Humanity of Christ in the Epistles

Series Recap and Today's Plan

0:00 We continue this morning the delightful occupation of contemplating the glorious person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The psalmist said, the works of the Lord are great, sought out of all those that have pleasure therein, and certainly God's greatest work, the giving of His own dear Son and all that surrounds the giving of the Son, ought to be the occasion of delightful seeking by all who name the name of Christ. In the course of the series of studies entitled Here We Stand, we've reached the point in our study designated the salvation we receive and proclaim.

0:50 In the unfolding of that theme, our present concern is one of demonstrating the scripturalness spiritualness of the historic formulation of the biblical doctrine of the person of Jesus Christ. That doctrine has always included at least three elements, that Christ is truly God, that Christ is truly man, that he who is the God-man is one person in two natures forever. Having exhibited the biblical evidence for the first element of that confessional perspective that he is truly God, we are now considering together, contemplating the equally clear and convincing evidence that he who is true God is also true man. By that we mean he had a true human

1:42 body and a true human soul. The method by which we've been setting forth the biblical materials is one that follows the very pattern in which the Scriptures are given to us. We looked at the humanity of Christ as predicted in the period of preparation, that is, Old Testament prophecy. For several weeks, we've looked at the materials declaring the true humanity of Christ in what I have entitled the period of manifestation, the Gospel records, in which we have these simple and certainly not exhaustive biographies of the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus.

2:23 And as we looked through those materials, collating the materials with reference to his conception and birth, that next segment related to his infancy, to manhood, and the final, his inauguration, to ministry, to his ascension, we saw that the unanimous testimony of all the biblical writers in that period of manifestation is that Jesus Christ, who was known to be truly God, was also truly man. Every evidence of a true humanity is stamped upon the face of the gospel records. There are the actings of a truly human mind. There are the expressions of truly human emotions.

3:06 there are the evidences of a truly human will, so that allowing the gospel writers to present us with the Christ whom they knew, we come to the conviction that their Christ was not only truly God, but he was indeed truly man. So much for that very brief overview and review of where we have been, We come now this morning to the final study in this broad area of the humanity of Christ, and we're going to consider the evidences of His humanity in the period of instruction and application. The Old Testament is the period of preparation. The Gospel records, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are the period of manifestation.

3:56 The book of Acts we could call the period of proclamation, and the epistles the period of instruction and application. And I'm deliberately passing over the witness to Christ's humanity in the book of the Acts, in the interest of time and for the simple reason that nothing that is stated in the Acts is not also included and more fully stated in the epistles. So in doing the one, we shall include the witness of both. I have the two organizing heads this morning under which all that we study will be arranged.

4:31 First of all, we shall very briefly look at the reality of Christ's humanity as it is asserted in the epistles. That is the period of instruction and application concerning the work of Christ. Having done that, we are going to go back to those same verses and see in them the consolations of Christ's humanity affirmed. So then the reality of Christ's humanity asserted and the consolations of Christ's humanity affirmed.

5:05 First of all then, the reality of Christ's humanity asserted in the period of explanation and application. if our understanding of the materials in the Gospels is accurate, the conclusion to which we have come that the Gospel writers presented a truly human as well as a truly divine Christ, then it is right to expect that when these same people bear witness to the teaching concerning Christ in the epistles, that they will amplify and underscore and apply that very same truth. In other words, there will be no great discrepancy between the witness of the period of manifestation

5:54 and the witness in the period of explanation and application. It will be the same Christ set before us in both segments of the biblical witness. And all we do now is very briefly to look at the key texts which set forth the reality of the humanity of Christ. There will be no application.

Reality of Christ's Humanity Asserted in the Epistles

6:17 There will be very little detailed exposition and exegesis. I just want you to bring into the orbit of your awareness these passages, and then we should go back to them and arrange them under the various categories categories in which tremendous consolation is conveyed to the people of God because Jesus Christ is a true man. All right, fasten your seat belt as we very quickly go through these portions of the Word of God. Romans chapter 1, Romans chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. The Apostle Paul has never been to Rome. He hopes to visit them and then to be brought on his way by them to further gospel

7:03 endeavors in Spain. And so he outlines for them the gospel that he preaches throughout the Roman Empire in which he will no doubt preach when he comes to Rome. And the great theme of this epistle is announced in the opening words. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto, and here's the theme, the gospel of God. As surely as there is but one God, there is but one gospel. It is the gospel of God, which He promised afore through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness

7:53 by the resurrection from the dead, even Jesus Christ our Lord. The gospel he proclaims is a gospel promised in the prophetic scriptures of the Old Testament. It is a gospel that focuses upon the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. It is a gospel that defines his person as to the two natures.

