Josh Benner

Tag: Christology

  • What does it mean that Jesus is God’s son?

    What does it mean that Jesus is God’s son?

    Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus refers to God as his Father. 

    In the Old Testament, there were appropriate forms in which to address God and Father was not one of them. The first Jewish person to refer to God as their “father” was Jesus. There are a few texts which refer to God as being the father of Israel. But that’s not how individuals addressed God.

    Today, it’s so much a part of our vernacular. It’s so ingrained in our thinking of God as our heavenly father that it can be easy to lose sight of how radical a statement that Jesus is making to the Pharisees. Jesus refers to the God of creation as his father. 

    But Jesus was making a radical claim and a theologically loaded statement. 

    But what does it mean? Jesus is uncreated and eternal. He’s God and has always been God. John 1:1 tells us: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. How does Jesus have a father? 

    Let’s consider several aspects of fatherhood and what that means.

    D.A. Carson brings up that when we think of fatherhood, we tend to just think of it biologically. A man and a woman procreate and have an offspring, and the man is the father of the child. I’m influenced on this subject by Carson, Michael Horton, and Louis Berkhof among others. 

    I want to give five reasons for how Jesus is the Son of God. 

    1. Incarnationally

    In one sense, the fatherhood of God and sonship of Christ relates to the incarnation where the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is eternal and uncreated. But he was not eternally a man. In the union of Christ’s humanity and divinity, he was born.

    Luke 1:31-32, where the angel Gabriel is telling Mary of the son whom she is to bear. 

    behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David

    And Jesus was indeed born, as we learn in Luke 2:7: unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord

    In his humanity, Jesus was born of a virgin, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit through the will of God.In the beginning was the Word. Jesus always was, but he was not always human. 

    How can an eternal being be born and fully man is a divine mystery that we cannot fully understand. But he was born, and in that sense, he is the Son of God. 

    The word became flesh. That’s not saying Jesus simply took on a human body like he was in the driver’s seat of a vehicle, but that he became flesh. He became a man. 

    So he’s the son of God, incarnationally. But that’s not the only sense in which Jesus is the Son of God. 

    1. Ethically

    You also have sonship in a moral sense in the Bible. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says: 

    love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High (Luke 16:35). 

    In that usage, he’s saying that, in one sense, it is acting like God which makes us like a son. 

    Follow me for a second. 

    Again borrowing from Carson. Prior to the industrial revolution, most people went into the same vocation as your parents. If your father was a farmer, you were a farmer. If your father was a fisherman, you were a fisherman. If you father was a blacksmith, you were a blacksmith. 

    You did what your father did. You were trained by your father. Some people still go into their parent’s line of work now, and that’s all well and good, but it’s not culturally assumed today that everyone will just follow in their father’s and mother’s footsteps. 

    But our heavenly father is perfect and righteous. We are not. But Jesus ties acting like our father in heaven to sonship. He does the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:9: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called Sons of God. 

    And that goes both ways. In Acts 13:10, Paul calls a magician named Elymas a “son of the devil.” Now Jesus is the one who truly is perfect. In his ministry in the world, he truly lived as God because he is himself divine. Fully man, fully divine, and without sin and he is morally the Son of God. 

    1. Royalty

    Jesus is the royal Son of God. 

    In the Old Testament, the kings of Israel in the Davidic dynasty are sometimes referred to as God’s son. The king didn’t refer to God as his father. But he is proclaimed to be God’s Son. We see that in Psalm 2. Psalm 2 talks of the kings of the earth and their opposition to God. But then talks of a king whom God has called his son. 

    Psalm 2:7: I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 

    In the Old Testament, this is applied to the Davidic kings. We see this language in 2 Samuel 7 when the temple is dedicated. 

    2 Samuel 7:13-14. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.

    But the kings are still ultimately sinful in their leading of the people. In Jesus, he is the true royal son who came into the world and preached of the kingdom of God. 

    1. Israel 

    Israel collectively is referred to as God’s son. 

    Jeremiah 31:9, God calls them his firstborn: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. 

    Reminder that Ephraim refers to Northern Israel. Exodus 4:22-23, Moses has been sent by God to command Pharoah to free the Israelites. 

    Moses is told: you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.

    With Israel, they had the law and failed to keep it. Jesus kept it perfectly. Moses gave them the law on a mountain. Jesus gave the new law in the Sermon on the Mount. 

    They were in the wilderness and sinned. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness and did not sin. 

