Humanity of Christ in the Gospels, Part 1
Pastor Martin opens the period of manifestation in the Gospels, demonstrating that Jesus Christ is truly man as witnessed in his conception, birth, infancy, and growth to manhood. He expounds Luke's record of the virginal conception, the normal pregnancy and birth, and the boyhood years in which Jesus genuinely grew in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and men. The sermon insists that the Gospels portray a real human development without halo or shortcut, then applies this with wonder at Christ's love and consolation that our salvation rests on a true and sinless humanity.
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A full transcript is available on the tab. 130 paragraphs, roughly 56 minutes.
Series Recap and Overview
We continue this morning our series of studies entitled, Here We Stand, for the benefit of those visiting with us who have not been here for the continuation of this series of studies. Basically, what we're attempting to do is to look at some of the major pivots of biblical teaching concerning the broad sweep of that which God has revealed for the benefit of his people. Having considered the nature of Holy Scripture, what the Bible is, something of the nature of the God whom we worship and confess, we are presently concerned to examine what the Scriptures teach concerning the great subject of salvation. What is the salvation we receive
and proclaim as the people of God? Having spent several weeks considering the teaching of Scripture as to the objects of this salvation, that God has shown pity and mercy upon creatures made in His image, but who have revolted against Him, who are spiritually dead and blind and utterly incapable of rescuing themselves, we are now considering as the second broad area under this salvation the central personage in that salvation, namely, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And that which we'll be doing this morning is further developing the biblical doctrine concerning the mystery of the person of Christ.
And it cannot be stated too emphatically or too frequently that the success of the work of redemption rests down squarely upon the suitability of the Redeemer for that work. In other words, if we lose the Christ of the Bible as to who he is, we will lose the salvation of the Bible as to what it does. The person of Christ and the work of Christ are inseparably joined in the salvation of Christ. And so we are not engaged in some unimportant contemplations when we think hard and long and attempt to think clearly concerning the
answer to the question, who is Jesus Christ? Any doctrine of Christ that is scriptural will confess Him to be truly God, as much God as though He never had been a man. It will confess, secondly, He is truly man, as much a man as though He had never been God. And thirdly, the true doctrine of Christ will have in its confession that this One who is God and man is one person in two natures forever.
Having spent a number of weeks demonstrating from the Scriptures the warrant for the first part of the assertion Christ is truly God, we brought before us five groups of witnesses, all of whom eloquently and unmistakably testified to the true and essential divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now we are concerned to understand why it is that the people of God have always confessed Him to be not only truly God, but truly man.
And may I underscore as we pick up our studies at that point that over this teaching is stamped, as you have sometimes found on a ticket or a receipt or some other legal form, invalid or not valid or void if detached. Now, the teaching we're engaged in in these mornings concerning the fact that Jesus Christ is truly man is void if detached from the previous consideration. He is truly God. Now, some of you have only come in at the point where we're asserting His humanity.
And I want to make it so clear that none of you will misunderstand. We have asserted from this pulpit for a number of weeks, by studying passage after passage in the Old and the New Testaments, that the Redeemer of God's elect is none other than the second person of the triune Godhead, in whom everything that is true of God can be said to be true of Him. But with equal emphasis, the Scripture lays before us the reality of His humanity. Last week, we looked at the first of the witnesses to His humanity, what I entitled the witness of the period of preparation.
We're organizing the biblical materials in a chronological way. And the period of preparation is spanned from Genesis 3.15 to the end of Malachi. The Old Testament is the period of preparation for the coming of the Redeemer.
And we saw that from the first promise of redemption in Genesis 3.15, right on through to the later prophets, every prophecy concerning the coming Redeemer, though it sets before us many facts concerning His person as being above mere man, as being that one who shares in divine glory, Daniel 7, who is called the everlasting Father or Father of eternity, and all these other divine titles, the common substructure of every prophecy pointed to the reality of His humanity. From the first prophecy in which He is called the seed of the woman, every other prophecy asserts that the Redeemer will be truly man.
