Summer in the Systematics – Christology (Part 6): The Life of Christ

Transcript

JRS 46
07/21/2024
Summer in the Systematics – Christology (Part 6): The Life of Christ.
Selected Scriptures
Jesse Randolph

Alright, well, welcome back for evening church and installment number six of Summer in the Systematics. So far this summer, woven into the sound of cicadas in the trees, and evening thunderstorms, and tornado watches, and tornado warnings. I’m learning a difference! We have studied all summer long up to this point, Christology. The doctrine of Christ. And so far we’ve looked at The Preexistence of Christ. We’ve looked at the Deity of Christ. We’ve looked at the Humanity of Christ. We’ve looked at the Incarnation of Christ, and we’ve looked at the two natures of Christ. And tonight we’re going to cover The Life of Christ. We’re going to cover what the Scriptures teach about what our Lord said, and what our Lord did, and how our Lord functioned following His incarnation during His brief life here on earth. And this obviously won’t ,and cannot, be an exhaustive study. There’s no way we could fit all of what the Gospels teach into one hour in an evening message. But instead we’re going to cover the Life of Christ thematically and topically.

Now, to get us started as I sometimes do, I’m going to begin with a couple of contrary quotes. Some quotes from the critics and the cynics. Because the reality is, there have been all sorts of critical and cynical and skeptical things, and frankly some wild ideas thrown around about Jesus and His life. Now for instance Nikos Kazantzakis, I practiced that, it didn’t work out, says
“I don’t think we know who Jesus is.” Jon Garth Murray, former president of the American Atheists, says “There was no such person in the history of the world as Jesus Christ. There was no historical, living, breathing, sentient human being by that name, ever.” Jon Garth Murray died in 1995 and obviously has a much different perspective of Jesus today. See, regardless of what the skeptics say, skeptics like Jon Garth Murray, the Scriptures tell us plainly not only that Jesus existed, but who He was. They teach us about who He is, even today. The Bible and the four Gospels in particular, shed much light on the existence of and the life of and details of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

Now, as you can see from your worksheets this evening, we’ve got a lot of work to do. We have a lot of territory to cover. There are ten blanks on your worksheet because we’ve ten different points which correspond to ten different aspects of the earthly life and ministry of our Lord. So we had fifteen points this morning. A mere ten points this evening.

Let’s start with this first one. I don’t have time to list them out ahead of time, we’ll just do them as we go. The first blank, the first point on your worksheet is, The Birth of Christ. The Birth of Christ. The events surrounding the birth of our Lord are recorded in Matthew, chapter 1, and Luke, chapter 2. Matthew, the Jewish former tax collector, went about examining the birth of Christ from Joseph’s perspective. And his genealogy is found Matthew, chapter 1:1-17. Whereas Luke, the Gentile physician, looks at the event from Mary’s perspective. And that’s all found, that genealogy, in Luke chapter 3:23-38, which maybe we will get to by the end of 2024, or more likely 2025. And those two accounts of Matthew and that of Luke about the birth of Christ, they are complementary to one another. Like the Gospel accounts more broadly, Matthew and Luke are recording the same events from different angles.

And the biblical record records and reveals that Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb without a human father. Instead, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Matthew teaches explicitly that Joseph, Mary’s betrothed, was in no way involved in the conception of Jesus. Now here’s what Matthew gives us. He says, “And Joseph got up from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.” Now note. What’s revealed here in this text and not very often talked about, is that Joseph did have normal marital sexual relations with Mary after Jesus was born. That’s built into the language there. He kept her a virgin “until she gave birth to a Son.” And Joseph as we see there was also responsible for the naming of this child. It says “and he called,” meaning Joseph, “His name Jesus.” But Joseph was not in any way involved in Jesus’ conception. Jesus, rather, was Spirit-conceived, and virgin born, which was in fulfillment of the virgin birth prophecy in Isaiah 7:14. That’s all captured here in Matthew chapter 1. “Now all this took place in order that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet,” that’s Isaiah, “would be fulfilled, saying, ‘BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,’ which translated means, ‘GOD WITH US.’” Says a little bit about what Matthew reveals.

Luke, in his account of the conception of Jesus, which we’ve started to look at on Sunday mornings of late, also emphasizes that Mary was a virgin and how this event, Jesus’ conception in her womb, for obvious reasons, surprised her. Here’s Luke 1:29, “But she was perplexed at this statement,” the statement from the angel Gabriel, “and was pondering what kind of greeting this was. And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.’” Then Luke 1:35, recording the words of the angel Gabriel, then shows us how the Holy Spirit was the divine agent in the virginal conception. “The angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.’” You can go back to the Luke messages to see more on, or hear more on, what that all entailed. The power of the Most High overcoming her.

