1-18 The Victory Of Jesus
The previous Study has
demonstrated how the Lord Jesus had our human nature and was tempted to
sin just like us. The difference between him and us is that he
completely overcame sin; whilst having our nature, he always exhibited a perfect character. The
wonder of this should endlessly inspire us as we increasingly
appreciate it. There is repeated New Testament emphasis upon Christ's
perfect character:-
- He was "in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15).
- He "knew no sin". "In Him there is no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 John 3:5).
- "Who committed no sin, nor was guile found in His mouth" (1 Peter 2:22).
- "Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners" (Heb. 7:26).
The
Gospel records demonstrate how his fellow men recognized the perfection
oozing from his character, shown in his words and actions. Pilate's
wife recognized that he was a "just man" (Matt. 27:19), undeserving of
punishment; the Roman soldier who watched Christ's demeanour whilst
hanging on the cross had to comment, "Certainly this was a righteous
man" (Luke 23:47). Earlier in his life, Jesus challenged the Jews with
the question: "Which of you convicts Me of sin?" (John 8:46). To this
there was no reply.
As a result of His victorious perfection in every way, Jesus of Nazareth was raised above
the Angels (Heb. 1:3-5REB). He was given an exalted name (Phil. 2:9),
which included all the Angelic titles. “His name will be
called Wonderful [cp. Jud. 13:18], Counsellor [2 Kings 22:20]” (Is.
9:6). Evidently this high position was not possessed by Jesus before
His birth and death; the idea of Him being exalted to this position rules this out.
Due
to his perfect character, Jesus was the manifestation of God in flesh
(1Tim. 3:16); He acted and spoke as God would have done had He been a
man. He was therefore the perfect reflection of God - "the image
of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15). Because of this, there is no need
for mortal men to physically see God. As Jesus explained, "He who has
seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us (physically)
the Father?’" (John 14:9). The repeated Biblical emphasis is that God
the Father was manifest in Jesus Christ His Son (2 Cor. 5:19; Jn.
14:10; Acts 2:22). The doctrine of the trinity teaches that the Son was
manifest or ‘incarnate’ in Jesus; but the Bible teaches that God was
manifest [‘incarnate’ if we must use the term] in Jesus. The word became flesh (Jn. 1:14), rather than the word entering into a fleshly form.
Living
in a sinful world, beset by sin and failure in our own lives, it is
hard for us to appreciate the totality and immensity of Christ's
spiritual supremacy; that a man of our nature should fully reveal the
righteousness of God in his character. Believing this requires a more
real faith than just accepting the theological idea that Christ was God
Himself; it is understandable that the false doctrine of the trinity is
so popular.
Christ
willingly gave his perfect life as a gift to us; he showed his love for
us by dying "for our sins" (1 Cor. 15:3), knowing that through his
death he would gain us eventual salvation from sin and death (Eph.
5:2,25; Rev. 1:5; Gal. 2:20). Because Jesus was perfect in character
he was able to overcome the result of sin by being the first person to
rise from the dead and be given immortal life. All those who identify
themselves with Christ through baptism and a Christ-like way of life
therefore have hope of a similar resurrection and reward.
In
this lies the glorious significance of Christ's resurrection. It is the
"assurance" that we will be resurrected and judged (Acts 17:31), and if
we have been truly like him, share his reward of immortal life, "knowing (confidently)
that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus"
(2 Cor. 4:14; 1 Cor. 6:14; Rom. 6:3-5). As sinners, we deserve eternal
death (Rom. 6:23). Yet, on account of Christ's perfect life, obedient
death and his resurrection, God is able to offer us the gift of eternal life, completely in accord with all His principles.
To displace the effects of our sins,
God "credits righteousness" (Rom. 4:6NIV) to us through our
faith in His promises of salvation. We know that sin brings death, therefore
if we truly believe that God will save us from it, we must believe that
He will count us as if we are righteous, although we are not. Christ was
perfect; by being truly in Christ, God can count us as if we
are perfect, although personally we are not. God made Christ "who
had no sin, to be a sin offering for us, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God " (2 Cor. 5:21), i.e. being in
Christ through baptism and a Christ-like life. Thus for those "in
Christ Jesus", he is "became for us ... righteousness and sanctification
and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30,31); the following verse therefore encourages
us to praise Christ for the great things he has achieved: "In the
Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by
faith" (Rom. 1:17 NIV).
All
this was made possible through Christ's resurrection. He was the
"firstfruits" of a whole harvest of human beings who will be made
immortal through his achievement (1 Cor. 15:20), "the firstborn" of a
new spiritual family who will be given God's nature (Col.1:18,19 cp.
Eph. 3:15). Christ's resurrection therefore made it possible for God to
count believers in Christ as if they are righteous, seeing that they
are covered by his righteousness. Christ "was delivered over to death
for our sins and was raised to life for our justification" (Rom. 4:25
NIV), a word meaning 'to be righteous'.
It
takes a conscious, meditated faith in these things to really be
convinced that we can be counted by God as if we are perfect. Christ
can present us at the judgment seat "faultless before the
presence of His glory", "holy, and blameless, and irreproachable in His
sight" (Jude v. 24; Col. 1:22 cp. Eph. 5:27). Given our constant
spiritual failures, it takes a firm faith to really believe this. Just
putting our hand up at a 'crusade' or making an academic assent to a
set of doctrines is not related to this kind of faith. It is a proper
understanding of Christ's resurrection which should motivate our
faith: "God... raised Him from the dead ... so that your faith and hope (of a similar resurrection) are in God" (1 Pet. 1:21).
It
is only by proper baptism into Christ that we can be "in Christ" and
therefore be covered by his righteousness. By baptism we associate
ourselves with his death and resurrection (Rom. 6:3-5), which are the
means of our deliverance from our sins, through being 'justified', or
counted righteous (Rom. 4:25).
The
marvellous things which we have considered in this section are quite
out of our grasp unless we have been baptized. At baptism we associate
ourselves with the blood of Christ shed on the cross; believers wash
"their robes and (make) them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Rev.
7:14). Figuratively, they are then clothed in white robes, representing
the righteousness of Christ which has been counted ('credited') to them
(Rev. 19:8). It is possible to make these white clothes dirty as a
result of our sin (Jude v. 23); when we do this after baptism, we must
again use the blood of Christ to wash them clean through asking God for
forgiveness through Christ.
It
follows that after baptism we still need to strive to remain in the
blessed position which we then entered. There is a need for regular,
daily self-examination, with constant prayer and seeking of
forgiveness. By doing this we will always be humbly confident that, due
to our covering with Christ's righteousness, we really will be in the
Kingdom of God. We must seek to be found abiding in Christ at
the day of our death or at Christ's return, "not having (our) own
righteousness ...but that which is through faith in Christ, the
righteousness which is from God by faith" (Phil. 3:9).
The repeated emphasis on faith
resulting in imputed righteousness, shows that in no way can we earn
salvation by our works; salvation is by grace: "For by grace you have
been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of
God, not of works" (Eph. 2:8,9). As justification and righteousness are
'gifts' (Rom. 5:17), so, too, is salvation. Our motivation in doing any
works of Christian service should therefore be that of gratitude for
what God has done for us - counting us as righteous through Christ, and
thereby giving us the way to salvation. It is fatal to reason that if
we do works we will then be saved. We will simply not succeed in
gaining salvation if we think like this; it is a gift which
we cannot earn, only lovingly respond to in deep gratitude, which will
be reflected in our works. Real faith produces works as an inevitable
by-product (James 2:17).
