The Importance of Christ's Humanity

Today's sermon is titled, The Importance of Christ's Humanity.

It's John chapter 1, verses 14 through 18.

The importance of Christ's humanity.

Please stand with me for the reading of God's word.

We'll start in verse 1.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into

being.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

There was a man having been sent from God, whose name was John.

He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, so that all might believe through.

Him.

He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light.

There was the true light, which, coming into the world, enlightens everyone.

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.

He came to what was his own, and those who were his own did not receive him.

But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God,

even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the

flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Verse 14, And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,

and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father,

full of grace and truth.

John bore witness about him, and cried out, saying, This was he of whom I said,

He who comes after me has been ahead of me, for he existed before me.

For of his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.

For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has seen God at any time.

The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him.

You may be seated.

The importance of Christ's humanity.

And so we can start this morning by just asking a simple question.

Have you ever considered the importance of Christ's humanity?

What does this mean for us?

In other words, why did Jesus have to be human?

Was it necessary for God to become a human?

And if that's true, why did Jesus, as truly God and truly man,

have to die?

Verses 14 through 18 relays to us a very important doctrine.

The doctrine of the incarnation of the Son of God.

The incarnation of Jesus.

Two ways to look at this.

The world's view of Jesus versus the Bible's record

of Jesus.

How are we to think about this?

The doctrine of the incarnation, the importance of Christ's humanity.

What is this presentation that we have here in the scripture?

And does that match up with the presentation we see of Jesus in the world?

If you watched the Super Bowl last week, you may have seen a commercial about Jesus that was

titled, He Gets Us.

I want to share some of those slides with you.

He Gets Us.

This commercial was last year, I believe, as well.

A couple years of this.

He Gets Us.

So this is some of the imagery that was shown.

So you have a family clinic that's an abortion clinic.

A guy who appears to be a homosexual and a priest washing his feet.

So a lady washing the feet of a young woman who's gotten an abortion.

This is kind of a, you know, we should love on sinners.

Doesn't appear that in either picture, the person is repentant.

Just something going on here.

This is He Gets Us.

I'm not sure what they're trying to communicate, that we're to wash, the disciples were washed by Jesus,

so we're to wash their feet.

Not sure the connection.

Of course, you can't have a commercial like this today without some kind of Black Lives Matter reference.

I'm not sure the point of the other one.

Two high school kids, maybe one is straight, the other's not.

I don't think there's an ethnicity.

So this is displaying that Jesus gets you.

He gets us.

Yeah, Jesus called the huddled masses too.

He confronted racism with love.

He's sick of hypocrisy.

Jesus was a refugee.

He gets us.

I'm not sure what the refugee thing is.

Here you go.

So if you, I guess if you're not for the refugees or immigration, then you're not like

Jesus, I guess is the point.

Not sure about that one.

There's space for everyone with this version of Jesus.

You can go to the party, and I guess they're having a, just drinking some alcohol.

Everyone, he gets us.

He gets us, all of us.

This is the presentation in the Super Bowl.

This is Jesus.

Yeah, I'm not sure about this one.

He gets us, it's like a bike gang, so he gets bike gangs too.

I'm not sure what they're trying to communicate there.

Jesus is for every human being.

He came to get us.

Jesus was fed up with politics too.

So if you're fed up with politics, this is your kind of Jesus.

Let's go back to this one.

This is the, this is really clear here.

So they're saying you need to wash sinners feet if you wanna be

like Jesus.

And you see, you see these two images, but look at the image with the abortion.

This is the full picture.

You see, there's this group of really mean people back there.

They're hypocrites.

They're judgmental hypocrites.

They're, they're actually have signs that say save the unborn.

You don't wanna be like them.

You wanna be like the person that's accepting of this and wash the feet of the, of the person that's getting an abortion.

So this commercial is presenting two versions of Christianity.

That if you wanna be like Jesus, you need to be loving and accepting of all people.

