The One Who Came by Water & Blood | 1 John 5:6

Okay, Beloved, let's turn to 1st John, 1st John chapter 5, 1st

John chapter 5. We're going to continue this passage, an amazing passage, focusing in particular on the person and work of Christ today.

1st John chapter 5, let's begin in verse 4.

The Word of God says, This is

God's Word, Amen. So, Beloved, we find ourselves once again beholding

Christ in His person and His work. And we saw last week, last

Lord's Day, that in part that Jesus is the Eternal Son, the

Divine Son of God the Father. Just like Athanasius taught, and many of the early church taught, and the major creeds of the other church also affirmed that Christ is truly

God and truly man. And you also recall the confession,

Peter's confession, when he, when Jesus asked him who he was, and he said,

You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Which also points to the Christian use of the fish symbol, right, the ichthys, that Jesus Christ, God's Son and Savior.

And this is actually, I forgot to mention this, but this is actually also a creedal statement. It's one of many in the scriptures.

It's sort of a little statement of faith that we see throughout the

Bible. And so I want to focus today on verse 6.

Verse 6 in particular, we find that this is talking about Jesus Christ, our

Savior. This is the one, this is the one who came by water and blood,

Jesus Christ. Not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood.

Right, so now before we dive into the water and blood, I'm sure that's where a lot of our focus is going to be.

And many, you know, the question arises of what that means. Notice that it also says the one who came.

This is the one who came. And this is really important because oftentimes when we're reading scripture or we're hearing the word of God read or preached, you know, there's a phrase, a proverb that says familiarity breeds contempt.

Many of you probably heard that saying, familiarity breeds contempt. And it expresses the idea that a close long term relationship with a person or situation brings about feelings of boredom or a lack of respect.

And sometimes that can happen to us. If we're not careful, we think we become familiar with the

Bible and kind of lose the force of what the Bible is telling us at times. And there are a few ways to fight against those things.

A lot of it is our attitude, right? We should never think that we have it all figured out because we don't.

And God's word is inexhaustible, inexhaustible. We will never fully finish diving into the mysteries of God and Christ in his word.

And sometimes it helps to look at different translations to kind of get a different sense of what or a different way of saying the same thing at times.

It kind of helps us to maybe see something that we didn't see before. And but, you know,

I've been in many churches locally, too, where this sentiment kind of is sort of there at the church.

It's just very it's very disappointing to see churches where they seem to have lost appreciation for what the word of God says and the force behind the words of God's word.

And in these churches, it's almost like people just want to talk about anything but the Bible. It's almost like they're bored with the

Bible. They're ready to just talk about other stuff. And that that just that always baffles me.

You know, when I I didn't grow up Christian, I grew up Roman Catholic, as many as you know.

But when I got saved, that's all I wanted to talk about. I just wanted to talk about my savior, you know.

Amen. Like this is why I come to church. I come to church because I want to receive the word, preach the word, receive the word.

And that's what we are all about. Like I mentioned before, that's what Christian means.

Little Christ. Right. We are followers of Christ. And this is what should define us as individuals here on earth, our relationship to Christ and his word.

And just like we read in the Psalms, once again, I long for your commandments. I long for your word.

And we should never lose sight of that.

The importance of God's word and not think that we have it all figured out, figured out.

So, beloved, let us strive then to grow continuously, continuously in grace.

Amen. Just like 2nd Peter says, you, therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard, be on guard.

Lest you, having been carried away by the error of unprincipled men, fall from your own steadfastness, but instead grow in the grace and knowledge and knowledge of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.

Amen. Right. That was an inspired amen. I didn't add that one. So this is where our focus needs to be.

The one who came, obviously, is none other than Jesus Christ. Jesus, the

Christ, the son of God, the one true God, the eternal divine son of God, the father, the monogamous, the only begotten of the father who came to us, to us, to us, his people by water and by blood, by water and by blood.

