Gooding, David: 3 - The Humanity of Christ

Welcome, beloved, to this, the third of our short series of meditations, in which we are engaged in exploring, by the help of God's Spirit, the limitless wonders and the glories of the Holy and Blessed Trinity. Privileged we are indeed as creatures of clay to be allowed and encouraged by the Lord to peer into what God is in himself. Not merely what he has said and what he has done, but what he is in himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In our first meditation, we listen to the Word of God incarnate and to his authorized apostles, as they tell us what the Word of God was before ever he became incarnate. We learned of his eternal existence. In the beginning was the Word. We learned of his eternal intimate fellowship with the Father, and the Word was with God. And we learned that the Word was God, though he can be regarded at distinct from the Father, for the Word was with God. Yet at the same time we are told, I must try to grasp this, that the Word was and eternally is equal with the Father in his being and in his essential nature. The Word was God. In our second study, we turn, therefore, to consider what happened to the Word when the Word became flesh. And we notice that the New Testament emphasizes everywhere that though the Word became flesh, he did not cease to be God. He is called God in the days of his flesh here on earth. He is adored as God, for instance, by Thomas, when he rose again from the dead. At his ascension, God saluted him with the words, thy throne, said he he to his beloved son, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. And when he comes again, according to Titus chapter two, we shall see the appearing of his glory, the glory of our blessed Lord, who there is described as our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, he is no less than God, though he became incarnate. He is, as Paul states it in his letter to the Romans, chapter nine, he who came of the line of Israel according to the flesh and of the patriarchs. Nonetheless, he is over all. God blessed forever is our Lord Jesus Christ. Tonight we follow this, therefore, with a study of our Lord's humanity. For the Word was made flesh, and here is a superlative wonder that perhaps we shall never fully understand. That the Word, who was God and never ceased to be God, took on him humanity and became a man. To help us in our meditation, let's begin by reading a passage of scripture from the Epistle to the Hebrews and chapter two. Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter two. Beginning there in verse five and reading to the end of the chapter. For not unto angels did he subject the world to come whereof we speak, but one has somewhere testified saying, what is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of thy hands. Thou didst put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he subjected all things unto him, he left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we see not yet all things subjected to him, but we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God he should taste death for every man. For it became him for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I sing thy praise. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children which God hath given me. Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death he might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily, not of angels doth he take hold, but he taketh hold of the seed of Abraham. Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted. God use his words to lead our hearts in worship. Let's begin our meditation, therefore, this evening by for a moment considering the utter unchangeability of the character of God. As God states it in Malachi three and verse six, for I, the Lord, change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Oh, a blessed doctrine and a blessed fact is this, that God's character is utterly unchanging and unchangeable. On that unchangeability depends our salvation and our present and eternity. We rightly sing, don't we, in our response to this character of God. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not. Thy compassions, they fail not. As thou hast been, so shalt thou evermore be. Great is thy faithfulness. Yet, whereas, of course, the character of God is unchangeable, on the other hand, we should remember that God is not a static God. God is a living God. And because of his infinite power and life, mind and purpose, being the living God, God is constantly doing new things. I can tell you now you'll never get bored with eternity. God will always be doing new things. You can catch almost the excitement of the prophet Isaiah in forty three nineteen, when through him God says, behold, I will do a new thing. Now shall it spring forth. Shall you not know it? Let's take a few examples of the new things that God has done. There was a time, you know, when God wasn't a creator. Because he hadn't yet created. And when God became creator and created this vast universe, and the angels included, then it was a new thing, spectacularly new. And we are reliably told by Job that at the foundation of the universe, the morning stars couldn't contain themselves and sang for sheer joy, and the sons of God clapped their hands in amazement. Cor, what it would have been to be alive then, wouldn't it, when the universe was new and everywhere abundantly appearing the manifold wisdom and ingenuity of God. The same universe is growing old. Some tell me the sun itself is running