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Today is the official observance
in the Roman Catholic Church of what is known as the Feast
of the Immaculate Conception. And although there is a list
of traditions that is made use of as reference for this feast,
Its dogmatic definition was given by Pope Pius IX on December 8th
of 1854 and probably you will agree with me in my observation
that Filipino Catholics exercise deep devotion to this feast and
particularly to Mary. The basic notion of this doctrine
or this feast is that Mary was conceived and born without sin. So she was immaculately conceived. And oftentimes the reason given
is it is deemed necessary for Christ to be sinless. In other
words, for Christ to be sinless, his mother should be herself
sinless. But you can see the logical direction
of that if For Christ to be sinless, his mother must be sinless. Then
for Mary to be sinless, her mother must be sinless. And so forth
and so on. And you go back to Eve, and we
know that Eve was not sinless. So this simply, by sheer logic,
is a wrong doctrine. And of course, in the scriptures,
there is no support for that doctrine. And there are many
wrong things in this notion, and it is not my purpose to dwell
on that. But we must remember that our
guilt does not come from the woman Eve, or to the woman the
spouse, but from the man Adam. We are guilty by the imputed
sin of Adam. And Christ did not need his mother
to be sinless to be himself sinless, because Christ was constituted
by God as a second Adam. And therefore, like Adam before
his fall, Jesus Christ was himself without sin. And he also, like
Adam, was representative of all that he stood on behalf of. And what I am saying is that
immaculate conception applies only to Christ, not to Mary. Everyone else who are children
of Adam are sinners, including Mary, in need of salvation from
Jesus Christ. But of course, we recognize the
significant role that Mary played in the redemptive purpose of
God. While the status of Christ is
like that of Adam, however, He is far superior to Adam. Remember,
Adam was created by God as man. Jesus Christ as the Son of God
was not created at all. What happened to Jesus Christ
is summarized in one of the great statements of the Christian faith,
very simple, very concise, God became man. We have gotten so
accustomed to that short sentence. It is part of our confession,
it is part of our hymns, and we sense little of the significance
and the profundity of that statement. So this month, is the season
that it is most loudly professed and demonstrably celebrated that
Christ was born. And in Christendom, they will
even pronounce that statement, God became man. This is the month
that I will use. Just confining myself to the
letter to the Hebrews in order for us to ponder on that simple,
concise, but very profound statement, God became man. And I will start
with Hebrews chapter two. If you turn your Bibles, Hebrews
chapter two, we will concentrate on verse nine, but we begin with
verse five to get the context. Hebrews 2, verses 5 to 9. For it was not to angels that
God subjected the world to come of which we are speaking. It
has been testified somewhere, what is man, that you are mindful
of him, or the son of man, that you care for him. You made him
for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned
him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under
his feet. Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left
nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see
everything in subjection to him, but we see him, who for a little
while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned
with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so
that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone. That is the inspired infallible
and inerrant Word of God. Now, the writer of Hebrews has
been explaining from the very start of his letter the superiority
of the Son of God, and he makes that first in terms of his argument,
the superiority of the Son of God over angels. He asks questions
like, to whom did the Father say this to angels that He said
to the Son? who is like the sun in terms
of his attributes compared to the angels. So that is his main
argument. And then he comes to the first
warning of the letter to the Hebrews. The letter to the Hebrews
is known for its five key warnings scattered throughout the letter.
And the very first is the preceding verses to our text. Verses 1
to 4 is warning his readers not to drift away and they must pay
attention to the gospel of God. Now the way he makes that warning
is in gist by saying that the Ten Commandments of Moses were
mediated by the angels. And this was a tradition in the
Old Testament that angels mediated the law. And then the writer
is saying, if violating the law mediated by angels merited punishment,
Then he draws the conclusion of how much worse it will be
if we ignore so great a salvation that is mediated to us by the
Son. You see, he's still trying to
assert the superiority of the Son over angels, this time by
showing how much more threatening. It is to violate the salvation
that the Son has mediated than even to violate the law that
angels mediated. And then he uses the famous 8th
Psalm to remind his readers what was God's intention for the creation
of man anyway. And the answer is clear in Psalm
8, in order that man, though lower than the angels, yet it
is not to angels that he assigned the mandate of dominion over
the world. The dominion over the earth is
assigned to man, not to angels. But then, what happened? The
one who was assigned that mandate to have dominion over the earth,
over the world, has failed. And that, of course, is Adam.
