Sermons Vander Kam on HC Lord's Day 6
Q&A 16 & 17 Sermons Vander Kam on HC Lord's Day 6
Q&A 16 & 1716 Q. Why must He be a true and righteous man?
A. Because the justice of God requires that the same human nature which has sinned should make satisfaction for sin, and because one who himself is a sinner cannot satisfy for others.
17 Q. Why must He withal be true God?
A. That by the power of His Godhead He might bear in His human nature the burden of God's wrath; and that He might obtain for us, and restore to us, righteousness and life.
Beloved in the Lord, one of the things that is very clear immediately in the history of the church and that is, that there are certain things that were very difficult to understand. And one of the things that was so difficult to understand was also the first thing that was taken up in the history of the church where all the councils that met at the beginning was the matter of the Trinity. How in the world does anybody come to an understanding of God existing as one God in three persons.
And these were the things that certainly also broke, as it were, the minds and the understandings of those that were the leaders in the early church. And that they had the one council after another to come to an understanding of this mystery. And finally in the year 325 after Christ, that is, at the council of Nicea, they come with the certain formulation of this doctrine namely, that God is indeed one God, yet exists in three persons. But it was so necessary to establish this because otherwise there would never be a Christian church. It was so necessary to establish it because otherwise you would not have any faith, there would be no basis for faith. And in the world of the present day it indeed seems strange because today we would think that there would be ever so many practical things that would be more important, but the church saw very early that that was not the case. That there are no practical things unless it be the doctrinal basis. And that that doctrinal basis has to be correct, and otherwise you are going to go in all directions and no one will know the direction to take.
The second great item that came before the church was concerning the natures of Christ. And that is, who is Jesus Christ, and this is not such a simple question, but it was the kind of a question that also as it were, broke the minds of ever so many. Because of the fact that He is both God and man, and yet He is but one person. The one person of that Trinity who now comes to us in this way that He is both God and man. Well, what's the difference; why worry about these things that we are not able to understand anyway? The Bible thinks it's very important. And therefore the Bible emphasizes this thing time and again that Jesus does not ask the people of His day, "What do you think of me? What do you think of me as a teacher? What do you think of me as a miracle-worker? What do you think of me in this way or that way?" But it is always this, "What think ye of the Christ; whose son is He?" That's the fundamental question. And they see of course, that He is a man. But, whose son is He; He is the Son of God. And it is not until 452 A.D., that really there is a clear formulation concerning this particular doctrine. That took time. For 450 years they were struggling with this, that's a long time. Before they had ever had something like this which we have before us in the Heidelberg Catechism this morning. And then certainly not as clear, but it is given to us, for example, in the Athanasian Creed; the Athanasian Creed is not one that we memorize because it is just about impossible to memorization. But nevertheless, therein it is given to us as to what is involved. Part 29 of the Athanasian Creed; "furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believes rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, is God and man. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds, and man of the substance of his mother, born in the world. Perfect God and perfect man of a reasonable soul and human flesh consisting. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead and inferior to the Father as touching his manhood; who although He is God and man, yet He is not two but one Christ, one not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh but by taking the manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substances but by unity of person, etc., etc."
So that, you see, that it is an attempt to come to a clear presentation, a clear formulation of who is Jesus Christ. And this is the necesssity beloved, because of the fact that Christ himself has prayed for that. That they may know Thee, may know Thee, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent, and thus share in eternal life. It isn't quite as simple as they make it out to be today. It is this, that we are going to know Him, know God, and that we are to know Jesus Christ. And that is fundamental to an understanding of salvation.
Now we speak to you this morning on, The Necessary Mediator. Noticing in the first place, its importance. Secondly, His humanity, and finally, His Deity.
Then when we deal with the importance of this question beloved, it has already been intimated that it is indeed necessary to our salvation. The Athanasian Creed also speaks of it in precisely those terms, that it is necessary for our salvation. It isn't necessary only for this reason that now philosophically we have an answer to the various questions that arise, but rather this, that now there is a foundation laid for our faith. That now we know upon which basis our salvation rests, and that it rests upon this, that every, every question has been answered, and that every, every question has been fulfilled before the living God. He is the one to whom the sacrifice has to be brought, and the sacrifices brought. It is the sacrifice that has to be accepted, and it is accepted. And why; because of the fact that it is to perfection, and that He is both God and man.
