The Necessity of Preaching on Hell

-
"But I warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes I tell you, fear Him!" (Luke 12:5) Hell seems to be rarely discussed in churches these days. It’s about as taboo as discussing gluttony at a Southern Baptist deacon meeting at Golden Corral. For whatever reason, most evangelical preachers are nervous to talk about hell. Maybe it’s because “God is love” is as deep as the theology is going to get. Maybe it’s because people don't believe an all-loving God would ever throw people into hell. After all, people are basically good and hell is only reserved for the really, really, bad people, like Hitler, or Stalin. Also, if preachers talk about how everyone who does not believe in Jesus will be burning in a lake of fire forever and ever, it just might cause people to be uncomfortable and leave the church; which will make giving go down and the church could no longer afford the Jumbotron screen for the stage.  But God is holy....
Post a Comment

Sinlessness of Jesus in His Humanity

-

You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. (1 John 3:5)

These past few weeks I have been writing about the necessary Christian doctrines concerning the identity of Christ. I have already listed the Scripture proofs demonstrating the deity of Jesus, and last week briefly discussed the humanity of Jesus. Both are true at the same time: Jesus is truly God and truly man, summarized in Chalcedonian Creed and labeled as the hypostatic union. 

This week I want to discuss the moral perfection, or sinlessness, of Jesus and explain why it is necessary that Jesus be God, human, and perfect. 

Perhaps Jesus’ moral perfection is easily demonstrated when He is tested by Satan in the wilderness (Matt 4:1–11; Mark 1:12–13; Luke 4:1–13). Jesus never falters even though He is in the worst possible environment (wilderness), with the worst possible conditions (extreme hunger), and is tested with the most enticing temptations (bread and all the world). The author of Hebrew comments further, “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15).

Jesus even challenged His unbelieving audience, “Which of you convicts Me of sin?” (John 8:46). 

The theologian, Louis Berkhof, explained Christ’s sinlessness even further: “This means not merely that Christ could avoid sinning (potuit non peccare), and did actually avoid it, but also that it was impossible for Him to sin (non potuit peccare) because of the essential bond between the human and the divine natures” (Systematic Theology, 318). This is oftentimes labeled as the impeccability of Jesus. 

Some object to the idea of impeccability by asking, “What was the point of Jesus being tested in the wilderness?” I believe Hebrews answers the question: “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation” (5:7–9). Jesus needed to experience temptations in order to become a more perfect Mediator. 

The necessity of Christ’s identity is due to His work on the cross for the redemption of sinful men. If Jesus were sinful, He would not be qualified to be the perfect sacrifice (2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 1:19; 2:22–25). If Jesus were not truly man, He would not be our vicar (Rom 5:6–21; 1 Cor 15:45). If Jesus were not truly God, His death on the cross would have been in vain. For even a perfect man cannot redeem another man (Ps 49:7–10).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Luke 7:24–28 | Jesus Explains John the Baptist

-
Image
Sermon on Luke 7:24–28 for the morning of Sept. 11, 2016.  Last week, we encountered an episode where the disciples of John the Baptist came and asked Jesus a very pointed question on his behalf. They asked him, “Are you the coming one, or do we look for another?” (Lk 7:19–20). This seemed to us to be a very odd question to be coming from John the Baptist. He faithfully preached of the coming of the kingdom of God. He faithfully called the nation of Israel to repentance (Lk 3:3–18). He birth was even announced to his father, Zacharias, by the angel Gabriel (Lk 1:13–17). John even witnessed the Holy Spirit coming down from heaven alighting on Jesus confirming that Jesus is the Messiah (Jn 1:32–34). However, when John the Baptist was in prison and began to doubt the ministry and identity of Jesus, Jesus did call the mind any of these events. He did remind him of how he witnessed the Holy Spirit descending as a dove upon Jesus. Jesus instead points to the fact that the words ...
Read more

Bibliology: General Revelation

-
Introduction  A rough definition of revelation is content that explains something that was unknown. The word is usually used within the context of theology signifying something being made known about God’s character, works, or decrees. General Revelation is the first of two major categories of revelation. The second category of revelation is Divine Revelation. General Revelation is defined as “That disclosure to all persons at all times and places by which one comes to know that God is, and what He is like. General revelation mediates the conviction that God exists and that He is self-sufficient, transcendent, imminent, eternal, powerful, wise, good, and righteous. General, or natural, revelation maybe divided into two categories: (1) internal, the innate sense of beauty and consciousness, and (2) external, nature and providential history.” 1 These two forms of General Revelation can be used to form a branch of theology known as Natural Theology. Natural Theology is a set of ...
Read more