    The Book of Hosea refers to Israel when it says “out of Egypt, I called my son.” That same verse will be applied to Christ in the Gospel of Matthew. 

    He is the greater Israel. 

    1. Image of God 

    Jesus is the Son of God in the sense that he is the image of God. The image of God goes back to creation. 

    Genesis 1:26: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

    Goes on to say in verse 27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 

    It’s not until the New Testament that Adam is referred to as a son of God. We see that in the genealogy of Christ in Luke 3:38. Man is created in the image of God. But humanity is also sinful and fallen. 

    Romans 5:10 says: if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

    We don’t have time to quote the whole passage, but Paul is building an argument. 

    In verse 12, he says: just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned

    Then he says in verse 17: because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 

    So what Paul is saying is that sin entered the world through Adam and that Jesus is a new Adam who is without sin and comes bringing grace. Jesus is the greater Adam and the truest example of the image of God. 

    Colossians 1:15 says: He is the image of the invisible God

    Hebrew 1:2-3 says: in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature

    In that sense, Jesus is the true son. I’m giving all of these examples, because Jesus as the Son of God means something. It’s not a haphazardly chosen title. 

    It points us to the gospel 

    The sonship of Christ and the fatherhood of God points us to the gospel. 

    We are God’s children, created in his image who had forsaken God through our sin. 

    Jesus is the perfect Son of God who was forsaken so we could be forgiven for our sins. 

    As radical as it is that Jesus addressed God as his father, he invited us to do the same when he taught the disciples how to pray in the Sermon on the Mount. 

    your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. (Matthew 6:9)  

    The Apostle Paul says in the opening salutations of all of his letters: grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

    The fatherhood of God is bestowed upon the people of God because Jesus is the true Son of God. 

    Jesus is the son of God who allows us to be adopted as God’s children and to approach God as our own father. 

    John 1:12 says: to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

    The adoption language is used by Paul at the beginning of his letter to the Ephesians. 

    3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 1:3-5) 

    That’s the Good News of the Gospel. The Son of God allows us to call God our father. 

  • In the beginning was the word – 4 things we learn from the opening of John’s Gospel

    The gospel of John opens up with a profound theological affirmation about the nature and identity of Jesus.

    In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
    -John 1:1-3

    These three verses at the beginning of the Gospel of John give us four fundamental truths about Jesus. 

    I. Jesus is eternal 

    “In the beginning was the Word.” 

    John opens up by referring to Jesus as The Word. I take it almost as a title for Jesus in the beginning of John. In the Old Testament, it is through the word of the Lord that God creates, speaks to his people, makes his promises, and points people to truth. In Jesus, we see the ultimate disclosure of divine love, wisdom, truth and salvation, and so it is therefore fitting to refer to Jesus as the Word. 

    There was never a time when the Word was not. 

    And this is very important because right from the beginning of John, it confronts a common error that has existed in the church essentially since the time of Christ. 

    And that error is thinking Jesus is created. Or thinking that God made Jesus. Or thinking that he was a really good man who was given a promotion and became divine. 

    He has always existed. This is something that will continue to unfold throughout this passage, but Jesus is not a created being. 

    II. Jesus has fellowship with God. 

    The verse continues “and the Word was with God.” Another absolutely monumental and profound reality from this passage. Think about this for just a moment. The Old Testament is filled with lofty language of the majesty of God. Rightfully so. 

    Exodus 33, Moses wants to see the glory of God (Exodus 33:18). 

    God tells Moses in Exodus 33:20: you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live

    It’s because God is so vibrant and righteous and full of life that it is completely overwhelming for fallen and finite people. 

    But in that story, we see the glory of the Lord is revealed to Moses and Exodus 34 tells us that when Moses came down from the mountain, his skin was so radiant from beholding the glory of God that people were afraid (Exodus 34:29-30). 

    He shined so brightly that he had to wear a veil. 

    1 Kings 8, the Ark of the Covenant is brought into the Temple. And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, 11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord (1 Kings 8:10-11). 

    The glory of the Lord was so overwhelming that the priests could not stand to minister. 

    Isaiah 6, the prophet is given a vision of the throne room of God and he is terrified: 

    Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5)

    The presence of the Lord is completely awesome as you behold his glory and majesty and life. If you’ve ever stood at a great waterfall, as the hundreds of thousands of gallons of water crash over the edge every minute, you can feel the power and rush of the water. That’s awe inspiring in its own right, but it’s no comparison to encountering the eternal and almighty God of the universe. And yet, with Jesus, we’re told that the Word was with God. 

