Let's turn to Matthew 28 to read verses 11-20 as we consider those verses in connection with Article 19 of the Belgic Confession, which speaks of the two natures of Christ. Looking tonight specifically at Christ being true God and true man. in our confession there in article 19, the two natures of Christ. So reading again, first of all, from Matthew 28, page 1061, begin reading at verse 11, and then we'll read also article 19 of the Belgium Confession, page 172 in your Forms and Prayers book. So Matthew 28, beginning at verse 11, While they were going, behold, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place with Jesus' resurrection. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, Tell people his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep. And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble." So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him. But some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. And the sons are reading from God's Word. Tonight, again, looking at this in connection with Article 19 of the Belgic Confession, the two natures of Christ. So in Article 19, we confess, we believe, that by being thus conceived, the person of the Son has been inseparably united and joined together with human nature, in such a way that there are not two sons of God, nor two persons, but two natures united in a single person, with each nature retaining its own distinct properties. Thus, his divine nature has always remained uncreated, without beginning of days or end of life, filling heaven and earth. His human nature has not lost its properties, but continues to have those of a creature. It has a beginning of days. It is of a finite nature and retains all that belongs to a real body. And even though He, by His resurrection, gave it immortality, that nonetheless did not change the reality of His human nature. For our salvation and resurrection depend also on the reality of His body. But these two natures are so united together in one person that they are not even separated by His death. So then, what He committed to His Father when He died was a real human spirit which left His body. But meanwhile, His divine nature remained united with His human nature even when He was lying in the grave. And His deity never ceased to be in Him, just as it was in Him when He was a little child, though for a while it did not show itself as such. These are the reasons why we confess Him to be true God and true man. True God in order to conquer death by His power, and true man that He might die for us in the weakness of His flesh. That ends our reading from the Confession here tonight. congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, I always find it difficult or hard, you might say, to come to sermons like these because I at least imagine – I may be completely wrong – but I imagine that I'm coming up against that mentality you commonly find among people today, that mentality which says, why is this so important? that technical language, the specific way of talking about Jesus and who He is. There was some of that already last week in our time together where we were reminded of how Jesus' human nature was of Mary, that He had her genes, and so on and so forth, that His human nature was taken from His mother. And now here we talk about natures and persons and properties and so on and so forth, none of which kind of concepts are really part of our daily work and life. We're not normally going about our daily work talking about natures and properties and so forth. But that's what we find here. And yet, as a confessional or a creedal church, we hold to a number of summaries of God's Word, and one of those summaries is the Athanasian Creed. I often refer to this one in catechism as the creed we never use. We seem to never really confess it, and of course, you might say, well, that's your own fault, and true enough. But it is one we hardly ever use, much less work through. But this creed is one of those we hold to and confess, and it is concerned with teaching, holding forth, declaring, and defending two very specific doctrines. First, the Trinity, but then secondly, the person of Christ. And in this statement, as it discusses the Trinity and speaks of Christ's person, we read this, it is necessary for eternal salvation that one also believe in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully. And after discussing Christ's person, it says, this is the Catholic faith, the universal faith of the Christians, One cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully. One cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully. Which means that as we look tonight at Jesus being true God and true man, that he has two natures and is one person, we are seeking to ground ourselves in the historic Christian faith and seeking to ground ourselves in the truth of God's word so that we truly are saved and delivered in Christ. Because if we get, as you well know, Jesus wrong, We do not have Jesus as our Savior. That's the importance, at least part of the importance of what we're considering here tonight. If we get this wrong, as many people have in the history of the church, many people have gotten Jesus wrong and taught many wrong things about Jesus, and we're seeking to be defended from that. to be sure that we're on the right page, that we're on the same page, that we're