The Purpose of the Incarnation 12/25/2022

Hebrews 5 and Christ Our Sympathetic High Priest

Let's be seated please and turn in our New Testament to Hebrews chapter 5. Now the writer was urging Jewish Christians not to abandon their faith in Jesus and return to Judaism but rather to continue to believe on Jesus.

And here in Hebrews 5 the writer is arguing that Jesus Christ is a much greater high priest than Israel ever had that were from the tribe of Levi. That Jesus was a high priest and two things qualified him to be such.

One that he was a man and therefore could sympathize with us in our infirmities. And then secondly the fact that Jesus Christ never dies, he can ever live to be a faithful high priest to his people. Hebrews 5, for every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray since he himself is also subject to weakness. Because of this he's required as for the people so also for himself to offer sacrifices for sins.

And no man takes this honor to himself but he who is called by God just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest but it was he who said to him, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

And as he also says in another place, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death and was heard because of his godly fear, though he was a son yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered.

And having been perfected he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Called by God as high priest according to the order of Melchizedek of whom we have much to say and hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing.

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God and you've come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness for he is a babe but solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Let's pray. Thank you our father that Jesus Christ is our high priest, he's able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses because he himself took upon our human nature and yet he was without sin but he suffered temptation as we suffer temptation and he endured and therefore he is able to give us grace our God when temptation faces us.

We know as our high priest he prays for us also and we know our God that he's able to impart grace to us to enable us to do the things that your word commands us. Help us our God to resort to Christ as our high priest in times of temptation, in times of difficulty and may we experience our God a great level of righteousness, holiness in our lives as we look to him to live by faith in him the son of God.

Now father as pastor Jason comes to open your word before us we pray you would bless him, help him he's had some difficulty with his voice this week we pray you sustain it our God through this time. We pray the Holy Spirit would take your words that's proclaimed our God and apply them to our souls instructing us, encouraging us, exhorting us our God that we might be better Christians as a result for we pray these things in Jesus name, amen.

The Incarnation as the Heart of the Christmas Story

This morning we remember and rejoice in the incarnation. God the father sending God the son into the world to become flesh. Jesus Christ Philippians 2 verse 6 who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross.

Beloved this is the Christmas story the Lord God entering into his creation the Lord God entering into history and becoming flesh. But this is not where the Christmas story begins. Where did the Christmas story begin?

Where did it truly begin? Did it begin with the Christmas star when it rose in the east? Did it begin with the birth of the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger? Did it begin with the angels proclamation to the shepherds for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord?

Or did it begin with the prophecy of Isaiah the prophet Isaiah 714 therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. The true Christmas story began not in the Gospels not in the prophetic books of the Old Testament but all the way back in the very first chapter of the Bible Genesis chapter.

1.

Creation, the Fall, and the First Gospel Promise

Genesis chapter 1 is the creation narrative which records the creation of the heavens.

And the earth.

God's creation was ex nihilo it was from nothing. God created the heavens and the earth from the word of his mouth. Literally the Lord God spoke creation into being. Genesis chapter 2 gives us a more detailed account of the creation narrative specifically concerning the creation of man and woman.

Genesis 2 7 then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature. Verse 20 the man gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field but for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

Then the man said this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. In Genesis chapter 2 not only do we get a more detailed account of the creation of man and woman but we also learn that the Lord God gave to man dominion over the entire earth.

The Lord God made man the heir of all his creation and the Lord God gave to man one rule to guide him. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat it you shall surely die.

In Genesis chapter 2 man intimately walked with the Lord God. Man walked with the Lord God in close personal fellowship and in deep intimate communion. As an image bearer of the Lord God man was without sin and without shame.

Man was perfect and he was living in a perfect world. In Genesis chapter 3 everything changes for the worst. Adam and Eve rebelled against their beloved creator. Adam and Eve rebelled against their father God.

The serpent deceived Eve and she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and she gave some to her husband who was with her and he also ate of the tree. The transgression of Adam and Eve resulted in the fall of man.

