How often do you feel shame and guilt over your past, unable to focus on the present?

How often do you despair over the person you used to be or over a mistake you recently made that you have already repented for?

Carrying the burden of our sin is not something humans were designed to do, and it is one reason among many that without Christ, our own strength is staggeringly insufficient. That is why, if you follow Jesus Christ, it is wholly unnecessary to continue shouldering this weight.

Yet, how often do we find ourselves wrapped up in soul-crushing self-disgust, dwelling obsessively on the sinful nature Jesus has already saved us from? Church, we have been justified through the blood of Christ. We would do well to consider the implications of this and treasure them in our heart. An education on the doctrine of justification is vital.

What is Justification?

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.“

Romans 5:1

“So that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.“

Titus 3:7

Simply put, the justification of the believer is the instantaneous, divine act that occurs when, upon placing our faith in Jesus Christ, God removes from us the “guilty” verdict our sin brings and declares us innocent through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ: no longer sentenced to eternal condemnation. In the moment we become born again, God declares us righteous in his sight—flawless in his eyes. Theological commentator Philip Eveson even describes it as our acquittal! We are “justified!”

It is as if you stood in the divine courtroom where God is the holy judge, and as he reads off all of your charges, you can do nothing but plead guilty to every single one of them. Then, as God finishes reading all our condemning crimes back to you, he informs you that you have two choices: the first option is taking the sentencing you deserve. At this, a pit of despair forms in your stomach. But the all-righteous judge continues! Alternatively, he says, there is someone who underwent a punishment for your crimes in your stead, and all you need to do is accept his offer to cover for you, and your legal record will be wiped spotless.

It is important to note that justification is completely and utterly a gracious act of God made possible through Jesus Christ. It does not come from the inherent righteousness or goodness of the believer; it comes through the supreme love and mercy of God, indescribably poured out to us through the sending of his son to be the ultimate sacrifice for our sin. It is also not a process that must be maintained through the works and participation of the believer in order to develop and continually cover us from our sin. Justification is an instant union of the believer and Christ’s righteousness that removes the stain of our sin “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12).

“For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.“

Romans 3:28

“Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.“

Galatians 2:16

To conclude this explanation, it is not as if or like our sin is gone. Through the justification of Jesus Christ’s suffering on the Christ, our sin is gone. That is not to say we will no longer sin or wrestle with temptation, but it is to say that sin and death no longer bind and shackle us. Our shame is trampled under God’s feet.

It’s Final!

The justified believer does not need to do anything more in order to have intimate community with God or enter into heaven. It is through the believer’s faith, and the justification before God that comes with faith, that we are made to be “without blemish and free from accusation.” (Colossians 1:22) This means that those who are in Christ never need to worry if God will suddenly decide they aren’t “good enough” to go to heaven or continue enjoying a relationship with him. He will never give them up, seeing them as a lost cause that is to be cast aside and never brought to his attention again. When he looks at us, He sees the righteousness of his son instead of the mess and dysfunction of our sin.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.“

Romans 6:23

So What Now?

Look outward instead of inward: When we forget about our justification, we often spend so much time wrapped up in our shame and retreat from the rest of reality to occupy this small, guilty space in our mind like it’s a full-time job. Church, when we spend so much time focused inwardly, we lose the ability to live and serve outwardly.

We stop focusing on that discipling relationship we’ve been fostering with that person in our community. We lose our ability to pick up on the needs and hurts of others in day-to-day interactions. We no longer pray for our others and for the Spirit to guide us in our ministry because we’re too fixated on how sinful and wretched we are. We are too focused on us. Let this knowledge assure you that you are fully justified before God, with your sins trampled under his feet, eradicating your guilt. Let it free you from your prison of despair so you may go and let God use you to make disciples in the way he designed you to! Your sins are gone; you’ve been set free.

Jailbreak: In most instances, assisting prisoners in breaking out of jail is a highly illegal and ill-advised pastime. There is one kind of jailbreak, however, that scripture fully endorses, and that is helping others break from the prison of their sin.

In any given community, the majority of people do not have a deep, intimate relationship with Christ. They are still bound and shackled by their sin. That is why you, driven by a fervent love and thankfulness for the freedom from sin Christ has given you, are called to go and make disciples of them! You are called to go and tell them of the God who breaks every chain that binds us. So think hard—in what way is God wanting to use you to break others out of prison? Who is there in your life you can invest in? If you can’t immediately discern anyone, pray to God that He would help you. The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.“

Romans 3:23-24

We love superhero movies. The box-office numbers tell us that they are the most popular movies world-wide. I remember for me the superhero movie craze started in 1978 with the release of Superman played by Christopher Reeve. It was the highest grossing film of the year and the most successful film Warner Bring others had made at the time. Though having purchased and read several Superman comic books, I now saw the mild mannered reporter of the Daily Planet, Clark Kent, saving the day on the big screen. The thing about Superman is that he looked like an ordinary man, but in reality he wasn’t. He was another kind of being from the planet Krypton. Superman was able to save people precisely because he wasn’t human.

