What a blessing it is to be with you on this fine Lord's Day morning and as we are about to get into our Sunday school lesson. But before we do so, would you please join me in prayer? Our Heavenly Father, it is with great joy that we do come before you this morning. You have brought us through another week. You have brought us together from out of the world to be gathered together as your corporate people. gathered for you, Lord, and we are here for you. We are here to worship you. We are here to hear from you. And so, Lord, help us to not be distracted with the cares of this world, but that we would indeed be able to set our minds upon Christ and upon your word, that we would be humbled before your word, that we would be humbled under your mighty hand, that you would be pleased to instruct us through your word by means of the confession this morning, that you would be pleased to bless our time as we study together, and that you'd be pleased to bless the other Sunday school classes that are taking place this morning, that the young ones would have your word ministered to them, that they would be able to hear about you and your works of providence and miracle and redemption, and we just pray, Lord, that the young people in our church would have a solid foundation in you, and that most of all, they would put their saving faith in Christ. So we give you this time, Lord, pray for your blessing upon Everything that happens here this morning, and we ask and pray these things in Jesus name amen So this morning we have the privilege of continuing on in chapter 8 on Christ the mediator And I agree with my brother Stephen who two Sundays ago Said that this is probably one of the most important chapters in the confession. This is a glorious chapter indeed I think that's another way you word it as well brother. I think you call it a glorious chapter in the I would completely agree with you on that. And so just by way of a brief reminder and introduction, what we've seen so far leading up to chapter 8 is in chapter 7 we were introduced to the covenant, to the idea of covenant. And what we saw in chapter 7 is that God has a covenant of grace by which he saves his people. And this covenant of grace is founded on another covenant, the covenant of redemption, which is that eternal covenant transaction between the Father and the Son. And if you have a copy of your confession, why don't we just look at chapter 7 briefly to be reminded of these important truths? Chapter 7 paragraph 2 we read these words Moreover man having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall it pleased God the Lord to make a covenant of grace Wherein he freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, and so we see the covenant of grace being fulfilled Introduced to us there in paragraph 2 of chapter 7 and paragraph 3 of chapter 7 continues on this covenant the covenant of grace is Revealed in the gospel first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman and afterwards by farther steps until the full discovery Thereof was completed in the New Testament and it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the father and the son about the redemption of the elect just stopped there, so We see there in chapter 7, paragraph 1, 2, and 3, this covenant. God covenanted, decided to make a covenant to save his people. And now here in chapter 8, we're introduced to the one who executes that covenant. So we go from the covenant being administered there in chapter 7 to now the executor of the covenant, which is, of course, the mediator. The covenant is brought about and executed by a mediator. That's what we see in chapter 8 here, and that's what our brother Stephen opened up to us in paragraph 1 two weeks ago in chapter 8, is that that mediator is none other than the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so now here in paragraph 2, we are given the means by which Jesus becomes the mediator. That's what we have here in paragraph 2. So paragraph 1 of chapter 8, Introduced to us the notion of Jesus Christ as the mediator and now here in paragraph two we see the means by which He does indeed become that mediator and the means by which he becomes our mediator is none other than the incarnation That's what we're gonna be learning about here this morning in paragraph 2 of chapter 8 of the Confession of Faith, is the Incarnation. And before we jump into that, I just want to mention something regarding the Incarnation, and that when we look at the Incarnation, we are looking at one of the greatest miracles of history, if not the miracle of history. And when I use that word miracle, I mean it in its fullest sense. You know, sometimes when we read the Bible and we read about different events that have happened in history, Some of the things that we can categorize as miracles are really just simply God doing whatever he wills to do with his creation, which is, in essence, his providence. You know, we learned about providence in chapter 5, and so when we read about God bringing all things into existence simply by the power of his word, or when we read about the miracles that Moses performed before Pharaoh, or when we read about God causing the sun to stop and move backwards, or when we read about God bringing people back from the dead, or turning water into wine, or putting money in the mouth of a fish, or these different things, from our standpoint, we would call miracles. But really, all they are is, like I said, they are just simply God doing with his creation that which he has willed to do. And it's not very different than God providentially working in each of us every day, providentially giving all of us life and breath. Every breath that we take is a part of God's providential care over his creation. We need to remember that creation is not separate from God, that creation It's not like as if creation, the earth and the universe around us is just humming along, being guided by the laws of nature, and that God kind of just steps in at certain