Their sin alienated them from the Lord God. Their close intimate relationship with the Lord God was shattered. Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden and the ultimate consequence of their sin was death.

Not only their death but also the death of their posterity. Romans 5 12 Therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin so death spread to all men because all sinned. The transgression of Adam and Eve left creation cursed and diseased.

Mankind no longer had the right to call God their father. Mankind no longer had the right to be his heir or to receive his inheritance. By their sinful actions the children of God had become the children of Satan.

Unable to walk in close and intimate fellowship with their father God. But thankfully the Lord God was not content to leave creation in this dreadful state of destitution and despair. The Lord God immediately sought to redeem and to restore fallen man to their previous condition.

But how was he to do it. How was the Lord God to redeem and restore fallen man. The answer is given in Genesis 3 15. The Lord said to the serpent because you have done this cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field on your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So between the serpent and the offspring of the woman there would be enmity.

There would be animosity. There would be conflict. And this conflict would be between Satan and the offspring of the woman. So in the future there's going to be a battle a battle between Satan and the offspring of.

The woman.

And ultimately Satan will be the loser of this battle. At the apex of the conflict the head of Satan will be crushed by the offspring of the woman. In other words a man will be born a man will be born from a woman and he will take back the dominion of Satan and he will redeem and restore those who have fallen.

He will bruise the head of Satan and he will deal to him a fatal and final blow. The question that arises. Who is this man. Who is the offspring of the woman who will ultimately defeat Satan. Who is the offspring of the woman who will redeem and restore fallen man to their previous condition.

As you continue to read through the book of Genesis you eventually arrive at Genesis chapter 6. The account of Noah and the global flood. Because of the exceedingly great wickedness of man the entire world was flooded.

And every man except for eight souls were killed. And so the line through which the offspring that will bruise the head of Satan is narrowed down to the family of Noah. Noah had three sons but it was his son Shem who was chosen to continue this line.

In Genesis chapter 12 we're introduced to a man named Abraham. Abraham was of the line of Shem and he was promised by the Lord God that his seed would bless all of the nations of the world. Genesis 22 17 I will surely bless you.

I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.

So the offspring of the woman will come through Eve then through Noah then through Shem and eventually through Abraham. Reading further the promise continues through Abraham to his son Isaac then to Jacob then to Judah and eventually to the man after God's own heart King David.

This line continues from David throughout the Old Testament and into the new. In fact the very first book of the New Testament the book of Matthew begins by laying out this genealogical record. In the book of Galatians we are given the specific answer to the question of whom does the offspring of the woman refer.

Genesis 3 16 now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say and to offsprings referring to many but referring to one and to your offspring who is Christ. Jesus Christ was the promised offspring of Genesis 3 15.

It was Jesus Christ who was born as a fulfillment of that promise. Jesus Christ was born to put down Satan to crush his head and to liberate those who were held in bondage to sin and death. The process of redemption and restoration which the Lord God set in motion with the prophecy of Genesis 3 15 finds its culmination in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was the Lord Jesus Christ whose heel was bruised at the cross of Calvary but who dealt a crushing and defeating blow to the head of Satan. Please turn with me to the book of Galatians. Our text this morning is Galatians chapter 4 verses 1 to 7 and in this passage Paul contrasts our previous condition being enslaved and in bondage under the law verses 1 to 3 with our current condition which is being found in Christ as a son verses 4 to 7.

Let's look at the text together. Galatians chapter 4 verses 1 to 7. I mean that the heir as long as he is a child is no different from a slave though he is the owner of everything but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.

In the same way we also when we were children were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born of woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons and because you were sons God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts crying Abba father so you are no longer a slave but a son and if a son then an heir through God.

Slavery Under the Law and Sonship in Christ

In the first two verses of this passage Paul provides us with an analogy which helps illustrate the difference between our previous condition being a slave with our current condition of being a son. Galatians 4 1 and 2 I mean that the heir as long as he is a child is no different from a slave though he is the owner of everything but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.