Now there are ever so many who have criticized the Catechism especially in regards to Lord's Day 6 because of the fact that it seems to be too analytical. Why must we ask all of these questions; isn't it a whole lot better that we say, I love the Lord; do you love Jesus Christ, and that's all that's necessary. That is all that is necessary unto salvation and therefore why delve into all of these questions to which we can hardly find an answer anyway? Well, it is like a small child, and they drive their parents to distraction sometime by all the questions that they raise. It is a question concerning this and a question concerning that, and it is all the obvious things in life we believe. And yet at the same time, that is the only way in which a child is going to come to an understanding of what life is all about. He has to ask questions, and those who have a family, who have small children, or who have had small children; they know that these questions are interminable because, this is such a complicated world and we are living such a complicated life in the midst of this world, and therefore we've got to know, and therefore they ask, "Why this, why that?" Now, now comes the catechete and says, "Now you just asked the same question." Why must He be man, why must He be God? And those are the questions that you don't have to be ashamed of, you don't have to feel as though these questions may not be raised because those are the questions that the Bible itself asks you to ask. Tells you to ask because of the fact that we have to know Him, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. And otherwise we are not going to share in eternal life, and that's what it is all about; that we are going to glorify Him and that we are also going to come to salvation ourselves. Then you have to know who He is.
And these are the things that are not be glossed over and say that He is a great man who lived two thousand years ago. Who spoke these particular words, who did these particular deeds. No, who is He. My Lord and my God; that's the One. That Psalmist's confession is that which is laid upon the church for all ages, and that we have to know what we are talking about. Now this is the importance of this question that we are to know who He is, because you know, this is what Jesus has also taught us in the prayer; He taught us to pray already in the first petition. Notice what the Catechism has to say on that; we will get to that later on, much later. What is the first petition; "Hallowed be Thy Name," that is, grant us first, rightly to know Thee. That's what it is all about. See, and all these things mesh, they all dovetail. We have to know Him, and who is Jesus Christ? He is the God-man, and if we do not have that understanding considering Him then you have never known Jesus Christ. No, it can be said, of course, to everybody and everybody also knows that, that Jesus saves. And that He is the One who saves so that you are able to proclaim that everywhere that He is the One who brings salvation; Jesus saves. But how in the world is He going to be able to do that, and how are you assured of the fact that it has been done. And these are the facts that are given to us, and that is the importance, that we will see Him as the One who is indeed the God-man who was prophesied in the Old Testament, who came and fulfilled every, everything that was necessary for Him to be, and who has also been accepted by the Father. That is Jesus Christ. The importance of this cannot be overestimated. It is of such signal importance that apart from that we have no Savior, we have no Mediator, and therefore the very person of the Mediator is one that is so important, and that's why the church struggled in its early years.
To come to an understanding who is God that has spoken to us. He is the one who consists in trinity and unity. And who is Jesus Christ. That revelation that He has given concerning Himself. And this has come by revelation. We never would have thought this out ourselves, and the greatest minds in the world would never have come to the conclusion as to that God, that He is Trinity, as to that Savior, that He is dual-natured. That would never have happened. Now these are the things that may sound deep to some, but it isn't. It is that which is revealed to us so that we may know Him; that we may know Him well, that we may know who He is, and thus that we may also have the perfect foundation for the salvation in which we believe. And these things are therefore so necessary. That necessary Redeemer, that we recognize the importance of His person, because what He does is going to be determined by His person, who He is.
Now notice His humanity. When we are dealing with the humanity of Jesus Christ beloved, we are not dealing with something that is quite as simple as many may believe. Because of course, at the time that He was here on earth there was not question at all. You would ask anybody in Palestine at that time who is Jesus; and he would say, a man. That is so obvious, they could see Him walking on their streets, and they say, of course that is a man. He is of such proportions, you can describe Him, etc. That's no question. And later on it became the greatest question there was. Is He really man? Nah, that is the question that has arisen in the life of the church, very practically, because of the fact that we usually try to make Him even greater; greater than what He is? Try!! And that is that we do not like to ascribe anything human to Him because He is divine. See, and the Bible tells us and the Catechism tells us; that's a big mistake. You have to realize that He was human just like you and I, and that's why I read to you Hebrews 2 this morning, where that is emphasized.
That He was a man, that He was a man like you and I, that He had the weakened human nature; not the sinful, but the weakened human nature. That He did not have the human nature of Adam prior to the fall, but that He had that weakened human nature. And that is the reason why you also read these various little things, these trivial things concerning Jesus, but they are not trivial because of the fact that it is part of the revelation. And that is, that He became weary; you never read that of Adam. You read of this, that He wept; you don't read that of Adam -- they didn't do that and he didn't, they didn't do that in Paradise. He had that weakened human nature, but nevertheless, He was completely human. And the writer to the Hebrews goes into that at length in order to show to us that there was nothing human that was foreign to Him. That He was in all points, even tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
And those are the things of course, that are always very difficult for us to understand, but that makes it even more difficult when he says that He was also tempted as we are, and yet we know, we have that revelation of the temptation in the wilderness, for example, where He was tempted, tempted like Adam. And He stands like a rock; and Adam fell like a stone. Now these are the differences, and these differences are clarified, and these differences are emphasized in the Scriptures. That the second Adam is of an entirely different kind of person, but at the same time, that He also partakes of the same human nature.