times and performs these miracles. No, as Colossians 117 tells us, Jesus has created all things, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Creation is something that consists in God. It subsists in him. And so all of the things that we see God doing throughout history, whether it's just that breath I just took, or whether it's stopping the water so that the people of Israel could escape from Pharaoh, all of those things are a part of his providential care. And yes, there is a certain aspect in which we do see those things as miraculous. But when we read about and learn about the Incarnation, we are coming to the miracle of history. And this understanding has led Craig Carter, who's a modern day theologian, very fine theologian, he wrote this regarding the Incarnation. He says, the point we need to bear in mind here is that the Incarnation is a unique event in history, not a general symbol of the way things eternally are. It is not a symbol of the way God usually works in history. It is a miracle rather than providence, and no ordinary miracle at that. So when we come before this doctrine of the incarnation, may we keep this in mind, that it is the singular event of history. It is beyond all of the things God has done that we read about in scripture. It is beyond anything like that. It is none other than the eternal Son of God taking on himself human flesh so that the two whole perfect and distinct natures were in separately joined together in one person. That is indeed miraculous. And there is a great amount of mystery involved in this doctrine. I am not going to stand here and attempt to tell you guys that I understand it all. You know, the Incarnation, I got it down. Two natures in one person, easy stuff. No. There is definitely a certain amount of mystery involved in this. Another writer puts it this way, he says, there is a sense in which the hypostatic union, which is the union between the two natures of Christ, there is a sense in which the hypostatic union of the two natures in Christ is the greatest miracle in Scripture." I would agree with him on that. The greatest miracle in Scripture. So, before we jump into this, any questions or comments on anything I just said before we jump into the paragraph here? No? Okay, very good. So, follow along with me as I read chapter 8, paragraph 2 of Christ the Mediator. where we read these words. The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory, of one substance and equal with Him, who made the world, who upholds and governs all things He has made, did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon Him man's nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin. being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her and the power of the Most High overshadowing her, and so is made of a woman, of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David, according to the Scriptures, so that the two whole perfect and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion, which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man. So, very weighty stuff. Very weighty stuff indeed here. We have the hypostatic union in paragraph form here. And so essentially what this paragraph is saying, to boil it down, is essentially what it's saying is that Jesus is God, and in time took humanity to himself so that he is one person with two distinct natures. That's essentially what this paragraph is telling us here. I'll say that again. Jesus is God who in time took humanity to himself so that he is one person with two distinct natures. That's this paragraph's essence, you could say. And so, let's jump right into it here, and let's consider who it was who was incarnated. That's what we see here at the outset of this paragraph, is the subject of the incarnation. Who was it that was incarnated? who upholds and governs all things he has made." Now, I'm going to say this at the outset, there are many statements in this paragraph, okay? There are many statements about Christ in this paragraph, and each of these statements could easily be its own Sunday school lesson. So, I will not be spending a whole lot of time on each section here or else we'd be here all day long, okay? So just bear that in mind that I will be spending more time on some statements and less time on other statements in order to have the time to spend on some of the statements. So just, you know, keep that in mind here. We don't have time to really just expound upon every single nugget that's in here, and these are indeed nuggets of truth that we find here in this paragraph. And so, first of all, we have the Son of God. He is the one who was incarnated, and the Gospels make it abundantly clear for us that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. That is, you know, anybody reading any of the Gospels, or all four of them, will walk away knowing that Jesus was the Son of God, at least according to the writers of the Gospels. And we see Jesus himself referring to himself as the Son of God in places such as John chapter 3, John chapter 10. In John chapter 10, I'll go ahead and read that one for you. John chapter 10 verse 34, Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law? I said you are gods. If he called them gods to whom the Word of God came, and Scripture cannot be broken, do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said, I am the Son of God? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father." Jesus makes it pretty clear there. The Father is my Father, and I am his Son. I am the Son of God. And the Gospels also record several other instances of people confessing. that Jesus was the Son of God. After the disciples see Jesus walking on the water, they're in the middle of the sea there, and the waves are rising, and the wind's blowing, and Jesus was on the land, but he decides to walk out across the water to them, and when he gets to the boats, after Peter attempts to walk on the water, he gets to the boat, and everything gets calmed down, and they exclaim, wow, you are the Son of God. Also, when Jesus was on the cross at his crucifixion, and we read about how there was an earthquake, and rocks were split, and these amazing things were happening, and you know, the veil in the temple is torn in two, and the centurion, who was there keeping watch over Christ as he's hanging on the cross, the centurion, upon seeing all these things, he exclaimed, truly, this was the Son of God. And so we see people throughout the Gospels confessing that Jesus was none other than the Son of God. And not only did people confess that Jesus was the Son of God, but even the demons as well. In Mark 3 11 we read, So we have many witnesses recorded for us in the Gospels including Jesus himself, declaring that Jesus was the Son of God. And he is the Son of God. Now, does Jesus being the Son of God mean that he was created? That the Father created him? Of course not. I know that we can all agree with each other on that one in here. No, we do not believe that Jesus was created in any way, shape, or form, because otherwise, Jesus would not be God. If Jesus were created, he could not be divine. But we know that it is also the witness of the New Testament that Jesus was divine, that he was God. The New Testament makes that very clear for us. Jesus declared himself to be divine in John 8, 58, when he tells the people, Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Equating himself with the great I am of the Old Testament. In Titus 2.13, Paul says this, he says, Paul attributes Godhead to Jesus. And Peter himself also does the same thing as well. In 2 Peter 1, verse 1, at the outset of that letter, Peter says this, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And then John's gospel, John narrating here, says this, John says, this was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, Jesus, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own father. which makes himself equal with God. So the New Testament, again, very clear that Jesus was the Son of God and he was God. His sonship made him equal with the Father. His sonship makes him a part of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so that's what we see here in this first statement of our of the confession here, the Son of God, that's who was incarnated here, Jesus Christ. the Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very an eternal God, stop there. That's his deity, that's his sonship, and that's what the New Testament makes very clear for us. So, moving on now, though, the confession continues on, stating Jesus's deity there, and then continuing on, also saying this of Jesus, he is the brightness of the Father's glory, of one substance and equal with him, who made the world, who upholds and governs all things He has made. So the brightness of the Father's glory of one substance and equal with Him. In Colossians 115, why don't we turn there together? Colossians 115. Where we see the wording in the confession here in Scripture. And I've said this before, I'll say it again, it's almost as if whoever wrote this confession, they knew their Bibles. It's as if they were somehow inspired by the scriptures to write the confession. Because the wording that we find here in the confession comes straight from Colossians 1, as well as Hebrews 1. So in Colossians 1, verse 15, please follow along with me. Paul says this, he, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him, Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." We'll stop there. And then as well as Hebrews chapter 1, where we read this, long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is, that is Jesus, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of His power. So we see that here in the statement of our confession here, that He is the brightness of the Father's glory. That's what Hebrews tells us. He is one substance and equal with Him. That's essentially what Colossians and Hebrews is telling us here. And He is also the one who made the world, who upholds and governs all things He has made. That's what Colossians and Hebrews are telling us. So again, it's as if the writers of our confession here, they read Colossians and Hebrews and said, yep, that's got to go in here. We need to have that in here. that we need to have that in the confession. Because it's the truth. It's scripture. This is what the scripture tells us. I need to remind myself of this at times as I was preparing this lesson. When we talk about the incarnation of Christ, his two natures being brought together in one, when we talk about him being the second person of the Trinity, sometimes we can start to think, oh, we're just philosophizing all these things, right? Oh, yeah, this is just something a bunch of smart dudes way back hundreds of years ago came up with, in order to try to make some kind of sense out of, you know, who Jesus is and what the nature of the Trinity is. But the reality is that this is not just a bunch of philosophy divorced from Scripture. This stuff comes from Scripture. What we confess about Christ, what we confess about the Trinity, this is Scriptural. This comes directly from the words of Scripture, and I know you guys are probably looking at me like, well, duh, yeah, Jason, we know that. I guess I'm just speaking for myself, okay? I need to remind myself of that at times, that, hey, you know, yeah, this isn't just, you know, cool philosophical stuff to mull over. This is the Word of God. This is what the Word of God tells us. And so, You know, that should be an encouraging thing, that what we say about Jesus, because there are many, many groups out there that would deny these things, right? They would deny the two natures of Christ in one person. They would deny that Jesus is the second person of the Trinity. There are many people out there that would deny these things. And it's important that we remember that in the face of those heresies, in the face of those false teachings, it does indeed come from Scripture, our belief in them. Okay, and it's not just our word