Yes, we heard this morning from scriptures we read together and from a passage which we tried to understand and analyze a little bit closer, namely Matthew 16, verses 16 to 18, Confession of Peter. as to the identity of Jesus of Nazareth. And we saw that he understood, it was revealed to him by the Father in Heaven, that the man Jesus is God, the Son of the Living God. And we then thought about the necessity of the Messiah, he is the anointed one, being man and God, he must be both, to be the anointed, the only one by God appointed saviour of man. and he has to be sinless. And we went through a few passages in the Old Testament which already teach and proclaim and announce that Messiah will be God, true God, very God. And we shall now continue and ponder the next basic truth as to Christ, namely his true humanity, the humanity of Christ. I'm going to start from John chapter 1, and I begin with verse 1. John chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So here we have this confession, this statement by John that Jesus is the word, the eternal word, the word which was in the beginning and was with God. God, with God, in God again we see in God is a plurality. And then he says in verse 14, and the Word, that very Word, the eternal Word, by which all things were created, and nothing that has been created came about without Him. So He is the Creator of all things, the Eternal One, and the Word became flesh. the eternal one, he became man, flesh. He received into his nature, he was eternally the son of God, eternal God, with God, and he received into his nature, now human nature. He did not change, he remained God. It is the Word which became flesh. It didn't cease to be the eternal Word, the creator Word. He remained the Word and as such he became flesh. And only as man he could be the mediator between God and man. So in Christ was fulfilled what Job, he felt the need of someone who would be a mediator. Let's turn to Job chapter 9 verse 33. Job chapter 9 verse 33. Job 9.33, there is no umpire between us. There is no man who can mediate between us, he's saying with other words. Between me and my friends, and they had this contest, this theological quarrel. There is no umpire between us who may lay his hand upon us both. But he speaks also of his relationship to God. In this chapter he confesses that no man, sinful man, can abide in the presence of God. Chapter 9, in verse 2, he says, In truth I know that this is so, but how can a man be in the right before God? How may a man be in the right before God, appear before God? And he feels that there ought to be an umpire who can mediate not only between men and men who are in quarrel with each other, but between God and man. Now the interesting thing is that in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, I mean the ancient Greek translation which was produced before Christ's birth, sometime in the second century before the Christian era, the so-called Septuaginta. Septuaginta is Latin and means 70. And it comes from that Jewish legend, there are so many Jewish legends, and the Jewish legend that there were 80 men who simultaneously translated the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, and all those 70 translations agreed completely. Of course that's a legend, but hence the name Septuaginta, 70, Latin for 70, and in French they call it La Septante. And the translation, the Greek translation has here, there is no MESITES. And MESITES is exactly the word used in 1 Timothy 2, verse 5 for mediator. 1 Timothy 2, verse 5. MESITES is one who stands in MESOS. MESOS is in the middle of MESOS. And a messitess is a middleman. A middleman who can mediate. 1 Timothy 2, verse 5. Here it says, 1 Timothy 2, verse 5, for there is one God, And one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He is the only mediator. And to be mediator, he had to become man. And therefore, Paul, he stresses the fact the man Christ Jesus. He could have said only Christ Jesus. It would have been sufficient information, but he wants us to grasp and to see the fact he had to be man, to be mediated between man and God. One God and one mediator between God and man, between God and anthropos. Unfortunately, in English there is no word for what we in Sweden say, människa, or in Finnish, ihminen. And in many other languages, even in Hindi, you have Manush in Hindi for man, and in Hebrew you have Adam for humankind, for a human being. But then you have Ish for a man, so you distinguish, but English doesn't, unfortunately. So it is mediated between God and Mensch, Mennischer. And he had to become truly and fully anthropos, a human, to be our mediator. Now, how did he then become the mediator? The first step was to become man, but that was not sufficient. And then Paul, he continues in 1 Timothy 2, verse 6. I read again from verse 5. Five and six then, for there is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all. He had to give himself as a ransom. Ransom, anti-lutron, is the Greek word. Lyo means to loosen, to untie, it can also mean. And anti-lutron, that is a price of release, the price you pay to get someone released from bondage. The price of release, and the English word ransom means exactly that. A price you pay for release of someone who is bound, who is caught to get him free. A price of release. And we were, as Paul says very graphically, we were sold under sin. Sold under sin. We had by our sins sold ourselves under the power of sin and the originator of sin, of Satan. Romans 7, verse 14. Here Paul says, Romans 7, verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, And that stands here for the sinful nature of man. I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. Well, the Greek is literally, I'm sold under sin. So the N-A-S-P is not always really accurate. It is sold under