Biblical Framework: Redemption

The Renovation of Man in Redemptive Grace: Restoration of God's Image

0:02 The following message was delivered at the 1991 Reformed Baptist Singles Conference.

0:10 Now this morning, we come to take up what I had hoped to take up last night, namely, the renovation of man in redemptive grace. We've looked at the constitution of man in the original creation by God, the ruination of man in the original defection from God, and now we want to contemplate the renovation of man in the redemptive grace of God. The renovation of man in the redemptive grace of God. And those of you familiar with the Genesis account will know that right in that dark and foreboding setting of Genesis chapter 3, in which God is pronouncing curses, Genesis 3.14, Jehovah said unto the serpent, Because you have done this thing, Cursed art thou. He deals with the woman, verse 16, I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy conception. Unto Adam he said, And then cursed is the ground for thy sake.

1:25 In the midst of curse upon curse upon curse, God gives this marvelous first, little, little ray of light against the inky black darkness of curse upon curse. He puts one little star in the heaven of man's condition in verse 15. God says he will take the initiative now to establish a relationship of enmity between the serpent and the woman, between the seed, the offspring of the serpent, and man. The offspring of the woman.

2:07 God is taking the initiative to establish a relationship of enmity. You see, man had turned in enmity against God and had become the friend of the devil. God says, I'm going to come and reestablish enmity. I'm going to put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed, and her seed, where there is now amity and friendship between mankind and the serpent.

2:42 Because of sin, there was a disruption of the original alignments. Man becomes the servant of the devil. God says, I'm going to come and rectify this situation. I'm going to put enmity between the serpent and the offspring of the serpent, the woman and the offspring of the woman.

3:02 And in that enmity, there will come a time when this will come to pass. He shall bruise thy head. The seed of the woman shall bruise, shall crush the head of the serpent. But in the process, the serpent shall bruise the heel of the seed of the woman.

3:27 And in the light of the rest of scripture, we know that this is nothing less than a gospel, and it has all the basic elements of the gospel in that it is not sinful man groping his way back to God. It's God coming with holy, sanctified, loving intrusiveness, saying, I'm going to do something. The God who said, where art thou, Adam? And Adam runs.

3:57 God tracks him down in grace. And now God says, I'll put enmity. And in the course, in the course of that enmity, ultimately the seed of the woman will utterly bruise and crush the head, the vital part of the serpent. The way you kill the snake is to crush its head.

4:18 But in the process, the one that crushes his head will have his heel, not a vital part. A man can live with a crushed heel, but not with a severed head. And he says the serpent's going to have it. He's going to be, done him.

4:35 But in the process, he will bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. Well, I say that bright star is the only light that sparkles against the backdrop of the darkness of human sin and divine curse. But as we read through the Old Testament, it isn't long before that dark sky is filled with a whole constellation of promises, of prophecies, of types, and of shadows, and even what we would call eyewitness descriptions of how the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. Isaiah 53,

5:20 which liberal scholars say could not have been written 800 years before Christ. It's more like the language is one eyewitness, yes, until by the time we come into the New Testament, we find that that dark, dark sky, is spangled with the light, the constellations, may I say the galaxies of divine promise and prophecy, type and shadow, that one would come who would bruise the head of the serpent. And in the fullness of the times, Paul said, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law that he might redeem them, and that were under the law, that we might receive of the adoption as sons. Now, for our study, this is what's crucial. When that salvation comes in the fullness of the times, in the actual coming of the Lord Jesus, and he performs all the work he is required to perform, and then the Holy Spirit is sent down from the right hand of the Father to the Lord, to secure the application of all that Jesus Christ purchased by his life, by his death and resurrection. What is the purpose of God

6:48 in that salvation for the fallen sons and daughters of Adam? Well, I want to assert what it is and then prove that from the Bible. It is nothing less than the restoration of the image of God not after the pattern of Adam, but now after the pattern of the last Adam, Jesus Christ. So what is God's purpose in redemptive grace?

