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Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit … (Mt 28:19)

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? (I Cor 3:16)

Holy Spirit, You give me the presence of God inside. Hallelujah. Bless You.

When Jesus was on Earth, God was on Earth, walking, talking, eating, sleeping. Today, however, we can no longer put our hands into Jesus’s side or watch Him break bread. The physical presence of Christ is gone, but this does not mean that Christ is gone.

When Jesus was on Earth, He spoke of a Comforter He would send, a Counselor, the Spirit of God. He said that His people would be better off without His physical presence but with this Holy Spirit than they had been when they had witnessed Him raise the dead. This Spirit would now be God on Earth. He would teach people righteousness, convict people of sin, and be the presence of Christ in their midst. Thus, you can still know Jesus even though physically He is no longer here, for He and His Spirit are one.

The Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit is a doctrine for the church age. Jesus became God with us when He came, but today the Spirit forms Jesus in our hearts. The Spirit, in one sense, is now God with us, for where the Spirit is, God is. Paul writes to God’s people and says “… you are God’s temple.” Why? Because “God’s Spirit dwells in you” (I Cor 3:16). We are now the place where God lives because we are the place where His Spirit lives.

Here are some pictures that Scripture gives us of the Spirit. The Spirit was hovering over the waters at creation (Gen 1:2). The Spirit brings new birth (Jn 3:1-8). The Spirit knows the deep things of God (I Cor 2:10-11). The Spirit is the Lord (II Cor 4:17-18). The presence of the Spirit is the presence of God (Ps 139:7-8). The Spirit, Christ, and the Father are all in you if the Spirit is in you (Rm 8:9-11). The church must baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19). We could go on, but Scripture plainly attributes to the Spirit the things it attributes to God. Thus, when you have the Spirit, you have God.

For the Christian, this is rather basic. The people of Christ are to be a people of the Spirit. In the future, we shall discuss what this means practically, but for now suffice it to say that in Christ you and I have direct access to God through the Holy Spirit whom God has poured into our hearts. Christ may have ascended, but God dwells in us.

The Word was with God and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. (Jn 1:1, 14)

Lord, I look at the Incarnation and marvel. Praise You!  

The radical claim of the Christian faith is that God became a man. Christians call this the Incarnation, which means something like “in the flesh.” For a time on Earth, God had skin and bones as you and I do.

Some people say that’s crazy, and I suppose, in one sense, they are correct. Reality often is crazy. But if Jesus is God, as He claimed, then rejecting Him is crazier. The Incarnation raises the stakes in Jesus. He is not just a good teacher. He is not just a noble man. He is not one choice among many. He is not someone you can listen to only if you feel like it. He is God, and He has every right to demand your allegiance. But many people have problems with the idea that they must yield to Jesus. I understand. I’m as human as you are. I don’t like yielding any more than you do.

Sometimes people will say that the problem they have with the Incarnation is intellectual. They will say that the idea of God being a man is a logical impossibility, for God cannot be limited. It is interesting that they then put a limit on God by telling us something God cannot do. Why can’t God enter history? Isn’t He God? Why limit Him if He can’t be limited?

Of course, what they mean specifically is that the omnipresent, omnipotent God, cannot at the same time take on a human body and be finite, weak, and physical. When Jesus is physically in Capernaum, He cannot also physically be in Rome. If Jesus gets tired, He cannot then have all power. Other similar issues exist, but if you think along these lines, you’ll begin to understand the intellectual issue.

I do not pretend to have the final answer to every question. In fact, I think it OK that I do not fully understand God. But perhaps some pictures will help us travel toward an understanding. First, one must remember that the Biblical doctrine of the Trinity allows God to retain all of his attributes while still being human. You see, in one sense, the eternal God may have died, but in another sense, the eternal God never died at all. What happened to Jesus happened to God, and yet God was still above what happened.

