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Revisiting Ancient Stones: The Son

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As we revisit memorials meant to remind us of who God is, we will find some about Jesus. One such reminder is found in the claims that He made while on this earth. Two of these claims specifically, seem to be contradictory. On the one hand, He claimed to be the Son of Man—like us in every way. On the other hand, He claimed to be the Son of God—like the Father in every way.

Again, some may wonder if this really matters. It sure does! These are claims made by Jesus, and everyone who comes in contact with Jesus is faced with the validity of these claims. He is either a big liar, or He is telling the truth. If He is telling the truth, then both have to be true. So what is the truth? Can Jesus be both God and Man? Let’s see what the Bible says.

First, we’ll look at what God’s word says about Christ’s divinity. According to John 1:1–4, 14, John says that Jesus is the Word, the One who was in the beginning with God, and was God. All things were created through Him. We read a similar passage in Hebrews 1:1–3, 8, 9—which not only calls Jesus God, but says He is “the exact imprint of his nature.” In Titus 2:13 Paul says, “We wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” And again in Romans 9:5, Paul says that Christ is “God over all.”

The Bible says that Jesus was there from the beginning, He created the universe, and He would be worshipped. He would be called Mighty God (Isaiah 9:6). Every characteristic of God is given to Jesus. He did many miracles. He cast out demons. He healed the sick. He forgave sins, something only God could do. Because He is the Son of God. The centurion knew it when Jesus died on the cross (Matt 27:54). The demons knew it when Christ arrived to cast them out (Mark 5:7). Satan knew it when he tempted Him in the wilderness (Matt 4:3, 6). John the Baptist knew it when the Lamb of God came to be baptized (John 1:34). God announced it to the world when His Beloved came up out of the water, by saying, “This is my son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17). Yes, the Bible is plain: Jesus is the Son of God. He is God.

What about Christ’s Humanity? He’s God, but is He also man? Back in our first text, John 1:14, it says that the Word (Jesus, God) became flesh. In order to become flesh He would have had to be born. Entering this world as an infant. And the prophet Isaiah told us that He would be called Immanuel or God with us (Isaiah 7:14). The Son of God with us. Galatians 4:4 says that “when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law…” And Luke 2:52 tells us that he grew in wisdom and in stature.

According to Paul in Galatians, He was also born under the same rules as we are. He didn’t get a break for being “the Son.” He was under the same Laws of God and the same laws of nature. He had the same fears and hopes and the same ups and downs that we do. He felt hunger pains (Matt. 4:2) and the grief of a friend’s death (John 11:35). He was tempted with power and greed and doubt (Matt 4:1–11)—without falling. Jesus became thirsty (John 19:28). He became sleepy (Matt 8:24). He laughed and cried. He also suffered and was bruised when He was hit. He bled when His skin was pierced. He died when He was murdered—on the cross. Because He is the Son of Man. In Hebrews it says that He is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. It was important to Him to become like us in every way (Hebrews 2:14–18). And while the Bible may not list every temptation that Jesus endured, it does say that He was temped in every way that we are (Hebrews 4:15). That is what makes Him sympathetic to us. He knows because He lived it. Again the Bible is clear: Jesus is the Son of Man. He is man.

The Bible teaches Jesus as both the Son of God and the Son of Man, and it is the perfect combination of these two that gives us hope. We must not forget this because our salvation is counting on both of these to be true.

Jesus has to be God. Humanity in itself cannot save itself from sin. We are filthy with sin, and like the leopard we cannot change our spots—our reward is death. Neither could the angels come to save us because they too are created. It had to be the Creator. The One who loves His creation so much that He’d give up His own life for them—even if they hated Him. Furthermore, there’s only One who could conquer death: the Author of Life. The Great I AM. Any other sacrifice is worthless, because it needed to be the Son of God on that tree. Jesus has to be God, and He Is.

God’s plan required Jesus to be more than God though. The creator had to become one with His created—one of His created. In order to save us from our sins, He had to live what we should have lived and die what we should have died. He shared in our suffering so we would be able to share in His joy. He had to sweat, to cry, to laugh, to walk, to feel, to hurt, to bruise, and to bleed. For it is by His stripes that we are healed. It is His blood that covers our sins. It is His death that redeems us. He had to take our place, because it needed to be the Son of Man on that tree. Jesus has to be man, and He Is.