7:20 Starting with that first promise in Genesis 3.15, and then God, as it were, throws another star and another constellation into that dark night of human sin until it is bright with promise and promise and prophecy and type and shadow. What is the ultimate end of it all? God's glory, yes, but as it pertains to man, I say it is nothing less than the restoration of the image of God after the pattern of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer.

7:57 And I want to prove this in terms of that salvation in divine purpose when God takes us back as far as we know. As far as we can go and says this is what was in my heart when in eternity I purposed to save, I purposed to salvation that would restore my image after the pattern of my son. And then when that salvation actually lays hold of the sinner in what we call effectual calling and God brings a sinner out of the bondage of sin and the devil into union with Christ, what does God do in that process, in that mighty work? And then as we see that salvation in its continuance, progressive sanctification, issuing ultimately in glorification, what place does this matter of the restored image of Christ have? I say it is absolutely central in the salvation from divine purpose to its application to its continual progression and culmination. God is committed to nothing less than the restoration of his own image after the pattern of Jesus Christ. All right?

God's Purpose in Salvation: Conformed to Christ's Image

9:07 I've asserted, now I must prove. Whenever preachers assert, it's the responsibility for them to prove. All right? Salvation in the divine purpose.

9:18 Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Salvation in the divine purpose.

9:30 We move from the very familiar words of verse 28. We know that all things work together for good to those that love God even if they are not good. Even to them that are called according to purpose. No sinner is actually ever brought out of darkness into light, effectually called into the blessings of the gospel, but that his calling accords with, is perfectly consonant with, is an outward love divine purpose.

10:05 He is called according to purpose. And having spoken of purpose, the apostle then expands upon it. For whom he foreknew, that is, whom he loved beforehand with distinguishing love and purpose, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he, his Son, Jesus, might be the firstborn among many brethren. What an amazing statement.

10:42 Those upon whom God set his love beforehand, and that is the significance of the biblical word foreknow, he set his love upon them predestinating, predetermining, that in the outworking of his saving, restorative, redemptive grace, they should be conformed to the image of his Son. They should have the image of God restored after the pattern of that image in the person of Jesus Christ so that when God is done, Jesus Christ will be the firstborn. That is, will hold the place of unique preeminence all those who will bear an undeniable family likeness. He will be the firstborn among many brethren. And in the language of Hebrews 2 that we read this morning, amazing, Christ himself says, I am the brethren as well as I am the children thou hast given me. He is not ashamed because when his redemption and restorative grace terminate upon us, people will see the family likeness and say, you know, he looks something like Christ.

12:07 She looks something like Christ. She reacts in her emotions like Christ. He reacts in his emotions like Christ. Like Christ in crisis.

12:18 That's right. I'm not ashamed to call that one my brother, my sister. Why? Because they bear the family likeness.

12:26 Now that's God's purpose right back into the bosom of eternity. His purpose in salvation or restorative or redemptive grace, whatever term you want to use or all of them, was not just to proof us from the fires of hell. It wasn't to cloak us in divine asbestos so we wouldn't roast in hell.

12:51 Nor was it to inject us with happy serum.

12:57 Whom he did for and all happy, happy, all the happy serum.

13:09 His purpose was to restore his image after the pattern of his son. That's what his purpose was. That was what was in his heart. Men have got a lot of other things in their hearts that don't change what was in God's heart.

Salvation's Initial Application: Putting on the New Man

13:26 Now then, what happens when he actually then in our life history by the Holy Spirit using his appointed means of the preaching, the teaching of the word of God, godly example and a host of other means, he actually lays hold of us and brings us out of darkness into marvelous light. How is that initial translation from wrath to grace, from a state of nature to a state of grace, from death to life, how is it described? With reference to the image of God after the pattern of Christ. Turn please to Colossians chapter 3.

14:03 Here we look at salvation in its initial application. And we see that this concept again is dominant. Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3 verse 5 begins with an exhortation.

14:21 Put to death therefore your members that are upon the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness which is idolatry for which things sake cometh the wrath of God and the sons of disobedience wherein you also once walked when you lived in these things. The mark of the unconverted man he walks in this lifestyle, he lives in that pattern of life. But now, do you also put them all away?

14:54 Anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth. Lie not one to another. Well, why should I go on to a more thorough ethical reformation? He says, a fundamental ethical reformation is going on.

