Hebrews 1:1-4 week 4
Mike Haines
1 Cor 15:3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures
One of the most shocking and yet important aspects of the gospel centers around this idea of the death of the incarnate Christ. It is so shocking that Christ might die on a cross, that Muslims will concede that Christ as a prophet of God, but deny the death on the cross. It isn't even the idea that Christ is so important that God would not make him endure the shame of the cross (as the Muslims believe) but the idea that "God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God... " (excerpt from the Nicene Creed) could or would die.
The bible declares that Jesus is God and Jesus did die. He is called the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Man, and "our great God and savior Jesus Christ..." The impact of this is staggering. We often play with ideas from the bible that we consider difficult or even paradoxical to understand like the question of God's sovereignty and our freedom (as in Joseph's declaration "you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good..."), but almost nothing compares to the idea presented in Philippians 2, "...Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men."
The incarnation of Christ is hard but important. The bible says that if he did not come as a man, if a man did not die in sinless perfection, we have a real problem. Romans 5 declares that just like the first Adam brought sin into the world through one transgression, the second Adam brought redemption through one (final) act of righteousness.