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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Why Christ is the All Sufficient Savior - P2

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life

Jesus Christ as the All-Sufficent God, came to be the All-Sufficient man
Yesterday we pointed out why Christ is the All-Sufficient Savior, noting that He is Equal to the Father in both Being and Authority.  Today we want to take this familiar verse again and point our a second reason why Jesus Christ is the All-Sufficent Savior.  Notice that underlined word "gave".  When God the Son, Jesus Christ, came to this world, He did not come displaying His full, unveiled Deity that He has shared with God the Father from all eternity.  King Solomon reminds us in 1 Kings 8:26 that the universe could never contain the full and unveiled glory of God. 

Rather Christ veiled Himself by taking up Himself a human nature through the virgin birth.  He did this in order to dwell among human beings, and to perform the only act that could make salvation possible - His death on the cross.   Christ in His Deity never ceased being God.  When He died on the cross, it was not Christ's Deity that was killed, rather it was Christ's humanity that was crucified, buried and risen.  

As the Only Begotten Son from All eternity, Christ was able to take upon His person a human nature by being born.  Now we witnessed yesterday the difference between "birth" and "begotten".  I won't labor the comparison between the two terms, however, it must be remembered that as true as it is that Christ is "the Only Begotten" touching His Divine nature, He taking upon Himself a human nature required a birth.  When we say nature, we mean the means through which one expresses their existence. Thus Christ expresses His existence through two ways: An unlimited, Eternal Divine way and through a limited though sinless human way. 

Christ in His Humanity makes Him capable of being the All-Sufficient Savior
As God, Jesus Christ is able to be the All-Sufficient Savior, and as man, He is capable of being the All-Sufficient Savior.  Why?  First of all, it was a man - Adam, who rebelled against God in the garden of Eden.  According to God's Law, the penalty, the curse of sin, committed by man, could only be reversed by a man.  The problem is, all of Adam's descendants inherited the sin nature from the bloodline of Adam and Eve. 

Furthermore, the curse of sin, pronounced by God on Adam and his descendants, could only be reversed by One who is God.  To complicate the issue, If God would had reversed the curse after stating it in Genesis 3, then He would had violated His Holy character, since sinful man committed high treason against God. 

Why Christ's Virgin birth qualified Him to be the All-Sufficient Savior
Therefore in order to alleviate this dilemma, there had to be a way in which God, who alone could reverse the curse, could become man, who must pay for the penalty of sin.   Christ as God accomplished this by being born a man.  His birth was not just any normal birth, it was a virgin birth.  Now that is important, since the sin nature of fallen Adam is transmitted through the father's blood-line. (please compare 1 Peter 1:18-19)  Thus Christ, being fully man, did not have a sin nature, and so he could in a real legitmate way represent humanity before Holy God as the New Adam. (please compare Romans 5:11-21)  As God, Christ also has the authority to reverse the curse of the penalty of Sin upon all those who by grace through faith belive upon Him as the All-Sufficient Savior.