The Children of God (1 of 4)
Patrick Edwards
John 1:9-13
Introduction
We conclude our Christmas series this morning ''Why God became Man,'' by looking at perhaps one of the most neglected aspects of Jesus Christ, that being His life. We spend considerable time on his birth, considerable time on His death and resurrection, but we tend to pass over or ignore the significance of His life. I've shared this with a few of you before, but as a kid I use to find this intermediate season between Christmas and Easter terribly confusing. I always wondered how could Jesus have grown from a baby to adult man and done all the things that He did in only three or four months? I mean its funny how a child's mind works, but to be frank, we kind of sometimes treat Jesus' life in this way.
Think about our creeds. We state, ''I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary,'' we're ok so far. We've got here that fact that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, fully divine, in no way lesser than the Father. We've got here His conception and virgin; all good, but then the creed jumps from the Virgin Mary to, ''He suffered under Pontius Pilate.'' We go straight from His birth to His suffering and death, without ever really asking, ''Why did Jesus live?''
Some have argued, and they are on the right track, that well Jesus' life is important because Jesus had to obey all the points of the law on our behalf, as if Jesus racked up good points for us. Theologians will sometimes call this Jesus' active obedience, or His full obedience to all the positive prescriptions of the law. The answer then to ''why did Jesus live?'' rests in that apparently 33 or so years was necessary for Him to rack up the adequate amount of points or merit we would need as forgiven sinners. My question, though, is if that was the case, if Jesus needed to live simply so that He could not sin and could obey the law, then why not just go hang out i ...
Patrick Edwards
John 1:9-13
Introduction
We conclude our Christmas series this morning ''Why God became Man,'' by looking at perhaps one of the most neglected aspects of Jesus Christ, that being His life. We spend considerable time on his birth, considerable time on His death and resurrection, but we tend to pass over or ignore the significance of His life. I've shared this with a few of you before, but as a kid I use to find this intermediate season between Christmas and Easter terribly confusing. I always wondered how could Jesus have grown from a baby to adult man and done all the things that He did in only three or four months? I mean its funny how a child's mind works, but to be frank, we kind of sometimes treat Jesus' life in this way.
Think about our creeds. We state, ''I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary,'' we're ok so far. We've got here that fact that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, fully divine, in no way lesser than the Father. We've got here His conception and virgin; all good, but then the creed jumps from the Virgin Mary to, ''He suffered under Pontius Pilate.'' We go straight from His birth to His suffering and death, without ever really asking, ''Why did Jesus live?''
Some have argued, and they are on the right track, that well Jesus' life is important because Jesus had to obey all the points of the law on our behalf, as if Jesus racked up good points for us. Theologians will sometimes call this Jesus' active obedience, or His full obedience to all the positive prescriptions of the law. The answer then to ''why did Jesus live?'' rests in that apparently 33 or so years was necessary for Him to rack up the adequate amount of points or merit we would need as forgiven sinners. My question, though, is if that was the case, if Jesus needed to live simply so that He could not sin and could obey the law, then why not just go hang out i ...
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