“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:31-33)
Review We’ve been talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the last two sermons, we talked about His earthly life. One of the most amazing truths we find in the Bible is that the Son of God, who was the word of God through which all things were created, came to the world in human form. We call it the incarnation of Jesus. Jesus had an earthly life just like us. He too was born a baby. But there was a fundamental difference between His birth and our births. The gospels of Matthew and Luke testify to the great truth that He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit without a human biological father. We call this the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. This event is important in understanding the essence of the gospel. We talked about three facts we know from Jesus’ virgin birth. First, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ allows us to realize that our salvation comes from the Lord. Jesus’ birth didn’t just randomly happen. It was repeatedly promised and written about in the Holy Scriptures long before it actually took place, which means that it was carefully planned by God and fulfilled at the exact time that He set. As the angel Gabriel told Joseph, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said….” (Mt 1:21-22) So, we see God’s divine plan and providence and His sovereignty over our salvation through the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. It is a great reminder that salvation is the work of God Himself, not our work. Second, the virgin birth of Jesus allows us to understand how it’s possible for Him to be fully God and fully human at the same time. The story wasn’t written to emphasize how Jesus is different from us. The focus of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ lies in how the two natures—human and divine—perfectly coexist in Jesus. From the fact that He was born to a human mother, we know that He was fully human like us. But, at the same time, Jesus being conceived by the Holy Spirit without a human father shows that He was fully divine, the Son of God. And the fact that Jesus is fully God and fully human is important in our salvation because it allows us to understand how He’s able to mediate between us and God and reconcile us with Him. The virgin birth of Jesus Christ is God’s wisdom and power which makes it possible for Him to be with us, which is evident in Jesus’ other name ‘Immanuel,’ which means ‘God with us.’ Third, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ shows us how He could be sinless, unlike all other human beings. The first representative of human beings is Adam. Because he disobeyed God, sin and death came to all people. But Jesus wasn’t from Adam because He didn’t have a biological father. That was God’s way to show us His sinlessness. This is also very important in understanding salvation. Because Jesus was sinless, His sacrifice on the cross could perfectly wash away sin. And because He was the new representative of human beings as the Son of God, the effect of the atonement could reach all people on earth. These are the great truths we know from the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and they tell us why His name is the only way, truth, and life through which we can be saved. Jesus, the Descendant of David Now, let’s move on to the next part of Jesus’ earthly life. When the apostle Paul introduced the gospel in the book of Romans, he emphasized that Jesus was a descendant of David. Paul said, “Regarding his Son… his earthly life was a descendant of David” (Rom 1:3) This sentence may make us wonder because we just talked about Jesus not having a biological father even though Joseph accepted Him as his son. Then, why did Paul say that Jesus was a descendant of David? What did he want to emphasize by saying that? Why is it important that Jesus is a descendant of David? Jesus had to be a descendant of David to fulfill God’s word because the meaning of being a descendent of David is to be an eternal king, not only the king of Israel, but also of the whole world and of the kingdom of God. When the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to inform her of her pregnancy through the Holy Spirit, he told her, “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:31-33) Here, Jacob’s descendants don’t just refer to the physical descendants of Abraham, but to all those who would be justified by faith in Jesus. Paul said in Gal 3, “Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham… those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” (Gl 3:7, 8) So, if we have faith in Jesus, we are also blessed along with Abraham, and we become his descendants spiritually no matter what ethnicity we are. It means that we become God’s people whom our Lord Jesus Christ reigns over in His kingdom forever with the heavenly authority given by God. “The Son of David” So today, we’ll explore the meaning of Jesus being the Son of David, along with its theological importance when it comes to the gospel. In the Bible, we find many cases in which people call Jesus ‘the Son of David.’ When Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching people, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing disease and sickness, news about Him spread quickly and soon large crowds started to follow Him. And they often called Jesus the Son of David. Mt 9:26 says, “As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” Mt 15:22 says, “A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly” (Mt 15:22). The most dramatic use of the phrase "Son of David" was when Jesus went into Jerusalem on a donkey. Mt 21:8-9 says, “A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (Mt 21:8-9). This is how the large crowds in Jerusalem fervently welcomed Jesus when He entered the city. What’s important here is what they called Jesus. They shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David”. So, why did these people call Jesus “the Son of David” and what did they imply by doing so? That’s the question I want us to think about today. The bottom line is that ‘the Son of David’ refers to the Messiah promised in the Old Testament. Son of David: The Messiah One day, while Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, He asked, “Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David?” (Mk 12:35). The teachers of the law at that time taught that the Messiah was the Son of David. They likely said that the Messiah would come according to God’s promise in the Old Testament and that the Messiah would be a son of David. So, why did they teach that? The basic meaning of ‘Messiah’ is the one who is anointed. In the Bible, three groups of people were anointed—kings, priests, and prophets. Among the three, the term “Messiah” specifically refers to the king who would be anointed by God because it was often used along with David, who is considered the greatest king in the history of Israel. Here are some Bible verses that predicted that the Messiah would come as a descendant of David. First, Isaiah 9:6-7 says, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this” (Is 9:6-7) Through the prophet Jeremiah, God said, “The days are coming, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior” (Jr 23:5-6). Micah 5:2-3, which is considered to be one of the most important Messiah prophecies, says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites” (Mc 5:2-3). Even though the name ‘David’ doesn’t appear here in this verse, we can find a strong connection between this prophecy and David, since Bethlehem was known for being David’s hometown. So, all the Jews likely thought of David when they read this verse. These verses predicted that the Messiah, the anointed eternal King, would be a descendant of David. That’s the Messiah that the Israelites longed for for a long time. And, finally, Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Even though He didn’t have a biological father, Joseph, one of David’s descendants, decided to accept Him as his son. When Jesus was thirty years old, He started performing miracles. With his great power, Jesus healed many people and cast out demons. And with His wonderful wisdom, Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom of heaven and taught people God’s word. What He taught and how He taught was unheard of by the Jews of that time. That’s the reason many people thought that Jesus was the Messiah whom God had promised to send in the Old Testament and who would restore the kingdom of Israel. That’s why a lot of Jews fervently welcomed Jesus, waving palm branches in the air and shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” Then, we should also consider why the Bible says that the Messiah will come as a descendant of David. As you may know, Israel had three kings before it was split into two kingdoms. David was the second king of Israel. He was an excellent king. Even though David made mistakes and committed some very cruel sins, he never gave up seeking the Lord and always came back to Him, repenting of his sins. David did a lot of things while he was king of Israel, but his greatest achievement was that he laid the foundation for the construction of the temple of God. One day, having in mind to build a temple for the Lord, David called the prophet Nathan and said, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent” (2 Sm 7:2). Until that time, the temple of God hadn't been built yet and God’s presence was still in a tent. David felt bad about that so he wanted to build a temple. He told what was in his heart to Nathan and that night God spoke to Nathan. 2 Sm 7:5-7 says, “Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” (2 Sm 7:5-7). God added, “When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’” (2Sm 7:12,13, 16) These verses are very important in understanding the meaning of ‘the son of David’. David wanted to build a house of God, and God was really pleased. So God made David a promise that He would establish the throne of David’s kingdom forever. This covenant is called “the Davidic Covenant,” and it is considered one of the most important covenants in the Bible. And, as God promised, He kept David’s descendants on the throne. After David died, his son Solomon succeeded him on the throne. Solomon was a good king like his father at first. He sought a discerning heart to distinguish between right and wrong in order to rule over God’s people, and God gave him wisdom. Moreover, he finished building the temple of the Lord. However, he ended up falling into the sin of idolatry because his wives from other nations turned his heart after other gods. 1 Kg 11:6-8 says, “Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done. On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods” (1Kg 11:6-8) However, even though Solomon did many evil things before God, God didn’t dethrone him because He remembered the covenant He made with Solomon's father David. As a consequence of Solomon’s evil idolatry, Israel ended up being divided into two nations—the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. But, even after Israel was divided into two nations, God faithfully kept the covenant He had made with David. Both nations had 19 kings each, but unlike the northern kingdom of Israel which had different dynasties, all the kings of southern Judah were descendants of David. That’s how God faithfully kept the covenant He made with David. However, what God really meant when He told David, “your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever’” (2Sm 7: 16), wasn’t about David’s biological descendants or the kingdom of Israel. What God had in mind was that He would send His own Son as a descendant of David who would take care of His people with His heart and rule the kingdom of God as an everlasting king. As God said through the prophet Ezekiel, “I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken.” (Ezk 34:23-24) “David my servant will be their prince forever… I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will put