“Basic Christianity, Part 7” by Romans
Youtube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zev5tHjCB_s
Youtube Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FWbf9ZqeVc
We are continuing in our Series, Basic Christianity. In the past Installments, I have tried to lay down the Foundation of our beliefs. I have not included the exclusive doctrines or dogma of individual Congregations. These are neither universally accepted, nor, in my humble opinion, are they required to be accepted. They do not impact our Salvation, and will not be included in this Series. My purpose, instead, is to present those things which Scripture presents as necessary beliefs and practices.
We read in the various epistles of the New Testament, the various heresies, divisive practices, and departures from the Truth that were beginning to creep in even in the lifetime of the original disciples. I have already touched on some of these. I would like to briefly touch on one that John refers to in his first and second epistle, namely, whether Jesus actually came in the flesh. There were various beliefs systems that regarded the spiritual realm as holy and good, and matter and flesh as evil. They rejected the idea that Jesus had come in the flesh.
Notice, if you will, the curious introduction to his first epistle. Without knowing of this heresy, we may be perplexed as to why John even felt the need to write such a thing. But now that we know it existed, I will read his words in light of it: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life” (1 John 1:1).
In response to this heresy, John also wrote in 1 John 4:3: “And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”
Of this, Albert Barnes writes, “That which was from the beginning - There can be no doubt that the reference here is to the Lord Jesus Christ, or the “Word” that was made flesh.” At this point, Mr. Barnes cross-references his comments on Jojn 1:1 in which he wrote, “John evidently has allusion here to that place, and he means to apply to “the Word” an expression which is there applied “to God.” In both places it clearly means before creation, before the world was made, when as yet there was nothing. The meaning is: that the “Word” had an existence before the world was created.
This is not spoken of the man Jesus, but of that which “became” a man, or was incarnate. The Hebrews, by expressions like this, commonly denoted eternity. Thus. the eternity of God is described in Psalm 90:2: “Before the mountains were brought forth, etc.;” and eternity is commonly expressed by the phrase, before the foundation of the world.” Whatever is meant by the term “Word,” it is clear that it had an existence before “creation.” It is not, then, a “creature” or created being, and must be, therefore, uncreated and eternal. There is only one Being that is uncreated, and Jesus must be therefore divine.”
Getting back to first comments, Mr. Barnes writes, “This is such language as John would use respecting him, and indeed the phrase “the beginning,” as applicable to the Lord Jesus, is unique to John in the writings of the New Testament: and the language here may be regarded as one proof that this Epistle was written by him, for it is just such an expression as “he” would use, but not such as one would be likely to adopt who should attempt to palm off his own writings as those of John.
One who should have attempted that would have been likely to introduce the name “John” in the beginning of the Epistle, or in some way to have claimed his authority. The apostle, in speaking of “that which was from the beginning,” uses a word in the neuter gender instead of the masculine. It is not to be supposed, I think, that he meant to apply this term “directly” to the Son of God, for if he had he would have used the masculine pronoun;
but though he had the Son of God in view, and meant to make a strong affirmation respecting him, yet the particular thing here referred to was “whatever” there was respecting that incarnate Saviour that furnished testimony to any of the senses, or that pertained to his character and doctrine, he had borne witness to.
He was looking rather at the evidence that he was incarnate; the proofs that he was manifested; and he says that those proofs had been subjected to the trial of the senses, and he had borne witness to them, and now did it again. This is what is referred to, it seems to me, by the phrase “that which,” (ὅ ho.) The sense may be this: “Whatever there was respecting the Word of life, or him who is the living Word, the incarnate Son of God, from the very beginning, from the time when he was first manifested in the flesh;
whatever there was respecting his exalted nature, his dignity, his character, that could be subjected to the testimony of the senses, to be the object of sight, or hearing, or touch, that I was permitted to see, and that I declare to you respecting him.” John claims to be a competent witness in reference to everything which occurred as a manifestation of what the Son of God was.
If this be the correct interpretation, then the phrase “from the beginning” (ἀπ ̓ ἀρχῆς ap' archēs does not here refer to his eternity, or his being in the beginning of all things, as the phrase “in the beginning” (ἐν ἀρχῇ en archē) does in Joh_1:1; but rather means from the very commencement of his manifestation as the Son of God, the very first indications on earth of what he was as the Messiah.
When the writer says in verse 3 that he “declares” this to them, it seems to me that he has not reference merely to what he would say in this Epistle, for he does not go extensively into it here, but that he supposes that they had his Gospel in their possession, and that he also means to refer to that, or presumes that they were familiar with the testimony which he had borne in that Gospel respecting the evidence that the “Word became flesh.”