So that’s a little bit about the virginal conception, and the virgin birth, of our Lord. Then next we’re going to get into our second heading. The Early Years of Christ. This is how I’m going to fit in 10 points tonight, short and sweet and to the point. This will be like the buffet line, just picking up 10 items along the way. Okay? The Early Years of Christ. For this one let’s start with the events immediately following Jesus’ birth. After Jesus’ birth we know He was visited by some shepherds who had been staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flocks by night. That’s Luke 2:8-20. We know He was then circumcised. That was a rite that marked Him out as an heir of the blessings of the covenant that was made with Abraham, that God made with Abraham. We know then He was then presented to the Lord in the temple, where He was honored by the prophecy of a man named Simeon and the testimony of a woman named Anna. That’s all towards the end of Luke 2, Luke 2:21-38. Later He was visited by some magi from the east, that’s recorded in Matthew 2:1-12. And those Magi came to see the infant Jesus in a house in Bethlehem. Here’s Matthew 2:11, “And after coming into the house,” speaking of the Magi from the east, “they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him.” Then we see that, clearly threatened by the One who had “been born King of the Jews”, King Herod issued this decree to murder all the male children around Bethlehem who were two years old and younger. That’s recorded in Matthew 2:16, “When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had carefully determined from the magi.”

And then we know that Joseph, being warned by an angel in a dream, fled from Bethlehem before Herod’s evil edict could be carried out; and then we know that he and Mary remained in Egypt until it was safe to return. That’s all in Matthew 2:14, “So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and departed for Egypt. And he remained there until the death of Herod, in order that what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled,” that’s Hosea, “saying, ‘OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON.’” He then took Mary and Jesus to Nazareth. Joseph did, where Jesus would spend most of His life. This is Luke 2. “And when they had finished everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth.” That’s referring to Mary and Joseph.

Now, after those events, we get into what are known as the “hidden years” of Christ’s life. Those early years between Jesus’ birth and His baptism. More on His baptism later. And those hidden years include His early childhood. G. Campbell Morgan, who came before Martin Lloyd Jones in London says, “The whole story of the childhood of Jesus from infancy to His religious coming of age is contained in one verse.” And Morgan was referring to Luke 2:40 which says, “Now the Child continued to grow and become strong, being filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.” Now that word “grow” there is this all-encompassing term, and then the meaning of that term “grow” is then filled out by these other words, “becoming strong, being filled with wisdom.” Becoming strong refers to the physical aspect of Jesus’ growth as He shot up in height, as He put on weight, as He filled out. And then, “being filled with wisdom” refers to His intellectual and mental development in His humanity during those early years of His life here on earth.

S. Lewis Johnson notes that “There was a beautiful harmony in His development, touching all the facets of His being.” That’s him commenting on Luke 2:40. Well, after this came Jesus’ more advanced years of youth which is picked up in Luke 2:52. We hear this quoted often, “And Jesus was advancing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” Now that word “wisdom” again includes His intellectual and moral growth in His humanity. And “stature” there is talking about His physical development. His shoulders broadening, Him getting taller and taller, and that short of thing. And again S. Lewis Johnson says “That He could keep ‘increasing’ in them, in those facets, attests to the complete humanity of the Lord’s Messiah; He was perfect at each stage for that stage. The result was favor with God and people. A favorite at Nazareth, with the perfect blend of holiness and love, He was the God-Man. A mystery indeed, but not a problem.” We attempted to cover that one last time.

Now, a few more details that we know about Christ’s early years. His childhood, the years of His youth. We know some details about His land and His home. We know that Nazareth was the Lord’s home until He manifested Himself more broadly to Israel. We know something about His occupation. Mark records here in Mark 6:3 that He had an occupation. “Is this man not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?” We know that He was young, relatively speaking, in age and young, relatively speaking, in appearance. The Jewish leaders of His day couldn’t even tell if He was fifty years old, they assumed He was not. “So the Jews said to Him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?’” And we know He was baptized. Again more on that later.

So we’ve looked at those early years of Christ. The birth of Christ and the early years of Christ. Here’s our third one, our third heading. The Assignments of Christ. And what I mean by that is, when we study the Gospel accounts, one thing that becomes evident is that Christ lived and functioned in three distinct, yet interrelated spheres. And His teaching reflects the ways that His life and His ministry touched upon those three distinct and interrelated spheres. Those spheres, or “assignments,” as I’ve called them here, are the Law, the Law of Moses; the promise and the preaching related to the kingdom, the kingdom that was promised to Israel; and the yet-to-be-born church. Christ has something to say about all three of those facets, or three of those aspects of the life that he was living. And it’s important, as we read the Scriptures, to understand which one is He addressing, when. Because that’s where danger happens, when we think He’s talking about one when He’s actually talking about the other.

So let’s start with the Law, the Law of Moses. Which we’ll just call it here for short “the Law” tonight. The Law was still operative during Christ’s life on earth. It was inaugurated for Israel through Moses, and it was still in effect during the life of Christ. Meaning, during His earthly ministry Jesus lived under the Law’s jurisdiction. Galatians 3:23 says, “Before faith came, we were held in custody under the Law, being shut up for the coming faith to be revealed.” Galatians 4:4 that you hear me quote often, “When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.” Says it pretty clearly there. So He was born under the Law. We also know He taught on the Law. And He interpreted the Law. And as the perfect Son of God, He taught on the Law authoritatively. And in fact, on numerous occasions as the perfect Son of God, He contradicted the customary interpretation or the customary teachings that were related to the Law by pressing into the Law’s practical application for the spiritual issues of His day. That’s where you hear certain things He would say, very familiar things, like “You have heard it said.” “But I say.”