my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Ezk 37:25-27) This is the meaning of Jesus being the Son of David. It means that He was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament that God promised to send to be with His people, take care of them, and rule over them forever with His justice and righteousness. That’s what we must remember when it comes to who Jesus is. Even though He came to the world in the form of a servant to pay the ransom for our sins, when He returns, He will come back as the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the mighty Judge. Jesus is Christ. The name Jesus emphasizes His role in saving people from their sins, but ‘Christ’, which is ‘the Messiah’ in Greek, allows us to know that He is the King and the Lord of everything. We shouldn’t separate these two. If you accept Jesus as your Savior, you must also acknowledge Him as your King and Lord. There will come a time when He comes back with His heavenly dignity and glory. On that day, He will bring the kingdom of God, and we will be with Him forever. Our God, who faithfully and completely fulfilled all the prophecies about the Messiah to come in the Old Testament, is still working toward His promise. And He will never stop until He fulfills every promise He made. God knows everything and has the power to do all things. He will keep His promise to come back and bring us to His kingdom. Until that day comes, we should keep our faith in Jesus, professing that He is not only our Savior but our Lord, and make every effort to live out the truth by following our Lord’s will for us no matter what comes our way. I hope that God opens the hearts of every one of us here so that we can truly acknowledge Jesus as our Savior and our Lord and so that we can continue to keep our faith by living for Him and giving Him all the glory until He returns. Let’s pray. [Prayer] Dear God, we thank You for giving us this precious opportunity to think about and know who Your Son Jesus Christ is through Your word. We thank You for every promise You’ve made and fulfilled regarding the Messiah. We profess that Jesus Christ is the Son of David whom You sent to save us and rule over us with His justice and righteousness. We thank You for Your faithfulness and zeal for us. Now Lord, we want to stand firmly on the foundation of the truth of Jesus Christ. Reveal to us who He truly is so that we may have stronger faith in Him and follow Him. We profess that Jesus is Christ. We proclaim that He is not only our Savior but also our Lord. Help us keep our faith in Him and give us the courage and strength to follow Jesus’ way until He returns and brings us to Your kingdom. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, we pray. Amen. [Reflection Questions] 1. Who do you think Jesus is? Is He both Savior and Lord to you? Do you think it is possible to accept Him only as Savior and not as Lord? Why do you think it is important to acknowledge Jesus as not only ‘the Lamb of God’ but also ‘the Son of David’? (Mt 1:18) This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.
(Mt 1:19) Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. (Mt 1:20) But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. (Mt 1:21) She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Mt 1:22) All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: (Mt 1:23) “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). (Mt 1:24) When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. (Mt 1:25) But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus. Review We’ve been talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ. In Romans 1:1-4, Paul briefly but excellently explained what the gospel of Jesus Christ is. He divided the gospel into four parts. First, “[God] promised [the gospel] beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures” (Rom 1:2) That’s what we’ve explored for the last few months. We’ve discussed how God gradually revealed what Jesus would do through signs, events, figures, and prophecies in the Old Testament. Second, Paul said that even though Jesus was the Son of God, He had an earthly life just like us. Third, Paul said that Jesus was raised from the dead. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important part of the gospel. Out of these three parts, we started to talk about the second part—the earthly life of Jesus Christ. As I said last Sunday, one of the most amazing facts about the Son of God is that He had an earthly life like us. The God we believe in is the God who actually came down to the world in human form. The word who was with God, who was God, who existed even before the creation of the world, and through whom all things were made became flesh and made His dwelling among us. He is the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and we call this amazing event His incarnation. Last Sunday, we talked about two reasons the Son of God came to the world. First, Jesus came to the world in human form to have a physical body like us so that He could bleed and die, which is an essential condition in making atonement. Second, Jesus visibly revealed Himself to show us that God is alive and that He works for our salvation. If the written word had been the only way through which we could know God, it would have been much harder for us to believe in Him. But, God revealed Himself by lowering Himself, becoming one of His creatures, and making His dwelling among us. That’s how we can have assurance that He does exist. These two reasons are closely related to the consequences of sin. Sin in its nature severs our relationship with God. It blinds us so that we can’t perceive Him and makes us ignorant of God. And, sin results in separation from God, which brings eternal death. However, by becoming a human being, Jesus solved these problems. He showed us who the heavenly Father is through His earthly life and reconciled us with Him through His sacrifice and death. That’s the reason the name of Jesus is good news to us. The Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ Now, let’s continue to talk about Jesus’ earthly life. Today, I want us to especially focus on how He was born. The gospels of Matthew and Luke testify that Jesus was born of a virgin woman named Mary. The story of Jesus’ birth begins with Mary, who was pledged to be married to a man named Joseph. One day, God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary to tell her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.” (Lk 1:30-31) When she first heard this, Mary didn’t understand what the angel was saying because she hadn’t married Joseph yet and thus was a virgin at that time. So she replied to Gabriel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” (Lk 1:34) Then the angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Lk 1:35) The angel told Mary that she would become pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. And after a few months, while she was still unmarried, she conceived a baby just like the angel had said. When Joseph found that his fiancé, Mary, was pregnant, he was confused and greatly discouraged. But he didn’t want to disgrace her publicly. Rather, he tried to divorce her quietly. However, when he was troubled because of Mary’s pregnancy, the angel Gabriel appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”” (Mt 1:20-23) Here, Joseph learned three facts about Mary’s pregnancy. First, what was conceived in Mary was from the power of the Holy Spirit. Second, he would give the baby the name “Jesus,” which means “the Lord saves,” because the baby would save all people from their sins. These two facts by themselves are very important and surprising, but that’s not all. The passage also says that all this took place to fulfill what the prophet Isaiah had said 700 years earlier, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (Is 7:14) So, what we know from this is that Jesus didn’t just randomly come to the world. God had carefully planned His coming and promised it in the Old Testament long before it actually took place. That’s why we can say that the Old Testament is about the Messiah who would come while the New Testament is about the Messiah who has come and who will return. 1. Salvation Comes from the Lord So, what can we learn from the virgin birth of Jesus Christ? The first truth that it teaches us is that God planned our salvation, waited for the perfect time, and finally began to fulfill it with the birth of Jesus Christ. Earlier, we read one of the most important prophecies directly related to the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. The prophet Isaiah had prophesied that the virgin would conceive and give birth to a son around 700 years before Mary conceived Jesus. However, the promise of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ actually goes all the way back to Genesis, as we talked about before when we discussed the protoevangelium. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating from the forbidden tree, God told the serpent, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gn 3:15) Even though the first human beings sinned against God and were destined for eternal death because of their sin, God didn’t let them die. From the very moment sin first came to the world through the disobedience of the first people, God planned to save all people. God knew that true and perfect salvation would only come through His Son, so He said that He would send an offspring from a woman, who would crush the power and authority of sin, death, and Satan. And this promise was fulfilled when Jesus was born of the virgin Mary according to God’s perfect timing that He had set long before it happened. As Paul said, “When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman” (Gal 4:4) From the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, we see God’s divine plan and providence and His sovereignty over our salvation. Jesus’ birth didn’t happen randomly. It was planned and promised by God and perfectly achieved when the set time came through the power of the Holy Spirit, not mere human effort. Therefore, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ is a great reminder that salvation is the work of God Himself. Our salvation only comes through the supernatural work of God, not through our efforts or righteousness. 2. Fully God, Fully Human The second truth we know about Jesus from His virgin birth is that He has two natures—human and divine. One of the important truths we must profess as Christians is that Jesus was fully God and fully human at the same time, and this was evident in His virgin birth. The virgin birth of Jesus Christ was God’s way of uniting full deity and full humanity in Him. There are many extraordinary stories about the births of historically important people, which were often made up to deify them. What these stories imply is that these people were different from everyone else from birth. But, that’s not the focus of the story of Jesus’ birth. The reason Jesus was born of a virgin was not to show us how different He was from us, but to show us how it was possible for Him to be both fully God and fully human at the same time. This becomes clear when we think about two other possible ways in which Jesus might have come to the earth. First, God could have created Jesus as a complete human being in heaven and just sent Him to earth without any human parents. Then, we could definitely see Him as God, but it would have been hard for us to see how Jesus could be fully human as we are. On the other hand, God could have sent Jesus into the world through both a father and a mother. Then we could see Him as fully human, but it would have been hard for us to understand how Jesus was fully God, who is sinless, since His birth would have been just like ours in every way. So, when we think about these other possibilities, it helps us understand how God, in His wisdom and power, combined humanity and divinity in Jesus through the virgin birth. Jesus’ full humanity is evident in His ordinary birth from a human mother. But at the same time, Jesus’ full deity is also evident in His extraordinary birth since He was conceived by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit, without a human father. So, Jesus was human, but He wasn’t just a man because “in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Col 2:9). The fact that Jesus was fully God and fully human is especially important in our salvation because it explains how He’s able to perfectly save all humanity from their sins and reconcile them with God. Because Jesus is fully human and fully God, He can lead us to God as a human and He can also deliver God’s message to us as God. That’s the reason the apostle Paul calls Jesus the only mediator between God and human beings. 