Trinity and Humanity

Part A:

Part B:

Full Message:

Bible Verse: Luke 2

Introduction:

Can you see from reading this section of the Nicene Creed what would be missing if as Christians we ONLY spoke about Jesus in terms of His birth (Christmas), His suffering, death and resurrection?

Excerpt about Jesus from the Nicence Creed

“We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit, He became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; He suffered death and was buried. On the third day He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom will have no end.”

What happens if we leave out His incarnate life for 33 years? What if after speaking about His Resurrection we stopped and never addressed His human Ascension and Bodily Return?

Theological Theme:

“Christ does not heal us as an ordinary doctor might, by standing over us, diagnosing our sickness, prescribing medicine for us to take and then going away, leaving us to get better as we follow His instructions. No, He becomes the patient. He assumes that very humanity which is in need of redemption, and by being anointed by the Spirit in our humanity, by a life of perfect obedience, by dying and rising again, for us, our humanity is healed in Him, in His person. We are not just healed through Christ, because of the work of Christ, but in and through Christ. Person and work must not be separated.” – James Torrance

Christ Connection:

Christ emptied himself so we may be filled

“The very Son of God, old­er than the ages, the invis­i­ble, the incom­pre­hen­si­ble, the incor­po­re­al, the begin­ning of begin­ning, the light of light, the foun­tain of life and immor­tal­i­ty, the image of the arche­type, the immov­able seal, the per­fect like­ness, the def­i­n­i­tion and word of the Father: he it is who comes to his own image and takes our nature for the good of our nature, and unites him­self to an intel­li­gent soul for the good of my soul, to puri­fy like by like.

He takes to him­self all that is human, except for sin. He was con­ceived by the Vir­gin Mary, who had been first pre­pared in soul and body by the Spir­it; his com­ing to birth had to be treat­ed with hon­or, vir­gin­i­ty had to receive new hon­or. He comes forth as God, in the human nature he has tak­en, one being, made of two con­trary ele­ments, flesh and spir­it. Spir­it gave divin­i­ty, flesh received it.

He who makes rich is made poor; he takes on the pover­ty of my flesh, that I may gain the rich­es of his divin­i­ty. He who is full is made emp­ty; he is emp­tied for a brief space of his glo­ry, that I may share in his full­ness. What is this wealth of good­ness? What is this mys­tery that sur­rounds me? I received the like­ness of God, but failed to keep it. He takes on my flesh, to bring sal­va­tion to the image, immor­tal­i­ty to the flesh. He enters into a sec­ond union with us, a union far more won­der­ful than the first.” – St. Gregory The Theologian

Missional Application:

Just as Jesus took on all the parts of our human nature and flesh through the history of a human life to bring us Salvation, as those in union with Jesus in the Spirit we participate with Him in all the parts of His human history and continued Lordship, pointing others to Him as their Salvation also!

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