Ultimately, we know that Jesus fulfilled the Law. Matthew 5. Sermon on the mount. “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” Not only that, He was the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Those are the words of Paul in Romans 10. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” I wish I could do a whole seminar tonight on how to think about the Law as Christians today, but I have to restrain myself because we only have one hour. We’ll leave it there.

So, in some aspects of His ministry He was teaching clearly on the Law, the Law that was in effect at that time. Christ also taught on The Kingdom. His forerunner, John the Baptist, preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And Jesus proclaimed the same message. This is our Lord here in Matthew 4, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He also charged His twelve disciples to proclaim the same message. He said, “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” And then to the seventy that He sent out to preach, He said, “But in whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off against you; yet know this, that the kingdom of God is at hand.’”

So, a significant portion of Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels is directly related to the doctrine of the kingdom Not the spiritual kingdom that is supposedly reigning in the heart of every believer today, but rather the physical kingdom that the Old Testament prophets said would be established on earth through God’s Messiah. For instance, in the opening portion of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is presented as the King. That Messianic Ruler Who God had sent to fulfill the promises that had been made to Abraham and David. And in places like the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus articulated various spiritual realities and principles that will govern the coming kingdom. And as we’ve seen in our study of the Gospel of Luke already on Sunday mornings in his annunciation to Mary, the angel Gabriel told Mary that her Son would reign on the throne of David in His future kingdom. So we have Christ in the Gospels teaching on the Law, Christ in the Gospels preaching on the kingdom. He also taught on The Church. Now there was no “church,” don’t get me wrong, when Christ lived on earth. The day of Pentecost, which brought about the formal formation of the church, doesn’t come until Acts chapter 2. That was yet future during Christ’s ministry and life on earth. But during His life Christ did promise to build that yet-to-be-born church. And He declared, we know, that the gates of hell wouldn’t even stand against it. Matthew 16:18, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.”

So, in addition to His teaching on the Law and in addition to His teaching on the Kingdom, Christ gave prophetic, future-looking teaching on the church. So it can be said then, in His life, the Son of God, while here on earth, touched each of these spheres. The Law, the kingdom, and the church. Not all three were operative during His life. The church was not. But His life touched all three. His teaching was related to all three. So when we study again the gospels, when we study Christ’s life, we have to be careful concerning which one He’s speaking of and when.

Here’s our next one. The Offices of Christ. At various points in the New Testament Scriptures
we see that Christ fulfilled the office of prophet, and of priest, and of king. We’re going to work through those one by one, starting with Christ as prophet. Without question, Christ is the greatest of the prophets. His teaching in the four Gospels demonstrated His knowledge, His familiarity, His teaching on a wide variety of different topics and subjects. As prophet, He proclaimed God’s message on a variety of subjects. We think of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. We think of the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and 25. We think of the upper room discourse in John 13-16. Not only that though, He predicted future events as a prophet. Like this one. John 13. “He is the one for whom I shall dip the piece of bread and give it to him.” Speaking of the prophesying of the betrayal by Judas. John 14 says, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, “He’s prophesying here, “and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

Jesus prophesied more broadly than any other prophet, and provided more comprehensive revelation than is found in any of the prophets recorded in Scripture, Old Testament or New. For instance, no other prophet revealed God the Father as Christ did. Not only in His spoken ministry, the words He taught, but also in His life and His person. No other prophet did what Christ did with His life. Christ, John 1:18 says, revealed the Father. No other prophet did that in the sense of actually revealing the character, the nature of the person of God. And, of course, in His sacrificial death and victorious resurrection, Christ provided as prophet a revelation of God that went far beyond any other prophetic revelation up to that time. Even after His resurrection, Christ continued to exercise His prophetic office. He, after His resurrection, taught His disciples the things they needed to know going into that next level, next phase of their life, once He went back to the Father. We think of that beach scene in John 21. They have breakfast. They’re eating fish. He says shepherd my sheep and tend my lambs. He’s teaching them. He’s functioning as prophet even post resurrection.

And then, after His going to the Father, His ascension, we know the Holy Spirit was sent to continue Christ’s prophetic work, revealing to God’s people the truths that Christ would have them know. We know that from John 16. He says, “I still have many more things to say to you, but cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak from Himself, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.”

So Christ is the penultimate prophet. He was not only fulfilling a prophetic office, though, He fulfilled a priestly one. Christ as Priest. Now a few things to note about Christ’s priestly role. Basically everything I’m going to say here I believe will come from the book of Hebrews. He qualified fully for the office of priest, Hebrews 3, “Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.” And we know He was appointed by God, Hebrews 5:10, “Being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.” We know that Jesus was of the right order. That goes back to Melchizedek. We don’t have time to work that out tonight. But He says “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizidek.” We know He was able to offer Himself as a sacrifice, and we also know He continually makes intercession. Those are priestly duties. That’s picked up in Hebrews 7 here, “And the former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.”

And not only that, the last one here is that He was eternal in His priesthood, which indicates both His superiority and the finality of His priestly role. Hebrews 7:25 “He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” And one more here, “And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He,” Christ there, “ having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down a the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies are put as a footstool for His feet. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” So Jesus fulfilled to the utmost the office of prophet. He also, as we’ve seen from these Hebrews references, qualifies perfectly as the High Priest. He is the embodiment of all that was anticipated in the office of the Old Testament priest.