against theirs or our philosophy against theirs. So anyways, kind of a little rabbit trail I was not planning on going on, but nonetheless, so we have, he's also of one substance with the Father is what we read here in the Confession. One substance with him. The Athanasian Creed says this regarding Christ. regarding the Trinity, that is, that we worship one God in Trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither blending their persons nor dividing their essence. For the person of the Father is a distinct person, the person of the Son is another, and that of the Holy Spirit is still another. But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, and their majesty co-eternal." Very important statement there in the Athanasian Creed, a creed that we definitely would hold to here at our church, that they are of one substance, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three persons, three distinct persons, but one substance, one essence, you could say, with each other. And so that's the wording that the Confession uses here, that they are of one substance. But the Athanasian Creed uses the word essence. It's essentially the same thing. They are one substance, essence of each other. Our Nicene Creed that we recite, that we confess once a month, says this, So we see how the different creeds in our confession, they are definitely locked arm-in-arm with each other. the writers of our confession, of the Westminster, of the London Baptist Confession of Faith, these men were rooted and grounded in the classic creeds and confessions of the church. The Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed. And so, it makes sense that some of the wording, the thought that is in those creeds, we find that as well here in our confession. And so, Jesus, is the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, the brightness of the Father's glory, of one substance and equal with him, who made the world and upholds and governs all things he has made. And so that is who was incarnated. God himself. The second person of the Trinity. And so the confession continues on. did, when the fullness of time was come, so we've just read this about Jesus, about his deity, about who he is as a second person of the Trinity. He did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon him man's nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin. And so, this also comes from Scripture, this idea of when the fullness of time was come, That wording comes from Galatians 4.4, where Paul says this, but when the fullness of time had come, wow, it's almost word for word, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law. So this statement here in the confession is almost coming word for word right out of Galatians 4.4, where in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law. And so this statement, though, of Paul, and then Secondarily of the writers of the confession this statement of this idea of when the fullness of time had come This is telling us something telling us something very important that Jesus Was not eternally with a body of flesh Jesus didn't always have a body of flesh and It was at a point in time when he took on human flesh. And this really begins to get down to the unique miracle that the incarnation was. And this is where things do start to get a little complicated, as you start to really think through that idea of the eternal person of the sun from eternity at a point in time taking on human nature. And this whole idea and concept is what has led many people astray. People have gone off the tracks, if you will, and derailed themselves because they just could not accept that. And, like I said, this is where things can get complicated. But a couple of things that we need to keep in mind when considering this idea of, in the fullness of time, the eternal Son of God took on human flesh, took on humanity. A couple of things we should keep in mind. One of those things is that God did not inhabit a certain person, okay? And what I mean by that is that it's not as if Jesus were a independent subsistence, an independent person who was going to be born, and then the Son of God decided, oh, I'm just gonna inhabit that guy. Okay? Jesus did not inhabit a certain person. If he inhabited a certain person, then he would have only saved that person. Okay? Instead, Jesus took humanity upon himself. He took upon himself human nature, and I know this might sound strange or complicated, but the human nature subsists in his deity. Okay? The human nature he took on is dependent upon his deity. It's not as if the deity went and, again, oh, there's a baby about to be born in the womb of Mary. I'm just gonna go and inhabit that person. And again, there's a certain amount of mystery involved in this. You know, how is it that the eternal God can take some kind of change upon himself? Ooh, that's a tricky one. That has led some people to speculate some strange things. Regarding that, it's not as if when Jesus When the second person of the Godhead, when He took humanity upon Himself, Him taking humanity upon Himself, it did not change His divine essence. Okay, we need to remember that. That's an important one there. When He took humanity upon Himself, His divinity was not altered. And that's why the confession talks about later on, without confusion, you know, conversion. And so, we'll get to that a little bit later on. So just a couple of things there to keep in mind when we consider this idea of in the fullness of time this divine person took upon him man's nature with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof yet without sin. Again, this is the miracle. This is this is it right here that the eternal son of God did indeed take upon him humanity. And it's important that he did take upon him humanity, though, because it is his taking on human nature, humanity, that makes him the firstborn of many brethren. That's what makes him able to be our mediator. He had to take humanity upon himself in order to do that. It's not as