Now those are the things that are so difficult for us because of the fact that anyone who says concerning Jesus, did He know this. He even says at one time you know, that concerning the end of time, that those are the things that are not even known unto the Son, unto the Son of man. But that God has kept unto Himself the time. Strange, isn't it! Didn't Jesus know all things; that's where we touch His humanity. And then we say, well yah, of course; He had to know all things, otherwise we detract from His deity. So, in order not to detract from His deity we usually detract from His humanity, in order that we may keep things in balance. And the Bible doesn't do that. The Bible comes with this, that He is in all ways like you and I are; that He was in human nature and that that human nature was complete. That it was body and soul and that He is able to say for example, when He goes into Gethsemane, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death." The soul, and that that body of course, is beaten and that that body is crucified, and yet at the same time, that this is my Savior, my Mediator; Mediator between God and man.
But He is fully human, which is emphasized in order that you and I will realize that we have, according to Hebrews, a sympathetic High Priest to whom we may come, who is acquainted with all of our infirmities, who was tempted in all points like we are; and therefore that we also have the approach to Him so easily. Now we may so easily come to Him, so that He is not exalted above us to that extent that He is removed from us, but that He is exalted indeed, but at the same time that He is like us in all things; like us. So that there is nothing human that is foreign to Him and that when we have our needs, and those needs are so many, these physical needs, these needs of the emotions, these needs of the soul; we may come to Him. Our sympathetic High Priest. We have not a priest who was not touched with a feeling of our infirmities.
Why must He be made of man? How could you have a mediator who wasn't? And man must pay! So He's got to be man. There's nobody else who may pay for the sins that man has committed; man must pay, and therefore He has to be, but He was. He was complete, fully human in every respect. And yet at the same time, of course, this is also emphasized in Hebrews and therefore it is also emphasized again in the Catechism, that He was the righteous man. As Hebrews puts it, yet without sin. So that He was, as Hebrews puts it, "in all points like as we are, yet without sin," which also makes Him in all points different from what we are. Notice that! Because, take away your and my sin and you wouldn't recognize us. But this is the beauty, that He is like unto us in all things, sin excepted. No sin; righteous; because he that would have to satisfy for his own sins would certainly not be able to satisfy for anyone else's sin. Now those are the things that are given to us in Jesus Christ, so that we have a complete Mediator, a Mediator where there is nothing left that has to be done; nothing missing. Everything is there, every question is answered, every problem is solved, every question that you might have concerning your salvation; they are all found in Christ Jesus, to have the complete answer. He is fully human, and that is so difficult for us to see.
Like I said at the beginning, in His day of course, there was no question at all; who would ever deny, when you see Him walking along the streets of Palestine, that He is not human. This is out of the question, but for us in this day, when we have learned to worship the Christ and to believe that He is also fully human is difficult. But He is, and that must be maintained and you do not glorify the Christ by detracting from His humanity. But we only worship Him correctly when we fully realize how He has been revealed to us, how He has been given to us, what is His person, what is His nature.
Now these are things that have been revealed to us on the pages of Scripture of course, on virtually every page of the New Testament. These are the things that are emphasized, His humanity and His deity, as we will see in a moment. But that we will see the whole Christ, and when we detract from any part of it, you have destroyed to that extent your Mediator; have destroyed the whole concept of the Mediator. It is given to us so carefully in the Scriptures, and that's why it took the church so long to really come to a clear understanding of what is given to us in the nature of God Himself, three in one. All kinds of illustrations have been used beloved, concerning the Trinity; there isn't an illustration that you can find, as I used to tell my catechumens, there isn't any one. Don't look for them because it is unique. To illustrate, or to define something you first of all have to put it in a class. A church is a building, as we speak of the church. It's put in a class. You can't put this in a class because of the fact that it is unique, there is no other. Consequently, you can never define it. So it is also with the dual nature of Christ. But He is human. And that is so important. And then He comes so close to us, because He also has felt those things that bother me, and I can come to Him. And that's not a trivial matter, and he doesn't consider it that. But our sympathetic High Priest who has a feeling for our infirmities. That brings Him close, and then we honor and glorify the Christ.