Well He’s not only prophet, He’s not only the perfect high priest, He also came into this world as King. Now it’s clear from the Old Testament that God promised His people a Messiah who would become King and who would fulfill the promise that God had made to David, here in 2 Samuel 7:16. “And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” And when Christ came, He came as this long-prophesied King. He even came offering the Kingdom to the people, the Jews, but we know they rejected Him. And so, since the earthly kingdom that Christ preached and offered was not established, the full scope of His work as King has been deferred. And been delayed. And reserved for the future. And we do know that when He comes again at His second coming He will be rightfully received as King, and will establish Himself as king. And, by the way, the Scriptures contain both sets of truths.

First, the Scriptures record that historical fact that Christ came here to earth offering His Kingdom to His people. Those are, that truth is picked up in places like John 1:49. Here’s Nathanael saying, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel’.” Or John 18, Pilate, the Pilate/Jesus interaction, “Pilate said to Him, ‘So You are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You yourself said I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.’” Or John 19, the crowd here speaking and then Pilate’s response, “So they cried out, ‘Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’” So there are historical data points showing He came here to earth offering the kingdom coming in, as King. But the Scriptures also record that the establishment of Christ’s kingdom on earth now awaits future fulfillment, which we see in places like Revelation 17:14, “These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and elect and faithful.” Or Revelation 19:16 says, “And He has on His garment,” this is at His second coming, “and on His thigh a name written, ‘KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.’” In other words, the rejection of Christ as king by Israel during His first coming resulted in the postponement of His earthly kingdom. But when He did come that first time, He did come as King offering the kingdom.

Alright, that’s a bit about the three offices of Christ. Prophet, priest, King. Next, we come to this next aspect of His life, our Lord’s life. It’s our fifth blank on the worksheet. The Baptism of Christ. Three different Gospel writers describe Christ’s baptism. They’re all in the Synoptics. So we have Matthew here, he says, “Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, ‘I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?’ But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he permitted Him. And after being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him, and behold, there was a voice out of the heavens saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.’” So that’s the Matthew account. Then over here is the Mark account, similar, it says, “Now it happened that in those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; and a voice came out of the heavens: ‘You are My Beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.’” And then Luke, it says, “Now it happened that when all the people were being baptized, Jesus was also baptized. And while He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.’” Now, there’s a lot to be said here, and we obviously won’t have time to go through each of these three accounts in detail. So what I’m going to do here is, I’m just going to camp out on one of them, the account given in Matthew’s Gospel, for just a bit. And I’m going to give you just a few observations about what Matthew records there about Jesus’ baptism.

First, we see John’s reluctance here to baptize Jesus. See when Jesus arrived and submitted Himself to John for baptism, John tries to slow Him down, and even stop Him, and understandably so. See, John’s baptism of the Israelites in these days was “unto repentance.” It was a baptism unto repentance. Well, Christ the Messiah, God, very God in human form, had no need of repentance. Which is why John asks this question here. “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” Well, we get Jesus’ reply in verse 15. We already read it in full earlier, but He answers John the Baptist by saying “it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Now those words have some tie in to Paul’s words in Galatians 4:4, namely, that Christ was “born under the Law.” The Law was still in effect then. And we did see, we do see that Jesus did other things that showed that He was attempting to, in His earthly life, be that perfect example, as part of fulfilling all righteousness. We think about the fact that he was circumcised, for instance. Circumcision was this both ritual and physical cleansing. While there was no uncleanness, lack of cleanliness, in Christ that needed to be removed. Either physically or ceremonially. He was perfect. He’s God. So why the circumcision? And He was baptized even though there was no sin in Him that needed to be cleansed or washed away. Either internally or externally. So what was this all about? Well, He was demonstrating in His baptism His overall willingness to do the will of God. His baptism, in other words, was an aspect of His humiliation under the Law. It was part of what we saw last time in Philippians 2:7-8, that He “took the form of a slave.” That He was “made in the likeness of man.” He was “found in appearance as a man.” That involved doing the things that the men of Israel would do at that time as a part of fulfilling all righteousness. S. Lewis Johnson again summarizes it well. He says, “He was baptized then as a representative person, knowing this was a divinely imposed duty for every Israelite.” Well, with those first few words of Matthew’s account of the baptism of Jesus, the opposition of John the Baptist when He says, “do I baptize you?” was overcome.

And next what we see is the reaction from above in Matthew 3:16-17. After the visible act of Jesus’ baptism, the heavens opened and there’s this vision, and there’s this voice. It says, “After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him, and behold, there was a voice out of the heavens saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” So there’s this vision of the Spirit of God, descending as a dove on Jesus. And by the way, that fulfilled the words of Isaiah regarding the servant of the Lord. Here in Isaiah 42, “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul is well pleased. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.” So this was fulfillment, prophetic fulfillment. Then there’s this voice from heaven, behold this is my Son in whom I am well pleased, and that voice was that of God the Father. But, interestingly, we actually see the entire trinity being involved in this whole event, this whole scene. God the Son is the One being baptized. God the Father is the one who is speaking. And God the Spirit is the one descending like a dove. And the involvement of all three Persons of the Godhead in this event testifies to just how significant this event was. So much more could be said about the baptism of Christ. Can’t get into it tonight.

