Jesus

The Lord Jesus Christ
T. P. Simmons

The doctrine of Jesus Christ is called Christology (RW)

I. HIS PRE-EXISTENCE AND ETERNITY

II. HIS INCARNATION

Phil. 2:6-7 "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:"

III. HIS SUPERNATURAL BIRTH

The birth of Christ was miraculous. But let us beware of pushing the miraculous element so far that we destroy the reality of Christ’s human nature. Of what did the miracle of Christ’s birth consist? It did not consist of a miraculous creation of Christ’s body, nor of an immediate birth; but of merely a conception in the womb of Mary. Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:31. There is every evidence that the body of Jesus passed through embryogeny and fetation just as the bodies of other human infants do, and that he was carried in the womb of His mother for the usual period of nine months. Luke 1:56; 2:6. It is quite plain that the miraculous element in the incarnation consisted merely of the divine impregnation of the ovum. Thus the human nature of Christ was made a normal human nature, but, nevertheless, completely sanctified and preserved from every taint of sin by the implantation of Deity.

IV. HIS HUMANITY

Christ’s body and human nature were in all respects like our own, except that there was no taint of sin in Him. He was the flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of FLESH AND BLOOD, he also himself took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Heb. 2:14).

On the human side Jesus was a bona fide Jew. We are plainly told that He "was made of the SEED OF DAVID ACCORDING TO THE FLESH" (Rom. 1:3). See also John 7:42; Acts 13:23; 2 Tim. 2:8. The physical characteristics of Jesus were those of a Jew, and thus the Samaritan woman recognized Him as a Jew, John 4:9. Then Jesus freely acknowledged Himself a Jew, John 4:22.

We should be just as zealous in maintaining Christ’s humanity as we are in maintaining His deity. It was against those who denied the true humanity of Jesus that John wrote in 2 John 7-11, and he shows that their error was just as fatal as the error of those who deny His deity. As shown in the preceding discussion of the incarnation, it was just as necessary that He be man as it was that He be God.

V. HIS DEITY

The notion of modernists that Jesus was divine only in the sense that they hold man to be divine does not satisfy these passages. Man is not divine in his natural condition. After regeneration he has a divine nature dwelling in him, but retains also the sinful human nature. It is never said that man, even after regeneration, is God or that he is the "effulgence of His glory."

How Christ could be both God and man is a mystery beyond the power of man to comprehend. Neither does man have any ground for a denial of it. It is a revealed fact, necessary, as we have seen already, to the work that Christ came to do.

VI. HIS SINLESS LIFE

VII. HIS SACRIFICIAL DEATH

Christ did not die merely as a martyr. In a sense He was a martyr. His death was brought about, from a human standpoint, by His faithfulness to His Father’s will. But He was more than a martyr. He was the substitute for sinners. He died in their stead.

VIII. HIS RESURRECTION

IX. HIS ASCENSION

X. HIS OFFICES

As a prophet Christ taught the will of God. As a priest He offered His own blood in the heavenly temple (Heb. 9:11-14) and intercedes for believers (Heb. 7:25). As king He possesses all power (Matt. 28:18) and rules now over an invisible, spiritual kingdom (John 18:36,37), and is later to rule visibly over the whole earth (Ps. 66:4; 72:16-19; Isa. 2:2; Dan. 7:13,14,18,22,27; Heb. 10:13; Rev. 15:4).

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