So much for that brief overview of where we've been. Now, this morning, we address ourselves to the witness of Scripture, to the true humanity of Christ in the period of manifestation. If the Old Testament can rightly be described as the period of preparation, then the gospel records can be described as the period of manifestation. The one for whom everything is prepared is now manifested in time. And as we look at the gospel records, the period of manifestation, the life of our Lord breaks down into three major categories. There is that period bounded by conception and birth, the events immediately
preceding and following, and so we shall consider the witness to the humanity of Christ in the Period of manifestation, sub-point number one or letter A, conception and birth. Then there is that period concerning which there is very little in the Scriptures, the period from infancy to manhood. And then there is the final period from His inauguration into His ministry to His ascension to the right hand of the Father. God willing this morning we'll look at the first two segments of the period of manifestation.
Introducing the Witness to Christ's Humanity
How do we know that Jesus Christ is truly man? We know that He is truly man not only because He fulfills all of the prophecies of the period of preparation, but because every description of Him in the period of manifestation sets Him before us as a true man. Now I must give a word of caution before we move to that first section, his conception and birth. Sin is not an essential ingredient of humanity.
Sin is no essential part of humanness. Now it is the inescapable and universal experience of every human being whom you have ever seen or known. and it is your experience as it is mine. But we must remember that sinfulness is not a necessary appendant of humanness.
For remember, Adam was made upright. Adam was created a true human being, a human being utterly dependent upon God for his existence, utterly dependent upon God for all things, but never dependent upon God for forgiveness until he sinned. So when I say throughout our study this morning, Jesus Christ is truly human, you must think of humanity divorced from sin. He is all that a human being ever was, sin excepted.
Alright? The period of his conception and birth. What avenues may have been opened to God in fulfilling the promises of the period of preparation, in actually bringing the second person of the Godhead into humanity, what avenues may have been opened to God, we do not know. And it's sheer speculation to discuss the subject.
Conception and Birth: Luke's Account Expounded
But we do know the way that God chose. God chose to bring His Son into the world in such a way as would identify Him with humanity from the very moment of His human existence. In a very real sense, the wombs of mothers are the soil out of which all of humanity grows. God made the first man and woman fully mature adults Adam never passed through a womb Eve never passed through a womb but they're the only two human beings who never passed through a womb all of the millions and billions
of human beings who've ever existed or ever shall exist till the end of time come out of the soil of a woman's womb Humanity has its roots in the womb And when God would bring his own dear son into the world He is so concerned to make it evident that he is truly man That he will bring him no other way But by a woman's womb And I want you to turn to Luke chapter 1 And notice what we might call almost the clinical detail of Dr. Luke, who gives us insights not given to us by any of the other gospel writers.
All we read in Matthew is that which is begotten of thee shall be called thus and thus. The word begotten is used. The word conception is not used in Matthew's account, although the truth is there. but in describing what happens there is the quote from Isaiah 7 but not the detail that Luke gives us.
Luke chapter 1 beginning with verse 26.
Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin that is not only an unmarried woman but one who had never entered into sexual relations with a man, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee. But she was greatly troubled at this saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this might be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God.
And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Now the key words in the announcement of the angel are these.
Notice carefully. Verse 31. Behold, thou shalt conceive and bring forth. The birth would be the normal extension of conception.
Not just thou shalt bring forth, and this one brought forth shall be this unusual personage who is great, who is called Son of the Most High, who is heir to David's throne, who receives an unending kingdom, but the key emphasis is, thou shalt conceive and bring forth. So that in the angel announcement is this strange mixture Mary an unusual son is going to be born of you a son who will occupy a position, a son who will possess a nature no other son has ever known. While he occupies a position, no other son has ever occupied.
But Mary, and here's the strange mixture, thou shalt conceive and bring forth. Though the one brought forth is a supernatural son, though the one brought forth is no normal son, thou shalt conceive. Life will be implanted in the womb at its most elementary level. That speck of life in conception will be planted in the womb.