So you don't wanna be the person that's there to say, no, this is wrong.

This is murder.

Let's save the unborn.

This little baby is made in the image of God.

That's unloving.

You wanna be the person that's washing the feet of the person.

I, I don't see any repentance going on here.

He gets us.

Yeah, and just in case that isn't clear in what they're trying to communicate, this is directly off of their website.

So I looked this up.

This is their website.

And it has this statement, black and white.

It says, what is your stance on the LGBTQ community?

And this is on their website.

These are probably the most common questions we receive, and we understand why.

Many of those who represent Jesus have made people in the LGBTQ community feel judged and

excluded.

And others in the Jesus community have simply ignored their stories and lived experiences.

So let us be clear in our opinion.

Jesus loves gay people.

Jesus loves trans people.

The LGBTQ community, like all people, is invited to explore the story of Jesus and

consider his example of unconditional love, grace, and forgiveness of others.

No matter who you are, you are, you are invited to explore the story of Jesus and consider

what it means for your life.

And the thing that troubles me here is that there's no idea of calling that person out of their sinful

lifestyle.

It would be unloving to say that it's sin.

No, no, no, we don't wanna talk about sin.

Zero mention that this chosen lifestyle will separate one for all eternity unless

or until they repent.

Another distraction, leading people in mass straight to hell.

I heard one pastor say this about the commercial.

He said, you saw the devil.

You saw good, you heard good calming music, good

calming music.

It had a music track to it, a good quality presentation

of a Christ that is not the Christ of the Bible.

It's critical that we don't allow the world to define Jesus.

Charles Spurgeon once said, I believe that the one reason why the church of God at this

present moment has so little influence over the world is because the world has so

much influence over the church.

The importance of Christ's humanity isn't that he gets us, he does get us.

He's the one that made us.

He made human life.

Of course he gets us.

But it's not that in his human form that he gets us, it's that he saves us.

He saves the person out of their sinful lifestyle.

I thought this was an interesting meme that was going around after this whole thing was online.

Yeah, this is where you end up if you listen to that commercial.

He gets us.

God calls us out of sin.

He doesn't accept our sinful lifestyle.

He rescues us.

He saves us.

He's the savior.

I think that is probably a more accurate description or picture of he gets us.

Jesus said it in the time before his return, it would be just like the time of Noah, that people were just going about living life as if

there was no account.

He says right up until the door closed on the ark and judgment came, that's when they cared.

It's the same thing for our generation.

That's why this is such an important doctrine for us to understand, Christ's humanity.

He saves us, Hebrews chapter two.

What we do see is Jesus, for who a little while was given a position, a little lower than the angels,

and because he suffered death for us, he is now crowned with glory and honor.

Yes, by God's grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone.

Jesus died for us.

Hebrews chapter four, the high priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he

faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

Jesus was tempted, just like we are.

Philippians chapter two, when he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to

God and died a criminal's death on a cross.

Jesus humbled himself before God, the importance of Christ's humanity.

In today's passage, the Apostle John explains five encouraging aspects of the

doctrine of the incarnation of the Christ.

So that you can see that Jesus is the perfect physical representation of

all the divine fullness of God.

The importance of Christ's humanity.

Five really just great encouraging aspects of this doctrine of the incarnation.

Number one, the perfection, in verse 14, the perfection.

Number two, the preexistence, in verse 15, the preexistence.

Number three, the permission, the permission, in verse 16.

Number four, the peace, the peace, in verse 17.

And number five, the pronouncement, verse 18.

The importance of Christ's humanity.

The first aspect of this doctrine is the perfection.

Look at verse 14, verse 14.

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory.

Glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John now circles back to the way he started his eyewitness testimony.

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

Before the beginning was the word.

The logos, literally the Greek term word, it can simply mean a communication whereby the mind

finds expression, word.

Here, John is using the term to describe the independent personified expression of God, the logos.

