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1:49So I want to take some time to just think systematically about our view of man, ourselves, biblical anthropology. Some of you have taken an anthropology class at school. We're going to deal with biblical anthropology tonight and salvation and sin, all of this as it relates to what Christ did and what we celebrate this time. So 1 John 5:4 wasn't long ago that I preached on this passage. But John makes this statement. It's almost kind of jolting. Whatever is born of God overcomes the world.

2:38Translate it, whoever. Whoever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And certainly as we trace the account from the manger. To the cross, resurrection, Christ certainly overcame the world. He was born of God, right? Conceived of the Holy Spirit, begotten, not created. But certainly, this individual came into the world and he overcame every aspect of his life was one of victory, even in the midst of apparent defeat.

3:37But John isn't talking about Christ, he's talking about those who follow Christ. Those who have been born of God follow Christ. And whoever is born of God overcomes the world. I want to talk through this tonight. First, thinking on the level of what man is, biblical anthropology. Man is both a creature and a person. So think about yourself as you start understanding who you are and really what you are. You are both a creature and a person. A creature and a person.

4:27And very evident. Scripture. Genesis 1:27 says, God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. So man is a creature. As you get to the end of the creation account, you know that man shares something common with the animals. He's created. He lives and breathes in the environment that God has created. Just like any other creature, man is dependent. Man is a creature, and he is dependent upon God. We, you, I, are dependent upon God as a creature, as our dog, as our cat, as any other animal, any other creature on earth is dependent for life. So we are, as creatures, are dependent upon God.

5:29And no matter what happens in your understanding of Scripture and the world around you and God, there is always a distinction between the Creator and the creature. We will never become the Creator. We are forever and always a creature made by God. And as such, we are dependent upon Him. We are dependent on Him for our beginning, our origin. We are also dependent upon him for sustaining us. But man is also a person, a person. And this is what distinguishes us from the animals. If you're just looking at an evolutionary anthropology or what you would get in a secular university, you're going to get the idea that man is very much like the creatures. And so even common descent from all the creatures. So an evolutionary mindset is very much recognizing the fact that man is a creature, shares something common with the animals, but fails to understand that man is also a person, which means man has relative independence like God, who is a person.

7:07We are image, made in His image. And so we bear some characteristics that God has, which is distinct from the rest of creation. We are people, person. God is a person, and he acts independently. And so, to be made in His image, there is a relative independence that we operate. So, we can make decisions, real decisions. We can set goals. There is freedom, as God has freedom, there is a freedom. So, as a creature, we are dependent upon him, but as a person, we have volition, decisions, freedom.

8:02And so, man has the capability and responsibility for making decisions, just as God makes decisions. And so, we bear his image. So, man, as a creature and a person, impacts a whole lot of other doctrines. So, I think about it: we are creatures, but you're also a person. You have a human personality, you have your own volition, you have your own tastes, your own desires. Something unique to you, and knowing this impacts a whole lot of other biblical doctrines. For instance, the doctrine of Hamardiology or the doctrine of sin. This has implications for the fall. Man could sin because he was a person, able to make choices, even choices contrary to the wish of God. So as a person, man could sin.

9:05As for man being a creature and a person, also impacts the doctrine of salvation. Think about redemption for a moment. Since man is a creature, man can only be saved by grace. We are creatures. We are totally dependent upon him for everything as a creature. And so we can only be saved by grace. Grace alone. Salvation must start on God's side of the fence. It has to. Because we are creatures, and as creatures, we are dependent upon him. And so we can only be saved by grace and grace alone. But since a person, since we are, since we have a personhood, we are not saved against his or her will, but must choose freely, must decide, must exercise faith. So it's almost, at the one hand, you can say it's grace alone, but at the same time, you can say through faith alone. Faith alone is about volition, about believing something, about taking something in to be true, receiving it. So on the one hand, as a creature, we must be saved by grace alone. Alone, but as a person, it doesn't violate our personhood. We must have faith.

10:38And so, as a creature, we must be regenerated. But as a person, we must exercise faith and repentance. This goes back to how we're wired, how we're made. So, as a creature, we must be born again. But as a person, we must exercise faith and repentance. And where there's faith, regeneration has occurred. Where regeneration is, has happened, faith is. The two cannot be independent because God saves the whole person. We are creatures. We need to be regenerated.