8:21 Seed of David according to the flesh, Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness. Here is an explicit witness to the humanity of Christ, and here's the significance, bound up in a context which is declaring the essential and central elements of the gospel of God. Take away the reality of his being, seed of David according to the flesh, and you have no more gospel of God. Just as much as if you take away Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness, you have no more gospel.

9:01 Strip away the reality of his humanity, the reality of his deity, you have something less than the gospel of God. Now I promised that I wouldn't expound and apply. I shall break that promise periodically. Romans chapter 9.

9:18 Romans chapter 9. The apostle is here expressing his concern for his fellow Jews in their sin and blindness, their unbelief. And his heart is so yearning for their salvation that he says in verse 3, I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh and as he thinks of them and all their privileges he says who are the Israelites whose is the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises whose are the fathers and then the greatest privilege the nation of Israel ever had of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh

10:04 his tap roots as to his earthly identity are to be found in the nation of Israel, who is, as to his divine nature, God blessed, who is overall God blessed forever. Here another very clear witness to the reality of the humanity of Christ. Then in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the apostle is defending the biblical doctrine of the resurrection of the body. and his key argument is that Jesus Christ is the great prototype.

10:44 He is the great pattern and model, the first among many, the first fruits of all who will be resurrected to life in union with him. Now verse 20, But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the first fruits of them that are asleep. For since by man, and you'll notice the word came in any of the standard translations is in italics. there is no verb in the original, for since by man, dash, death, by man, dash, also the resurrection of the dead. As surely as it was the activity of the first man, Adam, which introduced death, it was the activity of the second man, Christ, that introduced life and resurrection. And as

11:34 surely as Adam was man, the one who brings life is also truly man. Now over to Galatians chapter 4. Remember what we're doing now, just seeing something of the constant emphasis in the period of instruction and application concerning the reality of our Lord's humanity. Galatians chapter 4. The apostle is setting forth his most powerful polemic for the doctrine of justification by faith alone apart from the works of the law. In the process of developing his argument in which he flays all legalists, in which he viciously at times in the power of the Spirit goes after this

12:20 self-justification thinking of the Judaizers. He says in verse 4, but when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son. Notice it doesn't say God created his Son. He was the eternal Son sent forth from the Father. He sent forth his Son, a patent witness to his essential deity, but in the closest conjunction with that, born of a woman, born under the law.

12:58 Now remember, the apostle Paul is defending and explicating, expounding and applying the heart of the biblical gospel. Justification by faith alone, and in the midst of that, he bears eloquent testimony to the reality of the humanity of Christ. We shall see why subsequently. Just notice the fact at this point.

13:21 And then over to 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2.

13:28 An exhortation is being given to the directive of prayer for the gathered people of God. And may I simply underscore in passing that this has much to say to us, not only Sunday mornings but Wednesday nights. What are to be the prayer concerns of the gathered church? are they to be the same as the individual minutiae of family prayers in which we pray for baby's sore ear, in which we pray for every little thing that concerns our children, and properly so.

14:01 No, the concerns of the gathered church are to be broader and larger and more expansive and lofty than these. I exhort, therefore, first of all, that supplications prayers intercessions thanksgiving be made for all men for kings and for all that are in high place that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, one mediator also between God and men, and notice the himself is in italics in the 1901 edition. There is no word himself.

14:49 It simply reads from the original, between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus. In other words, the apostle takes the plural word, the generic word for men, mankind, and right next to it, from the plural, is the singular. One mediator between God and men, a man. Those who need a mediator have such in one who is one of them.

15:19 Men need a mediator. A man, Christ Jesus, is that mediator.

