The New City Catechism — Week 21
Question 1 — What sort of Redeemer is needed to bring us back to God.
Answer —One who is truly human and also truly God.
Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)6For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
The beauty of the Christian faith that was once delivered to the saints (Jude 3) all those years ago, is a truth that transcends time and space. I mends broken hearts and overcomes obstacles built by sinfulness and worldly desires. The Gospel is the good news delivered to the saints two millennia ago and told of a Redeemer who came to make right the wrong and save the sinner to suffer no more.
Week 21 of the NCC tackles a deep subject in Christian theology. On the surface, the question and answer are short, but in truth, they serve as a door to a garden filled with God’s truth and gospel beauty.
What sort of Redeemer is needed to bring us back to God? The Bible makes clear that it must be one who is fully human but also fully God. Jesus Christ, the Son of God is both fully man and fully God. If we were to go back and look at the early confessions of the early church, believers saw with clarity what the New Testament said with regards to the nature of the Son of God.
If we were to just take one of those confessions, the Nicene Creeds, we read,
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,
begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made; of the same essence as the Father. Through him all things were made.
The early church drew from the well that is the Scriptures of who the Son of God is and His nature. They determined just as the New Testament taught, he was fully God, but also fully human.
If we were to look at what the Bible says, we see that the New Testament writers were not confused on the nature of Jesus, as they wrote clearly on the divinity of Christ.
Hebrews 1:1–3 (ESV)1Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
As the Holy Spirit led and directed human authors of Scripture, their words were God’s words. And God as author directly, gave insight into his great gift of Redeemer to the world.
But also, the Bible speaks to the human nature of Jesus in great detail. The Gospel accounts give in-depth details into Jesus’ life as a human. During his ministry, Jesus ate and drank, he grew tired and slept. Jesus felt sadness as well as joy—he felt pain, bled and even died in his humanity. Thinking of Paul’s words to the Philippians, the Bible help us understand how this was possible. God emptied himself (the divine) into human form to become the God-man.
Philippians 2:4–8 (ESV)4Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
But the real question is why was it necessary for Jesus to be both human and God. If we were to look at all of Scripture and how God’s designed his creation and the way for atonement to take place, sacrifice is the conduit for which one can attain the forgiveness of sins. When we look to the Son of God, Jesus had to be both human and divine for God’s wrath to be appeased and God’s people to be saved.
If Jesus was only God when walking on the earth, it would have only been God. There would have been no temptation, because God cannot be tempted (James 1:3). If Jesus was only God when he lived here on the earth, he wouldn’t became hungry like the rest of humanity, he wouldn’t have never grown tired, and so forth. He would have been a Savior that was far removed and never been able to relate to those made in his own image. But in-fact, Jesus who is fully divine, was also fully human and as Philippians 2 tells us, he emptied himself and became like us in human flesh. And even more so, the Bible says,
Hebrews 4:15 (ESV)15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
What sort of Redeemer is needed to bring us back to God? We need one who knows the struggles and pains and hurts we all face. He must know the temptations we experience every day, but in order to be the Redeemer, he must face them and never fail. And that is exactly what the Bible says about Jesus, he was “tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
When we look inward, we are able to see the sin that lives inside us. We are able to see the pain we inflict, the damages we have caused and the dead-end road we travel. We need a Savior—we need a Redeemer. God knows this and that is why he sent his Son Jesus Christ to save us. He is one that came, understands our sufferings and struggles. But then, in a moment of swift victory, he takes them all, in his body and nails them to the cross and saves us from our sin. That is why we worship him. That is why we call him Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.