Second, the doctrine of the Incarnation is that in Christ God voluntarily set aside certain prerogatives (Ph 2:5-8). Think of the story The Prince and the Pauper. In the story, the Prince of Wales, Edward Tudor, son of Henry VIII exchanges places with a pauper boy. In doing so, he never ceases to be prince. In fact, he often tries to convince the people that he is the real prince, but no one will believe him. He is fully prince and fully pauper at the same time. Now this story does not correspond exactly to what Jesus does in the Incarnation, but it does give a helpful picture. Jesus was a king who for a time became a peasant. Though He was God, He emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of men. (Ph 2:6-7)

When Jesus became a man, He did not cease to be God any more than Edward ceased to be Prince while he was a pauper. Jesus retained all of His rights and attributes as God, though we might say that He freely chose to hide some of them for a time in order to accomplish a special purpose. He may have been divine, but he did not appear such to the people. He was, thus, fully king but also fully peasant. This is not logical contradiction, but it is, nonetheless, beyond comprehension. And it is marvelous.

Now the The Prince and the Pauper is just a picture, not an explanation.  The Scripture says, “The Word was with God and the Word was God … and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” The Creed says that Jesus was fully God and fully man.  God became a man. I cannot fully explain how that is the case any more than science can fully explain (at this writing) the workings of the atom. But I do not see that logic demands of us an either/or choice. Reality, wherever we look, is far more complex than we often imagine. This reality is no different. The scientist lives with tension on many issues. So must the people of God. The scientist must have faith that as more information is uncovered, the mystery will subside. God’s people must have faith that more information is coming.   For Earth, real as it is, is but the laboratory for heaven, and while we can learn much in this laboratory, we can never quite reproduce the conditions of heaven. It is not until we get there and are able to see God in the field (so to speak) that we will be able to understand some of the depths of his nature, and how it is that he can become flesh and dwell among us. But then, I suppose, when we get there the question itself will be rather trivial. Who cares about philosophy when you are gazing at glory?

I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  (Jn 14:6)

I sat in an enclosed patio at an inn in Eagle Harbor, Michigan. Enormous picture windows surrounded me on three sides, and Lake Superior was right outside those windows. The morning sun was bright and dancing on the water. It was one of those peaceful times when you get away, and I was enjoying my time alone looking out over the endless blue of the water and the rocky jetty with spruce trees popping out of it. My Bible was in my lap, and I was intermittently reading, then gazing at the lake, then reading, then gazing at the lake. I like doing that. I don’t know if it’s that I love nature or that I get easily distracted. Probably both.

A young woman entered the patio area and sat down at a couch opposite me. She noticed that I had a Bible and asked me some question or other about my reading. We spoke for a bit before I asked her, “Are you a Christian?”

“I’m a Unitarian,” she said.

“Do you read the Bible much?” I asked.

“No, not really. But I like Jesus.” We talked for a short while and she then opened up. “I don’t really understand my church,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, a lot of the leaders in my church get violently upset if we talk about Jesus. I mean, we can read from many books in the church and we can even read from the Bible and talk about it. But what we can’t do is read or talk about Jesus without these people getting upset. I really don’t understand it.”

“I understand it,” I told her and then asked her, “Have you ever read what Jesus said about himself?”

“No, not really.”

“Jesus claimed to be your Lord. He said that He was the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. He called Himself the Son of God. He said that unless you believed in Him, you would die in your sins.

“I think these leaders are angry at the name of Jesus not because they misunderstand him but because they perfectly understand him.”

Jesus has always divided the people. In His own day, some people worshiped him while others crucified him. It is no different today. Jesus was and always has been a lightning rod. His claims offended many people.  Those who think that all religions say the same thing must ignore the central claims of Christ to do so, for He spoke of Himself in a way that no sane man talks, and, in doing so, He founded a faith that is like no other religion on earth.

Nowhere in any religious system will you find anything that approaches the Christian concept of the Incarnation. Scripture says that God paid a visit to earth. This visit, however, is nothing like Zeus or Apollo coming and going and taking on various forms to suit their pleasures. It is far beyond Allah reigning with authority and justice from heaven. It is contrary to the nature gods of Hinduism or the impersonal forces of Buddhism. Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses scorn it; Hindus trivialize it; philosophers denounce it as nonsense. No one understands it. It is distorted, then criticized, but when not distorted it is still not fully comprehensible. The radical claim of the Christian faith is that, for a period of about thirty years, the eternal and transcendent God walked around on earth, ate, slept, wept, spoke, died. The central claim of the Christian faith is that there was a man who was God.

