All Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version (NKJV) of the Bible unless otherwise noted.
"Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill." (Jesus Christ; Matthew 5:17)
"Hereafter the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God." (Jesus Christ; Luke 22:6)
"What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?" (Jesus Christ; John 6:62)
God was manifested in the flesh ... (1 Timothy 3:16)
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (Colossians 1:19-20)
Introduction: God Becomes Like One Of Us
In The Predicament section of the Essentials series I covered how man was corrupted by sin after Creation and how God's prophetic plot to redeem man began to unfold in the book of Genesis. God's plan was to ultimately send the Son of God, through the tribe of Judah in His chosen nation of Israel, to Himself become man's redemption from sin for all who accept Him. The Second Person of God's Triunity, was to enter our world as a man, becoming the God-man—both fully God and fully man. A sinless God-man was destined to destroy the power of sin on the cross and the power of death through resurrection. Consider the following Scriptures:
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery be equal with God [i.e., did not retain His advantage as God], but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. ... Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 2:14-15, 17)
The primary theme of the Bible is redemption. The God-man came to fulfill God's promise of redemption and in so doing became one of us and revealed the immeasurable love of God in the most dramatic fashion. It is the greatest true story ever, so amazing that only God Himself could have written it.
A Virgin Birth
There are several Old Testament prophecies that together predicted the God-man, or Messiah, would be born of a virgin and a descendant of David. Let's take a look at these.
One night, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Nathan which he subsequently spoke to King David. The following is an extract of that prophecy:
"When your [David] days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you [Solomon], who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ... My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever." (2 Samuel 6:12-13, 15-16)
God was telling David that He was giving him a royal dynasty which would last forever.
Isaiah later prophesied:
"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel ["God with us"]." (Isaiah 7:14)
and then ...
For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)
From Isaiah we understand that a virgin was to bear the Son of God, the God-man, and that He would establish His government upon the throne of David with judgment and justice forever. Recall from The Predicament section of the earlier Essentials teachings, The Corruption of Sin—Part 2: The Plot is Established and The Prophetic Plot Unfolds, how I focused on God's prophecy regarding the Seed of the woman.
"And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel." (Genesis 3:15)
The God-man is the Seed of the woman, Israel, and He came through one of her twelve tribes, Judah, the tribe of the House of David. Jesus' legal father was Joseph, the husband of His mother Mary, but His biological Father is God. He is a descendant of David through His mother (Romans 1:3).
The Gospel of Luke explains how the virgin birth transpired:
Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!"
But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then 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 bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the LORD God will give 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."
Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?" And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible." (Luke 1:26-37)
The Hebrew name for Jesus is Jehoshua (i.e., Joshua) which means "Jehovah is salvation." Shortly after Gabriel appeared to Mary, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him Mary "will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins."
The Lamb of God
In The Corruption of Sin—Part 2: The Plot is Established Essentials teaching I explained how God killed at least one animal, most likely a sheep, to make clothes for Adam and Eve after they sinned and how this set a precedent: the shedding of blood is required for the remission of sin and God will provide the sacrifice.
Then, in The Prophetic Plot Unfolds Essentials teaching I covered how Abraham acted out what he believed to be a future event when God had him proceed to sacrifice his only son, declaring to Isaac at that time: "My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering" (Genesis 22:8).
Then, right before delivering Israel from bondage in Egypt, God instructed Moses and Aaron as follows:
Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt , saying, "This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: 'On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man's need you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. And thus you shall eat it: with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's Passover.
For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.
So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the LORD throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance. (Exodus 12:1-14)
The institution of the Passover Feast gave Israel a memorial instilling in them that the blood of a spotless lamb will save them from destruction.
Micah prophesied:
"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting." (5:2)
This was fulfilled when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Luke's account of the birth of Christ details the following:
Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David [Bethlehem] a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." (2:8-12)
The shepherds in this region raised sheep for the Temple sacrifices in nearby Jerusalem. These shepherds would wrap baby lambs in swaddling cloths so that they would not injure themselves since lambs without blemish were needed for sacrifices (Exodus 12:5; Leviticus 4:32; Leviticus 23:12). In this area outside of Bethlehem, these shepherds would keep their sheep in caves at night. The manger that Jesus was born in may have been one of these. Jesus, the Lamb of God, destined to be the ultimate sacrifice for sin, was thus born just like on of these spotless lambs. The apostle Peter wrote that we were redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ, as of lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:19).