joining the historic Christian church in confessing the truth about Jesus, that He is one person who has two natures. And we want to be grounded in that historic confession as we believe it to be a faithful summary of what the Word of God says. But we also want to note tonight that these teachings are not just about making sure we believe the right things. It's also about what this means for the life we live, the confidence we can have, the assurance that we can have. These are practical truths, you might say as well, truths that we're to feed upon, truths that should grow our faith and confirm our faith. So here tonight we want to consider how the true Christian faith confesses Christ as true God and true man, which means Christ has two natures and that He is one person. So we're going to be looking at that more closely here tonight. Now to speak of Christ having two natures may seem like something of an abstract statement. But it's language the church has used to try to preserve and best capture what the Bible tells us about Jesus. It's our human study and reflection on the scriptures and using specific language to try to hold fast to what the Bible actually tells us. And just think for a moment about our passage here from Matthew 28. Jesus is leaving. He has been very clear He will be leaving. He's very clear that He's going to be ascending to the right hand of the Father. There is no question Jesus is going to be taken away from His disciples. And they are going to be without Jesus in the world. That's very clear. There's no mistaking that. That's no surprise. But what is surprising is that as Jesus prepares to leave and as Jesus gives His last sort of address to His disciples, as He gives them this great commission, He says at the very end, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Now how are we to make sense of that? How are we to explain the reality that Jesus is leaving, he has left, he's gone away, he dwells in heaven, and at the same time that he is really, actually, truly present with us to the very end of the age. I'm sure if I asked some of you children tonight, where is Jesus right now? I'm sure if I asked all of you children, there would be some of you who say Jesus is in heaven. He's sitting on God's throne. But I think that if I asked other of you children that same question, some of you would say, well, Jesus is here. He's here, he's with me. Jesus is with me my whole life through. Jesus is always by my side. Jesus lives in my heart. Jesus is here all the time. And you see, you would be right. Both children would be right. The one who says Jesus is in heaven is correct. The one who says Jesus is still here is correct. But how can that be? How can Jesus be not here and here? How are we to make sense of what the Scripture tells us about Jesus? Well, these kinds of statements in the Scriptures, of which there are many, have been understood as pointing us to the reality that Jesus has two natures. just as our confession says. On the one hand, Jesus has a divine nature. As the Son of God, Jesus has the full divine nature, and it's a divine nature that has all the characteristics of what it means to be divine. What does it mean to be divine? What does it mean to be God? It means that you have no beginning or end of days. You are eternal. It means that, as the Confession says, that you're omnipresent. Jesus' divine nature is omnipresent, present everywhere. It means His divine nature is omnipotent. It has all power. It means that His divine nature is omniscient. It knows all things, all things that exist, all things that could possibly be, all things that have happened, all things that will happen. He knows everything according to His divine nature. And His divine nature is infinite. It has no bounds in any respect. It is self-sufficient. It doesn't hunger. It doesn't thirst. It doesn't have any needs. It is immortal. It cannot die. It is immutable. It cannot change. It is perfect in everything. Jesus has this divine nature with all of these characteristics, these properties, you might say. And as our confession tells us, even though the Son of God took on our flesh, all of these things are still true of Him. He doesn't cease being divine. He doesn't, when he becomes human, suddenly give up little pieces of his divinity. But no, he still has this divine nature with all of its characteristics. So that according to his divine nature, Jesus is all-powerful. He is all-knowing. He is everywhere present. Hebrews 1 talks about how Jesus upholds the whole universe by the word of his power. How can Jesus uphold the universe? Because He is God. He has this divine nature. According to His divine nature, He is omnipotent. He is all-powerful so that He can uphold the entire universe by the word of His power. Colossians 1 talks about how Jesus created all things. He created everything that exists in the entire universe. He is all-powerful again. It's really a marvelous mystery when you think of this again. You know, as Calvin once wrote, the Son of God descended from heaven. He descended from heaven in such a way that without leaving heaven, just think of it, he descended from heaven without leaving heaven. He willed to be born in the Virgin's womb, to go about the earth, to hang upon the cross, yet he continuously filled the world even as he had been from the beginning. Isn't that just astounding? He