Ancient literature shows traces of a way of thinking that was widespread in their time, which combined

multiple kinds of religions, as well as in Jewish wisdom literature, the most

prominent feature of which is the concept of the logos.

It's the independent, the personified word of God.

It is the distinctive teaching of this gospel that this divine word

took on human form in a historical person, and that is in Jesus of

Nazareth.

Historically, the word was a term used by theologians, by philosophers, both Jews and

Greeks, many different ways, many different nuances.

In Hebrew scripture, the word was an agent of creation, as in the word is the source of God's

message to his people through the prophets.

The word is God's law, his standard of holiness.

In Greek philosophy, the word was the principle of reason.

This is reason and logic, the principle of reason that governs the world.

And think of the concept of the thought still in the mind.

This is reason.

In contrast, in Hebrew thinking, the word was another expression of God.

In another writing of the apostle John, he refers to Christ in the same way.

Revelation chapter 19, the rider on a white horse.

John will record this vision given to him by Jesus.

He says, then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse.

And he who sits on it is called faithful and true.

And in righteousness, he judges and wages war.

His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems.

Having a name written on him, which no one knows except himself, and being clothed with a garment

dipped in blood, his name is also called the word of God, and the

armies which are in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses.

This is the one who became flesh, God himself.

This is the physical body or the material that covers the bones of a human or an animal

body.

Specifically, one who is or becomes a physical being of transcendent entities,

the eternally preexistent God of heaven and earth, and he became a human being.

And John said, this one dwelt temporarily with us.

He tabernacled with us.

He set up a tent.

He stayed here.

He was with us.

Again, from the revelation of Jesus Christ, recorded by the apostle, Revelation chapter 21.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

For the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready

as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of

God is among men, and he will dwell among them.

And they shall be his people, and God himself will be among them.

And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death.

There will no longer be any mourning or crying or pain.

The first things passed away.

And John makes it clear in verse 14, they beheld his glory.

The we is John and the other apostles.

He says, we saw this.

We saw this.

He dwelt among us.

Look at chapter 2, verse 11.

Jesus did this in Cana of Galilee at the beginning of his signs and manifested his, what?

Glory.

He showed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.

He takes us back to the purpose of the gospel account, the purpose of belief in Jesus,

the Christ.

The son of God developed in John is the claim of Jesus' oneness with God, and the

signs Jesus performed while he was on earth.

From the start of John, the apostle describes Jesus' equality with God.

The claim of Christ's oneness with the Father, made directly by Jesus

as a sign to his deity, Jesus performed many miracles.

John was written to give an eyewitness testimony to the Jewish people of the life, death, and resurrection of

Jesus.

With the evangelistic purpose of demonstrating Jesus was the Messiah,

and believing in him is the only way to eternal life.

At the end of the gospel, John writes that his purpose for recording the miracles of Jesus is so that the reader will

believe and have new life, John chapter 20.

Therefore, many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of the disciples which are

not written in this book.

But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the

son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.

He says we saw his glory, we saw these signs, we saw these miracles.

John explained his purpose for recording his eyewitness testimony of his time spent

with Jesus.

So that you can know for certain that Jesus is the Christ and have everlasting life in his name.

The miracles of Jesus were witnessed by many people, and were in great number

that exceeds the records even in the various gospels.

The Messiahship of Jesus removes any other person from the office of the Christ, and

proves that faith in Jesus is the only pathway to heaven.

John says we beheld his glory, and this is of humans involved in transcendent

circumstances, and also transcendent beings.

Think like angels, the cherubim.

The condition of being bright or shining.

This is brightness, splendor, radiance, and then John describes the glory.

Glory as the unique, only one of his kind from the father.

The second person of the triune God, the son became a human man.

What John is saying is profound.

Essentially, Jesus as God displayed the same fundamental

glory as the father.

And we see here some clear theology of the Trinity.

One commentator mentioned this on the Trinity.

Christianity teaches that there is one God who exists in triune fashion as

three persons within one God, meaning one what, but three

whose.