And because he failed, we do not see that dominion being exercised
in the manner that it should be. And then he makes a contrast,
and this is a very telling contrast. Later in verse 8, he says, but
we do not see the world under dominion. Not everything anyway. But then in verse 9, he makes
that stark contrast, but we see Jesus. And for the first time,
the writer names the one whom he has been referring to as the
son. For the first time in this letter,
he identifies who this son is greater than the angels and he
makes no ambiguity in his assertion that that one greater than angels
and who now is fulfilling the dominion that Adam failed to
exercise is Jesus Christ. But then he tells us something
that is really ironic. How do we know that Adam has
succeeded if he did succeed? God told him, you will live. If you fail, the threat was you
will die. But now here, Jesus is being
described by the writer, he is now crowned with glory and honor
that didn't happen to Adam, but how did it come about? Just the
opposite of Adam. If Adam had succeeded, he would
have lived. But Jesus has succeeded and now
crowned with dominion, by what way? By dying. That's the irony, that's the
mystery. And the only answer to that is,
why did God become man? and then only to die. It is because
it was the death of a substitute in order that he may have the
dominion that Adam failed to accomplish. So let me give you
this message. God became man to be the substitute
for the punishment of sin. And now, with kingly glory. Makaharing Karangalan. God became
man to be the substitute for the punishment of sin, but now
with kingly glory. In other words, the writer here
is saying what Psalm 8 mandates for man is now happening to the
Son of God. He was made lower than the angels,
although he was superior to angels. That has been the argument in
chapters 1 and 2. the Son of God is superior to
the angels, but now, for a little while, made lower than the angels,
that is, he was brought to humiliation. But notice, however, the contrast
is that we do not yet see the sum-eight dominion of man over
creation happening, but we see it now being fulfilled in Jesus
Christ. So it's not happening to man
as a sinner, but it is happening because of Jesus Christ. And
he, as I've said, is named for the first time. Jesus is God
becoming man. And for that divine purpose already
stated in the creation of man in order that he may be a substitute
for sin and a substitute or representative for dominion. So we can look
at this in two ways. How God became man in order to
be substitute. First, he is God's gracious provision
of substitute for punishment. Siya ang mabiyayang kaloob na
kahalili para sa parusa. God's gracious provision of substitute
for punishment. And the second is that He is
God's glorious fulfillment of dominion of creation. Siya ang malwalhating katuparan
ng Let's look at this in both ways. First, Jesus is God's gracious provision
of substitute for punishment. The writer twice makes reference
to Christ's death. He speaks of the suffering of
death, and then he makes the statement to taste death for
everyone. And again, as I have said, it
is easy to miss the irony here, because we know that Adam, if
he failed, he was going to die. That was the threat of God to
him. The moment you eat of that fruit that is forbidden, you
will surely die. So death is the result of Adam's
failure, which means, by opposite, if Adam succeeded, he would have
lived. But now in the case of the second
Adam, in the case of the God-become-man Jesus, the way for his fulfillment
of the mandate of dominion is that he needed to taste death
for everyone. How do you explain that? The
explanation that the writer gives is by the grace of God. In the case of Adam, it would
not have been grace, but earned. In the case of sinners today,
the only way that you will be spared of punishment for sin
is by the grace of God. How? Jesus owned the penalty
of sin in death. as substitute for sinners. It
entailed for the Son of God to become man and begin from the
very beginning of humanity. Now remember, it did not happen
to Adam. When he was created, he most probably was created
an adult. In the case of Jesus, in order
to be substituted, this is the wonder of wonders. He began from
the very beginning of humanity. When is that? At conception. God, or through the angel, told
Mary that she will conceive in her womb a son. This was already
a person. If I may just digress for a while,
this is the reason why one of the most heinous sins that is
celebrated today by Westerners is abortion without realizing
that this is no less than murder. And this is the only murder where
the mother tells the murderer, doctor, thank you. Jesus begun a conception. Imagine that, the creator of
