Lie #4: Jesus Has A Dark Secret – 2 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. The sinful nature we all share was never passed onto Jesus so He could then be the perfect sacrifice for sin. Without that perfect sacrifice, none of us has a prayer of seeing eternal life with the Father. Today, the truth of the virgin birth and why it matters. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, if Jesus had no sinful nature, could He have ever sinned?

Dave, the answer to that question I deeply believe is no. And the reason is this, it would have been impossible for His humanity to sin without His deity being implicated in that sin. He was not two people. He had two natures, united in one person, but it would not have been possible for Jesus Christ to sin. And therefore, it's very important for us to recognize that that did not mean, however, that He did not experience temptation.

There were temptations there, even though we affirm that He would not have been able to yield to those temptations. I want to thank the many of you who support the ministry of Running to Win. But there are those of you who have been blessed time and time again. You've never connected with us. Or perhaps you have, but we encourage you to become an endurance partner. That's someone who stands with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts.

If you want info at the end of this message, I'll be able to share that with you. Matthew understood it to mean, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. But the question is why? Why couldn't Jesus have had Joseph or a Pantera as his father? The angel that comes to Mary in Luke chapter one gives us the answer and will not turn there.

I have another passage in mind for you, but it says very clearly there, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born within you will be called Holy, the Son of God. Jesus had to be conceived miraculously so that he would not have a sin nature, so that he would be born in such a way that he would be preserved from original sin, preserved from every taint of sin, and maybe the blessed Holy Spirit of God used that which Mary as a mother would supply for the child. Jesus may have looked like his mother Mary, but if Jesus looked like Joseph, it was because God just chose to make it that way. That which was conceived in Mary had to be perfectly and completely holy and sinless.

And that's why Jesus was born of a virgin. And it's why he could say to people and he could challenge people on that point, whether they were his friends or his enemies. It says in John eight forty six, Jesus is speaking right to those enemies that were around him. And he said, which of you convinces me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe it? Could you imagine any one of us standing in a circle of friends, not to mention enemies and saying, which of you accuses me of sin?

I think we'd all get an earful at that point. The enemies of Jesus were very silent. Judas said, I have betrayed innocent blood. Pilate says, I find no fault in him. Peter says he committed no sin.

Neither was any guile found in his mouth. Paul says he who knew no sin was made sin for us. You see, Jesus personally was totally sinless, but our sin was credited to his account. And so he became legally guilty of our sin, but not personally guilty of our sin. And that's why Jesus is different from all of the other people in the world.

He was completely sinless. Now, I reminded you that there is another passage of scripture. Would you take your Bibles and turn now to Hebrews, Hebrews chapter seven, Hebrews chapter seven. And if you forgot to bring your Bible, which is entirely possible that you forgot to bring your Bible in the pew Bible, it's page 1004.

You can find it there. Page 1004, Hebrews chapter seven. And I'm picking it up in verse 26 for it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest. Let's take these words now one by one in this description of Jesus, a high priest who is holy. He is holy in his obedience to God.

He set apart and at no time did Jesus ever disobey his father. Everything that he did, everything that he thought was as holy as God himself is. For it was fitting that we should have a high priest who is wholly innocent. There's really no English word to pick up the Greek word at this point.

It could be translated innocent, guileless. It means that Jesus was so cleansed from evil, so cleansed that there was nothing in him except that which was completely good. And because he was so holy, he was like an antiseptic. In other words, you know, in the Old Testament, if a woman had an issue of blood, she was considered to be unclean and not to be touched. But in the gospels, there's a story of a woman who comes and touches Jesus and instantly she's cleansed. She can't defile him, but he in turn blesses her with his healing power and his cleansing power. Jesus could touch a leper because even though he touched that leper, his power would go to the leper, but the leper's defilement would not come to him. He was totally innocent, undefiled.

It says unstained, absolved of all blemishes. And it is because of this perfection that God was able to accept his sacrifice. You see, if Jesus had been a sinner and if he had died on the cross for our sins, he'd have had to die, first of all, for his own sins. And then after dying for his own sins, then somehow what he did might have been applied to us. But it would have been no better than some of the animals in the Old Testament that were slaughtered, whose death was symbolic, but who did not permanently take away sin.

The contrast here is between the Old Testament. It says in verse 27, he has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. On the day of atonement, it was the responsibility of the high priest to wash himself. He washed himself.

He put on special linen garments. And after he had done that, he offered up an animal for himself. And then he prayed a prayer of confession in which he said, Oh God, I have sinned against thee. Wash away all my iniquity.

Cleanse me. And after he had made a sacrifice for himself, then he could make a sacrifice for his people. And the author is saying that's not the way Jesus did that. He didn't need to make a sacrifice for himself. That's why this was so entirely selfless. He didn't die for himself, but he died for us. No man takes my life from me.