if his humanity were a phantom or, you know, like a hologram or something, which is what some people have speculated. His humanity wasn't real. He was really just a spirit looking like a human. No, Jesus did in fact take upon him humanity. And he did, in fact, take upon him our nature with all of its—well, not all, I don't want to qualify that—but with its infirmities. Now, when we say that, when we say that he took on our nature with its infirmities, are we saying that he took on our sin nature? No, of course not. And so theologians have distinguished in the past between painful infirmities and sinful, culpable infirmities. The latter, of course, of which is what Jesus did not take on. Jesus did not take on our sinful, culpable infirmities, but he did take on our painful infirmities in the sense that he had a real body. He was a real person. He was a man. Jesus needed to eat. Jesus needed to sleep. Jesus felt tiredness. Jesus felt hunger. Jesus felt sadness and loss and joy. He went through all of the things that we experience here without sin, though, right? And so, in Hebrews 2.14, we read this. Why don't we go ahead and turn there? In Hebrews chapter 2, Verse 14 of chapter 2 of Hebrews, the writer to the Hebrews says this regarding Christ, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself, Jesus, likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." And then in 415 of Hebrews, He goes on to say this, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted, as we are, yet without sin. So Jesus took upon him flesh. He took upon him human nature. And he did become a person. He did become a human. And he is able to Or the writer of the Hebrews is able to say that he was tempted as we are. That he became like we are. And that he partook of the same things. That's the wording in Hebrews 2.14. That he himself likewise partook of the same things. Partook of what? He partook of the same flesh that we have. So that we can now say he is our brother. Those of us who are in Christ, we have the great privilege of being able to say that Christ is our brother. And that what he experienced, we will experience. The resurrection he experienced, we will experience that. The persecution he experienced, we will experience. Jesus has become our protos, if you will. He has become the one who is our head, our first, our chief, our captain. And he's able to do that because he became as we are. He became clothed in flesh. He took humanity upon himself. Any comments or questions? Yes, Pastor John. That's right. That's right. So, Pastor John said that he took flesh upon himself at a point in time. He didn't have flesh before that, but now that he does have flesh, he will never not have flesh. And we are going to get to that in a little bit here. So, yes, Russ. Yes. Hmm. He didn't have fear. Well, I'm not sure. Would we all, I mean, I think he might have had a little bit of fear when he was in the garden. I could be wrong, but when he was asking, you know, Father, sweating great drops of blood, and Father, if this cup can pass for me, maybe there is some fear there? You don't think so? Okay. Okay, we can talk about it offline. All right. I could be wrong. So, very good. Anything else? Yes, Daryl. So you're asking, did Jesus have a sin nature in order to overcome the testing and the tempting? Well, no, I would say he didn't have a sin nature because then he wouldn't have been a perfect sacrifice, Pastor Rob. Yes, Steven. And we're gonna get to that as well in a little bit. Oh boy, more hands. All right, Pastor John. Christ's impeccability, people. Look that one up. All right. I'm sorry, did what? Say that again? Did Adam and Eve have a sinful nature before the fall? No. No. Anne? Amen. Thank you, Anne. Any other hands? Okay, keep this train moving. Alright, okay. Chugging along here. Very good. No, those are good, good questions and comments, guys. So the confession continues on, though. Now we get into the conceiving here. It continues on by saying, being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, which is what Stephen was just bringing up. the Holy Spirit coming down upon her in the power of the Most High overshadowing her and so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah of the seed of Abraham and David according to the scriptures. And so now, this is the act of Jesus taking on human nature, of taking upon him man's nature. And so, At Jesus's incarnation, we need to keep a couple things in mind here. Jesus did not leave his deity behind. It's not as if when he was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, he stopped being divine. He stopped being the second person of the Trinity and became instead this human known as Jesus. That's not what happened. And it's not as if as I've already mentioned his humanity were some kind of illusion He was very really God and very really man as well And that's what we see here in his being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary Why don't we turn to Luke now at this point Luke chapter 1 In Luke chapter 1 Verse 26, Luke records for us the account of Christ's conception. In Luke 126, we read these words, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, greetings. O favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom There will be no end and Mary said to the angel How will this be since I'm a virgin? And the angel answered her the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you therefore the child will be Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. So we have here the account of what would happen with the conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary. That he would indeed be the Son of the Most High. Those are the words of the angel. He would be the Son of the Most High, but he would also be the Son of David as well. He would be both divine and human. And it is from passages such as this that we see clearly along with the other passages that we've read so far, we see clearly that Jesus was both. He had two natures. He