that Christ could sin is

Designated by the term peccability and the doctrine that Christ could not sin is referred to as the impeccability of Christ Adherents of both views agree that Christ did not sin

Which is key, but those who affirm peccability hold that he could have sinned

Whereas those who declare the impeccability of Christ believe that he could not sin due to the presence of the divine nature and I'm gonna kind of tip my hand and Tell you that I think he was impeccable and so does where and we're gonna discuss that here in a little bit

Louis Burkhoff reform scholar said this he says we ascribe to Christ not only natural

But also moral integrity or moral perfection that is sinlessness

This means not merely that Christ could avoid sinning But did actually avoid it

But also that it was impossible for him to sin because of the essential bond between the human and divine natures

Now I'm gonna tell you up Front before we discuss this a little bit more that this is not an easy issue

I think there are some pretty heavyweight people on both sides of the issue and there are some some deep implications here

But where it takes this position and I think this is right. Jesus was genuinely tempted in other words

He felt those temptations and he was genuinely impeccable That is he genuinely could not sin

For this to be so his humanity had to be involved in his temptations in a way that his deity was not

In other words just put it in simple terms Here comes the temptation the humanity of Jesus feels the weight the tug of that temptation

The divine nature does not It's just like You know, it's like probably

Speaking Chinese to me. It means nothing God cannot be tempted

James 113 says that and yet Hebrews 4 15 says Jesus was tempted as we are.

Well, how can he be tempted if he's God? Both are true

God cannot be tempted But Jesus was tempted and thirdly

Jesus was God, how do we square that triangle? Well, that's what we're gonna work our way through here

Berkov says but in spite of All this the problem remains how is it possible that one?

Who as he was actually constituted could not sin nor even have an inclination to sin

Nevertheless be subject to real temptation To show you how hard this is this according to where Berkov had no answer

Right a whole theological tome, you know systematic theology raise this question and you don't really answer it

Herman Bovink another Or Jan Bovink, I think took a more complete approach

Jesus did not sin yet But it was he did not sin, but it was impossible for him to sin

So who claimed he could have sinned? Well, there are many but among them this should be a warning sign

Arius and Pelagius said that he could have sinned Now Arius for those of you who are like who's who in the world's

Arius and why should I care Arius? said that Jesus was a created being and He was condemned the

Council of Nicaea and we've talked about Jehovah Witnesses Mormons others would say Jesus was a created being

Pelagius and His brother semi, thank you. Thank you much.

They were heretics. I don't know I don't even know if he had a brother but they were heretics because here's what they said they said or he said

Pelagius and Pelagians generally say that the sin of Adam affected only

Adam and Mormons sadly fall in this camp too, and so do many others and It affected only

Adam so that all mankind is born Not with a sin nature, but with a sinless nature so that everybody's like Jesus or like Adam and they're responsible for their own sins not for Adams transgressions those are wrong views by the way

Bob Inc again said this God himself Would have to be able to sin which is blasphemy or the union between the divine and the human nature is

Breakable and in fact denied for this to be true that Jesus himself could have actually sinned

When what he's saying and I think this is right well, and in fact, I I think I kind of repeat this a little bit later

So let me just kind of skip ahead if Jesus Jesus is tempted.

It's a genuine temptation, but if he falls to that what else is true if Jesus the man falls to that then

Jesus Being fully divine What does that say about Jesus as God Then God could sin because that sin isn't just you know somehow quarantine a word that we understand very well these days

Quarantined to his human nature, but it's also going to infect his divine nature and that can't be so What Bob Inc is saying is if you're gonna say that he did actually sin then one of two things has to be true either

God has to be able to sin which is blasphemy, which is I mean it's against the Bible We already know that God cannot sin from James 1

Other places too, but that's fine right there or there has to be some way to just kind of split the divine and human nature, but that's wrong because Jesus is both fully

God and fully man, and there's no division between them another theologian shed

Asserts that the divine will Not his nature, but the divine will overpowers the human will

His human will Jesus human will could have sinned, but was overpowered by his divine will

I think that's a decent argument The temptations were strong and real says shed

But the divine will enabled the God man to be immune to them now I I think there are

I think that's a reasonable argument I that I'm kind of more on where side and we'll get to where here in a minute

Another man who's written a systematic theology Millard Erickson Writes that Christ did not sin and that God cannot sin

Those are both true This he says does not mean that Jesus could not have sinned

I Think that's the problem. I I don't Don't really agree with that now. Where's position?

Jesus was genuinely impeccable could not sin because the second person of the Trinity joined himself to a fully human nature he writes

Jesus resisted these temptations and in every way obeyed his father not by recourse to his divine nature

But through the resources provided to him in his full Humanity he was anointed and empowered by the

Holy Spirit Now we know Jesus did not sin. We could read that in 2nd

Corinthians 5 21 We could also read it in 1st Peter 2 21 and 22 and I'll just read that For to this you have been called.