When it comes to the person of Christ, however, things are very different. Jesus Christ was truly divine, but he was also truly human. He was able to save us because he fully and completely took on our humanity. Because divinity took on our humanity, God was able to enter our planet to reassert his reign over his creation and reverse the effects of the cosmic rebellion against him.

In this article, we want to understand how Jesus, in his divinity, took on human nature and why this is essential for restoring people and the world back to God’s plan.

The Humanity of Jesus

The writer of Hebrews informs us that Jesus became truly human:

^{14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants.}

Hebrews 2:14-16

This remarkable section of the Bible, uses the very raw language of “flesh and blood,” to heighten the point that Jesus was a real human being, just like us. This is the clear and profound testimony regarding Jesus in the scripture. Jesus took on himself all that it means to be human—with the exception of sin.

He was born an infant.  The circumstances of Jesus’s conception were obviously miraculous. He was conceived by Mary through the Holy Spirit without a human father. But the nature that was created by God in the womb of the virgin was undeniably human. The savior shared in Mary’s humanity and is, in this way, truly the offspring of Abraham and David—indeed, the offspring of the first woman, Eve, the mother of all the living. Although his conception was miraculous, his birth was typically human.

He grew and developed as a man.  Jesus experienced ordinary human growth and development. We read that when his family returned to Nazareth:

“…the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.”

Luke 2:40

Jesus grew intellectually, physically, spiritually, and relationally through all of the phases of childhood and adolescence.

He experienced the limitations of being human.  The human nature that Jesus assumed in his incarnation was free from any stain of sin or corruption, but it nevertheless possessed all the marks of ordinary humanity: hunger (Matt 4:2), thirst (John 4:7), physical weariness (John 4:6). There are indications in the Gospels that Jesus did not possess omniscience (all-knowing ability) in his human mind. For example, he asked who had touched him when power went out from him to heal the woman with an issue of blood. (Mark 5:30) He, also declared to his disciples that he did not know the day or the hour of his return. (Mark 13:32)

He was tempted. The New Testament makes it clear that Jesus never sinned, but he was truly tempted and “suffered” in his temptations.

“Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Hebrews 2:18

He suffered, died, buried and was raised in his humanity.  Christ’s suffering, death, and burial also highlight his humanity. In his divine nature Jesus did not die; he is immortal. But because God the Son assumed humanity, he was capable of suffering and death as a part of his atoning work. He was raised in the same body in which he died, only now in glorified, immortal life.

He continues his kingly and priestly work. The Son’s incarnation had a beginning in human history, but it has no end. He continues to reign as the exalted Son of God from the Father’s right hand (Romans 1:4; Colossians 3:1) and to make intercession for us.

“…but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Hebrews 7:24–25

He will return in his humanity.  When Jesus ascended to heaven, the angel announced to the apostles that Christ would return just has he had been taken up into heaven.

“This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”

Acts 1:11

Jesus did not shed his humanity like a garment when he entered the clouds. He remains a glorified human being and will return personally and visibly on the last day.

Historical Denial of Jesus’ Humanity

As we have just seen, the truth of Scripture is very clear regarding the humanity of Jesus. Early on as the church was emerging, in the first century, Jesus’s humanity was placed into question by some. It seemed impossible to these that divinity would take on humanity. One of the most notable of these views was known as Docetism. Docetists—from the Greek work dokeo (“to seem”)—argued that Jesus only appeared, like Superman, to be human. He really was not truly mortal. The Docetists were absolutely convinced of his divinity (which is a good thing); they were also equally convinced that God could never take on the limitations of human flesh. But the earliest Christians plainly and repeatedly condemned this misunderstanding. The apostle John even makes Jesus’s humanity a test of true belief:

“This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.“

1 John 4:2-3

Jesus Did You Know?

On the other side there were those who questioned Jesus’s deity. These sometimes wondered, “If Jesus was God how could he be ignorant about such things as the timing of his return to earth?” This goes squarely against a necessary quality of deity: omniscience. (The ability to know all things.) How could Jesus confess ignorance and be God?

To answer this, let’s start with Paul’s great description of how Christ became human:

“Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.”