was divine, he was God, he was the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, but he was also real man. He became a real man. And this is seen in what the Holy Spirit has just told Mary. The Holy Spirit's work in coming upon Mary and overshadowing her this is where Jesus's divinity is coming about from, you could say. And then the fact that he was being born in the womb of an actual woman, not a phantom, Mary wasn't a spirit, Mary wasn't an angel, she was an actual woman, we see his humanity there as well. We see both his divinity and his humanity in this activity of the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary. And again, we don't know exactly what that might have looked like. You know, there is definitely some mystery there. What exactly happened? You know, did the Spirit put Jesus in there somehow? All right, there you go, get on in there. You know, we're just not told that. Yes, Russ? Yeah. Mm-hmm Yeah Yeah, it was an act of God absolutely it was a miracle absolutely for sure Yes, it was a body created for a singular purpose and that's exactly what Jesus was he was a the mediator. That was his singular purpose. He is our mediator. That is him coming into the womb of Mary. And it's important that he was human, right? Because the Bible predicts that he would be human. The Old Testament predicts that the Messiah would be human. The Old Testament makes that pretty clear. Places such as Genesis 3.15 where the Lord says this to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring or your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. It would be the offspring or the seed of a woman who would bruise the head of the serpent. That's the Messiah. The Messiah was going to be seed. He was going to be offspring from a human. Isaiah 7 14 the Lord says this therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son a person a human The Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel or God with us Isaiah 9 6 through 7 we read this for to us a child is born To us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father prince of peace of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. A child will be born, but he will also be mighty God." You see, it's in the words of Scripture, the two natures of Christ. His deity and his humanity. Can we fully understand it? No. But is it there in Scripture? Absolutely, positively it is. In both New Testament and Old Testament. And of course there are numerous other passages we could look to, but for sake of time, oh boy, we need to be moving along here. So, what the Confession also states is that He would be conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her, and the power of the Most High overshadowing her, and so is made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David, according to the Scriptures." So, the confession also includes in here that he would be of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham, and of David. Where do they get that from? Well, they get that from Scripture, okay? Let me read three Scriptures to you here. Hebrews 7 14 says this it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests in Galatians 3 16 Paul says this now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring it does not say into offsprings referring to many but we're referring to one and to your offspring who is Christ So, Paul affirms that Christ was of Abraham's offspring. Hebrews affirms that Christ was descended from Judah. In Romans 1.13, Paul says this concerning his son, who was descended from who? From David, according to the flesh. So, our confession here, again, these guys are reading their Bibles for sure. They say here that he was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham, and of David. And so we see Him being of the tribe of Judah, the seed of Abraham, and of David from Hebrews 7, 14, Galatians 3, 16, and Romans 1, 3. And so, This is Christ's humanity here. And now we need to quickly move things along, because we don't want to miss out on the last part of the paragraph, which is a vitally important part for us to get into here. So it continues on, so that, after all of this, Jesus being the second person of the Trinity, and then also being born in the womb of the Virgin, so that now, after talking about all of this stuff, Two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man. So, after all of that has been said in the first part of the paragraph, now it concludes with this very important statement that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person. And that's exactly what happened. In this great miracle that we call the Incarnation, two distinct natures, whole and perfect, were inseparably joined together. And so, Jesus has two whole, perfect, and distinct natures. What do they mean by that? Well, again, Jesus was not partly God and partly man. Jesus did not have some of his divinity and some humanity, and he relies on those two whole, or those two parts to kind of supply what the other one is lacking. No, no, no, no. It's very important that we understand his two natures are whole. He is holy God, whole divinity, and he is wholly a man. He is a whole humanity as well. And he has both of them. And they are both in his one person. That's why it says here, the two natures united in one person. And so it's important that we remember that, that Jesus's two natures, his divinity and his humanity, they are perfect. They are whole. They are not lacking, and it's not as if when he was incarnated, one obliterated the other or one, you know, supplanted the other one. No, when he was incarnated, his two natures were kept perfect and whole and complete, yet united in one person. They are distinct. That's what the confession also says here. And they are perfect. And they are joined together inseparably. Jesus did not leave his humanity after his death on the cross. After his death on the cross, Jesus' humanity didn't just disappear. and become dust. No, he retained his humanity after the