down. The Bible predicts that the world is but temporary. One day it shall wax old, and God shall wrap it up like a man wraps up a worn out pair of pajamas and puts them in the bin. And then what? God is going to make a new heavens and a new earth, spectacularly different from this one. And I think some of you are saying in your hearts, go it, but Mr. Preacher, but, um, for all you're saying, God has already done something exceedingly new. For if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. And you say, I'm one of them. I am a new creation. Yes, and the Lord has taught you a new song, hasn't he? He's the God that constantly loves to do new things. But tonight we think of the astonishing new thing he did that changed the face of the very Trinity. When the Son of God, who hitherto had not been human, was made flesh. Oh, let us not take it for granted as though it were something usual, like the running of the eight o'clock bus. This is something to be mentioned with bated breath, as our Lord expounded it when he was talking to the Jews of the greater works that the Father would show him. Greater works, says he, than these shall he show the Son of Man, that you all may marvel. God forbid there should ever come a time when we can contemplate the incarnation of God the Son, the Word made flesh, without our hearts being stirred to wonder and to worship. Someone will say, but theologically speaking, all these dear theologians, they sometimes get in the way, don't they? And they will say, but isn't it, doesn't it border on unthinkable that God, as we define him, should become man? Such is the contrast between divinity and humanity. How could God become man? Is it not a bit grotesque, the very idea, and incredible? But no, indeed it's not. If the doctrine were like some Hindu doctrine that God had become a cow or a bull or a donkey or something, that certainly would be incredible and grotesque. But that God should become man is not grotesque. For when God designed and created man, he created man in such fashion as man is the very thing that God could become. For man, we are told, was made in the image and likeness of God. And as God created man so, God already had it in mind that one day his blessed and beloved son would be able to become man. That surely makes our heart beat a little faster. What a wonderful thing man must be. Psalm eight captures the wonder of it. As you will remember, when the psalmist, uh, thought of man first of all, he looked towards the skies, and he said, when I consider the sun, the moon, and the stars that thou hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man that thou visitest him? What is man? Have you never felt it? Have you never occasionally found a clear sky over our beloved Belfast or elsewhere and looked up into the sky to see the uncountable myriads of stars and galaxies beyond them? And thought of yourself as a tiny infinitesimal speck and felt yourself saying, what is man when I consider this moon and the stars, the works of thy fingers, oh, what is man? And at that point in the Psalm, you might have expected the poet to gone off and say, man, well, man is a little speck, a worm of the dust and insignificant. But he doesn't. He goes in the other direction. Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet. Man, God's great viceroy in this planet, and one day beyond it too. That was God's idea of man. And I repeat, the incarnation of the Son of God was not some sudden notion that God thought up to meet an emergency when man fell. It had always been in God's design that the Son of God should one day become man. And then we cannot hide it from ourselves, can we, that man fell? Well, at the very beginning, listen to the lie and slander and deception of the devil, who counseled them that if they really wanted to live, then they should turn their back upon the word of God, that's nonsense, and stretch and take the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, so they would be like God. God would never be allowed to keep them down anymore. Man trying to be God. Much of man's nobility has survived the fall. His powers of intellect, his ever increasing understanding of the universe and how it works. These things are God's gifts, and we praise God for them. But man's foolish attempt to be God and to live independently of God has landed man in interminable and insoluble problems, and turned life into a meaningless enterprise. For those who know no God, there is no hope, no ultimate meaning in living. When man succumbed to Satan's lie and in his folly sought to be God. Then God's answer was this: well, if man is destroying himself by trying to be God, I, God, will become man. Oh, I like that. In God, God's unparalleled wisdom and his strategy. You will remember that in the book of the Red- Revelation, we are given visions of what shall yet be when the man of sin arrives on the scene. The final harvest of the seed that Satan sowed in the Garden of Eden, suggesting that man shall be God. That great beast, that ruler of the earth, sitting in the temple of God, giving himself out to be God, trying to ape God and to be God at Satan's suggestion, and a desperate tyranny that will turn out to be for this world. But before John gives us the vision of that beast in chapter thirteen, he has another vision to give us in chapter twelve that gives the light to all that follows. John bids us see a great wonder in heaven, a woman with the stars beneath her feet, a woman with a child. And we hear the voice saying that her child is destined