Turn with me to the Gospel of John in the first chapter, beloved, in the

Gospel of John, chapter one. And John has a lot of cross -referencing between much of the

Bible, but also especially between his other writings. And we're going to see here a close correlation with what

John is teaching us in 1 John as well. In the Gospel of John, chapter one, beginning of verse one,

God's word says, In the beginning was the Word, the Logos, 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.

Skip over with me to 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 the Baptist 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, before me.

Notice, that's fascinating because John was actually older than Jesus. He was about six months older, according to the

Gospel accounts. And yet, he said, he existed before me. Or, in another way to translate it is, before I was born, he already was.

First. The Greek word there is protos. Protos. First.

Before Abraham was, I am. The kind of rings of that divine affirmation that John the

Baptist was preaching. So, this is clearly not just an exalted man, much like Aristotle or those heretics.

This is God the Logos who became flesh. The God -Man. The Son of Man.

The Son of God. Just as many other scriptures tell us, such as 1

Timothy 1 .15. It is a trustworthy saying and deserving of full acceptance.

That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom

I am the foremost. Christ came into the world to save sinners, beloved, like you and me.

And this is so important that we not lose the force behind these words.

Because many of us grew up in an environment of the church or we've been Christians for some time now.

But we cannot lose sight of the utter amazing significance of that reality.

No other person in existence is what Jesus Christ is and what he has done. God, the

Son of God, became flesh and came into the world to save us, his people.

And Jesus came down to us willingly. He says,

I lay my life down of my own accord, willingly. But he was also sent.

He was sent and he was given to us. Sent to us and given to us.

By whom? By whom, beloved? But when the fullness of the time came,

God, God sent forth his Son. God the Father sent forth his own

Son, born of a woman, born under the law. So that he might redeem those who were under the law, under the curse of the law.

That we might receive the adoption as sons. Amen. That's Galatians 4, 4 through 5.

And some of the most popular verses in the Bible are about this very aspect, this very nature of Christ.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, his monogamous

Son. That whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

And again, remember, that whoever is Paschal Pistachon, all the believing ones.

Only his people who will not perish, but have eternal life.

Because his people will believe in him. And that is one of the principal messages that the

Bible, God's Word, reveals to us. Just as 1 John also reveals to us in numerous places.

We have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the

Son. He gave us his Son and he sent the Son to be the

Savior of the world, the only Savior of the world. Amen. The only

Savior of the world. So Christ, beloved, abounds in all his scripture, his words.

Let him also abound in our life, in our thoughts, in our words, in our prayers, in our lives.

Christ is all and in all the Son. Now, okay, that being said, there's a lot more that can be said about that.

But now, what does verse 6 in 1 John 5, what does it mean that he came by water and blood?

What does that mean specifically? Let's turn back over there and read that verse again.

Once again, this is the one who came by water and blood,

Jesus Christ. Not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood.

It is the Spirit who bears witness because the Spirit is the truth. So what is this pointing to?

Notice also there's an emphasis here. There's an emphasis on both water and blood.

Not just water, but water and blood. So to say that Christ came by water and blood actually presupposes certain things, certain realities, certain historical realities in the life of Christ, including the incarnation of Christ.

Like the Gospel of John teaches us that he became flesh. So this statement presupposes the incarnation, the incarnation at the very least.

And it refers to real historical events that took place while Christ was on the earth, while Christ was on the earth.

But what specifically, what specifically does this refer?

For example, like some say, to the piercing of Jesus' side. You recall in the

Gospel of John. Once again, let's turn back over to the Gospel of John in chapter 19. In verse 32, where we will find that event, that historical event, where Jesus was pierced with a spear on his side.

In John 19, verse 32, God's word says,

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with him, with Jesus.

But coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.

But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

Blood and water came out. And he who has seen has borne witness, and his witness is true.

And he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.

For these things came to pass in order that the scripture would be fulfilled. Not a bone of him shall be broken.

And again, another scripture says, they shall look upon him whom they pierced. That is powerful prophetic words from the

Psalms, where the crucifixion of Christ is foretold, prophesied, before crucifixion was even practiced by the

Romans. But is that what this other verse is referring to?

