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Friday, December 19, 2014

Two starting points for considering The Miraculous Son



John 1:1-3 "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. 3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being."

John 1:14 "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Matthew 1:18 "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit."

Luke 1:31-35  "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” 34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God."

Introduction: Two starting points for talking about the miraculous Son
Both John's Gospel and the two other Gospels of Matthew and Luke present to us two starting points for considering the miraculous Person of Jesus Christ. 

Thinking about Jesus Christ as God who came down to be God in human flesh
John begins with the identical wording of Genesis 1:1, namely "in the beginning". The Son is described as co-existing with the Person of the Father in eternity, or what Bible teachers call the Son's "Pre-existence". When we talk about Jesus Christ in the manner described by John, we talk of Him as Eternal Deity, partaking of the same Divine nature in equal measure along with the Persons of the Father and the Spirit. John's goal in his Gospel is to demonstrate how this Eternal Person of the Son came into time and history through the virgin birth and became God in human flesh. In summary, John presents Jesus Christ as "from above" and demonstrates how the Eternally Divine Son by way of His incarnation as a human being lived, died, raised and ascended as God in human flesh.

Thinking about Jesus Christ, with regards to His humanity, as having a beginning in time starting with the virgin birth conception
Matthew and Luke present the starting point for talking about Jesus Christ from the vantage point of His humanity. What these two Gospel writers and Mark do is introduce Jesus to us at "ground-level" or looking at Jesus from below". By appealing to the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament, these two Gospel writers affirm the Son's pre-existence while reinforcing the reality of the beginning of his human life in the virgin-birth conception. Jesus Christ, in regards to his humanity, was conceived in the virgin's womb, was born, lived, died, raised and ascended into Heaven as a man. Throughout the Gospels of Matthew and Luke we are reminded that Jesus ever retained His fully Divine nature, just as John's Gospel reiterates the fact that Jesus became and remained a genuine human being. 

The four gospels present the Eternal Miraculous Son as God who came to be God, the Miraculous Son, in human flesh
When combined with Mark's testimony of Jesus' mission and ministry, we have a composite picture of the Miraculous Son as God in human flesh who was virgin conceived, born, lived, died, raised from the dead and ascended. Mark's Gospel begins with Jesus the Son as an adult man who has been alive for 30 years and is getting ready to begin His public ministry. Such a miraculous life is not portrayed as a still life painting to be admired from afar, but a vivid, living breathing Person who came to bring about miraculous life. Jesus Christ the Miraculous Son not only came in a miraculous fashion but lived a life that was woven in the miraculous and demonstrated the reality of such in the realm of ordinary human life. 

Jesus would end up performing 35 miracles, preaching five recorded sermons, telling over 50 parables, calling twelve disciples and fulfilling 109 prophecies all before ascending into Heaven following his crucifixion and resurrection. Such a miraculous Person as Jesus Christ, Who exists as both Eternal God and finite resurrected man must not be conceived of as stuck in the pages of history or sealed off somewhere in heaven. His miraculous life was lived so that He could save and redeem His people who are called to a redeemed, miraculous life for the glory of God. The next few posts will aim to flesh out what type of miraculous life the Miraculous Son came to achieve and make available in saving faith.