Philippians 2:6-7

Paul teaches that Christ “being in very nature God…made himself nothing by…being made in human likeness.” He did this not by losing his divine nature, but by “taking the very nature of a servant.” Jesus took on the union of two complete natures “without confusion, without change, without division, without separation,” as an ancient teaching declares. So how does understanding this help us with the question of Jesus’s confessed ignorance? Jesus laid aside the voluntary use of some of his divine power as far as his human nature was concerned. His human nature did not limit the divine. He did not lose his omniscience. Yet, Jesus’ human mind doesn’t become omniscient—just as his body doesn’t become omnipresent. In Jesus’ divinity he was able to limit what he knew in his humanity.

Theologian Blair Smith explains:

What that means is that these natures don’t switch on and off by some toggle-switch deep within Jesus’s consciousness. Rather, these natures with all their properties commune within the one person who then performs actions according to both natures….It certainly appears that one nature is more reflected in certain actions than others. For example, sleeping in a boat reflects his human nature, and walking on water reflects his divine. Yet, while sleeping in a boat he upheld the world as the second person of the Trinity, and while walking on water he used real human feet…In his human nature, he at times seems to demonstrate access to supernatural knowledge, but at other times operates within the limitations of human knowledge.

Why Jesus’ Humanity Matters?

He is our representative.

Why does Jesus’ humanity matter? The Hebrews passage, cited earlier, clearly answers that question: “for surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.” (Hebrews 2:16) In other words, Jesus could only represent humans if he became a human—a real human. And if he cannot represent us, then he cannot redeem us. The early church fathers who came after the apostles often used a phrase: “That which is not assumed is not saved.” Our salvation is as dependent on Jesus, in his divinity, taking on (assuming) our humanity in order to redeem us.

He understands us.

We need someone who knows what it is like to live in a dark and fallen world. Since Jesus became just like us, he experienced the life humans live. Again, the author of Hebrews:

“For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.”

Hebrews 2:17

When you think of the many hardships of a human life, Jesus experienced them.

• Temptation (Matthew 4:1–11)
• Sorrow (Matthew 26:38)
• Anger (Mark 3:5)
• Rejection by his family (Mark 3:21)
• False accusation (Mark 14:56)
• Betrayed by a friend (Luke 22:47)
• Desperation (Luke 22:44)
• Grief at a funeral (John 11:35)

When we struggle with life in a fallen world, no one can say, “Jesus doesn’t understand what it’s like.” Yes, he does. He lived a real human life and joined us in the muck and mire of a broken world. But there is one difference. There is a place where Jesus is not like us. He remained sinless.

He is an example to us.

The apostle Peter provides this encouragement:

²¹ To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. ²² “He committed no sin,
 and no deceit was found in his mouth.” ²³ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴ “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” 

1 Peter 2:21-24

Someone eternally greater than superman is here. In the end, we don’t have a Superman Jesus. We have someone better. We have a Savior who shared in our infirmities and weaknesses that we may share in his salvation.

Conclusion

“The incarnation was not the eternal Son’s abdication of his universal empire, but the reassertion of that empire over rebellious creation.”

David Willis

The incarnation is an addition to deity, not a subtraction. The eternal Son of God does not shrink down to a tiny embryo, leaving his divine majesty behind him. Rather, he comes to us while remaining all he is. He is in a manger, yet fills the heavens he created. He clings to his mother, yet holds the universe in place. Sleeping among the livestock, yet worshiped and adored by the angels.

As the great Christmas hymn declares:

 Veiled in flesh the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate Deity.

For Further Equipping:

Memorize: 1 John 4:2

Additional Reading:

How Can Jesus Be God and Man?

The traditional Christmas carol asks the question: What Child Is This? Great question. Did you know that over four million babies are born in the United States each year? The most popular day for babies to make their entrance into this world is Tuesdays—at least according to recent statistics. The next most popular day is Monday. Sunday is the slowest day, with 35.1 fewer births than average. The most “popular” month be born is September.  (I am proof of that!)  When we think about all the new babies and giving birth, it happens so often that we have to ask some fundamental questions: Why is this Child—the Child that we celebrate every Christmas—so special?  Four million babies enter the world in the United States in one year, and we sing about one child born over two thousand years ago, far away in the Middle East. So what’s the big deal about this one? 

There are three stand out qualities which make this child a big deal:  

1. This baby’s birth was foretold 700 years before it happened.  
2. This baby was born of a virgin. 
3. This baby would bring the presence of God to earth in a greater way.  