1 Tm 2:5 says, “There is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tm 2:5) A mediator refers to a person who helps people in a conflict come to an agreement. A mediator serves as a reconciler between two people or two groups. It’s important for a mediator to be able to understand both sides. In that sense, only Jesus could serve as the perfect mediator between us and God because He is fully God and fully human. That’s why Jesus said that only He is the way, the truth, and the life through which we can come to the Father in heaven. The prophet Isaiah prophesied that the Son who would be born to the virgin would be called Immanuel, which means ‘God with us.’ So, Jesus was God’s miraculous way of being with us. Through Jesus, God dwells in us and allows us to be reconciled with Him. In Christ, we enjoy a peaceful relationship with God. That’s the second truth we know from the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. 3. A Man without Sin The last important truth we learn about Jesus through His virgin birth is that He was the only Man without sin. One truth about human beings we can find from the Scriptures is that all people are sinners without exception. Romans 5:12 clearly declares, “Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned” (Rom 5:12) It’s not easy to understand how the sin and disobedience of the first man, Adam, and the result, death, can affect all people on earth. But what we at least know is that Adam can represent all human beings since he wasn’t born from human parents but was the first person created by God. So, because Adam is representative of all human beings, all people share his sinful nature as his descendants. Some theologians call this ‘original sin’ or ‘inherited sin.’ So, what the fact that Jesus didn’t have a biological human father shows is that the line of descent from Adam was interrupted. Jesus is the only One who didn’t descend from Adam. And this helps us understand why Adam’s sin, which applies to all other human beings, didn’t apply to Jesus. We also see the sinlessness of Jesus from what the angel Gabriel told Mary. He said, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Lk 1:35) Here, Gabriel connects the virgin birth of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit with His holiness. Because the Son would be conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit, not by a human father, the child was to be called ‘the holy One.’ So the virgin birth allows us to understand how God made it possible for Jesus to be fully human without sharing in Adam’s sin. And, this is very important in understanding His salvation because it tells us how His sacrifice on the cross could perfectly wash away all people’s sin. As we’ve talked about before, in the Old Testament, people sacrificed animals to atone for their sins. And, the most important condition when selecting animals for sacrifice was that they had to be without blemish or defect. That’s because when sinners laid their hands on the heads of the animals before killing them, it wasn’t just that their sin entered the animals, but the innocence and purity of the animals also entered them. In the Old Testament, before Jesus came to the world, animals without defect were used to atone for people’s sin. But they could never be perfect sacrifices because animals by nature couldn’t perfectly replace human beings. So the sacrifice had to be done repeatedly day after day and year after year. Therefore, in order for our sins to be perfectly atoned, we need a person who meets two conditions. The first condition is that the person must be innocent, pure, and sinless. The second is that the person must be able to represent all human beings. And there has been no one in the world throughout human history who could meet these two conditions except Jesus. Because Jesus is the Son of God, He could serve as the representative of all people on earth. That’s the reason Paul calls Jesus ‘the second Adam.’ Paul said in 1Co 15:45-49, “So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit… The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man” (1Co 15:45-49). Here, we find two representatives God sent to the world. The first representative was called Adam. He was of the dust, and so are all those who belong to him. All those who belong to Adam will eventually die in their sins like him. But we see another representative God sent to the world—Jesus Christ. He is called the last Adam not because he shares in his sinful nature but simply because He was a representative like Adam. This second representative is different from the first one since He was of heaven and thus sinless, which means that all those who belong to this Man, Jesus, not Adam, would also have a heavenly image like Him. That’s why God sent Jesus Christ—to forgive our sins and let us become His children of heaven. This is the amazing truth we see from the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. So, the virgin birth teaches us very important truths about Jesus. It was God’s way to perfectly unite divine nature and human nature in Jesus. Because He was a man without sin, He could atone for all our sins. And because He was the Son of God, He could represent all human beings and thus bring all people to His kingdom. What I want to emphasize is that no matter how unreasonable it sounds and no matter