Salvation Army Doctrine #4

Hi, this is Bernie Dake. Welcome to the Salvation Army's Words of Life. Welcome to Words of Life. I'm Cheryl Gillum.

And I'm Bernie Dake. Our current series, we believe, is an 11-week series studying the 11 doctrines of the Salvation Army. This week, as we've discussed, perfectly builds on last week's doctrine, and we believe that Jesus Christ is both divine and human. Now, this is a hard thing to do because when we're talking about God, we're talking about the creator of the universe, we don't often think of him as coming to earth in the form of man, or in this case, really, a baby. And I love the gospel according to Max LeCato, and I'm using finger quotes or air quotes when I say that. Max LeCato is a great American preacher, teacher, writer, and based somewhere in Texas. And he... My dad loved reading Max LeCato books.

He would share them with me once I was in college. And I love the way that he talks about Jesus coming to earth as a baby. I mean, you're talking about the creator of the universe in the womb of a woman, of a peasant woman, a Jewish woman. His father was a carpenter.

I mean, these are normal people like you and I. And this is how God chose to send his son to earth so that he could understand all that is... That we would go through as humans. But here's a quote, and I wanna thank our producer, Chris, for sharing this with me because it's something that I read, but I wanna share it with you. From Max LeCato, for 33 years, Jesus felt everything you and I have felt. He grew weary. He was afraid of failure. He got colds. He burped. He had body odor. His feelings got hurt. His feet got tired.

His head ached. And to think of Jesus in such a light as well, it seems almost irreverent, doesn't it? It's uncomfortable, and it's much easier to keep the humanity out of the incarnation. Clean the manure from around the manger. Wipe the sweat out of his eyes. He's easier to handle that way. Something about keeping him divine also keeps him distant, packaged, and predictable.

For heaven's sake, don't do it. Let him be as human as he intended to be. Let him into the mire and muck of our world, for only if we let him in, can he pull us out. Wow. It's a great quote. It is, yeah. And really, if nothing else, it helps you understand that God does know the pressures that we face, and he does understand what it means to live on this earth.

And honestly, it's hard. Another thing, just in our fourth doctrine, as we're talking about how God is, it really is truly and properly man, but truly and properly God. Right, right. It's a difficult concept in a sense, but this is why we're doing this series.

Yeah. And you know, I love this series, especially for those of you who don't call the Salvation Army your church. I feel it's been a great opportunity for us to share a bit more about who we are as a church. Well, if you have any questions that come up in this series, we hope that you'll reach out to us. Send us an email at radioatuss.salvationarmy.org or call us at 1-800-229-9965.

Or you can reach out to your local Salvation Army. They'll always be glad to speak with you. God bless you. You walked upon the earth, perfect in every way. Revealing God's own heart, a path narrow and narrow.

Yet you lived as a man, with blood running through your veins. Oh Jesus, Son of God, lifted high above all men. Welcome back to our continuing study of Salvation Army doctrine and its application to us in our everyday life.

Let's look at doctrine number four. We believe that in the person of Jesus Christ, the divine and human natures are united so that he is truly and properly God and truly and properly man. This truly is one of the greatest miracles and example of God's love, God's care, and God's commitment to man. And it was in his eternal plan for Christ. God's Son coming to earth is both man and God.

That's an incredible thought. Jesus becoming a human is called incarnation, which means becoming flesh. However, Jesus also remained divine as the Son of God. Among the clearest ways to really learn about this divine and human nature of Christ and how those natures completely come together is to look at Jesus as both the Son of Mary and the Son of God at the same time.

It's really impossible to separate them, isn't it? We see in Scripture, for example, in Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6, for a child is born to us, a son is given. There we see the idea of a son being given to us, the physical son. Ten times in the Gospel of John, Jesus is called the Son of God. Two of Jesus' most important names or titles all the way through the New Testament is Son of God and Son of Man. The claim that Jesus made that he was the Son of God was one of the primary reasons that God Jesus killed and crucified. John chapter 5 and verse 18, for the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill him, for he not only broke the Sabbath, but he also called God his Father, making himself equal with God. We see in doctrine number 4 that Jesus is both divine Son of God and human Son of Mary.