15:27 Ah, but you say, yes, he is God too. And later on, right in this epistle, the apostle is not at all ashamed to bear witness to his divinity. This same apostle calls him God blessed forever. Yet in this particular context, he focuses upon the reality of his humanity.

15:46 And then one final passage, Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2.

15:54 Here the writer to the Hebrews is showing the suitability of Christ to the tasks assigned him as the Savior of sinners. We read in verse 14, Since the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner, Hebrews 2.14, in like manner partook of the same, that through death he might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and might deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily, not to angels doth he give help, Or as the marginal reading says, that's a poor translation.

16:36 The Greek verb should not be translated, doth he give help?

16:40 For verily not of angels doth he take hold, but of the seed of Abraham, wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren. So you see the emphasis in this passage. It falls upon the suitability of Christ for the task of destroying death as coming to bear upon the validity and the reality of his humanity. Now what do we say by way of a summary statement in the light of these seven texts of Scripture?

17:16 And I remind you they are only a specimen selection, not exhaustive. Well, with only these specimen passages before us, it is clear that the same documents which set forth the person of Christ as true God, with such phrases as our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, who being in the very form, the morphe of God, the same documents that set forth His Godhead in language that cannot be misunderstood, also declares him to be true man. Now what does that tell us about the writers of the New Testament epistles? Well, it tells us that the real humanity of Christ was not an embarrassment to them.

18:06 They were not embarrassed to declare him to be a true man. Furthermore, they did not assume that clear declarations of his humanity were a threat to the reality of all they taught about his deity.

18:21 They did not feel that in giving such explicit emphasis to his humanity, they would undermine all the emphases which point to his essential deity. And furthermore, these passages tell us that the doctrine of his true humanity is not a dispensable element of apostolic teaching. It is an indispensable element, so much so that in 1 John chapter 4 we read, He who denies the validity and reality of that humanity is of the spirit of Antichrist, just as surely as he who denies his essential and his true deity.

19:08 You see, to the extent that we think of our Lord and worship Him and live under the impress of these documents, Christ will always be to us not just our God, Savior, nor will He merely be our Savior who is the God, man. He will be to us our glorious Lord and Savior Who is the God-Man Christ Jesus With just as many decibels of emphasis upon the man as upon the God And where poor, deluded, rationalistic people who call themselves liberal Christians

20:00 Have lost the Christ of the Bible because they have the God-man. That's all they have.

20:09 We've lost him in great measure because all we have is the God-man.

20:16 But the Christ whom we love and worship is nothing less than the God-man, the theanthropic person, our blessed Lord and Savior. Well, having established then this assertion of his true humanity in the period of instruction and application, now then we come to the heart of our study, the consolations of the humanity of Christ affirmed. Throughout this series of studies, I have said repeatedly that all that Christ is in his glorious person, he is as perfectly suited to our need as sinners. Now follow closely. If you miss this, you miss the glory of the biblical

Consolations of Christ's True Humanity Introduced

21:05 doctrine of Christ. Everything about our Lord is so designed, if I may use the term without in any way prostituting His glory. Everything about our Lord is so designed and calculated in the infinite wisdom and power of God to make him a Savior who perfectly suits every single facet of the need of the sinners whom he came to redeem. So that Christ's constitution as a person, as well as Christ's performance in his work, takes its clue from the many facets of need

21:50 resident in those whom he came to save. If we could be saved by a Savior who was anything other than the Savior of the Bible as to his person, God would have constituted him such a Savior. If we could have been saved by a Savior who took upon him the nature of angels, who seized upon angelic nature, we would have thus been saved. God would not have subjected his son to the frightening limitations and terrible humiliations of a true humanity.

22:25 That he is true man is because only that would suit our need. That he is true God is inherent in the changelessness of deity. He could never be less than true God. But the necessity of what he is as man grows out of what we are. And why do I say that? I say that so that you as the people of God will be convinced that you must not relinquish one facet of the biblical teaching of the person of your Lord, for everything that he is as revealed is suited to what you are, as described in the Bible. And I hope this morning now to open up a few dimensions of that, the consolations that arise out of the doctrine of our Lord's humanity. And I must confess I've

23:15 waited with eagerness for this. We've been building, building, building for weeks. Now I trust this morning we'll be able to pause and by the Spirit of God feed upon some of the richness of this truth. Consider with me the specific consolations of the humanity of Christ. Number one, because he is man, he is fully authenticated as the promised Messiah. He is fully authenticated as the promised Messiah.

