The God-Man: Philippians Series #7
Millions of people are asking the question: “Who is Jesus Christ?” An untold number of people are in search of Jesus.” A lot of them do not find Him because they are looking in the wrong place. Some time ago, Bryant Gumbel interviewed Larry King on national television; and, at the close of the interview, he asked Larry King a question—a very pertinent question. He said, “Larry, if you could meet God and ask Him one question, what would it be?” Larry King replied, “I would ask Him if He has a Son.” Great question!
When you see documentaries on television, they are couched like, “Jesus—who was He?” Well, that’s the wrong question. They ought to be asking, “Jesus—who is He?” The world doesn’t understand the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, the world will never answer the sin question until they answer the Son question: Who is Jesus?
In Philippians 2:5-11, we read:
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5–11).
It is estimated that of all the people who have ever lived in recorded history, about 100 billion, have lived on Planet Earth. Out of those billions, only a handful have risen to such prominence that they could have affected human history. However, there is one name that stands out above all of the others, and that is Jesus Christ. Jesus is genuinely unique. You can say this about Jesus: No other person has ever attracted such a combination of attention, devotion, criticism, adoration, and opposition as Jesus Christ. He is the focal point of all theological discussions. Theologians, philosophers, and historians have studied this one solitary life—the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth lived about 2,000 years ago, in the flesh, in a small country called Israel. Yet, His birthday divides the centuries into B.C. and A.D.— “Before Christ” and “Anno Domini,” or, “the year of our Lord.”
Jesus never wrote a book, so far as we know; and yet, more books have been written about Him than any person who has ever lived. He never painted a picture, or did any sculpturing, or wrote a poem, so far as we know; and yet, Jesus of Nazareth has been the inspiration for artists, and poems, and books, and paintings, and music that fill the world. Jesus Christ never raised an army; and yet, millions have died for Him and for His cause. He only traveled just a few miles from His birthplace in all of His ministry. However, His ministry reaches around the world—it is worldwide. He never spoke to more than a few thousand people at one time, but for 24 hours—every day that the clock goes around—any moment of that 24 hours, at that moment, there are millions of people studying what He said. You can look at your watch at any time, there will be millions of people studying His Word.
His ministry lasted only three brief years; and yet, His message is going around the world by radio, television and internet. He had no formal education; and yet, His life has inspired the founding of more colleges, seminaries, and universities than any other. To explain Jesus Christ is impossible; to ignore Him is disastrous; to refuse Him is fatal. My speech is too limited to describe Him; my human mind is too finite to comprehend Him; and my heart is too small to contain all the love that the Lord Jesus has for me and the world.
I. Jesus is the Supernatural Son of God
Jesus is the supernatural Son of God. In Philippians 2:6-7—it speaks of Jesus, “who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” In other words, He is pre-existing in the form of God—pure Spirit—“but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” The Infinite became an infant. What we’re seeing here is the virgin birth—a fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son.”
Do you find it hard to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin? Well, you’re not the first one. The first person to doubt how this could be was Mary herself. Mary said, “How can this be?” (Luke 1:34). And, the angel answered Mary, “For with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37).
Now, let me tell you something: If you have difficulty with the virgin birth, your real problem is, your God is too small. “For with God nothing is impossible.” If you will admit the fact of God—if God made the first man, the first woman, out of nothing—don’t you think God could bring a baby into this world through a virgin?
There are character problems when one does not believe in the virgin birth.
If people do not believe in the virgin birth, they have many character problems. They have a problem with the character of the Word of God. They have a problem with the character of the Word of God, for the Word of God clearly teaches it.
They also have a problem with the character of Mary, because if Jesus was not born of a virgin, she was unmarried. Therefore, she was a harlot.
Next, they have a problem with the character of Jesus. If Jesus was not born of a virgin, He was born out of wedlock, and He was a son of Adam—and “in Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Therefore, He was not the sinless, stainless Son of God.