the universe, the creator of life itself, becoming an embryo
in the womb of Mary. And then born, born in the lowest
of circumstances. Then lives, which Galatians 4.4
says, under the law. He had to obey every aspect of
the law. If he made an infringement of
the law in any way, he would have been disqualified as substitute. But he obeyed every aspect of
that law. That law which you and I can
never obey in ten lifetimes. Jesus, in that one lifetime of
his humanity, obeyed all that is in the law. But it did not
end there. He who did not sin died the sinner's
death. How do you explain that? And
the writer here puts it even more vividly. the whole New Testament
is pervaded with references to the death of Christ. But chapter
two, verse nine of Hebrews is the only place where the writer
describes it as he tasted death for everyone. He's seeking to
emphasize the personal experience by Jesus of the death. Paul would have simply said Christ
died, or to make it theological, he would have said Christ died
for sinners. But our writer here in our text
says he came to taste death for everyone. This is so personal,
just like your taste is personal. I don't taste what you are tasting,
you will not taste what I am tasting. And Jesus is undergoing
the very horrific nature of dying. Now don't get fixated with the
words for everyone and make a case for universal atonement that
is not the purpose of the writer at all. This is simply another
word for saying he died for sinners. But the word that stands out
really is he tasted it. He tasted the horror of dying. Some will die a silent death. They sleep and they will not
wake up again. Others die a more heroic death,
perhaps in a battle or in martyrdom. In the case of Jesus, it was
the most humiliating death to be executed, both by Romans and
Jews, for sins he has not committed. And he tasted the horror of it,
and let me say, more horror than you and I can ever taste. Because He died on the cross
and on that cross, He gave expression to that horror with that cry
of dereliction. My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me? The only time that Jesus called
his father, my God, instead of that familiar and filial address,
father, because he was then feeling the separation. That's the horror
of Jesus' death that you can only match by spending eternity
in hell. But Jesus matched it by dying
on the cross that he did not deserve. Jesus took the horror
of his substitute. I once watched this documentary
of during the Second World War in
a Jewish ghetto. When there was an infraction,
the Nazi guards had the Jewish prisoners lined up in 10 rows,
and then a soldier was put in front 10 meters distance from
the rows, and the punishment was every person in front will
be executed. And they began to march towards
the rows. One of those in the front was
a young woman, and she braced herself to die. But the man behind
her, an older man, quickly switched places with her. And by the time
the guard came to that row, it was the old man who had to suffer
death instead of the woman. But that is just a poor illustration
of what Jesus did, a substitute. Now the challenge of this to
us is find the grace of the incarnation in the cross of substitution. This is the lesson here. This is the direction of the
profound confession God became man. Why? Is it for us to celebrate
the manger? It cannot be denied that what
is prominent in today's celebrations is the manger sin. You see glittering
lights and lanterns surrounding that manger sin. I mean, if at
all they make use of any biblical event, it's the manger sin that
is always put up. But you see, the manger is not
sensible in and of itself. What makes it sensible is that
the wonder of God becoming man to fulfill what God intended
for man, but Adam failed to do. And yet multitudes today will
do traditional celebration. And I have nothing against if
you want to celebrate Christmas, you can have your noche buena
and your caroling. I'm more doubtful about that. And yet many who will do this
celebration without any interest in the cross of Christ. And they
think they are celebrating Christ because they are lifting up the
manger. Friend, the manger has no sense
unless you see its direction and connection towards the cross. That it died a substitute with
the death that you and I should have died and can only do so
by spending punishment in hell. And we entirely miss why God
became man if you fall short of the substitute on the cross. And my friend, do you know that
substitute? Do you come to God only through
the substitute? Dare you come to God by your
own self, thinking that you have accumulated enough righteousness
and good works so that God may accept you? That is the great
delusion of self-righteousness. But even believers, when we come