Big Deal # 1: Foretold 700 Years Before the Event  

Approximately seven hundred years prior to the birth of Jesus, Isaiah gave this prophecy:

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Isaiah 7:14

The circumstance of the prophecy involved a king named Ahaz (reign was 735 to 731 BC), who was king over Jerusalem and the surrounding area of Judah, and had his reign threatened with an attack from two other kings. These rulers were Rezin (Aram) and Pekah (Israel to the north). This threat had shaken the people of Judah, “as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.” (v.2) Isaiah was summoned by God to tell Ahaz, “Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid.” (v.4)  Ahaz was given reassurance that his kingdom would not be overtaken; nevertheless, Ahaz and Judah were apparently not able to overcome their fear.  So, the Lord commanded Ahaz, “Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.” (v.11) Out of asking for this sign, God announces what it will be: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and  will call him Immanuel.” (v.14)  This sign is ultimately the prophecy of the virgin birth of Jesus which Matthew references in Matthew 1:23: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Some encounter this passage with a skepticism, responding that Ahaz’s situation was not about the virgin birth, making the prophecy irrelevant. This criticism contains a small measure of truth. The prophecy related only partially to Ahaz. Its greater and ultimate fulfillment is in the birth of Jesus. What the criticism fails to understand is that when prophecies were given it wasn’t assumed or expected that every detail would be fulfilled in that immediate or near future. They were often fulfilled in stages or layers. This is what is known as a double or multiple fulfillment. In a Sesame Street episode, the friendly blue character, Grover, teaches kids the difference between “near” and “far.” He begins close to the camera saying “near,” and then runs away yelling “faaaaaar.” His lesson is helpful in how we learn to read prophecy. Prophecies often have a near (partial) fulfillment that applies directly to their hearers as well as a far (ultimate) fulfillment related directly to Jesus. And so it is here in Isaiah 7:14. The immediate fulfillment is that there’s going to be a child. It’s Isaiah’s son with his wife, even though she’s not a virgin, and the child is not technically Emmanuel. His name is Maher-shalal-hash-baz. (Isaiah 8:1-4) It was, nonetheless, a sign that God was with them because it was a divinely ordained birth pointing to the fact that God would protect Judah. The ultimate fulfillment, however, will be with the virgin birth of Jesus.

Big Deal # 2: Virgin Birth

But then another objection is levelled to the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 in relation to the virgin birth. It is claimed that Isaiah did not mean virgin but a “young woman” of marriageable age. In response consider this. The word in Hebrew translated “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14 is “almah” in Hebrew. It occurs nine times in the Old Testament. It’s used in Psalm 46:1 and 1 Chronicles 15:20 as a musical term whose meaning is not clear. Psalm 68:25 speaks of young women playing the tambourine. Proverbs 30:19 speaks of the way of a man with a maiden, and it may or may not be a virgin. Song of Songs 1:3, most likely is speaking of single and unmarried virgins when the writer expresses, “no wonder the maidens love you.” Song of Songs 6:8 speaks of “virgins beyond number.” Genesis 24:43 and Exodus 2:8, speaking of Rebekah and Miriam, are clearly referencing unmarried virgin women. Those are all the occurrences of this Hebrew word “almah” in the Old Testament. On some occasions, it’s unclear whether it means virgin or not. But in every instance, when the context is clear, it means unmarried virgin women. Old Testament scholar, Alec Motyer, sums up the evidence this way:

Alma lies closer to this meaning than the other word. In fact, this is its meaning in every explicit context. Isaiah thus used the word which, among those available to him, came nearest to expressing ‘virgin birth’ and which…opens the door to such a meaning.

Further, the Greek word used in the Septuagint (Old Testament translated into Greek two centuries before Christ) in Isaiah 7:14 is the word “parthenos,” which clearly means virgin. Parenthos is what Matthew uses in his gospel in Matthew 1:23. The Septuagint was considered an authoritative translation for the Jews, who were commonly speaking Greek in many regions outside Israel, by the time of Jesus. The New Testament writers often quote the Septuagint. There is no way that the Jews who translated the Septuagint would have translated almah in Isaiah 7:14 as parthenos unless the word really meant virgin. There wasn’t much of an expectation for a virgin birth in the theology of the Jews, so they weren’t reading their hopes back into the verse. It would have been easier to translate the prophecy as “young woman” (Greek would be numphe) because that is much easier to find a young woman giving birth than a virgin. There was no good reason to think that the translators just put virgin into the text unless they were giving an accurate understanding of the word.

Big Deal # 3: God Is Closer as Emmanuel

The Son of God became conceived and born as a human. This means that the second person of the Trinity became forever wedded to human nature. This is for all time. That means that a man, the resurrected Jesus, sits at God’s right hand as the King over universe as a man. In becoming a man as we are, the Savior did not cease to be God, as he has always been. In the virgin birth there is now the uniting fullness of deity and the fullness of humanity. Jesus, the Son of God, born to Mary, comes to us as a man but he does not come to us in the line of Adam’s fallen sinfulness. Because of the virgin birth Jesus is not born with a sin nature. He can now live a sinless life and redeem humanity from sin. As the ancient theologian Athanasius so simply conveyed, “[Jesus] became what we are that he might make us what he is.” Because of the virgin birth we may become children, yes family, of the living God.