Next we get into the teaching of Christ, that’s the point where we turn our page. Six through ten, here we go. The Teaching of Christ. Jesus was the supreme teacher. He was a miracle worker, He was a healer. We saw from Austin Rugh last Sunday night that He was busy. Had a very busy ministry. But He was a teacher. At least 45 different times in the Gospels He is called “teacher.” Interestingly, and this is just part of my study during the week, we never hear of Jesus being called “preacher.” For whatever that means. He’s always called “teacher.” And frequently, we find statements like these. Mark 6:6, “He was going around the villages teaching.” Luke 4:15, “He was teaching in their synagogues, being glorified by all.” When Nicodemus met Jesus, he said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher.” The Lord Himself said this to His disciples in John 13, “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.” And then His last words on earth include this command to His disciples that they should teach others as He had taught them. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

We know that Jesus spent much of His time teaching individuals. Nicodemus, a woman from Samaria, the son of a Roman official, a paralytic. But the Lord also didn’t restrict Himself to individuals. He taught small groups and large crowds. We think of the hillside crowd at Capernaum. Or His teaching at the Feast of Tabernacles where He stood up and taught a group of worshipers in the temple. At the end of His life He set aside a large block of time to teach the Twelve.

The point is, whenever and wherever the opportunity presented itself, He taught. He taught from a boat on a lake. He taught in a remote village of Galilee. He taught in a synagogue. He taught. He came to teach, and His teaching was effective. Matthew 7 says, “Now it happened that when Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were astonished at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.” Luke 4 says, “And all were speaking well of Him and marveling at the gracious words which were coming from His lips, and they were saying, ‘Is this not Joseph’s son?’” And then John 7:46, “The officers answered, ‘Never has a man spoken like this!’” And why? Why was His teaching so effective? Well, for starters, you can begin with the fact He was God. He is God. So of course His teaching was effective. His teaching was perfect, because He is perfect.

But even methodologically, His teaching was effective because of the way He went about it. He had this profound teaching style, taking these profound truths, and bringing them down to the lower shelf in these elementary ways. He was simple and clear in His instructions. Using common objects and everyday objects to describe and illustrate profound eternal truths. He spoke of sparrows. And lilies. And baskets. And Lamps. And vines. And coins. These are all relatable, understandable, common terms that made the eternal truths He was presenting accessible for the common man. Also, His teaching was completely saturated with Scripture. The Sermon on the Mount was laced with references to Old Testament. He used God’s Word when He spoke to those in the temple and was cleansing the temple. When He was tempted by Satan, as we’ll get into a little bit later, what did her respond with? Scripture. In fact, the Gospels record 33 different direct quotations from Jesus where He’s pulling from 16 different Old Testament books.

And we also know He used a variety of other helpful teaching devices. Like the use of questions. “Who can forgive sins, but God alone?” “Why is it that you were searching for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” “How shall we compare the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?” “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” He also taught using object lessons, like in Matthew 10. He describes the fallen sparrow to address God’s providential care for His children. And in Mark 12 He uses the image of the widow with the two copper coins to speak to her selfless, sacrificial giving. In Luke 15 He brings in the illustration of the lost sheep to describe the sinner’s helpless condition.

And, of course, He taught in parables, those graphic stories, very true to nature, very true to human experience, which illustrated some spiritual truth, some spiritual reality. Like the parable of the unforgiving slave. Or the parable of the sower. Or the parable of the mustard seed. Or the parable of the talents. Or the parable of the treasure hidden in the field. And these parables we know, and Jesus admitted this, served this twofold purpose. One was for the purpose of those who were receptive, those who were spiritually minded. To disclose truth to them about the gospel and the kingdom. On the other hand, to those who were unreceptive, and who were carnally minded, it was to conceal that truth from them. Jesus admitted that. He said that in Matthew 13. He reveals His teaching methodology here. He says, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore, I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.’” Bruce Demarest illustrates this, or puts kind of a finer point on it, he says, “These stories [the parables] were sufficiently clear to instruct those who were willing to hear. Yet they were sufficiently opaque to puzzle those unwilling to obey the truth.”

That brings us to the seventh heading for the night. The seventh aspect of the life of Christ, which would be The Servanthood of Christ. William Lecky, he was an Irish historian from the 1800’s, says, “Christianity has given to the world an ideal character who throughout all the changes of the centuries has been not only the highest pattern of virtue, but also the chief incentive to its practice.” He’s right. Christ did, through His life of servanthood, showcase for all, as He says here, “the highest pattern of virtue.” We think of this verse, Mark 10:45, which points so clearly to the fact that Christ came to this earth as a servant. It says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Now, going back in biblical history, that was to be the role of Israel’s promised Messiah. As God’s “chosen one,” as He is referred to in Isaiah 42, verse 1, He would also be God’s “Servant.” The coming one the chosen one, the messiah, the servant. He would be lowly, and He would be meek. He would establish justice on the earth. He would be a light to those nations who did not already know the Lord. But as Isaiah 49:7 indicates, He would also be despised, and rejected, and even condemned by His own people. He would be the despised one, as it says here, “the One abhorred by the nation.”