Now Mary, knowing that the normal process of conception had not yet occurred in her own life, is troubled. Verse 34, And Mary said to the angel, How shall this be, you say, not that I shall simply bear a son, but that I shall conceive. How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? I have never had sexual experience essential to conception.
What is the method by which conception will occur? If there is conception, there must be male seed. Impossible. I'm a virgin.
The answer of the angel is this. You will be with child by conception, but your conception will be utterly unique. The angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. Therefore also the holy thing which is begotten shall be called the Son of God.
Do you see what the angel says? There shall be conception. There will not be birth that bypasses conception, but there will be conception bypassing the normal union of the male seed and the female seed, or if we may speak of the female egg in that way. No, no, conception there must be.
Life shall begin as all human life begins, conception in a womb, but the power behind that conception will not be the male seed of your husband to be Joseph, but it will be a strange and mysterious operation of the Holy Ghost by which conception will occur in your womb. And verse 38 says, And Mary said, Behold, the handmaid of the Lord, all that I am is yours, O God. Be it unto me according to thy word. Later on, when Elizabeth speaks to her, she expresses the fact that at this point Mary exercised faith.
And it says there shall be a performance of the things that were spoken to her. Why, blessed is she that believed. Verse 45.
Now what do we have in Luke's account then? We have an account of the beginning of human life that as to the pattern of that life being introduced is human life conception. Supernatural conception, yes. that God does not bring His Son into the world by placing, and I don't mean to be irreverent, but somehow that God would break this truth through upon our consciousness by bringing a three-month-old fetus to Mary's womb or a fully developed nine-month prenatal child to her womb, thou shalt conceive in thy womb.
Albeit by the power of the Spirit, but thou shalt conceive. And from here on in, right up to his birth, there is nothing but the most patent evidence that everything was as normal as any other prenatal existence. Look at the language of Luke 2, verses 4 to 7. Joseph went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth unto Judea and the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was the house and family of David to enroll himself with Mary who was betrothed to him, being great with child as the time drew near.
A True Human Babe and the Wonder of It
Mary was not alleviated of all the discomfort and all of the peculiarities of a woman who is big with child. Furthermore, we read in verse 6, and it came to pass while they were there, the days were fulfilled, full term, that she should be delivered. And she brought forth, in a discreet way, Luke is telling us, all of the peculiarities of birth pangs were known to Mary. Here was a birth of a true human being, taking into its orbit every facet of normal human birth.
And then we read in Luke 11, 27, someone speaks out of the crowd and says, blessed are the breasts that gave thee suck. The Lord was sustained as any other infant in that day at his mother's breast. Luke 2 and verse 21 says, when eight days were fulfilled for circumcising him, his name was called Jesus. He had everything peculiar to a male son in Israel. And we are warranted on that basis to say that everything that is peculiar to that prenatal development was true of our Lord and was true of Mary.
If Hebrew women had morning sickness, Mary was not exempt from it. There was a day when Joseph came in from the carpenter's shop and Mary ran to meet him and said, Joseph, I felt life today for the first time. There were times, no doubt, when they awoke in the middle of the night giggling because the infant Jesus in the womb of Mary was kicking at a very inopportune time and it brought thrill and anticipation as it does to any couple. There is nothing in the record to show that there was anything supernatural in the pattern of prenatal development up to the point of birth and the events that immediately follow.
What do we do now with all this material? Well, on the one hand, we must face the fact that everything surrounding the conception eloquently declares, this is no ordinary babe who is to be born. There was that supernatural conception, something never known to humanity, that there was no male seed. There were the strange events attending that pregnancy, the visitation or that conception, the visitation of the angel.
And then that statement of Elizabeth, when Mary comes into her presence, she says, Whence is it that the mother of my Lord should come unto me? And then the strange events that attend his birth, when the angels sing and the shepherds receive the message, and they come and they find the baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph there in the manger. And there's clear evidence in Luke's account that the shepherds shared this angelic visitation, or the news of it in verse 18 of chapter 2, and all that heard it, pondered it the things that were spoken. Surely, surely Mary, Joseph, anyone aware of these facts knew that whoever this son was, he was no normal son.
