Jesus Saves! But How? PART 3: Jesus The True Man... The New Man

Andrew Grey continues this adult Sunday School teaching series on "Jesus Saves! But How?"

This is part 3: "Jesus The True Man... The New Man" from Sunday 23rd November 2025

Transcript

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Last week we looked at the facts of the incarnation, how it was that the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And this morning we're going to think about why. Why was it necessary for our salvation that the mediator should be made man? So let me pray and then I'll read. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we ask that you would show us wonderful things from your word. In particular, show us the glory of Christ as the word made flesh. For Jesus' name's sake. Amen. Amen. So Luke chapter 1, verse 26. 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 favoured 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 favour 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 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 am 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 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 Baron. 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. And specifically, why was the Christ born of a virgin? And here is why this matters. When you and I, when we feel the weight of our sin, when we feel the weakness of our faith, where do we go for grace and comfort and strength? Now in his kindness, the Lord provides for sinners a mediator. And in him, he offers us life and salvation, and he invites us simply to have faith in him, to rest upon him. And this Christ, he comes to us clothed in the gospel as the incarnate Son of God. And it is especially in his humanity that we will find healing for the weight of sin and the weakness of our faith. So let's consider firstly the virgin birth. Or actually, more uh more accurately, the virgin conception. It is firstly a fact of history. Now, babies are normally conceived through the sexual union of a man and woman. We know that, the Bible knows that. People in Bible times knew that. They didn't have ultrasounds, but they weren't gullible. They knew where babies came from. And the Bible says the conception of Jesus did not happen like that. It was not the result of sexual union between Joseph and Mary. They subsequently bore children in the normal way. Jesus was different. We read in Luke 1.37, for nothing will be impossible with God. This is an act of God. Consider Jesus' family tree. In his humanity, the Son of God was descended from real humans. There were real ties of blood. He was really importantly a true son of King David. We saw that in the angel's words there. He will inherit the throne of his father, David. So David truly was the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. But consider the family that the Lord Jesus was born into. Matthew's gospel starts with a genealogy, and it tells us the most extraordinary things about the family into which Jesus was born. We read in that genealogy stories of incest, the story of Tamar, a prostitute who is included in the lineage of the Savior, a Moabite, a pagan, Bathsheba, the woman with whom David, the Messiah, committed adultery. So that is the family line, that is the human line of Jesus, into which the Savior chose to come. It's a line that is riddled with sin and shame. And so the angel says in Matthew 1.21, he will save his people from their sins. And this is what his people are like. Generally, we run away from shame and disgrace. We don't want to be associated with it. It is beyond astonishing that he should desire to come near to us and actually become one of us. Why the incarnation, though, and why the virgin birth? Jesus was born of Mary. That means he is one of us. We looked at an ancient statement of the church last week, which describes how he is consubstantial with us. Sometimes science fiction gives us an alien life form who looks human. So Superman, the classic example, looks human, is actually from Krypton. Not like that with Jesus. Jesus is a true man. Now, the Bible does not tell us how this happened. Presumably, Mary contributed half of Jesus' DNA. Somehow, God the Holy Spirit created and supplied the rest of Jesus' humanity. And yet he still was a human. It was an act of special creation, yet a real humanity. Perhaps, therefore, Jesus looked like Mary. He would not have looked like Joseph, for Joseph was not biologically his father, though became like an adoptive father to him. And here is the point. Jesus was born of Mary, that his humanity might be true. He was born of God that his humanity might be new. And maybe if you remember one thing this morning, for your encouragement, that couple of phrases from a minister up in Aberdeen, David Gibson, I find very helpful. He was born of Mary that his humanity might be true. He was born of God that his humanity might be new. The Apostles' Creed sums it up like this: He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. So in the reading from Luke 1, we just read, verse 35, you'll see it on the handout also. The angel answered Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, and therefore it's really important, therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. Remember three weeks ago or so when we thought about our plight, why we need a Saviour? You and I, by nature, we are in Adam. God appointed Adam as our representative, the head of the human race, such that if Adam had passed God's test and obtained life, we would all have received life. Adam fails and falls, and he brings into the world death and sin. So Paul in Romans 5.19 he reflects, by one man's disobedience, the