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Christian Basics Course Session 3: A man suffers to forgive sins

Session 4: The Christ Suffers for sins

Recap and Intro

  1. One of the points of these studies is to make it easier to read Luke for yourself and get more out of it.  The Old Testament stuff gives us background and explanation of what Jesus means when he talks about himself.  Of course, you’ll only get the benefit of this if you read Luke’s gospel.  So let me again encourage you to be doing that.
  2. Now you might recall that in Session 3, we saw that we need a guilt offering so our sins can be forgiven.  It was promised that a man would be that guilt offering.
  3. Two weeks ago in Session 2, we saw a different kind of man promised.  This man was the Christ.  He would be the King, the man descended from David who would rule the world forever.
  4. So we have two people who look like they’ll do quite opposite things.
  5. Today, we’re going to see from the Old Testament that these two men in fact had to be one and the same man.  The one man has these two roles.  We’ll see that the Christ had to die for our sins.
  6. Before we look at this, does anyone have any questions from the homework?  Any questions from Luke 10-19?

Method

  1. We’re going to see that the predicted “Christ” and the predicted “Guilt-offering-Man” had to be the same person.  We’re going to see that they both had to be fully God as well as fully human.
  2. First, we’ll see that the Christ had to be God.

The Christ had to be God, since he will be worshipped forever.

  1. Let’s read a passage from Daniel 7, where we see the Christ had to be God.
  2. Daniel was living and writing around 600-550 BC.  [Write the name ‘Daniel’ at the right point on your timeline, over the page.  He is in exile, represented on the left hand side of the ‘box’.]

  1. This is what he wrote while he was in exile in Babylon (Daniel 7:13-14)

NIV Daniel 7:13 "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

  1. In the vision, Daniel sees ‘one like a son of man’.  That means he sees a creature that looks like a human.  This ‘one like a son of man’ has a kingdom that will not pass away.  He’s a king who has authority over all peoples. So this person is the Christ - the Christ is the only one who will have a kingdom over all peoples forever.
  2. We also learn that all people worship this Christ forever.  This means that God must be pleased to let the Christ be worshipped forever.  But there is only one God in the bible.  God will let no-one but himself be worshipped forever.  So the Christ in fact is God.

The Guilt-Offering-Man had to be God, since only God can pay for the guilt of the whole world.

  1. We’re now going to see that Isaiah’s Guilt-offering-Man also had to be fully God.
  2. Let’s look at Psalm 49:7-9

NIV Psalm 49:7 No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him-- 8 the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough-- 9 that he should live on forever and not see decay.

  1. The idea is that no payment by any person is enough to bring someone eternal life.
  2. Yet this is what the Guilt-Offering-Man is said to do.  ‘The punishment that brought us peace was upon him’ (Isaiah 53:5).  ‘The LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all’ (Isaiah 53:6).  ‘the LORD makes his life a guilt offering’ (Isaiah 53:10).  Somehow this Guilt-Offering-Man provides sufficient payment to bring peace with God for others.  Somehow his life is sufficient payment to deal with the iniquity (sin) of others.  How can this be true?
  3. The answer is that this man’s life must be different.  Since no (normal) man can pay for the life of another, this man’s life must be of greater value than any other human.  And since this man pays for the lives of many people, his life must be infinitely more valuable.
  4. But no one’s life is infinitely more valuable than normal men – except the life of a man who was also God.  So if Isaiah 53 is true, then the man spoken of must be fully God.  As well as being fully human (‘a man of sorrows’ Isaiah 53:3), the Guilt-Offering-Man also had to be fully God.
  5. This is why the doctrine of the Trinity is so important in Christianity.  The Trinity is the doctrine that one God exists in three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  In particular, we see here why Jesus, while a human, also had to be God – ‘God the Son’.  For if he were not fully God, his sacrifice would not be enough to pay for the sins of the whole world.  Jesus had to be fully God, as well as fully human [N.B. he had to be fully human, for it is only fair that a human pays for the sins of other humans.]

The Guilt-Offering-Man is the Christ

  1. Both the Guilt-Offering-Man and the Christ had to be fully God and fully man.  Thus they are the same person – the man of whom Isaiah 53 spoke had to be the Christ.  That’s the big point of this session.  Since the man of Isaiah 53 had to suffer and die for sins, the conclusion is that the Christ must do this also.  The Christ had to die for our sins, in the manner of Isaiah 53.
  2. But before we conclude, we will look at a couple of places in Luke’s gospel where Jesus claimed to be God.  Let’s see if what we’ve looked at helps us understand Luke better.

Jesus claimed to be God

  1. Let’s begin with Luke 5:20-25, where Luke implies that Jesus is God.

NIV Luke 5:20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven." 21 The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" 22 Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? 23 Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." He said to the paralyzed man, "I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." 25 Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God.

In this passage, Jesus forgives sins, and proves that he has authority to do so.  The Pharisees and teachers of the law were right to think that only God should do this.  After all, if I sin against you, you’ll be upset if someone else forgives me.  Only you can forgive me, since you were the one wronged.  That’s true unless the person who forgives me actually made you and owns you.  God and only God is the one [besides you] who can forgive me for sinning against you.  And so Jesus is here claiming to be God, when he claims that he can forgive all of a person’s sins.

Jesus claimed to be the ‘Son of Man’ of Daniel 7 – to be God and Christ

  1. Now Jesus calls himself the Son of Man a few times.  Let’s read Luke 22:67-71 to see an example.

NIV Luke 22:67 "If you are the Christ," they said, "tell us." Jesus answered, "If I tell you, you will not believe me, 68 and if I asked you, you would not answer. 69 But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God." 70 They all asked, "Are you then the Son of God?" He replied, "You are right in saying I am." 71 Then they said, "Why do we need any more testimony? We have heard it from his own lips."

  1. This is the last time that Jesus calls himself ‘the Son of Man’ before he dies.  He makes it clear that all along he has been referring to Daniel 7 whenever he called himself ‘Son of Man’.  Before this passage, we could not be sure.  ‘Son of Man’ could just have been a general term for humans – like ‘mankind’.  But now Jesus makes it clear.  For the first time, he speaks of himself as the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of God.  So now the allusion to Daniel 7 is clear, for in Daniel 7 the Son of Man is led into the presence of God.
  2.  Those who heard this knew Jesus was claiming to be the Christ and claiming to be God.  So they asked if that’s what he meant.  ‘Are you then the Son of the God?’ they asked.  And Jesus said Yes!  So Jesus applies Daniel 7 to himself – he claims to be God and he claims to be the Christ.

The Big Idea

  1. Let’s return to the big idea as we finish.  The Old Testament writers wrote (slightly vaguely) about people who would come sometime to rescue God’s people.  One is the Christ in Session 2, the king descended from David who would rule forever.  In Session 3, we looked at the Guilt-Offering-Man, the man who would die for our sins.  Today we’ve seen that they had to be the same man, since both had to be fully God.  What Jesus was trying to tell people was that HE was this man.  The Old Testament writers were talking about HIM.
  2. He was claiming that He was this King who would die for sin, this one who was God as a human.  It was predicted that the Christ had to die for our sins.  That’s what Jesus came to do!
  3. The homework for this week is to read Luke 20-23, and come with questions.

Christian Basics Course Session 5: The Christ rises from the dead