We confess the mystery and wonder
of God made flesh
and rejoice in our great salvation
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
With the Father and the Holy Spirit,
the Son created all things,
sustains all things,
and makes all things new.
Truly God,
He became truly man,
two natures in one person.
He was born of the Virgin Mary
and lived among us.
Crucified, dead, and buried,
He rose on the third day,
ascended to heaven,
and will come again
in glory and judgment.
For us,
He kept the Law,
atoned for sin,
and satisfied God’s wrath.
He took our filthy rags
and gave us
His righteous robe.
He is our Prophet, Priest, and King,
building His church,
interceding for us,
and reigning over all things.
Jesus Christ is Lord;
we praise His holy Name forever.
Amen.
The Word Made Flesh is the 137 word Ligonier Statement on Christology. It contains twenty-five articles concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ. Why is such a statement necessary in the 21st century when you consider the church creeds from previous centuries?
“Our post-Christian era is an era of confusion. It is also an era of the rise of Islam on the one hand and the rise of the “nones” on the other—the nones being those who are entirely religiously unaffiliated. It is an era of pluralism, of many voices that affirm many truths; some may pretend not to care about truth at all. This confusion can be found both outside and inside of the church,” explains Dr. Stephen J. Nichols.
The status of the church today parallels the church in J. Gresham Machen’s lifetime. It was a period of modernist liberalism; found both outside and inside the church. Truth was becoming subjective with many abandoning objective, propositional and biblical truth. This conflict was certainly joined regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ.
“Three points of difference between liberalism and Christianity have been noticed so far. The two religions are different with regard to the presuppositions of the Christian message, the view of God and the view of man; and they are also different with regard to their estimate of the Book in which the message is contained. It is not surprising, then, that they differ fundamentally with regard to the message itself. But before the message is considered, we must consider the Person upon whom the message is based. The Person is Jesus. And in their attitude toward Jesus, liberalism and Christianity are sharply opposed,” explained Machen.
The main point of contention between liberalism and Christianity was whether believers in Christ were to solely focus on the example of Christ or to have faith in Christ as justifier, redeemer and the reconciler of sinners to God the Father (Rom. 3:21-26).
“The truth is, the witness of the New Testament, with regard to Jesus as the object of faith, is an absolutely unitary witness,” stated Machen.
“The Jesus spoken of in the New Testament was no mere teacher of righteousness, no mere pioneer in a new type of religious life, but One who was regarded, and regarded Himself, as the Savior whom men could trust.”
“But by modern liberalism, He (Jesus) is regarded in a totally different way. Christians stand in a religious relation to Jesus; liberals do not stand in a religious relation to Jesus– what difference could be more profound than that? “The modern liberal preacher reverences Jesus; he has the name of Jesus forever on his lips; he speaks of Jesus as the supreme revelation of God; he enters, or tries to enter, into the religious life of Jesus. But he does not stand in a religious relation to Jesus. Jesus for him is an example for faith, not the object of faith. The modern liberal tries to have faith in God like the faith which he supposes Jesus had in God; but he does not have faith in Jesus,” continued Machen.
Machen contended that the liberal view of Jesus was not historical or biblical. Jesus was not just a man who had a Messiah complex, but rather was the incarnate God/Man who truly was Messiah.
Second, Machen also stated that the liberal view was faulty regarding problem of sin. The moral example of Jesus does not solve the problem of man’s sinful condition or how Jesus was able to provide sinners salvation from the penalty, power and eventual presence of sin.
“The benefits of that saving work of Christ, according to the primitive Church, were to be received by faith; even if the classic formulation of this conviction should prove to be due to Paul, the conviction itself clearly goes back to the very beginning. The primitive Christians felt themselves in need of salvation. How, they asked, should the load of sin be removed? Their answer is perfectly plain. They simply trusted Jesus to remove it. In other words they had “faith” in Him,” stated Machen.
“Here again we are brought face to face with the significant fact which was noticed at the beginning of this chapter; the early Christians regarded Jesus not merely as an example for faith but primarily as the object of faith. Christianity from the beginning was a means of getting rid of sin by trust in Jesus of Nazareth.”
We must correctly understand who Jesus Christ is. It is a matter of life and death.
Soli deo Gloria!
His Word Today 