"GOD’S ONLY BEGOTTEN SON IS OUR LORD ."

33. Q. Why is He called God's only begotten Son, since we also are children of God?
A. Because Christ alone is the eternal, natural Son of God.[1] We, however, are children of God by adoption, through grace, for Christ's sake.[2]
[1] John 1:1-3, 14, 18; 3:16; Rom. 8:32; Heb. 1; I John 4:9. [2] John 1:12; Rom. 8:14-17; Gal. 4:6; Eph. 1:5, 6.

34. Q. Why do you call Him our Lord?
A. Because He has ransomed us, body and soul,[1] from all our sins, not with silver or gold but with His precious blood,[2] and has freed us from all the power of the devil to make us His own possession.[3]
[1] I Cor. 6:20; I Tim. 2:5, 6. [2] I Peter 1:18, 19. [3] Col. 1:13, 14; Heb. 2:14, 15

Scripture Reading:
Luke 2:8-20
Acts 2:29-36

Singing:  (Psalms and Hymns are from the "Book of Praise" Anglo Genevan Psalter)
Psalm 98:1
Psalm 110:1,2
Psalm 121:1,2
Hymn 19:1,2,4
Hymn 60:1,2,5

Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ!

In the brokenness of this life we struggle time and again with our sense of self-worth. The one battles with it more than the other, the one also battles with it more openly than the other does, but in our heart of hearts we all have those moments when we don’t like ourselves.

The Lord God comes to us with His revelation about Himself, and His saving work in Jesus Christ. God’s revelation about Himself addresses us also on the matter of how we see ourselves, what thoughts we are to have about ourselves. Last week, when we spoke about our office as kings, I said that God created us to have dominion over all creation, and the point includes that we are to control our thoughts and moods and attitudes. Well now, congregation, God’s revelation of Himself as we confess it in Lord’s Day 13 gives us grounds to know that we are very special in His eyes. That’s a reality we need to work with when we struggle with our sense of self-worth.

I summarize the sermon with this theme:

The Scriptures call Jesus Christ the ‘only begotten Son’ of God. I think, for example, of Jesus’ own words in Jn 3: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (vs 16).

The fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God means that He is Himself true God. So: whatever characteristics apply to God apply also to Jesus Christ. Athanasian Creed: "…the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit." So, what the church confesses in Article 1 of the Belgic Confession - that God is "eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, immutable, infinite, almighty, perfectly wise, just, good, and the overflowing fountain of all good"- is true not just of God the Father but also of God the Son. As God’s "only begotten Son," Jesus is true God in every sense the Father is, and therefore that list of characteristics is true with respect to Him also.

It is true: "the only begotten Son of God came to earth in Bethlehem to live amongst men. While He lived on earth so much of these divine characteristics were hidden; the eye of men saw but a man, flesh. But always He was and He remained "the eternal, natural Son of God," yes, true God and therefore eternal, incomprehensible, immutable, almighty, just, good, perfectly wise with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

This confession has a direct bearing on Jesus’ title ‘Lord’. The term ‘Lord’ is used countless times of our Savior in Scripture, with a range of meanings. At the simplest level, the term is the equivalent of ‘Sir’, and simply reflects respect, much in the same way as a student calls his teacher ‘Sir’. I think, for example, of how the Samaritan woman at the well of Sycher addressed Jesus; "Sir," she says in our translation, "give me this water" (Jn 4:15; cf vs 11). More often the term ‘Lord’ involves the notion of authority, similar to the term ‘king’ (Mt 6:24; 21:40). Here our thoughts may go to the custom of centuries ago, where European society had kings and barons and lords and knights, and the common people looked up to these kings and lords, obeyed them. With this understanding of the word ‘Lord’ we come close to the material of our Lord’s Day, where we confess that Jesus Christ has ransomed us so that we are "His own possession." He’s our Master, He’s our Owner – Lord.

Valuable as this comparison with the figures of history may be, brothers and sisters, it does not do justice to what the Lord has revealed about the term ‘Lord’ in the Bible. If you will bear with me for a moment, I need to tell you something about the Hebrew and Greek languages. You are aware that in our translations of the Old Testament the term ‘Lord’ appears in two forms. You find it printed in your Bibles in lower case letters, and then the term captures the notion of master; it translates the Hebrew word Adonai. So a servant addresses the king with the term ‘My Lord’. That same phrase also gets used in relation to God, and the point is that someone addresses God as his Master, his Owner.