15:10 You once lived and walked in these things. They were your native playground. They were your native air. No longer.

15:18 You once did, but no longer. You've been transformed initially and powerfully by the grace of God. But now he says, don't rest on your laurels. Go on in an ongoing process of moral perfecting.

15:32 Go on in an ongoing process of being cleansed from these various outcroppings of your remaining corruption. Now, why should you do this? Here's the motive. Put them all away.

15:45 Lie not one to another. Why? Verse 9b. Seeing you have put off the old man with his duty, and the old man is everything you were in Adam.

16:01 That's the old man. And he says, you've put him off with his doings. And you have put on the new man. Now notice, that is being renewed unto knowledge the image of him that created him.

16:20 The new man is being renewed unto knowledge after what pattern? The new man is being renewed the image of him that created him. And in that realm, he said, all these human distinctions break down and disappear where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision, uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman, but Christ is all and in all. Christ is the great exemplar.

16:51 He is the great pattern. He is not locked up in a heathen, Hebrew personality that makes him an unworthy model for the barbarian and for the Greek. Christ is the perfect man and embodies perfect humanity. And in the ongoing process of renewal which began in our initial experience of the grace of God, what God purposed comes to light.

17:24 We put off the old man. We put on, the new man, which is renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him. You see, the concept of the image of God as it comes to expression in Jesus Christ is again central. But what about the ongoing process?

Salvation's Progression and Culmination: Transformed into Christ's Image

17:45 Well, it'd be strange if there were some other focal point, would it not? But there isn't. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 3.

17:53 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Paul is speaking of the glory of the new covenant ministry in contrast to the old covenant ministry.

18:05 And if we have a grammarian, I was telling my students the other day, I had a whole series of words in which I had to use contrast to or contrast with. And I checked all my dictionaries and couldn't find out. I had an English teacher who pounded into me that one thing differs from another. But I don't know whether things are in contrast with or contrast to.

18:25 If we have an expert grammarian, please bail me out. But all right. Paul is contrasting the old covenant and new covenant ministries. And he comes to describe the apex of the glory of the new covenant ministry in verse 18 of chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians.

18:43 But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord transformed into the same image from one stage of glory to another even as from the Lord the Spirit. And while there are riches in this verse, we do not have time to unpack. This much is clear that the apex of the glory of the new covenant ministry is this, that where Christ is preached and set forth according to the new covenant revelation which is embodied in these documents we hold in our hands. There is a marvelous process going on, we are beholding the glory of the Lord as it is mirrored and reflected into our spiritual eyes from the pages of Holy Scripture. And while we behold that reflected glory of the Lord, what happens? We are being transformed that image from one stage of glory to another even as from the Lord the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is actually taking what He has written about Christ.

20:02 And as we behold it mirrored in the word of Christ, He is conforming us progressively into the very image of Christ. And when that process comes to its glorious completion, how does John describe it? It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but when we know that we know that when He shall appear, sorry, we shall be shall be what? Like Him.

20:35 For we shall see Him as He is. We are now the sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is. And the completion of our redemption will be nothing less than our total confirmation to the image of God.

21:02 As revealed in Jesus Christ. Even our bodies. Philippians 3.21 He shall fashion the body like even our bodily resurrected is after the pattern of Jesus Christ.

21:25 So I've asserted and I believe my assertion rests down upon undeniable biblical data that in God's redemptive restorative grace He is committed to nothing less than the restoration of His own image no longer after the pattern of Adam, but after the pattern of Jesus Christ. And if you want a text that makes that explicit, I give you 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 25. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse not 25, that's the wrong reference, 45. So also it is written the first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. How be it that is not first which is spiritual but that which is natural then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy, Adam.

22:32 The second man is of heaven, Christ. As is the earthy such as they that are earthy. As is the heavenly such are they that are heavenly. And as we have born, here's our language again, the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

22:54 Yes,

23:00 the mirror was cracked and we shroud in sackcloth in our shame. And God says, I'm going to restore my image not after the pattern of Adam now, but in my redemptive grace at the time of my death. After the pattern of my own beloved son. I hope I've made the case to the convincing of your conscience.