    Jesus can see God, he can behold the glory of God because he himself is glorious and righteous.

    In the beginning, there was fellowship with Jesus and God the Father. 

    III. Jesus is God

    The text continues “and the Word was God.” The central theme of John’s Gospel. The Lordship of Christ. 

    Something to consider…

    Borrowing from Wayne Grudem in his book Systematic Theology: Historical, Orthodox, Biblical Christianity believes the following. There is one God. God is three persons. Each person is fully God. 

    Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

    While you can’t build an entire theology of the Trinity from this passage alone. But this passage affirms that Jesus is God and also that there is distinction between Jesus and God. In his commentary on John, Leon Morris talks of Jesus and God the Father and says “the Word and God are not identical by they are one.” We don’t have to know exactly how it’s simultaneously true that we have one God, who is three persons, and each person is fully God. But the Bible affirms all three of those statements. 

    Theologically, this matters tremendously. And we have all of these affirmations right from the beginning of John’s gospel. 

     If Jesus were not God, then he would not be a worthy sacrifice for our sins. If he were just a great man, he would still be fallible. If he were just a great teacher, he could still be wrong . If he were just a great leader, he would still be finite. 

    But he is the perfect God of creation. He entered into a sinful creation to redeem humanity. 

     It also matters because if Jesus were less than God, then not only would he be unworthy of our worship, but the very act of worshipping him would be blasphemous. 

    From the beginning of the Ten Commandments. 

    Exodus 20:2-3: 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

    We’re told elsewhere in the Bible that God is a jealous God. 

    But the gospels show people worshipping Jesus. He never corrects them or deflects worship when that happens. That is either blasphemous or warranted. There’s no middle ground. It is either acceptable to worship Jesus or it is not. 

    There reason why it’s warranted, why it’s acceptable is because Jesus is God. 

    Part of the reason why I love John’s Gospel is that it constantly confronts us with absolute claims about Jesus. Chief among them is that Jesus is God. That’s an absolute claim. It’s either true or it’s not. If it’s true, the only response is to believe in him, to worship him, to trust in him. 

    If it’s not, the rest of this gospel is meaningless and blasphemous. 

    IV. Jesus made everything 

    Verse 3:  3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

    Again this is speaking to the divinity of Jesus. All things were made through him. All means all. 

    The ground, the trees, the sand of the beaches, the stars in the sky, the air we breathe, the materials we use to build things, all of it was made by Jesus. 

    He made every person. Each of us has billions of cells in our bodies. Incredible complexity and structure just within our own bodies. 

    He made the universe! 

    To put that in perspective, if you had an atlas of every galaxy in the entire universe and each page represented an entire galaxy, and if you spent just one second on every page and continually turned pages in the atlas, it would take you more than 31,000 years to flip all the way through the atlas. 

    The universe is incredibly, unfathomably big. There are more stars in the sky than there are grains of sand in all the beaches of the world. Yet there are more trees on earth than there are stars in our one galaxy. And that’s just looking at the amazing size of of our universe. 

    There is amazing creation within our world. New species of animals are still being discovered. 

    Did you know that? And they’re not all insects or really small animals. Since 2000, there have been new species of primates discovered. We don’t even yet know everything on our own planet. 

    Yet Jesus made it all. 

    There are other passages in the New Testament which speak to this fact. 

    Colossians 1:16

    16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

    We see this language as well in the opening chapter of the Book of Hebrews.

    Hebrews 1:10 referring to Jesus says: You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands;

    Jesus is the creator. He made everything. And John states it both ways. He made everything. And also there’s nothing that he didn’t make. 

    He’s a mighty God. It’s a lofty passage. It’s a confrontational passage. You affirm these truths or you don’t. Our society often likes to treat Jesus as something you can take or leave. 

    Gravity isn’t something that you can take or leave. Arithmetic isnt’ something that you can take or leave. Breathing isn’t something that you can take or leave. 

    Jesus isn’t something you can just take or leave. Jesus isn’t just a nice person or a nice idea. He’s the Lord of creation. 

    Many cherry pick certain teachings. Others treat him as a great teacher or a great religious leader. Jesus isn’t one good teacher among other great teachers. He’s God. 

    The sages of other major religious traditions were born. Buddha wasn’t there in the beginning. Mohammad wasn’t there in the beginning. 

    But in the beginning was the Word. 

    There have been great leaders in the world who have influenced nations and movements. Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Gandhi. Some like to just act like Jesus was a wise peace maker who came with a good message. 

    He’s so much more than that. 