At the time of Christ it was very common for men wealthy men in particular to commit their heirs to the care of guardians or trustees even though the heir would one day inherit all of his father's estate because he was a child he did not yet own it in one respect he was the owner of it all but in another as long as he was under a certain age he was really no different from a slave because he had been placed under the authority and the control of a guardian.

As a child he would be commanded he would be reprimanded he would be instructed he might even be threatened. The child would be made to obey and conform to the wishes of the father through the actions of the guardian to the heir the system might seem harsh but in reality it was put in place for their benefit.

What seemed like restriction and bondage was necessary to bring a child to maturity and eventually he would receive his inheritance. At a certain age the father would determine that his heir was no longer to be considered a child but a son and then he would greatly differ from the slave.

Now Paul uses this illustration to help us better understand our previous relationship to the law before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ Galatians 4 3. In the same way we also when we were children were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

Paul is illustrating that the law plays a similar role in the story of our salvation. Before the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ we were also under the authority and the control of the law. It was the law that held us captive.

It was the law that was our guardian. Even though we were rightful heirs of the promise which God had given to Abraham we had not yet inherited the promise. Like children living under the bondage and tyranny of their guardians we were also living under the bondage and tyranny of the law.

But when everything was ready when the date set by the father had arrived the Lord Jesus Christ came and released us from that bondage and tyranny Galatians 4 4. But when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born of woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

In these two short verses we see the entire Christmas story. In these two short verses we see the Lord God's master plan of salvation. Now there are five central teachings regarding the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ that are seen in this passage.

The first concerns the timing of his coming. When the fullness of time had come the Lord Jesus Christ came at the exact point in human history when the Lord God was ready for his coming it was at the right time religiously.

During the Babylonian captivity Israel had finally learned their lesson. They had finally forsaken the practice of idolatry. Now idolatry had plagued the Israelites for so many years but they finally got that down.

And despite their many other shortcomings Israel was genuinely looking for Messiah. Also during their exile the canon of the Old Testament scriptures had been collected it had been organized it had been codified.

The Jewish people had established synagogues throughout the region which they used as places of worship and instruction. So there would be places to go to preach the gospel to people who were seeking to know and worship the true God of Israel.

It was also the right time culturally. In years prior Alexander the Great had thoroughly saturated this region with Greek influence which provided a common language and a common culture for the proclamation and spread of the gospel message.

It was the right time politically. The Romans and the Pax Romana or the Roman peace brought harmony and stability all across the empire. Roads were built everywhere so that easy access both from the standpoint of travel and protection would be available for missionaries to further spread the gospel.

So it was at exactly the right time not a moment too soon not a moment too late that the Lord Jesus Christ came to restore redeem and reconcile man to the Lord God. The second teaching concerns the origin of Christ's coming which testifies to his eternal deity.

Galatians 4 .4. But when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son. God sent forth his son speaks of the eternality of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ was and is eternal. He was not a created being.

The Lord God did not make him rather the Lord God sent him forth. John 1 1 and 2. In the beginning was the word the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory.

Glory is of the only son from the father full of grace and truth. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and the word became flesh and he dwelt among us. In the beginning.

Before the foundation of the world was even laid there existed the eternal word and the pre-existent eternal word was with God. In other words the word was distinct from God. In the original language this phrase gives us the picture of two personal beings facing one another and engaging in intellectual discourse.

The phrase can also be rendered as face-to-face God. The father and the word have always shared life in face-to-face intimate communion. However the pre-existent and eternal word who was distinct from God the father is also called God.

The word was God. This is perhaps the clearest and most direct declaration of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ that is found anywhere in all the scriptures. The word was God. Now why was the term word used to describe the son of God.

The Greek term translated word is logos. And this term meant different things to different people. For example to the Greeks the logos was the abstract impersonal principle of reason and logic and order in the universe it was a creative force and it was the source of all wisdom.

To the Jews the logos referred to the word of God which was the divine expression of God's power God's wisdom and God's authority. So to the Greeks John was presenting the Lord Jesus Christ as the personification and the embodiment of the logos.