The Cruciality of Christ's True Humanity as the Pattern

23:25 And if by God's grace you've gotten hold of that and the Holy Spirit will enable you to let it percolate through the very texture of your soul, then you've begun to get hold of the biblical and theological framework necessary to grapple with these elusive and oft times incorrigible things called our feelings and our emotions. Because you now have a framework within which to deal with them that will keep you from erring on the left hand and on the right, knowing that in seeking to be conformed to the image of Christ even in your emotional life,

24:12 you are doing that which is well pleasing to God. Now, because of this is the divine plan and purpose and method, it's crucial that we be clear in our understanding of the pattern himself. You see, now we're coming closer. The pattern himself.

24:31 And what must we know about the Lord Jesus if we are by the grace of God through the operation of the Holy Spirit to be transformed more and more into his image even in our emotional life? Well, you better know two things. You better know two things about him and be well grounded in them. And we'll only have time to take up the first this morning and then this afternoon we'll take up the second.

24:55 You better be clear with respect to the fact and the nature of Jesus' true humanity. The fact and the nature of the true humanity of our Savior. And then this afternoon the fact and the evidence of his varied emotions as a man. And that's what we'll look at this afternoon.

25:23 And then you'll see, God willing, when we come to the final message, it was worth waiting for the specific application to the particular issue that's burning in your gut this morning that you wish somehow I'd address. And you will see that that emotion of antsiness was legitimate but it was also legitimate for me to put it under discipline and to wait to bring it to some resolution. All right? For the rest of our time then now we want to look at the fact and the nature of our Lord's humanity.

The Fact and Nature of Our Lord's True Humanity

25:57 In taking up this aspect let me assert in plain terms my own belief in historic Christology. I do believe that Scripture forces upon us the teaching that Jesus Christ is truly God. He possesses all of the divine essence in his person. He has, from eternity, he has never been anything less than God, can never be less than God.

26:27 He is called God, John 1, 1. And when it says the Word became flesh, the very Word who was with God and was God, he lost nothing of his God-ness. God can never lose anything of himself.

26:44 One of the very essential attributes of God is his immutability, his unchangeableness. So when it says in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. When it says it doesn't say the Word minus some of his God-ness. No.

27:05 The Word in the full integrity of all the things he never had. But he didn't lose a thing that he'd always possessed. He took something he never had but lost nothing that he had ever possessed. All of the essence, all of the essence of the Godhead, all of the essential attributes of God.

27:31 He possesses the very properties and the faculties of God. Omniscience, omnipotence. Hebrews 1 upholds all things by the Word of his power. His Word holds this universe together.

27:45 All the latent energy locked up in every atom is held together by the power of Jesus Christ. Upholds all things by the Word of his power. This is why he is willing to receive worship as God. When Thomas falls before him and says my Lord and my God.

28:06 He doesn't rebuke him for enthusiasm. He says blessed are you because seeing you believe. But blessed are those who never see yet believe that I am what I am. I am God and the rightful Lord of every one of my creatures.

28:21 He is according to Isaiah, 9, 6, the mighty God. El Gabor. That's who he is and he does the works of God and is given the titles of God. I want no one here to question my deep, I trust, reverent conviction concerning the essential undiluted deity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

28:45 But according to the scriptures from his conception in Mary's womb

28:53 to his ascension back to the right hand of the Father truly and essentially man. He is true man. He is called 1 Timothy 2, 5. One God later between God and himself a man.

29:14 Christ Jesus. He passed through every stage of growth and development of every ordinary man both pre and post natal development. He was not conceived. He was not conceived on Monday and miraculously developed to a full grown ready to be born baby by Tuesday.

29:35 Mary went to the sink and puked like any other mother did with morning sickness. And Mary's tummy began to swell and she had a stretch marks. And she felt the first twinges when she was great with child that says. Think of the deity sustained by an umbilical cord.

30:00 And get your mind away from your TV long enough to let it really be used for the purpose for which God gave it. Just sit for half an hour and meditate on what happened in Mary's womb. Essentially eternal undiluted deity is encased in a little virgin's womb. Drawing life from an umbilical cord.

