Wonderful, Marvelous, Savior, Jesus

God sent forth His Son...

Christmas Question 2: Why was it necessary for Jesus to be truly God?

(Galatians 4:4 – Part 2, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, December 10, 2017)

What does the Bible say about God?

God is wholly other, the one being who is uncreated. He is the Uncaused Cause. His Name, I-AM, tells the story of His incomprehensible nature, for He is the only Source of Being. We are creatures. We were not “sent forth” because we were not preexistent, but God sent forth His Son.

What is the Trinity?

The Word “trinity,” which is not found in the Bible, is a one-word way of saying what the Bible clearly does affirm. 1. Monotheism: There is only one God, 2. Three persons with Sameness in divine essence: The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God, and 3. Yet Distinctness: The Father is not the Son or the Spirit, The Son is not the Father or the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father or the Son. For our text, it is important for us to consider that the Father who sent forth the Son, and the Son who was willingly sent forth by the Father are both fully I-AM.

The angel Gabriel told the young virgin Mary to Name her child, Jesus, which means “Jehovah is salvation.” This is the Greek word for the Hebrew “Joshua,” the Name of the famous Old Testament warrior who led the people of God into the Promised Land. After so many years without a king in the line of David, Mary was told that regarding Jesus, “the Lord God would give to Him the throne of His father David,” and that “His kingdom” would have “no end.”

Mary also learned that the baby would have no human father, but that He would be “the Son of God.” Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, greeted Mary as “the mother of my Lord.” Mary, at that very instant, rejoiced in the One she also called “the Lord” and “God my Savior.”

Does the Bible really teach the Trinity or did the church make that up?

One way to settle your soul on the fact that the church did not make up the truths that are necessary to believe the doctrine of the Trinity is to meditate on two key episodes regarding baptism from the Bible itself: the baptism of Jesus, and His parting command to His disciples regarding baptism. We read in Matthew 3:16-17 regarding the baptism of Jesus by John, “When Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on Him; and behold a voice from heaven said, 'This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.'”

At the end of Matthew's gospel, the resurrected Lord instructed His disciples to baptize future followers of Jesus in the One Name with the three persons listed separately. Jesus says in Matthew 28:18-20, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

What does it mean that Jesus is the Son of God?

Hebrews 7:16 sets Jesus apart from every religious ruler among the Jews because He had “the power of an indestructible life.” He could credibly make the promise to “lay down” His life and also to “take it up again” (John 10:17), a promise that he kept. Only God could safely have supreme authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). The entire mission of the church over the last 2000 years is based on Jesus having complete divine authority. When we see Him, we see the Father, because He is the visible representation of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). The One whose Name means “Jehovah is salvation” is indeed Jehovah in the flesh.

Why did God send forth His Son? What was the mission of the Father and the Son?

Whatever the mission of the Father was in sending His Son, it was an objective that involved a complete agreement—an “eternal covenant” (Hebrews 13:20)—between the Father and the Son. When Jesus prayed to the Father in the hearing of His disciples immediately prior to the events of the cross and the resurrection, He said in John 17:5, “Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” He knew the mission.

What was this mission? Jesus says in John 18:37, “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” If you are here today to hear the Word of God, Jesus came to bear truthful witness to you. What is that truth? It is a rich and full message that will captivate your life for all eternity—a message about the glory of God and His love. That message has its center in the cross of Christ, a great work of redemption—a death for Him and a life for us with Him forever. As Paul says in Galatians 4:5, Jesus was sent forth from God “to redeem” His people, “so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Or as the angel announced to Joseph in Matthew 1:21, Mary “will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

This work of the cross was successful, and its power goes beyond a place of disgrace outside the city gates of Jerusalem to the resurrection, and far beyond. In the words of the last two verses of “Joy to the World,” we sing, “No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love.”

Why was it necessary for our Savior to be God Himself in person?

The Messiah who would accomplish this great mission needed to be God Himself and not a good limited being or a committee of experts. In heaven, people will never be god. Jesus is the Son of God forever, and just as entirely divine as the Father, an absolute necessity for our salvation.

There is only one God. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Spirit is God. “God sent forth His Son” to be the Savior of a new world. Consider 1. The power of His death: Only God could have suffered an eternal punishment for us in space and time and declare in John 19:30, “It is finished.” (See Hebrews 10:11-14) And 2. The power of His resurrection life: only a Savior who is fully divine could do what Jesus does now and for all eternity. (See Matthew 28:18-20)

Application: Marvel. Human beings were made to be impressed by the amazing. Cynicism does not fit us well. We were born to worship. We do this better as children, but we need to cultivate the grace of amazement again as adults. Seeing Jesus as Jehovah in the flesh is deeply right, and good for our souls. Think of what the Son of God did before He was sent forth. “All things were made through Him.” (John 1:3) He is the Word of God who not only spoke forth creation, but upholds all things in perfect divine providence. In the words of Hebrews 1:3, Jesus “is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.” We worship Him and say with Thomas, “My Lord and my God.” (John 20:28)