What Difference Does This Make?

God has demonstrated our value.

Our faith is based on a real history of God coming into our world. Emmanuel is “God with us,” literally. This is not just a great idea about God which gives psychological meaning. This is not just an inspiring fantasy story like “Lord of the Rings” or “The Chronicles of Narnia.” It is not a moral tale like an Aesop’s fable. The Christmas story isn’t to just inspire us to a better way of living; it expresses a whole new reality of how we connect with God. It is a reality that matters in the most personal way because it happened. God became flesh. Jesus is not introduced by the gospel writers with “once upon a time” or “in a land far away.” He was born:

• on our earth
• in one of our countries
• in one of our villages
• to one of our stables
• to our calendars
• to our clocks
• to our way of organizing schedules

Jesus counted birthdays and spoke of the days of the week and lived in terms of bedtime and get-up time and work days and days off. Christ who had lived in all of the expanses of an timeless eternity became caged in space and time.  Bono, the lead singer for U2, attended a Christmas Eve service one year in Dublin. At some point in that service, he grasped the truth at the heart of the Christmas story: in Jesus, God became a human being. With tears streaming down his face, the legendary singer later wrote:

The idea that God, if there is a force of Love and Logic in the universe, that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough. That it would seek to explain itself by becoming a child born in poverty … and straw, a child, I just thought, “Wow!” Just the poetry … I saw the genius of picking a particular point in time and deciding to turn on this … Love needs to find a form, intimacy needs to be whispered … Love has to become an action or something concrete. It would have to happen. There must be an incarnation. Love must be made flesh.

Yes…LOVE MUST BE MADE FLESH.

God has demonstrated our significance.

To quote another musician, Ariana Grande, “The universe has a plan, sometimes it’s a really #%$# gnarly plan but nonetheless, it still has a plan.” Yes, the is a larger plan, indeed. The coming of Christ shows that this plan behind the universe has a name and is just as personal as we are. This purpose–our purpose–centers around this person, Jesus.

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind

John 1:1-4

Think about the “beginning,” as John expresses. Before there were vast black holes sucking matter into the staggering abyss of space; before there existed stardust and subatomic particles forming matter and energy; before there was time or space; there was only and always God. This God was and is infinite in being and perfection, immense, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, and not standing in need of any creatures. This God has always existed, and there was no time he did not.  Imagine 10,000 years ago or ten million or how about a billion years ago or a trillion or a billion trillion years ago? No matter how far back in our wildest imagination any of us can go back, the beginning was before that. Here is the crazy thing…In all of this time, there was never a point that God did not have you in mind and your purpose mapped out on the planet earth.  No matter the circumstances of your birth.  You were no accident. God became fully human, just like us, to show in the clearest way that each of our lives eternally matter. Through a relational connection with God, we can extend God’s light in darkness through carrying out the mission of Jesus: restoring the world from brokenness of sin to God’s original plan.

For Further Equipping:

Memorize: Isaiah 7:14

Additional Reading:

The Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ

Christians spend a lot of time immersed in the New Testament. In our personal study time, we read the epistles of Paul, drawing hope from his encouragements to the early Christian Church as well as implementing necessary changes in our lives from his admonitions and warnings. We celebrate Easter and Christmas, two major holidays based on seismic events taking place in the New Testament, and we reflect on their meaning. We go to any given church service on any given Sunday morning, and chances are, the sermon will be on a New Testament book.

This makes sense. We are comfortable with the New Testament. Within its pages we find the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is the central message of the entire Bible and the culmination of God’s mission to restore the brokenness of creation. However, the Old Testament is also vitally important because all of it leads to Jesus. I’ll say it again: it is not just the New that is about Jesus—the Old Testament is too. God’s plan to restore the brokenness of creation has been the same from the very beginning. This is made abundantly clear through biblical types and antitypes, also referred to as typology.

What are Types?

A type can refer to an event, person, or object in the Old Testament that points to the life, death, Person, and work of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. For example, Jonah is a type of Christ in that he spent three days submerged within the darkness of the great fish that swallowed him, only for him to emerge from his watery prison three days later through the deliverance of God. See how this symbolizes Christ? Jesus Christ spent three days dead from his crucifixion, only for him to emerge from the darkness of his tomb three days later. This fulfillment, so to speak, of the Old Testament type we see in Jonah, is called the antitype. Jesus Christ emerging from the tomb is the antitype of Jonah emerging from the fish.

It is worth noting that types and antitypes do not have to specifically relate to Christ. They can pertain to other aspects of God as well, but this article is focused on types of Jesus Christ. With that in mind, let’s dive into some profound examples of types and antitypes and explore their beautiful implications.