If this claim does not strike you as somehow shocking, you do not understand it. It is the central reason why people reject Jesus. As long as we talk about turning the other cheek or loving your neighbor or forgiving as God has forgiven you, people are with us. They like Jesus. He taught many good things. To some people, Jesus is like a big teddy bear. But when this good teacher begins to say that he and the Father are one or that the Son of Man shall return on the clouds of glory or that he has the right to give and take life, we squirm. The authorities in Jesus’ day squirmed, too. His claims were a large part of the problem they had with him. He said, “before Abraham was, I am” and they picked up stones to stone him. They knew what he was saying.

And so do we. In fact, that’s the problem. If we somehow thought that Jesus was saying something different, we would not squirm so. Nor would we devise so many elaborate ways to circumvent His claims. You know. “Jesus’ claims were just legend,” or “what he really meant was…” These efforts betray a lack of faith. A follower of Jesus does not spend time debunking what Scripture plainly says. The real problem people have with Jesus’ claims is not intellectual.  It’s that his claims get in the way with how we live. If Jesus was God on earth, then He really does have the right to be the center of our lives. He has, as He claimed, “all authority in heaven and on earth.” That is the sticking point.

Jesus says He gets to run your life.  Indeed, He gets to run the universe.  You can reply, “How dare he say that!”  Or you can bow your knees.

… for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin.” (Heb 4:15)

Lord, we rejoice that you understand our plight, that you were one of us and one with us.  We glory in your weakness, for your weakness is power.

Jesus was a man, and because He was a man He can represent you and me. That’s what we discussed last week. Consequently, we who follow Jesus derive much comfort from His humanity, “for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are — yet was without sin” (Heb 4:15).

People long to have someone understand them, and when we see a person who has been through what we go through, we instantly relate to him. We see that we are not alone. We see a friend.

Corrie Ten Boom is one of my favorite Christians to read about. I would have loved to have sat and had coffee with her and talked for hours. She is so simple and pure and deep all at once. I relish the opportunity to see her in heaven. During World War II, she spent time in a Nazi concentration camp called Ravensbruck. She and her family were put there for hiding Jews and helping them flee the country from the Germans. Though she herself survived the concentration camp, her father and sister did not. She saw hell on earth. After she was released from Ravensbruck, she traveled the world and spoke of God’s love in Christ. One day she spoke in a prison in Ruanda, Africa. She spoke of the joy of the Lord that one can have even in prison, but she knew that many of the inmates were thinking, “After you talk you can go home, away from this stinking prison. It is easy to talk about joy when you are free. But we must stay here” (Tramp For the Lord, 80). She then told the prisoners about Ravensbruck — about roll call at 4:30 AM, about standing in the icy air shivering for three hours, about seeing the woman in front of her getting beaten because she could no longer stand on her feet, about looking at the smokestacks of the furnaces where the prisoners were burned, and about God reminding her of His presence in the midst of all this.

She said, “I looked out at the men who were sitting in front of me. No longer were their faces filled with darkness and anger. They were listening — intently — for they were hearing from someone who had walked where they were now walking.”

This is what Jesus has done by taking on flesh and blood. He has walked where you are now walking. He knows what you struggle with — better than you know it yourself. He became one of us.

This act of Jesus taking on humanity is the greatest sacrifice the world has ever seen. For all the power Jesus had, He chose to voluntarily set aside certain divine rights and become weak. He still had these rights. He simply chose to hide them. He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross (Ph 2:8). It is God’s way. When we are weak, then we are strong (II Cor 12:10). The weakness of God is stronger than the strength of men (I Cor 1:25). When we are weak we are becoming more like Jesus, who emptied Himself in order to take on the form of a man. We see the glory of God more clearly in the sufferings of Christ than we do in all the pomp and power of this world. Unfortunately, most people pursue the pomp and power and never see the glory.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (Jn 1:14)

For there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (I Tim 2:5)

Lord, you became flesh to redeem flesh.  Praise Your Name.

