Letter To Our Children
by Pastor Joe | November 2, 2022 | Letters To Our Children
November 2, 2022
Q: Why must (Jesus) be a true and righteous man?
A: He must be a true man because the justice of God requires that the same human nature which has sinned should pay for sin. He must be a righteous man because one who himself is a sinner he cannot pay for others.
Question 16 Heidelberg Catechism
To pride and power, Jesus answered servanthood, serving God and us. To glory Jesus said, no I will take the cross.
Michael Horton
Hello friends,
One of my favorite books, a book I keep close is The Incomparable Christ. The title means what the Bible declares. Jesus is without an equal. No one is like Jesus, and there will never be anyone like Jesus. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us.
Yet, when Jesus was born on earth, He was also a person. The author of Hebrews reminds us: Since the children have flesh and blood, He to shared in their humanity...for surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason, He had to be made like them, fully human in every way. (Hebrew 2:14-17)
Every Way Human
This telling passage tells us a truth we cannot forget: Jesus was a real human being, just like us. Indeed, the humanness of the words flesh and blood underpins the writer's point even more. The humanity of Jesus is not an illusion.
The Bible teaches us: He was born of a real woman (Luke 2:7), He was hungry (Matthew 4:2), was thirsty (John 19:28), became tired (Mark 4:38), and, of course, died (Luke 23:46). Jesus was like you and me in every way, except He never sinned. (Hebrew 4:15)
Yet, people are often told, taught, and believe that if we never sinned on earth, then our life would be perfect, everything would go our way, and we would never be sad, feel pain, etc. That will never be true on this earth. The life of Jesus shows us something different.
Every Way Common
When Jesus came from heaven to be born on earth, He experienced the life humans live.
“Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every way so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest” (Heb. 2:17).
When you think of the many things which make human life hard; Jesus was not excused from them. He was tempted (Matt. 4:1–11), sorrowful (Matt. 26:38), angry (Mark 3:5), rejected by His family (Mark 3:21), falsely accused (Mark 14:56), abandoned by many of His followers (John 6:66) and betrayed by a friend (Luke 22:47). He even cried out in desperation to God (Luke 22:44).
When our life becomes really hard, and painful, no one is able to say Jesus doesn’t understand what it’s like. He does. More than we know. He lived a real human life and joined us in its troubles.
Every Way Flesh and Blood
The humanity of Jesus was not a given in the time of the earliest Christians. Soon, heresies (a heresy at its root is a teaching or belief untrue and undermines the Gospel) began to arise that questioned whether Jesus was a full flesh and blood man.
Docetism, from the Greek word dokeo (to seem)— said loudly and proudly that Jesus only appeared human. They believed He was divine (which is a good thing), but they convinced themselves that God could never take on the fallenness of human flesh. As a result, they argued His humanity was an illusion. It just seemed like Jesus was human.
Not so, He was born into the world as an actual person. He grew to a certain height, and His hair had a certain color and length. He spoke a certain language. He weighed so many pounds. He ate, slept, dreamed, and learned. The Eternal God, who knows all things and created all things, became not only a man but (before that) a baby.
How important is the humanity of Jesus to you and me? The apostle John makes His humanity a test of belief.
By this, you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And whoever rejects the reality that Jesus came “in the flesh” is called an “antichrist.” (1 John 4:2,3)
One and Only Savior
Hence our quoted question: Why must Jesus be a true and righteous man? Because in His humanity, Jesus truly offers God everything that we owe God. Everything we were created to be. We owe God perfect obedience, but we won’t do it, and we can’t do it. We still lie, fight, we must have our way, we won’t forgive, and on and on. But Jesus never did any of this. He was without sin.
And not only does Jesus truly offer God everything we owe God, namely perfect obedience. The exact punishment that should have been ours because of our disobedience, Jesus pays for us as He suffers and dies on the cross, dying in our place. So, imagine you or me disobeying our parents, and the punishment they decide to give us, they take themselves.
We owe God perfect obedience. We cannot give it. A penalty is warranted. Jesus on the cross, as a flesh and blood human, Son of God, suffers and dies in our place.
You see, Jesus Christ is Incomparable. He is the only one who brings life and can get us past death.
God bless you as you remember the things which matter most.
Pastor Joe