Water and blood, the fact that water and blood came out of Christ when he was pierced. And we have to think carefully through this, because we have to make sense of the whole passage, the whole verse and the whole passage.

And in light of the whole verse and the rest of the passage in context, this doesn't particularly point to this other part of Christ's life when he was pierced.

This is a much smaller detail than what John the Apostle is focusing on in his first letter in this other verse.

He's painting a much bigger picture for us. In other words, he's pointing to a bigger picture than that specific detail.

And so what about the sacraments? Others say that this is pointing to the sacraments, baptism in the

Lord's Supper specifically. And many of the Reformers took this view, including

Luther and Calvin. They took this particular view and several others.

And Luther himself went even further by claiming that water and blood, with reference to John 1934, which we just read, points to the two sacraments.

He says in one of his works, this brief summary has been kept in the church that out of the side of Jesus, the two sacraments flowed.

And that's from a Myers New Testament commentary. But, you know, sometimes it's not just the

Reformers. Sometimes people get a little too creative with the Bible. And this is a little too creative.

It's what I've mentioned before. It's a form of eisegesis because it's putting something in the text that was never intended.

This is not talking about the sacraments. Okay, it's reading a little bit too much in there.

That was not intended in the gospel. And even here in 1st John as well.

Because note also, there is no mention of bread or of the body.

There's no mention of that. It's specifically referring to water and blood in 1st

John. And the repeated emphasis on both water and blood.

It's not talking about the body specifically or bread. So it shows us as he's addressing something else in particular.

Something else in particular. That leads us to the next question then. What is the significance then of Jesus coming by water and blood?

And you can even more literally translate this passage with or in.

This is the one who came in or with water and blood. Not in water only, but in the water and in the blood.

In the Greek, it could more literally be rendered that way. So there's something here.

There's a historical background and context that we need to understand. And I've mentioned this before.

Because John addresses it numerous times in his letter in previous chapters. First of all, he is refuting heresies and heretics.

Specifically, Gnostic heresies and heretics. Like that of Corinthus and the

Docetists. If you recall, the Docetists are the ones who said that Jesus only appeared to be human and to die.

He only appeared to look human. He wasn't actually a man. And that is an utter denial of the incarnation.

But John is telling us no. He came in water, by water, with water and blood.

Not just with water, but with blood. It's real.

It really happened. And so there's that refutation of this

Gnostic belief. This hidden knowledge. It was just an appearance of him seeming to be a man.

And so on. But there's also another specific teaching that the

Apostle appears to have in mind. And Gordon Clark's commentary on 1

John has a helpful explanation of this. What John had in mind was the view of some heretics,

Gnostics like Corinthus, who held that Jesus became the Son of God at his baptism.

Not that he was always the eternal Son, but he became the Son at his baptism and that the

Holy Spirit abandoned him on the cross before he died. John insists that though the baptism marks his public coming, he also came and accomplished his purpose by dying.

The heretical view that only an ordinary man died altogether ruins the idea of a sacrificial satisfaction of the propitiation of the satisfaction of God's wrath and our sin debt, our wrath debt before God the

Father. Okay, so this makes a lot more sense.

This makes a lot more sense because that we see that in the following sentence.

It is the Spirit who bears witness. The Spirit who bears witness to all of this, to all of Christ, all his life and death, which is reinforced later on in verses 7 and 8 by the three witnesses, the

Spirit, the water, the blood, all of which are in perfect agreement with each other.

There's no abandonment here of the Spirit. Christ never ceased to be

God. He never ceased to be part of the Triune God. He always, yesterday, today and forever, even at the crucifixion, when

Christ faced and bore the wrath of God, he never ceased to be God. The Spirit never abandoned him.

That is heresy, agnostic heresy from a false teacher.

By the name, he was a contemporary of John Corinthus. So then, there is that aspect that the apostle is addressing.

Now, there's also a bigger picture that he is revealing to us.

That bigger picture are two bookends, two bookends, two bookend events, historical events in the life of Christ, specifically the beginning and the end of Christ's ministry on earth, namely his baptism and his death, right?