Jesus was a man. That doctrine is central to Christianity. The creed says He is “fully man.” The Scripture says “He became flesh” (Jn 1:14) and calls Him the “man, Christ Jesus” (I Tim 2:5).   This basic Christian belief about the ordinary humanity of Jesus is not unique. Atheists, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Taoists, Sikhs, you name it — all of these would agree that Jesus was a man. Sometimes, however, people think that Christians miss this idea, that Jesus’ followers deify Him to the point that He ceases to be human.

Quite the opposite is the case. Any attempt to make Jesus purely spiritual — as certain types of Gnosticism did in the first century — is not and cannot be Christian. Such attempts fly in the face of too many plain Scriptural references to the humanity of Jesus. Jesus, simply put, was one of us.

We too blithely pass this over. We think it nothing more than a nice doctrine. “Yes, yes. Jesus is human. So what?” We may not consciously say it that way, but that’s how we live. We don’t comprehend the depths of the humility involved in the humanity of Jesus. Or the love, which it so plainly shows. We think the doctrine quite ordinary and pat ourselves on the back for being reasonable folks. In reality, it is perhaps the most extraordinary sacrifice the world has ever seen. The weakness of Jesus is one of the greatest displays of the glory of God we will ever know. And we miss it. We miss it because He is so like us. We see humanity every day. We’re surrounded by it. We don’t think it glorious. So we don’t understand what is going on with Jesus.

When I was in elementary school, the teacher sometimes would have a little contest to give out some privilege.

“OK class,” she might say. “We just went over multiplying fractions. Now, I want one boy and one girl to come to the board. OK Marcus, you’re the boy. And Bethany, you’re the girl. Now get ready. I’m going to give you one problem to solve. If Marcus gets it right first, the boys get to leave for lunch first. But if Bethany gets it right first, the girls go to lunch first.” The fate of the entire group rested on the representative.

Something like that has gone on in history. Jesus is human; therefore, He can represent humans. His death can free you and me because He was like you and me. The power of His resurrection is for us because He was one of us.

The first man became the head of the race and brought sin into the world. In the same way Jesus has become the head of a new race and has brought righteousness into the world. Since the ultimate source of sin goes back to the head of the race, God’s ultimate solution must fix the head of the race. God does this by providing a new head of the human race. In Christ, God is undoing what Adam did. Or maybe we could say He is redoing Adam. God is saying, in effect, “Let’s start this human race all over.” But to do that, God must have a human.

Jesus is the human head of the new human race. The old race is characterized by sin. The new race is characterized by righteousness. We are members of the old race by birth. We are members of the new race by new birth. We inherited the nature of the old race from its founder. We inherit the nature of the new race from its founder. The humanity of Jesus makes all of this possible. Strip Him of His humanity, and you strip Christianity of its redemptive power.

The humanity of Jesus is not just a reasonable Christian doctrine. It is essential to many other Christian doctrines and central to the work of Christ.

On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. (Rev 19:16)

Therefore God has exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Ph 2:9-11)

But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.” (Heb 1:8)

Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way …” (Ps 2:11-12a)

Lord Jesus, You sit on the throne at the right hand of the Father. Forever You are king, and forever You shall reign over all other kings, for in Your presence, they are not kings at all. I bow my soul to the king of kings.

One day the President of the United States will be forgotten, the Premier of China will have no power, and the Prime Minister of England will be dust. One day these rulers will meet their king. When that happens, they will bow to Jesus of Nazareth — the king of kings.

The Bible is plain that Jesus outranks all other authorities. He is the ultimate commander in chief. He rules over all, and He is king because of who He is. He was not elected to His position, and He does not answer to the people. He did not attain His status through a coup or a war. He has always been the king of kings, and He shall always be the king of kings. He rules over every authority as God (Heb 1:8). He reigns over Earth because He made it (Jn 1:2; Col 1:16). He has authority to forgive all sins (Mk 2:1-12). He is the final judge of the human race, and all people must honor Him just as they honor the Father (Jn 5:22-23). He has life in himself (Jn 5:21). He is the resurrection and the life (Jn 11:25). All who believe in Him will never die (v. 26). He is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6). He is the unique Son of God and the glorious Son of Man. He receives worship (Mt 2:11; 14:33; 28:9). He is higher than the angels (Heb 1:1-6). He existed before Abraham (Jn 8:58).