departed heaven, he descended from heaven, but didn't leave heaven. He is everywhere present, and yet he was there in the womb of his mother, he walked about the earth, and he hung upon the cross. We talk about Jesus leaving heaven, but it's like he never left. And we talk about Jesus departing into heaven, but it's like he is always present. And that's because according to His divine nature, Jesus is everywhere present. He is always with us to the very end of the age because He is divine. He has this divine nature which means He fills the whole universe. He is everywhere present in this universe. There is no place He is not according to His divine nature. And the marvel of this mystery only continues or increases when you take into consideration that Jesus has a human nature as well. What does it mean to be human? It means that we have bodies, we have souls. It means that we grow, we learn things, we change, we're weak, we hunger, we thirst, we can only be in one place at one time, and of course, we can die. And now just as Jesus' divine nature didn't change when he entered into the world, so also his human nature didn't change when he became united to the divine nature, when he became united with the person of the Son of God. In other words, what our confession is talking about here is that Jesus is not a superman. That's kind of a crass way of putting it, but I think it's true that sometimes we're tempted to think in that kind of way, to view Jesus as some kind of superman. We say, well, Jesus is divine, and therefore, you know, he's not really totally, completely human. But the Bible's very clear. Jesus is really, fully, truly, completely human. Jesus grew in wisdom and knowledge. Jesus did not know everything. Little children, when Jesus was young, he, as it were, had to go to school to learn things. He had to learn how to tie his shoes, tie his sandals. He had to learn how to read and how to write. It's not as if Jesus simply knew everything as a little boy or a little girl. No, he had to learn, and he grew in his understanding. He grew in his knowledge. There were things he did not know. There were things that he had to be taught to know. And Jesus, of course, could only be in one place at one time. He could get tired. He would grow hungry. He could, and he did, die. As our confession puts it, his human nature didn't lose its properties. It didn't change. He didn't cease to be truly, genuinely human. No, but according to his human nature, he has a beginning of days. He is finite. He possesses all the limitations of a real body. And it even speaks of his resurrection in our confession, talking about although his body received immortality, he in no respect ceased to be genuinely human. And so just as we're confronted with Jesus in our passage who is not here and yet here, so we're also confronted in the Scriptures with a Jesus who according to his divine nature cannot die, and yet who according to his human nature did die. We're confronted with a Jesus who, according to his divine nature, is all-knowing, and we are confronted with Jesus who, according to his human nature, does not know everything and cannot know everything. We meet a Jesus who, according to his divine nature, is infinite, but yet who, according to his human nature, is finite. He cannot change, but he can change. He has no beginning or end of days, and yet, in another respect, he does have beginning of days. And you see, this is what the scripture holds out to us. Scripture teaches us. And our minds kind of rebel against that. How can you be unchanging but changing? How can you be all-knowing and yet ignorant in some ways and needing to learn? How can you be everywhere present but yet absent? And the reason is because we are dealing with someone who has two natures. and whose two natures keep and preserve their own distinct properties. He doesn't cease to be fully divine, he does not cease to be fully human, even though in one person he has both these divine natures. But why is that important? For one thing, as I have been indicating, it helps us make sense of the Bible. It helps us explain what the Bible says. How can He be spoken of as God and do all these things? At the same time, how can He be so clearly human? Because in one person, He has two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. So as I said, it helps us understand and make sense of the Bible. At the same time, this is also very practical. Because I know Jesus has a divine nature, He's fully divine, I know and I believe and I am convinced that He bore the wrath of God for me. The catechism reminds us of that point, doesn't it? It talks about how Jesus is divine, and so as He hung upon the cross, He was able to endure. He was able to take the infinite full wrath and anger of God against sin. He was able to bear that Himself as His divine nature held Him up by the power of His divine nature. He was able to endure the full wrath of God. And so as I look to this Jesus and as I confess and as I know and as I believe that He possesses a divine nature, I can be sure that the cup of God's wrath is truly empty. I can look to this Jesus and I see one who is God and I can be convinced that this salvation He brings is truly the salvation of God. If Jesus were simply a superman, if Jesus were simply a man who is a little bit stronger and a little bit tougher and a little