A plurality of persons who are one in essence.

The Bible affirms the Son of God's place in the Godhead in both the Old and New Testaments.

One passage affirming the Son's deity in the Old Testament is Psalm 2.

The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and

against his anointed.

Saying, let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us.

Do homage to the Son, that he not become angry and you perish in the way, for his

wrath may soon be kindled.

How blessed are all who take refuge in him.

In the New Testament, Jesus affirms his deity in many places.

In his general teaching, he refers to himself in the same way as God is described in the Old

Testament, and he does the same in 20 of his parables.

Jesus said many things that equated himself with Yahweh.

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father, John 14.

And I and the Father are one, John 10.

He asked God, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you

before the world began, John 17.

He said, my Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too

am working, John 5.

Notice in verse 14, John wraps up this description in a nice little bow at the end.

He says, Jesus was full of grace and truth.

And he'll explain this statement in verse 17, relating to the grace that comes from the Son

versus the law.

It was given through Moses, but something else came with Christ.

John will return to the theme of truth throughout the gospel.

John chapter 8, Jesus said to the people who believed him, you are truly my disciples if you

remain faithful to my teachings.

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

John 14, Jesus told him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one can come to the Father except through me.

If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is.

From now on, you do know him and have seen him.

John chapter 18, Pilate said, so you are a king?

Jesus responded, you say I am king.

Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth.

All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.

When Jesus the baby was conceived, God became a man.

He was not part man and part God.

He was truly human and truly God.

Before Jesus came into the world, mankind could only know God partially in what had been

revealed through the prophets.

Now Jesus, the Christ, had come as the complete expression of

God in the physical form of a human being.

After Jesus came, mankind could know God fully because he became visible

in Jesus.

God became tangible.

He dwelt with humans.

There is no lie in him.

He is the personification of truth.

The Messiah is the perfect expression of God in human form.

We must never make the common mistake people make about Jesus to either minimize his humanity

or often to minimize his divinity.

No, Jesus is both truly God and truly man.

That means we dare not sugarcoat or diminish the true Jesus

of the Bible.

Pastor John MacArthur was quoted saying this.

He said, preaching that God loves you unconditionally is the wrong message.

The sinner needs to be terrified about his condition.

He doesn't need to feel comfortable in the fact that he's turned out so well.

These are the truths we must stand on to understand Jesus according to

the descriptions of the real Jesus in the Gospels.

Five encouraging aspects of the incarnation.

Number one, the perfection.

The perfection.

Jesus displayed God's perfect divine attributes in a physical human

body.

And number two, the pre -existence in verse 15.

Verse 15, John bore witness about him and cried out, saying, this was

he of whom I said, he who comes after me has been ahead of me, for he existed before me.

The apostle now circles back to John the Baptist's ministry.

Look at chapter one, verse seven.

He came as a witness to bear witness about the light so that all might believe through him.

John's ministry was as a witness pointing to the truth.

In this case, the truth to come was the Messiah.

The emphasis of verse seven is the directive of John.

He came as a witness.

Now that the apostle John has identified John the baptizer had been sent by God, he

explains his mission.

The word he uses is of movement.

It's from one point to another.

It focuses on the approach from the narrator's perspective.

The same word is used in describing Jesus's coming as the Messiah.

Also in John, in whose writings the idea of Jesus having come, having sent to the earth,

this is of considerable importance.

The Greek word for came is significant in that it relates to the appearance of Jesus as coming

in the form of human.

Used in the other gospels and the book of the Acts of the Apostles, it demonstrates the idea of coming is even

plainer in connection with the coming of the human one, the son of man.

The return of Jesus from his heavenly home.

And here the apostle makes the connection of forerunners of the Messiah.

Those who identify themselves as such.

Elijah, John the Baptist is a type of Elijah.

He's a forerunner.

And the Baptist came as a witness.

He says John the Baptizer came to give confirmation or to attest

on the basis of personal knowledge or belief, testimony.

