Humanity/Sinlessness of Christ Pt2

The Humanity of Christ and the Uniqueness of His Conception

The truth of Christ's humanity, and I never really finished it, so I want to finish it again today, but if you remember how we started, we started to talk about, okay, what are the characteristics of humanity, and we think of some things, yeah, that there's a sense of being tired, and hungry, and thirsty, and those physical needs that come upon us, and then we talked about some of the other needs of being tempted, and that's the distinction,.

Right?

In all Christ's humanity, being fully man, as well as fully God, that the one exemption, or the one thing that never affected him was the fact that he was sinless, and I'm going to try to tie in this morning, not only the fact of his humanity, but his sinlessness, because that's the other part of the truth, and if you remember, I read a quote from Arthur Pink, and I just want to read it again, because I thought it was pretty much spot-on, because he said this about the humanity of Christ, he said that the humanity of Christ was unique.

History supplies no analogy, nor can his humanity be illustrated by anything in nature. It is incomparable, not only to our fallen human nature, but also to unfallen atoms. The Lord Jesus was born into circumstances totally different from those in which Adam first found himself, but the sins and the grease of his people were honored from the.

First.

His humanity was produced neither by natural generation, as is ours, nor by special creation, as was Adam's. The humanity of Christ, under the immediate agency of the Holy Spirit, supernaturally conceived.

It was prepared of God, yet made of a woman. I thought that part about what he said about Adam was particularly good, in the sense that when we think about Adam, he was made from what? The dust of the earth.

So he didn't even, in that sense, come as all others have come since him, right? Since Eve began to bring forth children, and in that sense, it is unique in his humanity because it wasn't as if, although he did come from Mary's womb, absolutely, but he was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and that is absolutely unique.

No one has ever been, in that way, brought into life, not even Adam, because he was formed in the very beginning. And then we began to look at some scriptures about it, and I also said, just to kind of get us rolling a little bit, it's one thing if people don't understand his humanity, or his, or the reality, let's say, of the Trinity.

It's one thing when someone doesn't understand it. It's another thing when someone openly rejects it and seeks to confound it, right? And that's a characteristic of the cults, right, is that the main denominator, if you will, throughout all the cults, throughout all history, in all cultures, in all times, in all places, is that they misrepresent, in a, I believe, in a conscious way, the person of Christ.

Right?

They'll either deny his deity, or they'll deny his humanity, or they'll come up with some alternative thought that is so far extreme that you can't help but think that they have ignored the absolute clearness of the scriptures.

So, like I said, we began to look at a couple of, we'll just go back and let's start in Galatians chapter 4, and just kind of set our minds again to what we have been saying, that he is both fully God and fully man.

Interesting that Brother Keith, this morning, is going to talk about John 6, where it says Jesus walked on the water, and certainly that is a demonstration of what?

His deity.

And yet, as we looked at last week, when he was in the boat, he fell asleep because he.

Was what?

Tired.

And I also wanted, and I'm not sure I said this last week, part of this humanity that we talked about, he was a man of sorrows, wasn't he? And that certainly is a characteristic of humanity in a world that is under the judgment.

Of God.

The sorrow, interesting in Revelation, right? What does it say in the new heavens and the new earth? There is no more sorrow, among other things, right? And so, as we think about that, it's fairly important for us to do it.

But anyway, Galatians chapter 4, and very familiar to us, but now I say that an heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ from, at all, from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father.

Even so, when we were children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

It's kind of hard to think about how people cannot look at verse 4, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, and yet denied that he was a man.

Right?

Again, as long as we understand that uniqueness of Christ being conceived by the Holy Spirit, but he most certainly was a man, right? We looked at it from the standpoint of what characterizes humanity, but I just don't know how you can get around this when it says that he was born of a woman.

I mean, how do you avoid that, to get to the point where it says that Christ was really only like an emanation from the father, almost like a hologram kind of thing, and yet it's so crystal clear. In 1 Timothy 3 .16, you don't have to turn there, but it says, God was manifest, what?