    In the beginning was the Word. 

    And the Word created all things. 

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  • Sermon: The two resurrections – John 5:24-29

    Audio:
    https://joshbenner.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/20200515-202931.mp3

    Text
    24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 

    25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. 

    Prayer

    Our heavenly Father,

    We again come to you in a Spirit of thanksgiving as we praise your holy name. May we marvel at your majesty over your creation. We praise you for the gift of everlasting life which is available to all through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

    Forgive us our sins Lord, as we are fallen people in a fallen world. We struggle with our areas of selfishness, our failings, our instances of pride, the times when we choose sin over you.

    Lord, may we come to you on our own in confession of our sins. Lord, may you strengthen us to repent and to more and more live for you. May we be daily sanctified through your word and by the power of your Spirit. May we be transformed from one degree of glory to another.

    I pray for each of us that we trust in Jesus, that we know him personally, that we know the salvation that he promises, that we believe in the life that he invites us into, that we have placed our hope for eternity onto his work, and that we might look to him as the greater priest who offered the final sacrifice, as the greater Son who makes us worthy to be your children, and as the greater sacrifice who gave his life for us so we could be forgiven.

    May we all trust in that Lord. For any of us who are hanging onto any vestiges of self-justification or trusting in our own goodness as what will make us right with you, may we turn away from that and trust in Jesus. It is entirely by his work of a perfect life and his abounding grace that sinful people are forgiven. We praise you as the everlasting and eternal God. Would you grant us ears to hear as we study your most Holy Word. In Jesus’ name, amen.

    Introduction – we love justice 

    Our society LOVES justice.

    6 of the top 20 highest grossing movies of all time are Marvel super hero movies in a story line where good defeats evil. Other movies with themes of good and evil pervade the rest of the top 20: Star Wars, Avatar, the Lion King.

    Many of our most popular television shows are in the legal sphere: Blue Bloods, Law and Order SVU, Chicago PD, FBI, SWAT, Seal Team, the new Hawaii 5-0, the new Magnum P.I, NCIS, NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS: Los Angeles, just to name a few. The most popular DVR’d television show in America last year? Live PD. When there’s a high profile criminal case, cable news networks will follow the smallest details around the clock. You have entire TV channels that are dedicated to crime. You have Court TV, Investigation Discovery which is basically the true crime channel. You have Headline News which is basically the Forensic Files channel.

    Our love of justice carries over into other domains. In sports, if a consequential call is botched by a referee, there is outrage among fans. Even if it’s a team that people aren’t fans of. We like seeing the right thing happen. We like seeing the person wins who deserves it.

    It’s what’s right. We love justice.

    But justice so often doesn’t happen on the timetable that we want.

    We’ve seen despotic dictators who led nations in misery and oppression live to ripe, old ages. We’ve seen scoundrels cheat to get ahead in business. We’ve seen crimes go unsolved and the culprits get away with it. It grates against our sensibilities and our sense of justice, of right and wrong.

    But here today, we come to our passage as we continue in the Gospel of John. And we learn that judgment belongs to Christ.

    Study
    If you recall last week, we made a couple of important affirmations which will again be relevant today. Jesus has the power of God.

    From verse 19, we learned: For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

    We learned that Jesus has the power over life. From verse 21: as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.

    We also learned that Jesus is a judge. From verse 22: the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son

    And our passage today carries over the idea of the judgment that comes from Jesus which is a direct result of our relationship with Jesus.

    Beginning in verse 24: Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 

    Beginning of this verse, Jesus says truly, truly. The Greek word for truly here is “amen,” from which we get our word amen. It’s the second time he’s used it in this chapter. Jesus does it to emphasize the importance of what follows.

    Based on verse 24, what does Jesus say is the way to eternal life? Jesus says: whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

    The word which Jesus is speaking of here is the fullness of Jesus’ teaching and gospel which he has revealed. And the true hearing of this word isn’t merely about some sound waves entering your ear canal. It’s hearing his word and responding to it. Truly hearing it. Living by it.

    Whoever hears this word and also believes in him who sent him.

    In this overarching section of John 5, Jesus keeps making these statements that show us the profound unity between him and the Father, and also showing the distinction between them as two persons within the Trinity. And what Jesus is saying here is that to truly believe in God is to accept Jesus.

    Jesus says that the person who believes has eternal life. And in the Greek, the form for “has” is in the present tense. It’s not that you will have eternal life. It’s that when you believe in Jesus’ word and in the God who sent him, you HAVE eternal life.