sin. That's important. Sin is not only accompanying us through life. If it were like that, you could think of getting rid of sin. But we are under sin. So the power of sin is over us. We can never get out of it. Never. We are under sin. And Paul says the same thing in Romans 3 verse 9, that Jews and Greeks are all under sin. So we were sold under sin and Christ, he had to shed his blood to buy us, to ransom us from our bondage. That was the price of release. The price of release was the blood of the Son of God. He paid that price to free us. He became man in order to be able to die. As God in his divine and according to his divine nature cannot die. And therefore he became man to die. And by dying, by shedding his blood to pay the price. and thus he bought us. Literally, he bought us with the price of his blood. And we have that word by Agorazo, for instance, in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 20. Here Paul says, writing to the Corinthians, for you have been bought with a price, agorazo. The agora is the marketplace, and agorazo means to do something in the marketplace, and usually in the marketplace there is selling and buying. So agorazo means to buy, to pay a price to get something. Christ, he has bought us with his blood. And we should never forget that. And he reminds the Corinthians of the fact, you have been bought by a price. You do not belong to yourself anymore. You belong to the one who bought you. Bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body. And then we have that same verb, agorazzo, to buy in There are several other instances, but I just suggest reading Revelation 5 verse 9. Revelation 5 verse 9. The worship in heaven, the worship of the Lamb slain for our sins. Revelation 5, 9, and they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the book and break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood. You purchased with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. So that explains why Christ necessarily had to become man. Since God cannot die, the eternal Son of God became man in order to be able to suffer and die. And it is truly the Lord of Glory who was sacrificed on the cross. Paul says that in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 8. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 8. I read verses 7 and 8, 1 Corinthians 2 verses 7 and 8. But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory. the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood. For if they had understood, if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. It was the Lord of Glory who was crucified. Man Jesus, yes, true man, but at the same time the Lord of glory. He never shed his divine being and person and glory. I remember many years ago, I had been from the years 72 to 74 on the Indian subcontinent, And then after those years, returning home, and in those years I had met Christians, local Christians, and thus come to believe in Christ. Travelling home, westward bound. And in those days, you could travel the road through Afghanistan, through Iran, through Turkey. And finally, we reached the Greek border, entered into Greece, and then we saw all the Greek flags were at half mast. So I asked a man from the border control, why are the flags flying at half mast? Has somebody died? And then he said, God has died. First I was stunned. Then I understood it was Good Friday. And now after those more than two, two and a half, almost three years, for the first time again I entered a Christian land, with a Christian confession at least. Had been in Muslim countries, in Hindu country, in a Hindu country for a long time. And yes, it is true. I wasn't a Christian. Truly our God died for us. Now this is not so easy to understand and therefore there has been much disputing. Is it God who died? Are we to say that God died on the cross? God cannot die? Now we have to realize that Christ, he has two natures. Divine nature human nature, but he's one person. He's not two persons. He's one person. And if he, as to his humanity, suffers, it is the person, the divine person of the Son of God who suffers. We cannot separate him. We can only distinguish the two natures. They are distinct, but they are not separate, and they cannot, they are inseparable. I have here a very helpful quotation by Philipp Schaff from his collection of creeds, the creeds of Christendom. It's in volume one, where he deals with the ancient creeds, the creeds of the ancient church. And there were all those Christological disputes in the first centuries, Christological. Is it true God, or only God similar to God, God-like, like Arius said, or really God? And what is the relationship of the two natures? And then creeds were then formulated to clarify the biblical teaching and the truths as to the person of Christ. And Philipp Schaff, in his two volumes on the creeds of Christendom, he usually comments on those creeds. Not always, but he does. And he writes to the divine and human nature of Christ this. The whole work of Christ is to be attributed to his person and not to the one or the other nature exclusively. To his person, not to this or to that nature exclusively. The person is the acting subject Nature is the organ or the medium. So it's the person acting and the nature is the medium. It is the one divine human person of Christ that wrought miracles by virtue of his divine nature and who suffered through the sensorium of his human nature. The superhuman effect and infinite merit of the Redeemer's work must be ascribed to his person because of his divinity, while it is his humanity alone that made him capable and liable to toil, temptation, suffering, and death. So I think that's put very clearly. In clear words, he suffered as to his human nature, but it was his person, it was he who suffered. So it