In the flesh. In the flesh. And again, people will still deny that he was truly a man, or they will admit, well, he was somewhat, or some sort of kind of man, but not really. Again, all those things that people bring up are just so far apart from the scriptures.

Luke, the Growth of Jesus, and the Witness of the Apostles

All right, let's go to Luke for a minute, Luke chapter 2.

My sister, I told you about, what was it called?

Shamanism.

Shamanism.

Yeah.

They lower Jesus to, he's a human, he's a good man, but he's a prophet, right?

Right.

So they get rid of the godness of him.

Right, the deity of him. Yeah, and again, there's ditches on both sides of the truth, right? Some will deny his deity, some will deny his humanity, and again, there's others that will try to combine it and almost have like a, I don't know, I don't even know what to explain how they come up with certain things, but.

So go to Luke chapter 2 for a minute. I think these are texts that we can certainly depend on to teach the humanity of Christ. And so in verse 39, I remember this is when they had gone to the feast and they had performed, in verse 39, when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city Nazareth, and look what it says now.

And the child grew and became strong in spirit and filled in wisdom and the grace of God was upon him. Well, there's a bunch of things, right, that will definitely help us understand that he was truly a man.

Well, he grew. I mean, it's not something that is outside the realm of normal humanity is that there's growth. He became strong. Not only that, he was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him.

Now, you could misconstrue that and say, well, if he was, if he grew wisdom, that means he wasn't, he wasn't God, right? But, and again, we talked about this, because remember we talked about the subordination of Christ and that he willingly, in agreement, in the counsels of God, agreed to put himself under the will of the Father and to accomplish salvation.

And so, again, these are certainly things that we can look at and depend on. And then it says, his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when he was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the Feast.

And when they had finished the days as they returned, the boy, Jesus, lingered behind in Jerusalem and Joseph and his mother did not know it. And so, we know this section and it talks about how Jesus responded and said, do you not know I need to be about my father's business?

But my whole point in using this scripture is to support the fact that he was truly man. In chapter three, right next to it, it says that Christ went around preaching, right? And it said in verse three, chapter three, it says, and he went around the region, around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance and remission of sins, as it is written in the book of Isaiah the prophet, and it's talking about John the Baptist, but it's still all flesh, look at it, all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Again, people have misinterpreted or misrepresented or consciously sought to entangle the truth that he was truly a man. People saw him. They touched him. That's what John says, right? We've touched, we've handled the word of life, same way as that great opening in the gospel of John of that, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and then it says, remember what it says in verse, what do you know, chapter one, and he tabernacled among us, he came among us, and so, again, these scriptures are proof texts, and for all of that, many people will still deny it.

Let's look at first Timothy. I thought this one was pretty good. I wanted to say cool, but I know I'm not always supposed to say cool when it comes to scriptures. It is cool, but in first Timothy chapter two, and again, I don't know how you, unless you want to, misunderstand this.

So first Timothy for Paul says this, therefore, I exhort, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercession, giving thanks be made for all men, for kings and for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and in reference, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Now, for there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus,.

Right?

The man, again, how do you escape that? How do you misunderstand that unless you have a desire to misrepresent the Lord Jesus?

So, Andy, so this is okay, like my sister, I said they brought Christ down, this is them, so Catholics, you know, you're about a Catholic, I'm about a Catholic, they bring people up to Jesus' stature, right?

Paul, you can pray to Paul, you can pray to the saints, Mary, same as Jesus, you know, mediator, born sinless, all this kind of stuff, so they bring these people up to Jesus.

Yeah, and by bringing people up to Jesus, they're really bringing Jesus down, right? Because as this says, and clear as his words could be, there's only one mediator between God and man, and then it says the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself for all, a ransom for all to be testified in due time.

