 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; Healing and salvation go together |
RH #2: Revealing the Physician
The Bible tells us that Jesus came to our world in human flesh with a very precise and pointed mission: "That He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). He is called the "Prince of Peace," not for blankly casting His gaze the other way, but because He addresses the sin problem head-on, removing it from His people and His universe. But how He does this is very important. If it is done wrong then no final solution to it is developed. At some future point it would simply start back up again, so we've gained nothing while the universe has lost 6000 years of time-investment.
Some think that all God has to do is cook up some legal, mathematical scheme and that solves the problem. Jesus dies in our place and justice is satisfied. God snaps His fingers remaking in a moment everyone's nature, all are made holy and happy, and as the credits role all ride off into the sunset. But if such a solution could have worked, it could have been done 6000 years ago. God has something much more far-reaching in mind. He would show the power of righteousness now; He would demonstrate that the universe, in the long-term, can run successfully only on His plan of unselfishness. And He would involve His people in His plan of fixing what was broken.
It was in this context that Jesus came and tabernacled (pitched His tent) among humanity (John 1:1-3, 14).
The Word who made all things consented to be "made" flesh. He not only takes fallen human nature to Himself, but permits Himself to be taken to fallen human nature. He shrinks down as it were, entering His creation. He submitted to an inferior existence. He came in mortal, temporary frame. He became flesh. To what purpose? That He might come and dwell among His people. And what do we see in the next part of the verse? "And we beheld His glory." Whatever Jesus became it was such that John could say that He beheld His glory. Divinity entered humanity and lived among the human population. His glory was filled with grace and truth. Therefore, the humanity of Christ--the tent He tabernacled in--will be very meaningful to us. On the side of reality will be grace and truth, and on the side of falsity will be ungrace and untruth. The issues are pointed and important. The very sense of how we behold Christ is at stake.
The Jesus Who Offends
What was the first thing that happened at the fall? In a moment the noble Adam was changed to a responsibility-dodging being. When sin veiled the portal between the Creator and His creation, a strange new possibility for self-deception was introduced. By placing God too far away from man, He (God) became alien, other-worldly, far away, even unreal. But by placing God too close to man we lose our reverence for and dangerously remove the distance between Himself and us. Either trap opens the door for us to fulfill our hereditary bent toward the responsibility-dodge.
When God is placed too far away, we introduce fictional go-betweens and mediators. Because they are said to be higher than us, they become responsibility-sharers with us, enabling us to place blame or responsibility elsewhere than upon ourselves while we live below our gospel privileges.
When He is placed too close we begin to forget He is God. He becomes an enhanced human, an advanced buddy. His sacrifices for us are forgotten, as our culpability for our sins. And so we must be careful that at no point we fictionalize Jesus, create an alternative Christ, one standing in place of the biblical Jesus.
Our understanding of Jesus is central to the plan of salvation; by lifting Him up farther than intended, He loses His capacity to bridge the gap between humanity and a holy God; understanding Him to be altogether such an one as us converts Him into an individual who cannot be God; either outcome becomes an opportunity for us to dodge responsibility, and for the sin problem to continue to manifest itself with no solution in sight. So we must begin by taking care. A Jesus who saves His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21) must inevitably be a Jesus who keeps us from falling into the responsibility-dodge. He must be a Jesus who offends because He up-ends sin and sinners.
How rightly may we ask the question, who is Jesus to Whom I would give my heart? How does Jesus destroy the works of the devil? The answers to these questions center in four different and mutually exclusive ideas about what nature Christ took. We might call the contending ideas (1) the unbruised Christ versus (2) the ungod Christ versus (3) the bruised Christ in Fallen humanity versus (4) the synthetic Christ.
The Unbruised Christ
The unbruised Christ is a Jesus to whom nothing we spoke of in our last meeting applies. He is God come to earth in unfallen flesh. Such a Jesus is not weak because of sin since the impacts of the fall do not attend Him. His nature has no weakness, being incapable of death except as a sham. Remember, Adam and Eve were conditionally immortal. Their untainted humanity was such that simply by consistently eating of the tree of life they would have lived forever. If Jesus came like that, then His experience would be so different from ours that we could scarcely say (as does Scripture) that He was "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Hebrews 4:15).
The Ungod Christ
The ungod Christ is a Jesus who, it will be admitted, had an historical existence. But He was just a man. An extraordinary man, a genius, a surpassing human moral specimen; but a mere man (and NOT God) nonetheless. If this was all that He was, and even if somehow endowed with more, being even half a god, then still He is not God, still He brings to the cross only the character value of one extraordinary, even super-extraordinary man. And that's not enough to save us. It takes a character measuring with God's character to redeem all the believing individuals from the human race, numbering over six billion presently and stretching into time past 6000 years. If Jesus were "altogether such an one as ourselves," He would be nothing more than human; there would be no divine component. There would be no salvation.
