Jesus Christ Person and Work

Jesus Christ Person and Work

Introduction

The only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man, in two distinct natures, and one person, forever. Paul said, there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. The same apostle wrote, we preach Christ crucified. Christ's person and work, then, lie at the very heart of the Christian message.

Humanity of Christ

The miracle of all miracles is that God the Son became a man. He did not cease to be God, but He took a true human nature--a real body and a reasonable soul--into union with Himself. He came into the world as a babe, having been conceived by the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. What a miracle! What condescension! God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Only as a true man could our Saviour suffer, be tempted, take our place, bear the wrath of God against men, and by His own meritorious obedience procure salvation for His people. The price of such a salvation was incalculable, but, as the hymn writer so beautifully put it, Jesus paid it all.

The doctrine of assumed humanity, that Christ only had a Spirit before being born of Mary, is not necessary. And to say that His body was created from Mary's genes denies the perfection of Christ's body if Mary was not immaculate. And it would deny His deity even if she were. Now we can understand the announcement by the angel Gabriel to Mary that she was the virgin chosen to bear the Christ child: the angel said unto her behold, thou shall conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. I believe that the Holy Spirit here refers to the Spirit of God the Father. So by the power of the Spirit of the Father, Jesus Christ's glorious supernatural body was transformed into the weak natural body, which then grew within the womb of Mary.

Deity of Jesus Christ

Christian Apologetics must of necessity involve a third area which concerns the identity of Jesus of Nazareth. This is the case because true Christian faith has as its object the person of Jesus ...