30:24 Kicking and punching and waking Mary up in the middle of the night and getting Joseph excited. Wondering. About the child she carries. And then it says.

30:38 When it came time for him to be born she brought forth her first born son. As a hint she didn't even have a midwife to help her. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes. He had all the blood and mucus of any newborn.

30:57 He didn't come out all washed and clean and with a halo around his head and wrapped in heavenly satin. He came out just like you did. He was like I did. Amidst Mary's cries and groans.

31:10 And then he had to reach up and she gave him her breast. And the upholder of the universe is upheld by the nourishment of a teenager's breast. You want something to stretch your head you think about that. But that's what the Bible teaches.

Jesus' Normal Human Development: Wisdom, Stature, and Favor

31:30 And the Bible shows him as a true man. And while it throws a cloak of silence and I think a marvelous thing. And I think a marvelous check upon curiosity over his early development. We have the greatest hint that he passed through every normal stage of development as a man in Luke chapter 2 and verse 52.

31:53 One of the most pivotal texts in all of scripture regarding our Lord's true humanity. And hang in with me. We're not forgetting the emotions. We're building the case.

32:04 And trying to build it in a balanced and biblical way. We read in Luke chapter 2 after the Lord Jesus showed well let's start first of all with 240 and then we'll move to 252. After he's brought back the rituals that were required of a first born son. The child was a child when children are supposed to be children.

32:36 But he wasn't stunted. He grew. He didn't pass over any stage of ordinary growth. And waxed strong.

32:45 Becoming full of wisdom. And the grace of God was upon him. Well I thought he was full of grace and truth. Yes in his deity he is the fountain of all grace and truth.

33:02 But in his humanity he develops by the favor and goodwill of God the Father conferred upon him. The grace of God was upon him. Verse 52 And Jesus advanced in wisdom. He was becoming full of wisdom.

33:23 Verse 40 But now he advanced yet more in wisdom. There was normal mental development. He was acquiring from the time he learned his Hebrew alphabet and began to read and had access to any of the scrolls. And as his cognitive faculties began to develop and he looked out into his world he began to observe and synthesize and organize and reflect and compare.

33:52 He advanced in wisdom and stature. Probably a primary reference to his physical development. He probably went to the stage most of us did in our teens when our feet and our hands grew faster than our ability to coordinate them. And Mary and Joseph had a klutzy teenage boy in the house.

34:15 It's not sin for a klutzy teenage boy to fall over his feet. It's sin if he cusses when he does. It's only human when he does. Some of us can remember when our appendages were far beyond our motor coordination.

34:31 We knocked over everything within sight. Still do it.

34:37 So much so that there was hardly a meal where I didn't knock something over in my teens until my father would say would discuss Albert you got a gift. He wasn't referring to any gift of preaching. He was referring to the gift of baptizing the table with milk or water almost every single night. Well that wasn't sin, was it?

35:01 Jesus advanced in stature. There's nothing to indicate. He didn't go through the awkwardness. May I say it reverend?

35:09 He may have even had a good case of zits and felt some social discomfort with his zits. We've got a plastic Christ my friends. There's nothing to indicate. He didn't pass through all the hormonal changes of any ordinary Hebrew young.

35:27 No indication whatsoever. He grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God. Think of it. How can God grow?

35:42 That's nonsense. Oh no it isn't. In terms of his humanity developing according to the will of God each new stage of obedience, obedience rendered to the fresh understanding of the burden of his emerging manhood produced a response from God of delight even as such a response is produced when God's children walk in obedience. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest myself to him.

36:20 We grow in wisdom and so he grew not only in man he learned his manners. If we're to have people feel comfortable around us we must be mannerly. We must know when to hold a door and when to say excuse me and when to say may I help you on with your coat and how to say gracefully no thank you. Jesus was no social boor.

36:58 No that's why when social amenities were denied him he recognized it and was disappointed and even spoke of his disappointment. He said Simon I came into your house you didn't give me the ordinary social amenities of washing my feet. This woman she's doing what you didn't do. Jesus knew what was a proper social response for a guest in a home.