Not long after baptizing Jesus, John the Baptist declared:
"Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29b)
This is the first time the name or even the phrase, "the Lamb of God," appears in the Bible. John had a clear vision of the destiny and purpose of Jesus' life.
Interestingly, Jesus is referred to as the Lamb 26 times in 24 verses in the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ (hereafter: "Revelation"). Beginning in the 5th chapter, it becomes a prominent name for Him in the book. Let us dig into that 5th chapter since it contains important information about the God-man and His role as the Lamb of God. The apostle John witnessed the following scene before the throne of God:
And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?" And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it.
So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. But one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep, Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals."
And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midsts of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.
Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and the golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying:
"You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nations,
And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth."Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:
"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!"And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:
"Blessing and honor and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, forever and ever!"
(Revelation 5:1-13)
Some Bible commentators have opined that the scroll here is the title deed to planet earth. The concept is that this scroll is the legal document to transfer ownership of the kingdom of the world. John saw Jesus Christ here as a Lamb "as though it had been slain" which I take to mean that He was still bearing bloody markings. Jesus' sacrifice on the cross made Him worthy (qualified Him) to take the scroll and open its seals, securing the legal pathway to return and take control of the kingdom of the world. He redeemed all believers to God by His blood and we will reign with Him in His millennial kingdom. Later on in Revelation, when we get to the seventh seal of the scroll, we see that it leads to seven trumpets and when the final trumpet is sounded we are told the following:
Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" (Revelation 11:15)
Staying with the scroll and its seals, we are given the following description of events concerning the sixth seal:
I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"
What is intriguing is that, outside of John the Baptist, Jesus does not begin to be called the Lamb in the Bible until the 5th chapter of Revelation and that is in heaven. Yet, during the tribulation these people on earth are aware that the wrath is coming from the "Lamb." This leads me to speculate the following two reasons why:
1) The Bible, and especially Revelation, is being widely read and preached during the tribulation. In the current church age, Christians, yet alone the unredeemed secular world, rarely refer to Jesus as the Lamb. He may take prominence as the Lamb in these days as Revelation becomes widely examined for various reasons. Two of the prominent reasons which make the relevance of the book more obvious would seemingly be the rebuilding of Babylon and the rapture of the church.
2) The beast (antichrist) rails against God and attributes the tribulation to Him to such an extent that it becomes common knowledge throughout the world that the devastation is coming from the Lamb. Consider the following passage about the antichrist:
And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:5-9)
At this point, what has happened is that the Lamb has already withdrawn His church ("those who dwell in heaven") and proceeded with an artillery barrage (worldwide destruction) before His personal attack to seize His global kingdom (Revelation 19). The saints here are those who become believers during the tribulation and possibly the ones making the Lamb known through widespread reading, teaching, and publishing of the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Here we see the antichrist going all out in his deception that he can become God.
Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man—the God-man. The importance of the God-man being identified as the Lamb of God is that it signifies that God became a man and Himself became the perfect sacrifice for sin, once for all. As Dr. Chuck Missler explained, "Jesus was the fulfillment of the Levitical system of blood sacrifice." Moreover, tying back to the prophetic plot that I covered in The Predicament section of the Essentials series, we are told that He is the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." God had His great redemption planned from the very beginning.
The Cross
It is indispensable to recognize that Jesus Christ went to the cross willingly, in submission to the will of God. The night before, in Gethsemane, He intensely prayed: "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done" (Luke 22:42). Shortly thereafter, when an armed band from the chief priests, scribes, and elders came to arrest Him and Peter drew his sword in defense, Jesus said to him:
"Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?" (Matthew 26:52b-54)
Not only was the suffering of the cross the will of God for Jesus, it was prophesied in the Old Testament, such as in the Psalms and at a time when crucifixion had not yet even been invented:
For dogs have surrounded Me;
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet. (Psalm 22:16)
The gospels include the following accounts of Jesus' death on the cross:
Matthew
Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?"
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. (Matthew 27:45-46, 50)
Luke
Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, "Father, 'into Your hands I commit My spirit.'" Having said this, He breathed His last. (Luke 23:44-46)
John
So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. (John 19:30)
Taken together, we can surmise that Jesus' last words were "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? ... It is finished! ... Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit."