to rule the nations with a rod of iron. I bid you for a moment fix your eyes on that woman. You see he- she is with child and about to be delivered. Whose child? What child is it in that virgin's womb? And the answer is, of course, the one who is to rule the nations with the rod of iron. There's no doubt about who he is. He is the seed of the woman, God's answer to Satan's lie that man should attempt to be God. This is God becoming human. Oh, how shall I restrain your hearts from silently giving praise and worship to God. Verily God, but become truly human, lower than angels, to die in our stead. A real man. We don't forget his deity, but we observe he was and is a real man. Born of a woman, says Galatians four. Born under the law, sent to the same school as all the followers of Moses had to be educated in. His birth normal, it was his conception that was miraculous. Surrounded by the pain that is normal in birth. Luke tells us, chapter two and verse fifty two, that Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. He grew. He was a real child. And he learned. Ah, what a sacred task that was that Mary and Joseph had. As doubtless they fulfilled the instruction of Deuteronomy to parents, that they were to teach their children the word when they came in, when they went out, when they rose up, when they sat down. It was the parents' charge and responsibility to teach the children Holy Scripture. Can you see it in that home at Nazareth? Mary and Joseph teaching the young lad his scripture. He learned it. When he came at la- at the beginning of his ministry to be tempted of the devil, if thou be the Son of God, said the devil, make these stones bread. For him, of course, it was a real temptation because he was Son of God and had the power to turn the loaves into bread. It's never been a temptation to me, as you will understand. I've never been tempted to make loaves bread. Satan could suggest it a thousand times, it wouldn't fizz on me. I can't do it. He could. Ah, but he answered, um, Satan's temptation. It is written. Taught his scriptures in the home. You say, how could it be that if he, God incarnate, he had to learn anything? We shall think about that, God willing, on our last study on Friday coming. But scriptures positively tells us, explicitly tells us, that though he was God incarnate, yet he had to learn. Hebrews chapter five reads, I think in the older versions, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience. That is a good translation, but not as good as it could be, because if you say though he were a son, it might sound as if he were one son among many. But Hebrews here is talking about his unique sonship. Better to translate it, therefore, son though he was, meaning son of God though he was, yet he learned obedience by the things that he suffered. That doesn't mean he learned to obey, but he learned what it cost to obey, and learned it not from his divine omniscience, but learned it by experience as a man in this ungodly world, what obedience to the Lord can entail by way of suffering. A real man, a real child, he grew and he learned a new joy, of course. From time to time, we're told that Jesus rejoiced in spirit. His first miracle was done at a wedding breakfast, where he made the wine that was better than any they'd had before. Joy, yes. But then he learned sorrow too, didn't he? That Christmas carol that says the little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes. I'm tempted to think it is sentimental nonsense. You see, if he were a real child, I expect he did quite a lot of crying, like, like normal children do. That is a healthy thing that children do. Certainly, at later times, he wept, didn't he? Remember his tears at Lazarus's funeral. Tears not only at grief, at the corruption that now his friend Lazarus was in, but grief that the people around questioned the love of Christ. How could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind, had saved his friend from dying, if he really had loved him? Tears when he couldn't at once answer the question of the problem of pain and suffering. Hebrews chapter five and verse seven tells us, who in the days of his flesh, after he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death. Mighty Son of God he was, you say, and yet truly human. With strong cryings and tears. Cried to him that was able to save him from death. No stoic, a real living human being who longed for company, as we humans do. Said he to his apostles at the Last Supper, you are those that have continued with me in my temptations, and I appoint you of thrones for it. Marvelous generosity that, but so did he value their friendship and company. And whose heart has not been moved to hear him come from his agonizing prayers to say to his apostles, what? Could you not watch with me? Here speaks a true, real human being. And why did they have to go through all this suffering as a human being? Let me repeat, his life was not all suffering. There was much joy in his living. But in the end, suffering loomed large, didn't it? And we come back to that scripture which we led, read at length in Hebrews chapter five— Uh, sorry, Hebrews chapter two. And I ask you to notice two of the verbs that are used in the course of that, uh, uh, chapter. This is Hebrews chapter, uh, uh, 2, and it says, for it became him, this is verse ten— it became him for whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings. And the other verb that is used, verse seventeen, wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren. Two verbs