37:26 He grew in favor with men. How? Because as a social being he learned how to make interesting conversation. He wasn't a boor who sat around and just talked about himself and delighted and everybody just one by one drifted off.

37:45 I gotta go to a little room or a powder room or I gotta do this or that. He wasn't a social boor who always talked about himself and drove people away. He wasn't a social klutz who just sat there and mumbled into his growing beard if he had one. He learned how to look people in the eye and converse in such a way as to make them feel at ease.

38:09 He learned these things. They didn't come down in a big bucket. And until you get there you won't know how to regulate your own emerging manhood and womanhood in any area let alone in your emotions. Our Lord was a true man.

Jesus' Full Human Experience: Weariness, Loneliness, and Temptation

38:32 True man. Passed through all stages of growth when we see him as a full grown man. Even if he had to perform a miracle to make the food. He had to sleep and one time he was so busy and his sleep was denied.

38:48 He got so dog tired he fell asleep in the middle of the night. In the middle of the day in a boat. In a storm so violent he was about to sink the ship. As though the Lord had been drugged.

38:57 He was sound asleep on a pillow in the back of the ship. He had to come and shake him. I mean you talk about somebody being in the sleep. I marvel sometimes when I take these trips to Australia and to Pakistan and I'm on a plane for 20, 22 hours.

39:10 There are guys that before the plane takes off I mean you can go into the plane it's jumping all over the place like it's trying to shake its wings off. Sound. And I never see them but what I don't think of our Lord. I say man that guy must have really been painting up the town and working terribly hard to sleep like that through all of this.

39:36 Announcements by the pilot announcements by the stewardesses they don't twitch they don't budge they're zonked. They're gone. Well that's the way the Lord was. He was so bugged and I say it reverently not one gram of caloric energy was poured into his weary frame from his deity.

40:02 He was left to feel the full weight of real humanity that's bone weary. That's our Lord. He's lonely. In the hour of his coming conflict and says can't you watch with me one hour.

40:18 He made those guys. What does the Creator need from his creatures? But he was a true man. And one of the faculties of man is that man needs companionship and support.

40:32 Not only generically but specifically in times of intense trial. You see if you are not well grounded in the fact and nature of our Lord's true humanity you'll never, never, never take him as your pattern and your example and pray that the Holy Ghost will make you like him as you see him mirrored in the scriptures. I go back to that text in Hebrews 2.14 Wherefore it behooved him in all things in which we differ is in the tragic inbred reality of human sinfulness.

The Hypostatic Union: Two Natures in One Person

41:13 His soul was never tainted with original sin. Never tainted inwardly with a sinful thought desire, passion, but sin accepted made in all things like unto us. As the old formula states it he was as much God as though he were no man as much man as though he were no God. There was no mingling no passing of the deity into the humanity of the humanity into the deity.

41:49 Two distinct natures joined in the one person forever. And all illustrations and analogies cannot, cannot, cannot mirror this blessed reality but the closest one that's been most helpful to me is the burning bush there in Exodus chapter 4. Moses turned aside to see this burning bush. It was an ordinary bush on the backside of that wilderness.

42:17 It was a bush had all the properties of a bush the shape of a bush and yet it burned with fire. There was fire consuming, searing fire. And yet the bush was not burned. The bush retained all of its form and nature as a bush and the fire remained fire in all the qualities of fire yet it was so contained by and interpenetrating as it were the bush that the fire and the bush were one and yet they were distinct.

43:00 And after God who had come in that theophany God who manifested himself as fire after God left it was the same old bush. And in that there's a little analogy of the person of our Lord Jesus. I say reverently he has all the bush mess of true humanity. True humanity.

43:25 Sin is no essential part of humanity. It's a horrible wicked cursed intrusion. All our Lord true humanity is there and yet the fire of true essential deity burns in the bush. And so joined that we see one person yet the fire is still the fire and the bush is still the bush.