But the Old Testament also has thousands of instances where the term ‘Lord’ appears in upper case letters. We’ve heard it numerous times in the past; where the term ‘Lord’ appears in capital letters in our translations, the Hebrew has the word ‘Yahweh’, God’s covenant name. We understand that this name ‘Lord’, Yahweh, is used of God Almighty alone.

Well now, the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek not all that long after the Old Testament was completed a couple of centuries before Jesus’ birth. The thing is now that the translators chose to use one Greek word to translate both of those Hebrew words. Both the Hebrew word ‘Adonai’ and the Hebrew word ‘Yahweh’ comes into Greek as ‘kurios’. And that term is consistently translated in the New Testament with the English word ‘Lord’.

What that means? On the night of Jesus’ birth an angel appeared to the shepherds in the field, with the good news that "there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). What did that sentence mean to the shepherds? The angel says that the baby is the ‘kurios’, is ‘the Lord’. These shepherds hear that term with their Old Testament ears, and what do they hear: that a master is born, the equivalent of a king? Or do they hear in the term ‘kurios’ the name of their covenant God, and so conclude that Yahweh is born? Some verses later we read that the shepherds reported their experiences to others, and these others "marveled" (vs 18), and the point is that they were astonished, surprised. Given the Old Testament background to the Greek word ‘kurios’, their astonishment is no surprise to us at all; that the Kurios is born is to say that Yahweh is born – how astonishing!!

I draw your attention also to Elizabeth’s word when Mary came to visit her. Luke 1:43: Elizabeth welcomed Mary with this question: "why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" What does Elizabeth mean with the term ‘Kurios’ here? Simply that the child in Mary’s womb is her Master, is a king? Given that the Greek term ‘kurios’ translates the Old Testament term ‘Yahweh’ there is certainly more caught in Elizabeth’s greeting than an acknowledgement that the coming baby is some form of royalty. Here’s an awareness that Yahweh Himself comes in the flesh! The only begotten Son of God, true God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, becomes a man; Yahweh on the face of the earth!!

This understanding of the term ‘Lord’, brothers and sisters, gives profound depth to what God’s covenant with sinners is really all about. Almighty God had established a covenant of love with people in the Garden of Eden, bound Himself to people as their God, made these people His children. But with the fall into sin the human race rejected God, broke that covenant, and joined the devil. But God is ‘Yahweh’, is the I am who I am, and the point is that He does what He says He’ll do, is faithful to His promises. He had bound Himself with a covenant of love to the human race, and so directly after the fall He remained faithful to that covenant – with its promises and its obligations. The promise was that if man would eat of the forbidden fruit, man would die – eternally. Yet God wished to be God for people, and wanted people to be His children. So the Lord promised that the Seed of the Woman would take on Himself the punishment that people deserve, so that God’s children might go free. But who would that Seed of the Woman be? Indeed, it would be God Himself, in the Person of His Son. Yahweh, God of the covenant, sent His Son to earth in order to ransom from Satan’s power those whom God chose to eternal life. This Son of God when He came to earth remained true God, and therefore the title ‘Yahweh’ belonged to Him also, yes, that’s why the angel calls Him ‘Kurios’, ‘Yahweh’. In maintaining His covenant with sinners God went that far to demonstrate His faithfulness to His covenant promises!

The ‘Kurios’ lived on earth as true man for some 33 years. True, the human eye did not see that He was true God, Yahweh in the flesh; the human eye saw only a man, be it one who could raise the dead and still the storms at sea. But ‘Yahweh’ He was, the God of the covenant come in the flesh. That is why, on the cross of Calvary, He could fight against sin and the devil, and triumph, yes, that is why on the cross of Calvary He could pay for sin with the price of His blood, and so ransom God’s children from the power of the devil. Here is displayed the radical faithfulness of God to the promises He made in the beginning; He is Yahweh, thoroughly faithful!

