Part 1 of 4
“If it’s not about Jesus, it’s not about anything.”
(Motto of the
Fountain of Life)
Invocation: Father, in Jesus’ name we pray that this
subject be treated faithfully, honestly and respectfully. We invoke the motto of the Fountain of Life
to keep all that follows in this four part series in a proper focus and that
the name of Jesus be glorified.
WHO IS CHRIST?
The Freedom which we have in Christ has
as its foundation the Incarnation of Christ and its actualization through the vicarious
humanity of Jesus. That sound like heavy
theological stuff. Please don’t be put
off with the sound of terms. Taking
about them reveals some beautiful knowledge about Jesus, which we shall discover
during this four part series on the Freedom in Christ. We shall see that the vicarious humanity of
Christ is a thread which weaves itself continuously through the fabric of these
discussions. We begin by asking three simple
questions.
- First: Who is Christ?
- Second: Who are we?
- Third: What does freedom in Christ look like?
Let us
take some time now and answer the question, who is Christ? Beloved, as you know, hundreds of books have
been written both about the identity of Christ and of the accuracy of the
scriptures. This series is not intended
as an apologetic for those two subjects, therefore we will not explore
arguments from literature, history, philosophy or tradition. For the purposes of this series on freedom in
Christ, we will begin with confidence in the Word of God itself as needing no
defense. Let us turn to it as the
foundation of our study.
Foundational
Scriptures about Jesus
John 1:1:
And the Word was God.
John 1:14:
And the Word was made flesh.
Mark 1:1:
The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
John 14:9:
Jesus said to Philip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”
Matthew 16:16:
And Simon Peter answered and said, “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the
living God.”
The
Scriptures on Freedom
John 14:6.
I am the way the truth and the life.
John 8:32.
And the truth shall set you free.
2
Corinthians 3:17: Where the Spirit of God is there is freedom.
Romans 8:2:
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from
the law of sin and death.
Galatians 5:1.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,
and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Our
freedom has its foundation in the Incarnation of Jesus. It has its actualization in the vicarious
life of Jesus. All of this sounds nice,
but what is the link with Christ that establishes our freedom. Beloved, the link is not with Christ; the
link is Christ. A link with Christ implies a type of
contract, perhaps an impersonal agreement made with untold millions. However, the link being Christ implies a personal relationship with you. Yes you dear reader. What’s your name? The link is grace; His grace to you. Jesus supplies grace.
A short
discussion about the Trinity contributes to answering the question, “Who is
Jesus?” The
Trinity is an integrated whole, not three separate agendas. The Son of God is the second person of the
Trinity. The Son of Man, Jesus Christ,
has His foundations in this same Trinity, not in a different Trinity. As self-evident as that may sound, it is not
widely understood. Most Christians see a
duality between the Father and the Son.
 |
| Theologian Thomas Torrance |
Brethren, many of us have heard the
statement, “There are no atheists in foxholes.”
Theologian Thomas Torrance said the he enjoyed his time as a chaplain in
World War 2. Soldiers in the foxholes
came to him with an interesting question.
It was not the question Does God really exist?” Rather, the question was, “Is God really like
Jesus? The soldiers’ underlying
assumption was that the Old Testament Creator is very different from the New
Testament Savior. So, is God really like
Jesus? The Trinity shows that the answer
is a resounding YES! The Trinity shows that
God is one. He is an integrated
whole. There is not one angry God of the
Old Testament and one gentle God of the New Testament. There is not one God who hates sin and demands
justice and an entirely different God who loves sinners and offers mercy. God is love (1 John 4:8).
God’s oneness, His integration is founded in
Love. This integration means, for
example, that God’s justice and His mercy are not opposite concepts. His wrath and His blessings are not
opposites. Since His oneness is found in
love, that means that justice and mercy, wrath and blessing all have their
foundation in love; in PERFECT love.
They are not separate; they all share integration in His love.