His baptism and his death, water and blood, water, baptism and blood, death.

If you recall, there's a technical term for this, something that is a part that refers to the whole, right?

It's a synecdoche, which is used in several places in Scripture, including here.

These two words are synecdoches. They are a part that refers to the whole of something else, specifically water pointing to baptism, and not just any baptism, but the baptism of Christ, when he announced his ministry.

And then, the blood, which points to his death on the cross, the shedding of his blood on the cross.

So it's not just the fact that water and blood came out of Christ when he was pierced. It's to his death in general, his shedding of blood and his death on the cross.

So this verse, the apostle here encapsulates Christ on earth, his ministry, his earthly purpose with those two words, two highly public, highly publicized and published events, okay?

They were all very public, very publicized and published events.

Everybody knew about them, and people continue to know about them now by the

Scriptures, the word of God and the church proclaiming the good news, right?

So this is in total contrast to the Gnostics and their heresy, which emphasize hidden knowledge.

Oh, you have to be in the know. You have to be part of these, have the divine spark in you.

Only those people can know the truth. No, Christ was out in the open before everyone to see, and to show, demonstrate that his works point to the greater reality of who he said he was.

The Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, who makes himself equal with God because he is

God, the logos, the wisdom and reason of God, the word of God.

Amen? That's what the apostle is teaching us. Turn over with me to the

Gospel of Mark as we get the context more better grounded there in the beginning of end of Christ's ministry.

In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1, verse 9, these are very significant events that are recorded in all of the

Gospels, especially his death. And in verse 9 of chapter 1 in the

Gospel of Mark, we find God's word says, Now it happened that in those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the

Jordan, the Jordan River, and immediately coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opening and the

Spirit, the Holy Spirit, like a dove descending upon him and a voice came out of the heavens.

You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.

So this is a highly public, highly publicized event.

A voice from heaven, God the Father, proclaiming openly before all,

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

And later on in Christ's ministry, he says it again. Listen to him. Listen to him.

Because he speaks the truth. He is the truth. Amen?

This is the purpose of what John wants to reveal to us in the letter, in his first letter.

Highly publicized and published events in the life of Christ. They're bookends. Bookends in the life of Christ's ministry, in the ministry of Christ on earth.

Skip over to chapter 10 now in the Gospel of Mark. Chapter 10, verse 45. We find from Jesus' own words, what he came to do.

Why did Christ come? Why did he become man? Why the God -man? Like Anselm famously wrote.

Why the God -man? Why did he become flesh? One of the most plain, clear, and profound truths in all of Scripture.

In Mark 10, verse 45, the word of the Lord says,

For even the Son of Man, the Son of Man, note that is a messianic and divine title, did not come to be served, but to serve, and to what?

Give his life a ransom for many. He came to die.

Jesus came, in a very ultimate sense, to die. To give his life a ransom for many.

For many. Amen. This is no mere man.

Contrary to what many Gnostics and heretics like Arius and Corinthians taught, this is no mere man who accomplished and fulfilled all of the

Father's will, which no one before him ever could hope to do so.

Not Adam, not anybody else, because we are all sinners. Wretched, fallen sinners.

But Jesus alone, Christ alone, like the

Reformation motto, Solus Christos, Christ alone,

Jesus the Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God, the one and only God -Man.

The one and only God -Man. Truly God and truly man. And on that note,

I want to read an excellent passage from Athanasius in his famous treatise on the

Incarnation. I highly commend this work to you all for your edification.

He has some very relevant words that speak to this matter.

He wrote this around the year 318 AD, right around Arius and the Council of Nicaea, when the creeds were being written, all that stuff.

All those events. Now he says, How the word and power of God works in his human actions, by casting out devils, by miracles, by his birth of the

Virgin. Accordingly, when inspired writers of Scripture on this matter speak of him as eating and being born, understand that the body as body was born and sustained with food corresponding to its nature.