The true logos is God who became man. And to the Jews John was presenting the Lord Jesus Christ as the incarnation of divine power and revelation of God. So as the incarnate word Jesus Christ was God's final and authoritative word to mankind.

In short these passages teach us that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. He is the same in substance. He is equal in power and glory in Christ Jesus. The fullness of deity dwells bodily. The word is God. So when eternity passed the Lord Jesus Christ existed in the presence of God as the second member of the trinity and at the appropriate and proper time when the time was exactly right the Lord God sent forth his son.

The Deity, Humanity, and Obedience of Christ

The third teaching concerns the manner of Christ's coming. Galatians 4 4. But when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born of woman. If the word sent implies the Lord Jesus Christ's eternality and deity then the word born implies his humanity.

To say that a human mother gave birth to Jesus is to say that God the son became a human being. This is the doctrine of the incarnation. The Lord God became man. The Lord God became flesh. In our day and age one of the biggest stumbling blocks to the world is the doctrine of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How could man be God. But back in the time of the new testament a greater stumbling block was not the deity of Christ but the humanity of Christ. How could God become man. How could the creator become created.

Was Jesus Christ truly a man or did he just appear to be a man. Well the scriptures provide us with many compelling truths to answer these types of questions. For example Jesus had a real physical birth.

Mary had her baby. By ordinary means Jesus was born just like every other baby is born granted. His conception was quite unconventional and he was born without sin. But his birth was quite ordinary. His birth was like every other human birth.

Jesus also had a real physical flesh and blood body. He knew what it was like to be hungry. He knew what it was like to be tired. He knew what it was like to need sleep. He knew what it was like to suffer and to feel pain as a man in his body he experienced everything that you and I experience.

Jesus had real ancestors. He was part of a real family. He had a job he had an occupation. He was a carpenter and probably a good one. Jesus was tempted yet without sin. Jesus physically died on the cross.

He yielded up his spirit and he breathed his last God the son took on our flesh. God the son took on our nature with all its temptations and all its aggravations. Jesus Christ who came to save is the God-man.

He is one person in two natures a divine nature and a human nature. The fourth important teaching concerns the condition of Christ's coming which was in perfect and complete obedience. When the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born of woman born under the law.

Jesus Christ was born under the law. That is he was born of a Jewish mother into a Jewish nation and thereby subject to the law throughout his life. He perfectly submitted to every single requirement of every single law.

He was circumcised on the eighth day. He never broke any of the ten commandments. He followed the biblical pattern of worship. He went to Jerusalem to keep the feasts. He celebrated the Passover. He did everything that the law required.

He perfectly fulfilled the righteousness of the law succeeding where all other men had failed. Jesus even died under the law even though he had no sin even though he was spotless blameless and pure. But not only did Jesus perfectly keep the whole law for his people he also suffered the punishment for their sins by appeasing the righteous wrath of the Lord God Galatians 3 13.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written curse. It is everyone who is hanged on a tree so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.

The Lord Jesus Christ became a curse for us for our sake. The Lord God made him who knew no sin to be sin. The Lord Jesus Christ was our perfect substitute. He was our perfect sacrifice. John Stott remarked so the divinity of Christ the humanity of Christ and the righteousness of Christ uniquely qualified him to be man's redeemer.

If he had not been man he could not have redeemed men. If he had not been a righteous man he could not have redeemed unrighteous men. And if he had not been God's son he could not have redeemed men for God or made them the sons of God.

Jesus Christ was God. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ was a man. Jesus Christ was perfect. He was the spotless lamb of God who took upon our sin and laid down his life as a substitute and a propitiation for sinners.

Redemption and Adoption Through Christ

The fifth and final teaching concerns the twofold purpose of Christ's coming. Galatians 4 4 and 5. When the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born of woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

The first purpose of the Lord God sending forth his son was to redeem those who were under the law. There are two Greek terms which are very closely related to the word redeem agaradzo and ex agaradzo.