In the ebb and flow of human history
a point stands out…God becomes man.
Being born of a human mother is significant. He is a man like us. He is not only physically like us men; He
also assumes our human nature; that is your nature brethren; it is my
nature. Protestants teach that it is the
nature we inherited from Adam. It is the
nature in which we all die (1 Corinthians 15:22). It is the nature which He redeems. He is the same as us without any
reservation. Church Father Gregory of
Nazianzus (d. 389) wrote, “For that which He has not assumed He has not
healed.” That means that Jesus assumed the nature of Adam for the salvation of
Adam’s descendants.
The 1st Century world
depicted the male as the dominate contributor and driving force of human action
and history. Weakness and humility were
not associated with the male’s cultural activity. The significance of the Incarnation/Christmas
event having a female represent humanity is this. It demonstrates that mankind is to contribute
nothing. Here, the male, as the director
of events for humanity is now placed into the background as the powerless
figure. That which God showcases is the
1st Century female role representing the weakness of man. From that symbolic weakness Mary responds to
Gabriel. Luke records her saying these
beautifully humble words, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me
according as to your word.” Nonetheless,
by virtue of physical conception and birth humanity is not totally excluded
because Jesus takes his humanity
from the very human Virgin. God becoming
human is the vicarious humanity of Jesus and it has tremendous importance for
our salvation, and by extension, to our freedom.
THE VICARIOUS HUMANITY OF CHRIST
Brethren, the vicarious humanity of
Jesus is the power of the Incarnation.
The Incarnation is far more than an event in history. It is the power of salvation; it is the
transforming Word of God. This
transformation is the result of Jesus assuming our human flesh. Grace Communion teaches the
vicarious Humanity of Jesus. This is
based upon scriptures such as John 1:14:
And the Word was made flesh. And 2
Corinthians 5:21. “God made him who had
no sin to be sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus became flesh and in the flesh He became
sin for us. Yes, He took our sin upon
Himself. This vicarious humanity of
Christ makes 2 Corinthians 5:21 an actual reality, not a symbolic one. We need not filter its meaning or amend it in
an attempt to fit it into one of our pet doctrines. We need just accept it. But sometimes, the unfiltered Good News is
hard for us to accept. How is that? Let’s look at our usual understanding of grace.
Friends, a fact of life is that the
Church exists in, and is influenced by the human culture which surrounds
it. The danger is that the culture is
not reliable. The culture can provide the
inspiration to use the bible to fight against something, such as slavery in the
19th century. The culture can
provide the inspiration to use the bible to defend something, such as slavery
in the 19th century. We
filter all our experiences as human beings through the culture in which we
live.
That applies to our understanding of
grace and its blessings to us. Humanly
speaking, the unfiltered good news about Jesus and grace sounds almost too good
to be true. We begin filtering the good
news through our natural skepticism, which states that if something sounds too
good to be true, then it isn’t true. Humanly
speaking we hear the biblical words about grace but deep in our private
thoughts we don’t understand them. As 21st
century North Americans we are predisposed to disbelieve grace. Allow me to paint the next point with a very
broad brush for the purposes of illustration.
Our North American cultural teaches two things. On the one hand the main point in life is self-reliance;
what we can do for ourselves; we pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps and we
honor those who can and do this. Frank
Sinatra’s popular song summed it up with these lyrics, “I did it my way.” William Henley’s powerful poem, “Invictus”
included these stirring lines: “I am the
master of my fate…I am the Captain of my soul.”
A familiar maxim is “God helps those who help themselves.” We view this approach as courageous and
socially honorable.
On the other hand pockets of despair
exist within the country and our culture teaches many to deal with the despair
by asking “What can my country do for me?”
Many of us labor heroically to create large bureaucracies to provide aid
to the needy. And many of the needy thankfully
receive organized aid from those institutions.
We view this approach as necessary and socially just.