They have a problem with their own character. If we do not believe in the virgin birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we have a king-size character problem. Without the virgin birth, we have no hope of salvation.
I can imagine the Lord Jesus Christ at the age of 12, in the temple; and the teachers, the wise men, and the sages are questioning Him. They say, “How old are You, Son?” He might have smiled and said, “Well, on My mother’s side, I’m 12 years old; on My Father’s side, I’m older than My mother and as old as My Father.” He was the supernatural Son of God, “who…thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant” (Philippians 2:6–7).
II. Jesus Is The Sinless Son of God
We read, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient” (Philippians 2:8). He was the obedient Son of God. He said of Himself, concerning His Father, “I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). Not one time did Jesus ever transgress the Father’s will. Jesus said, “I do always those things that please him.” God the Father said of Him, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17; Matthew 17:5; 2 Peter 1:17).
They were criticizing and critiquing Jesus Christ, and He said to them, “Which one of you can convict Me of sin?” (John 8:46). He was the sinless Son of God. Satan unleashed all of the artillery of Hell against the Lord Jesus Christ, but Satan never once got Jesus to sin. Satan has no trophies that he can hang on his wall, where Jesus Christ ever sinned. Jesus said, “Satan comes”—the prince of this world comes—“but he finds nothing in Me” (John 14:30). There was no temptation that Satan could offer that Jesus would take because He is the sinless Son of God.
III. Jesus Is The Sovereign Son of God
He is God in the flesh. We read, “who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Philippians 2:6). It is very important you understand this.
The Muslims, the Jews, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, do not believe that Jesus is not only the Son of God, but He is God the Son. You may say, “By whose authority?” By God’s authority, He is God the Son. In the Book of Hebrews, Jehovah is speaking: “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever” (Hebrews 1:8). What does God call His Son? God. “Unto the Son he”—Jehovah—“saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever” (Hebrews 1:8).
The Pharisees, the Jewish rulers, were bantering with the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus had said, “Abraham saw My day and was glad” (John 8:56). They said, “Wait a minute—Abraham? He’s been dead for centuries. You’re not 50 years old. How can you say, ‘Abraham saw My day?’” They had already been boasting that Abraham was their father. “We have Abraham for our father.
They were saying, “We know about Your birth. We know all of that hocus-pocus about a virgin birth. We be not born of sin.” And then, Jesus said something to them that rocked them back to their heels. They said, “How can You say that You saw Abraham, or Abraham saw Your day? You’re not 50 years old.” And, Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).
The most holy name that the Jews had for Jehovah is the name “I AM.” When Moses was ready to lead the children of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land, he said to God the Father, “I need some credentials. When I go to Pharaoh and to these others, I need to say under whose authority I’m operating. I need to tell them who sent me.” And, Jehovah God said to Moses, “Moses, you tell them ‘I AM’ sent you.” Now, notice “I AM”—not “I was,” not “I will be”—just “I AM.” “There never was a time when I was not. I will always be. I am the great ‘I AM’”—a holy, sacred name for the self-existing Almighty God.
Next, they say to Him, “How can You say that Abraham saw Your day?” And, He said to them, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). At that moment, they took up stones to stone Him, because to them that was blasphemy, because He clearly and plainly was making Himself co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father. “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Philippians 2:6).
Jesus was never created. He is God—very God. He is the great “I AM.” You say, “James, what makes the difference?” If you take away the deity of Jesus Christ, the whole house of Christianity collapses like a house of cards.
Jesus is the supernatural Son of God, born of a virgin. Being the supernatural Son of God, He is the sinless Son of God. And, being the supernatural, sinless Son of God, He is the sovereign Son of God. He is God in human flesh. No wonder they wanted to stone Him.
This world is on the horns of a trilemma. Jesus Christ is one of three things: either He is lunatic, liar or Lord. We have to choose: deceived, deceiver, or Deity. We have no other choice. Either He was what He says He was; or else He knew He was not, and was lying; or else, He didn’t know, and was a fool. Which was He? “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).