43:52 Two distinct natures joined in the one person forever. Now do you have a good dose of biblical Christology in your spiritual gut? If you don't you're never gonna make any progress in this matter of taking Christ as your pattern for your emotions. As I close our study this morning I want to show you how absolutely crucial it is in this matter of understanding God's renovation of us in redemptive grace that we see that that pattern from purpose application ongoing and even to consummation is to make us over into his image after the pattern of Christ. We've established that. But now who is this Christ who is the pattern? He is along with being very God a very God he is true man and why do we need to know and believe it with all of our As I close I want to give you four fundamental reasons why you better be settled in this.

Four Reasons Why Christ's True Humanity is Crucial

45:00 Number one the perfection of the righteousness of his perfect life demands a full and undiluted humanity. The perfection of the righteousness of his perfect life demands a full and undiluted humanity. According to Romans 5 19 as to the disobedience of the one the many were constituted sinners so by the obedience and the righteousness of the one or by the obedience of the one the many are constituted righteous. In our justification we are not merely forgiven of all of our sins and the record wiped clean based on the merit of the blood and death of Christ but we are credited with a positive merit in heaven in every department of our humanity every word thought emotion and deed perfectly pleasing to God and only that righteousness will answer to the demands of God and give us a just admission into heaven well you see if Christ is not a true man with true emotions and true human faculties then he has not wrought out a perfect righteousness in the human condition I have a record that's perfect in heaven unless I have a savior who is true man here on earth

46:28 but because I have a savior who is true man the last Adam who conquered where the first Adam failed the first Adam failed the last Adam conquered and in the perfection of his undiluted humanity made of a woman made under the law when I am thinking of the horrible sins that grow out of my emotions how wonderful to know I have a savior who never sinned in the slightest twitch of any emotion who could be angry without sinful vindictiveness or vengeance who could be compassionate without being saccharine and indulgent the full range of human emotion he could be joyful without becoming irresponsibly giddy he could be sorrowful without becoming morose what a wonderful thing to know that the perfection of his humanity including his emotional life is all credited to my account and I don't need to go to hell because of my sinful emotions and I don't need to keep it at a distance from God when I've gone through a patch of emotional sin where I've been indulging in self-pillaging

47:57 and eventually until I feel better I can go to God stinking with all of the rotten smell of my emotional self-pity and my pity party and my groveling in negative emotion attitudes and say oh deceive me for the sake of your beloved son and his perfect righteousness he never had a sinful emotion my acceptance is based on the perfection of his obedience not mine that's where some of you who are most crippled in your emotions get crippled in your Christian life because your emotions you know are sin and yet you've never really come to grips with the fact that your acceptance with God is based on the perfect obedience of Jesus his life as well as his ethical and moral and religious life that's why this doctrine is vital people say oh doctrine schmocktrin I tell you my friend this is shouting doctrine how many times my emotions have led me to sin but never once my savior and that's the one in whom I rest Jesus thy blood and righteousness my beauty are my glorious dress reason number two why this is no luxury to understand the fact and nature

49:27 of our Lord's true humanity the perfection of his satisfaction in his perfect sacrifice demands an undiluted humanity not only the perfection of the righteousness of his perfect life but the perfection of the satisfaction of his perfect sacrifice demands an undiluted humanity I just give you the text quickly Hebrews 2 14 to 17 said he had to partake of flesh and blood that sins of the people if he didn't have a true humanity he could not then bear the wrath of God against human sin and thereby placate and appease the wrath of God that's what propitiation is the turning away of God's wrath by the Lord Jesus bearing the wrath that's why Romans 8 3 said he came in the likeness of sinful flesh not in sinful flesh but in the likeness of it he made a perfect sacrifice because he was the perfect and true man who could to his humanity all the wrath that my humanity deserved and he the true substitute took for me thirdly the perfection of his ministry as our succoring intercessor demands a full

50:55 and undiluted humanity the perfection of his ministry as our succoring intercessor demands the full and undiluted humanity Hebrews 4 15 and 16 we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all point like as we are yet without sin let us therefore come bold unto a savior who I think doesn't understand me because he's never been where I was and where I am in as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he partook of the same why Hebrews 2 18 he hath suffered being tempted think it he felt emotional trauma because of temptation so he's able to draw alongside and succor us and say I know I carried with me into heaven a reservoir of all of the felt emotions that I knew in the days of my humiliation you see if he doesn't have a perfect undiluted humanity his ministry as our succoring intercessor is cut short and then fourthly and finally the perfection of his position as our perfect example demands a full and undiluted humanity the perfection of his position is our perfect example demands a full and undiluted humanity