11:22And we are persons. We must exercise faith and repentance. But you think about this doctrine as man being a creature and a person, it also impacts our understanding of sanctification. As a creature, the Holy Spirit sanctifies. If the Holy Spirit isn't active and working on us, we are not going to ever be set apart. We're not going to continue growing in sanctification. Yet at the same time, we are involved, right? We are to learn. We are to learn to walk in His ways. Meditate upon His ways. We are part of that. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. But think about the doctrine of perseverance.

12:14Salvation. As a creature, man must, God must preserve us. It's what Romans 8:38, we're not going to be separated from the love of God. He is, as a creature, we are dependent, and God must preserve us. We are not going to preserve ourselves. We cannot. It's beyond our capability. As creatures, we cannot go beyond. But as a person, we have a responsibility. Responsibility. 1 Corinthians 6, 13, we have a responsibility. It also impacts our relationship with God.

12:59Man as a creature, you being a creature and a person impacts your relationship with God. The image of God means that mankind was created with freedom to live as God instructed them. There's a freedom, there's a volition to live as God instructed. Love Olson's quote: They were created to reflect his glorious attributes of holiness, love, righteousness, mercy. And justice, and to remain in fellowship with Him. That is the proper use of your personhood. But the image of God did not mean that man was an autonomous being, independent from God.

13:51Made in His image, yes, there is an independence, a relative independence, but you are not autonomous. You never were designed to live independent from God. We are dependent upon Him. And so, this was man's fundamental problem. Person created in God's image with a volition, a capacity to decide as a person. God doesn't violate our personhood, even in salvation. He doesn't believe for us, He gives us faith, but He doesn't believe for us. As a creature, He must give us faith, but He's not going to believe for us.

14:48And so, in salvation, He doesn't violate our personhood. But here's man's fundamental problem: go back to Genesis very clearly. What is man's fundamental problem? What do we struggle with today? What has humanity struggled with? Every individual in here, young, old, the fundamental problem is to think and act independently of God. That was and is man's fundamental problem. It's what sin is: to think and act independently of God. We talk a lot about original sin. What was it? Adam was tempted to think and act independently of God. That's what he was tempted to do. That's what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was all about. It was a temptation. Are you going to think and act dependently on God, or are you going to think and act independently of God? Are you going to speak with your mouth or not?

16:02But that was the temptation, and he chose to do so. He was tempted to think and act independently of God, and he chose to do so. And friends, we're tempted like this every day, all the time, all the way around. That's man's fundamental problem. You have it too, because this is what you are tempted to do constantly. To think and act independently of God. And you choose to do so. That's the way of evil. That's sin.

16:42What is the penalty of sin? Spiritual death, right? Death. Death. First of all, spiritual death. We see it right at the opening pages, right, of the Scripture. Separation of God from being the ultimate authority over the way man thinks and acts. A separation, a broken union, spiritual death, separation from God. Man is the ultimate authority. He'll go along with God or God's ideas as long as it doesn't get in the way of something he wants to do. And when following God takes a person to a crossroads where they have to choose between going with God or doing and operating what they want to do, they defect and do what they want to do. That's spiritual death. That's the nature of spiritual death. Somebody who lives as their own authority.

17:43But also, physical death. Though, as you look at the fall, Genesis 3, physical death wasn't instant, was it? But certainly the process was set in motion. That one day man's soul would be separated from his body. But that's the abnormal thing. Man was created as a unity, body and spirit. It's only death. That's the unnatural thing that has entered into creation. Death, the separation. Man was not created. He's unity, body and spirit, material and material, joined. It's only death has physical death has entered into something into the equation that is unnatural.

18:36Death is what's unnatural, according to the Bible. And yet, man is still dependent upon God. And God in His grace still provided for the man, right? Even after the fall. So as a creature, still very much dependent upon God. As a person, very much dead to God, choosing that which is according to their own designs. And yet, still very much dependent upon God. And God in His grace continues to provide for man. And He continues to do so today, even though people have shut themselves off from God, spiritually dead to Him, and yet still, as a creature, very much dependent upon Him. And so, God, in His grace, causes the sun to rise on the Good and the evil because God is a creature. We are dependent upon Him.