is proper, it is correct to say, it was the Son of God, the Lord of glory, who hung on the cross, suffered and died for us. And thus Paul says in Romans chapter 5 verse 10, Romans 5 verse 10, Romans 5 verse 10, for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. It doesn't say through the death of Jesus, that would have been correct as well, but he says through the death of his son. It was God's son who suffered and died. He, the divine son of God. Thus we can say the Son of God is not able to suffer and to die as to his divine nature. But the Son of God has truly suffered and died as to his human nature. But, I repeat, it is not the nature which suffers, but the person. And therefore the Bible speaks of the death of God's Son. How that is possible? How divine and human nature can be united in one person, we cannot grasp with our minds, but we believe the testimony of Scripture. And the Bible itself calls the fact that the eternal Word became flesh a mystery. It is something man would never have been able to think out, to think even. It is a mystery. It was hidden and then revealed as Christ came. 1 Timothy 3 verse 16. 1 Timothy 3 verse 16. First Timothy 3, verse 16, by common confession, great is the mystery of godliness. He, some manuscripts have God, but it comes to the same. He is God in the context. He who was revealed in the flesh. God revealed in the flesh. That is the great mystery. and then vindicated in the Spirit, that is by resurrection, as Paul says, proved to be the Son of God by resurrection of the dead, demonstrated to be Son of God by the resurrection from the dead, Romans 1 verse, what is it, 3, 4? 4, I think verse 4. So that supposes his dying. Yes, God revealed in the flesh, dying. Great is the mystery. a mystery, but we believe it. We believe it since it is revealed, even if we cannot grasp this with our minds. The German reformed theologian, Eduard Böhl, Eduard Böhl, he lived and worked in the late 19th century and beginning of 20th century, and he has also written a Dogmatik, that is a systematic theology. And there he says, around this mystery, Das Bekenntnis nichts zu wissen ist hier höchste Erkenntnis. The confession not to know is here the highest knowledge. The confession not to know is yet the highest knowledge. There is such a thing as docta ignorantia. Calvin used that term somewhere. Docta ignorantia. That is learned ignorance. Learned ignorance. And I add a quotation by the Lutheran German theologian. You see, Lutherans and Reformed in Germany, they have really almost devoured each other. It's really Galatians 5, the way how they dealt with each other for a very long time. But here we have them both together and believing and confessing the same thing. So let me read Franz Pieper from his Christliche Dogmatik. And I give it now in English. The son of God could not suffer in his deity. Yet we are not by the scriptures which teach the impassibility of God. Do you understand that word impassibility? That is impossibility to suffer. Parti in Latin is to suffer. And passible means to be able to suffer and impassible means not to be able to suffer. Okay, so the Son of God could not suffer in his deity, yet we are not, by the scriptures which teach the impassibility of God, to dispute those passages which very clearly testify that the Son of God was born, suffered, and died. Romans 1.3, 1 Peter 3.18, 1 Timothy 3.16, et cetera. Yet, not according to his divine nature, but according to his human nature, which God had taken up into his self. This suffering, by taking into himself the human nature, is the suffering of the Son of God. Because the human nature does not exist as a known person, but as belonging to the person of the Son of God. Luther says, rightly, and now I'll give that short quotation first in German, and then I'll give it in English. Die Person leidet und stirbt. Now the person is a true God. That is why it is rightly said, God's Son suffers. Because although the one piece that I speak of as the divinity does not suffer, the person who is God suffers at the other piece than at humanity. Now in English, it is the person which suffers and dies. Now that is Luther. Luther said, it is the person which suffers and dies. The person is true God, and therefore it is correct to say the son of God suffers, though the other part, if I may thus speak, the deity does not suffer. Yet the person, which is God, suffers in the other part, the humanity. Now, the doctors of the ancient church, they struggled with the proper wording of that mystery. And there was a certain Curil. He was a bishop of Alexandria. He lived in the fifth century, early fifth century. And he put this paradox into this classical form. I give it in Greek. He was one of the Eastern church, Greek church. Apathos epathen. And that means, without suffering he suffered, or unsufferingly rather, literally, apathos, unsufferingly, epathen, he suffered. Now we have this testimony of the Bible. There is a person, one and the same person, who is God and who is man. And that seems to the natural mind a contradiction. You can believe in the concept of God without having the spirit of God. Of course, the Bible says that. There are religious people, they believe in God, they have a certain fear of the divine. But they refuse to accept such an idea that God can become man. No, no, no, that's impossible. God is not a man. And you can even point to scriptures which say exactly that very thing. God is not a man. God is not a man. Let's turn to Numbers 23 verse 19. Numbers 23 verse 19. It is in Balaam, or is it Biliam? In the German Bible, it's Biliam. In the English Bible, it's Balaam. It is Balaam. prophesying against his will, prophesying good things over Israel. And then in that context he says, Numbers 23 verse 19, God is not a man. That he should