bit better than the rest of us, we would be lost. Because no superman could save us. No superman could deal with the true weight of our sins. No, the only one who could deal with the true weight of our sins and the weight of God's wrath and anger is the one who is fully divine. And so the true divinity of Jesus means for us that we can have confidence that our salvation is true, that it's real, that it is the work of God. Keeping us secure. But on the other side of things, because I know Jesus is truly human, because I know He possesses a true human nature, I can know and I can be confident that His death can really forgive me of my sins. Then I can know that His righteousness really is for me. It's a human righteousness. It is the righteousness of a man born under the law because he was born of a woman who is truly human. And so I can be convinced that that righteousness is now mine and it's good enough because it's man's righteousness. The righteousness of a man for another man. And I can be sure that I will be delivered from death because He died as man. He died in the place of me as a man so that I might be free from death's power and influence. I can be confident that I will be raised from the grave, that this body will be delivered from death and raised to new life because I see the one who was true man die himself, be buried in the grave and raised the third day. and that God glorified His human nature. And so I can be sure that as I come to Christ, my human nature will also be glorified. See, remember what Hebrews 2 talks about? He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have one source. They are of one family. And so he became fully man. That man might have the salvation he needs. Bulls and goats can't atone for our sin. Why? Because they're not the same nature as us. but because the Son of God took to Himself a genuine human nature, I can be assured that I am saved, because man has died in the place of man. Only man can pay the price for men's sin. And so as I look to Christ who possesses this true human nature, I am again assured, I am assured, I am confident that my salvation is true, that it's real, that it's complete, that it's everything I need. You see, these truths, these truths of Christ who has two natures are the source of all our confidence about our salvation. If we lose this confession, If we lose the true reality of Christ, divine nature, and human nature, we lose everything. we lose everything. Because if he is not man, he cannot save men. And if he is not God, he cannot save us, as it were, from God's wrath and anger and judgment. He must be both. And so the church has always confessed this Jesus, who is true God and true man, possessing these two natures, a divine nature and a human nature, that keep their own distinct properties and characteristics. Our minds struggle to comprehend, but this is at the very ground, the very bottom of our faith. And so Christ, we say, possesses these two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. But secondly, we confess that He is one person. You have the person of the Son of God, you have the person of God the Son who joins himself to a human nature in such a way that there are not two sons of God or two persons, but two natures in a single person. That's how our confession puts it. This person of the Son of God, God the Son, unites himself with human nature in such a way that there are not now two sons of God or two persons, but two natures in one person, one single person. These two natures are so united together in one person, they're not even separated by his death. Now there is a lot that could be said here, way more than I might even be indicating to you and letting on by what I'm saying here. There is real depth to this confession here in this article. But the core idea is that even though Jesus possesses these two natures, he possesses these two natures in such a way that there is no division in him. There's no division and there's no blending. Perhaps the best way of sort of helping explain what's being denied here is to think about demon possession. Now that might scare you to bring that up in this kind of context, but think for a moment of demon possession. Someone who's demon possessed is their own person, aren't they? They are their own person, their own man, their own woman. But then you might say another person we're using the term person loosely here another person a demon enters into them and So it's like that individual is now two people in one and There's the man himself, but then there is inside of him this other person, this demon. And so when you see demonic possession, for instance, the man named Legion, Jesus says, you know, who are you? He gives his name as Legion. That's the demon talking, that's not the man talking. And then when the man is healed, now he can give his actual name, and that's the man talking. So that before he's free of the demons, he's like two people in one. He is the demon, but he's also the man. And I bring that up, I use that as an analogy to again show us that the confession is indicating that is not the case, that's not what it's like when it comes to Jesus. It's not as if Jesus was His own kind of person and then the person of the Son of God now enters into Him and possesses Him. So that he's two people. No, no, no is what our confession is saying. He's not two people. He's