While God, the Word himself, who was united with the body, that's the hypostatic union, united with the body while ordering all things as God, also by the works he did in the body, showed himself to be not merely man, but God, the

Word, God the Logos. But these things are said of him because the actual body which ate, was born, and suffered belonged to none other but to the

Lord, the Lord himself. And because having become man, it was proper for these things to be predicated of him as man, to show him to have a body in truth and not in seeming, not in seeming.

In other words, he didn't just appear to have a body, like the heretics, the docetists taught.

That's from the Greek word dokein or dokeo, which means to appear or a phantasm or ghost.

It's also reminiscent of why Christ said, look, when he appeared in the resurrection, he said, look, give me a fish to eat.

I'm eating. I'm not an apparition. I'm a real resurrected Christ with a real body.

And Athanasius continues, but just as from these things, he was known to be bodily present.

So from the works he did in the body, he made himself known to be the son of God.

Whence also he cried to the unbelieving Jews, if I do not the works of my father, believe me not. But if I do them, though you believe not me, believe my works, that you may know and understand that the father is in me, and I in the father.

For just as though invisible, he is known through the works of creation. So having become man and being in the body unseen, it may be known from his works in the human body that he who can do these things is not merely man, but the power and word of God.

I love that parallel that Athanasius paints for us. Just as the invisible God shows his power through the works of creation, specifically through us, his imago dei, his image, so Christ, the unseen

God, becoming flesh becomes visible to us in his human form and by his works, his miracles, his power over nature and authority over demons, and in his perfect life, virgin birth, his baptism and his death.

And there's a very excellent note here from the editor of Athanasius' work where he explains something very important.

Note the comprehensiveness of Athanasius' Christology from the first. Here he anticipatorily guards against the errors of Nestorius and of Eutychius, which belong to the next century, the one dividing

Christ into two persons, a divine and a human person separately, and the other holding that the human nature was absorbed by the divine.

So Christ was not truly God and truly man in these heretical views. The person of Christ can only be one, that of the

Son of God, and just as it is the one person who acts or suffers, so it is his possession of two natures, two natures, which enables him at the same time to order the universe as God and to suffer as man, and to suffer as man.

This cross and circulatory speech is distinctly scriptural, for St.

Paul speaks of the crucifixion of the Lord of Glory. How do you crucify the

Lord of Glory? How do you crucify God? And conversely, the second man being from heaven, the man being from heaven.

That's in 1 Corinthians 2 .8 and 1 Corinthians 15 .47. And St. John, the son of man, being in heaven in John 3 .13.

Wow! So this is amazing truths that the

Lord, the Spirit of God, is revealing to us through John's letter in this verse. Not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood, or in the water and in the blood, by water and blood.

So again, note the sharp emphasis on Jesus coming, not just with water, but with water and blood.

There's a sharp focus there that the Apostle is getting at. He states it twice, right?

In verse 6, again, this is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood.

It is the Spirit who bears witness because the Spirit is the truth. So this is pointing once again to a much deeper doctrinal truth and reality of the importance of blood.

All throughout Scripture, we see God greatly emphasizing the importance of blood all throughout, all throughout sacred

Scripture. Turn over with me to the book of Leviticus. Beloved, in the

Torah, the book of Leviticus chapter 17, Leviticus chapter 17, we find a very important truth from God's Word that speaks to much of this importance of blood.

Leviticus chapter 17, beginning in verse 10, God speaks and says,

And any man from the house of Israel, or from the sojourners who sojourn among them, who travel among them, who eats any blood,

I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people.

Which could be referring to exile, but in reality also death. This is pointing to serious judgment.

For the life of the flesh is where? Is in the blood.

And I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls.

For it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. It is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

And skip over to verse 14. For as for the life of all flesh, its blood is identified with its life.

Therefore, I said to the sons of Israel, you are not to eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood.

Whoever eats it shall be cut off. Wow. Amen.

This is a powerful, powerful word from God. This is pointing to some significant realities regarding blood.

Without blood, you cannot live. That's one thing. Without blood, you cannot live.

And that's in more ways than one. In more ways than one. Take careful note of that.