My whole point in this is as we consider the humanity of Christ, and it might not be a conversation that we have all the time with people, but when we do, we should be able not only to say, yes, he was fully God, fully man, we should be able to, in some extent, to go into the scriptures and say, well, okay, especially like with a cult kind of person tries to twist the scriptures around, that we could be able to go and say, no, let's look at this, what is 1 Timothy 2 .5 saying when it talks about the man, Christ Jesus?

Sister?

And I went to Hart's nursing home, it's one of the ladies I visit over there, and her roommate's name is Ann, and they're both there because they have a lot of seizures. And I said, Merry Christmas to Barbara, and then I said, Ann, did you have a Merry Christmas?

And then she went on and said, oh, that's pagan, pagan. And I said, Ann, I said, that's the day the saints will set aside the worship of Christ.

As coming to the world.

She said, I said, the Christ you have in your heart, I said, that's a different Christ than the Christ in the scripture. No, no, she said, he's not God. I said, he is God, and she's a juggle witness. I said, she is God.

No, I don't want to hear it. She said, I'm going down to the office to see about you not coming back here again.

She said, she had enough of you. And that's the problem, again.

I can see Channel 4 taking her out and coming.

I know that life.

And that's the thing. There's one thing if people don't understand it. There's one thing if you can open the scriptures with them and they're willing to receive it. It's another thing when they willfully resist it.

And when they willfully resist, clearly what the scriptures say. And here's generally what people will also do to escape the truth as it's laid out in.

The scriptures.

They'll say, well, that's man's word, right? That's another excuse. That's another way to throw a bucket of cold water on the truth. But as you put all these scriptures together, you cannot deny them.

Here's one, interestingly enough, in 2 John. So let's look at that. Because again, these might not be some of the scriptures that people generally go to, but they're certainly crystal clear as far as what it says.

So just think about how many people really read 2 John. Or 1 John. Or 3 John. Probably 1 John is probably the one that most people read. But looking, as John writes this epistle, in verse 4 he says, I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth as we received commandment from the Father.

And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I write a new commandment to you, but that which we've had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments.

This is the commandments that as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in it. Now look at verse 7. For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.

This is a deceiver. It's an antichrist. And again, when you begin to put the scriptures together, you cannot, unless you have a desire to, misunderstand who is the one who denies that Jesus came in the flesh.

What did 1 Timothy 3 say? God was manifest in the flesh. What did we just read in Luke chapter 2? That He grew in wisdom and stature as a man. What did we read in Galatians? That He was born of a woman.

Born in that way. We've looked at Philippians chapter 2, which says that He came in the form of servant as a man. So what I'm trying to get us to think about is, there's so much scriptures to think about.

Isaiah 53 and the Man of Sorrows

Alright, so if you wanted to, if someone wanted to entertain it from the Old Testament, we could certainly go to that great chapter in Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 53. And let's just stop there for a second to think about it again.

As Isaiah 53 opens up, Who has believed our report? Whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of the dry ground. He has no form or commonness, and when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.

He is despised, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from Him. He was despised and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carries our sorrows.

And you can continue on reading. But again, are these not scriptures that are specifically telling us that there was a man who in all cases, in all points, as it says in Hebrews, in all points he was tempted like us, yet without what?

Yet without sin. And so again, that's the great exception, and maybe we can use that as a catapult at least for a few minutes to get into the truth of his sinlessness.

But before we do that,.

I just want to go back to the book of Acts for a minute, because again, people might argue and try to say, well, you can't show me the humanity of Christ from the Old Testament, and you can't show me the humanity of Christ.

From the New Testament.

Well, the truth is, of course we can. It's just that you're unwilling to receive it, just like what you were saying about that kind of a thought, or what you were saying, Cindy, that people just straight out deny it.

They refuse. Remember what Jesus said in John 5,.

What was it, John 5, 40?

You are not willing to come to me. It's not that they, people will say, well, man can't unless God opens his heart.

Agree?

Isn't that the truth, that no man can come to God unless God gives him life?

Absolutely.