    Jesus says:  He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 

    Just as we have eternal life when we believe, it is also a present reality that we withstand the final divine judgment on account of what Christ has done for us. The person who does not believe is already in judgment. We are born in sin. Our default human setting is condemnation and judgment unless someone has heard the Word of Christ and believes the one who sent him.

    The one who does believe has passed from eternal death to eternal life.

    Verse 25: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

    This verse once again begins “truly, truly.”

    an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

    A paradoxical statement.

    There is a future time when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. There is a future time when all will stand in judgment before the Lord. All will be resurrected, no matter how righteous or unrighteous, no matter how good or evil, everyone will stand before Christ.

    Philippians 2:9-11 says:
    9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

    That time is coming.

    Justice is coming. There will be a day of reckoning.

    Judges and hunger 

    And the judgment will be perfect and righteous. We are often not good judges of character. Have you ever thought someone was really a stand up person, only to discover they were anything but? Have you ever disliked someone unfairly, only to discover that they were solid?

    In our legal system, which strives to be just and fair, human judges are still just people and therefore still imperfect. In 2010, three researchers from the U.S. and Israel tracked parole rulings of eight judges over a ten month period. These were not new judges to the bench. On average, they had been judges for 22 years.

    In reviewing 1,100 parole board hearings, the researchers found that people had a 65% higher chance of being given parole first thing in the morning. Then the likelihood dwindled lower and lower until the time of a mid-morning break or lunch where likelihood of being granted parole spiked again.

    Jesus is the righteous, divine judge while being a little bit hungry and swaying a human judge.

    Jesus judges perfectly and the judgment is based on our faith in him. Everyone will stand before Christ. But in our passage, Jesus says that hour is already here as well.

    So we have this tension between what is here and what is coming.

    How is it that the time is also already here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God? 

    What Jesus is saying is that by his presence in the world, those who are Spiritually dead, those who are dead and sin but who hear the word of Christ, the gospel of Christ are given eternal life.

    We will all stand before Christ in the future, but Jesus also ushered in the time through his word for people responding to the truth of the gospel and who he is.

    Where is your hope? Where is your justification? Is it in yourself and being a good person? Being good enough? Doing a little more nice than bad? Or is it in the Lord Jesus? The one who is the judge who promises everlasting life because he himself bore our punishment?

    Jesus is not saying “believe what you want.” He’s saying “believe in me!”

    whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 

    Verse 26: For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.

    Another loaded statement. This might be the most difficult verse we’ve seen so far in our study of John. I think a lot of pastors wouldn’t even respect the intelligence of their congregations enough to tackle this verse, but give me just a moment.

    The first part is simple enough. God has life in himself. God is self-existent. That’s a clearly attested Biblical affirmation.

    But the verse says that the father has granted the Son also to have life in himself. We have already seen the homage from the Son to the Father.

    Quoting again from 5:19: the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing

    There is a submission between the Son and the Father. I mentioned last week that Jesus is subordinate to the Father during his lifetime. And I said last week that I believe this subordination began at the incarnation as Jesus was fully God and man.

    A point I did not make last week is that Jesus is also eternally the Son of God. And for that, think of sonship somewhat like a title. The Father is eternally the Father. Jesus is eternally the Son.

    What that is not saying is that Jesus is created. Once again, to quote from the opening of John.

     In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God (John 1:1). 

    John 1:4, speaking of Jesus goes on to say: In him was life

    Back in our passage. This a very technical idea, but I take it that Jesus is eternally existent and eternally God. And in the relationship within the Trinity, Jesus is eternally the Son of God.

    Throughout John, we see the closeness of relationship between the Father and the Son. We see a very giving relationship between the two. We see them both honoring each other.

    Again, I realize it’s a very complicated idea. But it’s worth exploring because it’s in God’s Word. And there is another very important point that verse 26 makes and that is that the Son has life in himself, and the fact that Jesus has life in himself speaks to his divinity.

    That’s not something I can say. That’s not something you can say. We’re finite and frail.

    I think of all of the measures that are being taken against coronavirus. There’s a lot of fear in our society. Human life is fragile. It can be over in an instant. Everyday, all over the world, healthy people wake up and it’s their last day in this life. It’s just the reality. We never know when our time is over.

    But with Jesus? He has life in himself.

    And it is because he has life in himself that he can give eternal life. It’s because he has life in himself that we can have the confidence in his promises.

    Verse 27: And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

    That is reminiscent of something which Jesus has already said. From our passage last week, and quoted at the beginning this morning. 5:22 says: the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son

    Jesus is the one who judges.