You may say, “That’s a mystery to me.” It may be a mystery to you, but it is a fact. The Bible says, “Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16).
IV. Jesus Is The Sacrificial Son of God
Why God in the flesh? So that He could die for our sins—that’s what it’s all about. We read, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8).
Why the death of the cross? “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). You see, the cross is not incidental; it is not accidental. The Bible teaches that Christ was slain before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). That is, in the heart and mind of God, before God created anything, before He swung this planet into space, before He scooped out the oceans, and heaped up the mountains, and flung out the moon, stars, and sun; there was the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Jesus was the sacrificial Son of God. Why? Because He was the sinless Son of God. Had He not been sinless, He could have died for no one’s sin but His own. He would have deserved the death on the cross. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). But, being the sinless Son of God, He could be my substitute and your substitute.
Now, I want to remind you again, this is God in human flesh. He “took upon him the form of a servant.” (Philippians 2:7) Therefore, the blood that coursed through His veins was rich, red, and royal; it is the blood of God. You might think, “Now, James, God is Spirit, and a Spirit doesn’t have blood.” That’s the reason for the Incarnation, for the Bible says, in Hebrews 9:22: “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” God cannot forgive sin until the wages of sin are paid, and “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). The blood that was shed had to be innocent blood; it could not have been blood that was inherited from Adam, for “in Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Jesus was not a son of Adam; He was the Son of God and the Son of man at the same time.
However, the blood that was in Mary’s body was not the blood that was in Jesus’ body. The blood that flows through the mother’s body is not the blood that flows through the baby’s body. Don’t get the idea that the mother and the baby are interchanging blood somehow. No, the mother may have one blood type, and the baby, another blood type.
Who determines the blood type? Where does the bloodline come from? It comes from the father. That’s the reason that, sometimes, in a paternity suit, a man may be proven not to have sired a baby by giving a blood test. It’s the father that determines the blood type.
What is the point?” The point is that, when Jesus hung His head, and bled, and died, the blood that was shed was sovereign blood; and, therefore, it was fully sacrificial blood. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.
When Paul was talking to the pastors of the church at Ephesus, he told them something very interesting. He said, “Take heed…unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood,” (Acts 20:28) You see, Jesus, the supernatural Son of God, is the sinless Son of God, who is the sovereign Son of God, who is the sacrificial Son of God.
V. Jesus Is The Striving Son of God
We read, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9–11).
Every knee will bow. Satan will bow on his thorny knees and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The rock star Madonna will bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Joe Biden will bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Paul XI will bow and declare Jesus is the Son of God. Those who nailed Him to the cross will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord. Pontus Pilate will confess that Jesus is Lord. King Herod, who murdered the babies, will confess that Jesus is Lord.
You have a date with Deity. You’re going to meet Jesus Christ. He is inescapable, unavoidable, inevitable. People may not walk down an aisle and give their hearts to Jesus. Yet, they may roll them down an aisle sometime, at their funeral. If they don’t know Jesus Christ, their soul will be in Hell before the undertaker hears they are dead. On Judgement Day they will bow before Jesus Christ and confess that He’s Lord. He is the coming Son of God—He is the soon-coming Son of God. I don’t know when He’s coming.
He stood on the Mount of Olives, after His resurrection. I’ve been to the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and walked around on that mountain and wondered, “Am I standing right where Jesus stood before He ascended?” The Bible says, again, that His feet are going to touch upon the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4). Those nail-pierced feet are going to touch down upon that Mount of Olives.
In Acts 1:11, after Jesus had been taken up, the angels were there. These angels saw these people with their jaws unhinged, their eyes upward looking to Jesus going up and being received into a cloud of Glory. One angel said, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go.”