to God, we come to God not by ourselves, but also through our
substitute. Daily, believers need to express
thanks to God for the cross. Not so much for the manger, but
the wonder of it is that God became man as substitute. Martin Luther wrote a less well-known
piece of writing that I think should deserve prominence. It's entitled Letter of Special
Counsel. He puts in pithy sayings of counsel
for people in various spiritual problems. And to the one feeling
guilty, he says, pray and sing this, Lord Jesus, you are my
righteousness. I am your sin. Now that grates
into the ears of our decent sensibilities. But we know what he means theologically. Our sin was imputed to Christ,
though he was not guilty of our sins, in the same way that Christ's
righteousness is imputed to believers, though we are not righteous in
any way. That's the exchange. That's the
substitute. And I want you to glory in it. But the second point is that
of God's glorious fulfillment of dominion of creation. Again, the writer's citation
of Psalm 8 is to remind his readers that it is assigned to man to
have dominion over God's earthly creation. Adam failed. But this is the point of Christ
becoming or God becoming man. Where humanity failed, Jesus
fulfilled and will fulfill dominion over all creation. Now I use
two time dimensions here. I said, He has fulfilled because
it has already happened. It is past and present, but it
is also He will fulfill because it is not yet fully fulfilled. It will be consummated in the
future. This is the point of verse eight.
We do not yet see. We do not yet see many under
the rule of Christ today. Look around you in this world.
Institutions deny the Lordship of Christ over them. The United
Nations will never have an assembly where Christ is going to be honored. You do not even have to go outside
this building. There may be people right here
or those of you online who are not under the lordship and dominion
of Christ because at this point it is by way of faith. But the time is coming when Christ
comes again that Philippians 2.11 tells us every tongue shall
confess that Jesus is Lord, that will happen. It has not
happened yet, so the writer says we do not yet see, but we see
Jesus already fulfilling it. Now the church should be a place
where this is already partly true, individually and corporately. What explains the believer after
all? Once he was under dominion of
sin, but at conversion, he came under the dominion of Christ.
And that is what I am inviting you to do if you are still outside
of Christ. Put yourself under His dominion,
under His Lordship. There alone is salvation. What
explains the church? The church is a gathering of
those individuals under the dominion of Christ. maybe of different
degrees, so sometimes in the church there are eruptions of
conflicts because part of us is still not under totally Christ's
dominion, but it is our purpose. It should be our daily resolve
and struggle to have Christ exercise dominion over us. And this is
where the writer is contrasting what Christ's people are. Where Jews still want Moses,
And apparently there were readers of the letter to the Hebrews
that were aspiring to have angels as their spiritual dominion. The writer is saying Jesus is
already crowned with dominion, but the church is continuing
the mission to extend that. That's what we need to do, extend
it to this world. I don't blame anyone if you do
not know that there is an ongoing World Chess Championship. That's
something I will not miss, but they're now in game 10, still
tied. But what makes this historic
is this is the first time two Asians are battling it for the
championship. Asians who used to be the weakest,
And Asians acknowledge that they owe it to a Filipino, the first
Asian gun master, Eugene Torre, who in fact was invited by the
World Chess Federation for special honor in that championship. Through
him, and when he was interviewed, he said, at my time, there were
no tournaments I could join. And now it's all around, and
Asians are among the best He extended it. That's what the
church is called to do. Extend the interest in Christ. Extend the dominion of Christ. And begin with yourself. And
to begin with yourself, I challenge you this own rule of earthly
creatures outside of Christ and His kingdom. Why do not mean by this that
we do not acknowledge legitimate authorities on the earth? Augustine, in fact, argued when
they were being blamed by Romans for the fall of Rome that, in
fact, Christians had been the most submissive of citizens to
the state, and that should be what Christians are. What I assert
is that no one has the rule equal that of Christ that he now exercises
over his people because his is the kingdom rule. No one has
kingdom rule over us. One day, all our struggles in