Many have indeed supposed that this Epistle accompanied the Gospel when it was published, and was either a part of it that became subsequently detached from it, or was a letter that accompanied it. See Hug, Introduction P. II. Section 68. There is, it seems to me, no certain evidence of that; but no one can doubt that he supposed that those to whom he wrote had access to that Gospel, and that he refers here to the testimony which he had borne in that respecting the incarnate Word.
Which we have heard - John was with the Saviour through the whole of his ministry, and he has recorded more that the Saviour said than either of the other evangelists. It is on what he said of himself that he grounds much of the evidence that he was the Son of God.
Which we have seen with our eyes - That is, pertaining to his person, and to what he did. “I have seen him; seen what he was as a man; how he appeared on earth; and I have seen whatever there was in his works to indicate his character and origin.” John professes here to have seen enough in this respect to furnish evidence that he was the Son of God. It is not hearsay on which he relies, but he had the testimony of his own eyes in the case.
Which we have looked upon - The word used here seems designed to be more emphatic or intensive than the one occurring before. He had just said that he had “seen him with his eyes,” but he evidently designs to include an idea in this word which would imply something more than mere beholding or seeing. The additional idea which is couched in this word seems to be that of desire or pleasure; that is, that he had looked on him with desire, or satisfaction, or with the pleasure with which one beholds a beloved object.
And our hands have handled - That is, the evidence that he was a man was subjected to the sense of touch. It was not merely that he had been seen by the eye, for then it might be pretended that this was a mere appearance assumed without reality; or that what occurred might have been a mere optical illusion; but the evidence that he appeared in the flesh was subjected to more senses than one; to the fact that his voice was heard;
that he was seen with the eyes; that the most intense scrutiny had been employed; and, lastly, that he had been actually touched and handled, showing that it could not have been a mere appearance, an assumed form, but that it was a reality. This kind of proof that the Son of God had appeared in the flesh, or that he was truly and properly a man, is repeatedly referred to in the New Testament.
{There was an} opinion which early prevailed, which was held by the Docetes, that the Son of God did not truly and really become a man, but that there was only an appearance assumed, or that he seemed to be a man. It was evidently with reference to this opinion, that the apostle dwells on this point, and repeats the idea so much, and shows by a reference to all the senses which could take any cognizance in the case, that he was truly and properly a man.
Of the Word of life - Respecting, or pertaining to, the Word of life. “That is, whatever there was pertaining to the Word of life, which was manifested from the beginning in his speech and actions, of which the senses could take cognizance, and which would furnish the evidence that he was truly incarnate, that we have declared unto you.’ The phrase “the Word of life,” means the Word in which life resided, or which was the source and fountain of life.”
John repeats his defense of Jesus having appeared in the flesh in his second epistle: We read in 2 John 1:7 “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.”
Of this, Matthew Henry writes, “For many deceivers have entered into the world. This report is introduced by a particle that bespeaks a reason of the report. “You have need to maintain your love, for there are destroyers of it in the world. Those who subvert the faith destroy the love; the common faith is one ground of the common love;” or, “You must secure your walk according to the commands of God; this will secure you.
Your stability is likely to be tried, for many deceivers have entered into the world.” Sad and saddening news may be communicated to our Christian friends; not that we should love to make them sorry, but to fore-warn is the way to fore-arm them against their trials. Now here is, 1. The description of the deceiver and his deceit - he confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; he brings some error or other concerning the person of the Lord Jesus;
he either confesses not that Jesus Christ is the same person, or that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, the anointed of God, the Messiah promised of old for the redemption of Israel, or that the promised Messiah and Redeemer has come in the flesh, or into the flesh, into our world and into our nature; such a one pretends that he is yet to be expected. Strange that after such evidence any should deny that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God and Saviour of the world!
2. The aggravation of the case - such a one is a deceiver and an antichrist; he deludes souls and undermines the glory and kingdom of the Lord Christ. He must be an impostor, a wilful deceiver, after all the light that has been afforded, and all the evidence that Christ has given concerning himself, and the attestation God has given concerning his Son; and he is a wilful opposer of the person, and honour, and interest of the Lord Christ, and as such shall be reckoned with when the Lord Christ comes again. Let us not think it strange that there are deceivers and opposers of the Lord Christ's name and dignity now, for there were such of old, even in the apostle's times.”
Every now and again I read or hear of skeptics asking the question, “Did Jesus ever declare that He was God?” I can point to several places where Jesus did make statements as to His Divinity that cannot be mistaken. We read Jesus' words to His detractors, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?” (John 8:56-57). We know that this statement, spoken by a man in His 30's, would have meant that He was claiming to be alive for at least 1,500 years when Abraham lived.