lie. God is not a man. That is an axiom. That is an axiom. God is not a man. by no means. And we have God himself affirming that he is not a man. Hosea chapter 11 verse 9. God is speaking through the prophet saying, Hosea 11 verse 9, I will not execute my fierce anger. I will not destroy Ephraim again, for I am God and not man. And vice versa, man is not God. Man is not God. And that is also a common consciousness of man. Man is not God. God is not man and man is not God. We have this episode in Second Kings and we read there about the Aramean or Syrian general, a commander-in-chief, Naaman, who has leprosy. And then he hears by a girl, a girl from Israel in his household, that there's a prophet in Israel, he could heal, he could heal my master. And he goes to the king, Naaman, and the king writes a letter. And evidently he didn't really understand. the whole thing, so he writes to the king, the king of Syria, the king of Aram, writes to the king in Israel. 2 Kings 5, verses 6 and 7. He, that is Naaman, brought the letter to the king of Israel saying, And now, as this letter comes to you, this is quotation from the letter of the king, the king of the Arameans. And now, as this letter comes to you, you, king of Israel, behold, I have sent Naaman, my servant, to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy. Verse 7, when the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, am I God? to kill and to make alive, that this man is sending word to me to cure a man of his leprosy. I am but a man, I am a mere man, I am not God. Now how can that be? That God can be man and that there has been a man on this earth and there still is a man, a glorified man in heaven who is man and God. Man and God. Now this apparent contradiction can only be solved in the revealed truth of God, by the revealed truth of the Bible. And we receive that truth by faith. If this revelation is not received by faith, the Bible remains a closed book. You may find very much interesting information about culture, about history, about religions and so on, reading the Bible, but it remains a closed book. That is, you will not receive the Bible as the word of life if you do not believe this revealed truth, that Christ is God and that Christ is man. And that is really the very heart of the biblical revelation that God in Christ became man to be our saviour, true man, true God. So we can say it is the embodiment of all biblical revelation, the fact of incarnation. and that the God incarnate suffers and dies for the salvation of sinners. Now we can consider several reasons why the incarnation was necessary, which all has to do with salvation. Christ had to become man to reveal God fully, completely. John 1 verse 18. John 1 verse 18. No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten God, or the only begotten Son, it's again a matter of manuscripts, who is in the bosom of the Father. He has explained him. The Greek word is exegesis, out on. When the term exegesis, exegesis, is derived. And that means to bring out. the truth of something. To bring out something which is hidden, to bring it out. Ago means to guide and ex-ago is to lead out, to bring forth. So he has by his incarnation brought forth and thus granted the knowledge, full knowledge of God. And why did he have to become man in order to reveal God fully? To reveal God to man. To reveal God to man. And this revelation is a revelation which man can endure. In Christ, man can see God and live. If God were to reveal himself fully, as Luther says in one place, in nuda maestate, in his naked majesty, in his pure divine being, we all would be consumed on the spot. So in order to reveal God fully so that man can endure and accept that revelation, he had to become man. He had to become man in order to destroy Satan, to fulfill the promise or the announcement given in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 1, Genesis 3, verse 15, the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent and die doing it. die doing it. And we have Hebrews 2 verse 14, Hebrews 2 verse 14, Hebrews 2 verse 14, therefore since the children And the children are those whom he came to redeem, verse 13, we must read verse 13 that we understand who the children are. It is Christ speaking, saying, I will put my trust in him, and again, behold, I and the children whom God has given me. The souls, the persons to be saved, given to him, he calls them children. And it brings them to God the Father, here are the children, the ones who gave to me. And then verse 14, therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, of flesh and blood. that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. So he became man in order to destroy Satan, to break his power. He became man And we have heard that today already, I'll just mention it again, he became man because God had decreed that man was to rule over all creation. And this will be fulfilled when Christ comes again to rule over this earth. Then Genesis 1.26 will be fulfilled. Because it never has been fulfilled, but then it will be. So he had to become man. so that that scripture might be fulfilled. Then we have a third, a fourth reason, he became man in order to be the judge of all men. John says it and Paul says it that God has appointed a man to be the judge of all men. Act 1731 Act 17, 31. Paul speaking on the Reios Pagos in Asen, saying, because he, God, because God has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man. whom he has appointed. And the Lord himself has said that he has the power to judge, he's going to be the judge of all men, since he is himself man. John 5, John chapter 5, verse 27. John chapter 5 verse 27, and he gave him, that is God gave him, the son, authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man. A man will judge man. Why is that? Every