The former means marketplace or to attend the marketplace or to do business in the marking place and the latter means away from the marketplace or out of the marketplace. So taken together these terms refer to the buying the selling and the trading that occurs within the marketplace.

In the New Testament these terms are used to describe the spiritual purchase of a sinner or the redemption of a sinner. Remember back in Genesis 3 the fall of man. All men are born in a desperate need of redemption because all men are born into slavery.

All men are born into bondage. John 8 34. Truly truly I say to you everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. And the only way to be freed from sin the only way to be freed from the bondage and the tyranny of the law is by redemption.

You must be delivered. You must be liberated. You must be freed by payment of ransom. And what is the cost of redemption. What does it cost to redeem a fallen man. What does it cost to deliver a sinner out of slavery.

What is the price of the ransom. Ephesians 1 7. In him we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses. The cost of redemption is blood. The cost of the ransom is blood. For a man to be redeemed from the bondage and tyranny of sin someone has to die because the wages of sin is death indeed.

Hebrews 9 22. Under the law almost everything is purified with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Beloved you cannot haggle the price of the ransom. You cannot haggle with the Lord God without the shedding of blood.

Without death there is no forgiveness of sins. Sin demands a price and that price is blood either your blood or the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The second purpose of the Lord God sending forth his son was so that we might receive adoption as sons.

The coming of the son not only had a redemptive component it also had an adopting component. The Lord God sent his son to make us his sons and his daughters. Christ accomplished not only our redemption but also our adoption.

Adoption refers to our relationship with God and it involves a change in both our status and our condition. It's a declaration or an alteration of our legal status. In adoption. We stand as a stranger before the Lord God and the Lord God makes us his children with all the legal benefits and all the privileges that a natural born child would possess.

Philip Graham Riken remarked. It would be good enough for God to release us from slavery rescue us from our captivity to the law and so to redeem us from its curse. But God did not stop there. Once Christ had gained our freedom he gathered us into his family.

He went beyond redemption to adoption turning slaves into sons. Now think back again to Genesis chapter 3. The fall of man. After the fall of man. Mankind no longer had the right to call God their father.

Mankind no longer had the right to be his heir or to receive his inheritance. Mankind was expelled from the presence of God no longer to be an intimate communion with him. But the Lord God was not content to leave his children in this dreadful state of despair.

The Lord God immediately sought to redeem and restore fallen man to their previous condition. And how did God do it. How did God redeem and restore fallen man to their previous condition. In the fullness of time had come.

God sent forth his son born of woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons beloved our redemption our restoration our reconciliation with God is only because in the fullness of time God sent forth his son and the promise of eternal life is for everyone who becomes a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

John 1 12 and 13. But to all who did receive him who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God.

Man does not become a son of God through blood through any racial or ethnic heritage. Man does not become a son of God through his efforts through the will of the flesh. Man does not become a son of God through any man-made system of works through the will of man.

Rather man becomes a son of God by being born of God by receiving him by grace alone through faith alone because of the work and merit of Jesus Christ alone. This is the only means of salvation. This is the only means of our restoration.

In closing briefly take a look at the last two verses of our passage verses six and seven. And because you were sons God has sent the spirit of his son into your heart crying Abba father so you are no longer a slave but a son.

And if a son then an heir through God. Not only did God send forth his son but the Lord God also sent the spirit of his son into our hearts. The Lord God has given us his spirit as the seal and surety of our salvation.

The Lord God has given us his spirit as the down payment and the guarantee of our future inheritance. And from our hearts the spirit of God cries out Abba father reminding us that we are the children of God and that one day we will see the fulfillment of all of God's promises again.

John Stott remarks. What we are as Christians as sons and heirs of God is not through our own merit nor through our own effort but through God through his initiative of grace. Who first sent his son to die for us and then sent his spirit to live in us.

These are two tremendous blessings. God sent his son to die for us and God sent his spirit to live in us. My prayer for each one of you is that you would recognize these great great blessings and that you would rejoice in your status as a child of God.