But then Jesus finished His thought, and made the statement in verse 58, that removed all doubt about what He was claiming: “Verily, verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM.” When He said this, Jesus took to Himself the very Name of God that was given to Moses from the burning bush. When Moses asked, “Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exodus 3:13-14).
The Sermon Bible says of this: “The text is one of those rare passages in which Jesus Christ appears to stand upon His own dignity, in which the Lowly, the Humble, the Unresisting Son of man asserts His high origin, claiming to be God, for it amounts to no less: God from everlasting. "Before Abraham was, I am."
I. Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ. He had a glimpse of that day of the birth of Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, as He had a glimpse also of the manner in which Jesus Christ should work out our redemption. He took his son Isaac and offered him up on Mount Moriah—that Isaac so exceedingly dear, of whom it was said, that "in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
He offered him up, his one hope of becoming the father of many nations. And that act of Abraham—that act of faith, was counted unto him for righteousness; and he is held up for ever as the father of the faithful. To him, as St. Paul writes, "The Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed."
II. Jesus Christ Himself lived before Abraham was born. Whenever God is spoken of as holding communion and as being visible to man, it is in the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, God, the Son, Jesus Christ. It is He who declares to us the Father. It is He who represents God to us, and is Himself God, even Jesus Christ. This was He who talked with and was called the friend of Abraham.
It was He who was the Giver of the Law to Moses, it is He by whose agency the worlds were made, God the Supreme Deity dwelleth in the light which no man can approach: but Jesus Christ who is the image of the Invisible God, hath manifested, made known, declared to us, what God is; how good, how gracious, how ready to forgive, and how rich in mercy to those who call upon Him. It follows, then, that we should honour and worship Him as God, we should draw near with all reverence, with all holiness, with bowed heads and bowed hearts, to present our supplication before Him.”
R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 3rd series, p. 62.
References: John 8:58.—G. T. Coster, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 88; C. Kingsley, All Saints’ Day, and Other Sermons, p. 116. John 8:59.—J. Keble, Sermons from Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday, p. 343. John 8:59.—A. P. Stanley, Three Hundred Outlines on the New Testament, p. 79; Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. vii., p. 57. John 9:1.—T. Birkett Dover, The Ministry of Mercy, p. 123. John 9:1.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. xii., p. 103; S. G. Matthews, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 266; J. Keble, Sermons on Various Occasions, p. 475.”
I would like to go back and zoom in on the scene we just saw. Isaac asked his father Abraham, “Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” (Genesis 22:7). I once read a very profound comment about Isaac's question. “That question, “Where is the lamb” is echoed throughout the entirety of the Old Testament. It is finally answered by John the Baptist: “ Notice Abraham's response in verse 8: “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.” And that is exactly what happened. The Creator God, came to this earth, took on flesh, and was sacrificed for us.
That sacrifice was also pictured in the conclusion of this story with Abraham and Isaac. Alexander McClaren says of it: “And that ram, caught in the thicket, thorn-crowned and substituted for the human victim, taught Abraham and his sons that God appointed and provided a lamb for an offering. It was a lesson won by faith. Nor need we hesitate to see some dim forecast of the great Substitute whom God provided, who bears the sins of the world.”
Not only was Jesus' sacrifice pictured in the imagery of the ram caught in the thicket, such that he tried without success to free himself from the sacrifice God ordained, but we read in Galatians 3:13: “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.” Matthew Henry provides a truly inspired insight that sheds light on this verse in a way that demonstrates why I lean so heavily on his words to explain the Scriptures.
Paul tells us that Jesus was “made a curse for us.” To explain this verse, Matthew Henry reaches back to, and applies the Book of Genesis. Regarding the the curse that was pronounced on Adam and Eve after they sinned, we read: “How admirably the satisfaction our Lord Jesus made by his death and sufferings answered to the sentence here passed upon our first parents:
(1.) Did travailing pains come in with sin? We read of the travail of Christ's soul in Isaiah 53:11;
(2.) Did subjection come in with sin? Christ was made under the law, (see Galatians 4:4);
(3.) Did the curse come in with sin? Christ was made a curse for us, died a cursed death;
(4.) Did thorns come in with sin? He was crowned with thorns for us.
(5.) Did sweat come in with sin? He for us did sweat as it were great drops of blood.
(6.) Did sorrow come in with sin? He was a man of sorrows, his soul was, in his agony, exceedingly sorrowful.
(7.) Did death come in with sin? He became obedient unto death.
Blessed be God for Jesus Christ!”
Equally important is not only that Jesus the Messiah claimed to be God, but also that God claimed to be the Messiah Who was prophesied to come. There is a prophecy in the Book of Malachi regarding John the Baptist as the Messenger of the Messiah, and then of the Messiah. But notice how it is phrased, and notice in particular, Who is speaking in the prophecy:
We read, “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 3:1).
