Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.  Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel... and he will save his people from their sins.... and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. - Is. 7:15, Matthew 1:21, Is. 9:6 (ESV).

CHRISTOLOGY - the study of the Person and work of Jesus Christ

Who is Jesus?  This is a tremendously important question, perhaps the most important question ever asked.  You may think the answer is obvious, but if you have ever studied the history of Christianity, you learned that our church fathers have fought tirelessly, for hundreds of years for the true and right answer to this question.  And we are now called, as Christians, to have a biblically informed, accurate and missional answer to this question.  We should, as followers of Christ, pour ourselves into the study of the Person and work of Jesus Christ.

This is an exciting week for me.  I confess that I have looked ahead, and read the verses that we are going to be studying in the next several weeks.  They are about Jesus.  Over the past twenty weeks, we have learned much about God’s love, and mercy, and faithfulness toward His people, and we have learned much about their (our) sin, and folly, and faithlessness.  We have heard foreshadowings of God’s plan for our salvation.  And now, we have arrived at the point in the story of God, when He announces how that plan is to be carried out.  It is through the Person and work of Jesus Christ.

Our Christology is the most important study we will ever undertake.  This is not to undermine “Pneumatology” (the study of the Holy Spirit), or “Paterology” (the study of God the Father), which are both massively important.  But it is our understanding of who Jesus is, and what He came to accomplish, that will ultimately shape everything about our lives, in this world, and in the life to come.  Our Christology is the very bedrock of our faith.  For “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone” (Acts 4:11).  And we, at Redeemer, believe that the ultimate truth about Jesus Christ is arrived at by humbling ourselves beneath the word of God, through a thorough, careful, prayerful and worshipful study of scripture.  What do we at Redeemer believe is the answer to the question “Who is Jesus?”  Our statement of faith regarding Jesus Christ reads:

“We believe in the absolute deity of our Lord Jesus Christ; His virgin birth; His real and perfect humanity; the authority of His teaching, and the infallibility of all He has stated in the Word; His work of atonement for the sin of the human race by His representative, penal, substitutionary suffering and death on the cross; His bodily resurrection, His ascension into Heaven; His present high‐priestly intercession for His people; and His lordship over His Church as its supreme Head. We believe that Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead. (Matthew 1:18‐25; Luke 1:26‐ 38; John 1:1; 20:28; Romans 9:5; 2 Corinthians 5:21; I Peter 2:21‐23; John 20:30, 31; Matthew 20:28; Acts 1:11; Romans 5:6‐8; 6:9,10; Hebrews 7:25; Hebrews 9:28; 1 Timothy 3:16, 1 Peter4:5; Romans 14:9; 2 Timothy 4:1, Matthew 16:27, Mark 14:62, Phil. 3:20, 1 Thessalonians 4:15, Titus 2:13, 1 Corinthians 15)” .....  this is our short answer to the question, “Who is Jesus?”.

It has been said that all religions are basically the same.  We are all trying to climb a mountain to get to God, but are all using different paths.  God’s word tells us differently.  God’s word tells us the truth.  We are not climbing up a mountain to get to God.  God has climbed down the mountain, and has come to us!  “The virgin birth of Christ is an unmistakable reminder that salvation can never come through human effort, but must be the work of God himself” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, p. 530).  While every other religious system in the world says you have to be “good enough” to get to God, a proper understanding of Christology tells us that we will never be “good enough”, and so God came to us!  If ever there was a reason to celebrate, this is it.

The birth of Jesus by the virgin Mary, tells us much about Christ.  It reminds us that He humbled Himself to come to us, for “though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing” (Philippians 2:6).  Can you think of anything more vulnerable than a baby?  I can .... a baby born into poverty in a rural town in the Middle East, by an unwed mother, at the time when Jesus was born.  Although we do not have data on infant mortality rates during the time of Jesus, I would hazard to guess they were comparable to parts of Sub-Saharan Africa today.  In Sierra Leone, one out of every 4 children dies by the age of 5 (2007 data).  Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born into the most vulnerable, meek, and humble circumstances one could ever imagine.  This tell us much about the heart of God.  Truly we worship a God who “opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).  And so we, as God’s chosen people, are now called to live lives of humility and service, as Jesus humbled Himself for our sake.   Thank you Jesus, thank you.