I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. That's who Jesus was. He did it voluntarily because he loves us and he cares about us and his desire is to us and he died to save his people, the people that God would save from their sins. So the author wants us to understand that Jesus was perfectly human, perfectly human. It says here he is separated from sinners, but that doesn't mean that he is somehow not human. Says earlier in the book, it says that we have a high priest who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities because he was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin. It means he was separate from us because of his holiness, because he was unstained and because he is what we are not. So what the writer is saying is he was a perfect human being, an exalted human being. It says higher than the heavens. He has been exalted. And then he says that there was one sacrifice.

Notice this he did once for all when he offered up himself. The Old Testament, it says in the 10th chapter here in this book, as we well know, and the Old Testament constantly offering sacrifices. In fact, the priests had various rituals that they would go through and there would be a number of priests, three eight hour shifts during the day because supposedly the fire was not to go out on the altar. They were to keep it burning all the time. And so priests had to be there continually.

One shift after another. And when you were on duty, you always stood. You are never permitted to sit down because if you sat down, that would give the idea that somehow you were finished and you weren't finished. That's why the Bible says that Jesus, when he had made a sacrifice once for all, he ascended into heaven and he sat down at the right hand of the father. My friend, Jesus sat down not because he was tired, but because he was finished. The work was done. It had been accomplished. When he said it is finished on the cross, he meant it is finished, paid in full.

The work's been done. The sacrifice has been made. And the good news is that in the resurrection, Jesus Christ proved that what he did was acceptable to the father because God raises him from the dead and sets him on the right hand of the throne of the majesty on high.

That's why Jesus was not fathered by Pantera or Joseph. His uniqueness as the son of God, as the holy son of God was preserved through the virgin birth. Now take the text here and let's look above it just a moment to verse 25. He's making a similar argument in the previous paragraph, but now he says, consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. He is able to save to the uttermost.

That can be translated in two different ways. He can save to the uttermost. He can save to the greatest extent of sin, greatest extent. Maybe someone listening to me here in this sanctuary or on the internet or on radio. Maybe you've committed some huge sins.

I mean, I'm talking about crimes. And you say to yourself, can Jesus Christ save me? And the answer is yes, he can save to the uttermost. He can save, what shall we say, to the gutter most as people discover. He can save that man who wrote to me from prison, who said, I raped four women.

Can I ever be forgiven? He can save that man, too. He's a qualified savior. And then not only that, but it can be translated and perhaps more accurately, he can save them completely. He can take them all the way to heaven.

Jesus, when he saves somebody, is qualified to lift us up and to bring us into the presence of God and declare us as righteous as God himself is because he was completely and totally holy. I know that you've heard this story before. I'm sure you have. But my wife and I were at the Palmer House yesterday and she reminded me of it. And so I'm going to tell it to you again. Do you remember in 1993 when I told you I attended the Parliament of World Religions at the Palmer House and 5000 delegates came from all over the world and they were discussing how they might unify all the religions of the world. And I was there the whole week dialoguing with these people who had come from all over the world and had a wonderful time talking with witches and New Agers and Buddhists and everything.

Everything was there at the Palmer House. And one day I went on a search that you've heard before to find a sinless savior. Now, the reason I did that is because do you remember in Florida a number of years ago there was a woman, a grandmother who was taking care of her little granddaughter and the little toddler fell into the swimming pool. And the grandmother, bless her heart, jumped in to rescue the little toddler.

And a few hours later, both bodies were pulled from the water. Because you see, if you're drowning, you need somebody who's not a part of your predicament to save you. You need somebody who's not subject to the same waves, to the same, the same predicament and the same sins that you are. You need somebody who is sinless, who's actually able to bring you to God. So I decided I'd go to the lower floor of the Palmer House and make that search for a sinless savior.

I remember the first religion I stopped at were the Hindus and they were very kind to me. And I said, you know, I'm looking for a sinless savior because I'm a sinner and I need somebody to save me. Do you have a sinless savior?

No, no, no. We have gurus and so forth, but no sinless savior. I went to the Buddhists. I said, did Buddha claim sinlessness because I'm a sinner and I need help. And they said, no enlightenment, but not sinlessness. Baha'u'llah, enlightenment, not sinlessness. I went to the Muslim table. I knew that in the Quran, Muhammad had said that he himself needed forgiveness.

I think at least seven times. No, we have a prophet, but we don't have a savior. I spent a lot of time down there, went to some of the new agers. I went to those who believed in the cosmic Jesus to find a savior and couldn't do it. And that's when it dawned on me the radical difference that there is between Christianity and all the other options out there because Christianity actually has someone who is perfect and holy, whose sacrifice was accepted by a holy God. And, and therefore he is able to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by him.

And that's why I commend him to you today is because we have a savior who was virgin born. I love this story. On August 21st, 1544, Martin Luther wrote a letter to one of his faithful and trusted coworkers, George Spoloton.