Without blood, you cannot live in more ways than one.

There is no life without blood. There is no life without blood.

There's no physical life without blood. That's why you can bleed to death. You can bleed out.

If you bleed too much, you can die. Because the life of the flesh is in the blood.

But more than that, God is pointing to something even deeper than just the reality that the life of the flesh is the blood.

Eating blood was forbidden by God because God Himself reserved animal blood to be used exclusively for sacrifice.

Sacrificially. For it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

What is that? What is that? It makes atonement by the life.

By putting something to death. By shedding its blood so that someone else can live.

By putting something to death. Shedding its blood so that someone else can live.

This is an amazing reminder for us of how blood is sacred in the eyes of God.

So much so that He cuts you off. If you were to eat blood, in the

Old Testament, He would cut you off. Exile and death from your own people.

Now, it's to make atonement. It's to make things right for someone else.

Let's turn over to the New Testament now in the Book of Hebrews. The letter to the Hebrews. Chapter 9. In verses 17.

Starting in verse 17. Hebrews 9. As we start tying everything together with Christ.

How does this point to Christ? Hebrews 9 explains it better than I ever could.

Hebrews 9. Verse 17. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead.

For it is never in force while the one who made it lives. Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

Take note of that. It wasn't inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses.

It's referring to the Mosaic covenant. To all the people, according to the law.

He took the blood. He took the blood of the calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people saying, this is the blood of the covenant which

God commanded you. Which God commanded you. And in the same way, both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry, he sprinkled with the blood.

And according to the law, one may almost say all things, all things are cleansed with blood and without shedding of blood, there is no what?

There is no forgiveness. There is no forgiveness of sins.

Therefore, it was necessary, necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these, than these animal sacrifices for Christ did not enter the holy places made with hands, mere copies of the true ones, but into heaven itself.

Now to appear in the presence of God, the father for who beloved for us, for us, nor was it that he would offer himself often as a high priest enters the holy places year by year, like the young Kapoor, the day of atonement.

That is not his own. Otherwise, not his own blood. That is otherwise he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world.

But now once and only once at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested publicly, openly to put away to put away sin by the sacrifice of who of his own self one time for all time.

And in as much as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment.

So Christ also having been offered once and only once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him.

Amen. This is what the blood ultimately of calves and goats and sheep and bulls was pointing to.

It was pointing to Christ, the anti type, the once for all sacrificial lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

Finally, finally, there's no longer any need for a temple with offering animal sacrifices because the blood of Christ made full perfect satisfaction once for all his people.

Amen. Amen. That is what the

Apostle John is also pointing to us there. The water and the blood, the baptism and the death of Christ.

Now I want to leave us with this consideration, beloved, very important consideration because we saw how

Athanasius was wrestling and grappling to put together the two realities and natures of Christ, that Christ is both truly

God and truly man. The hypostatic union of Christ.

He is one divine and human person. He is only one person, two natures, such that he is truly both

God and man. Now, but this brings us to a question because John is clearly teaching us that yes,

Jesus is the divine son of God and those who believe will be saved in the son of God, but he came with water and blood.

It's pointing to the human ministry and nature of Christ. So then we have to ask ourselves, does

God have blood? Does God have blood? How do we make sense of that?

Is that even possible for God to have blood? We know from the scriptures that the father has no body, right?

The spirit also has no body. The spirit of God dwells in us, the

Holy Spirit and regenerates us. The father has no body. The spirit has no body.

And we know from John, the gospel of John, God is spirit and he must be worshipped in spirit and in truth.

And from the children's catechism that we are teaching our children, God is spirit and has not a body like men, right?

But what about Jesus? What about Jesus? How do we make sense of Christ here?

Because we know that Christ is the eternal son of God, the divine son of God.

He is God. But Jesus also has a body. He has a human body, a human mind, a human will because he is truly man, the

God man. So if Jesus is both God and man and he is, he clearly is, then is it right to say that God shed his own blood for us?

Is it right to say that God shed his own blood for us? Let's think carefully through this, beloved.