And the apostle gives a direct quote from the Baptist.

This was he of whom I said, he who comes after me has been ahead of me, for

he existed before me.

Literally, we can read it like this.

He who comes after me has a higher rank than me.

For he existed in eternity past.

John 1, 2, and 3, he was in the beginning with God.

All things came into being through him.

And apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being.

John started with connecting pre -existence in eternity past to the

human man, Jesus of Nazareth.

He started with the concept of existing forever without a starting point.

And the idea he communicates here that takes us back to creation means the commencement of something

as an action, process, state of being.

This is beginning, but it's the one who causes the beginning.

The point isn't that Jesus is part of the beginning.

Jesus is the origin of the beginning.

For the Greek readers, the statement the word became human was beyond

comprehensible, it's unthinkable.

To the apostle, this new understanding of the word was the good news of Jesus Christ, the gospel.

This aspect of the son or the word as a member of the trinity speaks to Christ's

pre -existent eternality.

John is explaining that the God -man, Jesus of Nazareth, is the pre -existent one.

He says in verse two, he was in the beginning with God.

John's use of the pronoun translated he very literally states this one.

This one, Jesus, was in the beginning with God.

The attribute of God's pre -existent eternality, so that you can know the

reliability of putting your trust in Jesus, according to

John's eyewitness testimony of Jesus's earthly ministry.

Jesus's attribute of pre -existent eternality demonstrates that as God, he is the

only possible source for sinners to have peace with God.

In verse three, John transitioned into an explanation of God's eternality.

Logically, if God existed from eternity past, then he is the causer to

bring all reality into existence.

And our conclusion is simple.

God existed before the beginning and God caused all things to come into existence.

And then, amazingly, he entered into the creation.

In the immediate context, we know he's describing Jesus's entry into the physical world.

In verse 15, the apostle points out that the Baptist said, the pre -existent one is coming.

The pre -existent one is arriving.

The apostle John says he did come, Jesus arrived.

The importance of Christ's humanity.

Number two, the pre -existence.

Before his physical earthly coming, Jesus existed in eternity

past.

And number three, the permission.

Verse 16, for of his fullness we have all received and grace

upon grace.

John says we all receive the fullness of him.

This is the idea of getting hold of something by laying hands on something or grasping something, either

directly or indirectly.

John is relating as to include in an experience, specifically to receive someone

in the sense of recognizing the other's authority.

But what is John saying they had received?

The ones who were in the presence of Jesus received his fullness, his fullness.

This is a noun that really functions as an abstract concept.

That which fills up.

That which is brought to fullness or completion.

As if from a great source, the abundance remains undiminished.

Undiminished abundance.

To denote the one who possesses the fullness, the full measure of deity.

And Paul is helpful here in his letters to the Ephesians and the Colossians, he uses the same word.

Ephesians chapter one.

Which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

In other words, the church is his body.

It is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things

everywhere with, what?

Himself.

He fills all things everywhere with himself.

Ephesians 3, may you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand

fully.

Then you will be made complete, that you may be filled up to all the

fullness of God.

He's writing to people, he's writing to believers in the church, that you're gonna be filled up with

all the fullness of God revealed in Christ.

This is the divine life and power that comes from God.

We have in this passage, not only the humanity of Christ, but the divine nature

of Christ.

Paul, on the importance of Christ giving pastors or teachers to his people, to the church,

he says this.

The pastor's responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up

the church, the body of Christ.

This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's

son, that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and

complete standard of Christ, Ephesians 4.

The fullness of Christ, same word from verse 16.

Colossians 1, for God in all his fullness was pleased to

live in Christ.

Colossians 2, for in Christ lives all the fullness of God

in a human body.

Same word, same doctrine, truly man, and yet truly God.

John said they received grace upon grace of the fullness of God in Christ.

The Greek word for grace is the practical application of goodwill, undeserved

merit.