And this, by the way, is a major reason why His own people stumbled over Him. They were expecting this powerful, triumphant, victorious Messiah. One who would triumph over, and defeat, and stamp out His enemies with His sheer force. They couldn’t fathom a Messiah who would come in lowly form, to suffer and to serve. And that’s part of the reason why they found it so difficult to grasp Isaiah 52:13, all the way to 53:12; that prophetic word about the coming Messiah. The one who would be crushed for our iniquities. They rejected Jesus as being that, in fulfillment of that prophecy. Instead, for many of them, they said that must be a reference to the nation. We are lowly. We are crushed. He is not.

Well, in His life, Jesus did, we know, demonstrate servanthood to His disciples, and to various other individuals He encountered. Mark 1:40-45, we see that He was moved with compassion and healed a leper who was otherwise deemed untouchable. In Luke 19 He ministered to an otherwise despised tax collector named Zacchaeus. And the Last Supper, in John 13, He washed His disciples’ feet. And knowing that He was soon going to return to the Father, and soon going to return to that glorious position from which He came to earth. Note that He didn’t boast or brag about Himself, or exalt Himself in that John 13 foot washing scene. No. He rose and He wrapped a towel around His waist. And He filled a basin with water. And He grabbed a disgusting foot and washed it. That was the physical expression of what we looked at last time in Philippians chapter 2. Not only did Jesus take the form of a servant, He acted as one. He was the model Servant, and He demonstrated through that lowly act of washing the disciples feet. That true greatness is found in service to others. John 13, He says, “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” And I know there’s denominations and groups out there that take this as another ordinance. It’s baptism and communion and foot washing. I don’t think that’s the interpretation here. He’s speaking more broadly to servanthood.

Ok. Here’s number eight on your worksheets. The Transfiguration of Christ. Another aspect of the life of Christ that we don’t want to miss, His Transfiguration. This event, by the way, we won’t go there in detail tonight, but is recorded in those three Synoptic Passages. Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-13, and Luke 9:28-36. Peter, by the way, also alludes to the transfiguration in 2 Peter 1:16. He says, “For we did not make known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, following cleverly devised myths, but being eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased.” He’s recording what they heard on the mount there, and He says, “We ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.” You recall the scene there, Peter, James, and John are accompanied by Jesus up the mountain. And while there, Moses and Elijah appear. And our Lord is transformed, transfigured before their very sight. And this was this outward manifestation of the inward reality that Jesus was, and truly is, God in human form. And upon our Lord’s Transfiguration God the Father again spoke in language reminiscent of what He said after Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3. And He says Matthew 17, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!” And then Moses and Elijah disappeared from the scene with only Jesus remaining.

So, what is the Christological or theological significance of this event, the transfiguration? First, it’s a revelation of the glory and the deity of God the Son. The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:8 referred to Jesus as the “Lord of glory.” And the transfiguration powerfully and dramatically demonstrated that Jesus truly is the glorious God of heaven existing in human form. Second, the disciples, at this transfiguration event, received a foretaste of Jesus’ coming exaltation and His kingdom. R. Kent Hughes picks that up. At the transfiguration, what was involved was a glimpsing something of his preincarnate glory, and it was pointing to His coming exaltation, as we see there. Third, it was a confirmation, the transfiguration was, of Peter’s confession in Matthew 16:16 that “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That this is, in fact, God in our presence. And then fourth, the transfiguration would have been a motivation to the task for those disciples who had been called by Jesus, as they got a greater glimpse into the One they had been charged with proclaiming. This wasn’t merely a carpenter, this was God in human flesh. I appreciate these words from D.A. Carson on the Transfiguration. He says, “The narrative is clearly a major turning point in Jesus’ self-disclosure. The contrast between what Jesus had just predicted would be His fate, and this glorious sight would one day prompt Jesus’ disciples to marvel at the self-humiliation that brought Him to the cross, and to glimpse a little of the height to which He had been raised by His vindicating resurrection and ascension.” Carson has a knack, like myself, for making really short and pithy statements really long.

OK, that takes us to our ninth topic for this evening. The Temptation of Christ. Christ our Lord was tempted by Satan soon after His baptism by John. The timing of the temptation in relation to His baptism, in fact, is recorded quite colorfully here by William Graham Scroggie. He says, “After the testimony, the test; and after the Dove, the devil.” That’s good. Here are the references for your notes there to the Scriptures that record the temptation of Christ by Satan. Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13. And here’s what those Gospel accounts, in general, record. They teach us, they tell us, that soon after Jesus’ baptism, after the voice out of heaven declared, “This is My Son, in whom I am well pleased,” Christ was confronted by the devil, and He was tempted. And Satan’s temptations of Jesus, by the way, were done with respect to His humanity. Because God Himself, we know from James 1:13, “cannot be tempted with evil.” And these temptations, we know, happened while Jesus was in the wilderness where He’d been led by the Spirit of God. Matthew 4:1, “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” So He was there in the wilderness, in other words, by divine appointment. It was divinely intended. But at the same time it absolutely was Satan who was the one doing the tempting. It was Satan who was bent on keeping Christ from going to the cross. It was Satan who, throughout Old Testament History, had continually tried to destroy the godly line into which Christ was going to be born. And now Satan was going to try to get Christ to sin. Knowing that, if Christ sinned at any time, He’d be disqualified from being that perfect substitute for mankind.