19:39Then sin, it's transmitted. That's the original sin. That's the penalty of sin. Now, sin comes down to us. How this transmission of sin, sin then becomes transmitted through to all. Death was transmitted from Adam to his offspring. Death, you see that throughout, right? Everyone died. Everyone dies, continues to die. But it's not just death, the penalty that was passed on, but the disposition to succumb to the temptation to think and act independently from God was also transmitted from Adam to his offspring. This disposition to think and act independently of God was transmitted from Adam to all. It's original sin, transmission of it.

20:41Adam, now how did this happen? A lot of theological conversation about this, but we can make it simple, and I'll just give you the highlights. But Adam, in one sense, our federal head or our representative, basically we would have done the same. Thing, if faced with the same thing, with the same temptation. If we had been there in that perfect environment, we would have done the same thing. Our humanity isn't any different. And you don't have to look any further than the fact that you succumb to this desire to live independently from God all the time.

21:18And so we can see it as we would have done the same thing. But also, Adam as our seminal head. We are of the same nature as Adam. We are hardwired to think and act independently of God. That's been transmitted to us. He is our posterity. We are all his progeny. You could say it in the way of creation accounts in Genesis 1. We are after his kind. We are of his kind. Not only would we have done the same thing, but we have, his nature has passed on to us. We are all his progeny, of his kind.

22:15And so we're going to, if circumstances are right, we will think and act independently of God. That's what fallen man does. The temptation we face. But Jesus was born of a virgin. Very important. It wasn't just this miracle. It was a miracle. But there's something anthropologically going on here. Jesus was born of a virgin. Very important. Remember in Matthew 1:20, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. This one's born the Spirit of God, conceived by, she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Now, all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means God with us.

23:32So Jesus was not of the same kind of sinful disposition as Adam. Jesus was the second Adam. He was of a different kind, not like Adam, of a different kind. Jesus was not hardwired to think and act independently of God. That was Adam, Adam's offspring. Jesus was quite the Contrary. He was not hardwired to think and act independently of God, but dependently of God, upon God. That's what Jesus did. He thought and acted dependently upon God. In fact, he didn't do anything outside of God's will. John 5:19, Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son of man can do nothing, or the Son can do nothing of himself, unless it is something he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

24:40John 5:30, I can do nothing on my own initiative. This is the new man. I do nothing on my own initiative. I always act dependently upon my heavenly Father. Always, totally. I can do nothing. I have no desire, no ambition, no initiative to do anything on my own initiative, but only upon my Father's initiative. That's what being born of a virgin implies, involves the new Adam. Jesus is the new Adam. The new man thinks and acts dependently upon God. That's why God can be seen in him.

25:27No matter the temptation. Jesus would and could not be separated from doing his father's will even for a split moment. And boy, life hit him hard, didn't it? What a different sort of Adam. What a different kind of person. What a different mankind he is. Adam cratered in paradise, and he had all kinds of trees to eat from. Oh, except for one. And somehow that just took him, and he had unlimited possibilities. Jesus went through the wilderness, subjected himself to the most difficult temptations, and yet he couldn't be separated from his father's will even for a split moment. That's the new Adam.

26:33And Jesus made it very clear: I am the life. The new Adam is the life. The second Adam lives forever. He says, I am life. What does life do? It lives. Life lives. Jesus is life. It's profound. I am the life. Life lives. The second Adam, of course, he lives forever. Life lives. The first Adam does not. Disconnected from God. Jesus did die according to God's will. He was also resurrected according to God's will. Why? Because life lives. He is life.

27:21And earth will be dominated by this new kind of man. That's what the Christmas narrative tells us. The baby born in a manger isn't going to remain in solidarity. He is the head of a vast and great and mighty people who act, just think, and act just like he does. That's what earth is going to be dominated with. And the Bible tells us the story of how that's going to come about, how it is coming about, and how it will come about.

28:10Come to Revelation 1, verses 5 and 6. I preached this not too long ago. I loved what my son told me at lunch today. Dad, we've been a whole semester and we haven't made it through Revelation 1 yet. It will go faster, though, once we get to. The wrath, lots of wrath in there. We'll move through that a little more quickly. Lots of wrath. But Revelation 1:5, remember these words? To him who loves us and released us from our sins by his blood, and he has made us to be a kingdom, priests to his God and Father. To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. John, in his opening account, just erupts into this doxology. It says, Look, to him who loves us, released us from our sins by his blood, and he has made us to be a kingdom, priests to his God and Father. To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. That's new kinds of humanity coming upon the earth. But let's talk about salvation.

