TWO IN ONE CHRIST

Philippians 2: 1-11

The Reformer's Fire
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Exposition by Max A Forsythe

Question 21:

Q: Who is the Redeemer of God's elect?
A: The only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man, in two distinct natures, and one person, Forever.

We can well remember the election of 92 when, however briefly, we were promised that one vote would gain us two persons in the White House. We could well digress in wondering upon the exact relationship in power between the two persons so promised and set before us for reconsideration this fall. But many of the voters are not fooled as to whom the junior partner in that relationship really is? And as the hounds of the media bark and bray for a renewal of their governing contract, we may well wonder at the secular salvation promised through their self styled vision of a global "village".

I am reminded of a school levy campaign some years ago. The real local schools which were village landmarks of many decades were to be replaced by a gigantic educational complex to serve the largest rural district in the State of Ohio. The letters to the editor ran on to half a page some days. The one that stuck in my mind was a gushy elaboration, which attempted to redefine the concept of village in the context of a larger area and purpose. In much the same way, the labor unions in the fifties and sixties expanded their "local" organizations so that a geographic fourth of the state was involved in the concept of that word.

Not only has the village concept been expanded! In a like manner, the theological truths of the historic Christian faith were also stretched considerably to widen the appeal of the main line religious organizations in the course of the last few decades. I remember in college and seminary that all to regular appeal to lift the concept of Jesus Christ out of tradition and to set it in contemporary reality where people could find the social structure of the church more to their liking. The search for a "real Christ", which had been the focus of many Seminary studies for most of the century, was popularized and in the name of toleration the creedal foundation of most denominations was expanded to make almost any understanding of who Jesus Christ was, acceptable.

In the early seventies, I was briefly part of a multi-staff ministry and the senior pastor argued with me to include a young lady as a member, one who could only say that "Jesus Christ was an interesting person." As part of his doctorate, that pastor was trying to persuade any who would listen that the Creed of Chalcedon was imposed wrongly upon Christ's Church by a butt headed minority whose limited intelligence did not allow them to comprehend that anyone and everyone should be welcome to define Christ in whatever manner they demanded. And so, we arrived at a Burger King theology concerning Jesus Christ! You could have Him your way. As a result, within that liberal denomination, ministers were welcomed who doubted the Virgin birth and the deity of Christ Himself. Those of us who knew better were threatened into silence or denied ordination all together.

Of course, we cannot blame the liberal church exclusively, the evangelical church is not much better. In one evangelical congregation I was specifically asked to never preach on any doctrines because any thoughts in that regard were divisive. At another congregation, an elder who should have known better, took me to task for all this talk about sin and a recurrent weekly emphasis upon the necessary sufficiency of Christ. "All we need", he said, "is for you to tell us what to do in order to get into heaven." He objected to all the regular "god-talk" as he styled it. He wanted to feel good when he got out of worship, after all he had given his heart to the cause many years before and only needed weekly reminders about maintaining a cutting edge on personal holiness.

How terribly sad, that the state of any church should fall so low as to believe that our personal devotion, our personal accomplishments mattered for so much and the blood of Christ for so little? Like the rest of the elders in this congregation, I am well aware of Paul's understanding that we are the chief sinners because of our greater knowledge of the details of scripture. The more we search diligently, the more we learn and understand, the more amazing is the grace of our Sovereign Lord and God. Some years ago, I turned my attention to the study of the commandment against stealing, thinking that I might make a sermon or two out of the topic. The more I studied and understood the implications, the more I realized that six months of steady preaching would not even begin to turn over all the issues that needed to be considered. I quickly came to the conclusion that try as hard as I had for thirty-some years, I was and almost certainly always would be a thief. What chance had I to fulfill the dictates of that commandment?

Like the obscure biblical character, Job understood, I had come to the obvious necessary conclusion that "I know that my Redeemer lives". Of course, living after the time foresaw by Job, we better know as Paul stresses in his one of his letters(1 Timothy 2:5) "There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men" Our Westminster group of confessions elaborates on this necessity even as they affirm the earlier creedal statements of Christ's Church. Listen to the fuller text of the Confession (8:2) itself:

"The Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance, and equal with the Father, did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon him man's nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof; yet without sin: being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, of her substance. So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man."
This is the proper cutting edge for the Christian Church, there you have the proper focus, even as we promise week by week. There was a man who really was God Himself. He came down to earth to live among us. In the course of time, the real full blooded humans took the God-man and crucified Him. There on the cross He took upon Himself the burden of our sin and died the death that we so richly deserved. Can we go even a week without needing to be reminded of that historic event?

But there is something more. This Jesus, whom we worship was raised up from the dead, He ascended into heaven where He continues to intercede for us before the judgment throne of God. Ever and forever as we daily deal with the problem of sin, we need this Redeemer holding us up in prayer and by the power of His Holy Spirit, so that in spite of ourselves, we become better people, worthy of the high calling of telling the World about Jesus Christ. And what shall we tell them? Shall we tell them that by our intelligence and hard work we have figured out the mysteries of the ages? Shall we tell them that if we just ignore the fact of sin we will never feel guilty? Shall we tell them that by doing good deeds we can pay the debt to cover our own sin?

Hardly, there are enough churches doing that already. Instead, let us tell the whole world that our Redeemer lives and that He is God-with-us, Jesus Christ, who sits at the right hand of the Father mediating through His blood and through His power so that we might know Him and make Him known.

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