Christology

Introducing the section on the central figure in salvation, Pastor Martin begins a sub-series on the mystery of Christ's person by laying out why the doctrine is of supreme importance. He argues from Scripture that individual salvation depends on a right confession of who Christ is (John 20:31; John 8:24), the church is built upon a right confession (Matthew 16:13-18), the gospel cannot be maintained or proclaimed without a right view of Him (Romans 1:1-4), and this doctrine is the critical test of any professed work of the Spirit (1 John 4:1-3). He closes by pressing the personal question: Who is Jesus Christ to you?

Pastor Martin argues that "Son of Man" — often misunderstood as a mere title of Christ's humanity — is actually a title of His deity, drawing from Daniel 7 and Christ's own self-consciousness. The title points simultaneously to Christ's heavenly pre-existence, His present state of humiliation, and His future glory. Son of God and Son of Man occupy common ground as ascriptions of deity: the former emphasizing that He who is God is God, the latter emphasizing that He who is God is truly man.

Pastor Martin brings in a fifth group of witnesses to Christ's deity: the fact that divine worship is directed to Him and received by Him without rebuke. Beginning with the strict monotheism of the Old Testament and Peter's and Paul's refusal to receive worship, he traces how calling on Christ's name, being baptized into His name, looking to Him for grace, and the worship of heaven itself all demonstrate that Christ is truly God. The sermon closes with searching questions: Is this the Christ you worship? And a lament over the cheap, flippant "Jesus" of much modern preaching.

Pastor Martin opens the second major section of Christology by establishing the importance of Christ's true humanity. The doctrine is of saving significance — without a true body and a reasonable soul, Christ could not be our Mediator. He then traces the Old Testament period of preparation, showing how the promise of the coming Deliverer is progressively narrowed: the seed of the woman, then of Abraham, then of Judah, then of David, and finally the virgin-born child who is also Emmanuel.

Pastor Martin opens the period of manifestation in the Gospels, demonstrating that Jesus Christ is truly man as witnessed in his conception, birth, infancy, and growth to manhood. He expounds Luke's record of the virginal conception, the normal pregnancy and birth, and the boyhood years in which Jesus genuinely grew in wisdom, stature, and favor with God and men. The sermon insists that the Gospels portray a real human development without halo or shortcut, then applies this with wonder at Christ's love and consolation that our salvation rests on a true and sinless humanity.

Continuing the witness of the Gospels to Christ's true humanity, Pastor Martin walks through evidence that Jesus possessed a true human body that hungered, thirsted, grew weary, slept, was strengthened, and ultimately could die. He then turns to the reality of a true human soul, showing it in genuine temptation in the wilderness and in a life of dependent prayer climaxing in Gethsemane. The sermon insists that without a real body and a real soul there is no real Savior, and that the person and work of Christ stand or fall together.

Pastor Martin completes the witness of the Gospels to Christ's true human soul by tracing the actings of his human mind and emotions. Using the analogy of assembling a model from every piece in the box, he insists evangelicals must include the Gospel data showing Jesus learned, reasoned, was ignorant of certain things, and felt the full sinless range of joy, sorrow, anger, zeal, agitation, indignation, and grief. He then applies this with reference to Christ as our sinless Savior and our perfect emotional and mental pattern, urging believers to abandon both stoic restraint and unbridled passion in favor of Christ-shaped humanness.

Pastor Martin moves from the Gospels into the period of explanation and application, demonstrating that the apostolic epistles continue to assert Christ's true humanity as essential to the gospel. He surveys Romans 1, Romans 9, 1 Corinthians 15, Galatians 4, 1 Timothy 2, and Hebrews 2 to show that Paul and the writer to the Hebrews never blush to call Jesus a man. He then applies the doctrine, showing that Christ's humanity authenticates him as the promised Messiah and equips him as an efficient mediator who could establish legal union with sinners, obey the law in their stead, and suffer the curse for their sins.

Drawing especially from Hebrews 2 and 4, Pastor Martin shows that because Christ is truly man he is fully qualified to be a sympathetic high priest who, having suffered being tempted, can succor his tempted people. He then expounds 1 Peter 2 and 1 John 2 to show that Christ as true man is also the perfect pattern and example for believers in the use of body, soul, mind, will, and emotions, as well as in love to God and neighbor. The closing application from 2 Corinthians 3:18 urges Christians to behold the glory of the perfect human Christ in Scripture so that they may be progressively transformed into his image.

Beginning the third great pillar of his Christology, that Jesus Christ is one person in two distinct natures forever, Pastor Martin offers a sober word of caution and exhortation before approaching the mystery itself. He urges three things: dependence on the Holy Spirit, determination not to fall short of or go beyond what is written, and patience with precise theological definition. He warns from Luke 24, Ephesians 4, and 2 Peter 3 that mental laziness about the person of Christ produces spiritual declension and unstable souls who will be tossed by every wind of doctrine.

Pastor Martin now sets out the biblical demonstration of Christ as one undivided person subsisting in two distinct, unmixed natures forever. Using a glove and hand analogy, and the witness of John 1, Philippians 2, Acts 20, Romans 1 and 9, and Colossians 2, he shows that the eternal Word became flesh without ceasing to be all that God is. He then shows from Christ's own consciousness and the apostolic witness that the natures remain distinct, with the one person speaking sometimes from the form of consciousness of his deity and sometimes from the form of his humanity, applying the doctrine to interpretation of Scripture, worship, and gospel proclamation.

Pastor Martin opens a new series within Here We Stand on the kingly office of Christ. He establishes the biblical concept of a king as one who possesses a real throne, wields a real scepter, and rules a real kingdom with absolute, unrivaled authority, and distinguishes Christ's eternal essential kingship as the second person of the Godhead from the mediatorial kingship He receives as the God-man Redeemer. Tracing the artist's brush strokes from Genesis 3:15 through Genesis 49 and Numbers 24, he begins to show how the Old Testament progressively reveals that the promised Redeemer must come as a true conquering king from the tribe of Judah.