the Christian life can simply be explained as the conflict
of dominions. Who will rule at any given day? Who will rule When you see and
experience collision of interests, collision between your emotion
and what you know to be the word of God, who will rule? One day
man will have rule over creation as intended by God, but at the
present it is Christ who is ruling as representative of his people. And because he rules on our behalf,
we too have an extent of rule over creation. Creation should
not rule us. Because our position now, Ephesians
2, 6 tells us, He raised us up with Him, seated us with Him
in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That is a language of
royal enthronement. We were seated. We were enthroned
with Christ. We are now kings and priests
according to Revelation 1. Whenever a mere creature is establishing
rules for you outside of Christ, you are showing the fallen Adam
in you. And it should be your resolve
to grow in sanctification. And growing in sanctification
means growing in your rule over creatures. What is your creature
rule? Is it your money that seems powerful
to control everything? Is it relations that have your
emotions in its grip? But Christ is now ruling over
you. And you must rule also what Christ
already rules. And He rules not because simply
He's God. He rules because God became man,
and there is no excuse for man who is a believer in Christ to
rule with him. Rule over your creaturely sin. For thousands of years, Christians
have asked this question, and it is still a mystery. As early
as the year 220, a man by the name Origen wrote what in Latin
is called the Principius, the first principles, and one of
the things he addressed is the incarnation. Then in the year
1098, a man of the Middle Ages, Anselm, wrote one of the classics
of Christian literature, kur deus homo, why God became man. And since then, there have been
hundreds, even perhaps thousands of volumes written just to address
that question, why did God become man? It is such a mystery. But here we are given the concise
answer. He became. your substitute. He became our substitute. Be freshly amazed as you confess
the truth that God became man to live the life I should have
lived, but could not. And then to die the death I should
have died, but he did. that substitution. And we will
sing to that real, to that truth, with a word, with us, him, his
robes for mine. Wonderful exchange. Clothed in
my sin, Christ suffered neath God's rage. Draped in his righteousness,
I'm justified in Christ I live, for in my place he died. Wonderful words. Let us own it
for our own refreshing and amazement at the fact that God became man. Let us sing his robes for mine. His closing prayer. a great God and Heavenly Father,
what wisdom you have demonstrated in your redemptive plan that
has found fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ,
God became man. And we can be so accustomed to
that statement of doctrine, of confession, of hymn, and yet
feel no amazement at the profound reality that the eternal, infinite
God was conceived in the virgin's womb, born, lived a life of perfection
we could not live in ten lifetimes, and suffered a death that we
should have suffered And all this he did because he became
our substitute. And it is only by that that we
know the grace of God. Father, we thank you indeed for
this. And though we live in a season
when many will expressly celebrate, and yet their celebration terminates
on the manger without any interest in the cross. Help us, Lord,
to realize that the wonder and amazement of the manger is because
it is leading to the cross and to that empty tomb when Jesus
was raised from the dead. And because he now rules, though
not yet in consummation, We share that rule with Him, and we must
be those who, individually as believers, must know and resolve
to rule over creaturely forces that seek to control our lives,
be that money, relation, profession. Let Christ be our ruler, and
thus we can confess the profound mystery that God became man.
Speak to those who are still outside of Jesus Christ. They
may be fond of Him. They may even celebrate Him,
but they do not know Him as the Substitute. Save sinners today
and glorify your name through the sanctification of the saints
and the Church's resolve to extend the kingdom of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And now, may the love of the
Father, the grace of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. In Jesus'
name we pray all these things. Amen.
As Substitute
Series God Became Man
| Sermon ID | 12824742504592 |
| Duration | 39:31 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Hebrews 2:9 |
| Language | English |
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