what unbelievers think of it, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ is real and it contains significant truths about Him that we must know in order to understand the salvation He gives us. I want to read this verse before we wrap up. “The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (1Co 1:25) No matter what people say about the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, we should recognize it as God’s power and wisdom through which He saves us from our sin and death. These are the truths about Jesus Christ I want us to think about more deeply today. And, the more we think about who He is, the more we’ll get to know Him and praise Him for who He is and what He has done for us. Let’s pray. [Prayer] Dear God, we thank You for Your wonderful salvation that You planned for a long time and fulfilled in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. We thank You for sending Your Son to be the Mediator and Reconciler between us and You. We believe that He was born of the virgin Mary, so He was fully divine and fully human without sin. And we believe He shed His blood and died on the cross to give His body as the ransom for our sins. We thank You, Lord, for everything You’ve done to save us through Jesus Christ, Your Son. Please open our minds and hearts and let them be focused on Jesus so that we won’t stumble but firmly hold on to the truth. Please cast out all our doubts and unbelief, and help us grow spiritually so that we could be conformed to the image of Your Son more day by day. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, we pray. Amen. [Reflection Questions] 1. Do you believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ? Why do you think the virgin birth is important when it comes to salvation? 2. What are some obstacles that prevent people from believing in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ? How would you explain your faith in it to non-believers around you when they ask about it? “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (Jn 1:14)
Review We’ve been talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ. When explaining the gospel in the book of Romans, the apostle Paul said, “He promised [the gospel] beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures” (Rom 1:2). Moreover, Jesus Himself said that all of the Scriptures are about Him. So, for the last few months, we’ve explored how the gospel is revealed through signs, events, and figures in the Old Testament. Gradual Revelation of Jesus Christ First, we explored what’s called the ‘Protoevangelium,’ which means, ‘the first gospel.’ Right after Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating from the forbidden tree, God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Gen 3:15) Here, we find some important elements of the gospel such as the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God would have His Son be born of a virgin woman. Even though Satan would strike His heel by nailing Him on a cross, Jesus would eventually crush Satan’s head by being resurrected from the dead. And just as God said, “When the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman” (Gl 4:4) to redeem us and give us adoption to sonship. Second, we looked at animal sacrifice written about in Leviticus chapter 1. In the Old Testament, a lot of animals were killed and shed their blood because people’s sins were exchanged for their blamelessness when they laid their hands on them. The animal sacrifice served as a shadow of Jesus’ sacrifice for the sin of the world since “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood - to be received by faith” (Rom 3:25) Third, the Passover lamb refers to Jesus Christ. When God sent the last plague, the death of the firstborn son, on Egypt, He gave the Israelites a way to avoid the plague, which was to kill a lamb without blemish and put its blood on the doorframes of their houses. When God saw the blood on the doorframes, death passed over them. Likewise, Jesus came to the world as the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and He was crucified on the day of preparation of the Passover when the Jews killed lambs to celebrate the festival. By doing so, Jesus set us free from slavery to sin and fear of death. Fourth, the bronze snake lifted up in the wilderness also serves as an indication of what Jesus would do to save humanity. When the Israelites complained against God, He sent snakes to bite them, and those who were bitten by the snakes died. But God gave Moses a way for the Israelites to be healed. It was to make a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Anyone who looked at it lived. The bronze snake represents Jesus. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, Jesus was lifted up on the cross so that those who believe in Him may have eternal life in Him. Lastly, we talked about high priests and what they did on the day of atonement. No one could enter the Most Holy Place where God’s direct presence was, but a high priest could enter just one day a year on the day of atonement for the forgiveness of all the Israelites’ sins. To make atonement, the high priest killed a goat and sprinkled its blood on the atonement cover in the Most Holy Place. Likewise, Jesus Christ came to the world as our eternal high priest. But He didn’t enter the Most Holy Place with the blood of a goat but with His own blood, and thus obtained eternal redemption for us. Now, all those who believe in Him and whose sins are washed away by Jesus’ blood can enter the Most Holy Place with Him beyond the curtain and have a close and direct relationship with God. These are the important indications of the gospel of Jesus Christ that we’ve talked about thus far. And when we look closely at each of them, we find how gradually God revealed His plan of salvation in the Old Testament. In animal sacrifice, one animal was killed for one person’s sin. But, one Passover lamb was slaughtered for one family. One snake was lifted up in the wilderness for whoever was bitten by