Whatever he was to be, his destiny was peculiarly marked out by God. But at the same time, at the same time, we must say with equal vigor, the whole record shows that it was a truly human birth. Nothing less than a true man was conceived. Nothing less than a true man was developed in the womb.
Nothing less than a true man was born. Nothing less than a true man was nursed at the breast. Nothing less than a true man was circumcised the eighth day. Nothing less than a true man was held in Mary's arms.
and oh, the wonder of it, the wonder of it, that the creator of the universe should become a speck of life attached to the womb of a little humble virgin. The wonder of it, that the sustainer of the universe should be sustained by an umbilical cord.
The wonder of it, that the giver of life should receive life from His mother's breast, that the Lord of the galaxies who gave birth to the stars by speaking should now need to cry to have His hunger abated. That's the humanness of Jesus set before us in the Gospel record. Scrub off and erase all halos around the infant's head. Heresy!
There was no halo about his head.
Scrub away all the cherubic little features that make him look like a shriveled man. He was everything any Hebrew baby was.
Everything. Because he was true man. This is the picture given to us in the Gospel record. How do we know that he's truly man?
From Infancy to Manhood in Luke 2
The period of manifestation introduces him in all the circumstances of conception and birth as truly man. Well then, what about that second segment of the period of manifestation, from his infancy to his manhood? And it's interesting that apart from the incident recorded in Matthew 2 relative to the flight into Egypt, all we know with any details of the period of infancy to manhood is given to us in Luke chapter 2. That's all.
To Luke alone is given the privilege of pulling back, as it were, a bit of the veil over that whole chapter in our Lord's life from infancy to manhood. And for a period covering almost 28 years, we have just these few records in Luke chapter 2. Look at them if you will please. We read in Luke chapter 2 and verse 40 that after Christ had been presented at the temple as he was supposed to be as the firstborn son then he is taken back home and this is all we read about him in verse 40 And the child grew and waxed strong, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.
Now that takes him from the time of his dedication at the temple to age 12. Then we have an incident recorded when he was 12 years of age from verses 41 through to verse 50. And you're all familiar with that incident. We referred to it a few weeks ago when we saw the identity of our Lord as the Son of God.
He said, Wist ye not that I must be about my father's business? Claiming that unique relationship to the father that was his as God the son. Then the only other statement is verses 51 and 2. He went down with them and came to Nazareth.
And he was subject unto them. And his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. now in the fifteenth year and we're brought right up to the thirtieth year of our Lord.
Now what does this part of Luke's narrative tell us about our Lord? Well may I suggest that just as his birth had a two, all the circumstances of his birth had a two-pronged emphasis, this was no mere child, no ordinary child, son of the highest, this was to be God himself, But this was to be true man. So you have the two-pronged emphasis of the brief materials covering this segment in our Lord's life. The incident recorded of our Lord's visit to the temple points in the direction of his unique identity as the Son of God and to his unique mission as the Messiah of God.
And that's all bound up when he says, Wist ye not that I must be about my father's business? I have a mission from my father. There's a reference to his unique mission. My father's business, a reference to his unique identity.
That's one pong of the emphasis. We know that during that time our Lord had a growing, settled, or I should say a settled and growing conviction of his true identity. But now the second strand of emphasis is the overpowering and unmistakable assertion that he was a true and a real human being passing through every single stage of normal human development. We're introduced to him as an infant in Luke 2.16, a child in Luke 2.40, a boy in Luke 2 and then the same young man in Luke 2 and the next thing we do we see him in chapter 3 as an adult male infant child boy man
He Grew: Real Human Development in Wisdom and Stature
And what he's told us about that period, passed over with such meager data, or it comes through with force if we have but eyes to see it, that he is truly man. Look at Luke 2 and verse 40. We'll examine these verses now in some detail. After being brought back home from the dedication at the temple, Luke says of the infant, And the child grew and waxed strong, filled or becoming filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.