Let us today embrace the Person and work of Jesus Christ, and let us humble ourselves beneath His word, as we seek to know Him more, and to enjoy Him forever.  Let us pray with the Psalmist that “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple” (Psalm 27:4).  Let us gaze upon the beauty of Jesus Christ, and let us inquire in His temple.

If you desire to seek a deeper understanding of the Person and work of Jesus Christ, I recommend reading Wayne Grudem’s book Systematic Theology, Chapter 26 (The Person of Christ).

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).

“For I am the LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.  The Law came in so that transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” - Exodus 34:6-7 (ESV); Romans 5:20-21 (NASB). Do you ever feel like sin has a hold on you that you cannot break free from?  Do you sometimes feel like you are so broken, that God cannot forgive you?  Do you some days feel like throwing in the towel and ceding victory to your greed, your lust, your addiction, your anger, or your lack of faith?  Please take encouragement from God's word today, "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more".  You may be the most wretched miserable sinner you know, but do not demean God's grace by ever thinking that your sin is greater than His grace.  It is not.  God's grace reigns triumphant!

Remember some of the "heros" of the bible.  Remember David, an adulterer and a murderer.  Remember Jonah, that trembling coward.  Remember Paul, a murderer of Christians!  All sinners yes, but sinners saved by God's grace.  You too, if you have confessed faith in Him (even if that faith seems like a mustard seed) are a sinner saved by grace. For "through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:2).

This passage from Exodus tells us of God's rich and beautiful attributes, His mercy, His steadfast love, His faithfulness.  And the culmination of this is that He is a God "forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin".  He is a God of grace.  We cannot keep God's law.  No one except the Son of God Himself, Jesus Christ, could keep God's law.  But, God's grace reigns!  His grace is victorious over our sin!  His grace reigns "through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord"!

I confess that I have days when I feel like I am making no progress on my battle against sin.  I confess that many days, I am weak, and faithless and joyless. I confess that there are days when I ask myself how I "slipped through the cracks" to become an elder of a church.  And it is on those days that I need to remember these words, that "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more".  Yes, my sin is the problem, and yes, God's grace is the answer.

All this is not to say that we get to just sit back now and continue in our sin because of God's grace.  We are indeed called to fight.  But remember, the battle has already been won.  Deitrich Bonhoeffer, the famous German theologian, in his book The Cost of Discipleship, explains the difference between cheap grace and costly grace.  "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."   On the other hand, costly grace "confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

We, as followers of Christ, need to live in light of the triumph of God's grace over the sin of our lives.  We then need to remember the cost that was paid by Jesus for this grace.  Let us fight for costly grace, and let us rejoice in it's victory over our sin.

Gracious Father, You are indeed merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  We praise You God for Your perfect law, which points us to our need for a Savior, and we praise You God, for sending Your Son, Jesus Christ, to be that Savior, to atone for our sins, and to invite us into Your grace, in which we now stand.  Let your people today rejoice in the hope of the glory of God!

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.  Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:12-14).

Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.  And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them.  And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.  I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.  And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” - Ezekiel 36:22-27 (ESV)

What does the word "holy" mean to you?  Before you read any further, take a minute and think about what it means to you that God is holy.  We desperately need a proper understanding of the supreme importance of God's holiness.  Our depth of understanding of this will determine how we pray, how we worship, how we walk with Him.  It will determine our very identity.  Without a proper understanding of God’s holiness, we are left with a shallow faith.

I have heard that God's holiness means that He is "completely separate from sin".  This is true but this only tells me what holiness is not. Holiness is the opposite of sinfulness. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines holiness as "exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness".  That is our God!  He is WORTHY of complete devotion.  He is PERFECT in goodness and righteousness.  He is to be EXALTED, above all else!

I remember my childhood growing up in the Roman Catholic Church.  It seems to me looking back that there was a great awareness of God’s holiness in the Catholic Church.  Our voices would be hushed as we entered.  Our heads would be bowed.  We would lower ourselves on bended knee as we prayed to our Most Holy God.  Since I left the Catholic Church, I have been back to visit on occasion, and am always struck by the reverence for His Holiness that I sense as I enter that church. I thank Him for that experience of His Holiness from my youth.