This is a sign of favor, gracious deed or gift.

This is benefaction.

We have a divine benefactor in Jesus.

Listen to the rich lexical nuance in this word.

Straight out of the lexicon.

Grace on the part of God in Christ.

The context will show whether the emphasis is upon the possession of divine favor as a

source of blessings for the believer or upon a store of favor that is dispensed.

Or a favored status as in standing in God's favor that is brought about.

Or a gracious deed wrought by God in Christ.

A gracious work that grows from more to more.

Grace upon grace.

In other words, John is saying those who belong to Jesus receive the fullness of his grace.

Five encouraging aspects of the incarnation.

Number one, the perfection, verse 14.

Number two, the pre -existence, verse 15.

And number three, the permission, the permission.

Those who receive Jesus obtain the perfect and permanent

grace of God.

And number four, the peace, verse 17.

For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Christ Jesus.

Both the law and grace are inseparable aspects of God's nature.

In other words, they are a combination of God's love and faithfulness that he uses to deal

with mankind.

The grace of God and the pure truth of God's words were not absent from

his way of dealing with Moses.

The opposite, Moses emphasized God's law and justice.

We know that God revealed himself to Moses.

This is how he described himself, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, Exodus 34.

Psalm 86 says the same thing, but you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and

mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love

and faithfulness.

The apostle is setting the old covenant versus the new.

The law was given through Moses, which were announcements of grace and truth.

We often don't think about that.

The law, the Ten Commandments were an announcement of God's grace and truth, yes.

The same language of God's character revealed through the law are repeated throughout the Old Testament.

In the law, God reveals his character.

That's John's point.

Before Christ, that's how we knew God.

Psalm 19, the law of Yahweh is perfect, restoring the soul.

The testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple.

The precepts of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart.

The commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever.

The judgments of Yahweh are true.

They are righteous altogether.

They are more desirable than gold, even more than much fine gold, sweeter also

than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

Psalm 119, the sum of your word is truth, and every one of your

righteous judgments is everlasting.

God's character of steadfast love and faithfulness is revealed in

the law.

The commentator FF Bruce put it like this, even in the law, which was given through

Moses, intimations of grace and truth were not lacking.

But all that was manifested in these qualities and Old Testament times were disclosed in

concentrated fullness in the incarnate word.

Christ displaces the law of Moses as the focus of divine revelation and the

way to life.

This gospel emphasizes in a series of presentations that the new order

fulfills, surpasses, and replaces the old.

Moses was the mediator of the law.

Jesus Christ is not only the mediator, but the embodiment of grace and truth.

Here in the statement that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, the incarnate word is

given a name for the first time.

And we can think about it like this, Moses was the giver of the law and Jesus was the fulfiller of the

law.

Matthew chapter 5, do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets, I did not come to

abolish, but to fulfill.

In other words, the exact nature, character, and will of God were revealed

in the law.

But in the Christ's humanity, in the fulfillment of the law, we see God's mercy and

compassion.

Manifested.

Jesus showed us God's love and faithfulness and forgiveness.

The very nature and will of God the Father are manifested in Jesus.

The law came through stone tablets, which were cold and

distant.

The grace of God came through a person's life.

The humanity of the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth.

Have you ever considered that as you get to know Jesus better, you understand more of God's will, more of

God's character?

So as you get to know Christ more, your understanding of God's character will increase.

The importance of Christ's humanity cannot be understated in Jesus's life, in Jesus's

humanity.

Paul makes this point in his letter to the Galatians, chapter 4.

He says, but when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman born

under the law.

Jesus could not have died as a perfect, sinless sacrifice if he

had sinned even once.

If Jesus broke one fraction of one law as a human being, he could

not have offered himself as a perfect and complete sacrifice acceptable

to God the Father.

Dr. MacArthur makes this point in Jesus being a fulfiller of the law, but in his incarnation as

a human being.

Listen to this.