many were made or constituted to be sinners. It's a bit like a poison was introduced at the source of a river, which then flows down to the river as it streams outwards. So a poison introduced at the stream of at the source of humanity. So there is something in us, all of us, that is not all right. As a result of which we cannot save ourselves. But, but, but, but this man Jesus, he is different. Yes, he is born of Mary, that his humanity might be true. The man of Jesus is born of God, that his humanity might be new. He is a holy man. And this is achieved because of the virgin birth. Read that phrase in Luke 135. And we ought to hear there echoes of the very first verse of the whole Bible. When the Spirit of God overshadowed or hovered over the face of the waters. Creation. Now the Holy Spirit overshadows the Virgin Mary, and he creates in her this new man, who the New Testament will call the second Adam, the last Adam. This new and special creation. And where we, the children of Adam, we are stained with sin. This second Adam, this last Adam, he is holy. He had no human father through whom the stain of original sin would have been passed on. The New Testament says he was born of a woman. Galatians 4, 4. Very carefully chosen words, born of a woman, he is not begotten of a man. So where we are stained with sin, he is holy. Born of Mary, that his humanity might be true, born of God that his humanity might be new. Born a holy human, so he could save sinful humans, as the head of a new human race. So we're to imagine Adam and Christ like two giants and carrying humanity with them. And if by the power of the Holy Spirit we are taken from being in Adam and joined to Christ, then we receive in him all of his holy fruit. So all of our salvation is found in him. And all of our assurance, our confidence in salvation is found in him. So we're going to think about how it is that the true man and the new man saves us. And we're going to think about the manner in which he does it. That we might feel the sufficiency of our Savior because our hearts very often doubt it. We feel the weight of sin and we do feel the weakness of our faith. So open up the central pages in the handout and let's think about the person and work of our Saviour, the new man, the true man. Firstly, Jesus the man obeys for us. The Lord Jesus, he had frail flesh, just like us. But unlike us, he did not have fallen flesh. He's a holy man, a sinless man, tempted as we are, yet without sin. Now all people everywhere, all human beings, all of God's human creatures, are bound to God and bound to obey his holy law. It comes to us and it commands our obedience. And the New Testament tells us that God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. Jesus was no different from any other man. And Jesus obeys the law. Now what we're speaking about here is sometimes called the active obedience of Christ. In his positive obedience to the commands of the law of God. So his mission, he says that he has come to fulfill all righteousness, to fulfill the law and the prophets. And he did this strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was the Son's constant companion, even from conception and the womb, you know, to the tomb, to his heavenly throne. The son was given the spirit without measure. John 3, 34. He needed to depend on the Spirit and on the Scriptures in order to obey. And he does. And this is what we see in the Gospels when we look at the life, the beautiful life of the Lord Jesus. Do you remember how he is driven into the wilderness and tempted by Satan, just like Adam was tempted, yet he perfectly obeys. And his temptations, they were real. In his temptations, Jesus restrains his divine power. It's not like he had a cheat code in the face of sin and temptation that is not available to us, if I can put it like that. In his temptations, he restrains his divine power. Just like he restrains his divine knowledge. Remember in Mark 13, someone asked about this last week, says he doesn't know the day or the hour of his final return. Well, he is restraining his divinity. And it's as a man he draws on these resources given by the Holy Spirit to resist sin and temptation and to obey God. And that was the pattern of his entire life. From childhood. And even more specifically than just obeying the law of God as it comes to us. He obeyed God's revealed will for him as the Messiah. The covenant of redemption between the Father and the Son, whereby the Lord made the Father made promises to the Son, but the Son also made promises to obey the Father. So here is the new man. Here is the perfect man, the proper man. Here is the second Adam, the appointed head of a new human race. And for those who are in Christ, so joined to Christ, well know that Christ obeyed for you. Romans 5.19 on the handout. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. He obtains something which he then gives to us. He obtains something which he imputes to us, his righteousness, imputed or clothed upon us. The Christian is saved by works. But we are saved by the works of our Saviour, which we receive by grace through faith. So Jesus the man, he obeys for us. Next, Jesus the man, he dies for us. So think about the law of God for a moment. It demands perfect obedience, but it also demands that when that law is broken, the law's penalty must be applied. A holy God cannot just brush sin under the carpet, and that is our predicament. We disobey the law of God, we face the penalty for breaking his holy law, and we can do nothing by way of remedy. And now we see our Saviour. He obeys such that we can be counted righteous, and he is punished in our place that we need not be. Jesus the man dies for