23:44 Turn back to Romans chapter 1. Now we go back through these passages and see how each of them is filled with rich consolation to the people of God.

Christ Authenticated as the Promised Messiah

24:02 This gospel that the apostle preaches and now will expound to the Romans and then preach to Spain as he is brought on his way by them, and that information is right in the latter chapters of this very epistle. He says it is a gospel of God which, verse 2, which he promised afore through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Anything that deserves the name gospel of God must perfectly accord with everything that the prophets said in terms of our knowledge of what they said as recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures. Notice the emphasis.

24:47 It is the gospel of God which was promised afore through the prophets in the Scriptures. In other words, of promises that are not embodied in Scripture, we know nothing. Promises that are, we have the responsibility to search them out. So the gospel of God, if it's the real product, if it's not a bogus product, It will perfectly accord with everything that is promised in the prophets as embodied in the Holy Scriptures.

25:15 Now what did we see as we looked at the words of the prophets in the Old Testament? We saw that every prophecy pointing to the coming of Messiah, though they gathered richness and said he would be more than man, he would be the Son given, he'd be the child born, the Son given, he'd be the mighty God. what was the common denominator running underneath every prophetic utterance. From the first utterance in Genesis 3.15, he would be seed of the woman.

25:43 To the further utterances in Genesis 17, seed of Abraham. To the further definition in Genesis 49, he would come from the tribe of Judah. To the further definition in the book of Samuel, that he would be of David's seed. The undergirding emphasis was, he must of necessity be true man.

26:05 How do we know then that our Savior is no imposter? That he is no Johnny-come-lately Savior, some self-appointed, some deluded egomaniac who declares himself Messiah. For as now, so then, the world was full of them as now. Men who claim themselves Messiah, Of course, they only make their secrets known to their little inner circle.

26:29 And then when the inner circle goes out to try to bring you into the circle, and you say, I've heard that your leader says he's Messiah. Oh no, you've misunderstood us, a la Mr. Moon and his followers. And a la some of the so-called holy men and eastern thinkers, to their little circle they all let them know, the poor uninitiates don't know who I am.

26:50 But you who are my followers, I'll tell you the secrets. I am Messiah. then when word leaks out that that's what they claim, they all say, oh, no, no, no, no, no, he doesn't claim that. Lies from beginning to end.

27:05 But what about our Savior? When he was declared to be Messiah, the reality of his humanity, attested not by one witness, by one little incident here or there, but by the entire complex of the New Testament witness, those who saw him, ate with him, slept with him, who watched him die, who if they were close enough could have felt the blood spattering from his bruised body upon a cross. And then all the way through the epistles, what do they say? He's man, he's man, he's man, he's man, he's man, he's man.

27:42 Why? That we might have the consolations of trusting in a fully authenticated Messiah. for the Messiah promised by the prophets in the Holy Scriptures was to be true man. Bless God for the genealogies.

28:00 They are a further attestation. He's got real human bloodlines. You can trace out his pedigree.

28:11 Is that gone on you yet? I can't read you. You're going to look in there. Do you see something of the wonder of that?

28:17 So that when the apostle says, this gospel of God, for which I am set apart as an apostle, one gospel, and you can always mark that gospel by its tap roots being soaked in the prophecies of the Old Testament Scripture and there is but one who fills those prophecies not only manifesting that he was El Gabor the mighty God but he was indeed the child born who grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man Then the second great consolation of this teaching concerning his humanity is this. He is not only fully authenticated in his messianic identity, but he is fully equipped to be an efficient mediator.

Fully Equipped as Efficient Mediator: The Daysman of Job

29:10 Fully equipped to be an efficient mediator. Turn now to the 1 Timothy 2 passage, if you will, please. 1 Timothy, chapter 2. When the Apostle declares the reasonableness of praying for all kinds of men in all ranks and circumstances of life, he says the rationale behind prayers that are so broad in their perspective is that the mercy of God is just as broad.

