Jesus, Not Just a Man
by D.G. Miles McKee
It’s
not enough to believe that, as one preacher said, ‘Christ did something
or other, which, somehow or other, had some connection or other with
salvation.’ What a ridiculous statement. The poor man had no clue about
the Gospel and Christ’s Finished Work. He and his congregation were
going nowhere. Why? Because real faith, gospel faith, comes through
the unadulterated preaching of the gospel (Romans 10:17).
As
the gospel is preached, the Holy Spirit generates faith. And genuine
faith will cause us to embrace that God became a man. Not only did He
become a man, He became our Man. Faith sees that the God-Man, Christ
Jesus, became our representative … the one who acted on our behalf.
Faith now causes us to say, “When He lived, I lived, when He died, I
died and when He rose again, I rose again.” When the gospel is
proclaimed and applied, faith sees we were in Christ when everything was
redemptively accomplished. The believer can now, by faith, say ‘I have lived a perfect life because I lived it in Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago.’
Faith
also causes the believer to say ‘I was legally punished, executed and
buried 2000 years ago in Christ Jesus.’ In addition, true believers can
also say that in Christ they rose again in newness of life and ascended
into glory and, in Christ, sat down at the ultimate place of favour
(Ephesians 2:5-6).
Also,
in Christ, God purged and perfected us: In Christ, we have been taken,
not to the woodshed but to the throne of grace. Faith will cause us to
embrace that we are,
“Buried with Him in
baptism wherein you are risen with Him through the faith of the
operation of God Who has raised Him from the dead. And you being dead in
your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh has He quickened (made
alive) together with Him having forgiven you all trespasses" (Colossians 2:12-13).
By
faith, we see we are risen with Christ and now by faith we may seek
those things which are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of
God. We now are free to set our affection on things above not on things
on the earth. For by faith, we see we are dead and our life is hidden
with Christ in God (see Colossians 2:12-13, 3:1-3).
Gospel
mercies declare that we have been washed clean in Jesus Christ and by
grace have been taken into perfect fellowship with God. The good news is
not “here are five steps to maturity” or “here are seven steps for
growth”. The good news, when rightly preached and applied, is that the
work of redemption is finished, and ‘in Christ’ believers are already
complete (Colossians 2:10).
The
gospel declares that God Himself broke into human history in the person
of the Lord Jesus. He became our representative. What a demonstration
of His amazing love. That He would become one of us is almost too hard
to fathom. This event must shout volumes even to the deafest among us,
for it declares that God is not against us … for how can He be, seeing
He has become one of us? He has become so identified with His people
that every redemptive thing He did was not only for us but was exactly
the same as if we had done it.
For example, I needed to strive with sin
and win but failed so Jesus did it in my place. I had a great enemy,
Satan, who wished to kill me and could have, but Jesus, on my behalf and
in my place, destroyed his power. Faith can now boldly say, “I have won
this fight and victory because I have already won it in Christ.” The
final enemy I will face is death, but Jesus went into its very jaws and
defeated it. Faith makes me confess that, in Christ, I have already
conquered death and the reality of this confession will be finally seen
at the day of resurrection.
And that’s the Gospel Truth!
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