And finally, notice also His Deity. Now there was one thing beloved, that was not difficult at the time when He was here on earth, it was His humanity, but His Deity was an entirely different matter. That was one of the things that they were not able to understand, that they were not able to swallow. That they would have to come to the conclusion that He was divine, that He was God. That, they considered to be blasphemy. And that is the reason why he was put to death. That was blasphemous, to say that a person whom you can see walking along the streets of Palestine, that that is my Lord and my God. How dare anyone say it! So that Caiaphas, as we have looked upon it in the last few weeks prior to Easter, as Caiaphas says, when he puts Him under oath, "Tell us, if thou be the Christ, the Son of God", and He says, "Yes." Now he doesn't ask, is that so? No, he says, "You've heard his, heard his blasphemy." That is so simple, that is blasphemous, for anyone who is a human being, to say that he is divine. So that in that day beloved, it was virtually an impossibility to understand, to believe that He was divine. That was the greatest difficulty that the people of that day had, who had seen Him in the flesh. There used to be a song, perhaps it is still around, I haven't heard it in years, "but I think when I read that sweet story of old when Jesus was here among men, how He brought little children as lambs to His fold, I should like to have been with Him then." And then the chorus goes on with that, "I should like to been Him then." I wouldn't. To see a man walking on the dusty roads of Palestine and believe, that is my God. I think would have stretched my belief to such an extent that it would have broken. In other words, I can understand the people of that day. To believe in such a one's deity; oh, of course, Caiaphas should have looked into it. Could it be possible? But no, he says, "This is blasphemy." And that is the thing that rises in the minds of the people first of all; this is blasphemous.
And yet this is the thing beloved, that has been revealed to us in the Scriptures. This is the thing that they did not know. This was one of the mysteries of which Paul speaks later on; the mysteries of the Old Testament where those things, you know, that were later on revealed. And this is one of the mysteries of the Old Testament, that He would come and that He would be divine. But those are the things that they cannot understand. But now it is revealed, and the whole Gospel is full of that. That He is the living God, that He is God come in the flesh, and that He has retained His divine nature as well. No one doeth the things that Thou doest. No one ever uttered words such as these. Thou art God, Thou art divine. The disciples, they stammer about it. But they have somewhat of an inkling what it must be, and then later, after Pentecost, it becomes clear. Because all things are clarified at Pentecost, and before that it is a stammering concerning the truths of the revelation.
But here He is revealed as being divine, and He had to be that. But this also asks, why must He withal be true God? That by the power of His God-head He might bear in His human nature the burden of God's wrath, and that He might obtain for us and restore to us righteousness and life. In other words, that human nature, even though it was righteous, that is, without sin, was not able to bear the burden of God's wrath. See, and then it becomes so clear that Arminianism is totally wrong. That you aren’t able to add one iota to your salvation. Christ couldn't even do it, in a sinless human nature, except He was strengthened by His divine nature. Now if that doesn't make it clear once and for all, then I don't know what would. It is His work from beginning to end; nobody is going to be able to add to it. Christ wasn't able to bear the burden of God's wrath even in a perfect human nature, but He had to be strengthened by the divine. And He is the only one who has that dual nature. Then it is of course, an impossibility that we shall add to it ourselves. And notice, in order that He might obtain for us and restore to us righteousness and life. Not that He might give us blessings, not that He might us gifts, but that He might restore to us righteousness, that we are again able to keep the Law. And that he might restore to us life. You thought you had it; you don't. Until you know Jesus Christ. Then you have life, and without that there is no life. And that's what He had come to obtain, by means of this, that He has both the human and the divine nature.
These are not the kind of questions that are too analytical, that we have no business asking. You know, when we say that sometimes, "You have no business asking that; you've got to accept that." No, the Catechism is so open. It says, "Go ahead, go ahead and ask." And here is the answer: "Why must He be man?" None of your business? No, no, no. He must be man, and otherwise I would not have a Mediator. And, "But why must He also be God?" Leave that to the mystery? No. He must be God, people, and otherwise you wouldn't have a Mediator. This is the necessary Mediator, this is the one, the one who is revealed to us in the Scriptures. And outside of the Scriptures, you would never find it. That's why they can't find Him in the cults. That's why they can't find Him any other place. He is the one who is revealed to us in the Scriptures. Jesus Christ, as the following question and answer will show.
That is the only one who meets all of the qualifications, who meets all of the needs that we have, and meets them perfectly. And why must he be man! I am so glad that the Catechism has asked this, and I am so disappointed that there are so many today who don't bother about these questions of the Catechism anymore. And then just say, "Jesus saves." Somehow, I don't know how, but somehow, Jesus saves. Now the Scriptures say, and our confessions reiterate it, and that is, you must know it is done, what you needed, and who it is that did it. Amen.....
We thank Thee heavenly Father, for Thy grace bestowed, for Thy love shown us, for the glorious revelation Thou hast given us of Thyself. We thank Thee that we may know Jesus Christ as our Lord and our Savior. That we may know Him as one of us, and that we may know Oh God, that He has satisfied for all our needs. Apply Thou this Word unto our hearts by Thy Spirit. Bless us the remainder of this day and bring us into Thy house again in this evening. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen.....
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