29:43 There is but one God and one mediator also between God and men. a man Christ Jesus now this word for mediator is used only once in this form in the New Testament and in the Greek translation of the Old Testament it's found only once because the Apostle Paul was very familiar with that translation you've heard the term Septuagint it was a translation of the 70 you know what that word is? It's that word found in Job's complaint. Let's look at it for a moment. Job chapter 9. I think the King James, the authorized translates it daysman. The 1901 comes a little

30:34 closer and calls it umpire. Not in terms of a big league umpire who declares you out or safe. Notice the complaint of Job And then we shall see something of the tremendous significance Of the apostles teaching in 1st Timothy Chapter 2 and verse 5 Job is in a state of darkness He cannot understand nor figure out Why all this affliction has come upon him God has said of him that he was an upright man Upright above all other men Job has been seeking to walk in his integrity Yet affliction upon affliction comes upon him. His friends come and try to tell him the reason.

31:16 And somehow it doesn't strike an answer. And then he gives bent to this longing. Notice now, verse 30, If I wash myself with snow water and make my hands never so clean yet, thou wilt plunge me in the ditch and my own clothes shall abhor me. For he is not a man as I am that I should answer him.

31:37 That we should come together in judgment. He said, my problem is that I cannot sit down and bargain and reason with God as with a fellow man. He is above me and beyond me. And even though I walk in innocency, it seems that he continues to deal with me in a way that transcends my capacity to understand.

31:56 There is no mediator. Messitos, there is no umpire. No mediator betwixt us that might lay his hand upon us both. Oh, do you see what Job longed for?

32:12 He said, God is too far beyond me. If only there was one who was near enough to God to lay his hand upon him, near enough to me to lay his hand upon me and resolve this present dilemma, then the longing of my heart would be answered. Thank God there is a mesitos, there is an umpire, there is a gaysman. 1 Timothy 2.5 There is one God.

32:40 And what does the Scripture say of that God? He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. He is the high and the lofty one who inhabits eternity, who charges even his angels with folly, and before whom the heavens are not clean in his sight, in the language of Scripture. And what are we?

32:59 The Scripture says we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. The heart is deceitful above all things And desperately wicked Who can know it? There is none righteous No, not one How shall we ever bring to God together That infinitely holy God And the vile, depraved, polluted creature Oh, that there were a daysman An umpire Who might lay his hand upon both of us And thank God there is such a one He who came from the presence of the Father who, to use the imagery here, never ceased to be one with the Father as to His divine nature,

33:44 one with Him as truly God. But what has He done? In the language of this text, there is one God, one mediator between this God and the world of men, Himself, one of them. He has laid His hand upon us by taking to Himself as the second person of the Godhead, a true humanity, that He might bring us together.

34:12 And so the great consolation of Christ's humanity is found in that He is fully equipped to be an efficient mediator. That's the general statement. Now specifically, think with me now, in what sense His manhood is essential to the functions of a mediator. And I give you but three lines of thought and direct your attention to some of the other passages.

Legal Union with Those He Came to Save

34:38 He must be a true man to establish a legal union with those whom he would save. You see, the Bible doctrine of salvation oozes with legal concepts.

34:52 God is holy. He has given His law. Man has broken the law. He is guilty.

34:57 If that guilt is to be removed, there must be the imputation, Imputation, the putting to the account of the sinner, a perfect standard of righteousness. There must be the imputation of guilt and punishment to one who is innocent, that the demands of the law might be satisfied. That's the language of the Bible. And if you don't like the salvation that's permeated with legal terminology and legal concepts, go make your own, my friend, but go to hell with it.

35:27 You'll go to hell with it. This Christianity that's just a mystical, undefiled, woozy, and undefined, sweet relationship to sweet Jesus. It's heresy and it's damning souls by the thousands in our country. We are not saved by some sweet, undefined, indescribable, mystical kind of a flight into a lovely feeling about Jesus You will be saved if every charge against you in the court of God is met And if it isn't met, you will be lost If every legal demand of the God of heaven is met, you will be set free

36:15 And if not, you'll perish.