man one day will stand in front of the great white throne, and the one sitting on the great white throne is the judge of all men. And in the light of him, of that person, in the light of the perfect man, he will then see all his crookedness, his ugliness, his impurity, his sinfulness. And then he will confess, thy judgment is just. So a man will judge all men. And seeing that man, every man will know, it was in fact my responsibility to be as him, a perfect man, but I never was. Of course we are born in sin, but whose fault is it? We sinned. We sinned in Adam, as you said yesterday. Adam's sin is our sin. So he became man in order to be the judge of all men. He became man in order to be a merciful and faithful high priest. But we're going to look into his high priestly office later. So I'll leave it at that. He became man in order to be the firstborn among many brethren. And that is so unspeakably glorious. to be the firstborn among many. We are going to share not only his nature, but also his glory. We're going to share his glory. And had this not been revealed in the Bible, none would have thought of it, and none would dare to think or to say such a thing. But it is revealed truth. Hebrews 2.11, Hebrews 2.11, For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren. He who sanctifies, who has sanctified us? Christ by his blood. And he who sanctifies and those that are sanctified are one. And therefore he is not ashamed to call them brethren. And then comes the Bible, verse to prove the truth, I will proclaim your name to my brethren, Psalm 22. And then we have Romans 8. Romans 8, 29. Romans 8, 29. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. He had to become man in order to be exactly that firstborn one of his many brethren. And finally, he became man to be the heir of all things and to make us fellow heirs. He is the heir of all things, Hebrews chapter 1 verse 2. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 2. Here it says, in these last days he has spoken to us in his son whom he appointed heir of all things. Now, why should he have to become heir of all things? Now, man had lost everything in sin. Man had lost everything in sin. He had lost life. He had lost the rain. He had lost glory. He had lost life. He had lost God. He had lost everything. Now Christ becomes man, and by his dying and suffering for us, as our substitute, and redeeming us, he makes us to inherit what he as man received from God and he never lost it because he never sinned. And then he lets us inherit all things which we had lost by sin. So Romans 8, verse 17 says that we are heirs of God and co-heirs, fellow-heirs with Christ. Romans 8, 17. Romans 8, 17. If children heirs, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ. So we see how the truth of The incarnation, the truth of the true humanity of Christ is as important for the whole work of salvation as the truth of his deity. True God, true man. And that man was sinless. True man, sinless man. And I'll just turn to four scriptures for his sinlessness. There are of course many more, four, and with those four scriptures I end this address. Luke 1.35. Luke 1.35. The Annunciation of the Birth of the Savior to the Virgin Mary. And Mary, she responds to that announcement, Luke 1.34, Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I am a virgin? The angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit, will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason, the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God." The first holy child and the only holy child ever born without original sin. Holy from birth. Sinless from birth. Now, we inherited sin. And then we have the threefold testimony of the apostles, Paul, Peter, and John, as to the sinlessness of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. He, that is God, made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. He knew no sin. That, of course, does not mean that he didn't know what sin is. He really knows what sin is. But he knew no sin in the sense as Adam and Eve came to know sin. How did they come to know sin? By becoming sinners. by getting under the power of sin. This is how we know sin, as such we are under the power of sin. He knew no sin, that is, on him, over him, in him, sin had no place, nothing. He knew no sin. And then we have the testimony of Peter. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 22. 1 Peter 2 verse 22. Speaking about Christ, he says, who committed no sin. He knew no sin, and he committed no sin, so there were no sinful deeds either. No sin in nature, and no sinful deeds. He committed no sin. And then, first epistle of John, chapter 3, verse 5. First John 3, verse 5. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin. He knew no sin, he did no sin, in him no sin. So we have seen now this evening the necessity of the incarnation of him being man, becoming man, being man, and the necessity of his sinlessness. He had to be sinless to be our substitute. And for that truth we worship him. Let us give thanks together. Eternal Son of God, sent by the Father and coming by your free will and consent, you came to us, you became man, born of a virgin, the one sinless, perfect, true man and true God. Truly great is the mystery of godliness, God revealed in the flesh. And we thank you that we have your own word giving us testimony of you and your spirit confirming that testimony and convincing us. So we receive the truth of you and of your divine, matchless, glorious person. And we worship you. And we look forward to the day when we will see you from face to face. You have entered the glory of heavens and you have become our forerunner. And we are going to follow you and be there where you are. And again we pray with growing longing, hasten that day. Lord Jesus, come. Amen.