So let's look at the one Son of Mary first. Jesus didn't just look like a human. He was human.

Look at just some of the ways Scripture talks about how he was human. He was born. He had a mother.

He had brothers and sisters. He ate food. He got tired. He cried. He felt pain. He felt sorrow. He felt abandoned.

And many other emotions and physical attributes could be stated to this list. The virgin birth of Christ is one of the greatest miracles known to man, but it's also one of the greatest challenges for us to think and consider. Think about this.

It will never happen again. It only occurred once in all of history, from the beginning of man to the end of the world. Without the virgin birth, the divine nature could not have existed. Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit. If he had been conceived by Joseph, he'd be a human son. But because God was his Father, he is divine.

The angel replied, for example, and said, in Luke chapter 1, verse 35, that the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. So we see in that verse both the Son of Man and the Son of God. Jesus has the attributes or qualities of God and the characteristics of man.

He is the Son of God and the Son of Man. What an incredible thought and teaching in reality that a glorified human being is sitting on the throne next to God. One of the most comforting yet amazing, encouraging and challenging yet loving ideas is that in the very throne room of God is someone who knows exactly what it's like to be a human, knows exactly about my human feelings and experiences and temptations, yet for Jesus without sin and of our joys and sorrows. There's an old Salvation Army chorus we used to sing called, He Knows. The words are, He knows, he knows, the storms that would my way oppose. He knows, he knows, and comforts every wind that blows.

How? Because as the son of Mary, as a human he knows. He is not man becoming God, but God taking on human flesh. That's incarnation. The existence of Jesus did not start in a manger.

It started back in eternity by the plan of God. Well, he's not just the son of Mary or the Son of Man. Jesus is also the Son of God. At Jesus' baptism in Matthew chapter 3 and verse 17, it says, and a voice from heaven said, this is my dearly loved son who brings me great joy. God himself tells us that Jesus is his son. Jesus continually, through his teaching, told us, for example, in John 14, 9, that seeing him was seeing the Father. Throughout the New Testament, the writers teach us about the incarnation of Jesus.

But they also teach us, for example, in Colossians 3, 9, for in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. Or I say it another way, in him dwells the completeness of the Godhead bodily. The name the Son of God appears over 40 times in the New Testament. It also tells of his divine identity. He was God. It means God's his Father. It also tells us of his divine identity in that the only challenge or charge the Jewish leaders could produce at Jesus' trial was that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, and he admitted it. At Jesus' crucifixion, the Roman officer and other soldiers were terrified at the earthquake and all the other events that happened. And in Mark 15, verse 39, they said, this man truly was the Son of God.

So what's our pick and choose today? Well, there are millions of people who are willing to accept that Jesus was a great man, teacher, prophet, and leader, but not the Son of God. If that's your choice today, one of the challenges you're going to have is that was not the claim of Christ. See, a lot of people are willing to accept the Jesus in the manger, but not the Jesus on the cross. And even fewer will accept the fact that Jesus is going to return to judge the world. The Bible doesn't allow us to pick and choose.

It doesn't allow us to pick, well, I'll take the Son of Mary or I'll take the Son of God because he is truly and properly God and truly and properly man. God bless you. The Salvation Army's mission, Doing the Most Good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support, and we'd love to hear from you. You can email us at radio at uss.salvationarmy.org. Call 1-800-229-9965 or write us at P.O.

Box 29972, Atlanta, Georgia, 30359. Tell us how we can help. Share prayer requests or share your testimony. We would love to use your story on the air. You can also subscribe to our show on iTunes or your favorite podcast store, and be sure to give us a rating. Just search for the Salvation Army's Words of Life. Follow us on social media for the latest episodes, extended interviews, and more. And if you don't have a church home, we invite you to visit your local Salvation Army worship center. They'll be glad to see you. This is Bernie Dake, inviting you to join us next time for the Salvation Army's Words of Life.