The follower of Jesus must come to grips with this aspect of Jesus. Christ is not just a babe in a manger or a tragic victim of Roman oppression. He is the author of the whole story, the exalted ruler of heaven and earth. Deny this, and you deny God Himself. Embrace this, and God radically changes your life.  Acknowledging the rightful king is part of being a citizen of the kingdom of God.

To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: (I Cor 1:2)

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption… (I Cor 1:30)

Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (I Cor 6:9b-11)

…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. (Eph 1:4)

And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Heb 10:10)

Praise you, Father, for you have placed me in Christ and in doing so have made me holy. I am yours because in Christ you have set me apart for yourself.

Martin Luther hammered 95 theses on the church door at Wittenberg and ignited the Reformation. This event is what most people think of when they think of Luther. Luther, however, did so much more than begin the Reformation. He pastored churches, shepherded leaders, taught theology, and wrote voluminously on both theological and practical matters.

David Robinson played basketball for the San Antonio Spurs. He won two NBA titles and a Most Valuable Player award on the way to a Hall of Fame career. These facts are what most people think of when they think of David Robinson. Robinson, however, did so much more than play basketball. He provided college scholarships to at-risk kids, founded a private school for low-income students, proclaimed Christ to San Antonio youth, and much more.

When we think of famous people, we tend to think only of the famous stuff. I suppose that’s natural, but it can be limiting, especially when we come to Jesus.

Most people who know anything about Jesus know that He died to save us from our sins, that His death on the Cross was the punishment for our sins, bringing forgiveness and salvation. Jesus, however, did so much more than bring salvation. He conquered death; He defeated Satan, and He sanctified us through and through. Now “sanctify” is a Bible word that means something like “to make holy, righteous, pure; to set apart for God.” This means that Jesus did more than the famous stuff — more than bring salvation.  Jesus came to make us new, clean, holy, blameless.

The holiness of God that is in Christ is given to all who are also in Christ. This means that the foundation for holy living is not in our attempts at moral behavior. It is not in our good deeds or our repentance. It is not in anything we do. The foundation for holy living is Jesus.

In Him, we are holy. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb 10:10). It is a past event and it is once for all. Paul writes to the church in Corinth and addresses “those who were sanctified in Christ Jesus” (I Cor 1:2). He sees sanctification as a completed deed in Christ.

Holiness is not something we manufacture. It is a gift of God that we already have in Christ just as salvation is a gift of God that we have in Christ. Holiness is not something we strive for apart from Christ. It is something we rest in when we are in Christ. We are called to live a holy life (I Pet 1:15-16) because we have been made a holy people. Holiness is part of our identity in Christ. It’s who we are.

We are holy because our old self has been crucified with Christ (Rm 6:1-11). We have died with Him (Gal 2:20; Col 3:3). God punished our sin through the shedding of the blood on the Cross. Consequently, the just punishment has been served, and we have access to forgiveness. But God also eliminated the source of our sin through the death of our old self on the Cross. In Christ, the sinful you is dead. You have a new you. This is part of the work of Christ. He has made a new race, and He Himself is the head (I Cor 15:20-23; 45-49).

Of course, we are to live out the new life God has given us, and that “living out” involves practical things like telling the truth, fighting greed, remaining sexually pure, and controlling our temper.  Sometimes people think of these practices as sanctification, and in one sense they are correct.  But in another sense, sanctification in Christ precedes the practices.  The practices are the consequence of what Christ has done.  We remain sexually pure because we are holy.  Trying to live a holy life is no good unless it is first grounded in the real sanctification that we already have in Christ. If we try to live a holy life apart from Christ, it is like trying to spend a million dollars when we have only five hundred in the bank. But if we rest in Christ and in the finished holiness He has procured for us through the Cross and Resurrection, suddenly we find that we have billions of dollars in the account. Holiness is ultimately not a work of ours but a work of grace. We were saved by grace, and so we are to live our daily life by grace as well. “Having begun by the Spirit, are [we] now being perfected by the flesh?” (Gal 3:3) The entire life of the follower of Jesus is a gift of grace that we access through faith in the finished work of Christ. Salvation comes that way, but so does sanctification. A holy, righteous life comes from Jesus. It does not come from us.