36:19 That's the great problem to which the gospel addresses itself. And that's where the humanity of Christ brings great consolation. If one is to stand in the stead of sinners, if one is to be so legally identified with sinners that what happens to him is recorded in the reckoning of God as happening to those in whose place He stands. He cannot stand for them from a distance.

36:50 He must stand for them as one of them.

36:54 Now, is that human fancy or is that just Bible truth? That's Bible truth, my friend. Look at two texts. Romans chapter 8.

37:03 Romans chapter 8.

37:07 And verse 3. Perhaps we back up and catch the thread of thought. There is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. Why?

37:17 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free. See the legal terms from the law of sin and of death. Sin, death, law, legal terms, friends. You can't escape them.

37:35 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son In the likeness of sinful flesh And for sin condemned Legal terminology Condemned sin where? In the flesh Where was sin condemned? In the flesh Of one who entered into a legal relationship With His people that was so real that when sin was condemned in His flesh, God can reckon it as having been condemned in mine and set me free. That's the consolation of His humanity.

38:21 He must be a true man to establish a legal union with those whom He would save. Hebrews 2.14 gives essentially the same truth. Time will not permit our looking at it.

Obedience to the Law and Suffering Its Penalty

38:33 But notice in the second way under this general heading fully equipped to be a mediator because he is God. He must be a true man to accomplish his two great assignments. Once he takes the place of the legal responsibility of his people, having assumed responsibility for his people, all the legal responsibilities, he had to do two things. He had to obey the precepts of the law in our stead, and he had to suffer the penalty of the law in our stead.

39:08 But you see, God is not bound in that sense to His own law. He's the lawgiver. The eternal Word, the second person of the Godhead, is much the lawgiver as is the first and the third persons. So if there's to be obedience to law in humanity, someone must become man in order to keep that law.

39:29 And since all men fell in Adam, it has to be someone who's a man through some other avenue than Adam's generation. And so God conceives the mystery of sending the second person of the Godhead by way of conception in a virgin's womb. You say again, isn't that just fanciful thinking? No, my friend, that's Pauline theology.

39:52 You turn to Galatians chapter 4. Look at it. Look at it. Galatians chapter 4.

40:01 Verse 4. When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son. Now notice the language. Born of a woman, born under the law that He might redeem.

40:23 That's it. He could not redeem unless He was born under the law. He could not be born under the law unless he was made of a woman. That's the inseparable relationship between his true humanity and his ability to redeem his people.

40:43 He must have a true humanity in which to obey the precepts of the law. In our stead he is born under the law. Thus it becometh to fulfill all righteousness. I do always the things that please my Father.

41:01 And He did them on behalf of His people. And then to suffer the penalty of the law in our stead, we look just again at one passage, though there are many. Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10.

41:15 Having stated that earthly human animal sacrifices cannot take away sin, but that God is so holy that there must be a true blood sacrifice. We read in Hebrews 10, 4, It's impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. Wherefore, when He, that is Christ, cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body thou didst prepare for me. In whole burnt offering and sacrifices for sin thou hast no pleasure.

41:46 Then said I, Lo, I come. In the roll of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. saying above sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldest not neither has pleasure therein the which are offered according to the law then he saith lo I come to do thy will he takes away the first that he may establish the second by which will we have been sanctified to the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all If there were no body, no true humanity There could be no true sacrifice There could be no expending of divine wrath upon the object And because he had a human body and a human soul

42:35 He could feel the pangs of death Both physical and spiritual Why? That he might be an efficient mediator For without shedding of blood There is no remission So he is a fully equipped mediator, fully efficient. Why? True man, he establishes a legal union True man he can accomplish his two great tasks obeying the precept of the law on behalf of his people and suffering the penalty of the law on behalf of his people And finally he must be a true man to conquer death and validate his triumph in a real resurrection 1 Corinthians 15, 21, Since by man death, by man resurrection,

Resurrection as Proof the Law's Demands Are Exhausted

43:21 do you catch the glory of the apostles' argument? How do we know that sin came through the first man, Adam And was imputed to all who were regarded Legally and federally in him I'll tell you how we know Death is passed upon all men That's the argument of Romans 5 Where death is Sin has previously been By man Death How do we know that Christ Has truly rendered a satisfactory offering to God How do we know that all the claims of the law are met? How do we know that somewhere in the moral universe there is not hidden some scrap of record upon which the sins of a believer are recorded? That in the day of judgment,

44:07 some eagle-eyed angel will not find that scrap of record and haul it before the throne of God and say to the father, How can you take this one to your present? Here is the indictment. Here are the sins. How do you know there is not some scrap of the record tucked away in some recess of the universe of God?