Now notice what is said about him. Two things. He grew And the word for grow is the word which means to undergo a process of development And he grew, he underwent the process of development Which resulted in his waxing strong And again, the form of the verb means a process was going on so that his growing as a process of development was ever resulting in his being stronger and stronger, but not just with physical strength, being filled with wisdom. The result of this growth and development was not only the acquisition of knowledge and facts,
but the ability to put them to profitable use in the interests of godliness, for that's true heavenly wisdom. and then the result of this or the cause of this, both factors could be there in the phrase, and the grace of God was upon him. Now notice, as God, he is the embodiment of the grace of God. As man, he needs the grace of God to sustain him.
And the answer to what is happening is not that this is the outworking of his deity, but the development of his true humanity under the blessing and favor of God.
Now, the precise meaning of the first part of this verse has already been fixed for us by Luke himself. For back in chapter 1 in verse 80, in describing the development of John the Baptist as a boy, notice the language of Luke. And the child grew and waxed strong. Now it says waxed strong in spirit and was in the deserts, but the first six words in the original are identical.
He takes the same phraseology from verse 80 and he puts it here in verse 40 of chapter 2. When it says of John the Baptist, the child grew and whacked strong, you all know what that means. What it's saying is that John the Baptist passed through every normal stage of human development, commensurate with a son of Adam who is a true human being, albeit a sinner, a son of Adam upon whom special grace from God is working, the child grew. That is, he had to learn all the things that children in Israel had to learn.
He passed through all the experiences, all the traumas of development and all the rest. The child grew and waxed strong. Luke uses the same words to introduce the pattern of growth in our Lord. The child grew and waxed strong.
What is he doing? He is underscoring the reality of normal human development. We have something in the same order but even richer in verse 52. After coming back to Nazareth and subjecting himself to Mary and Joseph.
And Mary is pondering these strange things. And you see that's what made it a mystery to Mary. She could not deny the reality of his humanity. She felt life in a womb.
She remembered her birth pains. This was a true human being. She says there's something more than a human being. All the way through, that theme is picked up by Luke.
Mary ponders these things. She can't bring the mystery together. He's the mother of Elizabeth, his Lord. But he's my boy, Jesus.
When he's out playing with the kids and I call him, he comes like the others do. Except he always comes the first time I call. and I never had to call the second time. But if on the way he stumbles on a rock, his knee bleeds, and he cries and I have to put a band-aid on him just like the other kids.
He is like them, but he's not like them. Mary ponders these things in her heart. And after the strain saying, My father's business! What kind of a son do I have?
And while she's pondering, He comes home and says, Mom, any orders for me today? I've got a couple of hours before I go work on my Hebrew alphabet.
And he's subject to that. This is what the Scripture is setting before us as the nature of our Lord's development. Now look at verse 52. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.
The boy of twelve from this point on progresses in four areas. He advances. He advances in what? In wisdom. The knowledge of facts, the ability to interrelate facts, and then the ability to apply them to life, particularly to the life of godliness. That's biblical wisdom.
He advances in wisdom. The word stature can mean inward stature. It can mean length of life. It can mean physical stature.
And I believe the context would point toward physical development. Jesus was not an academic egghead. He wasn't a precocious child who talked with the doctors at the temple, but then who sat at home and never did the things that would develop a body for the tremendous demands that were to be made upon him in his adult life and ministry. You remember Mark says in Mark 6, 3, Is not this the carpenter?
There were arms made sinewy by the demands of his carpenter's work and shoulders that probably rippled with well-developed muscle from the laboring tasks to which he submitted himself day after day and year after year in Joseph's carpenter's shop. He advanced in wisdom. He advanced in stature and in favor with God and with men. The more the Father beholds the development of His Son, the more the Father is pleased with His obedience.
For remember, in His humanity every step of obedience elicited greater delight from the Father. Jesus said, therefore doth my Father love me, because I keep his commandments.
But he grows not only in favor of the grace of God, but also with men. What does this mean? What does this mean? Well, it means that our Lord became acquainted with all of the basic non-moral social customs of his area of dwelling.
all that a boy of his age was expected to be and to do. He never said, look, I'm the son of God, stupid social customs. Why do we have to dress it? Not our Lord.