not the son of Mary and he's not the son of God as if they're two separate individuals in one person. No, Jesus is one person who possesses two natures. And if you're someone who likes those technical fancy words, what we're talking about here is the hypostatic union. The union of two natures in one person. These two natures are united in the one person of God the Son, and they undergo no confusion, no change, no division, no separation. And this union of the two natures of Christ is so great, so strong, so unbreakable, that even when Jesus died, his divine nature remained united with his human nature, even while it was lying there in the grave. In other words, the confession is saying there has never been a moment when Christ's human nature has been separated from His divine nature since He united it with Himself. There has never been a moment since the Incarnation, since the Son of God took on flesh, He has never separated Himself from His human nature. But He is preserved and maintained and will always hold this union. He will always preserve this union of these two natures in Himself. He will always remain completely united with it. Now why the fuss? Why the fuss about uniting in himself in one person, two natures? Well, it does go back to some debates that took place in the early church. Many heresies, false teachings about the person of Jesus. But again, the million dollar question is why is this so important? And I think what I would really encourage us to see in this to see in this is that when the Son of God took on flesh, He didn't take on flesh for 30 years. He didn't take on flesh for 1,000 years, or take on flesh for 2,000 years, or He didn't take on flesh simply until He comes again to judge the living and the dead. No, the Son of God has united Himself, joined Himself to a human nature for all eternity, that in His one person, He is now bound together unbreakably, this divine and human nature. So when we are given these visions of Christ in the book of Revelation, he certainly radiates the glory and the majesty of God. We see someone who truly is divine, and at the same time, he's very much presented to us as a man. John sees a scroll in the hand of God, and he weeps because no one is able to take the scroll and to open it and to read it. And then an elder speaks to John and says, oh, look, look and see a lamb looking as if it had been slain. And the other says, look, see there, Jesus, who still bears your humanity, the one who still bears the marks of his crucifixion, still see your Lord and your Savior, the one who united himself to you, who took on your flesh. And many Christians say, so what? So what? If Jesus should ever break that union, If Jesus should ever throw off His humanity, we would be doomed. If the Son of God ever broke this union of the two natures in His one Person, we would be lost. And I mean that. We would be lost. We would be forever lost. We would lose our fellowship with God. We would lose our union with God. Brothers and sisters, the only reason we can be confident, the only reason we can be confident that we will live before the face of God for all eternity, the only reason that we can be sure that we will dwell with God in the new heavens and the new earth for 10,000, 10 million, 10 billion infinite years, The only reason we can be sure of that is because the Son of God has united Himself to our human nature in His one person. You see, this is what our intimacy with God is based on and built on. We have Ephesians 5, right? Ephesians 5, and this breathtaking declaration that the union of husband and wife is a picture of the relationship between Christ and the church. And you see, if the Son of God, even for a moment, even for a moment, cast off His humanity, He would be breaking off His marriage to us. The Son of God has wed us through this human nature. He has wed us and united Himself to us through this human nature, and if He should ever for a moment get rid of it or break this union, we would lose our fellowship, our union, our intimacy with God. Only because this union is real, only because it is a union of two natures in one person, is our eternal unity with God secured. That's so what? That's why this matters. It matters to our eternal well-being. If Jesus was not two natures in one person, we could never experience fellowship with God. We could never live forever with God. We could never have that union with God. We could never have that joy of living forever in God's presence. And furthermore, because the divine and human natures are united together in one person, we can believe Jesus does possess all that we need. Paul talks about how in Christ are all the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, and so as we come to Christ, to this one person, we find in him the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, and we can possess these riches. Because of this hypostatic union, we can really trust Jesus. When he says, believe in God, believe also in me, that's not an empty boast, that's not any kind of misleading statement. We should believe Him, we should trust Him, because we see how He is in one person, God and man. Therefore, we find in Him truly everything, truly everything we could ever possibly want or need or ask for, because He is the fullness of man and the fullness of God in one person. It's not as if we have to run to the