Examples of Types

Melchizedek

“Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God most high, and he blessed Abram, saying, ‘Blessed be Abram by God most high, Creator of heaven and earth, and praise be to God most high, who delivered your enemies into your hand.‘”

Genesis 14:18-20

Not much is known about the mysterious man named Melchizedek. He has only a handful of sentences dedicated to him within Genesis 14, and later authors of scripture will discuss his significance. Despite his unknown backstory and lineage, however, he is a powerful type of Christ.

He shows up after Abram rescues Lot from hostile foreign forces, introduced as the king of Salem, which would one day be Jerusalem. He is described as a “priest of God most high,” as you just read, and his name translates to “king of righteousness,” or “my king is righteousness.” This title is given to him even though he is not a Levite, who under Mosaic Law were the only ones eligible for priesthood (the Mosaic Law did not exist at the time of this passage).

All these attributes point to Christ, the antitype of Melchizedek. Consider how Melchizedek was the king of what would one day become Jerusalem; Jesus is the definitive and eternal king of Jerusalem. Melchizedek was a righteous high priest of God who was not in the line of the Levites, and Jesus is the perfect high priest of God, also not a Levite, who mediates for mankind before God, gifting us mercy, grace, and hope. Consider what the writer of Hebrews has to say about this comparison.

“If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood—and indeed the law given to the people stablished that priesthood—why was there still need for another priest to come [Jesus], one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron [a Levite]?”

Hebrews 7:11

“And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears [Jesus], one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.”

Hebrews 7:15-16

Abraham, Isaac, the Mountain, and the Ram

Our next example of biblical typology comes only a handful of chapters later in Genesis 22:1-14. The story of God’s test of Abraham by commanding him to travel to a mountain and sacrifice Isaac offers multiple types of Christ; in fact, so many elements of this passage point to Christ that one might say the story itself is one big type of Jesus.

The story is too long for a direct quote, but the basic premise is this: On the way up the mountain, Isaac asks Abraham what animal they will use to sacrifice, to which Abraham simply states that the Lord will provide. Abraham later binds Isaac up, sets him on the altar, and prepares to slay his son. At the last moment, however, the angel of the Lord stops Abraham from doing so, instead directing him to sacrifice a ram caught in a nearby thicket. Grateful that he doesn’t have to sacrifice his son, Abraham names the site “The Lord will provide.”

There’s a bit to unpack here. Firstly, consider Isaac: he is a type of Christ because he is Abraham’s son, and he must be offered as a sacrifice, whereas sonship is also an integral part of Jesus’ identity, and He is the ultimate sacrifice. The ram caught in the thickets is a type of Christ in that it is slaughtered in place of Isaac, just as Jesus suffered in place of us all. This sequence of events occurs on an elevated area above the ground, a mountain, and Jesus’ crucifixion occurs on an elevated area above the ground on a hill. Finally, in this passage, Abraham states that “God will provide the lamb for the burnt offering,” and later names the sacrificial site “The Lord Will Provide.” Verse fourteen even declares that “to this day it is said ‘On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.’” Well, what happened about two thousand years after the events taking place here? The Lord did provide the lamb: he sent Jesus Christ to die for us.

The Passover Lamb

“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ‘This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the members of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs.'”

Exodus 12:1-7

This is perhaps one of the more sobering types of Christ, but it is nonetheless beautiful and effective. In order to save their firstborn children from the coming Angel of Death, who was on its way to kill the oldest child in each Egyptian household, the Israelites needed to slaughter a lamb and cover their doorway with its blood so death would “pass over” them.

The parallels to Jesus here are unmistakable. Think about it—the animal the Israelites had to sacrifice was a lamb. Jesus is referred to as the Lamb in scripture on numerous occasions (John 1:29, Isaiah 53:7, 1 Peter 1:19). In order to save their firstborns from death, the Israelites needed to cover their doorway with the blood of the lamb, and in order for us to be saved from eternal death, the blood of Christ must cover us. The Israelites had to eat the lamb; Christ has us partake in communion, in which the elements of bread and wine symbolize his flesh and blood respectively, to remember his body which was broken for all mankind (Luke 22:14-20).

So Why Does This Matter?

These are just three of many, many types that fill the pages of the Old Testament. They are certainly fascinating, but one may wonder why they matter. What’s the purpose of pointing these out? For one, they demonstrate centrality of Christ to the Bible. Make no mistake: the Bible, in its entirety, is about Jesus Christ the Messiah. Both testaments are built around him. The Old Testament demonstrates to us the need for Christ. It tells us of how humanity fell into sin and brokenness, the staggering weight of the Law, humanity’s need for redemption and a savior, and God’s plan to establish Israel as a nation that will offer hope and deliverance to the broken world.

