Journeying with God | God Is Enough pt 4
by Pastor Shirley Liang
Shalom.
Thank you for joining us in Journeying with God. This is Part 4 of our God Is Enough series.
We have learned briefly that Jesus is fully God.
Jesus was not man before the incarnation. God the Son (which was mentioned in the previous video) became man at a point of time in history.
There are records in the Bible substantiating Jesus’ humanity.
He was called man (Mark 15:39; John 19:5).
He was called the Son of Man (John 9:35-37).
He was tempted (Mark 4:1).
He grew in wisdom (Luke 2:52).
He died (Mark 15:37).
He has a body of flesh and bones (Luke 24:39).
However, Jesus did not cease to be God when He became man.
I would like to quote what J I Parker accurately says about Jesus:
He had not ceased to be God; he was no less God then than before; but he had begun to be man. He was not now God minus some elements of his deity, but God plus all that he had made his own by taking manhood to himself.
In other words, He was still completely God but became what He was not. Christopher Beeley says this:
…the created, limited, and even suffering man Jesus is the infinite Creator God, the tangible and visible human form of an invisible, incorporeal Son of God.
Jesus is fully man, not just a fragment. All aspect of humanity was true of Him. When He was tempted by Satan, Jesus obeyed God through His human strength.
Jesus was not just a man, but He was a man without sin, even though He was tempted during one of His most vulnerable moments (after His 40-day fast in the wilderness). If He would have sinned, He would no longer qualify to be the perfect sacrifice.
Jesus is able to identify and empathise with man because He encountered and overcame the challenges that humans face.
The humanity of Christ is imperative and indispensable, why? So that…
- He could die for our sins and pay the penalty for all humanity
- He could fully empathise with us and be a merciful and faithful High Priest
- He manifests the true nature of humanity as the perfect human
- He can be our example (in prayer, reliant upon God the Father, His glorification
- We know that while God is totally transcendent, He is also involved and interested in us, His creation.
In the next session, we shall see why the two natures in the Person of Jesus is so vital when it comes the reconciliation between God and man.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Your Son to save us. Jesus, we thank You for entering humanity and Your obedience to the Father, even death on the Cross so that we may have this eternal hope. Holy Spirit, transform us to become more and more like Christ so that God may be glorified.
I pray for my brother/sister to be able to grasp the beautiful truth that You are infinitely good, and boundlessly great! That the purpose of our life is truly to know you and to glorify you in all that we do.
In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen
BECAUSE HE LIVES
[Verse 1]
God sent His son, they called Him, Jesus;
He came to love, heal and forgive;
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives!
[Chorus]
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living,
Just because He lives!