This passage from Ezekiel tells us so much about God.  God cares deeply about His holiness.  And He desires that we care deeply about His holiness.  And it is because He is "worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness" that He cares and that we should care about His holiness.  There is nothing we should care more about.  Yet, we do not.  How often do I profane His great name?  How often do I speed right past “Hallowed be your name”, so that I can get more quickly to “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:9-11).  How much of my prayer time is spent thinking about myself, and how much of it is spent thinking about the One I am praying to?

R.C. Sproul wrote an excellent book called The Holiness Of God.  In it he notes the importance of the sequence of the Lord’s prayer which Jesus taught us to pray.  He writes, “There is a kind of sequence within the prayer.  God’s kingdom will never come where His name is not considered holy.  His will is not done on earth as it is in heaven if His name is desecrated here.  In heaven the name of God is holy.  It is breathed by angels in a sacred hush.  Heaven is a place where reverence for God is total.  It is foolish to look for the kingdom anywhere God is not revered” (p. 13).

We are people who have not revered God.  We are a people who have profaned His holy name.  And yet, God, in His great mercy, gives us a new heart, and a new spirit, that we may care about His holiness, and that we may live in a way that glorifies Him.  He does this, because He loves us, but even more than that, He does this because He desires to see His holy name glorified.  It is not for our sake that He acts, but for the sake of His holiness.  We must not ignore this point, that God desires, above all else, to be glorified.  And this is right and good, because He alone is worthy to be glorified.  It is not until we live in light of His holiness that we will be complete.  It is then that we will live as we were created, for the purpose that we were created.  It is only then that we will experience the Shalom that we all long for so deeply.  Let us spend the rest of our earthly lives seeking an awareness of God’s holiness.  Let us give glory to our Most Holy God.  Today let us "be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10).

“And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Revelation 4:8).

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD.  But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.  And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD.  For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”  - Jeremiah 31:31-34 (ESV)

Covenant - “an unchangeable, divinely imposed legal agreement between God and man that stipulates the conditions of their relationship” - Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem, p.515.

God had made a covenant with His people Israel.  This was the Mosaic covenant, or the “old covenant”.  This covenant was “a series of detailed written laws given for a time to restrain the sins of the people and to be a custodian to point people to Christ” (Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem, p.521).  God’s “old covenant” was good.  It was merciful and kind.  It was given out of God’s steadfast love, to be “our guardian until Christ came” (Galatians 3:19).  And God’s people broke this covenant.  The people of Israel have broken it.  We have broken it.

So God, in His infinite mercy, now declares a new covenant, an everlasting covenant.  And this covenant is a covenant of grace.  The foundation of this new covenant is that He will be our God and we will be His people, and this shall be carried out through God’s forgiveness of our iniquity, remembering our sins no more.  We learn two chapters later in Jeremiah more details of how God will carry out this beautiful and gracious covenant.  “In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.  In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely.  And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness’” (Jeremiah 33:15-16).

Those whom God has chosen to save, now understand with confidence that this “righteous Branch” is Jesus Christ.  He is “the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant” (Hebrews 9:15).  God is infinitely holy.  Therefore, to allow a sinful people to stand in His presence and be His people, we must first be redeemed from our transgressions, and it was through the blood of His Son, Jesus, that this was accomplished. For “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22).  God is faithful, and He has carried out His everlasting covenant.

In this new covenant, Christ is the King, which Israel was longing for (John 1:49).  In this new covenant, Christ is the priest who atones for our sins (Hebrews 8:1-2).  In this new covenant, Christ is the Savior who redeems faithless Israel from her unrighteousness, her wickedness, her harlotry.  Praise be to our great and merciful God!

Thank You God that we now arrive at this turning point in the history of redemption, where You, in your infinite wisdom, have established a covenant, by which we, your faithless bride, are made faithful again.  Let us pour out our affections for You in thanksgiving, as we remember that You, through the blood of Your Son Jesus Christ, have forgiven us, and redeemed us, and saved us.  Thank You for this covenant of grace that You have freely offered to us.  Praise be to our great God forever.