So, after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, the disciples Thomas met Him with his statement of faith; "my Lord and my God," he said of Jesus. He uses the word ‘Lord’, ‘Kurios’, and sets the term side by side with the term ‘God’, and so there is no ambiguity as to what Thomas meant when he called Jesus his ‘Kurios’; He was deliberately attaching to Jesus the Old Testament personal name of God, ‘Yahweh’. That Jesus should suffer and die on the cross to pay for sin, and so deliver Thomas from Satan’s power: here is pointed up the glorious heights of what it means that the Lord God is Yahweh, God of the covenant! Exactly because this covenant God is so faithful is salvation so very certain for Thomas – and for all who believe!

Some short weeks after Thomas’ confession about Jesus’ identity, God the Father took the triumphant Christ into heaven, and gave Him a seat at His right hand. On the day of Pentecost the apostle Peter described to his hearers what the significance was of this ascension. Said Peter: "let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36). Here again you have the word ‘Kurios’. This time, though, it appears in the context of Peter’s quote from Ps 110, about the Lord God saying, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make your enemies Your footstool." Here the picture is very much that of authority, of being a Master over another. That’s exactly Jesus’ words before His ascension, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Mt 28:18). And that is why John in his vision could see Jesus having a name written on His robe and on His thigh, "King of kings and Lord of lords" (Rev 19:16). But that passage from Acts 2, brothers and sisters, relates far, far more than simply the notion that God gives authority to Jesus of Nazareth. For the One who receives this total authority over every creature of heaven and earth –so, over angels and demons and people and winds!- is none other than the Son of God, Yahweh! In fact, it’s exactly because He is Son of God, Yahweh, that this total authority is given to Him! Kurios He is, Master and Owner, because He is Kurios, Yahweh. And that identity in turn determines how He carries out His function as King of kings and Lord of lords; He rules today as God of the covenant. What He does in governing world history, what He does in governing the weather, what He does in governing the ups and downs of the stock market is all determined by His identity as Kurios, as Yahweh, as God of the covenant.

With the church of all ages we confess that Jesus Christ is ‘our Lord’. We understand it now: here’s a most profound confession. That confession, of course, must have consequences. That’s our second point:

There are, brothers and sisters, two consequences I want to draw out this afternoon. The first relates to safety, the second to service.

So Jesus Christ is our Lord, our Master; we are –as our Lord’s Day says it- "His own possession." In the course of the history of the world there have been numerous lords, many with much property. Stories abound of how the child of one of these lords was kidnapped, held for ransom. Point is: there was a certain danger that came with belonging to a lord.

We belong to the Lord. Are there any risks in that? I mean: do you stand a chance of being kidnapped, snatched away from the power and safety of your Lord?

The answer, of course, is distinctly No. The Lord God has made His covenant of grace with you and me, and so claimed us as His. So deep is His love for His people, and so deep is His commitment to His covenant, that God sent His only begotten Son to pay for our sins. This Son of God –true God, Yahweh- laid down His life to deliver you and me from the bondage of the devil.

So: how important are you in the eyes of God? How special, how valuable to Him? Will He permit us somehow to end up outside His range of interest, so that we are vulnerable to an enemy snatching us from His care? We know the answer: we are His possession, and therefore so special to Him that He never lets us outside His range of care. In fact, our Lord, this ‘Kurios’, has received such power that He Himself guarantees that not a hair can fall from our head apart from the will of our God. More still, precisely because Jesus Christ is the Kurios, Yahweh, does He bind us to Himself and Himself to us with all the love and mercy that characterizes God’s covenant.

It is this reality, brothers and sisters, that produces the glorious confession of Lord’s Day 13. Says the church here, Christ "has ransomed us, body and soul, from all our sins … with His precious blood, and has freed us from all the power of the devil to make us His own possession." Notice: here’s the same drift as Lord’s Day 1. Our only comfort in life and death, we confessed there, is that "I belong with body and soul, both in life and death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and set me free from all the power of the devil." "Possession," says Lord’s Day 13. "Belong," says Lord’s Day 1. Both me: I am the property of the Lord Jesus Christ. And who is this Christ? Says the church in Lord’s Day 13: this Christ is none other than Yahweh! The One who today has all authority in heaven and on earth is the very same One who established with me His covenant of grace. I’m so completely safe with Him because I’m so precious to Him, so precious, in fact, that He laid down His life in order to ransom me from Satan’s power. This almighty God of the covenant will use His infinite power to save me from any attack of the devil. That is why I am safe, completely and perfectly safe in His hands all the time.