It is important for us to acknowledge this aspect of the work of Christ, for it is woefully neglected in the common preaching and writing of the contemporary church. Jesus is not just our Savior. He is also our Sanctifier. He does not just forgive sins. He frees us from sin itself — from its power, its grip. We can live a new life because He has made us a new creature. Or to put it another way, we can live a new life because we are in Him. He has made us holy in the sight of God. That is simply who we are.

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 16:16-17)

Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” And Jesus said, “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” (Mk 14:61-2)

[Jesus] said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Lk 24:25-6)

The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” (Jn 4:25-26)

Father, you have sent your Son, foretold through the prophets, to be the long-awaited Messiah of the Jewish people, and thus, to be their king and mine.

Jesus was a Jew. Peter was a Jew. Paul was a Jew. James, John, Thomas, Phillip and Silas were all Jews. Almost all of Jesus’ first followers were Jews. Jesus came to the Jewish people with a distinctly Jewish message, and the entire New Testament oozes Judaism. There can be no question that faith in Jesus is Jewish.

I know. It sounds weird. Some people think I am contradicting myself — trying to pass off some religious version of a round square. But they do not understand Jesus. The babe in Bethlehem is not chapter one of the story. It is the continuation of a story that had been going on for thousands of years. And that story is distinctly Jewish. Even the very word “Christ” is merely the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah” or Anointed One, the long-awaited Hebrew king. Whenever you say that so-and-so is a Christian, what you are really saying is that she is part of something distinctly Jewish.

Jesus was a Jew who came to the Jews. He gave them a completely Jewish message and claimed for Himself a uniquely Jewish identity. When He did so, He divided His own people. Some loved Him and gave their lives to follow Him; some bitterly opposed Him. Many came to see a miracle; many came to hear Him teach; but some came to trap Him. Few who heard Him were neutral. He inspired adoration and anger. A Jew living in Galilee or Judea in AD 30 had an opinion one way or the other about the rabbi Yeshua.

To the Jewish people, certainly the central question surrounding the identity of this new rabbi was this: “Is he the promised Messiah?” The squabble over that question was an entirely internal Jewish affair. It was like a great big family disagreement. Have you ever seen family argue?

“Sam, why did you stay home when I needed you to come? You don’t love me.”

“Of course I love you, Mandy. That’s why I didn’t come. My presence would not have helped you. It’s time to grow up.”

The family may argue over whether Sam loves Mandy, but much of the argument centers on this question: “How do you define love?” Sam and Mandy disagree on that definition, but it is the key to whether or not Sam shows love to his sister. Something like this is going on between Jesus and the Jewish people of his day. On the surface, the question looks like “Is he the Messiah?” In reality, the question is “What defines Messiah?”

To the Jewish people, Messiah could mean different things, but perhaps the most popular concept of Messiah in Jesus’ day was that of a conquering political or military leader who would deliver his people from the oppression of pagan nations. He would be a king, the son of David.

Any plain reading of the gospels shows that this rabbi Jesus considered Himself to be Messiah. But his concept of Messiah was bigger than the popular concept. To Jesus, Messiah had to suffer. This idea was foreign to the popular notion and understandably so. Conquering kings are not generally portrayed as suffering and dying. But to Jesus, the idea of a suffering Messiah came from the Jewish Scriptures. Isaiah 53 speaks of a suffering servant who brings peace and healing to Israel through his suffering, a man who bears the sorrows and sins of the people and who is crushed as a guilt offering. Though he is rejected, he will be called great. To Jesus, this man is Messianic. To Jesus, this suffering does not negate the fact that the Messiah is a conquering king. To Jesus, Messiah is big enough to encompass both categories. That is why he can call himself Messiah and still say that he will die.