The New Testament tells us about the fulfillment of God’s plan through Jesus Christ, the freedom from sin and death bestowed by his gift of salvation, the mission of the Church now that this has happened, and how we are to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible.

It’s all about Jesus. Types and antitypes of Christ also show us that God has had this plan to rescue us from the very beginning. There was never a time when he wasn’t on a mission to pull his creation out from the mire of suffering, pain, and eternal death. It was his mission when Abraham met Melchizedek. It was his mission when he provided a ram for Abraham and Isaac. It was his mission when he instructed the Israelites to cover their doorway with the blood of the Passover lamb. It was his mission when he sent his son to die for us. It has always, always been the mission of God to redeem his creation through Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, it continues to be his mission today. That is where you and I come in. It is our job today to pass on an obedient relationship with Jesus to our communities, so that we may make disciples who make disciples who make disciples. We must bring the abundance, hope, and redemption of Jesus Christ to as many as will accept it.

That is our mission.

“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.‘”

Matthew 28:16-20

Children often ask, “What does God look like?” It can seem hard to come up with a response, but our best answer to that question is that God looks like Jesus.  Jesus stated, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)  Paul reinforces this idea with the declaration, “The Son is the image of the invisible God…” (Colossians 1:15) When Christmas cycles around each year, we are reminded through holiday traditions like nativities, carols, cards, plays that Jesus was born an infant. Hark! The Herald Angels Sings, celebrates:

Christ, by highest heaven adored, 
Christ, the everlasting Lord, 
late in time behold him come, 
offspring of the Virgin's womb: 
veiled in flesh the Godhead see; 
hail the incarnate Deity, 
pleased with us in flesh to dwell, 
Jesus, our Immanuel.

Christ is celebrated in this song as “everlasting Lord” and “incarnate Deity.” The question, then, arises as to how Jesus could be God and at the same time be born as a son. Was this Jesus, born of Mary, always the Son of God or did he become the Son of God at his incarnation (human birth)? How could Jesus be a Son and be equal to God the Father?  Doesn’t a son come after a father?  Doesn’t a father have parenting authority over a son?  How could Jesus then be equal to the Father when sons are usually lower in authority to fathers? Let’s tackle these questions and lay out their importance.

Sonship of Christ

A great passage in the Bible to approach these questions is Paul’s remarkable description of Jesus in Colossians 1:15-17:  

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:15-17

When it come to Christmas time, the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, laying in the manger, is God himself. Paul declares Jesus “the image of the invisible God.” (Colossians 1:15) The Greek word for image is eikon: it means “mirror-like representation” or a “high-definition projection.” In the days when photography was done on film, there was what was known as the latent image. When a picture was taken a light entered the lens, and it formed an image on the film that couldn’t be seen. If you took the film out at that point, only the latent or barely visible image was seen. It was there but hidden. When the film was put in a liquid developer, what was unseen becomes seen. The Father’s express image is only revealed—developed if you will—in the Son. Paul explains four verses later: “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.” (Colossians 1:19)

Then Paul reveals Jesus to be “the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15) This description has sparked significant debate. What does it mean that Jesus is “firstborn” and how does this shed light on Jesus as the Son of God? Let’s look at three wrong answers to this question and then the historic view of the Christian faith.  

Wrong Answers on Sonship

Wrong Answer # 1: Created Sonship

This idea, which is most commonly held by the Jehovah Witnesses, claims that Jesus was a created being: the created son and not the eternal Son.  This persuasion would see the designation “first born over creation” meaning that Jesus is the first created being. This is a flat out denial of the Trinity which holds that Jesus is co-eternal and co-equal with the Father, which is the testimony of scripture:

No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

John 1:18

…while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ

Titus 2:13 

Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

Romans 9:5

And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

1 John 5:20

Wrong Answer # 2: Modalism (Three Hats View) 

Modalism holds that there is no Trinity; rather, the one God shows himself in three different modes of being. (T.D. Jakes is a prominent pastor who holds to this position.) One way to understand this doctrine is to think of a man who puts on three different hats or roles: the dad hat, the employee hat (e.g. electrician), and the husband hat. He is the same man while wearing three different hats.  In a similar way it is claimed that God is one God while wearing three hats (roles): the Father hat, the Son hat and Holy Spirit hat.  These are not distinct persons but distinct roles or functions.  This persuasion claims Jesus being “the firstborn over creation” means that God showed up in a new hat (form): God the Son. The inaccuracy is that it disregards the very clear relational interactions of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Here the Father speaks while the Holy Spirit descends at Jesus’ baptism:

¹⁶ As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”  

Matthew 3:16-17

Before his crucifixion, Jesus displays the relational interactions between the Father, the Spirit to himself:

¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. 

