Lutheranism 101- Part 22 - The Second Article of the Creed

Just who is Jesus Christ anyway? That is the question that has been the subject of one book after another, one movie after another and one TV show after another. Everyone seems to have an opinion as to who Jesus was and what he means for us today. While people may have many opinions about who Jesus is the only one that really counts, the only one we can really trust is the opinion of Scripture. I say that because it is the only place that we know for sure where God has revealed himself. All other opinions are just uninformed ideas. So what does the Bible itself say about Jesus? Well since we know that the Creed is a summary of Scripture let look at what it says.
"I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead."

Let's take this part by part. First of all lets look at the name Jesus. Jesus means the Lord saves. Now there were tons of other people running around the countryside with the name of Jesus. It was a common name. So it wasn't as if when they heard his name was Jesus that they immediately knew he was the Savior because of his name. People didn't pass by Jesus and go see there is the Savior of the world, really how do you know, well because his name is Jesus, so obviously he is the one. No there were lots of people with that name. The importance of the name comes in the fact that an angel told Joseph to give him that name and that he actually lived out that name by saving his people.
The name Christ also has great meaning. Now when I was a kid I thought Christ was Jesus' last name. You know there was Joseph Christ, Mary Christ and little Jesus Christ. It took me awhile to figure out that Christ was not a last name but a title. Christ means, "the Anointed" in Greek. In Hebrew the word is Messiah. So to say that Jesus is the Christ is to say that he is the anointed one. He is the chosen one sent down to rescue us. There are also other titles for Jesus such as Redeemer, Immanuel, Son of the living God, the Word, Lord, Angel of God. So Jesus has many titles that tell us about him.

So now that we know what Jesus' name is and what his role is in saving us lets look a little closer at his being, in other words his two natures. Scripture tells us that Jesus is both God and man, that he has both a divine and human nature. That seems to us to be impossible. How can he be both God and man at the same time? Well that is not something that we can fully understand with our finite minds, but Scripture very clearly points out that it is true. We see that Jesus is God from eternity. And that two thousand years ago he took on flesh through the Virgin Mary. Therefore although there was never a time when Jesus wasn't God, there was a time when he was not man. Only for the past two thousand years has the Son of God had a human nature and a body. We also know that he did not get his human nature the natural way. Instead his mother Mary was a virgin and the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. That does not mean that God had sex with Mary, but that the Holy Spirit through his miraculous power gave the Son of God a true human body and soul in her womb.
Therefore we teach that Jesus has two natures united in his one person. That does not mean that Jesus has a split personality. There is not one part of him saying do this and another part of him saying do that. The two natures are united and work together in one personality.
Now some may ask why did he needed both a divine and human nature to save us? Like I said they work together but they do have different functions. Jesus had to be man so that he could be like us and live under the law and keep it perfectly in our place. He also had to be able to suffer and die in our place. Only a man could do that, not God. But he also had to be God so that he could die for everyone on the earth. He also had to be God so that he could overcome death and the devil for us. So you could say it was a one two punch. He had to be man so that could identify with us and take our place and suffer for our sins. And he had to be God so that he could overcome death and save all of us. The two go together. Again I know that is all impossible to fully grasp, it is beyond the ability of the human mind, but Scripture says its true.

Here is some Scripture for you to explain what I have said above: Matthew 1:21; Acts 4:12; Psalm 45:7; Acts 10:38; John 3:36; John 20:28; Romans 9:5; 1 Timothy 2:5; Luke 24:39; Hebrews 4:14-16; John 1:14; 1 Timothy 3:16; Isaiah 9:6; Galatians 4:4-5; Hebrews 2:14; Galatians 3:13;
Next time we will continue with the Second Article

Pastor Fred