The Bruised Christ in Fallen Humanity
The bruised Christ in fallen humanity, unlike the other options, could really be tempted and really die. He would be really human. Being Christ the Messiah He is also really and truly God. He had to be God in order to have a character valuable enough to equal the broken law; He had to be human enough to be our Redeemer. In order to redeem us He had to be the nearest of kin. And He couldn't be near to us in this way if He didn't belong to our family. The family we belong to is the fallen race of Adam. Jesus had to start where Adam left us after the fall or He wouldn't be one of us. As was said so long ago, "What He has not assumed, He has not healed." And so He consented to be bruised that we might be healed. Second Corinthians 5:21 says it so well: "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." No other Christ is sufficiently connected to us to embrace us and call us His brethren (Hebrews 2:11).
Is This A "Shallow" View?
Whenever we talk about sin or Jesus this way, someone will come along and say that we have a shallow view of sin, and since no one wants to be known as having a shallow view of sin, we may backtrack too quickly. The real question is whether our understanding of sin and Jesus is biblical--right--rather than whether it is what somebody thinks it ought to be. Some think they are pious when they turn temptation into sin. To be tempted is not to sin. Even to have an attraction to the temptation is not sin (James 1:13-15).
Playing with or acting upon the temptation is to sin. To be pulled is not necessarily to go along with the pull. Satan's trick is to get us to think of any temptation he throws at us as sin so as to lead us to give up. Some say that sin is more than outward acts. They are right. Sin includes all immoral acts of the mind, whether visible or invisible to others. As Jesus taught, to lust in the heart is the same as to express that in the outward acts. Both are actions of the mind--choices to sin. Sin is always a choice. That's not to say that our nature isn't wounded, that we are not born broken (as we said last night). But because we are born broken doesn't mean that through the power of Christ we cannot obey.
Actually, those who sense more clearly what sin is notice its presence in themselves more acutely. They long for holiness, for that which is spiritual, and seek for the victory, a coming into Christ-likeness. So sin is an issue to them and they want to overcome. This is what others so frequently find overly provocative in them, their desire to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).
The Fall's Impact on Jesus and Us
How did the fall impact us? We went over that last night. Let us go to the next step then. How did the fall impact Jesus? Did it impact Him just as it impacted us? According to the testimony of Scripture, were there any differences physically between Jesus and us? No. Were there any differences intellectually? No. Jesus had a brain just as we do, had capacity to think and compute as we do. Were there differences between ourselves and Him spiritually?
According to the Bible, Jesus was born, as were we, lacking strength as in Romans5:6 That lack of strength was more than merely a physical decline. Remember, Adam and Eve's natures had become depraved by sin. They had lessened their strength too resist evil and had opened the way for Satan to gain more ready access to them. Unless Jesus was born with some exceptions from our fallen nature, He too was born "without strength" within Himself to resist temptation. He was born in a nature depraved by sin, with lessened strength to resist evil, in a deteriorated moral state, as were we.
Yet because of the Scripture that says He "was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin," we categorically reject any theories of exemption or exception.
In short, we must say that all of the ways we were impacted by the fall are the same ways that Jesus was affected. Nowhere in the Bible is man held guilty for the ways in which the fall has impacted him; always we are held accountable for the decisions we make in our nature as it is.
What then of the spiritual in Jesus? Was it somehow different or separate from what we are born with? Let's see. What are the "spiritual" components of our nature? Remember, all of it has been numbed by the fall. We are moral beings after the fall still. We still want to worship someone or something too; it is built into our very nature. Remember, God intervened so we still have the capacity to choose even while on our own we lack the strength to obey. Don't forget: after the fall, Adam and Eve still had a moral nature. They sewed fig-leaf garments to cover themselves because as they stood naked they had a sense of shame. They couldn't morally cover-up their sin and so they experienced a moral nakedness of soul before their Creator.
I can't think of one way that Jesus' nature could be different from yours or mine, and He still be my Savior. Now its true that Jesus had a highly developed spiritual nature. His character was the character of God. He Himself was God. And what did we find? That God is a moral Being desiring holiness and taking pleasure in righteousness. These, friends, were the very things that Jesus desired and took pleasure in.
In His humanity, Jesus lived a perfect life. With His human arm, He lays hold of man, while with His divine arm He grasps the throne of the divine. As we link with Him, His presence is like a dye, spreading through us with a spiritual nature like His own. In this way, He is the vine, we are the branches, and He lifts us to His side. He brings us close to the Father who, unworthy as we are, loves us with the same love He has toward Jesus.
Friends, if we can have the same spiritual nature that He has, then it is very plain: there needn't be even the slightest difference between our humanity and His humanity.
