School of the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith “The Creator and His Creation.” Lesson 18. The Savior. The school consists of 22 lessons. The founder of the school is the Christian Bible Institute.
I – The Birth of the Savior
Let us remember what we know about the Trinity of God. What is it?
God is One in essence, and His essence is manifested in three Persons, who are equal in every way. These three Persons of God are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
God is Spirit and has no human body. But the Savior had to be like us, except that He had to be sinless. Therefore, for God's plan to be fulfilled, God the Son had to be born in a human body. How did this happen?
God chose Mary to become the mother of the Savior. The Son was to descend from heaven and be born as a little baby. The Son born to Mary was fully God and fully human! He was given the name Jesus.
Luke 1:30 The angel continued: – Do not be afraid, Mary, because God has shown you favor! Luke 1:31 You will become pregnant and give birth to a Son, and you will name Him Jesus. Luke 1:32 He will be great, and He will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His ancestor David, Luke 1:33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His Kingdom will never end.
God fulfilled the promise He had made to David. People cannot understand how Mary could give birth to a child who had no earthly father. Mary did not understand it either. But the angel said that the Holy Spirit would perform this miracle.
Luke 1:35 The angel replied: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the Child who will be born to you will be called ‘Holy,’ as well as the Son of God.”
Because Jesus Christ was born without an earthly father, He was born without sin. No descendant of Adam can be holy and righteous. Every person in this world has inherited Adam’s sin. We are all sinners because Adam’s sin passed on to us. But Jesus’ Father was God. God is perfect, holy, and sinless; therefore, the Savior born of Him was sinless.
1 John 3:5 You know that He was revealed in order to take away our sins. There is no sin in Him.
Jesus did not inherit Adam’s sinful nature! He was the holy and sinless Son of God and Son of Man.
God created the first man from the dust of the ground, and God gives life to every person. It was not difficult for God to give Mary a child without an earthly father, because He can do everything!
1 Timothy 3:16 Beyond all question, the mystery of our faith is great: God was revealed in the flesh…
John 1:14 The Word became human and lived among us. We saw His glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son, full of grace and truth.
And God did this to save those who believed in Him from destruction.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life.
Now, let us take a closer look at how the Bible reveals the nature of Jesus Christ to us.
II – The Nature of the Savior
The uniqueness of Jesus Christ lies, first and foremost, in His nature. No one else could become the Savior of humanity except one who is fully God and fully human.
Christ is fully God
Christ—the source of life.
The absolute deity of Jesus Christ plays a very important role in the matter of our salvation. To deliver humanity from the deadly grip of sin, the Savior had to be free from the effects of Adam and Eve’s fall. He had to have life in Himself in order to give it to people who were dead in their trespasses and sins. Therefore, as John begins his Gospel, he immediately speaks clearly of Jesus Christ as the source of life:
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:2 He was with God in the beginning. John 1:3 Everything that exists was created through Him, and without Him nothing that exists came into being. John 1:4 In Him was life, and this life was the Light of humanity. John 1:14 The Word became human and lived among us. We saw His glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son, full of grace and truth.
An essential condition for Jesus Christ to have the source of life within Himself was His sinlessness. Christ could not have taken upon Himself the sin of the world if He had had His own sin and guilt.
Christ—the conqueror of the devil
In addition to bringing life into humanity’s realm of death, the Savior faced another task—He had to defeat the devil, who had deceitfully seized dominion over humanity and its world. Only the Son of God, Jesus Christ, possessed sufficient power to defeat the one who considers himself “the ruler of this world.”
Ephesians 1:20 He exerted this power in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, Ephesians 1:21 far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. Ephesians 1:22 And God put everything under Christ’s feet and appointed Him as head over everything for the Church,
Christ’s divine works
- He created and sustains everything. Colossians 1:16–17; Hebrews 1:2–3.
- He forgives sins. Colossians 3:13; Mark 2:5–12; see Isaiah 43:25 and Psalm 51:4.
- He grants eternal life. John 10:28.
- He receives and answers prayers. John 14:14; Acts 7:59
- He will raise the dead on the day of resurrection. John 5:21, 28–29; 11:24–25
- He is the final Judge of the world. Acts 10:42; 17:31; Revelation 20:11–15
- He created the Church and preserves it. Ephesians 4:7–16; Matthew 16:18
Christ’s Unique Relationship with the Father.
