Essentials of the Faith - Pt 5

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 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. (Hebrews 4:14-16 ESV).

The last principle we will examine in this essential of the faith concerns the character of Jesus. He is God made flesh. He really has “walked in our shoes.” The incarnation is an essential truth of our faith; and, a part of that is in recognizing that Jesus is a sinless man. It is essential to know that Christ does not have a sinful nature, and neither did he ever commit sin, even though he was tempted in all ways. Our reading makes that abundantly clear. Thus, Jesus is fully and perfectly man and has also experienced the full range of human experience. We have a Savior who can truly identify with us because he is man and who can also truly help us in temptation because he has never sinned. That is an awesome truth to cherish and sets Christianity apart from all other religions. So, we come to this realization that Jesus is both God and man. Each of these natures is full and complete. In other words, Jesus is fully God and fully man. This gives us an important insight into the Trinity. The three Persons of the Trinity are not each one-third of God, but are each all of God. Jesus is not part of God or one-third of God. Rather, he is fully God. “For in him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9). However, it is also important to recognize that when we say that Jesus is man, we do not simply mean that he is partially man. He is truly human. The fact that Jesus is truly and fully human is clear from the fact that he has a human body (cf. Luke 24:39), a human mind (cf. Luke 2:52), and a human soul (cf. Matthew 26:38). Jesus does not just look like a man. He does not just have some aspects of what is essential for true humanity but not others. Rather, he is the full embodiment of humanity. This allows him to be the perfect High Priest. This is the only means of our forgiveness and atonement. There have been many men and women who were good people, perhaps even great. They may have enjoyed this recognition of greatness in something they taught or did. They may have even given their life on our behalf. There is no doubt as to the sacrifice they have made. However, that sacrifice could not be enough to satisfy our debt to sin. Only Jesus could do that. He paid the price we could never pay by dying the death we could never die!