He says, Jesus was neither giving a new law nor modifying the old, but rather explaining

the true significance of the moral content of Moses's law and the entirety

of the Old Testament scriptures.

Not the rabbinical interpretations of them.

This speaks of fulfillment in the same sense that prophecy is fulfilled.

Christ was indicating that he is the fulfillment of the law in all its aspects.

He fulfilled the moral law by keeping it perfectly.

He fulfilled the ceremonial law by being the embodiment of everything the law's types and symbols

pointed to.

And he fulfilled the judicial law by personifying God's perfect justice.

We can think about it like this.

Without the humanity of Christ, there is no atonement, no peace with God, no forgiveness

of sins, no resurrection, no gospel, no predestination, no calling,

no justification, no glorification.

The grace and truth of the triune God came through Jesus

in his perfect life in humanity.

Atonement, peace, and forgiveness.

The gospel, the resurrection, predestination, calling, justification,

glorification, all of that is now possible because the word became

flesh.

The importance of Christ's humanity.

Number four, the peace.

The peace.

Jesus is the means of obtaining the grace of God, not the law.

And number five, the pronouncement.

The pronouncement in verse 18.

No one has seen God at any time.

The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him.

John is now restating what he heard Jesus say.

Right out of the mouth of Christ, John chapter six, that not that anyone ever has

seen the Father except the one who is from God.

He has seen the Father.

And we might say, what about when Jesus said you have seen him?

John chapter four, if you have come to know me, you will know my Father also.

From now on, you know him and have seen him.

Well, remember, God is spirit.

God is spirit.

Colossians chapter one, Christ is the visible image of the

invisible God.

He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation.

No person will ever see the invisible God.

However, we will see the visible expression of God, which is the God man,

Jesus of Nazareth.

Paul's charge to Timothy as the young pastor of the local church in Ephesus is helpful.

He says, I charge you, Timothy, in the presence of God, who gives life to all things and of Christ

Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without

stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring

about at the proper time.

He who is blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of

lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light,

whom no man has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal might.

Amen.

That's first Timothy six.

But even in that passage, it's referring to Christ and then it transfers to God.

God is the only sovereign, the King of kings and the Lord of lords.

That's what we say of Christ.

That's what God says of himself, the invisible God who is spirit.

God who lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach him.

No human eyes can ever see him nor ever will.

Yet Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

If you have come to know me, you will know my father also.

And from now on, you do know him and have seen him.

We can know God because Jesus explained him to us.

This is emphatically stated by Jesus later in John's eyewitness account in the record of Jesus's conversation with

Nicodemus.

John chapter three, he says, I assure you, we tell you that we know what we know and

have seen, and yet you won't believe our testimony.

But if you don't believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

No one has ever gone to heaven and returned, but the son of man has come down from heaven.

The word became flesh and then explained God to us.

God communicated through various people in the Old Testament.

He gave prophets who were told to give specific messages, but no one ever saw the invisible God

for God is spirit.

Hebrews chapter one, long ago, God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the

prophets.

And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his son.

God promised everything to the son as an inheritance, and through the son, he created the universe.

The son radiates God's own glory and expresses the very character of God.

And he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.

When he had cleansed us from our sins, he sat down in the place of honor at the right hand of

the majestic God in heaven.

Jesus is both God and the father's unique son.

In Christ's humanity, God revealed his divine nature and divine essence in a way that could

be seen and touched.

In Christ's humanity, God became a human being who lived on earth.

Five encouraging aspects of the incarnation, the perfection, the pre -existence,

the permission, the peace, and number five, the pronouncement.

Jesus has explained God to us so that we can know him

and be saved.

The point of this passage is not that God merely became a human being and a person with a

personality.

Personality has always been his possession.

Not just that the eternal word became flesh or entered into human life.

Jesus did not surrender his identity in the flesh.

The idea of flesh is simply denoting the human realm compared to the heavenly realm.

Jesus doesn't leave sinners in their sin.