But never forget, the reason why he can't come is because he won't come, because he's unwilling, and that's what Jesus said. You will not come to me that you might have life. So in Acts chapter 2, and as Peter's preaching his first great sermon, he gets through the whole thing about what Joel had said, and how the old men will see visions and dreams, and there would be an outpouring of the Spirit of God upon him.

But then, as he finishes that part of it, look what he says in verse 21, and it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Then he says this, Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man, attested by God to you, by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.

Him being delivered by a determinate counsel for knowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, and have crucified,.

And put to death,.

Who God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. What does it say in verse 22? A man, a man fully attested. By what? By what they saw. Isn't that what they did when they followed him?

Even as Brother Keith talked about feeding the 6 ,000, and then at other times when they came to him, and he said, listen, you need to come to me.

Because,.

You believe me, you came to me because you ate,.

Or you saw miracles,.

Or you did this,.

Or you did that.

And so again, all these scriptures combined make it absolutely,.

Almost impossible.

For someone to misrepresent the scriptures. That doesn't mean it's not possible for them to not understand, it just means that it's, the scriptures are ample in giving us the truth of the reality of Christ.

One more and then we'll go into the sinlessness. Acts chapter 17. I thought this one was another interesting one, and it might be one that people wouldn't necessarily go to, to prove that he was truly man.

But it's interesting as Paul speaks to those in Athens, and how they worship the unknown God, and how Paul was talking about the unknown God, he's the one that he's teaching.

And,.

If you look down at verse 31,.

After he,.

As he's summing it up, he says, because he has appointed,.

God,.

Has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness, by who? By the man who he ordained. And he's given assurance to all this by raising him from the dead.

Again,.

Very clear.

I mean,.

Very straightforward.

As far as,.

You don't need to know Greek, you don't need to know Hebrew, to understand what he's saying there. He says it by that man. And by that man,.

Again,.

Being the only mediator, he will raise him up in that day.

The Sinlessness of Christ as the Only Mediator

Alright,.

Now, I'm going to try to.

Work a little bit on this.

Because,.

I think what goes along with that reality is the reality of not only that he was fully man, but the reality that in his humanity.

He was.

Exempted from sin.

Because,.

Again,.

Has anyone ever read.

Anything.

In that sense that denies that Jesus was sinless? I'm going to suggest it's hard pressed to find.

A.

Continuing argument about his sinlessness. People will argue.

About his deity.

People will argue about his humanity. But there seems to be much less.

Concerning.

As he was sinless. Now, again, I'm not saying,.

Because you've heard some of the weird stuff, right?

That he was a homosexual. That he was this, that, and the other thing. Just like they've misconstrued, I mean, you think about David and Jonathan, remember? How people have taken that and they said, well, Jonathan and David were lovers.

So,.

When we come to the sinlessness of Christ,.

We have to.

Fully be engaged in it.

Because.

The scriptures, if there's anything that the scriptures.

Give us.

Without any hesitation or without any qualification is the fact that he was sinless. That he was not a sinner.

In any way.

And that goes along with his humanity. Because, again, that's why he's the only mediator, right? Just think about it. If he wasn't a man, how could he be a mediator? And if he wasn't sinless, how could his being a mediator be accepted?

Right? If you think about that.

If Christ was not sinless, then we have.

No Savior.

He would need a Savior.

He would need a Savior. He would need to first, remember what the high priest had to do? He had to make atonement for what? His own sins. Before he could make atonement for the sins of the people. And he had to do that.

And that's the hope, one of the major points in the book of Hebrews, right? He had to do it over and over and over again.

Why?

Because he was sinful over and over and over again. But, when it comes to Christ, he was without sin. And therefore, I'll go back to what.

You were just talking about,.

When you talk about Mary. In order to do that, they have to almost teach.

That Mary was sinless. Right?

That she was able to be a co-redeemer in the same way. It's kind of weird how they make saints in the Catholic Church, isn't it? You've got to kind of do so many miracles and have so many if I'm not mistaken, you have to have so many signatures.