    2 Corinthians 5:10:
    we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. 

    Romans 2:16:
    on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. 

    Jesus is the one who will judge all men. He is the one to whom we will give an account.

    The reason why God has given Jesus authority to judge is because Jesus is the Son of Man. This is a reference to the Book of Daniel.

    Daniel 7:13-14 talks of a divine figure called the “Son of Man”

          and behold, with the clouds of heaven 

    there came one like a son of man, 

          and he came to the Ancient of Days 

          and was presented before him.

    But then verse 14 begins to talk about the power of this “Son of Man.”

          And to him was given dominion 

          and glory and a kingdom, 

          that all peoples, nations, and languages 

          should serve him; 

          his dominion is an everlasting dominion, 

          which shall not pass away, 

          and his kingdom one 

          that shall not be destroyed. 

    Son of Man is the title which Jesus most often uses when referring to himself in the gospels.The Son of Man has these qualities which speak to his divinity but the title used here for Jesus “son of man” can also refer to a person.

    So you have in the Old Testament, qualities of this divine and human figure who has dominion and glory of an eternal kingdom.

    And what John is saying is that Jesus is this person, and that is why he is able to judge.

    Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice

    Jesus is the judge of the world. There are certainly many scriptures which talk of God also being a judge, and certainly any adjudication would be perfectly agreed upon between the persons of the Trinity.

    Once again, this goes against any sort of idea that it doesn’t really matter what you believe, or that all religions believe the same thing.

    Other leading religious figures do not personally claim to raise everyone to life. But that’s exactly what Jesus states in this verse.

    Again, this gospel confronts you.

    That’s either true or it’s not.

    Not all religions believe that the Lord Jesus is both Lord and judge.

    Think of all of the billions of people who have come and gone before us. Every single one of them will one day stand in the presence of Christ. And that same is true for all of us and all who will follow until Christ returns.

    Everyone will be raised by Christ, either to everlasting life in glory of everlasting judgment. Hitler will be raised and so will Martin Luther. Gengis Kahn will be raised and so will Billy Graham. Ted Bundy will be raised and so will C.S. Lewis. Napoleon will be raised and so will the Apostle John.

    And so will I. And so will you.

    Jesus is the judge. He is the standard by which people are either reconciled to the Father or condemned to eternal torment in their sins.

    Verse 29:  and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. 

    Verse 29, once again, might give us pause.

    Wait a minute. Isn’t this all about faith and believing in Jesus. How is it that those who have done good are brought to resurrection life and those who have done evil are brought to a resurrection of judgment?

    Good works in John ultimately culminate in believing in Jesus.

    John 1:12 says: to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God

    And again in John 3:21: whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” 

    And then the result of that true faith in Jesus is a life that is transformed and bears fruit. So it is not saying that we are judged based on works based righteousness.

    Jesus judges based on our response to him. He is the one who has life in himself and has the power to give life. He is the judge who judges righteously.The faith must be genuine. The belief in Jesus must be real. He is the one who knows and who judges.

    What do you believe?

    Is he the eternal Lord who came into a sinful world and died to give everlasting life? Than our only response is to believe in the judge who came into the world and took our penalty for us on the cross.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

  • Sermon: That all may honor the Son – John 5:19-24

    Audio only:

    Transcript:

    19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 

    22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 

    Prayer
    Our heavenly Father,

    We praise you that you invite us into a relationship and that you have made yourself known. The heavens declare your glory, and you have revealed yourself through your son.

    Lord, may we be growing in this time as your followers and disciples.

    Lord, as we discuss matters today relating to your divine nature and the relationship with your Son who came into our world, I pray that you guard the words I say as being faithful to your scripture and honoring to you, O Lord.

    Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart 

    be acceptable in your sight, 

    O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. 

    Lord, on Mother’s Day, I want to pray for the mother’s in the church.

    We pray for the young mothers who still have children at home and I pray for you to lead and guide them in the monumental task that they have of raising children. (more…)

  • State of the Church: Jesus is not a created being

    photo-1532140225690-f6d25ab4c891.jpeg
    This week, Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research released their “State of Theology” survey. In the study, 3,000 American Christians were surveyed on various theological and moral positions.

    Many of the results were troubling. However the one that I found to be perhaps the most signifiant point of disagreement was with the question “Jesus is the greatest and first being created by God.” 78% of survey respondents agreed.

    I’d like to think some of them might have gotten confused by the wording of the question (and perhaps some did). (more…)