Turn with me over to the book of Acts, chapter 20. Acts 20, verse 28.

As we seek to harmonize the Scriptures by exercising the analogies of Scripture and of faith, seeking to understand

Scripture with the rest of Scripture, to not twist it to our own destruction like Peter warned against, because these are challenging doctrines to make sense of and we need to carefully understand them and rightly distinguish them according to God's entire word.

Acts 20, verse 28. What does it say here, beloved? Let's soak this in and listen carefully.

Be on guard, the apostle Paul warns the Ephesian elders. Be on guard for yourselves, you elders of Ephesus, and for all the flock, all the church,

God's people, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, elders, overseers, to shepherd the church of who?

The church of God, which he purchased with his own blood, to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood.

Amen. What does that say?

It doesn't say Jesus specifically. It says God. God, which he purchased with his own blood.

There's no reference specifically to Jesus before and after this passage. Obviously, this is talking about Jesus Christ.

He alone has a body of the Godhead, the Triune God. But it says

God purchased the church with his own blood, with his own blood.

So then what is our answer, beloved? Did God himself suffer, bleed, and die for us?

And to that we should all say yes and amen, because Christ, our

Lord, is both God and man. And the scriptures say that God, Jesus Christ, purchased the church with his own blood, with his own blood.

I love how our 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith summarizes this truth in chapter 8, which is about Christ the mediator.

In paragraph 7, it says, in his work of mediation, Christ acts according to both natures, his divine nature and his human nature, in each nature doing that which is appropriate to itself.

Yet, because of the unity of his person, because he is one person, hypostatically united with two natures, that which is appropriate to one nature is sometimes in Scripture attributed to the person indicated by the other nature, the other nature.

This is exactly what we saw in Acts 20, 28. God purchased the church with his own blood.

And this is what it's, the editor's note that I read earlier about Athanasius, the cross and circulatory speech, they who crucified the

Lord of glory, they crucified God, in other words. Or when the

Mary, John the Baptist's mother approaches Mary and says, how is it that the mother of who?

The mother of my Lord, the mother of my God has come.

So, there are many Scriptures that point to this hypostatic union of our

Lord and Savior such that what is attributed to one nature, his human nature, is sometimes indicated by the other nature, his divine nature, such that God himself purchased the church with his own blood, beloved.

Amen. Yes and amen. And to that end, I want to close us out with Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians chapter 1 verse 7, verses 7 through 10, where God's word says, speaking through the

Apostle Paul, in his God -breathed words, in him, in Christ, we have redemption, atonement, satisfaction of the wrath of God through what?

His blood. His blood, the forgiveness of all our transgressions according to the riches of his grace, which he caused to abound to us, to abound to us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in him for an administration of the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things, of all things in who?

In Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth in him.

And God's beloved people said, Amen. Let us bow our heads in a closing sanctifying word of prayer, beloved.

Our gracious, precious Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for your

Son, your divine Son, the God -man, Jesus Christ, our

Lord and Savior. Father, we thank you, Lord, for the fact that you sent him, you gave him to us, not just with the water, but with the blood also, with the blood sacrifice, that blood atonement, that blood satisfaction of your wrath on our behalf to die for us on that cross and satisfy the just penalty for all our sins.

Lord, we thank you for your law and gospel, demonstrated beautifully in the life and in particular in the ministry of Christ, his baptism, his teaching, his blood, his death, that ransoms us fully, that fully pardons us all our transgressions,

Lord. We thank you for our gracious Savior that you have given us and sent us.

We ask that you help us, Lord, to deeply meditate and absorb these truths,

Father, to seek to understand them deeper all the more, to make better sense of them, Father, because we know that these are not light topics.

These are deep challenging topics for us, Lord, and we need to constantly seek to grow in the grace and knowledge of our precious

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord, for your word that you sanctify us by.

In Jesus' mighty name, your son, we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the

Bible alone, and the Bible in its entirety, is applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning

Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.

If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area, or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries such as Semper Reformanda Radio and Thorn Crown Network Podcasts, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com