This is talking to believers believers who are going to suffer persecution For to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you

Leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps He committed no sin

Neither was deceit found in his mouth Jesus committed no sin

So it's unreasonable. It's unrational Irrational biblically to believe that Jesus could have sinned

Certainly, he did not sin. I don't think it's rational to think that he could have sin Shed says this if he actually did sin as I said earlier the guilt would not be confined to the human nature

But the divine nature would have been stained Okay, his inability to sin does not explain his sin less

Ness and Here we get into an illustration. I think is really helpful Suppose well,

I I mean, I don't know about you guys, but this is not something that would appeal to me How many of your swimmers? Okay, some of us like to how about do you like to swim in shark -infested waters?

Can I see a show of those hands? Okay. Well Pastor my question is how many of us like to swim in shark -infested waters?

To do that. I just like to he does that Alcatraz swim, you know in front I remember he did that it was doing that a few years ago and I and I sent

I think I sent out a BBC announce with a picture of you know Wasn't Mike being devoured by a shark, but it was like, you know shark -infested waters and you know,

Mike's gonna be swimming through this that's a slight exaggeration, but imagine you wanted to set the record for longest swim and Where says he thinks it's about 70 miles

What would you do if you wanted to swim 70 miles? What's that?

Get a motor. I think that might be a violation of the rules. I think what's the what's the record -keeping people?

Guinness Book of World Records, I think you know if you put a motor on your back They might go dude

DQ, you know, I don't know maybe You want to swim 70 miles, how are you gonna do that if I if I just jump into the water

You got a practice you got a train, right So he says this man sets out and he's doing

Every day five or ten miles. He's kind of alternating speeds trying to work up his endurance and once a week

He stretches out The first time he stretches out he does 20 miles and the next time he stretches out

He does 30 miles and he finds out that when he goes over 30 miles guess what happens now remember the record

He's shooting for 70 miles. Guess what happens at 30 miles He starts getting cramps

And he thinks to himself Okay The record 70 and I'm not gonna change my mind.

I don't care how many sharks are out there jellyfish or cramps I'm going to break this record if I'm getting cramps at 30 miles

How am I gonna do this 70 miles so he gets together With some of his friends and what do you think?

What's a good solution for this? Other than don't swim because I know somebody's gonna say that drink water

Okay Have people surround him Have porpoises surround him flipper, you know

Load up with carbs and electrolytes. Yeah take muscle rock

That Might not be the best plan. How about this?

He consults with some people and I say, you know what? You can carb a load you can do all this other stuff, but there's no guarantee that you won't get these cramps anyway,

I Mean, I think it was what a couple years ago The Miami Heat were playing and LeBron got cramps and went out of the game and everybody was like he's faking

I don't think he was faking Doesn't matter how well prepared you are. Sometimes you can just get cramps your muscles could fall short of the goal

So what's an ironclad thing? If you're if you know You're just determined to do this and your friends know that you're determined to do this and I said, well, you know what?

Here's a good idea. What about this and if they said this to me, I'd Say well That that's actually brilliant What if we just get a boat and we'll just follow behind you

We'll be at a short distance behind you. And if you if we see you, you know go down for the third time We'll pull up and we'll dive down and and maybe we'll be able to save you

Thanks a lot guys But that would give you what that if you were doing that that would give you a reasonable thought

You know what no matter what happens. I'm gonna be safe out here. So the day comes

This man is trained. He's like, you know what? I'm ready. I'm ready to go out and break this record

I'm gonna swim the 70 miles So he sets off on the race Or you know the the record -setting adventure the boats trailing behind him and guess what?

He makes it the 70 miles Say what's the moral of the story?

I'm gonna give you the moral of the story by asking you questions Why is it that this man could not have drowned?

He had a safety net That boat was following him So even if he seized up with cramps and he couldn't swim any further and he started to go down guess what?

He wasn't gonna drown because that boat was gonna come along on those people. We're gonna grab him and throw him in the boat So he could not have drowned

Now, why is it the swimmer? Did not drown Okay alleviated of the fear and anxiety of the cramps.

So he was able to do that. I suppose that's an argument It's not the argument I would make because I don't know that fear and anxiety have anything to do with whether you get cramps or not

But yeah, I see your point. I mean he didn't have to worry about that, right? So I think

I think that would kind of I'll tell you what that would do for me Is if I was training for something insane like this,

I have no idea why I would do that Because I I don't know if I could swim the lap of a pool But It was certainly, you know get me reengaged in terms of my training, right

So that I would continue training But why is it that he did not drown? Because he kept swimming and because he trained, right?

He'd been training for this But it is untrue that the man did not drown because the boat was there

But it's also blazingly obvious that he could not have drowned because the boat was there does the boat is

Guinness World Book of World Records gonna come up and say oh Wait, wait He had a boat following you.

