This week, Pastor Jonny brought the next instalment of our series on systematic theology. Most people who have been Christians a while are systematic theologians. This is where we systematically organise and categorise our beliefs.
We cannot just pick and choose what parts of the Bible to believe. We must take everything the Bible says and live life in accordance to it.
For example, we cannot simply say that God is love without also saying that God is justice, because the Bible shows He is both.
God considers sin to be so serious that He cannot let it go unpunished, and so it must be paid for. But God is also love, hence why He sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross to pay for sin. So the choice is yours: will you pay for your own sin in Hell for eternity, or will you repent and trust Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, to have peace with God and be in His presence for all eternity?
So who is Jesus?
Even secular sources admit that Jesus was a real man, many believing that He was a politician and a troublemaker. The Bible, however, tells us that Jesus is fully God and fully man.
He needs to be fully man so that He could deal with God’s wrath on man’s behalf. God’s wrath must be quenched for anybody to be in right relationship with Him. If Jesus isn’t fully man, then nobody could ever be saved.
Yet Jesus also needs to be fully God so that He could deal with the problem of death. He died on the cross, but defeated death and was resurrected, ascending into Heaven where He currently still resides.
Jesus is not simply God disguised as a human, He is fully God and fully human. His flesh is not just a disguise, it’s part of who He is.
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
7Instead, he gave up his divine privilegesb;
he took the humble position of a slavec
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,d
8he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
(Philippians 2:6-8)
Throughout the Old Testament, there were prophecies about Jesus, Emmanuel, “God with us”.
When Jesus walked the earth, He acknowledged God as His Father (referring to the Father in the Trinity, as discussed last week) while at the same time claiming to forgive people of their sin. Nobody but God can forgive sin, which can only mean He is God Himself.
Jesus is also described as the Word of God. Whenever we read about the Word of God in Scripture, this is referring to Jesus.
There are also various leadership roles in the Old Testament point to Jesus in the New Testament.
The prophets spoke God’s truth into the world, and Jesus did the same when He walked the earth.
The priests made the sacrifices for the people of God and interceded on their behalf. Jesus does that for His church today.
The Old Testament Kings ruled ancient Israel, and so Jesus rules His Kingdom as King too.
Therefore, Jesus can be described as Prophet, Priest and King.
Adam brought sin into the world, but God promised a Second Adam would take sin out of the world. This is Jesus. He is the Messiah, the prophesied One who was foretold throughout the Old Testament.
When the Pharisees were trying to trip Jesus up in the New Testament accounts of His life, Jesus responded that He didn’t come to abolish the Mosaic Law, but to fulfil it.
There were covenant promises fulfilled in Jesus too:
Abraham was promised by God that through him, all nations would be blessed.
Jesus fulfilled this by bringing the Good News out of Judaism and to all the nations through the Gospel, and there are people of all nations blessed by Jesus. Jesus, of course, was descended from Abraham.
Moses was given the Law by God; a threefold set of standards for the people of Israel to live by: the Ten Commandments, the civil law, and the ceremonial law. We will see below how Jesus fulfilled it.
The Ten Commandments are impossible for people to keep due to our sinful nature, but Jesus kept them on our behalf. We are expected to strive to keep the Ten Commandments as best we can, out of the thankfulness of our hearts to Jesus for saving us, yet none of us can keep them perfectly.
The civil law is God’s standard for a Biblical society and was used as the foundation for English Common Law, the foundation of the legal structures of Western nations today.
The ceremonial law were the various feasts, rules and animal sacrifices for sins that the Israelites had to keep, including dietary laws (like not eating shellfish) and a Holiness Code to separate Israel from the surrounding Pagan cultures (like not wearing garments with mixed fibres). The ceremonial law was fulfilled in Jesus, as He was our once-for-all sacrifice, meaning we don’t need to strive to keep these laws anymore.
In Jesus we are free from the condemnation that the law brought!
King David was prophecied to that from his line would come the ultimate King of Israel, the best ruler to ever walk the earth. All the kings came but none were fully righteous and none fulfilled the prophecy. Jesus came and fulfilled that prophecy in an unexpected way, however. He was not a conquering earthly king with a palace and servants, like David and the other kings. Instead, Jesus was, and is, the King of Kings, the ruler of Heaven and Earth, growing His Kingdom to this day.
He is the Lamb of God, our Saviour, our friend, and the Lord of our lives.
The Bible tells us that Jesus isn’t dormant now. He is in Heaven interceding on our behalf before the Father. He’s so amazing, loving us enough to forgive the sins past, present and future, of all who come to Him as Lord and Saviour.
Pastor Jonny covered a lot of ground this week, but it’s important to know this stuff because it’s where the rubber hits the road with our personal relationships with God.
He is the lamb that was slain. Is He your Saviour? Is He your Lord? We will all meet Jesus one day, so it’s important to consider Him and His claims.