It's almost like taking a petition. And yet, the reality of their sinfulness never really enters into it. And the scriptures are so clear. So, I'm just going to look at some of the major ones that are just beyond being misinterpreted.

So, if there's one that I had to go to to start the conversation about his sinlessness, it'd be 2 Corinthians 5. So, let's just look there for a second.

And again,.

This one has got to do with his humanity, it's got to do with his deity, I believe, and it also has to do with his sinlessness.

So,.

In verse 20 Paul says, 2 Corinthians 5, Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God was pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

You can't. Again, unless you want to twist words and twist the meaning of words, how clear is this? He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us.

Keith was talking about total depravity Wednesday. And one of the things he mentioned was that Adam, like you said, came from the dust and Jesus came from the moist air, from the spirit. Right, right.

And so he couldn't have a man.

Of seed. Right. Right. And that gets into a whole conversation about.

How is.

The sinfulness transferred. Right? And there's a couple different thoughts in that. We'll probably get to that a little bit at some point if we ever get to Romans chapter 5 because that's the one that really brings in the reality of Adam's sin being passed along.

Right? And so and then of Christ again being the second Adam. But to continue on with this thought of his sinlessness. So in Hebrews chapter 4 just again I'm picking out major ones because those are the ones that we can quickly go to and they're crystal clear.

And so in Hebrews chapter 4 I'll just read it from verse.

14.

Seeing then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us.

Hold.

Let us hold fast our confession for we do not have a high priest which cannot be sympathized with our weakness but was in all points tempted as we are.

Yet without sin.

And then what's the response or what's the result of that? Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need without sin. He is the sinless Son of God, Son of Man.

He is the one who can only be the true mediator between God and man. Look at 1 Peter for a second.

And again,.

Absolutely crystal clear.

In 1 Peter.

Chapter 3 in verse 18 it says. For Christ also suffered once for sin, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. Now people might say, well that just says he's just.

If we.

Want to really understand he was sinless which is why he was the just one. He is the one who alone is able to save to the uttermost, what does it say in Hebrews? He's able to save to the uttermost those that come to God through him.

Why? Because he was the only just one. And that everyone else, just like Paul says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And therefore and I want to say this as we think about it this is in my own mind and heart my greatest comfort can never be found in myself.

Think about that for a minute. If our comfort can be derived from within ourselves from within anything in this world then we are of all men the most miserable and most pitiable. That's my great comfort, right?

Is that.

I fall continually He never fell. I miss the mark continually He never missed the mark.

I.

I have coldness in my heart.

He always did.

Things to please the Father. It was his delight. Somebody's wiping their hands. But it was his delight to do the will of the Father.

And so if we can.

Derive comfort from that truth of his sinlessness then I don't know where we're going to be able to find it.

So he had to be obedient also.

Obedient unto death even the death of the cross.

It's hard to be obedient to temptations certain weaknesses that we have.

In that.

That's just amazing.

See how do things kind of link together. In other words we're talking about his sinlessness what we had previously talked about his humanity and we had previously talked about the fact that his deity and you see they're all connected because.

If you break.

Any one of them, it's almost to me like the doctrines of grace because I know we're looking at it on Wednesday night. If you don't understand total depravity.

Guess what?

Unconditional election becomes very very muddy. Limited atonement becomes a real issue. Irresistible grace and perseverance. All of it is dependent I believe is dependent on understanding the condition of man.

So when it comes to Christ as savior unless we understand who he is and what he did because of who he is we can never really understand and have what. Because again, when Jesus said come unto me all you that are heavy laden and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, my yoke is easy and my burden is light, he didn't just say that as a man, he said it as the God man.

And he didn't just say it as the God man. In that sense, he said it as the sinless one and that he alone can come and give people rest.

That's why Arminianism is so dangerous.

Um.

Yeah, I think it's a dangerous, I'm not going to say don't want to go down that road and say if you're not a Calvinist you can't go to heaven because that would be that would be hard.

I need to make a note of that.

Let me shut the recording.

Off first.

But.

There is a reality I would say that the more you understand truth.