The Son of Man’s hands were nailed to the cross, the Son of God’s love held Him there.

The Son of Man’s body was broken by the cross, the Son of God’s heart was broken by our sin.

The Son of Man’s blood was spilled for your sins, the Son of God’s blood was spilled for your redemption.

He is the Son of Man to understand you, He is the Son of God to save you.

Yes, Jesus is both God and Man. This is why He loves us like He does. This is why He would die for us while we are still sinners. This is why the Gospel can proclaim: “For God so love the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Praise God, Jesus is the Son—of God and of Man!

Revisiting Ancient Stones: The Creator

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When revisiting memorials, it is good to start at the beginning and according to the Bible, our beginning started because of God: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). According to Genesis, God created everything and He did it in a specific amount of time. It didn’t evolve over millions of years, or even thousands of years, it was six literal days. Then, He capped off the creation week with the seventh day and established a lasting memorial. The seven day week stands only because God created it (it is not measured by any celestial movement). The very fact that the seven day week cannot be explained scientifically, is a strong memorial of God as our Creator.

You may be wondering why it would be important to remember this? Why have a memorial for creation, or more specifically, God as creator? Does it really matter how we believe we were created? Yes it does! Our lives did not happen on accident. God purposely created this earth and everything in it—especially mankind. If we were just accidents, then we would have no purpose in being alive. But we weren’t accidents.

Here’s what the creation story says about our beginnings: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). This does not sound like an accident! God intentionally made us in His image. The Bible also says we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). Of course, this isn’t supposed to give us a greater image of ourselves, but a greater image of God. As incredible as our bodies are, they were created by One greater than us! Our God is awesome and powerful and the only God, and we are only images of Him. Everything we have, or that we are, we owe to Him: He is the One “who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out he earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it.” (Isaiah 42:5). The reason you wake up in the morning and have breath in your lungs is because of God.

This is a very important thing to be reminded of. In fact, God being creator is the reason all of heaven worship Him. In Revelation, the elders by the throne of God sing out, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things and by your will they existed and were created” (Revelation 4:11). In Nehemiah 9:6, we read, “You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.”

It is also the reason which should cause us to worship Him (see Psalm 33:6, 8, 9). We should fear and worship the God who can create simply by speaking it into existence. Even the last-day message to mankind includes this call: “Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made the heavens and earth, the sea and the springs of water” (Revelation 14:7).

Understand, friends, that Satan has done much to cause us to forget this. Today, more than ever, there are constant attacks on God as Creator. There seems to be more effort given to disprove a Creator (even by Christianity), than to remember our Creator. And the removal of a creator does more damage than you might think.

You see, if God wasn’t Creator, and we all just accidentally came to be, then who we are is who we were always meant to be. Yet, according to the Bible, who we are today is not who we were created to be. We were originally made perfect and holy, in the image of God, but we fell from that original image (Genesis 3). When humanity chose to trust in the created rather than the Creator, we fell out of a relationship with God and into rebellion (sin). Ever since that day, sin has been a part of our lives, even from our birth (Psalm 51:5). Not one of us is free from sin (Romans 3:23), but we often forget this when we forget about God. And it is to our detriment that we forget, because the Bible warns us that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23)!

Again, according to the Bible, we were created to live forever, but sin has taken that away. God warned Adam and Eve that if they did not trust Him (and ate of the forbidden tree) they would surely die. Yet, this was not merely a punishment for doing wrong, it was the natural results of rebellion. If God is our source of life and we are separated from that source, then we do not have life. Our Adversary wants us to forget God because we will also forget that we are sinners—causing us to reject the Savior.

In addition, we must remember that, as Creator, God also has the power to re-create. God desires to, and can, change us into a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). He can change us from who we were, to who we were always meant to be. This is what God wants for you and I, to return us back into His image (Ephesians 4:22–24). Isn’t that incredible?