Son of Mary and say, well, you're human, and so let me talk to you and ask you for what I really need as a human, and now let me run over here to you as God the Son, and now ask you to give me what I need as the divine Son of God. No, we run to the one person of Jesus. And you know, I think there's even something more amazing to see as we consider this union within the one person of Christ. You know, sometimes people read the Gospels and they like to play maybe what you could call a pin the tail on the nature. Pin the tail on the nature, the nature of Christ, right? And what I mean by that is they read the Gospels and they say, oh look, look, here Jesus is hungry, there's his human nature. And oh, oh look, over here, Jesus stills the storm and there's his divine nature. and what the confession is saying and the reality that it's calling us to see is that we're not to do that. We're not simply to look at this and say, oh, there's Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and there's his humanity. But we're to look at all the actions of Jesus. We're to read all these stories of Jesus and to see there the person of the Son of God. that we see there the Son of God weeping over Jerusalem, and we see the Son of God in His compassion, in His mercy, in His desire and willingness to save lost sinners. We see Jesus hungry, and we don't say to ourselves, oh, that's just His human nature. No, we see the Son of God hungering for us. Can you comprehend that? The Son of God hungering for you. and you see the Son of God on the cross, the Son of God dying for you, so that even as Paul will say in the book of Acts that God purchased the church with his own blood, Paul doesn't say, oh, the human Jesus purchased the church. No, he says God purchased the church with his own blood, because you see the Son of God there in the pages of Scripture. You see the Son of God, all the work, all the miracles, all the compassion, all the healing, All the kindness, all the help, all the teaching is the work of the Son of God. And you see, that's what makes the Gospel story so amazing. Because you're not just reading about any old man. And you're not just reading about this random divine nature. You are reading about the divine Son of God. hungering, thirsting, being ridiculed, being despised, being rejected, being killed, being crucified, being laid in a grave, the Son of God. And see, the Scriptures become so much more powerful, I think, when we grasp that. You are seeing the Son of God and not just this divine nature here or this human nature there. the Son of God. That's what makes the gospel so incredibly rich. to always see, hear God in the flesh, the person of the Son of God in our world, in our lives, present with us always at work to save, to deliver, to lead, to guide, and to bring to our everlasting home. What does Jesus say? I am with you always. Jesus doesn't say, my divine nature's with you always. No, he says, I, I am with you always. I am with you always. That's wondrous to think about. That's so amazing and so comforting to think about. The person of the Son of God with me always to the end of the age and so even though according to the flesh he's in heaven, still, still, Jesus according to his person is with me always. With me always. Jesus Christ, true God, true man. What a beautiful Savior. What a beautiful Savior and what a beautiful salvation. and what a truth that again speaks incomprehensible comfort and assurance to our hearts and our lives. When we go through anything, we are going through it with the person of the Son of God remaining by our side. When we are there at the grave, when we're there in the hospital standing by the cradle, when we're there counseling and instructing and guiding our children and when we're involved in our work and we're all in play, there the person of God's Son always with us. assuring us that He has fulfilled our full and complete salvation because He is in Himself truly divine and truly human. Beautiful Savior, beautiful salvation, and what a comfort to our souls. Amen. Let's pray. O Lord our God, again we come to you in prayer and in praise tonight. Thank you, Father, for these truths, these truths that so challenge our minds, these words, these truths that call us to believe even though we do not understand. And Father, would you help us then to believe and see the preciousness of these truths. To see that we need to believe them, for he who would be saved must think firmly and faithfully of this Christ, your Son. But Father, at the same time, may we see how comforting these truths are, how they are meant to encourage us, how they are meant to assure us that our salvation is true, it is real, it has been worked by you, our God, and it is the salvation of man because it has been accomplished by man. Well, Heavenly Father, thank you for Christ, your Son, and may we continue to marvel at the union and the fellowship we have with you through your Son, who is forever bound himself to our human nature in his one person. Thank you, Father, for this truth, and may that continue to comfort us and encourage us as we go about our lives. to know that Christ, yes, Christ, is always with us, even to the very end of the age. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Bless us then by your Spirit and send us forth in your power and your grace. In Christ's name we ask it. Amen.