Word of Salvation – Vol. 45 No.24 – June 2000

 

How Christ Makes Men Whole

 

Sermon by Rev MP Geluk

on Lord’s Day 12A (Heidelberg Catechism)

Scripture Readings: Ecclesiastes 1; 1 John 1:1-4; 2:15-17

Suggested Hymns: BoW 67; 378:1,2,5-7; 418; 160

 

Beloved in the Lord.

Last time we heard that the name Jesus is a personal name and it means ‘Saviour’.  Its Old Testament form was Joshua.  Now we hear that Christ is Jesus’ official name and it means ‘anointed’.  Jesus was anointed to be the Christ.  A teacher may be appointed principal, which then becomes his title and his work.  Likewise Jesus was appointed Christ, which was His title and describes His work.  Its Old Testament form was Messiah.

Lord’s Day 12 says that God the Father ordained Christ and anointed Him with the Holy Spirit.  That’s another way of saying that He anointed or appointed Christ and then enabled Him to be the Christ with the power of His Spirit.  God is one Being, of course, but He reveals Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the work of salvation.  The Father appointed His Son to be Christ to carry out this salvation and He gives Him the Holy Spirit to enable Him to do it.

But Lord’s Day 12 also speaks of Christ being prophet, priest and king.  In fact, not just prophet, priest and king, but chief prophet, only high priest, and eternal king.  Now you will not find one neat sentence in the Bible that says Christ is all of that.  What you do find is that the Bible in some passages refers to Jesus as prophet, in other passages as priest, and still in other passages as king.  The Catechism has pulled all these passages together and given us the sum total of what they teach.

Now in this sermon we look at Christ, how He saves sinners as prophet, priest and king, and then in a follow-up sermon we will see how the Christian also is a prophet, priest and king.

We bring you the Word of God, then, about HOW CHRIST MAKES MEN WHOLE.  In the first place, man needs fixing; in the second place, Christ does this as prophet, priest and king.

1.  Man needs fixing

Christ has come to make man whole.  That’s the glorious gospel.  But it presupposes that there must be something wrong with man.  He needs fixing.  Well, with the previous Lord’s Days we’ve already looked at the doctrine of sin and now we are in the part of the Catechism that deals with the deliverance from sin.  We’ve seen the problem and we are now looking at the cure.  However, many people are not interested in the cure.  They don’t come running to hear the gospel, and it’s difficult to talk with them about it.  The reason for that is, of course, that they do not realise the extent of the problem.

Let me try an illustration to explain what I mean.  The children will be able to follow this.  Imagine an artist who has made a beautiful painting.  He feels his work really brings out his talents as a painter.  His painting is hanging in an art show but very soon after the opening a vandal entered and before anyone could stop him, he threw some acid on the painting, which kind of melted some of the paint and caused it to run in small rivulets.  The frame was also damaged.  The vandal managed to slip away and the painting, now ruined, is left there momentarily until the artist arrives to decide what to do with it.  But some people, not knowing what has happened, look at the painting and think it has always looked like that.  When the artist arrives and decides to take his painting away to restore it, these people suggest that he leave it as it is, for to them it looks real.  The artist explains that originally it looked quite different and much better.  But not able to imagine what it originally looked like, the people again say the painting expresses realism.  The artist can fix up the frame but leave the painting as is.

Now many look at the world and its people without knowing what it was like originally.  They see society and know that it is a bit like the ruined painting but they think that it’s normal.  The really bad things like getting bashed on the trains and railway stations, murders, racism and wars, are like the damaged frame that needs fixing.  But greed, abortions, widespread divorce, the gay culture, and so on, are things that have become normal.  They may not be nice but it’s part of life.  For thousands of years man has to live with these things and somehow life goes on.  Why not accept them as being part of the picture?

God, of course, knows what it was all like originally.  As almighty Creator He made everything good but sin entered and ruined what He had made so beautiful.  But like the artist, God wants to fix things up.  He has been working on it for years already.  And eventually God is going to restore everything back to its original purpose and beauty.

A very important part in this work of restoration is God making men whole.  We have already heard how human nature was ruined by sin.  Like acid on a painting, sin has distorted human nature and the world.  But strangely enough, many think it’s normal.  Some even like it.  They make movies and write books that graphically show how distorted life is but they attempt no solution.  They don’t fix it because they can’t fix it.  And what they make is called art and they receive ‘Oscars’ for describing and showing a ruined creation.

The preacher in Ecclesiastes also described everything under the sun and found it all meaningless.  Wisdom, pleasure, folly and toil, it was all without aim and purpose, he said.