You can see, then, why it is so dangerous to forget God as Creator. When we do, we do not call on God to save us and change us. We will reject putting on “the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after its creator” (Colossians 3:10).

Here’s the beautiful part friends. If we will remember our Creator, and admit we need Him, He will forgive us and cleanse us. This is the promise of 1 John 1:9. This is taking off the old self. It is admitting we need a change. It is admitting we are in need of a re-creation.

I believe God created us. We are reminded of His creative power every where we look. We are reminded that He made us and can remake us. He did not create us for this pain and misery. He created us for eternal life and joy in Him. Do not forget your Creator! We need to admit we are the created. Admit that we are fallen. Admit that we need Him—a Savior. Then He will forgive us and cleanse us, and restore us into His image. And He promises that “whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:36).

Will you come to your Creator today?

Revisiting Ancient Stones

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The Israelites stood at the side of the Jordan river, having just crossed, and they were listening to their next instructions. Before any battles, before facing any enemies, before the fall of Jericho, God instructed them to gather stones. Twelve stones, one for each tribe in Israel. Not just any stones either, they were to be gathered from the middle of the river—where the priests were still standing, on dry ground, with the Ark of God. Then Joshua set them up.

Why? According to Joshua, the stones would remain at this place so that in the future, when their children would ask, “what do these stones mean?” They would tell them the story of God parting the Jordan River. The stones were to be “a memorial to the people of Israel forever” (Joshua 4:7). Furthermore, the stones were to serve as a reminder “so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you may always fear the Lord your God” (verse 24).

One would think that stories of the miracles and the power of God would easily continue to be passed down and taught throughout future generations. However, not many years after Canaan was conquered, Israel had already forgotten. Tragically, their grandchildren were already worshiping pagan gods.

How could this happen? How can people so easily forget what God has done in their lives? How did these “people of God” forget their God? Yet, it continues to happen today. Many claim to be “Christian” yet forget about Christ in their daily lives.

Moses warned the Israelites, in Deuteronomy 8:10–14, that something would come that would challenge their memories: A life of peace and personal success. Because of this, Moses counseled them to praise the Lord for everything they received, otherwise they would become proud and forget God. Truly, the greatest danger in their success was that Israel could begin to think they were doing so well because of their own efforts (vs 17). As scripture reveals, though, they didn’t follow Moses’ advice.

Sadly, in times of plenty, we also tend to forget about God, rather than praise Him for His blessings. Sure, when we’ve reached “the bottom” it feels necessary to look up, but what about when we reach “the top”—the times of peace? We call on God when we are sick, but do we remember to praise Him when we are well? We seek God when we have nothing, but what about those times when we seem to have all we need?

We think we are rich! We have great churches and cathedrals, extravagant worship services with incredible musical talent, and a warm caring atmosphere. Yet that incessant knocking (Revelation 3:20) just won’t go away: something’s not right. You may have even felt that, with all that you have, there’s still something definitely missing.

We need a reminder of the greatness of our God so that we can learn to fear God again. We need to remind ourselves where we have been, how God has delivered us, and how far He has brought us. That’s what the stones were for: memorials of God’s greatness.

Photo by Flo P on Unsplash

So we must return to the stones. What stones have you set up? Have you set up any? Maybe you’ve kept a journal. Maybe you scrapbook (or Instagram) events in your life. Perhaps you’re simply relying on your good memory. Regardless on how you’ve set up your stones, there are memorials established in your mind of how God has worked in your life—a song, a text, a special location. Go back to those memorials and meditate on those times you experienced the greatness of God.

Of course, it is possible that you have not set up any stones lately. Unfortunately, if we live our lives forgetting God, we do not recognize His blessings and will not remember them. So you may have to go back further. You may have to go back to when you first heard the gospel—when you first looked upon your Savior hanging on the cross. Go back to the first time you felt God working in your life. Who cares how ancient the stones are, revisit those memories and remind yourself of why you fell in love with God.

But this will take effort. You will have to want it. Do you want to know God—to experience Him? Do you want a revival in your heart? If so, then make a decision right now to seek God with all of your heart—put everything you have into knowing Him more. Then, as God says, “‘You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 29:13, 14).