Day 38: How Was Jesus Equipped to Save Us?
This week, we deal with the question, “What Did Father-God Do to Save Us?” The LORD was not obligated to intervene after Adam chose to rebel against Him. However, our Heavenly Father chose to send His One Unique Son Jesus to call us back to Himself, cleanse us of our sins, and heal us of our rebellious and darkened hearts.
John 3:16
“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”
As we have already heard, The One True God wants us to know Him. Yet we rejected Him and rebelled against Him. Instead of rejecting us, our Holy Heavenly Father sent His One Unique Son Jesus to find us and to save us from sin, death, and condemnation to give us righteousness (right relationship with God), life and peace.
This week, we are going to ask the same basic questions about Jesus that we asked about Adam:
- How Was Jesus Equipped to Function?
- How Did God Test Jesus?
- How Did Jesus Respond?
- How Did Jesus’ Response Affect Him?
- How Did Jesus’ Response Affect the World?
WORKwork:
1 Timothy 2:5–6
For there is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, Himself human, who gave Himself—a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.
How is Jesus described in this passage?
(You should notice three things Paul says about Him)
Jesus was truly a human.
In this session we want you to understand two things: 1] Jesus was a human just like all of us, and 2] Jesus was God in human form (not like us). These two truths are central to Christianity.
In the Timothy passage above, Paul tells us three things about Jesus: 1) He is the one mediator between God and Humanity, 2) He is Himself Human, 3) He gave Himself as a ransom. The first thing that we want you to notice is that Paul affirms clearly that Jesus was in fact a human being. One of the first major false teachings that entered Christianity denied Jesus’ humanity. But is clear in the Gospels that Jesus had a body and He lived as a human among humans. If Jesus is not human, He could not function as a true mediator and substitute for other humans. This takes us to our next point: Jesus was human, but He was also the Son of God.
Jesus was truly God as the Son of God.
Take a look at the following passage; it is the message that Mary the mother of Jesus received announcing what God would do in and through her:
Luke 1:30–33
Then the angel told her: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 1:31 Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call His name Jesus. 1:32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 1:33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.
1:34 Mary asked the angel, “How can this be, since I have not been intimate with a man?” 1:35 The angel replied to her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy One to be born will be called the Son of God.
Jesus was not conceived by a human father, but by the power of His Heavenly Father. In one of the most profound mysteries revealed in the Bible, God takes the egg of a young virgin, Mary, and uses it to implant His divine nature and life so that God Himself—the Second person of the Trinity, the Eternal Son— becomes a human being!!! Jesus is literally the Son of God and this means that He possesses the very nature of God.
Mary was Jesus’ human, physical mother, but God is His father. The Bible clearly teaches that the virgin birth of Jesus is not up for debate! If Jesus had been conceived from an earthly father, He too would have been born spiritually dead and in bondage to the power of sin and He could not therefore possibly be our Savior. If Jesus were a fallen descendant of Adam, He would have needed a Savior too!
Jesus was (and is) fully human just as Adam was and just as you and I are. However, since Jesus was not a descendant of Adam he was born free from the effects of sin and death. The Bible makes it clear that both the guilt of Adam’s sin and the corruption of Adam’s sin is passed through the father. Since Jesus had no human father, he was not born a sinner as you and I are.
Also, Jesus possessed eternal life. Notice what Jesus himself said about this:
John 5:26
For just as the Father has life in Himself, so also He has granted to the Son to have life in Himself.
Jesus was granted the type of life that the Father Himself possessed. For now, let’s just call this eternal life since it is a type of life that is not dependent on anything else. When God created Adam, Adam was dependent on God for His life. When Jesus was conceived, He possessed the very life of God Himself, eternal life.
Physically Jesus is just like any other human being. However, His Spiritual Self was perfect and He possessed life in and of Himself. Jesus is fully human and fully God. All the teaching of Christianity hangs on this point.
Jesus was the Final Sacrifice, Once and for All.
1 John 3:5
You know that He was revealed so that He might take away sins,
and there is no sin in Him.
In some of the best news in the whole Bible, we hear that Father-God chose not to let Adam continue in his fallen state. Instead, in His love and grace Father-God chose to intervene and save Adam from the tragedy of his fall. Immediately after the Rebellion and Fall of Adam, we hear, “The LORD God made garments from skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them” [Genesis 3:21].
Where did God get skins to clothe Adam and Eve? Apparently, he killed animals to provide the skins. When sin occurs, something or someone must die to pay the price that God requires for sin. But God in His mercy spares Adam from physical death and graciously chooses to kill two animals instead.
This introduces us to the idea of sacrifice and redemption. Let’s consider three points that we will explore in the remainder of this study:
- When sin occurs, a death must be given as a payment because the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
- God allows a substitute—a sacrifice—to make the payment for sinners who deserve His condemnation and wrath.
- The benefits of the substitute’s payment are given to those who do not deserve it—sinners.
Although God had graciously allowed the sacrifice of animals to be the “substitute payment” for Adam’s sin, this was not enough. In the Letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament, the writer says that it is impossible for the sacrifice of animals to take away sins (10:4, 19:11). To deal completely with the effects of Adam’s sin, another type of sacrifice would need to be made. This is where we must turn to look at the life and works of Jesus Christ—the Savior, Redeemer, and King of all Humanity.
In the Timothy passage above, Paul says that Jesus is the only mediator between God and humanity who gave Himself as a ransom—a payment for sin—for us. It is His willing and joyous self-sacrifice that opens our way back to Father-God. Jesus was equipped to be our perfect representative, sacrifice, and savior.
How was Jesus like other humans?
How was Jesus different from other humans?
*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.