then. It became him, and it's talking about God the Father, for whom are all things and by whom are all things of infinite and unlimited power, and as you might think, having unlimited power, he could do just as he pleased. Well, so he did, but God has observed what is fitting. It became him. It was fitting. Became in that old English sense. Someone might say to a lady who's bought a new hat, you know, that hat really becomes you, meaning it suits you, it's fitting for you. Well, that wasn't becoming, meaning that was not really good for you to do, that wasn't fitting to you. So it was fitting for God. And your heart should miss a beat at that. Does God concern himself when he has all power to do as he please, to do only what is fitting. Fitting in what sense and why? Well, it was fitting for him in bringing many sons to glory to make the author, the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Note the scheme, God's intention to bring many sons to glory. And I bet you think it's your glory it's he's the passage is talking about. God is intending, has long since intended, to bring you to glory. I can't tell you why I haven't the words for it, the glory he has for you. When John saw an angel in his vision, John fell at his feet. Hi, said the angel, you mustn't do that. I'm only a servant. It is God's good pleasure to raise you above angels. That you shall be conformed to the image of his son, and join his son in the administration of the world to come, and any other worlds there shall be. That was God's plan to bring you to glory. The question was, what was the fitting way to go about it? And the only fitting way that God himself could think of was to provide them with a pioneer, the file leader, to go on in front and mark out the way, and in another sense to be with them all the way, because the way from earth to glory is not measured in miles, it is measured in experience, and some joyful, and some very painful. The only thing thing that God could do was not just to wave a wand and remove us from this world and seat us on throne in the heavenlies, all unprepared. He must school us on life's journey. God knows the cost of it. To you, to me. The only fitting thing I can do, says God, is to provide them with a fire leader and to make him qualified to help them through sufferings. The magnificence of God defies description. That God should become man, that he might walk alongside you to glory, and knowing what you feel and what your pains are, be able to succor you and help you and maintain your faith and bring you through to glory. That was God's necessity. He had to do it the fitting way. But then it talks about our Lord and says in verse fourteen, wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like his brethren. And here the word is not fitting, but what, uh, is necessity. It was a necessity upon him. You say, how could our Lord be under any necessity? Well, he wasn't under any necessity to redeem us. He could have stayed in his heaven. But once he put forth his hand to help us, then the very doing of that, the very beginning of the task, involved a necessity. For verily, he didn't take hold of the seed as of angels to help them. He took hold of the seed of Abraham, and the very fact he put his hand to do it, then there was no drawing back. The necessity was upon him in all things to be made like his brethren. So that for as much as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, he himself likewise took part of the same. What for? That he might destroy and disable him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Oh, if you could, my brother, my sister, read the hearts of millions who sill- still sit in darkness and the shadow of death, with no hope beyond the grave. We have hope. The power of Satan in this regard has been overcome. Death for us is no longer a dread finality. It is the ante room to glory with the Savior. Which brings us again to the things that we have read in this chapter about our Lord's suffering and his death. Come with me, if you will. Take your shoes off your feet to Gethsemane. And hear our Lord pray. Here are the mysteries of his being in part revealed. As the Son of God kneels on the ground, and the dirt stones cut into his kneecaps. And he prays to the Father. We watch to see the relationship between Father and Son. And we shall have to remember it when we come to sum up our thoughts about the Trinity in our last. But listen to him pray. Abba Father, all things are possible to thee. Let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou wilt. Few words, vastly full of meaning. Abba, Father. The child's word to his father. Abba, Father. You love me, Father. Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. By your love, I implore you, let this cup pass from me. Abba Father, all things are possible to you. All things are within your power. By your power, I pray, let this cup pass from me. Oh, my brother, my sister, pray don't say that this was histrionics, just play acting, and he didn't mean what he said. These were the strong cryings and tears. But he added, without pause, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. Or you should remember Matthew's account, for that will help us see that this obedience of the Son was not forced, it was completely free. Our Lord rebuked Peter for taking the sword and warned him that they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Or do you imagine, said our Lord to Peter, that I couldn't now call to my Father? And if I called, he would give me twelve legions of