Jesus cried out in such a manner, after three hours of darkness in the middle of the afternoon, because this is when God put the sin of man into His spirit. Jesus disclosed this during His ministry when He declared:
"I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished! (Luke 12:49-50)
Baptism is this context is a spiritual immersion. This immersion caused Jesus to temporarily lose His spiritual unity with God which is why He cried out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" He cried out "It is finished!" after He had taken on the sin of man which was His primary mission in life. Finally, He declared, "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit," as His very last words which was a prayerful declaration of faith. He trusted that God would raise Him from the dead.
The apostle Paul, in at least three of his letters, explained the implications of what Jesus did for us on the cross:
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— (Colossians 1:19-22)
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. (Romans 6:3-10)
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
When it comes to the cross, it is critical to recognize that it was not just the place where Jesus physically died. It was the where and how He literally took the sin of man upon Himself, as Paul explained: "He died to sin once for all." In so doing this, "by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified" (Hebrews 10:14). Man was separated from God through the spiritual corruption of sin. The God-man reconciled all those who receive Him by faith back to God through "the blood of His cross." Notably, Paul wrote that "our old man was crucified with Him." By this he meant that Jesus took on the spiritual nature of sin on the cross through which our old, sinful nature ("old man") was redeemed. The believer who has died to his old sinful nature "has been freed from sin." This is easier understood after examining the implications of the God-man's resurrection.
The Resurrection
The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus endured the cross "for the joy that was set before Him" (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus trusted God, that He would raise Him from the dead and fulfill His promise to not allow His Holy One to see corruption (Psalm 16:10b; Acts 13:34-37). Then, on the third day, the Spirit of God raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11). Jesus was "Justified in the Spirit" (1 Timothy 3:16) which means He was made righteous after having taken on the sin of man (spiritually) when the Spirit raised Him from the dead. Jesus was spiritually reborn or spiritually restored through resurrection which is why He is referred to as the "firstborn from the dead" (Colossians 1:18; Revelation 1:5). Jesus, our High Priest, was the forerunner (Hebrews 6:20) Who set a precedent for the church: the Spirit will regenerate the spirits of all who believe in Jesus and trust in His finished work (on the cross) for their salvation. Believers are justified through faith in Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul, in at least three of his letters, explained the implications of Jesus' resurrection for the believer:
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:5-11)
And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. (1 Corinthians 6:14)
... buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Colossians 2:12-14)
Paul writing, " Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more," makes it clear that resurrection means eternal life. He specified that believers have already been "raised with Him through faith in the working of God." What exactly does this mean?
We learned in Genesis that the spiritual corruption of sin leads to physical death. When a person initially exercises faith in Jesus Christ, his spirit is regenerated and united with the Holy Spirit, spiritually putting him "in Christ." His old corrupt sin nature is identified with the cross where Christ bore his sin. His regenerated spirit in union with Christ has thus already been raised with Him since Christ has been raised from the dead and he is in Him. Because God raised Jesus from the dead and gave Him a glorified body, we can trust that He will do the same for us, assuming we die physically before the rapture of the church. All church saints will be physically raised from the dead at the rapture and those still alive will be taken from the earth. I explained this in detail in Death & Resurrection.
The death and resurrection of the God-man is not only a typological pattern of the believer dying to sin and being given new spiritual life in Christ, it was the forerunning event enabling the actual spiritual conversion of the believer to take place. I covered this in detail in the Essentials teaching, The Empowerment of the Holy Spirit—Part 1: Preparing for the Promise. This is a great resource for further insight on this topic.
Summary
In this Essentials teaching on the God-man we learned how God became a man through the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. We learned how His identity as the Lamb of God signified His destiny as the perfect sacrifice for sin, once and for all who believe. Finally, we learned the powerful impact of the death and resurrection of the God-man and how it set the stage for the spiritual conversion of the believer.
Altogether, this teaching on the God-man strikes at the heart of the gospel: how God was manifested in the flesh, bore the sin of man on the cross, and was resurrected by the Spirit setting the precedent for eternal life by faith. The gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ but I have hopefully demonstrated that what the God-man did runs deeper. By understanding and properly communicating the fullness of who Jesus Christ is and what actually transpired through His death and resurrection, we will find that the gospel that we preach will not just be a story, but "make sense" in the hearts of men and inspire faith in Him.