Spoloton worked there in Wittenberg and sometimes was in the library and actually the librarian of the city of Wittenberg. Spoloton had given a friend some very bad advice and Spoloton could not forgive himself for this because he was immersed in grief and guilt and regret and he would not be consoled. Have you ever had that experience? You just so regret it. You say to yourself, I can't forgive myself.

I can't move on. Luther wrote to him and it's interesting to see what Luther did. Today counselors would have handled it differently.

I'm sure they'd have said, Spoloton, lighten up, chill. I mean, we've all done silly things. We've all given bad advice.

What you did is not so bad. Luther didn't do it that way. He took an entirely different view. He did not minimize the sin, but oh, how he magnified grace.

Listen to the letter. My faithful request and admonition is that you join our company and associate with us who are real great and hard boiled sinners. He said, you must by no means make Christ seem to be paltry and trifling to us as though he could be our helper only when we want to be rid of the imaginary minimal and childish sins.

Oh no, Spoloton. That would not be good for us. He must rather be a savior and Redeemer from real, great, grievous and damnable transgressions and iniquities. Yea, from the very greatest and most shocking of sins to be brief from all of the sins added together in a grand total. My friend, you're going to have to get used to the belief that Christ is a real savior and you are a real sinner for God is neither jesting nor dealing in imaginary affairs, but he was greatly and most assuredly in earnest when he sent his own son into the world and sacrificed him for our sakes.

I stand before you today with great joy in my heart to tell you that we have a real savior for real sinners, real savior for real sinners. People have always said, you know, I should write a book about all of the airplane conversations that I have and I don't think it's worth that, but I do come to you today with another one about, I think I, this happened some time ago where a woman was very, very prim and proper and not needing a savior. So I said to her, I said, would you consider yourself ungodly? And I said it with a smile.

Don't, don't ask a question like that unless you're smiling. And she was clearly even with my smile somewhat offended. Of course I'm not ungodly. I said, I'm so sorry to hear that because that means that Jesus didn't die for you. The Bible says that Jesus died for the ungodly. I said, I'm ungodly and he died for me.

And if you admit your need, he died for you as well. One time I was on a talk show with a very liberal scholar whose name I shall not give because it goes into other matters, but he was very much to staining the idea that either Christianity was unique or that Jesus died for sinners. He said it's barbaric and he was arguing vociferously against all the things that you and I have just heard in the last half hour. So I said to him as the show was beginning to end, I said, what word do you have for a person sitting in prison who's committed rape, who wants to know whether or not he can be forgiven? And you know, he had virtually nothing to say. Isn't it wonderful that because Jesus meets the requirements of saviorhood, not just prophet, there are all kinds of prophets out there who have human fathers because they're sinners, but he actually meets the requirement of saviorhood. As you've heard me say so many times, there's nobody else out there like him. That's why he doesn't have a dark secret in his past.

He was not fathered by Pantera or Joseph. That which is conceived in you is of the Holy Spirit and he shall be holy and he shall give himself as a ransom for the sins of the world. Don't you love that savior? Let's pray together. Our father, we do want to thank you so much that Jesus came to rescue us. We thank you that while other religions might be like people drowning and others coming next to them and saying, let's join hands to go to the bottom of the lake together. We thank you today that Jesus is actually able to cleanse us, to save us, to bring us into the presence of God and to declare us as holy as he is.

Thank you, Father. Help us to love him, to defend him, to speak of him, to share him with all whom we meet. And now before I close this prayer, what about your relationship to him?

He sees your heart. Even where you are right now, you can receive Christ. You can say, I trust Jesus today to be my savior, my sin bearer. Father, we pray that you might do that in the lives of many. We ask in Jesus' blessed name. Amen. As always, my friend, I want to emphasize the need for you to come to Christ.

If you have never believed on him, if you have never repented to receive eternal life, do that right now. If you were to ask me the question, Pastor Lutzer, what gives you the greatest encouragement, I would say it is a letter like this from West Africa. Because I can testify how powerful your teaching is and it is transforming lives. I'm always glued to your program and I listen to the messages again and again.

Now, how can the ministry of Running to Win be in West Africa? It's because people just like you who have been blessed have invested in this ministry. And I want to encourage you to do that.

Join those whose investment has blessed you. Here's what you can do to find more info. Go to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com. Click on the endurance partner button or call us at 1-888-218-9337. I hope that you will stop to pray for this ministry. And if God is calling you to give, go to rtwoffer.com, click on the endurance partner button or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. We're so grateful for your prayers, for your support, for all that you are doing to hold our hands as we get the gospel to many. Thanks in advance for helping us.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago Illinois 60614. For some time the theory has circulated that Jesus did not die on the cross. He merely swooned and woke up in a cool tomb. This is another lie about Jesus. A lie that tries to nullify the whole reason for his coming as a sacrifice for sin. Next time on Running to Win, we come to part five in our series on slandering Jesus. Make sure to join us for lie number five, Jesus Escaped the Crucifixion. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.