resurrection. And that's what the Gospels tell us, is that in his resurrected state, Jesus retains his humanity. We see this in places such as when the Gospels tell us about how he had holes in his hands still. And he tells Doubting Thomas, hey Thomas, come here. Put your finger in the holes of my hands. Put your hand into my side. Jesus retained his humanity. He still had his body with the marks of the crucifixion upon it. It was a glorified body, but it was still a body. And not only that, we also, and I've always found this humorous, but he also retained his appetite. after the resurrection. I don't know why. I've always found that humorous, and I see it as a great hope we have that we will still enjoy food in the glorified state, but, you know, Jesus had his appetite still. We read about that in the Gospels. The guys are out fishing, and Jesus says, hey guys, come on back to land, and he's got a fire going, come on over, let's have breakfast. Jesus ate with them. And so, Jesus's humanity remains. He is still human. He is our brother. He is the firstborn of many brethren. And we're also told here in the confession that the divine and human were brought together without conversion, composition, or confusion. And so this kind of elaborates a little bit more on this whole idea of how the two natures are brought together and they're whole, perfect, distinct. Well, that's a part of this. When they were brought together, they were also brought together without conversion, composition, or confusion. And again, this all speaks to this idea that the natures remain distinct, that they are whole, that they are perfect. Again, one hasn't, you know, obliterated one, and they haven't become some kind of weird amalgamation or composite where they're just kind of mixed together into some kind of weird just mishmash. No, there is no conversion, composition, or confusion. One didn't convert into the other. They didn't become some kind of weird composite or combination together of each other, and they were not confused. Okay, that's what our confession tells us here. They have remained distinct, perfect, whole natures. That's what our confession is telling us here. And so, to quote from Burkauer, who says this regarding Christ's two natures, Being united together in one. I like what he says here a very short brief quote here In the unity of the two of the two natures lies the secret of the church's joyful praises I like that quote in the unity of the two natures lies the secret of the church's joyful praises Very true in the unity of the two natures of christ divine being united with the human In there is the secret of the church's joyful praises because without that, without that unity, without that union, there is no salvation. Jesus had to be both in order to accomplish redemption for his people. And so it is in, as Burkauer says, it's in the unity of the two, that's where our joyful praises lie. And so, That is the person of the mediator. And of course, much more could be said about this. Time limits us, though, from continuing on. We could have turned this one into, you know, three or four different Sunday school lessons. But this is our mediator. And this is what the Bible tells us about him. And as I was mentioning earlier, that's great comfort to me, to know that I don't believe in fables or myths. I don't believe in something that was just devised by people, by humans, but this is none other than what the Bible itself tells us about Christ, about our Mediator, about who He is. He is both human and He is divine as well. He is the second person of the Godhead, He is the Son of God, but He is also the Son of Man as well. And so, I just want to leave you by quoting from the Belgic Confession on the two natures of Christ, because I really like how the Belgic Confession puts it regarding Christ's two natures. The writers of the Belgic Confession put it this way, with each nature retaining its own distinct properties. Thus is divine nature has always remained uncreated without beginning of days or end of life filling heaven and earth. Christ's human nature has not lost its properties but continues to have those of a creature. It has a beginning of days. It is of a finite nature and retains all that belongs to a real body. And even though he, by his resurrection, gave it immortality, that nonetheless did not change the reality of his human nature. For our salvation and resurrection depend also on the reality of his body. But these two natures are so united together in one person that they are not even separated by his death. So then, what he committed to his father when he died was a real human spirit which left his body. But meanwhile, his divine nature remained united with his human nature, even when he was lying in the grave, and his deity never ceased to be in him, just as it was in him when he was a little child, though for a while it did not so reveal itself. These are the reasons why we confess him to be true God and truly human. True God in order to conquer death by his power, and truly human, that He might die for us in the weakness of His flesh. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we are indeed so thankful to You, Lord, for sending Christ as our mediator. In only the perfect way that You could have, Lord, people could not have dreamed these things up. The reality of the Incarnation could only be something that You could have come up with, Lord. are thankful to you as your simple preachers that you, our infinite God, bridge the gap by sending the Son to be born as a man, yet retaining his divinity. Lord, what wonderful realities these are. They're too big for us to comprehend, but you've given us a small amount that we can comprehend it, and we thank you for that, Lord. What great grace that is. You have condescended to us in covenants, in redemption, through the mediator Jesus Christ. And we give you all the thanks and all of the glory for that great salvation that is ours in Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.