So the devil shows up in Matthew 4:1 just after He has been baptized, and then we know He engages Jesus in these three dialogs. And Jesus, by the way, had been fasting for 40 days. Luke gives us that detail. It says, “Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was being led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had finished, He was hungry.” That means His only sustenance during this time would have been water. So He was hungry. He was starving, no doubt. And the tempter appeared in order to try to lure Him into this trap. And Satan issued these three challenges to Jesus. Three temptations. And John Broadus, he was a Baptist pastor and a former professor at Southern Seminary in the late 1800’s. He frames up really neatly, he speaks of these three temptations being linked to this effort to challenge God the Son’s confidence in God the Father. I appreciate how he frames that up. First, He says there is the challenge to His under-confidence. Christ’s under-confidence in God the Father. That’s from Matthew 4:3, “And the tempter came and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’” So there was a sense of, if He went along with this, it demonstrated His lack of confidence in God being the one who would provide. Second was the challenge to His over-confidence. That’s in the next temptation. “The devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down.’” That would be quite the over-confident thing to do. And then Broadus says, was this challenge of His other-confidence. So its under-confidence, over-confidence, other-confidence. And this is the third temptation. “Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.’”

But what’s most instructive of course, to us, for our purposes, as we see this account, is how Jesus, as He trusted in the leading and the control of the spirit, even as He was lead into the wilderness, responded to each of Satan’s temptations with what? With the Word of God. And He said each time, “It is written.” The implication there is that what is written stands for all time. It’s not open for interpretation. It is written. And He gives those three distinct quotes from Deuteronomy to refute what Satan had tempted Him with.

That brings us to our tenth and final topic for this evening. The Impeccability of Christ. The whole question for consideration here with this one is, could Jesus have sinned? It ties into the temptation. We know He didn’t sin. But could Jesus have sinned? Now, in trying to answer this question, and getting after this question, there have been two Latin phrases which have been thrown around and debated now for centuries. One is this. Non potuit peccare. Which means “not able to sin.” That would be “impeccability.” The other is potuit non peccare. Which means “able not to sin.” So the first is not able to sin. The second is able not to sin. This would be called peccability. Now, we’ll flesh this out more, but as we get into this debate, two facts need to be affirmed. First, is that Jesus was genuinely tempted in His humanity. We know it wasn’t His deity because James 1:13 says God cannot be tempted with evil. So He was genuinely tempted. The second thing we know is that He did not sin. Those are the shared presuppositions that people who hold the peccablility of Christ, or the impeccability of Christ, both would affirm that He was genuinely tempted and that He did not sin.

So let’s start with some of the basics. Some of the other shared premises in this conversation related to the sinlessness or the peccablility, or impeccability of Christ. First we know that Jesus was tempted, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15, “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin.” He was holy, and He was blameless, and He was pure. We get that from Hebrews 7:26-27. I’m just going to mention those words toward the top there. He’s “a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens.” This is why Jesus could defiantly say to his opponents that He could not be proven guilty of sin. John 8:46, “Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?”

Now, there are two different elements to the fact that Christ was, in fact, sinless. First, we know He was free of any actual sin. He never did anything which displeased God. He never did anything that violated the Mosaic Law while He was still on earth. We’ve seen in our study of Luke that He was a “holy child,” Luke 1:35. He only did those things which pleased the Father. John 8:29, “I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” He kept the Father’s commandments. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” There is no record of Him offering sacrifices in the Temple for Himself. Why? Because He had no sin. He “knew no sin.”
2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.” He committed no sin. There is no deceit found in His mouth, says 1 Peter 2:21-22. “He suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps, who did no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth.”

He was a lamb without blemish and without spot, as we see here in 1 Peter 1:19. He’s “a lamb unblemished and spotless.” In 1 John 3:5 it says “in Him there is no sin.” There is no record in the Scriptures of Jesus ever feeling guilty about anything. Or seeking forgiveness for anything. Or confessing to any wrongdoing. Rather, everything He ever did, or thought, or said conformed exactly to the will of God. He fulfilled all righteousness, Matthew 3:15, so He’s free of actual sin. We also know He was free from inherent sin. There was no trace of sin in Him, which is a crucial distinction between Him and us. He wasn’t tempted by anything within Himself. He wasn’t like that one in James who is dragged away by His own evil desire internally and follows it like the bait on a hook. That wasn’t Him. That’s James 1:14, “Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.” Each one, that is, except Jesus. There is no law of sin in His members. Paul, in Romans 7, says, “I see a different law in my members, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a captive to the law of sin which is in my members.” Those words applied to Paul, but they didn’t apply to Christ. In Him, there was no predisposition towards sin. No love for sin. No affinity with sin. Satan had no foothold on Him. John 14:30, “The ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in me.” Donald Macleod says it well. He says, “There was no affinity with sin. There was no proclivity to sin. There was no possibility of temptation from within. In no respect was he fallen, and in no respect was his nature corrupt.”

