Lesson 4 — Jesus -- God With Us
After Michael S. Heiser, What Does God Want?
Pleasant Springs Church · Tuesday, June 23 at 6 pm
Key Texts: John 1:1-3, 14 - Luke 1:31-35 - Philippians 2:5-11 - Romans 5:6-11 - Colossians 1:15-20 - Hebrews 2:14-17 - 1 Corinthians 15:3-8
Lesson 3 ended with a single family chosen as the rescue mission for the world. Lesson 4 asks: who is the rescuer? The answer is breathtaking. The rescuer is the eternal Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, the Word through whom all things were made. He does not stay outside the story. He enters it. He becomes one of us. He dies one of our deaths. And He comes out the other side, alive forever, as the firstborn of a new humanity.
The Word Became Flesh
John 1 - eternity steps into time
John 1 opens with the most audacious sentence in any religious book. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John is rewriting Genesis 1 with one new claim: the Logos who spoke creation into being is a distinct Person, and is Himself God. By verse 14 that same Logos has put on human flesh and pitched His tabernacle (eskēnōsen) among us — the verb deliberately echoing the Tabernacle in Exodus, where God's glory dwelt at the center of His people's camp.
The incarnation is not God appearing to look human. It is God taking real human nature into Himself, without ceasing to be God. The early church wrestled with this for four centuries before settling the language at Chalcedon (A.D. 451): one Person in two natures, truly God and truly human, the natures distinct but never separated.
1Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος, καὶ ὁ Λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν Θεόν, καὶ Θεὸς ἦν ὁ Λόγος. 3πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν. 14καὶ ὁ Λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν.1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 14And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Born of a Virgin
Luke 1 - the new Adam comes through a new Eve's yes
Mary's fiat — “let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38) — is the human reversal of Eve's grasp. Where Eve reached out her hand, Mary opens hers in trust. The Holy Spirit overshadows her, and the child born is called holy — the Son of God. This is the language of the Tabernacle (Ex. 40:35) and of the divine council (Job 1:6) at once: God's glory and God's Son.
The virgin conception is not a fairy-tale flourish. It is a theological necessity. The new Adam cannot inherit the old Adam's broken line. He has to come from above, but be born from a woman, so that the family He rebuilds is really human. He has to be from us, and not only from us, at the same time.
31καὶ ἰδοὺ συλλήψῃ ἐν γαστρὶ καὶ τέξῃ υἱόν, καὶ καλέσεις τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ Ἰησοῦν. 35πνεῦμα ἅγιον ἐπελεύσεται ἐπὶ σὲ καὶ δύναμις ὑψίστου ἐπισκιάσει σοι· διὸ καὶ τὸ γεννώμενον ἅγιον κληθήσεται υἱὸς Θεοῦ.31“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 35The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy — the Son of God.”
He Emptied Himself
Philippians 2 - the divine descent
Paul cites what looks like an early Christian hymn in Philippians 2: the One who was “in the form of God” (en morphē Theou) did not grasp at equality with God as something to be hoarded, but emptied Himself (heauton ekēnōsen), taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. He humbled Himself to death — even death on a cross.
Read this against Genesis 3, where Adam tried to grasp at being like God. The Son of God does the opposite. He refuses to grasp. He lets go. He takes the lowest place in the family He came to rescue. And because of that descent, the Father exalts Him to the highest place, that every knee in heaven, on earth, and under the earth might bow.
6ὃς ἐν μορφῇ Θεοῦ ὑπάρχων οὐχ ἁρπαγμὸν ἡγήσατο τὸ εἶναι ἴσα Θεῷ, 7ἀλλ' ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσε μορφὴν δούλου λαβών, ἐν ὁμοιώματι ἀνθρώπων γενόμενος… 8ἐταπείνωσεν ἑαυτὸν γενόμενος ὑπήκοος μέχρι θανάτου, θανάτου δὲ σταυροῦ. 9διὸ καὶ ὁ Θεὸς αὐτὸν ὑπερύψωσεν…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. 9Therefore God has highly exalted him…
The Cross -- the Family Bought Back
Romans 5 and Hebrews 2 - what the death of Jesus accomplished
If lesson 2 named what went wrong, the cross is what makes it right. Paul summarizes the gospel in Romans 5 in some of the warmest words in Scripture: while we were still weak… while we were still sinners… while we were enemies… God shows his love for us in that Christ died for us. The cross is not God lashing out at Jesus. The cross is the Triune God absorbing in Himself the cost of bringing the family home.
Hebrews 2 names a second purpose. Jesus took flesh and blood so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death — that is, the devil. The cross is the place where the second rebellion (lesson 2) is judged: the principalities and powers are stripped, publicly disgraced, and led in Christ's triumphal procession (Col. 2:15).
6ἔτι γὰρ Χριστὸς ὄντων ἡμῶν ἀσθενῶν ἔτι κατὰ καιρὸν ὑπὲρ ἀσεβῶν ἀπέθανεν… 8συνίστησι δὲ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἀγάπην εἰς ἡμᾶς ὁ Θεὸς ὅτι ἔτι ἁμαρτωλῶν ὄντων ἡμῶν Χριστὸς ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἀπέθανεν.6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 8but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
14ἐπεὶ οὖν τὰ παιδία κεκοινώνηκε σαρκὸς καὶ αἵματος, καὶ αὐτὸς παραπλησίως μετέσχε τῶν αὐτῶν, ἵνα διὰ τοῦ θανάτου καταργήσῃ τὸν τὸ κράτος ἔχοντα τοῦ θανάτου, τουτέστι τὸν διάβολον.14Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil. 15and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
The Resurrection -- the Firstborn of a New Family
1 Corinthians 15 - the family's first morning
Paul calls the resurrection of Jesus the aparchē — the “firstfruits” (1 Cor. 15:20). In the Torah, the first sheaf of the barley harvest is brought to the priest as a pledge that the whole field is coming. Jesus' resurrection body is the first sheaf of the new humanity. The rest of the field — us — will follow.
This is why Paul lists the witnesses (1 Cor. 15:5–8). It is not mythology. It is history. Cephas, the Twelve, more than five hundred at once (most of whom are still alive, Paul says, as if to invite anyone to go ask), James, all the apostles, and last of all to Paul himself. The family has a Risen Head. Death is no longer the last word for anyone joined to Him.
3παρέδωκα γὰρ ὑμῖν ἐν πρώτοις, ὃ καὶ παρέλαβον, ὅτι Χριστὸς ἀπέθανεν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν κατὰ τὰς γραφάς, 4καὶ ὅτι ἐτάφη, καὶ ὅτι ἐγήγερται τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ κατὰ τὰς γραφάς, 6ἔπειτα ὤφθη ἐπάνω πεντακοσίοις ἀδελφοῖς ἐφάπαξ.3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures… 6Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive.
- Michael S. Heiser, What Does God Want? Blind Spot Press, 2018.
- Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation of the Word. c. A.D. 318.
- N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God. Fortress Press, 2003.
- Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ. Eerdmans, 2015.
- Septuagint Greek text: Rahlfs-Hanhart, Septuaginta. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft.
- English text: The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Crossway Bibles.
Pleasant Springs Church — Discipleship School
Next Lesson: Believing Loyalty · Tuesday, June 30 at 6 pm