This record is null and void No Because it didn't actually help him now if the boat was in front with a rope

This would be my way over regular, you know, that would be the way to go You know, I don't you know if I'd want to get dragged through the ocean for 70 miles, you know

Let me know when it's over No, where says this he says although Christ was fully

God and as fully God he could not sin

He deliberately did not appeal as it were to his divine nature in fighting the temptations that came to him

For Every temptation he faced he fought and resisted fully and totally apart from any use or appeal to his intrinsic divine nature

The analogy his divine nature is the boat at any point as he's running the race as He's living this life as he's obeying perfectly could have pulled the ripcord and said, you know what?

I can't take this as a man got to appeal to my divine nature I've got a rest on being the second person of the

Trinity, but he didn't does the fact that he's the second person of the

Trinity diminish the end result No No more than a boat trailing behind this man diminished the fact that he swam for 70 miles

Simply put Jesus used all the resources given to him in his humanity

What were those resources we've talked about them briefly before what were those resources What did what did

Jesus have? To help him resist temptation the

Spirit of God. What else? The Word of God, I mean when you get down to it,

I mean those two things are are pretty powerful. Are they not? Where says he knew that to rely on his divine nature would be to forfeit the mission on which he was sent

Just as our swimmer would have failed if he had to employ the boat So Jesus knew that his mission required that he fight temptation every temptation every time by making you solely

Entirely of those resources that were providing him in his Humanity, I was thinking about now.

This is just me meandering as I was thinking about this. I thought you know, what? Because we have to talk about the first Adam and the second

Adam, right? Why was it that Jesus came basically to clean up the mess that the first Adam created? he was the second

Adam the last Adam as Adam was our

Federal head. In other words, we were all in him represented by him, even though we didn't elect him

God elected him I think you know, we like to blame

Adam and we can blame Adam, but we wouldn't have done any better But as Adam failed

Jesus had to do what? He had to succeed he had to obey

Now what was a disadvantage that Jesus had that Adam didn't have in other words?

What advantage did Adam have that Jesus did not have Adam lived in a perfectly sinless environment?

I mean think about that There's no disease There's no sin there's no

Pollution there's no illness. There's no there's nothing there's nothing that we experience

Daily here, you know the whole world system that's set up whether it's even sinful men in power or the sinful ways, you know that Marketing is done or bankers run their banks or anything else

None of these things we Adam never had to worry about somebody trying to rip him off Didn't have to worry about identity theft

Brian, thank you and and so Jesus yes.

Yeah, I mean he he gets sent into this Sinful world. He has a lot more struggles than Adam did and of course, you know

Adam was doing great until The first temptation came along and then like a kamikaze down the smokestack he was done

It was over Harry Yeah, I mean what that's a great point

And I won't repeat it for the tape since everybody heard you with your booming voice, I think But as you were speaking even reminded me, you know when

I was a kid, I used to surreptitiously listen to Laker games in my bed, you know with my a .m.

Radio on in my head earphone and my thing and listen and you know Chick Hearn at the at the close of a game what every

NBA game almost all of them get super close at the end I think they're rigged but that's the inherent over there They get really close to the end and he'd say it's nervous time at the forum and my heart rate would go

You know like this, you know and the crowd would be cheering and everything and I think you're exactly right It's nervous time in heaven, right?

Everybody's just chewing their fingernails kind of watching. Oh boy. This is gonna be rough I don't know if Jesus is gonna do this because we know that he can sin

That's not right There's a difference between being able to be tempted and being able to sin and It's that sense of actually being

Tempted that is the key and we're going to Have to table that in a minute.

Yes, Charlie, but was tempted in every way as we were

I mean some of this is kind of it Well, I was gonna say some of it is you know

Can we argue this is a little bit of a gray area and would it minimize it? Is your question would it minimize his obedience if he could not sin well, and we we discussed this

I and here's what I would say, you know, I guess the argument is this as Jesus grows in awareness of his divine mission and also, you know

If we look ahead to John 17 and he prays to the Father He says, you know basically restore me to the glory that I had before I came here

Right now we don't know when he knows that and so your argument is listen Satan's like hey pal.

I got a quarter for you and And Jesus has come from you know, the perfect relationship he had with the father, you know, and he listens to Satan.

He just goes Dude are you kidding? And I I'm going to argue that that's not the situation and we'll see why that's not the situation next week

It's a cliffhanger Let's pray Father we just praise you for the perfect life the obedient life

The the the life lived for us Lord that we one day

Because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ might be able to stand before you one day and Hear well done thou good and faithful servant, even though we think

I'm not a good servant even my best efforts

Are oft times marked by the wrong motives, but you Lord you

See us all in Christ You have saved us. You have justified us that has declared us righteous not because of what we do and Not even because of our motives when we do them

But because of Jesus Christ perfect righteousness and his perfect motivation always to obey you father