“But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gatherings, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22-24).

What then?  Are we better than they?  Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one.”

“Their throat is an open grave;

they use their tongues to deceive.”

“The venom of asps is under their lips.”

“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

in their paths are ruin and misery,

and the way of peace they have not known.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. - Romans 3:9 (NASB); Romans 3:10-18; 23 (ESV).

I draw incredible comfort from this passage of scripture.  You might ask why.  I grew up thinking that I had to be good enough to get to God.  But I never knew how good I had to be.  That is a dangerous and scary place to be.  Either you feel like you have failed, and are going to spend eternity in hell, or (more rarely) you feel like you have succeeded, and you are puffed up with pride.... and then you have again failed and are destined for eternity in hell.  It was not until I spent time in this passage from scripture, that I understood, that NO ONE is good enough to get to God.  But yet, scripture also tells us that many WILL get to spend eternity in paradise with our God.

It was our pastor in Seattle, Mark Driscoll, who very simply, yet elegantly, unpacked this theology for me.  He explained that many religions and even many churches think that the world is divided into the good guys and the bad guys.  That is wrong.  We are ALL bad guys, and there has only ever been one good guy, Jesus Christ.  He ALONE lived a sinless life, He ALONE is righteous, and so He ALONE is able to atone for all of my sins, past, present and future.  What a glorious and liberating truth this is!  Yes, ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  I have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  You have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Theresa have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  I cannot be “good enough” to get to God, so God entered into human history, and lived a perfect life, “good enough” to get to God. Through His sacrificial death, He secured a path for me and for you to get to God, despite the sin that we were all stained with, and are now cleansed from, because of His blood shed for us.  Let us find rest and peace in this, that we are now “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:24-25).

Thank you Lord Jesus Christ, that there is now a fountain filled with Your blood, and that we, when plunged beneath that flood, lose all our guilty stains.

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment” (Psalm 51:1-4).

Then the Lord said to Jeremiah in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did?  She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there.  I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. For a spirit of harlotry has led them astray, And they have played the harlot, departing from their God.  Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God.  For a spirit of harlotry is within them, and they do not know the Lord.  - Jeremiah 3:6-7; 9 (NASB), Hosea 4:12; 5:4 (NASB).

God is so patient.  As you read the above passages of scripture, God’s patience may not be be the first thing that occurs to you.  However, this is the 16th week that I have been writing blog posts on the history of redemption. Week after week, we read about a faithful God, who is pursuing a faithless people.  I confess that I am growing weary of the Israelites.  And yet, God is so very patient with them, and with us.

I am writing this post ten thousand feet above the face of the earth.  No I am not on a space shuttle, and no, I am not on drugs.  I am on an airplane flying to Ethiopia to bring home my beautiful adopted daughter.  It is from this kind of ten thousand foot view that we need to examine scripture.  And it is only after spending day after day, and week after week in His word, that we attain this view.  And when I look at the history of redemption through that lens, it is God’s patience that so clearly comes into focus.

My wife and I have been pursuing the adoption of this daughter for slightly over one year now.  During that time, there have been countless times when I have been frustrated, and downcast.  My wife can attest to my almost daily complaining about the adoption process, and about all the unnecessary red tape involved.  I am not a patient person.  The root of my impatience is a lack of faith in God’s sovereignty and a lack of faith in the perfection of His plan and His timing.  When I take time to meditate on my lack of patience, I remember my God, who waited not one year, but 27 years for me to accept Him as my adoptive Father.  I remember my God, who waited thousands of years for His chosen people to repent and to trust in Him.  He is truly abounding in patience.  And His patience shines brightest when we look at the thousands of years that He has endured the harlots and whores who have departed Him.

We should glorify God for His patience and remember it often.  For, “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make know his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory - even us whom he has called” (Romans 9:22-24).  Judgement will indeed come for those whose hearts are hardened to God, but for the sake of His “vessels of mercy”, He is patient.

Thank you God, for being so patient with me.  Please give me faith to be patient, trusting in Your perfect timing and in Your sovereign grace.

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).