Think about the Lord’s feet. Think about those little dimpled feet that lay in the straw— those little baby feet, those chubby feet, that bear the scars. Think of those bare-footed feet that walked in the shavings in Joseph’s carpenter shop. Think of those sandaled feet that walked the dusty shores and lanes of Galilee. Think of those nail-pierced feet, as they nailed Him to the cross. Think of those miracle feet that walked on water. Those feet are going to stand upon that Mount of Olives when Jesus comes again!
Jesus is coming back—actually, literally, visibly, bodily back to this earth. There were people who missed His first coming, because they did not believe the prophecies and the Scriptures. The prophecies that were fulfilled, literally, in His first coming will be fulfilled, literally, in His Second Coming. “And every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” One day, this whole world will bow at his feet and declare, “Jesus, You’re Lord.”
VI. Jesus Is The Soon-Coming Son of God
We read, “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9–11).
Every knee will bow. Satan will bow on his thorny knees and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The rock star Madonna will bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Joe Biden will bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Paul XI will bow and declare Jesus is the Son of God. Those who nailed Him to the cross will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord. Pontus Pilate will confess that Jesus is Lord. King Herod, who murdered the babies, will confess that Jesus is Lord.
You have a date with Deity. You’re going to meet Jesus Christ. He is inescapable, unavoidable, inevitable. People may not walk down an aisle and give their hearts to Jesus. Yet, they may roll them down an aisle sometime, at their funeral. If they don’t know Jesus Christ, their soul will be in Hell before the undertaker hears they are dead. On Judgement Day they will bow before Jesus Christ and confess that He’s Lord. He is the coming Son of God—He is the soon-coming Son of God. I don’t know when He’s coming.
He stood on the Mount of Olives, after His resurrection. I’ve been to the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and walked around on that mountain and wondered, “Am I standing right where Jesus stood before He ascended?” The Bible says, again, that His feet are going to touch upon the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4). Those nail-pierced feet are going to touch down upon that Mount of Olives.
In Acts 1:11, after Jesus had been taken up, the angels were there. These angels saw these people with their jaws unhinged, their eyes upward looking to Jesus going up and being received into a cloud of Glory. One angel said, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go.”
Think about the Lord’s feet. Think about those little dimpled feet that lay in the straw— those little baby feet, those chubby feet, that bear the scars. Think of those bare-footed feet that walked in the shavings in Joseph’s carpenter shop. Think of those sandaled feet that walked the dusty shores and lanes of Galilee. Think of those nail-pierced feet, as they nailed Him to the cross. Think of those miracle feet that walked on water. Those feet are going to stand upon that Mount of Olives when Jesus comes again!
Jesus is coming back—actually, literally, visibly, bodily back to this earth. There were people who missed His first coming, because they did not believe the prophecies and the Scriptures. The prophecies that were fulfilled, literally, in His first coming will be fulfilled, literally, in His Second Coming. “And every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” One day, this whole world will bow at his feet and declare, “Jesus, You’re Lord.”
VII. Jesus Is The Saving Son of God
We read, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8).
Why Christmas? Because of Calvary. Christmas is to make Calvary possible. Luke 19:10: “For the Son of man…”—that is, God in human flesh—“the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Jesus is the only way to be saved. He’s the saving Son of God. Acts 4:12 says, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
The supernatural Son of God; the sinless Son of God—God in human flesh; the sovereign Son of God—God, who hung naked upon a cross; the sacrificial Son of God—God, who walked out of that grave; the striving Son of God—God, who is coming again in human flesh; the soon-coming Son of God, became the saving Son of God to this man on death row.
“Well,” you say, “it must be awful to be on death row, knowing you’re going to die.” Well, friend, you’re there. Don’t you realize that? Do you think just the people on death row are people who are going to die? You’re on death row. You say, “Well, he’s done something terrible.” We’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). It’s not the fact of sin; it’s the amount of sin. Don’t we have a wonderful Savior?
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
Well, Humpty Dumpty never met Jesus. He’s the One who can put you together again. You see, there’s no sin so great that He cannot forgive and cleanse. The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses from all sin.