But there is an irony here in this
second example, because even in our helplessness it is our personal effort in
seeking help from the organizations that is most important. We intuitively understand that we must locate
the helpers, we must drive to the aid offices, we must fill out the forms; we
must file the claims. If we don’t act,
if we don’t apply there is nobody to help; no one to fill out the forms for
us. If we don’t reapply the funding
ceases. If we slacken our efforts, aid
stops. If we don’t do something, we get
no aid.
We see in this human life only these two
solutions, and both, in the final analysis depend upon our own efforts. Generally our thought processes are geared to
apply only these two solutions to all issues.
But this is the problem. Logically
it is a false dilemma. Christian
righteousness does not depend upon either of these two options. For us Christ fulfills all righteousness. There are no bootstraps for us to pull. We cannot do it for ourselves. There are no forms for us to fill out. The state does not do it for us. Christ does it all, and that is hard for us
to comprehend.
We are conditioned by the culture to think
that somewhere, somehow there’s something that we must contribute to our
salvation. Maybe it’s repentance, or faith, or self-denial, or obedience, or
contrition, or absolution or penance.
And whenever we make something a necessary contribution to our faith
– anytime there’s something that we insert into the economy of salvation
apart from or in additions to Christ – that something becomes the weak point in
our suit of armor.
 |
| Reverend Todd Crouch |
When we believe this way, our belief becomes the weak link
that allows the shield to fail in time of battle. That belief means the shield needs constant
repair. Daily repair becomes our
contribution because we sin daily. The
result is that Jesus is not enough. Oh,
we might never say out loud that Jesus is not enough, however, that is exactly
what our filtered view of grace finally means.
Whenever I add anything to Jesus; that is what it finally means. In this case Reverend Todd Crouch teaches that
we erroneously augment Christ’s humanity or we diminish His divinity. Why? In
order to add our part to our salvation.
We do this because we know we are
imperfect, so very imperfect. We find
ourselves always wondering, when might a spiritual disaster finally fall upon us?
We wonder if our armor will hold. Are we really safe? We ask that question because, deep down we
know we don’t have the kind of perfect faith that we need, the kind of perfect obedience,
the kind of perfect sacrifice to keep our armor constantly ready. We try to keep it ready, but we don’t, we
can’t. We worry and worry and worry.
But brethren, worry is not what the
Christian life is all about. It is not
about what we do. It is not about our
faithfulness to Jesus. It is about what
the vicarious life of Jesus has done for us.
It is about Christ’s faithfulness to us.
It is about His outrageous faithfulness to us.
In closing , please consider the
following exercise in faith.
2
Corinthians 3:17: Where the Spirit of God is, there is freedom.
Freedom is the thing hoped for.
Hebrews
11:1: Faith is the evidence of things hoped
for.
Galatians
2:20: But Christ lives in me. Christ
in me is the guarantee of the truth of the evidence of the thing hoped for.
Friends, please note that Galatians also
says a very interesting thing. From the
King James Version we read that, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” The faith of whom? The faith of the Son of God Himself. The faith is His which he shares with us,
thanks to His vicarious humanity. How
can His faith be anything but that which is true and living?
And here is the connection into freedom
and grace and faith. It is through His
vicarious humanity. As His faith is
ours, His freedom is ours. Who is
Christ? He is outrageously faithful to
us because of who He is. He is God; He
is Man; He is Savior. He has paid the
penalty of sin. He has opened the door
to eternal life. Who is Jesus? He is the legitimate outrageously faithful giver
of grace. He is the one from whom all
blessings flow. And one of those
blessings is freedom.
In our next section, we’ll look at the
question, “Who are we?”
Benediction: Dear brothers and sisters, grow in grace, and
in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. God bless you all.
Rev. George Relic, Assistant Pastor (724-583-9217)
Fountain of Life Church
2021 Old National Pike,
Washington, Pa 15301
A congregation of Grace Communion International
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