And so, many people feel life to be rather empty.  Many feel, in fact, that they don’t have life – life has them.  They don’t control time – time controls them.  Man is like a product on the assembly line of life.  First a lot of time is spent on learning to know things, then a lot of training to be able to do things, then a long time in actually making things.  When the time of usefulness is over, then man is taken off the line and put into a retirement village.

Along the way there are victories and defeats, vanities and humiliations, loves and hates, strengths and weaknesses, health and sickness.  But the burden of age catches up with all and in the end the ambitions of life are dead and the flame has gone out.  The world was a place where you existed just for a while.  In the end there is nothing.

But with all these different and conflicting ideas of what people are supposed to be, and of what life is all about, it is no wonder that there is so much confusion.  How can we ever know what it means to be human?  How can we ever understand the purpose of existence?

Well, God’s Word tells us that.  He says we are to know Him and to love Him.  And we are to love our neighbour.  If we do that in the way God wants it then we are obeying all His commandments.  God has every right to tell us what to do and how to do it.  He is the Creator of heaven and earth, and He rules over all that He has made.

The feminist movement complains that it is still a man’s world.  Men grumble that it’s a world where power and control are in the hands of a few.  And children complain that it is an adult world.  But they are all wrong.  The Bible says that it is God’s world, and people are to live in His world, not for their selfish interest and gain but to the glory of God.  And that’s what life is all about.  The first question in the Westminster Catechism asks: what is the chief end of man?  Meaning – what is man’s most important goal?  It is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  Yes, that’s what life is all about.

Being truly human is not to have yourself in the centre of things, but God.  Not a god differently imagined by men but the true and only God who has revealed Himself in the Bible.  In knowing God and confessing Him, in loving God and neighbour, in serving God and reigning with Him, in all that lies the real aim and purpose of life.  It’s not doing your own thing and minding your own business, but it’s doing God’s thing and being involved with His business.  The purpose and meaning of life lies in being a child of God.  Man is a creature of God, made in His image and likeness.  Thus our life consists of reflecting God’s character in us.

But as we all know, man does not possess that kind of wholeness.  It’s a broken humanity, gone crooked like a ship without a rudder.  The glory and beauty of our humanness has been lost through sin.  Our speech no longer reflects God’s greatness.  Instead, people brag about themselves.  Our service is not to God and others but to ourselves.  Our fight is no longer for things that are right and true but it’s to advance our own interests and goals.

In the world of politics and unions, of industry and labour, of movies and advertisements, truth is mixed with lies and falsehood.  Even man himself says that you just don’t know any more whom to believe.  Therefore in all this wrong there is nothing left to do but to turn to Christ.

2.  Christ makes men whole by being prophet, priest and king

The eternal Son of God became man in order to save man from his broken-ness and falsehood.  Christ clothed Himself with true humanness.  He is God in the flesh in order to be true man.  Christ is the sinless man and, therefore, the perfect man.  He came into existence in order to restore man’s broken and crooked image of God to its original beauty.  God set Christ apart for His work of salvation.  He was anointed with the Holy Spirit so as to be able to do this work of restoration and recreation.  To turn sinners into Christians, making men whole again.  How did Christ do it?  Well, it’s His work of salvation, and to understand it we can see three sides to it.

Let me try another illustration here to help us see the three sides.  Again, I think the children can understand this also.  Imagine someone who left a beautiful garden full of light and colour.  He stepped outside and got lost in the jungle.  There it is dark for the light does not penetrate to the jungle floor.  And where there is no light there is no colour.  But then someone else came from the garden to look for this person.  This rescuer did not get lost.  In fact, he knew exactly how to get back.

When the rescuer finds the person, lost and helpless, he offers his help.  He tells him exactly where he is in the jungle and instructs him how to get back to the garden.  That is, he is being a prophet and a teacher to him.  The lost man now knows what to do.  Just follow the instructions.

But it’s dark in the jungle and he can’t see enough to find his way.  He can’t get back to the garden by himself.  Then his rescuer says that he will actually take him back.  He will hold his hand or even carry him, if necessary.  That is, he is being a priest to him.  He is sacrificing himself and sees to it that the lost man is actually brought back.

But on the way back there are obstacles.  There are deep mud pits where they must not fall in.  There are wild animals to avoid.  So the rescuer helping the lost man get back is also watching over him, so that nothing happens preventing a safe return to the garden.  That is, the rescuer who so far has been a prophet and a priest, is now also a king.  His rule makes sure that the lost man actually makes it back.

Now Christ is the Rescuer who has come looking for the lost and He brings the message of salvation.  This side shows Christ as the true prophet.  For our purpose here we can simply say that a prophet is a spokesman for God.  He brings God to the people by speaking about Him.  Thus Christ brings the good news of salvation.  He is the chief prophet and teacher about this whole work of restoration.