To many first century Jews, Jesus’ crucifixion was evidence enough that he could not have been Messiah. No Messiah would ever die such a death. To Jesus and his followers, however, the crucifixion was part of the evidence that he was Messiah. Through His death He delivered his people from a bondage greater than that of Rome. And his Resurrection from the dead conquers a foe much stronger and more significant than any king could ever imagine. Jesus went through death in order to vanquish it. This is not the popular Jewish concept of Messiah. It is much more surprising. It is also greater.

But the suffering that Jesus said Messiah would endure is not the only problem that many Jews had with him. To Jesus and his followers, Messiah was also the Son of God (Mt 16:16). At one level, this claim is more compatible with common Jewish ideas, for many Jews believed that Messiah would have supernatural origins. In fact, Psalm 2 expressly identifies Messiah as God’s Son.   But the Jewish people did not imagine anything like Jesus’ claim to be God in the flesh. That idea would have been foreign to most Jewish thinking. In this sense, Messiah is more exalted than the popular Jewish notions.

Thus, the picture that Jesus paints of Messiah is of a servant who suffers and dies (Mt 16:13-23) and of a glorious figure coming on the clouds of heaven (Mk 14:61-2). To Jesus, Messiah is at the same time lower and higher than the most popular Jewish notions of him. Jesus took the idea of Messiah to a new level, or perhaps I should say to multiple levels. But he certainly did not fit the box. In fact, when certain Jews tried to make him king by force, he rejected the attempt (Jn 6:15). He was not that type of king.

Indeed, even his followers did not fully understand. They saw his miracles, heard his teachings and believed on that basis, but that did not mean that they comprehended what they believed. The claim of the New Testament is that the real Messiah transcended all human expectations of him. Jesus was much more humble and glorious than anyone ever thought Messiah could be.

Thus, Christianity is Jewish. But it is more than Jewish. It is for the world. The promised Messiah was to be a light to the Gentiles (Is 49:6). The God that the Jews worshipped has revealed himself to all peoples, but he has done so in a distinctly Jewish way. We bow before the king of the Jews.

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. (Mt 1:21)

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (Jn 3:17)

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. (I Jn 4:14)

I was dead but now I live. And I live because of my Savior. Hallelujah!

When a two-year-old girl falls into a river, she is in trouble. Unless someone saves her, she has just a few minutes to live. When a man is trapped on the tenth floor of a burning building, he is in trouble. He has no power to put the fire out, and he dies if he jumps. Someone needs to help him, or he is gone.

The Scriptures plainly teach that our plight is much like that of the two-year-old girl and the man in the burning building. We are in grave trouble, and unless someone saves us, we have no hope. The reason we are in grave trouble is that we have often disobeyed God, and we cannot escape His judgment. But the Scriptures also teach that we do have a person to save us.

Jesus is that person, and the term His followers use to describe this aspect of Him is “Savior.” A savior is simply a person who saves someone. The man who rescues the girl from the river is her savior in a real way, and the fire department that rescues the man from the building is his savior because it saved him from certain destruction.

Now when Jesus saves us, He does not save us from the river or the burning building. He does not save us from an oncoming army or a pestilence or a thief or environmental destruction. To be sure, these things are real, but as serious as these problems might be, you and I have a deeper problem still. When Jesus saves us, He saves us from our sin.

The reality is that, apart from Jesus, you and I stand before a holy and righteous God, and we do so with sin on our hands and in our hearts. When seen from the perspective of eternity, the consequences of that sin are more dire than the consequences of the river or the fire. The river can kill the body but cannot harm the soul. A just God, however, can destroy both body and soul in hell. Our sin is a disease we cannot overcome and a disease that brings a calamity such as earth has never seen nor ever will see.

But we don’t see it. We make light of it. We sleep as we live. The two-year-old girl doesn’t understand the danger she is in. Sometimes that’s how she got in the water in the first place. She doesn’t know that she needs a savior. She doesn’t see that her life is about to end. But it is. Whether she sees it or not. Unless someone rescues her.  So it is with so many who never see the seriousness of their sin.  They will perish even if they never see their danger.

Jesus is our rescuer, our savior. He became our savior through the Cross. Sometimes a government will send special forces behind enemy lines to rescue citizens who have been kidnapped and are being held prisoner. We are those prisoners, held captive by our sin. Jesus is God’s one-man SEAL team, and the Cross is the rescue plan. The Cross wipes away sin. It crushes its power. Those who come under the Cross are rescued. They are saved.