He is the savior of sinners and calls them to sin no more.

Dr. Steve Lawson made this point on the change in heart for the redeemed sinner.

There is a new desire within every believer that desires to do what is right.

We now love God.

We love the church.

We love the truth and we love the will of God.

But there are other desires in us that love ourselves and the world.

And the result is an internal tug of war.

There is a spiritual battle for your affections.

Satan and the demonic influence of this age are seeking to redefine who Jesus is.

The devil wants to present to you the Jesus who gets you, not the Jesus who

saves you.

The Jesus who gets you, not the Jesus who calls you out of your sin.

And that's why John's words are so important for us this morning.

The doctrine of the incarnation is critical to see through the warm and fuzzy, limp, fake,

fog machine version of Jesus that the devil has presented to the world.

A Jesus who gets you and loves you unconditionally the way you are.

A fake Jesus who doesn't call you out of your sin.

A Jesus who doesn't declare the gospel of salvation.

A Jesus who doesn't call you to repent or even bring up sin.

A Jesus who doesn't save.

He doesn't have the power to save because he's not real.

The Jesus of the Bible is the only real Jesus.

The importance of Christ's humanity is he is crowned with glory and is the

author of our salvation.

Jesus saves us.

I started with Hebrews chapter two.

Listen to this in the full context.

He says, what we do see is Jesus.

For a little while was given a position, a little lower than the angels.

And because he suffered death for us, he is now crowned with glory and honor.

Yes, by God's grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone.

God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into

glory.

And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit

to bring them into their salvation.

So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same

father.

That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sister.

Jesus makes sinners holy.

He makes us holy.

How about Hebrews chapter four, again, in the full context?

So then, since we have a great high priest who has entered heaven, Jesus, the

son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.

This high priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same

temptations we do, yet he did not sin.

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.

There, we will receive his mercy.

And we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Jesus understands our temptations to sin.

Jesus understands our weaknesses.

He does get us, but he understands that we need to be saved.

How about Philippians chapter two in the full context?

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling

to.

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges.

He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a

criminal's death on a cross.

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave

him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus, every knee

should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

And every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the

Father.

Jesus is not only our savior, he is Lord.

Jesus is Lord of all of us.

While Jesus dwelt among men, men were witnesses to his divine glory.

The reality of the importance of Christ's humanity is demonstrated throughout

John's gospel.

Jesus in his earthly ministry took the initiative in coming to sinners and

fallen men and women when they needed him.

Jesus as God, fully human, is the embodiment of divine truth

in his own being as the second person of the triune God, the Son.

Jesus in his humanity is a physical representation of the eternal nature of God in

that his eternity makes impossible any suggestion that his being

was derived from the Father.

John's comments this morning and later echoed throughout the gospel is that Jesus's existence and

work were never independent of the Father.

The importance of Christ's humanity is that mankind is compelled to love God by

the constraining power shown in Jesus.

Versus the compulsory power of external law given to God to his ancient people.

Man is no longer under the law because of Jesus's humanity.

Man is now under the grace of God because of Jesus's humanity.

Jesus had to become a human so that he could save us.

It was necessary for God to become human so he could perfectly fulfill the law and he could

offer himself as a perfect sacrifice.

Jesus as truly man and truly God had to die to satisfy God's perfect

wrath and save sinners.

Jesus saves us.

In verses 14 through 18, the apostle explains five encouraging aspects of the doctrine of the

incarnation of the Christ.

So that you can see that Jesus is the perfect physical representation of all the divine fullness

of God.

The importance of Christ's humanity.

The perfection.

Jesus displayed God's perfect divine attributes in a physical human body.

The pre -existence.

Before his physical earthly coming, Jesus existed in eternity past.

The permission.

Those who receive Jesus obtain the perfect and permanent grace of God.

The peace.

Jesus is the means of obtaining the grace of God, not the law.

And the pronouncement.

Jesus has explained God to us so that we can know him and be

saved.