Be careful that you do not limit Christ’s prophetical work to the years of His earthly ministry of which the gospels speak.  Behind every true prophet’s voice and message of Old and New Testament times stood the eternal Christ.  They did not bring a message of their own, it was always Christ speaking through them.  They often began their message with the words, “Thus says the Lord…”  Or “Hear the word of the Lord.”  So here we see Christ as prophet revealing to man God’s plan of salvation.

But it is not sufficient to only tell man that he needs a repair job done to him.  We can hear the message of salvation, know about it, as indeed many do, but we are unable to put ourselves together again in the way God made man originally.

So there has to be another side to this work of salvation.  And there is.  There is also the side that shows Christ as priest.  Whereas the task of the prophet is to reveal God to the people, the task of the priest is to represent the people before God.  Not only that but to also bring the people before God through the sacrifices the people offered and which the priest prepared for God.  But these animal sacrifices could not take away sins.  Their function was to teach the people that God required a blood sacrifice.

Sometimes we wonder why God required all those animal sacrifices.  It has to be remembered that the punishment on sin is death.  Death will satisfy the punishment.  But in His mercy God allowed the sinner to present not his own death, but the death of a substitute, the animal’s.  And that’s where the emphasis on blood came in.  The shedding of the animal’s blood took its life away.

But an animal’s death and blood could not take away man’s sin.  Since man had sinned, it was man that had to shed his blood.  But the animal sacrifices did teach the Old Testament people that death satisfied the punishment.  And these Old Testament sacrifices also taught them to look forward to Christ.  He would, as a man, shed His blood and die for sinners.  As a man Christ could satisfy God’s punishment on sin.  And God accepted His Son’s blood and death.  So Christ was the only high priest who really could stand in for the sinner.  He sacrificed Himself.  Whereas Christ as prophet spoke of salvation to the lost, as priest He actually saved the lost.

But there is still the third side which shows Christ as king.  The task of the Old Testament king was to rule and watch over God’s people.  Through the king God protected His people from the enemy.  If the king was strong, and his army in good shape, then the people were safe.  But there was no Old Testament king who did this perfectly.  They all had their shortcomings, some more than others.  Even if there was a good king, then eventually he would die and his successor might be a weak king.  There was a real need for a perfect king who could reign forever.  And that was Christ, of course.  The Old Testament kings were a pointer to the real King, Christ.

As king, Christ guards and watches over all those whom He is saving so that none are lost again.  How does He do this?  Well, different to the Old Testament kings who had armies at their disposal.  Christ does it by His Word and Spirit.  He speaks to our hearts and minds and conquers our spirit with His Spirit.  And He does also have an army but it’s an unseen army of angels.

Now put those three sides together, and you have an idea how perfect and complete a Saviour Christ really is.  He makes sinners whole by being to them and for them a prophet, priest and king.

Now is this the Christ you confess as your Saviour?  Do you look to Him to see what your person and life should be?  Do you take time to hear Him speak to you as the true prophet?  Not just by navel gazing and twiddling your thumbs but by going to His Word regularly?  Can you see, in the light of what Christ says in Scripture, that other messages you may hear about human nature are false?  Messages from non-Christian philosophies, religions, advertisements, books and movies?  Can you see their false prophecies in the light of what Christ teaches you?

And do you receive comfort from Christ who, as priest brings you into in God’s presence through His sacrifice on the cross and also through His intercessory prayer?  You may fail in your obedience to God, you may be going through a depression because of your shortcomings, but remember Christ prays for you in the presence of the Father.  He says to His Father that He has died for you, gave His blood for you, and so satisfied God’s punishment on your sin and disobedience.  Oh, what great assurance is there for the believer in knowing that Christ the priest is his representative in heaven.

But you are still in this world, living and working.  There are many things that threaten to undo the saving work of Christ in you.  You could be foolishly filling your mind and life with all sort silly things that are harmful to your spiritual well-being.  And Satan is very much around seeking to dim the light of salvation which Christ has caused to shine on you.

So do you let Christ as king rule over you?  You know His rules?  They are for your own good.  Do you obey them?  Do you seek His protection in the face of the many spiritual enemies around you?

What an assurance that Christ is king and ruling over all things and all people for the sake of His church.  Yes, what comfort knowing that He will not allow anything or anyone pluck you out of the Father’s hand.

There is, then, no greater Saviour than Jesus Christ.  He is to us a prophet, priest and king.  He is making a whole new person out of us by getting us out of the jungle of sin.  He will not abandon that work.  He will always be faithful.  Therefore, hold on to Him, believe in Him, follow Him and confess Him.

Amen.