29:24And first, in order to save his people from their sins, as promised, angel told, Jesus had to release his people from the penalty of their sins. He had to release them. Revelation 1:5. What did he have to release us from? He had to release us from God's internal hostility against us. Has anybody ever, I know some of you parents might have thought this, or maybe I'm the only one that ever has, or whatever. Tell you get mad at one of your kids. Okay, fine. You know what? I'm going to let you just go ahead and march down your own path, and you're going to learn the hard way.

30:17God doesn't, you know, first of all, to release his people from their sins, he had to release us from God's internal hostility against us. From this, okay, you wanted sin, fine. We'll see how that works out for you. We had to be delivered from that. We also had to be released from God's inclination to leave us in the consequences of our sin, as I just said. God's angry with sin, He hates sin, and we had to be delivered from His internal hostility and His inclination to leave us in our sin. We also had to be released from death. We had to be released from being eternally cut off from the source of life.

31:09There is a hammer against us, a law against us, death, an eternal death looming. We had to be delivered, released from that sentence. Second, in order to save His people from their sins, Jesus had to release. People from their disposition to sin. Not just the penalty of sin, but the disposition. He had to release them from their hardwired disposition to sin. We had to be released from thinking and acting independently from God. Do you remember a few weeks ago or months ago, I was handcuffed over there to the rail?

31:56That's the picture, right, of what we are. We are hardwired to our sin to think and act independently of God. We might obey God on some things for a while until it really gets to that point and until it gets into the way of what we want to do. We had to be delivered from our heart cuffs, put it that way. But to release us from our sins, four things had to happen. One, God had to love us more than He despised our sin.

32:35He had to love us more than He despised our sin. That's profound because He's holy, holy, holy. He also had to love us more than the personal cost to make things right. Not only did He have to love us more than His hatred against sin, but also He had to love us more than love. Laying down his Son's life for our sins. Deep, profound love. I mean, when you look at the negative cost, and yet you see that all he gets out of it is us, then it's like that says something about us, doesn't it?

33:22He loved us more than he despised our sin, and he loved us more than the personal cost to make things right. Second, God had to draw near to us. He had to draw near to us, and that's exactly what he did in sending his son. He draws near to him, he draws near to us by becoming one of us. And then even now, he continues to draw near to us, even through the proclamation of his word.

33:50How does he draw near to us right now? The call to repent is a call to stop thinking and acting independently of God and turn and embrace him and to start thinking and acting dependently upon God. And the first aspect of that is to turn from your sin and trust the good news that Christ has paid the penalty for your sins. And so when you hear some preacher, laying preacher even, calling you to preach, repent, guess what's happening? That's Christ. Calling you to follow him.

34:35That's what it sounds like. I used to wish, I remember reading the scriptures, and I would read and I'd hear those lines where Jesus goes up to Peter, Come and follow me. I remember thinking, oh, I wish I had heard those words. Guess what? When you hear the words, repent and believe the good news, guess who's calling you? It's not the lame preacher. It's God Almighty calling you to follow His Son. It's Christ Himself saying, Come, follow me. Leave your own thinking behind and come.

35:18And let me show you how to think and act dependently upon your Heavenly Father. And let me show you the joy there is in that kind of living. Well, to release us, He also had to, we had to repent of our sins. As a person, we had to come to the point to where we're disgusted with our own sin, understanding the rightness of the judgment against us and turning away. We had to despise our sins to the point of agreement with God that this is not good. It's not good for me to go my own way.

35:56And fourth, we had to be born again from above. I'm going to flip through several. I would go through each one of these, but due to the time, I won't. But he certainly loved us more. He released us by his blood. God had to draw near to us, which he did. He continues to draw. We had to repent of our sins. This is the lesson from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We need to choose his way, not ours. We had to be born again from above. You see, we need a new nature, one that is hardwired to think and act dependently on God.