44:28 Joseph's open tomb is my answer.

44:32 Joseph's open tomb is God's declaration. He's fully kept every precept. He has fully met the demands of the broken law. I shall now raise him out from under the power of sin, which is death.

44:48 And when I bring him out of death, what I'm saying is, all the claims of the law are exhausted. Hallelujah. Oh, dear people of God, cherish the humanity of Christ. Without it, there would have been no real death.

45:05 Without it, no real resurrection. With it, resurrection from death. As a man is saying, he's exhausted the demands of the law against his people. oh do you see the consolations of the humanity of Christ he's a fully authenticated Messiah he's a fully equipped and efficient mediator very quickly he's fully qualified to be a sympathetic priest fully qualified to be a sympathetic priest and fully suitable to be a perfect pattern and those are so rich I think I would prostitute them by rushing through them so I'm not going to do it we'll consider those next week and I can think of no greater theme

Application: Cherish a Truly Human Christ

45:50 with which to baptize that new auditorium than the proclamation of Christ as the fully qualified priest of his people and the fully suitable pattern of his people. Let me then draw our study to a close this morning with some very pointed application.

46:10 Dear child of God, let no one rob you of a truly human Christ.

46:18 As certainly as you were exhorted in previous studies, let no one rob you of a truly divine Christ. A Christ who is less than God can do you no good. You'll perish with that Christ. Child of God, let no one rob you of a truly human Christ.

46:38 He is the transcript of the law in human experience. if you do not maintain tenaciously the glory of what he is, his man you know what's going to happen to your Christian experience? It's going to be very distorted and imbalanced because if your pattern of what is pleasing to God is something that is less than truly human you will imperceptibly at first and then it will be very evident you'll drift into a kind of asceticism that rules out the full range of your humanity as a Christian. There'll be a distorted piety.

47:17 One of the elders was sharing with me recently. He knew a man, I believe it was in his younger days, Mr. Clark was sharing this. The man never smiled.

47:29 Sir, why don't you smile? Our Lord never smiled. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. our Lord never smiled I will never smile to deny to our Lord a smile is to deny to him true humanity oh but you say there's not a verse in the Bible that says he smiled no neither is there one that said he scratched his head if a bug got in it not a verse that said Mary had to put him on her shoulder and burp him after he nursed at her breast The Bible doesn't give us an encyclopedia of every detail in the human experience of our Lord But as we have seen it gives us such a broad specimen of his humanity

48:19 That everything that is germane to true humanity was in him fully and sinlessly expressed Children, don't gather around the man who never smiles and if the gospel records make anything plain they make it plain that the children loved our Lord it was the disciples who were sometimes kind of long faced and cranky and tried to drive them away not our Lord and you have that incident where it says he called a little child to him and set him in the midst have you ever tried to call strange children if you've got a somber face people like myself who just have a more serious face and were born with wrinkles in our brow we have to really work at this because if we're just in earnest, we can look angry.

49:05 And I've noticed with kids, that's why some of you wonder why I sort of squat down at the door when your children come by. It's because they see me up here. And in their eyes, I look about seven feet tall, and they hear me. And one little kid, he went home, he said, Daddy, you tell me not to holler in church.

49:20 How come Pastor Martin can do it?

49:26 And so to overcome that, I tried to get down and put on my softest voice. Why? because you know how sensitive children are. There would not be that constant drift of children to our Lord if He did not smile and laugh.

49:43 Everything that is germane to true humanity was fully and sinlessly expressed in our Lord. And dear child of God, if you relinquish a truly human Christ, the result will always be distorted piety. Distorted, perverted, sickening piosity. That's what it is.

50:02 It's not true piety.