52:23 if as men and women our emotions are an integral part of our identity as image bearers and if our sin has perverted and inverted our emotion then no little more then no little part of our sanctification is the purification the rectifying of our emotions but if Christ is not a true man with all true human emotions how can he be a true pattern he can only be a pattern if there is true undiluted humanity with a soul fully capable of all valid human emotions and God willing that's what I want to demonstrate in our afternoon session I want us to then now go to the gospel records and it won't be exhaustive we're just going to take out some specimen passages to show that the full range of human emotion was evident in our Lord Jesus and he is therefore not only our perfect righteousness through whom alone we come to God our succoring high priest and our perfect atonement but he is our perfect example I trust God will give us such a sight of his son that not only will we love him as we've never loved him before but that we'll no longer stay at a distance because we really think down underneath he doesn't know what it is how can he empathize with the pain of my singleness

53:51 don't you think he felt pain in his singleness there's no indication that Jesus was a eunuch none whatsoever it's blasphemous to think it it is not blasphemous to say it that as a true man he had all the normal God ingrained yearnings for the companionship and the intimacy of the married state why do you think he loved that home at Bethany because it was a little partial substitute to find the love of a home and we'll see many other indications so in your singleness you don't need to stay at a distance from your savior saying I'm embarrassed to tell the Lord Jesus about all these longings and yearnings what's he know about it he knows a lot more about it than you think a lot more about it than you think and when your friends disappoint you you say I can't go to the Lord he was never disappointed if he was it wouldn't have affected him oh is that right why did he come back and say could you not watch with me one hour why does the Bible say he marveled at their unbelief when a friend turns a temporary enemy why does he call him a devil get behind me Satan you don't think the things of God but the things of men

Prayer for Deeper Knowledge and Transformation

55:20 that's the Christ I know in my Bible that's your Christ and God granted we begin to know him in new ways as he really is and for some of us hopefully it's going to be the liberation as well as the channeling of new dimensions of emotional health that perhaps we've never known before I pray God it will be so let's pray can we never cease to marvel at the richness of the word of God, how we thank you for the Savior who is set before us. We worship you, Lord Jesus, in all the perfections of your true, undiluted, unsullied deity. We worship you as God. We honor you as God. We love you as God. We would exalt you as God.

56:20 We would bow before you as God. But, O Lord Jesus, we worship you as true man as well. Thank you for your willingness to take to yourself in Mary's womb and from her substance a true human soul. We thank you that you had a true human body. We thank you that in that mysterious union of body and soul and the greater mystery yet of the relationship, of the divine and the human, you lived among us as a true man, took the likeness of sinful flesh, passed through every stage of development through which we've passed. You've been with us in our development in our mother's womb. You were with us in our birth cries. You were with us as we nursed at our mother's breast. You were with us as we learned our ABCs. With us, Lord,

57:20 as we stumbled and fell and cried and ran to our mothers for a band-aid. You were with us in the innocence and playfulness of youth. You were with us in the traumas of teenage years and puberty. With us in all the peculiar temptations of young manhood. With us, Lord Jesus, in all that we are. We love you. We thank you for your willingness to be all of us. We thank you for your all this to us. May we not regard lightly your willingness to be all of this, that you might be a perfect savior for us. Forgive our unbelief. Forgive our narrow thoughts of you. Continue by the spirit to show us yourself out of the scriptures and may we be transformed into your likeness in the process. Thank you for your presence in our worship this morning. We believe,

58:17 Lord, you gave us help to render spiritual sacrifices with holy zeal, to pray with faith. And yet we know that our best endeavors are still such as to need the cleansing of your precious blood. Wash then our efforts to teach and preach and pray and praise. Wash them in your blood. Make them acceptable to your Father and to your name and to your name alone be praise and honor and glory. Amen. Amen.