Yes, brothers and sisters, this is the faith the Holy Spirit has worked in your hearts and mine, and so we join the church of all ages in confessing Sunday by Sunday that the only begotten Son of God is also our Lord. Exactly because the Holy Spirit has worked this faith in our hearts does the obligation follow that this is a gospel we need to work with concretely as we face the ups and downs of life.

You know how it goes. Time and again it’s our sins that stare us in the face, for we can’t seem to get above our urge to raid the fridge or to let our explosive temper fly or to waste time on the internet. It bothers us, bothers us to the point that we feel useless, worthless; we don’t like ourselves and are sure God doesn’t like us either…, and prayer becomes so difficult, God to our feeling so far away.

But the Lord, beloved, comes to us today to remind us of who He is, and therefore of what we are. Lord He is, our Master, and yet not a small master but the Almighty to whom was given all authority in heaven and on earth. Lord He is, our Master, and yet not a brutal, heartless despot, but Yahweh, the Son of God who keeps the covenant; He even laid down His life to pay for our sins, to ransom us. So: we’re precious, very precious. Shall I then let myself wallow in my feelings of worthlessness, uselessness? No, beloved, No! I’m so valuable to God that the Son gave His life for me!! Now I’m the property of the Lord of lords; surely, I couldn’t be richer! And exactly because He knows how we keep struggling with our sense of self, how we keep staring at our brokenness, He sets before us in His time –next week, in fact- the table of the Lord. He instructs us to sit at that table –why?- to impress on us how much He loves us, how much He gave for us – His blood! He instructs us to sit at table with Him –with who??- the Kurios, the exalted Master who is Himself the God of the covenant! He wants to dine with us –why?- to encourage us in the faith, to impress on us how rich we are, how precious to Him. And so to assure us too how completely safe we are in His sovereign and almighty hands; nobody in all creation can touch us apart from Him.

That glorious safety is the one consequence that flows from His identity as ‘Lord’. The second revolves around the notion of service. The thought is this: if He is our Lord, if we are His possession, it follows that we need to obey, need to serve.

It’s true that the concept of obedience, of service, sits wrong with our sinful flesh; we want to do things our way. That’s why I stress again who this Lord is. The lords of history were sinful men, and certainly could impose harsh, even brutal laws on their subjects, laws very painful to obey. But that is not the case with the instructions given us by our Lord in heaven! This Lord is Yahweh, the God of the covenant, the one who loves us with a perfect love – witness how much He emptied Himself in order to free us from the power of the devil! If this Kurios, now, gives us particular instructions, will those instructions be harmful to us?! Or will those instructions be inherently good for us? We know well what the answer is; His identity as Lord guarantees the positive value of His instructions.

That is why, because of faith in this Lord, we delight in God’s laws, want to do them. But we experience it time and again: our sinful hearts continue to buck against His instructions, declare these instructions bad for us. Here, brothers and sisters, we need again to work with the faith the Lord God has placed in our hearts. If we confess Sunday by Sunday that Jesus Christ is Kurios, the God of the covenant, then we also need to draw the inevitable consequence and admit that Yes, His instructions are good, obeying them is healthy.

Abraham Kuyper once said - so correctly!- that there was not a square inch of life of which Christ does not say: Mine. What happens in the church falls under Christ’s command, for He is Kurios of the church – and therefore all that’s done here must conform to His revealed will. That’s equally true in the shed, or in the kitchen, equally true on Saturday night or Wednesday morning; all that happens in the shed or in the kitchen, on Saturday or on Wednesday falls under Christ’s command, for He is Lord of all – and therefore all that’s done all the time, anywhere must conform to His revealed will. The unbeliever –he has his head in the sand- will not acknowledge that reality, and will pay the penalty. But woe to him who confesses Sunday by Sunday that Jesus Christ is Lord, and then on Monday goes and does his own thing! That is hypocrisy, and it will not go unpunished – simply because Jesus is the Kurios!

Of what value is your confession that Jesus Christ is Lord? We understand: the content of our Lord’s Day is profound, and the consequences of this confession powerful. Tomorrow we return to our work, as servants of this Kurios. Because we are bonded to Him in His covenant of grace with us we have boldness to obey, convinced that He looks after us perfectly.   Amen.