50:05 I think of parts of the world where I've been privileged to minister, where people, I'm sure, they wouldn't say it, but in the way they work out their practical Christian lives, they're convinced that Christ never laughed. At least he didn't laugh from his toes. If he laughed, it might have been a little giggle from the top of his larynx, as though laughter were sinful. certainly he must never have clapped his hands for joy for any kind of expression of emotion that would register in your physical activity why that's just you know that's just two shades away from Pentecostalism my friends you can't read through the gospel records Jesus stood and he cried saying he's any man first you mean to tell me he stood in the temple

50:52 and said no he's any man first let him come to me and drink It says he cried How do you cry? You crank up your volume You open up all the pipes And what the soul feels Is forced out over the larynx He cried saying If any man thirst Let him come to me and drink And any man's voice box and lungs Were trained by preaching in the open air To thousands of the time When he cried you knew he cried that's the Christ I worship and until I found him in the Bible I found I couldn't preach with that measure of delight and liberty that is now my constant joy don't relinquish the Christ who is a true man

51:42 your own walk with God will reflect the distortion and my final application is this I come around full circle to where we started Christ is just such a Savior because that's exactly what we need because of our sin now listen to me everyone this morning fellows, girls, men, women visitors, members in this assembly those who frequent this as a place of worship have you found sitting here this morning that each new facet of the consolations of the humanity of Christ as it's been expounded and applied have you found your heart instinctively and reflexively leaping up within you and saying, Oh Lord, that's just the kind of Savior that I need.

Warning Against a Christless Modern Religion

52:28 Has there been anything of that interaction of your heart with what's been set forth objectively in preaching? Or have you sat there saying, What in the world is all this to do about? My friend, listen to me. If that's been your attitude, it's because you've never had a sight of what you are.

52:45 you can despise the most precious truths concerning Jesus Christ because in the language of Christ the whole need not a physician but they that are sick you don't need such a physician of souls you're perfectly content with your little mystical experience that you had with Jesus maybe even spoke in tongues and had visions so what?

53:15 If you've never felt the pain of conviction, the knowledge that you've offended a holy God, and that you need a mediator, and that that mediator must live and die and fully satisfy the law of God, or you've had it. My friend, I don't care how many times you've felt chills up and down your spine, how many times you saw light in the corner of the room and had a vision of Jesus and saw blood drooping out of His hands, You're as lost as the devil. Until in a sense of sin, you turn from sin and throw yourself upon the mercy of God in Christ as a Savior from sin.

54:01 All the popular books about Jesus, all the popular entertainers who talk about their experience in the Holy Ghost, I listen in vain and I read in vain for any talk of sin. Sin, law, death, blood, atonement, justification.

54:30 Are you the product of that heresy? My dear friend, I reason with you in Christ's name this morning. Run from it! and run unto him who said, Come, all ye that labor and are heavy laden.

54:50 Run to Christ. Not to the church. Not to another experience. Not to some more notions.

54:57 But run to the Christ of the Bible.

Closing Appeal and Prayer

55:01 Only that Christ can do sinners good. But thank God, he does good. to every sinner who comes. Let us thank Him for being such a Savior to us in our sin.

55:24 Oh, our Father, we thank You again this morning for the great mystery of the Gospel. We thank You for our Lord Jesus Christ and all the glory that surrounds Him as true God and as true man. Oh, may we cling to Him as He is revealed. May we not relinquish any facet of what is said concerning Him.

55:56 Bring to our hearts all of the consolations of His true humanity. Father we plead that you make the preached word effectual to wrench sinners loose from their idols from their deception that we've been constrained to speak this morning to this issue of the mystical sentimental unscriptural talk of Jesus so prevalent in our day surely Lord you have not moved the heart of your servant so to speak into the air for those who may be held in the grip of this deception this very hour. O Lord, strip them, lay them bare. May they find no rest until they flee into Christ

56:44 as He is offered in the Gospel. O our Father, hear our cry. May the benediction and blessing of Your presence rest upon us through the remainder of this day. and when we come tonight to take into our hands the emblem of that body the symbol, the monumental witness of his true humanity may it be with a new appreciation of that body that was assumed for our sakes and as we drink of the cup may it be with a new measure of love to him who poured out his soul unto death and was numbered with the transgressors.

57:28 O God, hear our cry and dismiss us with your blessing, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.