36:40And that's what he did. He made us. In Revelation 1:6, he has made us to be a kingdom, priests to his God. He made us into something we were not. Not only did he pay the penalty, but in that same act, he made us into something we were not, a kingdom that is under his dominion, priests, those who would serve him. He made us into something we were not. And that is what changes the disposition. Now we are not old Adam. We are kings and priests.

37:26You see, the Christian life is a life of refusing to think. Think and act independently of God. It's about being a kingdom of priests to His God and Father. And to Him be the glory and dominion forever. Let me tell you a little bit about the disposition of those born of God. They think and live dependently upon God, as Jesus did and does. Therefore, they let God be seen. That is, they let God be glorified instead of themselves. That's exactly what Jesus did. When you act dependently upon God and you choose His ways, guess who others are able to see through your life? They're able to see God, a manifestation of God, His personality.

38:24That's what Jesus did. That's why we could see the Heavenly Father. We could see the Heavenly Father in Jesus. Those who are born of God, their primary ambition is for God to be seen in their lives, and so they give Him dominion. And when they fail, they continue to give Him dominion by repenting and asking for forgiveness. And so, for those who are born of God, life then becomes a growth process. In thinking and acting dependently upon God. Do you think and act dependently upon God?

39:09Well, this is the way of good and evil. When we act independently of God, we cannot show Him. When you act independently of God, guess who shows up? You do. We cannot show Him if we are acting independently upon Him. We can only show ourselves. And this is the way of evil: exalting ourselves, thinking our own thoughts independent of God. This is the very lesson of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I'll put this tree in the garden, and through that and your relationship to it, you'll learn the way of evil. You'll learn the way of good. Those who think independently of God have chosen the way of evil. Those who think dependently and act dependently upon Him have chosen the way of good.

40:09William Tyndale said this, and I appreciate his words. In fact, I have these words written on the wall in my study. The only true reformation is that which emanates from the Word of God. The holy scriptures, by bearing witness, To the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, create in man by the Holy Ghost a faith which justifies him. Do you believe that God Himself has come? As the scriptures say, this is what God wants you to believe. Remember, he asked, He said, Abraham, Abraham, get up, come out of your world, come out of your place. And that faith was credited to him as righteousness. He believed God. He got up, he obeyed God, and he said, In you all the nations will be blessed in your seed. And he believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. What is it that God is asking you to believe? He is wanting you to believe through the scriptures that God Himself came to us at Christmastime, that baby grew up, went to the cross to release us from the penalty of our sins and from our disposition to sin, and resurrected us, resurrected himself, was resurrected from the grave, incarnation, death, resurrection, and that this is the testimony that God wants you to believe about the Christ.

42:00And that, believing God, relating to that truth transforms a person. It justifies a person. It transforms a person. When it really sinks in, God has really walked among us. God left heaven. God came seeking his people. He came. He died. He rose again. And he calls all people everywhere to come and follow him. And that message being proclaimed tonight, that is God calling you to believe. And if you will believe the scriptures, if you will believe God's voice, you will be justified and you will be transformed. This is the miracle of the new birth.

43:021 John 5, 4. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And that includes us. And this is the victory that has overcome the world. Our faith. We believe no matter what happens, you let the doctrine of the resurrection take hold in your soul. What can man do to you? What can anybody do to you? And when you let the doctrine of the cross set into your soul, you know you are accepted by God. Your sin hasn't outdone God Almighty.

43:47Oh, and all this is because God has, there was one born of a virgin, not after Adam's kind, but after God's kind. So, as we celebrate this year, let us remember the manger scene itself is an invitation for you to come and see, an invitation for you to come and behold the wonderful glory of your Creator and His passionate desire to enter into a real living relationship with you. And then come before Him, repenting, bowing down, as you see in so many manger scenes, bow your heart before Him. And what that looks like is turning away from living independently of Him and asking for forgiveness for your sins to living dependently upon Him. That's what honoring Him looks like: a life of dependence upon Him.

45:05Well, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for the amazing truths that we have here, as even if we just, even in this evening, as we prepare for celebrating your, continue to prepare to celebrate your incarnation and all that that involves, Father, we thank you even now as we reflect on these things. We were reminded that the manger is the call to follow you. And we delight. So, Father, be with us now as we go, for it's in Christ's name we pray.