snakes. And finally, one goat was sacrificed for one nation, Israel. Through these indications, God continually expanded the value of one. And we know how far the value of just one sacrifice would be enlarged in the Scriptures because God sent His one and only Son as a sin offering for the whole world. John 3:16-17 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God sent his Son… to save the world through him.” (Jn 3:16-17) Finally, when the time had come, God sent His one and only Son to save the whole world, not just one person, a family, or a nation. Jesus died on the cross to make atonement for all people on earth. That’s the reason Paul said, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1Tm 1:15) “[God] wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.” (1Tm 2:4-6) “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people” (Ti 2:11) Paul also said in Romans 5:18, “Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.” (Rom 5:18) What all of these verses emphasize is that the sacrifice of one man, Jesus, brings forgiveness and life to all people. There’s no one in the world who can be excluded from the work of salvation Jesus achieved on the cross. I think that’s what God wants all people to know. Because God wants all people to understand this truth, He gradually expanded the value of one sacrifice in the Old Testament. If Jesus had come to earth and died right after Adam and Eve sinned, no one would have been able to fully understand the meaning of His sacrifice. So, God kindly revealed many indications of Jesus in the Old Testament so that when He finally came, people could understand the meaning of His sacrifice and believe in Him. It’s amazing to see how all the indications, symbols and prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament were fulfilled in His life. That shows how amazing God’s plan of salvation for us is and how faithful He is. God planned to send His Son as a sacrifice for all people’s sins when the very first sin came into the world, and He has faithfully worked for it for such a long period of time. Even now, He is working for our salvation. Even though Jesus came and achieved our salvation 2,000 years ago as promised in the Bible, the promise of His return still remains. When He first came, He became like us. But when He comes back, we’ll be like Him. We’ll be resurrected into His glorious image. No one has ever experienced it, but we know that day will surely come because the One who plans it, promises it, and works for it is God almighty. He never fails to keep His promises. That’s whom we should rely on and put our trust in. The Incarnation of Jesus Christ All right. That’s what we’ve talked about so far regarding the gospel of Jesus Christ. We’ve focused on how Jesus’ ministry of salvation is illustrated and promised in the Old Testament. Now, it’s time to move on to what Jesus actually did to save us. So let’s go back to where we began, Romans chapter 1. In Romans 1:1-4, Paul said, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God - the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom 1:1-4) I personally think this is the best summary of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it contains a lot of its important elements. So far, we’ve focused on how God promised the gospel beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding His Son. Now, let’s talk about His earthly life. One of the fascinating facts about the Son of God is that He had an earthly life, which means that He actually lived on earth like us. He was born as a baby, grew up under His earthly parents, Joseph and Mary, and had siblings, who became Jesus’ followers after His ascension. Jesus ate food and slept like us. He felt hungry, thirsty, and tired like us. People could actually see Him, hear His voice, and touch Him. And He never hid the fact that He was the Son of God. That makes Christianity unique and different from other religions. Other religions say that we should do something in order to meet God. They try to reach God through penance, austerities, meditation, and more. But the Bible says that God has come to the world because the world couldn’t know Him with its own wisdom. Because there’s no one in the world who can approach God on their own, God chose to reveal Himself to us. The Bible is one of the strongest proofs of this truth. We know who God is because He first let us know who He is through His word, which was written by His inspiration. And Jesus is the culmination of God’s self-revelation. He existed even before the creation of the world because everything was created through Him, the word of God. There has not been a single moment when the Son of God didn’t exist. But the Bible says that the word of God, who was with God and who was God Himself, came to the world in human form and made His dwelling among us. We call Him Jesus Christ our Lord, who became like us in order to save us from our sin and death. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Philippians chapter 2 also describes the incarnation of Jesus Christ. It says, “Christ Jesus, Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Php 2:6-7) Jesus is God, but He made Himself nothing and took the form of human flesh. Then, we may ask, why? Why did He have to become like us? Why did He have to take the form of a human being? What was the purpose of His being like us? The answers to these questions are the most fundamental truth of Christianity. Two Consequences of Sin There are several reasons for the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and I want us to think about two reasons today. First, Jesus came to the world in human form in order to shed His blood to make atonement for our sins and die. Second, He wanted to reveal who God is to us. These two reasons are closely related to the consequences of sin. The most significant result of sin is separation from God, which results in all of our other problems. Is 59:2 says, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” One of the characteristics of God is