John 14:16-17

Look how Jesus refers to his relationship to the Father:

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

John 20:17  

The writer of Hebrews communicates clearly:

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

Hebrews 1:3  

Wrong Answer # 3: Incarnational Son  

Some would suggest that Jesus is not the eternal Son but the incarnational Son.  This view asserts that Jesus became the Son of God at his conception/birth but was not the Son from eternity.  This is significantly better than the last two in that it holds that Jesus is a distinct person who is co-eternal and co-equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. It does not deny the nature of Trinity. Its downfall is its denial of the identity of the Trinity. Jesus as Son is a title Jesus assumes rather than who Jesus actually is. Being “the firstborn over creation” means that he took on the role of Son only in relation to redeeming creation.

The Eternal Son

Supreme Honor (v.15)

The historic view of the Christian faith is that Jesus is the Son of God from eternity. There was never a time that he was not the Son; it was essential to his identity and not a title or role he assumed. When Paul refers to Jesus as “the firstborn over creation,” he is using this as a common designation at the time to express that Jesus is supreme over creation. New Testament scholar Donald Guthrie writes, “Firstborn must be understood in the sense of supreme rather than in the temporal sense of born…” William Barclay explains that the Greek word for “firstborn” is rarely used in any other sense but to mean the privilege of a firstborn son who is pre-eminent or supreme. Firstborn, then, refers only to Jesus’ perfect supremacy in his manhood and deity over creation.

Supreme Creator (vs. 16-17)

Paul then affirms:

 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things…

Colossians 1:16-17

We see that Jesus, as the Creator, was the Son at creation, not after when he entered Mary’s womb. Plant your flag for the age of the universe as far back as you’d like and Jesus will step out of eternity to meet you. In the great prophecy of Jesus’ earthly origins being from Bethlehem, it reveals that his ultimate origins are from the days of eternity:

But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, 
Too little to be among the clans of Judah, 
From you One will come forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. 
His times of coming forth are from long ago, 
From the days of eternity. --Micah 5:2

Supreme Sustainer

Next, Paul makes this astounding declaration:

…and in him all things hold together. 

Colossians 1:17

The verb tense Paul uses for hold indicates that Jesus continues to hold all things together. The basic element of life is an atom. Atoms consist of protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons and neutrons, because of their similar electric charges, should pull away from each other causing life to fundamentally fall apart. Particle physicists tell us that they don’t because there is a strong nuclear force which holds them together. Whatever truth there is to this, we know that the constant which empowers these forces to function, keeping even atoms together, is Jesus Christ, the sustainer of all things. He has put the laws in place which keep the universe functioning. What would happen if he released his grasp or hold? Everything would fly apart. Here is the wonder of Christmas: the baby in the manger is the eternal Son holding the entire universe together.

Why Is Jesus As Eternal Son Important?

¹³ This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.

1 John 4:13-15

God maintains his eternal identity.

As John testifies that “the Father has sent his Son to be Savior of the world.” (1 John 4:14) Because of this sending of the Son, God “has given us his Spirit.” (1 John 4:13) This affirmation is central to God’s life being in us and our lives being in God. (1 John 4:15) Jesus from eternity has been the “sent one.” God is eternally three distinct persons with three distinct names: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Without eternal Sonship we end up with a nameless Trinity prior to the incarnation. God would have then revealed himself only by titles or roles that he became, not by who he is from eternity. He is the Son because he has always been the “sent one” from the Father. The Father nor the Holy Spirit could have been sent to be born of Mary. Only Jesus, as the eternal Son, could do this.

To follow Jesus means that we will be on mission, as well:

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

John 20:21

God manifests his eternal identity.

T.F. Torrance, one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century, served as a chaplain during World War II. One day, on a battlefield in Italy, he attended to a dying nineteen-year-old soldier. The dying man asked him, “Is God really like Jesus?” For Torrance, this question captured “the deepest cry of the human heart”–is the God that we’ll meet on the other side of the death the same God that came to earth as a lowly babe? Torrance assured the dying man with these words: “God is indeed really like Jesus. There is no unknown God behind the back of Jesus for us to fear. To see the Lord Jesus is to see the very face of God.”

When we see Jesus as the Son of God in the manger, we see the very God who has existed in relation to the Father and the Holy Spirit, sent to us from everlasting to everlasting. That infant in the manger who was holding the universe together can continue to hold your life together as you place your trust in him.

For further equipping:

Memorize: John 1:14

Additional reading:

What is the doctrine of eternal Sonship and is it biblical?

The Trinity: Does It make Sense?