The Synthetic Christ
There is another variant on Jesus out there, one we might designate the "synthetic" Christ. He is a combination of the unbruised and the ungod Jesus. He continues to find a home in much of Christianity. He owes his existence to a combination of circumstance and logic.
The linchpin in the logic is a false understanding of what sin is. If (as so many hold) sin is our nature (an idea descending from misunderstandings of the Roman Catholic teacher Augustine), then obviously Jesus can't be like us. If we are automatically, the moment we are born, guilty of sin, then were Jesus born just like us He would be guilty the moment He was born. Then we would have no Savior. Therefore He cannot be like us. He must be different from us. He must be born without any taint of sin. This is where we get the unbruised Christ, a conception of a strange Jesus who was born without human frailty, who walked through this world more a dramatist than a God. Such a Jesus, coming to our world and our situation full of exemptions from our nature and our experience would not be one of us and could not rightly die for us.
Had the Father ventured to format the plan of salvation like that, Satan simply could have said, "Was Jesus really tempted as humans were or not? If not, then what He's done for them is meaningless. You made Him so that He couldn't be tempted and couldn't break the law. You've cheated in the great controversy." Obviously, if God took a shortcut anywhere in the conflict between good and evil, or cheated, it would only be because He couldn't successfully defend His moral plan against Satan's charges; such a situation would be manifest evidence that God had failed to defend His case, and that the devil had won the war.
Augustine and others didn't understand the great controversy. Caught up in their dogmas, they theologized a fictionized Christ out of thin air. They focused on His divinity and diminished His humanity. They believed in predestination anyway, which said that people were predestined to salvation or destruction apart from their own choices to sin. Sin was a condition and everyone had it, so the task left to theologians was to explain why some would be saved while others would be lost. With that perspective the problem of sin went to the back burner and a mystical Christ was set to cooking on the front one. For long, painful centuries this was the food of Christendom. The result was the incorporation of additional mediators into the salvation schema. Mary and other saints were invoked to bridge the gap between us and Jesus.
The Common Humanity of Christ and Us
Are we born needing a Savior because of our fallen humanity? We do come into our world bearing a broken nature. It is a humanity warped, distorted, cleaving toward the evil, biased toward the evil. No, we are not morally culpable--guilty--for the nature into which we are born. But the question remains, was the very nature offending, guilt-bearing, so that we are guilty before having chosen transgression? When we let the Bible guide our understanding, the explanation becomes clear. Who is this Jesus to whom we would give our hearts?
He is God who emptied Himself and came down to needy man. Philippians 2:7 tells the story that is not often told about Jesus. In the King James Version it says that when Jesus came He "made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant." The literal Greek reads that He "emptied Himself." Of what? Of anything that He could do that we cannot do. He laid aside His divine powers and took the form of a servant. He became just like us. The fallen body is, after all, the form of a servant. But instead of serving God it constantly endeavors to turn our attentions inward, to self-serving and self-indulgence. Constantly arising from within ourselves are urgent provocations to follow in the path of Satan.
The literal word used in verse seven is ekanesin, a Greek word that says that "He emptied Himself." And the big question is, of what did He empty Himself? But see the text? It says there that when He emptied Himself, He took something else. What was it? "And took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." He was in the form of God--actually God, and He took upon Him the form of a man--actually a man. The Infinite God limited Himself to finite humanity. And not just some pristine, pure, factory-fresh pre-fall humanity. No! He took the form of a servant, of a slave. And He lived in this humanity, and finally died upon the cross.
Now let me ask you. Before Adam sinned, could He die? Not if He obeyed God. He had what can be called "conditional immortality." As long as He obeyed God, He couldn't die. His nature was a humanity that God at the end of the creation week called "very good." But after he sinned, Adam could die. In fact, after he sinned, Adam could only live based upon God's promise to die for man. Someone equal to the value of God's law had to die to meet the penalty of that law. But only three Persons in the universe could do that. God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit. But they were all God, and God has life within Himself. He cannot die. He alone hath immortality.
And there was more. In order for the penalty of sin to be paid on man's behalf, it couldn't be just anyone that would die for man. For the sacrifice to be valid, someone from the same family as man must die. He must be kin to be a kinsman-redeemer. He must be human to legitimately act to redeem--to buy back--humanity. He didn't have to be human to own us by creation, but He had to be human to buy us back for re-creation.
And since fallen humanity was lost, He would have to bear the same nature to be a valid sacrifice. Anything else would call forth the charge, "God cheated." And if, through this sacrifice the validity of the law was upheld, then fallen humanity would still be expected to live in obedience to that law. So an even bigger challenge faced God. He not only must be God in order to provide a character for sacrifice equal to the law, He not only must be fallen man in order to die, but in order to uphold that law and redeem man, He must also provide man with a valid example to copy. He must live in the very condition of fallen man. Either that, or man would have no real example of how to obey, and Satan would say, "Doesn't count. You used your divine powers. Regular people can't do that."