Our savior, by virtue of the Cross, brings us to God. He allows us to fulfill the purpose for which we were made. He makes us clean. And free.  And whole. And full of life.

The proper response to a savior is joy. You were lost but now are found. You were blind but now you see. You were dead but now you live. This is why God’s people sing. They have been rescued from the pit. They have seen the ugliness of their sin, but they have also seen the beauty of their salvation. God’s people rejoice in their savior Jesus Christ. They do so because they see.

A second proper response to a savior is gratitude. We would think ill of the man rescued from the burning building if he felt no gratitude toward his rescuers. We would think his heart calloused. The follower of Jesus owes Him a great debt. Consequently, God’s people feel the significance of what Jesus has done for them and are grateful from the heart.

…because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rm 10:9)

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. (II Cor 4:5)

And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David? David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared, ‘The LORD said to my Lord, “’Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’” David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son? (Mk 12:35-7)

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:27-28)

Why do you call me “Lord, Lord,” and not do what I tell you? (Lk 6:46)

If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come [Maranatha]! (I Cor 16:22)

Lord, You are king.  I have no other.  Praise to Your name.

The most basic and common proclamation of a follower of Jesus is that “Jesus is Lord!” That simple statement is the foundation of a life lived for God, for in simplest terms, a follower of God is one for whom Jesus has become Lord. The New Testament could not be clearer. Jesus is declared “Lord” more than any other name, and the title is early and widespread. When Paul writes to the Greek-speaking church of Corinth in the mid-50s, he quotes, in Aramaic, a saying that goes back to the original Aramaic-speaking church. He writes “Maranatha,” which means “Our Lord, come!” He does not translate it but refers to it as if everybody knows what it means. Indeed, the New Testament declares Jesus “Lord” so many times, that the term has actually become another name for Jesus.

Here’s what the word means. In the Bible, sometimes the word “Lord” is a blatant reference to God, as we see in phrases like “Thus says the Lord” and “the day of the Lord.” Other times, the word refers simply to a person in authority. One might use the word to describe a king, a commander, a business owner, the head of a respected house, or the master of some slaves, but no one ever called the garbage man “Lord.”

In the New Testament, the word is used of Jesus in both ways, but at its lowest common denominator, both ways still get at one common idea, for no matter which meaning a passage uses, it is still saying that Jesus has authority. Therefore, when people say that Jesus is Lord, what they are saying is that He is king and has every right to demand our allegiance and obedience. In other words, if Jesus is Lord, we have to do what He says. That’s what “Lord” means.

Many people like Jesus but dislike the Lord part. To them, Jesus is a wonderful teacher and a great role model, but “Lord” is going a bit far. Let’s make no mistake. A follower of Jesus follows Jesus. Disciples are not just attracted to Jesus; they are committed to Him as Lord. To Jesus, attraction without commitment is phony. Jesus is not looking for people who merely like Him. He is looking for people who will lay down their lives. That’s what “Lord” means.

When people trust Jesus, He changes their lives. You will often meet people who say they trust Jesus but whose lives haven’t changed. They say they belong to Him, but they live no different from everyone else. It is quite possible that what they thought was faith was not faith. Perhaps it was attraction; perhaps it was a warm, fuzzy feeling. True faith trusts Jesus, and “Lord” is simply who Jesus is. The problem with these people is that Jesus is not their Lord. They may call Him Savior.  They may call Him wonderful.  They may see beauty in His words.  But He isn’t their Lord because if He was, they would actually follow Him. That’s what “Lord” means.

If Jesus is Lord, it affects life. Submitting to Him is not just about church and worship. It includes work, food, sex, money, talents, desires, family relations — everything. If Jesus is Lord, He gets to decide how we spend our money, how we use our talents, which desires we pursue and how. He directs our career, our family planning, and our sex life. He tells us when to fast, when to sleep or get up, and what to say or not say to our relatives. I don’t mean He micromanages every word or detail. I do mean that if Jesus is Lord, He has authority in all these areas of our lives — and more. That’s what “Lord” means.