OK, so we know He was sinless. Now let’s go a little bit deeper in that debate over whether He could have sinned. This is that impeccability issue. Now those who hold to the peccability of Christ, meaning those who hold that He could have sinned though He did not sin, they do so on the basis of a text like this, Hebrews 4:15. “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things like we are, yet without sin.” And they will say that that second to last clause there, He’s been “tempted in all things like we are,” that’s the issue for them. They will say that for any temptation that He faced to be genuine, He had to be able to sin. Otherwise the temptation wasn’t real.

Now, that view isn’t crazy. It has it’s strengths. One of those strengths being it seeks to honor and uphold the genuine humanity of our Lord. It identifies our Lord with our humanity, and holds that just as our temptations are real, His temptations were real. But the weakness of this view is that it doesn’t sufficiently consider Christ in His person as God. And we know, I’ve said I think two times already, that God cannot sin. Not only that, He cannot even be tempted, James 1:13, with evil. And we know from earlier studies that Christ’s deity and His humanity can’t be separated or divorced from one another. And we know from earlier studies that Christ is now, and forevermore, the God-man. So to say that Christ could sin means that God could sin because they’re inseparable. And that is simply not a biblically-supportable position to say that God could sin.

Now, on the impeccability side. To those who would say that Christ not only did not sin, but He could not have sinned. They will say that Christ’s temptations by Satan were genuine, but that it was still impossible for Christ to sin. The purpose of the temptation of Christ, the impeccability crowd will say, was not to see if Christ could sin, but instead to demonstrate that He could not sin. And the impeccability argument really goes back to the two natures of Christ. Remember, we saw this a few lessons ago, that Christ has two natures. He’s one person, but He has two natures, the human and the divine. And the human nature and the divine nature, as we saw, cannot be separated within that singular person of Christ. What’s called the theanthropic person of Christ. And since the divine nature cannot sin, James 1:13 yet again, neither can the human nature. You can’t divorce the two natures and say one could sin but one could not.
S. Lewis Johnson again, obviously I’ve read a lot of him this week, says, “If one remembers that Jesus Christ is a divine person, one will have no difficulty here. He is not a human person raised to the power of deity by virtue of the Incarnation, because He existed before the Incarnation. Instead He is a divine person who at a point in time took to Himself human nature as an additional nature. And His impeccability is guaranteed by the union of the divine and human natures in one theanthropic person.” I dare you sometime this week at coffee meeting, repeat that sentence to whoever is across the table from you. Say His impeccability is guaranteed by the union of the divine and human natures in one theanthropic person and see what kind of response you get. See what kind of friends you have out there. Shedd, W. G. T. Shedd, says He is “as mighty to overcome Satan and sin, as his mightiest nature is.” Meaning the divine nature.


So getting back to this matter, we’re almost done, of the peccability, or the impeccablity of Christ. The question of was Christ able to sin? I land here with Jonathan Edwards. It says,
“His holy behavior was necessary. It was impossible it should be otherwise, than that He should behave Himself holily, and that He should be perfectly holy in each individual act of His life. It was impossible that the Messiah should fail of persevering in integrity and holiness, as the first Adam did.” So going back to the deity of Christ. And the eternality of Christ. And the Trinity. And incarnation of Christ. If Christ had sinned, God would have sinned. Since, Jesus Himself said, I referenced this earlier, John 5:19, “The Son can do nothing from Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in the same manner.” Shedd picks up on that by saying, “Should Jesus Christ sin, incarnate God would sin.” And if God the Son could sin, well, that means God the Father could sin. And we know that cannot be so. We know from Scripture that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. In God, there is no sin. Actual, or potential. And for that reason our conclusion must be that Jesus Christ was not able to sin. Rather, His “food was to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.”

That about does it for tonight. We’ve looked at The Birth of Christ, The Early Years of Christ, The Assignments of Christ, The Offices of Christ, The Baptism of Christ, The Teaching of Christ, The Servanthood of Christ, The Transfiguration of Christ, The Temptation of Christ, and The Impeccability of Christ. I’m out of breath. Let’s call it a day and pray.

Lord, thank you so much for your goodness to us throughout the day. Thank you for sustaining everyone one of us, our families, our beloved fellow church members. Thank you for the time in the Word this morning and this evening. Thank you for the wonderful songs of worship we were able to sing. Thank you for the time of fellowship we were able to enjoy. God, as we go into this week, I do pray that you would keep our affections, our thoughts, our minds centered on Christ. Today we have spoken so much of our Savior and praise you for that. We’ve spoken of Mary this morning and the various ways in which she was praising you, her Savior, our Savior. And of course that all points to her carrying our Savior in her womb. And this evening as we looked at the life of Christ, what great reminders. Obviously done very quickly and at a very surface level, but what great reminders of the life of our Lord that we can think on and reflect on as we walk as He walked, as 1 John 2:6 says. He is our perfect example, our moral example. God, I do pray that this week we would strive to honor You, our Lord, in all that we do. Thank you for your goodness to us. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.