So Jesus came and lived and fought and scrapped with Satan. Day by day, He trod this world in our flesh as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53:3). By living through it never sinning, always victorious no matter how closely pressed, He condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3). His ultimate journey was no put-on fakery. He didn't walk through this world as a bored, pre-faller merely biding His time until the crucifixion. He fought His way through. Real temptations. Real infirmities. Real tugs and pulls to the wrong assailed Him.
But although He came with a human body just as broken as ours, He never indulged its brokeness; although He took on the form of a servant of sin (John 8:34; Romans 6:6, 16-18), He never served sin (Hebrews 4:15; 7:26); He maintained continuous linkage to the heart of His Father, and always did that which pleased Him (John 8:29). And just that which He was in humanity, we may be.
St. Gregory of Nanzian wrote that "what Jesus has not assumed, He has not healed." And really, its true. And because He was one with us--in total solidarity with our broken humanity--He is not ashamed to call us His brothers and sisters (Hebrews 2:11). And so He could go to the cross for us and in our place. And this is why with His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5).
While Jesus took our form He never ceased from serving His Father. In the broken flesh of fallen humanity He served Him. The members of His body He turned to serve as instruments of righteousness. And we may do the same. After all, the very same passage that describes Christ laying aside His power also commands, "Let this mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5)--a ridiculous command if unattainable, even by God's power. Who then is this Jesus?
He is God who came close, who tabernacled with humanity. We have no share in His divinity, which is His alone; we are not gods in waiting. But He does have a share in our humanity, for He took our flesh--fallen, impacted, pulling the wrong way; He is as human as we are. Was Jesus then born needing a Savior because of His fallen humanity? He came into this fallen world just as we did, bearing a broken humanity. But He never sinned. Everyone else has. Jesus didn't need a Savior because He never sinned or fell. But He bore a broken flesh that needed saving. He lived the very same way that we must: by the power of God. He obeyed the very same way that we must: by the power of God. Jesus didn't rely upon His own power, but the Father's.
At every point where Satan provoked Him to tap His own power--the power that He had laid down when He assumed human flesh (Philippians 2:7)--at every such point Jesus exercised faith in His Father. When it was appropriate to do miracles, Jesus called for them and the Father's power answered. When Satan asked Jesus to make bread he was trying to get Him to use His own power, to take it up again. But He refused. Why would He refuse there, and then use this power on other occasions? The power of the Father that Jesus sought is the very same that is available to us. We can obtain the victory in the same way that Jesus did. Now that's good news. That's the gospel.
A bruised Christ has been in battle; an unbruised Christ faced no deep trial. A bruised Christ was bruisable; an unbruised Christ was unbruised because it was no contest. A bruised Christ was human; an unbruised Christ was superhuman; hardly a meaningful example for you or I.
Conclusion
Who is this Jesus to whom I would give my heart? He is God come into human flesh, even fallen human flesh. He never sinned, but He was "tempted in all points" like as you and I are. He came indistinguishably close to our humanity. There is, biblically, no difference at all, none whatsoever, absolutely, unequivically not the tiniest variation between the humanity that He took and that which you and I have. He became as human as we are, that we might be enabled to be as obedient as He is.
And why does this matter? Because the Bible says He is our example. And If He isn't one of us, He can't truly be our example. And if He is truly one of us, then we can truly obey even as He did, in spite of our fallen human habitation and situation. Jesus said, "I do always those things that please Him" of His own walk with His Father (John 8:29). This is to be our experience, here and now.
Who is this Jesus to whom I would give my heart? One who became one of us, one with us, who stands beside us, who helps us, empowers us, heals us, forgives us, who saves us, who knows us intimately because He is one of us. To save us He became one of us. He was tempted in all points like as we are. Yet without sin. He didn't have to do that. But He did it for me and for you. I don't know if we can really truly begin to imagine the humiliation of His descent from infinitude down into His creation, but He loved us and today in heaven bears our form. He went through our experience, and so we may successfully go through our experience and have His image restored in us. We can become like Jesus. We will never match Him friends; He is matchless! His character is divine. However, He will be true to His promise to save His people FROM their sins. This is the Jesus to whom I would give my heart. And I wouldn't have it any other way because He wouldn't. Thank God for Jesus, our sinless Savior who now works to finish the conflict between good and evil once and for all and lead His own precious people out of sin forever.
He will heal us and save us, if we will grant Him room to do that kind of deep work that is so needful. The great Physician now is near, the sympathizing Jesus.
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