that He is holy. It means that He can’t be with sin. As light can’t coexist with darkness, God can't coexist with sin. The biblical meaning of sin is not only related to our acts, but also our thoughts, motivations, and the lordship of our lives. Who is the lord of our lives? If it’s us, and not God, we are sinning. The Bible says that we were made in the image of God. We were made to have an intimate, loving relationship with Him. In this relationship, God has given us the authority to look after the world He created. But sin makes us turn away from God. It makes us deny the truth that He is our Creator and thus our Lord. Therefore, sin makes us insist that everything we have is ours: time, money, health, level of education, social position, and more. God gave us those things to use them for His glory and His kingdom, but sin tells us that we are the owners. Sin makes us live not according to God's will, but to our will. So, sin inevitably severs our relationship with God. As a result of sin, we’ve lost the image of God in which we were made. Moreover, we were separated from Him and thus eternal life in Him. Eternal death became our destiny. Those are the two major consequences that sin brought about—ignorance of God and eternal death. These are the reasons the Son of God became flesh—to allow us to know God and to give us eternal life. 1) Ignorance of God Let’s first talk about ignorance. Before the fall, in our original state, human beings weren’t corrupted and had a direct relationship with God. They saw Him, heard Him, and even walked with Him. They knew God and had an intimate relationship with Him. They didn’t need to learn about God like we do because they already knew Him well. But, after sin entered the world, human beings became ignorant about God. We lost knowledge about God and the close relationship we had with Him. That’s the reason Jesus came to the world to show us who God is again. Just as a good teacher who cares for their students comes down to their level, so did the Word of God. Jesus took on the form of a human being, and He walked among people, spoke to them, and touched them, which means that through Jesus Christ we can recognize our Father in heaven, who is invisible. John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (Jn 1:18) Jesus also said “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9) The word of God, which was invisible, became flesh, which is visible, to make Father known to us. Through Jesus Christ, we can have confidence that God is alive and that He does exist. In other words, we can overcome our ignorance of God because the Son of God has shown Him to us. 2) Eternal Death Second, the Son of God came to earth in order to save people from their sins and their result, eternal death. Because a spirit can’t bleed or die, Jesus took on a physical form capable of suffering and death just to die for us and make atonement for our sins. That’s the most important ministry of Jesus—to bear our sins in His body and die on the cross. As we’ve talked about with animal sacrifice, atonement demands blood and death because of the principle God set. Because God put the life of a creature in its blood, blood must be shed in order to make atonement for one’s life. That’s what Jesus did for us on the cross. He shed His precious blood to make atonement for our sins. What Jesus ultimately wanted to achieve through the cross was to reconcile us with God because only in God, can we find eternal life. Only Jesus Christ could achieve this purpose because He is the Son of God. He had a body like us, but He was sinless. He was fully human like us, but at the same time, He was fully divine. All of us here have probably already heard about all these things. But still, I want us to think more deeply about the reason He had to become like us because sometimes we delude ourselves into thinking that we know something without actually knowing it. Even though we know about the incarnation of Jesus, it doesn’t mean that we actually understand it until we truly experience what Jesus wants to accomplish in our lives through His incarnation and sacrifice. Jesus Christ came to the world to allow us to know God more, cleanse our sins with His blood to make us pure children of God, and to reconcile us with God. Do you enjoy these blessings in Christ now? If not, what prevents you from having these blessings in your life? I want us to think about this question more deeply so that we can be true, authentic Christians who are really born again through our faith in Jesus Christ and live out our faith in Him by becoming more conformed to His image. Let’s pray. [Prayer] Dear Lord, thank You for giving us this opportunity to think about who You are and who Your Son, Jesus Christ, is. We thank You for revealing Yourself to us through Your word and for sending Your Son to the world as a ransom for our sins. We profess that because Jesus Christ came to the world in our likeness and died on the cross, we are able to know who You are and be reconciled to You. We thank You for every spiritual blessing You’ve given us through Your Son. Oh Lord, let us have deeper knowledge of You. Give us the desire to love You so that we may love Your word of truth and be closer to You. Please open our hearts and minds, reveal to us who You are, especially how much You love us, and fill us with Your presence so that our lives can be filled with traces of Your work. We ask that You mold us and transform us to take after Jesus Christ, Your Son. We give thanks to You, Lord. We pray in the precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen. [Reflection Questions] 1. God sent Jesus Christ to allow us to know who He is. What do you know about Him through Jesus? Who is God to you? Share some practical things you will do this week to know God and grow closer to Him. 2. God sent Jesus Christ to forgive our sins and reconcile us to Himself. How was your relationship with God this week? What has He said to you? What are some things you can do to develop your relationship with God? |