The Person and Work of Jesus Christ

… because He is our salvation

John 14:6

To the disciples, Jesus was originally a great Man. Many of the disciples stopped following the great man, John the Baptist, to follow the great Man, Jesus Christ. Ever so slowly, this great Man began to raise suspicion that He was more than a great Man. On the Sea of Galilee, He is awakened during a storm. The well-seasoned fishermen are afraid for their lives. The Sleeper in the back of the boat becomes the Master of the sea, as He commands the wind to stop (Mark 4:39). Suddenly, the fear in the hearts of the disciples transfers from that which is outside of the boat to that which is within. “What kind of man is this that can command the wind to stop,” they ask.

From their initial ignorance of His deity to an imbalanced emphasis on it, they shifted to a neglect of His humanity. One of the early heresies was Gnosticism. This was the belief that God did not fully become a Man, but that He only appeared to be a Man. The biblical fact is that He fully became a Man. Luke tells us that He “grew and became strong in spirit.” (Lk. 1:80). Jesus did not come out of the womb of Mary with a vocabulary. He had no human skills that did not need to be developed. He was a Man in the fullest sense of that term. He got dirt beneath His fingernails.

The incarnation of Jesus is as mysterious as the Trinity. Most of us struggle with the balance of Scripture here. He God! He is not merely godly. He is God. He is the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form (Col. 2:9). He is Man. He is not similar to man He is actually Man! He knows our limitations. He understands our frustrations. He is only different in His holiness. He is sinless; we are not.

We must not focus so much on His Person that we neglect His work. He is our salvation. We do not worship the Bible, but rather the One to Whom the Bible points us. He laid down His life as a full payment for the sin of man. His payment is sufficient. Nothing can be added to the payment, which He has made. The gift of salvation, which He provides, is not probationary. It is not a partial payment.

Salvation is received by faith, not by works. It is a gift from God, not a paycheck for services rendered. It is an undeserved bestowment upon us by God. Salvation, however, follows repentance, and repentance involves a lifestyle change. Fruit grows on the tree of life. Where there is no fruit, there certainly is reason to be doubtful about conversion. Just as Jesus could not enter a room without making a difference, He cannot enter a life without changes taking place.

The Person and Work of Jesus Christ

...because he is our salvation

John 14:6

Eternal Security

The Complexity of Christ

The Simplicity of Christ

The Complexity of Salvation

The Simplicity of Salvation