angels. So said our Lord. We must take care not to deny what he says. He could have called. And if he had called, his father would have given him. So he said. It's not for me and my little theology to deny what he said. But he didn't call. And the Father didn't send. And he gives us the reason why he didn't call. But if I called and the Father sent it, how then said he to his apostles, should the scripture be fulfilled, that thus it must be. Oh, what an example is the blessed Lord to us, even from Gethsemane. He could have called, he didn't. Why? Because of his loyalty of obedience to the word of God. And we come to the atonement itself. And if ever there is a place in our Lord's life where we see perfectly clearly that he must have been both God and man, it is when he was making atonement for sin. For had he been merely man, how could he have bore the sins of the world on his body? How could a mere man, however just he was, bear the penalty of the sins of the world? No, he was God, was he not? For if he wasn't God, my dear fellow believer, if Jesus was not God when he hung upon that cross, then you're not saved to start with. For the sacrifice of a mere man, one among the millions, could not have sufficed. He was the Son of God, who, in Paul's words, loved me and gave himself for me. And see the wonder of his cross. For he was God the Son, and in that cross was revealing the very heart of God to men. Oh, what a wonder. Only one who was himself God could do it. God commends his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We remember the words of the king in the parable. He had yet one son. He said, I will send my son. Surely they will reverence my son. But they took God's son and nailed him to a tree. And God, he loved them still. We've been reconciled to God by the death of his son. But then he was man as well. For how could he be our representative if he weren't man? He stood in for us, all sinless himself. He indicated it symbolically when he came to John's baptism and was baptized of John, and John said, oh Lord, it's not for me to baptize you, you ought to baptize me. But our Lord insisted. Why? Not that he had any sins to confess, he was utterly sinless, but he had come to stand with sinful man and identify himself with sinful man, and indicating what his mission would be, he went down into the mud of Jordan and stood shoulder to by shoulder with the prostitutes and the tax collectors and the filthy and abominable, as well as the proud, self-righteous men. Come to identify himself with mankind, all the marvel of it. Not man trying to be God, but God becoming man, and that man identifying himself with us. How else could our sins be reckoned to him? How else could his death be graciously accounted by God as our death? Because the person that believes in Christ becomes one, blessedly united with the man Christ Jesus. Shout hallelujah in your hearts, do. The wonder of the humanity along with the godhood of Christ. And in resurrection, oh, what a lovely story it is. He's a man still on the other side of the grave. When he appeared in the upper room, at first the apostles were frightened. They thought it was a ghost or a spirit or something. And he said, don't be afraid, it's I myself. Handle me and see, a spirit does not flesh and bone, as you'll see me have. I love those words. It is I myself. How do we recognize him? How can we see it's he himself and not just a spirit? Well, he says it's I myself. Look, I have a body. To be I myself, he had to have a body, didn't he? For he became man, he's not ceased to be man. Handle me and see, a spirit hath not flesh and bone, as you see me have. In resurrection, he remains human. And one day you're going to have a body like his glorious body, a human body changed, glorified, with different powers, but a body, a human body like his. And at his ascension, who shall describe to us or explain the wonder of it? He's gone into heaven as a man. That the Son of God should return to heaven and sit on his father's throne is, in a sense, nothing to be wondered at, is it? That the man Jesus of Nazareth should have risen into heaven above the angels, principalities, powers, mights, and dominion, and sit at the very right hand of God. What new thing is this? I think the angels Michael and Gabriel haven't got over it yet. How astonished they were when they saw the man Jesus, the Son of God, put himself lower than the angels for the suffering of death. But I'm not sure they've got over the astonishment at seeing that same Jesus of Nazareth raised above them, and a man seated on the throne of God. The fact is, explain it or not, Christ has carried manhood into the very heart of the Trinity. What a new thing it is. And when he comes again, he shall be this same Jesus. For as the disciples stood watching him go into heaven, they had known him, they'd felt him, that he had flesh and bones. He was not just a spirit, he was really human with a human body. The angels said as he, they saw him go into heaven, why look you to heaven, this same Jesus shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. Let's pause then for a moment from our detailed thinking and contemplate this blessed person. And as we see him in the days of his flesh, in his agony and blood, at Calvary and in resurrection and ascension, let's ask with the hymn writer, who is he? Who is he? Who is he in yonder stall, at whose feet the shepherds fall? 'Tis the Lord. Oh, wondrous story. 'Tis the Lord, the King of glory. At his feet we humbly fall, crown him Savior, Lord of all.