Of this, Alexander MacClaren writes, “‘My messenger’ is to come, and to ‘prepare the way before Me.’ Isaiah had heard a voice calling, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,’ and Malachi quotes his words, and ascribes the same office to the ‘messenger.’ In the last verses of his prophecy he calls this messenger ‘Elijah the prophet.’ Here, then, we have a remarkable instance of a historical detail set forth in prophecy.
The coming of the Lord is to be immediately preceded by the appearance of a prophet, whose function is to effect a moral and religious reformation, which shall prepare a path for Him. This is no vague ideal, but definite announcement of a definite fact, to be realised in a historical personality. How came this half-anonymous Jew, four hundred years beforehand, to hit upon the fact that the next prophet in Israel would herald the immediate coming of the Lord? There ought to be but one answer possible.
Another point to note is the peculiar relation between Jehovah and Him who comes. Emphatically and broadly it is declared that Jehovah Himself ‘shall suddenly come to His temple’; and then the prophecy immediately passes on to speak of the coming of ‘the Messenger of the covenant,’ and dwells for a time exclusively on his work of purifying; and then again it glides, without conscious breach of continuity or mark of transition, into, ‘And I will come near to you in judgment.’
A mysterious relationship of oneness and yet distinctness is here shadowed, of which the solution is only found in the Christian truth that the Word, which was God, and was in the beginning with God, became flesh, and that in Him Jehovah in very deed tabernacled among men. The name of Jehovah was ‘in Him.’ He it is whose coming is here prophesied, and in His coming Jehovah comes to His temple.”
We next note the aspect of the coming which is prominent here. Not the kingly, nor the redemptive, but the judicial, is uppermost. With keen irony the Prophet contrasts the professed eagerness of the people for the appearance of Jehovah and their shrinking terror when He does come. He is ‘the Lord whom ye seek’; the Messenger of the covenant is He ‘whom ye delight in.’”
I would like to conclude our examination of those forecasts in which God tells us in the pages of the Old Testament that He, Himself, would be the prophesied Messiah to take the punishment for our sins. Given the power of what is being said, I am amazed that it is also a verse that is rarely quoted. In Zechariah 12, God begins speaking in verse 4. He is still speaking in verse 10 when He says, “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him,”
Jesus was God in the flesh, and had come to His Temple as He said He would. The Temple was destroyed 40
years after Jesus' crucifixion nullifying the claims of all other would-be impostor messiahs. I have a simple question: If Jesus was not the Personal fulfillment of the prophesies of the Messiah, and was not God in the flesh, when and how else could God have made the statement that the residents of Jerusalem “shall look upon Me Whom they have pierced”?
Albert Barnes writes, “And they shall look - with trustful hope and longing. Cyril: “When they had nailed the Divine Shrine to the Wood, they who had crucified Him, stood around, impiously mocking. But when He had laid down His life for us, “the centurion and they that were with him, watching Jesus, seeing the earthquake and those things which were done, feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God” (see Mattew 27:54).
As it ever is with sin, compunction did not come till the sin was over: till then, it was overlaid; else the sin could not be done. At the first conversion, the three thousand “were pricked ‘in the heart.’ “when told that He “whom they had taken and with wicked hands had crucified and slain, is Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:23, and 36). This awoke the first penitence of him who became Paul. “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?”
This has been the center of Christian devotion ever since, the security against passion, the impulse to self-denial, the parent of zeal for souls, the incentive to love; this has struck the rock, that it gushed forth in tears of penitence: this is the strength and vigor of hatred of sin, to look to Him whom our sins pierced, “who” Paul says, “loved me and gave Himself for me.” Osorius: “We all lifted Him up upon the Cross; we transfixed with the nails His hands and feet; we pierced His Side with the spear. For if man had not sinned, the Son of God would have endured no torment.”
These are some of the things that I see as being Foundational to Basic Christianity, things that we need to know to be edified in our own faiths, and things we need to know to be, as we are admonished to “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear (1 Peter 3:15).
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Basic Christianity, Part 7.”
This Discussion was originally presented “live” on September 23rd, 2020.
I have designed a website to serve as an Online Book Store for the things I have written and published on Amazon. These are in the form of both Kindle eBooks, and paperback books. Some of you may recall a Series I presented on "The Lord's Prayer" several years ago. My original notes for this and other Bible Studies have been greatly revised and expanded for these publications. For further details on the books that are available, and for ordering information, click the following:
https://arvkbook.wixsite.com/romansbooks
If you purchase and read any of my books, Thank you! I would also greatly appreciate a review on Amazon!