us. And do you see why it's so important that we have a human Savior? Not just to obey God's law as a man, but to die as a man in the place of sinful men. Sin must be punished in the same nature in which it is committed. So our Saviour, he must be human, a real body, a real soul, not just seem to be like us. And so we we read in Hebrews 10, a body you have prepared for me. Very important. The incarnation. Christ was clothed with flesh, just like us, body and soul. He needed a body in which to suffer and die. The purpose of Bethlehem and the manger and the incarnation was actually atonement and Calvary and the cross. But there is no Saviour if he inherits Adam's guilt and Adam's sinful nature. We need a spotless Saviour who can represent us. He must not be like us. He must be like us, but he must also not be like us. And so God provided a spotless lamb to represent us, a bunch of dirty lambs, that we might be assembled together as one flock and brought home to the Father. So this spotless lamb, our Lord Jesus, by his active obedience, he qualified himself to offer himself in our stead. And that's the passive obedience of Christ, receiving, bearing the punishment for sin and guilt. Lovely quote here from John Calvin. He did not refuse to bear the agonies which are prepared for all those whose, and this is this is the Christian, this is you and me, he did not refuse to bear the agonies which are prepared for all those whose consciences rebuke them, and who feel themselves guilty of eternal death and damnation before God. Let us note well then that the Son of God was not content merely to offer his flesh and blood and to subject them to death, but he willed in full measure to appear before the judgment seat of God his Father, in the name and in the person of all sinners, being then ready to be condemned, inasmuch as he bore our burden. So in my name, so in your name, the Son of God, the spotless lamb, hung upon the cross and appeared before the judgment seat of God, bearing the judgment that you and I deserve, bearing your person in your person, carrying your person before God the Father, the judge. It's extraordinary, isn't it? The book of Hebrews says the same thing in a slightly different way. It says of the Lord Jesus that it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. So the founder of their salvation. That's Hebrew's way of saying the second Adam. He's like the pioneer. The first man safe to glory and in the presence of God. And he was made perfect through suffering. Not that he was imperfect, but the point is this. Until he became a man and died as a man, he is not the saviour I need to get me to glory. He is made the perfect Saviour, the complete Saviour through his suffering. If he had called on twelve legions of angels to deliver him, Matthew 26, he could have done, rather than going to the cross, he would have not been perfected as the Savior that we need. So he was made like us so he could die for us. Now, of course, it was also necessary for our salvation that the mediator be God. He is the God man, among other things, so that the Son's humanity would be of infinite value and so be able to save many. But it is particularly in Christ's humanity where we find a rock solid foundation of our salvation and the foundation of our assurance. He came near to us, he died for us. And when we grasp this, we grasp both the wonder of God's love and we begin to experience that assurance of salvation. Because he entered our life, he shared our nature, he took our place, he bore our sin, he received our judgment. And the manner in which he does that, it should encourage us. He stooped so low. Things we read in the Gospels, he didn't need to do them. Things like touching lepers. He didn't need to touch lepers. Eating with sinners and tax collectors. He didn't need to do that. Yet he does that to encourage us, help us to feel his love and come to him. Over the back page of the handout, Jesus the man obeys for us, dies for us, and he feels for us. Have you ever considered what Jesus felt, if I put it like that? He experienced frailty and weakness. He tasted our experience from the inside. So all of the emotions and the affections of our common humanity, he knows, apart from sin. He wasn't an idle spectator of the human condition, he participated in it. Think of what it was like for the Lord Jesus in Gethsemane. Think of the human passions that he experienced in Gethsemane. So Hebrews 5, 7 says this in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Loud cries and tears. He knew that actually far more deeply than we ever do. So, then John Calvin applies this. Whenever, therefore, all kinds of evils press upon us, let this be our immediate consolation, that nothing befalls us which the Son of God has not experienced himself, so that he can sympathize with us. And let us not doubt that he is with us in it, as if he were distressed along with us. And this is the point that Scripture precisely and explicitly makes. Hebrews 2.18, for because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Hebrews 4, 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. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Think about Christ's temptations for a moment. Jesus the man was not tempted by the internal temptations of a sinful nature. Now that is something that he did not experience. When we are tempted, we are tempted by things outside of us that our senses perceive, but we are also tempted by ourselves, our own sinful nature, the flesh. Christ was only tempted by those external temptations. And the Bible would say, particularly by the temptation that arises because of the fear of death. And those temptations, they had a real inner purchase in the life and the heart of Jesus. To avoid death is the right thing. To fear death is right. To preserve life is good. But most of all, when you consider the death that Jesus experienced, which he knew he was going to experience, he was about to experience his father's judicial wrath. And the burden of that in the Garden of Gethsemane, we cannot imagine it. It was like he was sweating drops of blood, according to Luke's gospel. He knows the pain of temptation and the cost of obedience. And the extraordinary thing is he obeyed. Not my will, but yours be done. Truly, there is nothing that befalls us which the Son of God has not experienced himself, and so we are encouraged to draw near. So just as we sum up, he obeys, he dies, and he feels as a man for us. One who is like us and who is gloriously unlike us. There's a great summary of all of this in the Westminster longer catechism. Why was it requisite that the mediator should be made man? It was requisite that the mediator should be made man, that he might advance our nature, perform obedience to the law, suffer and make intercession for us in our nature, have a fellow feeling of our infirmities, that we might receive the adoption of sons and have comfort and access with boldness unto the throne of grace. It's wonderful, isn't it? Take a couple of minutes just to talk to a neighbour, maybe share an encouragement, share something that's new. If you've got any questions, uh well, try and get those clear and we'll share those questions in just a minute. So take two minutes or so just to talk with a neighbour. It's a great question. So what was going on in the garden when the Lord Jesus prayed as he did? You know, question what part of him was trying to find relief. In some ways, we should resist the urge to talk about Jesus having parts. So we're encouraged to think about him according to his human nature, which was perfect, and his divine nature, but he is um one mediator, one person, one Christ. And yet, in the way he prays and in the way he obeys, yes, it is in his humanity that he is anticipating not just death but the penal death that he is about to experience. And absolutely right, there is no hint of non-submission to the will of God. You know, these are the eternal counsels of God, which Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have ordained all eternity, that the Son would be crushed. But he was a man, and in that moment in the garden, you know, this the crushing weight of what was going to happen bore in upon him. And you know, scripture privileges us with just little glimpses of into the into the internal life of uh the man Christ, both in his you know, you know, that the prayer, but also the obedience that follows. And I think that is probably the best the best and safest way to understand it. There are there are mysteries here. Yeah, what what did it feel like for Christ to have knowledge of his own identity but to restrain his divinity? I've no idea. I genuinely don't know what it must must have felt like. We're not told that, and therefore it can't be important for us to know. Yeah. Any other questions in any shape, size or form? Yeah, the Lord Jesus on the cross, uh, the relationship between the Son and the Father, what happens as Jesus is on the cross? Well, in his human nature, he is forsaken by God. Not in his divine nature, yeah. God the Holy Trinity, it cannot be broken, cannot be torn asunder, but most terribly and most wonderfully, God the Son, according to his human nature, was he was crushed by the Father. It was the will of the Father to crush him, to put him to grief. Uh we we will get on to think specifically about the atonement in a few weeks' time and the cross, and we'll think particularly about this this question of what happens in God, if you like, as the Lord Jesus dies. Yeah, but this this man who has only ever enjoyed perfect and full communion with God the Father, well, that communion is broken, and instead he bears you know holy judgment, not for his own sins, but for ours, because he loves us. Anyone else want to mention anything? Question or yeah, yeah. So, question about uh the temptation that Christ experienced. So Hebrew says that he was tempted in every way as we are. Um, on the other hand, the Bible presents him as a holy man, and therefore he does not have Adam's flesh and Adam's nature, he does not have something within his soul that kind of responds to or inclines towards or think, oh sin, that's nice. That is what we battle with the whole time. Christ never had to battle with that. He did it, he did experience. Well, we we we know from you know Luke, we know from the you know what went on in the garden that he had he had an inner life in which he wrestled to obey, but there was never anything in him which inclined toward sin. So we have a bent nature, yeah, we're redeemed and sanctified, but until we get to be with Christ, our flesh will not be fully glorious. So he had perfect human nature, so he didn't experience that, and yet his experience of temptation was incredibly deep and dark. So these these external temptations that came upon him, it's the words of Satan in the wilderness, uh, for example, um, or the prospect of death. So death was outside of him, if you like, but then that comes into him, and okay, I now have to obey. So I think that's yeah. It's one of the ways in which Christ is very like us and very unlike us, and actually we need both for our salvation and also for our comfort. It's a tricky one though. Yeah. Can I encourage you to pray? It's gone called a past. Turn to your neighbour. There's much here to praise and thank and adore the Lord for. So just turn to the Lord and pray and then.