- He has unique knowledge of the Father. Matthew 11:27
- He has an equal relationship with the Father. John 5:18
- He is the only way through which the Father is revealed to us. John 1:18,
- The Old Testament was given through the Son. 1 Peter 1:11
- The New Testament was given through the Son. Galatians 1:12
- Knowledge of the Father depends on knowledge of the Son. John 1:14–18
- Knowledge of the Son depends on knowledge of the Father. Luke 10:22; Matthew 16:17
Christ’s Personal Testimony of His Deity
- He declared His equality with the Father. John 5:17–29
- He declared that He had testimony to prove His equality with the Father. John 5:33–47
- He declared Himself to be God, existing from eternity. John 8:58. Compare with Exodus 3:14.
Christ is fully human
He was conceived immaculately
Jesus Christ was conceived by the work of the Holy Spirit, without the involvement of an earthly father.
Matthew 1:20 But after he had made this decision, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David! Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the Child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:21 She will give birth to a Son, and you shall name Him Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins!”
Thus, God resolved one of humanity’s most difficult problems—the Son of God who was born belonged to the human race, yet did not have within Himself the sin that had afflicted humanity.
He experienced everything that a human being experiences.
By living on earth as a human being, Christ demonstrated to people an example and the possibility of living a practical life of obedience to God.
Hebrews 4:14 We have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus, the Son of God. Therefore, let us hold firmly to the truth we confess. Hebrews 4:15 Our High Priest is not one who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. He was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin.
He is able to take upon Himself the sin of humanity
As a sinless man, Jesus Christ was able to take upon Himself human sin and die for it, while giving humanity His righteousness.
2 Cor. 5:21 God placed the guilt for people's sin on the sinless One, so that in Him we might become righteous before God.
Evidence of Christ’s genuine human characteristics.
- Human birth. Christ’s conception was clearly miraculous (Luke 1:26–35), but physically His birth was normal in every respect after the expected period of pregnancy. The shepherds came and saw a real newborn baby lying in a manger.
- Human growth and development. Jesus grew and developed like other children (Luke 2:40, 50), progressing physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually throughout His existence.
- Human heritage. The genealogies recorded in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke established and restored His legal right to David’s throne and His genuine connection with the human race from the time of Adam. He had brothers and sisters, and He knew the joys and experiences of family life.
- Human experience. He was hungry and thirsty for water (John 4), became tired and slept, suffered and wept. He experienced human physical weakness and needed strengthening (Luke 22:43). He had a special love for certain people, such as the family in Bethany (John 11:5). When He faced the struggle in Gethsemane, He was afraid and asked for human support (Matt. 26:36–40), resisting as any person would before the suffering that lay ahead. The cry, “Why have You forsaken Me?” is evidence of His genuine humanity—the natural expression of a person in terrible suffering.
- Human relationship with God. He declared, “People ought always to pray and not lose heart,” and clearly and continually demonstrated this in His life. “He prayed because He was fully and truly human.”
- Human death. Jesus’ actual physical death on the cross testifies to the integrity of Jesus as a man (see John 19:35).
The portrait of Jesus of Nazareth is one of a kind—not unique because of His genuine humanity, but because of His perfection!
The title “Son of Man” speaks of His true human nature.
John 3:14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, John 3:15 so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him.
John 5:26 For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself. John 5:27 And He has given Him authority to judge, because He is the Son of Man.
III – The Savior’s Sacrifice
Life Invades the Kingdom of Death
Humanity without Christ was a kingdom of death, in which everything was subject to decay and death. All human attempts to free themselves from the influence of death were futile, because people were afflicted by sin, which is the cause of death and decay. Only the intervention of Life, existing outside the human kingdom of death, could give people hope of liberation and eternal life.
1 John 1:1 That which existed from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have observed and touched with our own hands—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 1 John 1:2 The life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it. We proclaim to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.
Voluntarily Limiting His Divine Power
Being fully God, Jesus Christ always had the ability to call upon His supernatural qualities, which could have made His earthly life considerably easier. But, being fully human, Jesus Christ voluntarily limited Himself, not resorting to His supernatural abilities for His own protection.
Philippians 2:6 Although He had the same nature as God, He did not consider equality with Him something to be grasped at all costs; Philippians 2:7 instead, He humbled Himself by taking the nature of a servant; He became like human beings. And being found in appearance as a man, Philippians 2:8 He humbled Himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!
Matthew 26:53 Do you think that I could not ask My Father to send Me more than twelve legions of angels immediately?
A Real Life of Obedience to God
Throughout His earthly life, Jesus Christ demonstrated constant submission to His Father. Resistance to God is the foundation of sin. Being sinless, Christ had a nature of complete agreement with the Heavenly Father.
John 5:30 I can do nothing on My own. I judge as I am told, and My judgment is just, because I do not act according to My own will, but according to the will of the One who sent Me.
Source: Christian Bible Institute
