Mat 1-2; A Savior Not Like Us.

Class Outline:

Thursday November 30, 2023

 

Mat 1-2 reveals to us that all mankind, except for the one born of a virgin, are sinners.

 

Mat 1-2 proves beyond doubt that every man has to give over their entire lives to God, for the plain reason that they do not own their lives. Who Christ is, in the origin of the first four chapters of Matthew’s Gospel, is the fulfiller of Israel, all history, all mankind, and so it the source of all human life.

 

The problem is the fall of man in Adam.

 

The fall has made us independent of God - this is pride.

 

GEN 2:15-17

Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. 16 The Lord God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; 17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die."

 

“surely die” = spiritual death and depravity followed by physical death (not under your control).

 

A person can be physically alive and spiritually dead.

 

EPH 2:1-2

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

 

In the developed doctrine, then, it is claimed that Man, as God made him, was completely good and completely happy, but that he disobeyed God and became what we now see.

 

The fall is an act of disobedience towards God.

 

The fall made us wholly different beings from what unfallen man was.

 

Adam became a wholly different being from the one God had created.

 

Sins vs. sin nature:

When Adam and Eve sinned there was immediate shame.

 

ROM 3:23-25

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.

 

The whole race is depraved, born with a nature of sin.

 

All mankind are born in Adam - born guilty, born sinners, disobedient children, enemies of God who are alienated from Him. Pride is in every person and it is immune to age, race, gender, and socioeconomic status.

 

 

The fall gave every person a nature of pride.

Pride - preference and esteem of self over God.

 

But the frailty of perfect man’s self-consciousness is exposed and exploited by Satan, and by it, “I” and “me,” man became a horror.

 

Pride is the fall in every individual life, and in each day of each individual life, the basic sin behind all particular sins.

 

Pride is “the journey homeward to habitual self.” [Keats]

 

The fall is loss of self-control and control of our world.

 

The first love of Adam and Eve is God, and that without effort. He blesses them in the way He chooses, and then respond with ecstatic adoration, joy, love, and obedience - worship.

 

But when they ate, the fall put I and me on the throne of our souls.

 

Mankind not only lost the rulership of the Garden and the animals it contained, but he lost the rulership of himself.

 

They desired to be on their own, to take care for their own future, to plan for pleasure and for security, to have a life of their own. But this is to live a lie. You are not your own. You were created. There is no corner of the universe where you can say, “This is mine.”

 

The human spirit changed from being the master of human nature to a scared, weak lodger in its own house, or even a prisoner. And, amazingly, it idolizes itself.

 

Fallen man was not created by God but sinned itself into existence.

 

GEN 5:3-4

When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.

 

Our inherited plague is that we think we can bring blessing, pleasure, and security to ourselves.

 

Christ came to show us differently.

JOH 8:54

“If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me,”

 

The change which man had undergone was not parallel to the development of a new organ or a new habit; it was a radical alteration of his constitution, a disturbance of the relation between his physical parts and an internal perversion of his immaterial parts.

 

Was this a surprise to God? Did He have something else in mind?

 

ISA 46:8-13

“Remember this, and be assured;

Recall it to mind, you transgressors.

9 "Remember the former things long past,

For I am God, and there is no other;

I am God, and there is no one like Me,

10 Declaring the end from the beginning,

And from ancient times things which have not been done,

Saying, 'My purpose will be established,

And I will accomplish all My good pleasure';

11 Calling a bird of prey from the east,

The man of My purpose from a far country.

Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.

I have planned it, surely I will do it.

 

12 Listen to Me, you stubborn-minded,

Who are far from righteousness.

13 I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off;

And My salvation will not delay.

And I will grant salvation in Zion,

And My glory for Israel.”

 

The idea of a drama or symphony is helpful here.

 

“The world is a dance in which good, descending from God, is disturbed by evil arising from the creatures, and the resulting conflict is resolved by God’s own assumption of the suffering nature which evil produces.” [C.S. Lewis]

 

1CO 15:20-22

But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. 21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

 

This is a part of the gospel - the good news about Christ; just as much as His origin in Mat 1-2.

 

The proudest person is the one who thinks he is not.

 

Know your pride and do battle with it. It will always lurk within you while you are in this life. It will tempt you and fool you every day. You must be alert, fixing your eyes on your Lord.

 

You will find yourself wanting to or repenting from bringing all things to yourself. Idolizing yourself. Paying homage to yourself. It is never justified. The pride in you is the very pride that has been the downfall of the world. Know its horror and know it is in your fabric, your nature.

 

Now, what has God given you to overcome your pride and live as one in right relation to Him again?