He grew in favor with men. He didn't say silly old customs. No, no. He grew in favor with men.
Men felt at ease around him as they always do with someone who shows a sensitivity sufficient enough to acclimate himself to innocent social customs. Dress and bearing and manners and politeness. He grew in favor with men.
Warfield on Christ's Human Development
That's the description of our blessed Lord. In the language of B.B. Warfield, this whole section in Luke gives to us this fundamental picture.
I quote now from Warfield. Quite the most fundamental gain we derive from this part of Luke's gospel is of the human development of Jesus and the assurance it gives us of the truth and the reality of our Lord's humanity. The truth and the reality of our Lord's humanity. Think what this meant for our Lord in some detail.
He grew in wisdom. He had to learn his ABCs, that is, his Aleph Beith Himmel. He had to learn them. The Hebrew alphabet was not resident in his human mind by divine deposit.
He had to sit and draw the characters of the Hebrew alphabet. He who designed the universe had to work at coordinating to make his aleth and his baith and his gimel. He grew in wisdom. He had to learn his Palestinian geography.
He who made Palestine and all of the Middle East and all the continents and all the galaxies, who knew them from eternity, he had to grow in that wisdom that is acquired by investigation. Isn't that what it says? Come on now. Am I just taking off on flights of imagination?
What does it say? He advanced in wisdom. There was the growth of a human mind. He had to learn skills as we do.
His father had to take his hand and show him how to hold that rustic saw. And the father had to teach him how to set a peg and to drive it. His father had to impart to him the skills of a carpenter. He acquired the wise use of knowledge and facts as we must do.
He learned in pleasing God. He learned how to pray by praying. He became acquainted with the scriptures by studying them and memorizing them. He learned social graces by acquaintance and sensitivity to the customs of his culture.
He passed through all the stages of emotional and psychological necessity and development from infancy to adolescence to manhood. and he did it in a context, the Bible says, in which his own brothers did not believe on him, John 7 and verse 1. In a context which, according to Mark 6, 3, he was a manual laborer, is not this the carpenter?
He did it in a context, verse 51 of Luke 2, of absolute submission to fallible, sinful human parents, whose judgment at times no doubt was wrong, whose requirements may have not always been perfectly just. But in every stage, there was never a thought or an attitude or an action that brought the slightest wrinkle upon the Father's brow. He advanced in the favor of God because at every stage he did what was pleasing to his father as a man.
May I state it even more earthly, in a more earthly manner. If Jesus had spent a few days studying a little more than he normally did and then to get some fresh air in his lungs and to clear his head, he went out and ran with the fellows in the neighborhood. if he stretched some muscles that he hadn't used for a few days, his muscles would ache the next morning, just like his playmates did. Yes.
Oh, no, not Jesus. He's the son of...
My friend, that Jesus that you have in your head is not the Jesus of the Bible. He's all that man is, as much as though he were never God. Sin accepted. Now when men exercise muscles that aren't in shape, do they ache the next day?
Then Jesus did.
You say, but that... Jesus advanced in wisdom and in stature, in favor with God and man.
Application: Behold the Measure of Christ's Love
And so the witness from these two initial segments of our Lord's period of manifestation is clear and emphatic. that Jesus Christ who is and was true God was and is and continues to be truly God. Now what does this say to us as we close our study this morning? I want to make a couple of general applications and then a couple of specific applications.
First of all, under the general, this ought to cause us as God's people to behold with wonder the measure of Christ's love. If we heard of a king who had known nothing from birth but the elegance of the court who had known nothing but regal surroundings if we heard that such a king deliberately as an act of love laid all of that aside and subjected himself to serpdom or to slavery and a compassionate mission of mercy to some of his subjects we would stand there and shake our heads and say what condescension what love that a king should come from that posture to this. But my friend, that's just the creature descending a few rungs into another form of creaturely existence. But when we read the
account of Luke, that there was conception in the virgin's womb, conception of the Son of God. When we read that she brought him forth when the time was come, when we read he was circumcised, when we read that he was sustained by his mother's breast, when we read that he advanced in wisdom and knowledge, who is this? This is the Lord of glory. This is God taking to himself a humanity that is in every single dimension, true humanity, in all of its dependentness, in all of its dependentness upon God.
And what caused Him to do it? I say we ought to behold with wonder the measure of Christ's love. For the Apostle says, Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor. And for God to become a man is poverty of the deepest kind.
And in that humanity to submit to shame and spitting and scoffing, to think that the ancient of days should become a one-hour-old speck of life on the side of a virgin's womb. My friends, my head reels at the thought, but it says thou shalt conceive in thy womb God in the womb of a virgin.
The wisdom of God learning his alis-bate gimme. Think of it. The power of God needing to be lifted up into bed by Joseph.
And what led him to this? The love of Christ constrains us. Oh, dear Christian, behold the measure of Christ's love and wonder, and be swallowed up at the sight of it. And the second general exhortation is, Behold with gratitude the sure foundation of your salvation.
Listen, just as surely as your salvation is grounded in Christ's deity, it is grounded in His humanity. just as surely as you could not be saved by a Savior who was not God, you could not be saved by a Savior who was not truly man. Because to be accepted with God, you need two things. You need the record of a perfect righteousness in perfect conformity to the law of God worked out in humanity.
And secondly, you need a perfect atonement, perfect satisfaction for all the law you've broken, a satisfaction that God says must be found in death. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinned, it shall die. And thank God this was no phantom humanity in which the Lord grew and developed and obeyed His Father, thereby procuring a perfect righteousness for His people.
It was no phantom humanity that became the receptacle of divine wrath upon the cross. It was true humanity, sinless humanity, a true humanity that felt the pangs of hell. Oh, dear Christian, behold with gratitude the foundation of your salvation in the true and essential humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. But then I want to make two specific applications this morning.
Application to Children, Teenagers, and the Unconverted
I want to speak to you children and you teenagers. will you listen carefully to me this morning? I can't force you to do so but I plead with you to do so. Will you listen to me this morning?
Where are you children to find forgiveness for your sins? You see, you have not always pleased God, have you? When mommy's called you she's had to call two or three times sometimes, huh? Even then you grumble when you come.
That's sin, isn't it? That's disobeying mommy and daddy. That's sin. We haven't always applied ourselves to our studies when we ought to.
And we've goofed off in study hall. And we've shoddily gone through our homework. And we've been indifferent to learning and using our minds and growing in wisdom. We've not always done the things that are best for our bodies.
We've complained when mommy and daddy have said, No, no, no. No, no. No more sweets. We don't want you to ruin your body with too much white sugar.
And you've complained about that. You haven't wanted to care for your body. You've not grown in stature to have as strong a body as you could have to serve God, not as much as you would if you'd obeyed those directions. We've not grown in the favor of God.
We've brought His disfavor by our lies, by our cheating, by our selfishness. Oh, dear children, listen. You know why there's hope for you as a child that you can be saved? because Jesus walked every step you've walked, but he walked it with sinless feet so that if you can get into Jesus, all his perfect obedience covers your disobedience.
You see? All his obedience and pleasing of the Father becomes the covering for your disobedience. And you teenagers, listen to me. He didn't have perfect parents.
Joseph and Mary were sinners. Saved sinners, but sinners. And no doubt there are times when they weren't as understanding of the Lord as they should have been. But never once did he rebel because of perhaps the nearsightedness of the father or mother that God had given to him.
And the scripture says he was subject to them. Never once did he cop out and say, Ah, Mary and Joseph, you don't understand us teenagers. Now granted She didn't understand it She had a strange and unusual son As much she didn't understand But he obeyed And he's become for every one of you Who professes to be a Christian The pattern of your developing humanity He passed through all of the hormonal changes That come upon someone entering puberty And entering the teenage years There's not a shred of evidence that he was a neutered man.
Not a shred of evidence that all that is true of human development in manhood was not true of him. But wonder of wonders, there he is, in perfect obedience to the Father, in unquestioned submission to his parents.
Child of God, teenage child of God, you are to find in Christ not only your perfect example, your only Savior who has obeyed and died on behalf of sinners such as you, but you're to find in Him a sympathetic Savior. You go to Him when you just think Mom and Dad don't really understand. You obey them anyway, but go to the Lord and say, Lord, I think they're wrong on that. And if they are, you know what it is.
You find sympathy in the Son of God as the one who has been tempted in all points like as you, yet without sin. And then my final word of specific application. I'm talking to some this morning who know nothing of true faith in this blessed human divine Savior, this blessed God, man, Christ, Jesus. And oh, listen to me, listen to me.
The Scripture says that angels desire to look into such mysteries, But not for angels did Jesus Christ assume this humanity. Why did he take this true humanity? Why did he permit himself the humiliation of confinement in a womb for nine months?
The humiliation of birth?
The humiliation of circumcision? The humiliation of subjection to his parents? What's the rationale for all this? The Bible answers clearly.
I shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. If He was ever to rescue us from our sins, He had to come to the place where we were enmeshed in our sins. And He came that far that He might take us to where He now is. And oh, my unconverted friend, man, woman, boy or girl, Do not despise the Son of God who became man and so is and was and is and continues to be both God and man.
One person in two natures forever. Dear unconcredited friend, listen to me. If you're ever to be fit to live and to die and to face God in judgment, you better take this person seriously. if you found no sense in what's said this morning you better apply yourself with prayer and study until it makes the most wonderful sense in the world if you sat there this morning and say what in the world is that character getting all excited about oh Jesus was a man so what you begin to feel the plans of a conscience under the lash of God's law and recognize that you as a man or a woman have offended the God of the universe and He could right now sink you into hell.
You begin to say, Where, oh where, my God, can I find an escape from the wrath of Him who sits on the throne? Then this will be good news to you. Your escape is in the One who came by way of a virgin's womb, took a true humanity, lived a perfect life, and in that humanity died upon the cross. rose from the dead, sits at the right hand of God, ready to receive all sinners who come to Him in penitence and faith.
Oh, unconverted friend, don't despise the Savior of Scripture. Who is He? He is truly God. That's why He's able to save the likes of you, bound by chains of years making, Chains of lust and of pride and of stubbornness, filth and lechery and dishonesty and bitterness.
You're bound this morning. If we could see visually what is true of you spiritually, we'd be aghast. Some of you came into this place with your chains clinking and clanking with every footstep.
Jesus Christ is the mighty deliverer. Because He's God, He's able to break the chains. Because He's man, He's provided a just basis to break those chains. He lived and died for sinners.
Oh, embrace Him. He's your only hope in life and in death. And dear children of God, love Him and worship Him for what He is. Your God, yes.
But the second Adam, the man, Christ Jesus. who knows, who sympathizes, who this very moment in His glorified humanity can identify with us, not just on the basis of remembering what it was like when He was here, but in the full present consciousness of what He still is in the glory, the man, Christ Jesus. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Closing Prayer
Let us pray.
O God, our Heavenly Father, what can we say before the great mystery of the enfleshed God, our Lord Jesus Christ? Help us with our poor, finite minds. we try to grapple and understand and lay hold of the mysteries of our faith but so often we're driven back by the sheer bright light of the mysteries of the gospel oh father enlarge our hearts and give us the capacity believingly to receive all that is revealed
we do thank you Lord Jesus for your willingness to become a true man, to pass through every stage of human development from the moment of conception until that full and glorious manhood was beaten and bruised and hung upon a cross. O Lord, we bless you for your love that constrained you so to humble yourself on our behalf. seal to our hearts the word preached. May it bear its holy fruit in all of our lives.
We ask this to the end that you may be magnified in us.
Amen.
This transcript was generated by automated speech recognition and may contain errors. It is provided for study and reference only; the audio recording is the authoritative source.
Passages Expounded
The annunciation and virginal conception establish that Jesus' human life began by genuine conception in Mary's womb
Jesus' real human growth in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and men